Maxwell the Cat is a black-and-white tuxedo cat who went viral after a revived Imgur post, which led to him entering the gaming world as player-created content. If it sounds like a wild journey, it is.
One innocuous photo turned an Imgur user’s cat into an icon among gamers and has preserved the cat’s legacy years and years later.
Maxwell the cat origin story
In November 2017, Imgur’s @voidhawk42 shared a photo of their black and white tuxedo cat named Jess, comfy and curled up on a piece of paper that reads “please do not bend.” They captioned the photo, “cat does not care for laws of man.”
Since it was shared, the post has amassed over 20,000 views on the platform, but that’s not where Jess’ journey ended.
Why is Maxwell the cat popular?
It’s unclear how or why Jess’ photo was shared on a chonky cat page on Facebook in 2020, but from there, the photo took off. The cat started appearing on other pages across Reddit and Twitter.
At some point in the fall of 2022, Jess’ image was uploaded to Steam Workshop by user шизео кодзима. Simply captioned “dingus,” the internet went on to identify Jess as dingus until October when it appeared as “Maxwell the carryable cat.”
The 3D model allowed players to incorporate Maxwell into different games, where it became a beloved easter egg. Maxwell was even the star of a few mobile games, like Drifting With Maxwell The Cat: The Game.
Wondering why this particular cat? The internet just loves cats. Sometimes, that’s all there is to it.
Spinning cat memes
In November 2022, Twitter’s @blastycats shared a rotating video of Maxwell, which launched the meme into its next stratosphere.
Quickly, Maxwell (neé Jess) became the star of spinning cat memes, where the video would be set to different songs to make viewers laugh. Throughout 2023, the meme became popular across social media platforms, adding to Maxwell’s lore.
What happened to Maxwell the cat?
It wasn’t until Maxwell’s surge in popularity in late 2022-2023 that Jess’ owner, @voidhawk42, realized their cat was at the heart of many memes and gamer moments. Sadly, at that point, Jess passed away.
In early 2020, @voidhawk42 shared an emotional update after taking Jess to the vet. The tuxedo cat wasn’t eating and had an intestinal blockage that required a £1500 surgery. When fans of the meme found the update and noticed there weren’t more, they feared the worst.
Kotaku reached Jess’ owner in February 2023. They confirmed at that time that Jess’ health situation was worse than the original prognosis.
“She was a lovely girl, but alas what we thought was an intestinal issue at first turned out to be cancer. She passed away shortly afterward. We miss her dearly, but we remember her ‘take no crap’ attitude fondly—when I first met my wife, I knew that impressing her parents mattered much less than impressing Jess!”
@voidhawk42 via Kotaku
Maxwell the cat memes
More cat memes:
- A 6-year-old Spinning Cat meme helped a Florida auto body shop go viral on TikTok
- Thumbs up to the thumbs up crying cat meme
- The Polite Cat Ollie meme is funny—but is the cat’s expression real?
- Meme History: Woman Yelling At Cat
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