"Hey Hey You You" Cat Dancing

About

"Hey Hey You You" Cat Dancing refers to a viral video turned exploitable greenscreen template of a cat dancing to Avril Lavigne's "Girlfriend" with the help of its owner. The original video was posted on China's TikTok alternative Douyin in late October 2023. Going into November 2023, the video spread via a viral repost to TikTok, gaining memetic usage and acclaim on the Western internet. A CapCut template of the video called "Cat Girlfriend" was created in which meme creators inserted the cat dancing into different settings and then object labeled it with a related caption.

Origin

On October 31st, 2023, Douyin^[1] user @瘦巴巴的胖虎 posted a video of her^[8] cat lying on its back on her lap. She made it look like the cat was standing on its hind legs and doing a belly dance. The video was set to Avril Lavigne's song "Girlfriend," specifically the chorus thats lyrics are, "Hey, hey, you, you, I don't like your girlfriend." Over one month, the video received roughly 3.9 million likes.

Soon after its virality on Douyin, TikToker^[2] @petsmeowwoof reposted the video on November 1st, 2023, gaining roughly 25.7 million plays and 2.6 million likes (shown below).

Spread

The video was quickly reposted elsewhere on November 1st, 2023, such as on Twitter / X.^[3]

Going into November 2023, the cat gained memetic usage, predominantly started by TikToker^[4] @igreenscreenthings on November 17th, 2023, who posted a greenscreen video of the cat, gaining roughly 9.7 million plays and 1 million likes in two weeks (shown below). The TikToker was promoting a CapCut^[5] template they created on November 16th, that received over 13,900 likes in 15 days.

After the greenscreen video, TikTokers began using the template, such as TikToker^[6] @delulumikuu on November 19th, 2023, whose video about showering after a canceled college class gained roughly 237,600 plays and 32,900 likes in 12 days (shown below, left).

On November 20th, 2023, TikToker^[7] @inforis posted a Fortnite meme about losing to an 8-year-old, gaining roughly 160,900 plays and 5,900 likes in 11 days (shown below, right).

By December 1st, 2023, the trend's primary CapCut^[5] template had amassed over 185,800 uses.

Various Examples

Template

Search Interest

Unavailable.

External References