Tardar Sauce (April 4, 2012 – May 14, 2019), nicknamed Grumpy Cat, was an American Internet celebrity cat. She was known for her permanently "grumpy" facial appearance, which was caused by an underbite and feline dwarfism. She came to prominence when a photograph of her was posted on September 22, 2012, on social news website Reddit by Bryan Bundesen, the brother of her owner Tabatha Bundesen. "Lolcats" and parodies created from the photograph by Reddit users became popular. She was the subject of a popular Internet meme in which humorously negative, cynical images were made from photographs of her.
As of June 3, 2023, Grumpy Cat had 8.3 million total likes on Facebook, 2.6 million followers on Instagram 1.5 million followers on Twitter and 276,000 subscribers on YouTube.
Background
Tardar Sauce was one of a litter of four kittens born to a calico mother and a blue-and-white tabby putative father at the home of her owner, Tabatha Bundesen of Morristown, Arizona. The Bundesens said that Tardar Sauce's face appeared grumpy because the feline had a form of dwarfism. Though the mother and father were described as "normal-sized domestic short-hair cats", Tardar Sauce was undersized and had hind legs that are "a bit different". Both she and her brother, Pokey, were born with "a flat face, bubble eyes, and a short tail". Although she had a "grumpy" appearance and was called "Grumpy Cat", according to the Bundesens, "Ninety-nine percent of the time she is just a regular cat."
"Meme manager" Ben Lashes represented Grumpy Cat, in addition to Keyboard Cat and Nyan Cat. In 2013, Tabatha Bundesen took a leave of absence from her job at Red Lobster to manage Grumpy Cat's schedule, while her brother Bryan Bundesen manages the Grumpy Cat website, Facebook, YouTube and Twitter accounts.
Media appearances
After her debut in 2012, Tardar Sauce made many media appearances, typically accompanied by her owner, Tabatha Bundesen, Tabatha's brother, Bryan Bundesen, and occasionally Tabatha's daughter, Chrystal. Tardar Sauce's handlers were interviewed by the respective hosts of each program. She was also featured in advertising campaigns for Friskies and General Mills' Honey Nut Cheerios, and made public appearances to promote her own brand.
2012
NBC News' Today show
2013
ABC News' Good Morning America
CBS Evening News
Anderson Live
VH1's Big Morning Buzz Live
E! Network's The Soup
FOX's American Idol
Promoting Grumpy Cat: A Grumpy Book at BookExpo America
Book launches at Los Angeles department store, Kitson, and The Grove's Barnes & Noble Michael Noer "interviewed" Grumpy Cat for Forbes magazine, released March 25, 2013. Seated opposite each other in red velvet accent chairs, Noer satirically supposes that Grumpy Cat's performances have "deeper philosophical underpinnings", "existential angst", and "nihilism", then goes on to quote Kafka, to which Grumpy Cat "replies" via a popular image macro with Impact typeface, "I read Kafka once. Wish I hadn't."
South by Southwest
In March 2013, Tardar Sauce attended South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive, hosted at the Mashable House, where she appeared for two hours each day as Grumpy Cat. As part of her Spokescat sponsorship, Friskies paid travel expenses to SXSW in Austin, Texas, in order to film "Will Kitty Play With It?"
CNN, CBS News, and CNET called Grumpy Cat the undisputed "biggest star" of SXSW Interactive over Elon Musk, Al Gore, and Neil Gaiman. Over 600 fans waited for hours in the line, which was nearly three blocks long, to take a photo. Among the crowds were Internet entrepreneur Dennis Crowley, singer Andrew W.K., and actor Ian Somerhalder. Somerhalder took photos with Grumpy Cat and called her his "new love", and described her as "very peaced out", "sweet as pumpkin pie", and "kind of amazing".
2014
Television commercial for Honey Nut Cheerios. Season finale appearance on ABC Network's, The Bachelorette. Featured as a special guest on the November 17, 2014, edition of WWE Monday Night Raw.
2016
Special appearance on Disney Channel's Bizaardvark.