Catbearding is an awful, terrifying meme that’s taking over Instagram.
Or it’s utterly hilarious, depending on your taste in human-animal hybrids.
This is how you catbeard: Hold your cat up to your face, using the furry friend’s mouth to replace your own, creating a bizarre feline humanoid.
The meme seems to have started a couple of years back, but has exploded in popularity over the last few days with hundreds of pictures posted. The first use of the #catbeard hashtag was on Feb. 18, 2011, and the first use of #catbeards was July 12 last year.
A massive coalition of sadists have imposed their catbearding on others over the last couple of days. In addition to the Instagram tag #catbeards, there are now #catbearding and #catbeardswag. A few dedicated accounts have cropped up to capture the craze: @catbeards, @catbearding, and @catbeardswag.
The latter of those suggests it is the sole resource of “cat bearding done right.” For my money, every instance of catbearding is wrong.
Photo by @mrgwincredible/Instagram
Photo by @82keenan/Instagram
Photo by @janicelxh/Instagram
Photo via @catbeardswag/Instagram
Dog-lovers, none too pleased by this invasion, tried to take over the meme with dog beards.
Photo via @catbeards/Instagram
Photo by @patylayne/Instagram
Photo by @lkrh/Instagram
Not everyone was successful in creating a seamless blend of person and cat. Thanks to the #catbeardingfail tag, we see the attempts that didn’t quite work.
Photo by @coreyradio/Instagram
Photo by @dmuffinman/Instagram
Even those who don’t have cats are taking part.
Photo by @evelynmala/Instagram
Main photo by @gervynmoh/Instagram
