On May 14th, 2019, the world lost a role model, an icon, and a meme goddess when Grumpy Cat
died at an early age.
But while you're probably familiar with her face - and maybe her Target line - there's
more to this grump than meets the eye.
Despite being known the world over as Grumpy Cat, that famous title wasn't her real name.
It was actually "Tardar Sauce," which is slightly less descriptive.
According to Business Insider, she got her original moniker from owner Tabatha Bundesen's
daughter Chrystal, whose mom had just made her try the condiment.
At the time, Tabatha was a waitress at Red Lobster.
She told Mental Floss,
"[Chrystal] was like, 'Ew, no!' and I said 'Honey, you have to try it!
It goes with fish!'
So it was fresh in her mind when the kitten was born."
Chrystal evidently thought the kitten's orangeish-colored fur resembled Red Lobster's orangeish-colored
tartar sauce.
But after fame and fortune, Tardar Sauce's family mostly just called her by her popular
name, with Bundesen admitting in 2013,
"It's pretty much Grumpy all the time now."
Grumpy Cat's frowny face made her famous, but her sour-looking mug didn't mean she was
literally grumpy.
Cats tend to communicate unhappiness with body language and vocalizations, like growling
or biting or randomly swatting you just when you think you're having a bonding moment.
Grumpy Cat's frowny face was actually caused by an underbite and a type of feline dwarfism,
which was also responsible for her large eyes and small size of less than 5 pounds.
"Grumpy Cat's not grumpy like she seems at all.”
Grumpy Cat's demeanor didn't match her outward appearance, either.
In 2013, Bundesen said her behavior was pretty much in line with every other cat on the planet,
telling Mental Floss,
"She's super frisky, especially between 3 and 6 a.m. - when you're trying to get your
deepest sleep, she's wanting to play."
Yeah, that sounds about right.
Grumpy Cat first appeared in the public's consciousness in September 2012, when Bundesen's
brother posted a photo of the cat on Reddit, captioned "meet grumpy cat."
The post went viral, notching a million views within 48 hours.
And part of the furor had to do with people questioning the truth of the photo.
According to People magazine, a lot of viewers thought the image had been Photoshopped, so
Bundesen ended up posting a follow-up video on YouTube to help counter the rumors.
"We posted the first 10 second video on YouTube, because we wanted to prove that she really
looked that grumpy.”
Even compared to the original photograph, the follow-up videos were extra adorable,
which naturally led to the Internet losing its collective mind and crowning Grumpy Cat
as an overnight star.
It wasn't long before Grumpy Cat memes full of pessimistic messages of anti-hope were
plastered all over the internet.
And so, a star was born.
An ill-tempered, disgruntled, petulant star, sure - but a star nonetheless.
Before her pet became famous, Bundesen was struggling to make ends meet as a waitress.
But all of that changed after Grumpy Cat's Reddit debut.
She told The Telegraph in 2014,
"I was able to quit my job as a waitress within days of her first appearance on social media.
And the phone simply hasn't stopped ringing since."
"Meow.”
Grumpy Cat's Reddit fame eventually gave rise to Grumpy Cat Limited, a company which still
sells Grumpy-themed apparel, calendars, keychains, pillows, and other products - even a line
of perfume called "Kitten Fur."
"It's still kind of unreal to me, I mean, we get to travel a lot more than I would have
been able to.”
Not only was Grumpy Cat not an only child, but her brother has the same condition that
she did.
But according to the cats' family, he wasn't blessed with that signature perma-frown.
Bundesen told Mental Floss,
"He does have dwarfism, so he's super short and cute, too.
His face isn't as frowny as hers, but he does have an underbite."
Grumpy Cat's brother is named "Pokey," and he's gotten a little bit of air time, though
not as much as his meme-phenomenon sister.
That's probably because his face has less of the "I hate you" countenance and more of
the typical "you are a peasant" look that pretty much every cat's face has.
BuzzFeed described him, saying,
"Pokey doesn't hate you personally, he just finds you to be vaguely contemptuous.”
Deep down inside, all cats want their own personal chef, some petting on demand, and
a publicist to deal with unsolicited attention.
While we don't know if Grumpy Cat had a full staff at her disposal, she definitely had
a good PR team.
In fact her publicist is the one who announced her passing on Twitter, with the bittersweet
words,
"Some days are grumpier than others."
At various times, Grumpy Cat also had her own bodyguard, too - including Chase Burns,
who guarded the famous feline at an art museum in 2013, where Grumpy was appearing as a special
guest of the Internet Cat Video Festival.
Chase told The Stranger,
"A crowd of, what I assume to have been, THOUSANDS was waiting to take a picture and, if they
were lucky, pet the cat."
So don't say she was only internet famous; her star really was that bright.
If you had to imagine what a famous cat eats, you'd probably picture tuna pate, grilled
salmon, or some other luxury.
In Grumpy Cat's case, you might imagine that even the finest fish wouldn't be enough to
turn that frown upside down.
But Grumpy Cat actually had much simpler tastes than that.
She was the Friskies spokescat, so it probably goes without saying that she ate a lot of
Friskies cat food, even though she was also a millionaire with access to more premium
offerings.
According to Mental Floss, her favorite food was Friskies Savory Shreds, though she did
branch out into tuna on occasion.
She also reportedly ate Starbucks coffee cake, an affordable indulgence which truly signifies
her as a star for the masses.
Whenever a human being dares to make a little money off an animal, there are going to be
people crying foul.
And a lot of people complained that Grumpy Cat was being exploited by the Bundesens.
The Daily Dot characterized the phenomenon of her fame with a pointed critique, saying,
"She's clearly exhausted and perhaps not entirely pleased to be trotted out, manhandled, subjected
to teeming crowds, flashing cameras, and terrifying camera sets.
[…] She didn't choose this particular career, though her owners seem perfectly happy to
exploit her."
"I think she could care less, but we all think it's totally awesome.”
It is worth noting, though, that PETA - a famously critical organization - said that
the cat's working schedule wasn't anything to worry about.
The notorious animal-rights group even cleared a 2013 South by Southwest appearance because
of the care that had clearly been taken on behalf of Grumpy Cat's welfare.
Visitors weren't allowed to touch her, and the public had access to her only in one-hour
intervals.
The Bundesens have had to devote a lot of energy to reassuring the public about Grumpy
Cat's well-being.
They even said via their website,
"Ninety-nine percent of the time she is a normal kitty.
She isn't in front of a camera all of the time like many people perceive.
We only take photo sets once every week or so and on the few occasions where we have
met with the media or licensed partners we ensure the sessions are short and that she
isn't handled by many people."
"Being a great pet parent is giving your pet a good happy life.”
As for the idea that Grumpy Cat is drugged during her personal appearances, they have
an answer for that, too.
Tabatha's brother Bryan told Mental Floss,
"She never has been [sedated] and never will be.
Her health and safety is the most important thing to us."
With viral fame comes book and movie deals, even for notoriously miserable felines.
Grumpy Cat had such a prolific career in advertising that Ad Age devoted an entire article to her
accomplishments, which included a deal for a series of Grumpy Cat Golden Books, and a
Lifetime movie called Grumpy Cat's Worst Christmas Ever - with one critic warning, via Daily
Dot,
"It promises to be an absolutely excruciating experience.
[…] So self-referential and self-deprecating that it becomes almost unbearable."
"For my Christmas Wish, I wish, I wish I'd meet a friend, one on whom I can depend.”
“Who me?
You really screwed up your big wish."
Grumpy Cat was also credited as a published author.
Her book credits include The Grumpy Guide to Life: Observations by Grumpy Cat and Grumpy
Cat: A Grumpy Book.
Name one human being who has won a "lifetime achievement award" at the age of 18 months.
Bet you can't do it.
Grumpy Cat, on the other hand, was so accomplished at that age that in 2013 she got a Friskies
Lifetime Achievement Award for quote, "doing the most to help cats take over the Internet."
That same year, she was named the official "spokescat" for Friskies, and in that role
she got to star in several ads and social media videos, including one entitled "It's
Hard to be a Cat at Christmas," where she shares the spotlight with other famous internet
cats.
Friskies donated cans of cat food to shelter animals in exchange for views, so Grumpy Cat
was also kind of a philanthropist, even if she wasn't entirely aware of it.
That's a lot of achievement for anyone - especially for a cat.
"How do you plan to bolster and strengthen your brand for maximum monetization?”
Besides selling a lot of Friskies, books, calendars and T-shirts, Grumpy Cat sold coffee
and cereal, too.
According to Ad Age, in 2014 she appeared in a Honey Nut Cheerios commercial, where
she met "Buzz the Bee" - and proceeded to predictably not get along with him.
"Not even a smile?
Huh."
Then in 2018, owner Tabatha partnered with Grenade Beverage company and the Grumpy Cat
Grumppuccino was born.
But Grenade Beverage went on to also sell Grumpy Cat ground coffee and T-shirts, even
though their contract didn't give them the right to use the cat's likeness on other products.
Bundesen eventually won $710,000 for copyright and trademark infringement, thus proving that
with the right representation, even a cat can sue the pants off the people who displease
her.
No one really knows how much Grumpy Cat was worth because the Bundesens kept it private.
According to the tabloid Express, the cat amassed more than $100 million in her first
two years as a star, dwarfing the earnings of celebs like Gwyneth Paltrow - who earned
an estimated $20 million in the year the comparison was made.
Bundesen told the Huffington Post that the number was, quote, "completely inaccurate,"
though she declined to clarify with what the actual figure was.
While Bundesen at first expressed a hope to set the record straight on the scale of Grumpy
Cat's success, it looks like she never followed up on that comment.
But while we can only speculate about the exact numbers, it's safe to say that the Grumpy
Cat brand was pretty lucrative.
Grumpy Cat died of complications from a urinary tract infection - something that's actually
really common in cats, and can be deadly.
Grumpy Cat also had feline dwarfism, which might have made her more susceptible to such
complications.
According to Senior Cat Wellness, birth abnormalities can cause dysfunction in the feline urinary
tract.
But whether or not the condition that gave the cat her distinctive face also contributed
to her health crisis is just speculation, and we may never know why Grumpy Cat died
so tragically young.
But it's clear that she had the best care, and that the family did everything they could
to save her.
But that doesn't make it any easier to say goodbye.
Whether you loved Grumpy Cat from her first day to her last, or had grown kind of sick
of seeing her all over the internet, there's no denying the impact she had on popular culture.
"What do people love about Grumpy Cat?
Why do you think she's such a huge phenomenon?”
“It's that classic frown.
Misery loves company.”
Her family summed up her life by saying,
"Grumpy Cat has helped millions of people smile all around the world - even when times
were tough.
Her spirit will continue to live on through her fans everywhere."
"Does Grumpy Cat have a message for her fans?”
“Um… come see me at Madame Tussaud's, I'll be napping."
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