Man gives cat 11,453 stern looks, because the internet
A young man, his cat and his mom make for a strangely compelling video showing a neck-breaking challenge.
Gus Johnson has a very patient cat named Wendy. Wendy doesn't give a fig if Johnson throws shade her way, even if he does it 11,453 times in a single day. So why is Johnson giving his cat so many stern looks? We must look to social discussion site Reddit for the answer.
Johnson posted on Reddit, telling the other users he would give his cat one stern look for every upvote the post got. He then offered to prove his dedication with a YouTube video. On Wednesday, 11,453 Reddit upvotes later, Johnson loaded up a 50-minute video making good on his promise.
A running tally helps viewers follow along as Johnson madly flashes his stern look at the yawning calico. Wendy occasionally meows, stretches or rolls over, but she mostly looks bored. Johnson has to follow her when she gets up and moves around the house.
Johnson's mother makes a cameo appearance off-camera to tell him to switch positions when his neck is hurting him.
"This is stupid," she says, to which her son replies, "Just call it art, Mom." Johnson's mom then declares, "Nobody wants to sit here and watch 20 minutes of you jerking your head around." That's not quite true. The video now has nearly 28,000 views.
In case you're thinking about besting Johnson's stern-looks marathon, you should know he woke up the next day with severe neck pains.
These sort of challenges sometimes pop up on Reddit, where a poster offers to do something to match the number of upvotes. It's a way of boosting internet notoriety. More rare is for that poster to follow through on the deed. That's part of the charm of Johnson's video. Plus, it helps that he has a cute cat and a sassy mom.
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