Some things go viral on the internet for good reasons. Stories that warm your heart of people helping each other, videos of soldiers arriving home to surprise loved ones, and people overcoming obstacles to rise to greatness. All of those are shared and posted over and over again, and for good reason.  And then there's the "Woman Yelling at Cat" meme. The meme that just won't stop, can't stop, and needs to stop.

Although it's not new, the meme seems to have taken stage front and center over the past few weeks thanks to Twitter. Now we can't seem to get away from the overly emotional woman and the smug feline. The meme has found itself customized to basically any geographic location and every stereotypical situation there can be.

So how did this come about and who exactly are these two "point counterpoint" participants? The meme actually has a history dating back to about 8 years ago. The “yelling woman” is Taylor Armstrong from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. The picture is from a season 2 episode of "RHOBH"  back in 2011. In that episode a crying Armstrong lashes out at an unseen Dedra DD Whitt during a beach house fight. As you can tell she was passionate about the confrontation. Ah hem.

Getty Images

The cat with the attitude is named Smudge, also referred to as Smudge the Table Cat.  He first found fame when his owner posted a picture of him to Tumbler as he lounged on a table with the caption: “he no like vegetables”. Apparently the owner saw something in the way of talent with her fur baby and started Smudge an Instagram page, @smudge_lord, that  now has 1.1million followers.

The matchmaker for the two unforeseen partners is reported to be a Twitter user by the user name of @MISSINGEGIRL. She tweeted the two images side-by-side back in May with the simple caption “These photos together is making me lose it."  Obviously other agreed and it didn't take long for the tweet to go viral, raking up over 78,000 retweets and 275,000 likes in just over three months. Once it was out there people decided to add their own spins to the meme, and well, now it's everywhere. EVERYWHERE.

So this is our world. It has taken over every social media platform. Flooded our news feeds, consumed our thoughts. People lie in bed at night thinking up the next confrontation fit to put these unsuspecting advisories to task. Will it ever end?

Taylor Armstrong is now dealing with one very active Twitter thanks to the new found meme fame. She posted on her account assuring everyone she's not "that girl" in the meme.  "Thank you - that is my past and I have moved on and am in a really healthy, happy marriage". Yet still,  she admits she  is enjoying some of the funnier memes.  As for the cat, there has been no comment from Smudge or his representatives. What a diva.


One of my Michigan favorites-