X

See talented feline carry on Keyboard Cat's legacy

Popular meme Keyboard Cat is back with a new music video that covers the song "96 Tears." Don't worry, you won't be shedding any after watching it.

Rusty Blazenhoff
Rusty Blazenhoff has been deeply involved in cyberculture for more than 20 years, and immersed in pop culture since getting her first copy of Dynamite magazine. She loves kitsch, quirky artifacts of Americana, and enjoying island life in Alameda, Calif., with her daughter. She makes a mean Fluffernutter.
See full bio
Rusty Blazenhoff

Keyboard Cat
No need to cry. Keyboard Cat is here to make you smile. Video screenshot by Rusty Blazenhoff/CNET

In 2007, a guy named Charlie Schmidt posted a video on YouTube that he created in 1984 of "Fatso" -- his plump orange tabby cat-- pounding on an electronic keyboard in a blue baby shirt. It sat in near obscurity for two years, until blogger Brad O'Farrell grabbed it and created a funny mashup video with it.

The video, and subsequent mashups of it, went viral, birthing Keyboard Cat, one of the Internet's first memes.

"Fatso" has since passed on, but "Bento" is continuing the prolific musical legacy that he started way back in 1984.

Watch his furry paws tickle the ivories in this truncated cover of "96 Tears," originally by 1960s band Question Mark & the Mysterians. (In case you hadn't figured it out, Keyboard Cat doesn't actually play the keyboard.)

(Via Tastefully Offensive)