Woman Yelling at a Cat Meme
The woman yelling at a cat meme is a two-panel format pairing a screaming reality-television guest with a white cat sitting calmly at a dinner table. The left panel is an accusation at full volume; the right panel is the flat, unbothered reply.
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Where the woman yelling at a cat meme comes from
This format is unusual because it was assembled from two pieces that spent years apart before anyone put them together.
The left half, 2011. The screenshot comes from Malibu Beach Party from Hell, the fourteenth episode of the second season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, which aired on Bravo on 5 December 2011. In the shot, cast member Taylor Armstrong is shouting and pointing at someone off camera while being held back by her co-star Kyle Richards. The frame circulated on its own for years as a generic reaction image before it acquired a partner.
The right half, 2018. Smudge is a white cat in Ottawa, Ontario, owned by Miranda Stillabower, who has had him since 2015. In June 2018 she posted a photo of him sitting up at a dinner table in front of a plate of salad, wearing an expression somewhere between confusion and contempt, with the caption He no like vegetals. Smudge developed his own following on Tumblr and Instagram in the following months.
The combination, 2019. On 1 May 2019 a Twitter user posting as MISSINGEGIRL placed the two images side by side in a single post with the line these photos together is making me lose it. No caption was added to either panel; the pairing itself was the joke. It passed 275,000 likes within three months, and by mid-June 2019 the two-panel arrangement had become a captionable template used in every corner of the internet.
Both sides of the image have since been acknowledged by the people involved. Armstrong addressed the meme publicly in October 2019, saying that she had moved on and using the attention to point at her work with domestic violence shelters. In May 2020 she and Stillabower were jointly given a Shorty Award for meme of the year.
What it means and when to use it
The format is about an asymmetry of energy. One party is furious, loud and probably correct. The other party is completely unmoved and answers in six words. The comedy is not in who wins the argument; it is in the fact that the volume on the left has no effect whatsoever on the right.
That gives you a rule that decides most uses: the cat must not care. If the right-hand reply is defensive, apologetic or equally heated, the asymmetry collapses and the image is just two people arguing.
| Use | Left panel / right panel | Does it land? |
|---|---|---|
| Correct: valid complaint meets serenity | You said five minutes forty minutes ago / I am putting on one shoe | Yes. The complaint is fair and the reply ignores it entirely. |
| Correct: expertise meets confidence | The tests were passing on my machine / Your machine is not production | Yes. The cat wins by being brief, not by being louder. |
| Correct: self-roast | You have watched this four times / I still know no character names | Yes. You can be the cat about yourself. |
| Wrong: the cat argues back | Long defensive explanation on the right | No. Any effort from the cat kills the joke. |
| Wrong: punchline on the left | Setup on the cat, reveal on the woman | No. The panels are read left to right and the deflation has to come second. |
| Risky: a real argument with a named person | Real dispute, real names | No. Casting someone you know as the screaming woman is a hostile act, not a joke. |
Captions that work
Two boxes: the accusation on the woman panel, then the reply on the cat panel. Keep the second box shorter than the first; the length difference is doing half the work.
- workYour resume says advanced Excel I made one pivot table and I cried
- relatableYou said five minutes, forty minutes ago I am putting on one shoe
- cookingThe recipe said fold, not stir It is already in the oven
- holidaysWe agreed no gifts this year Open it
- travelYou booked the flight for the wrong month Cheaper though
- devsThe tests were passing on my machine Your machine is not production
- friendsYou told the group chat I was fine with it You were asleep, silence is agreement
- roommatesThat yogurt has my name written on it Written, yes. Enforced, no
- tvYou have watched this series four times And I still cannot name one character
- relatableI asked you to do one thing And I did most of one thing
- drivingYou cannot park there I have already parked there
- relatableIt is three in the morning And yet I am hungry
Every right-hand line above is shorter than its left-hand line, and none of them are a defence. That is the whole craft of this format.
Variants and close relatives
| Format | Boxes | How it differs |
|---|---|---|
| Reversed panels (cat first) | 2 | A deliberate inversion where the cat provokes and the woman reacts. Rare, and it usually reads as a mistake unless the swap is the point. |
| Smudge solo edits | 1 to 2 | The cat panel used alone as a plain reaction image. Good for a reply, useless for a setup. |
| Kombucha Girl | 2 to 3 | One person cycling through reactions. Use for indecision, not for confrontation. |
| Mocking SpongeBob | 2 | Also an argument format, but the second panel repeats the first sarcastically instead of ignoring it. |
| Distracted Boyfriend | 3 | Temptation rather than confrontation. The subject is guilty, not indifferent. |
| Multi-cat extensions | 3+ | Added panels stacking more unbothered replies. Occasionally funny, usually dilutes the two-beat rhythm. |
Common mistakes
- Letting the cat explain itself. The reply should sound like it was typed with one hand. Anything over about ten words loses the deadpan.
- Putting the reveal on the woman. Left is the setup. Always.
- Making both sides equally angry. Without the asymmetry there is no joke, only a fight.
- Using it as an actual reply to someone who is upset. Sending this to a person mid-argument casts them as the screaming panel, which lands as contempt rather than wit.
- Overloading the left panel. The complaint can be longer than the reply, but it still has to be readable at thumbnail size in a feed.
- Cropping out Kyle Richards. The restraining arm is part of why the panel reads as escalation rather than a woman simply talking.
- Assuming everyone knows the source. Plenty of users have never seen the show. The image works without the context, so do not build the joke on the episode itself.
Limits and etiquette
There is real context behind the left panel that is worth knowing. The screenshot captures a genuinely distressing moment from a reality series, filmed during a difficult period in the life of the person pictured, and she has spoken publicly about that period and about her later advocacy work with domestic violence shelters. She has also said she has made peace with the meme. None of that makes the template off limits, and she accepted an award for it, but it is a good reason not to point this format at a real person in real distress. Aim it at yourself, at your team, or at nobody in particular.
On freshness: the pairing is from May 2019 and peaked through 2019 and 2020. It has settled into the permanent core of internet formats, alongside Drake and Distracted Boyfriend. That means universal legibility and zero novelty. If you want a post that signals you are early to something, this is not it. If you want a joke that lands with a colleague, a parent and a teenager at the same time, very little beats it.
One small etiquette note specific to this template: the cat is a real pet, not a character, and the owner is a private individual who has spoken about the meme in her own words. Jokes at the expense of Smudge himself, as opposed to jokes using Smudge, tend to read badly.
The frame is a third-party image reproduced here for captioning and commentary only; rights holders can have any image removed under the takedown policy at /dmca/.
Frequently asked questions
Who is the woman in the woman yelling at a cat meme?
Taylor Armstrong, then a cast member of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. The screenshot is from Malibu Beach Party from Hell, the fourteenth episode of season two, which aired on 5 December 2011. The woman holding her back is co-star Kyle Richards.
Who is the cat in the meme?
A white cat named Smudge, who lives in Ottawa, Ontario with his owner Miranda Stillabower. The photo of him at a dinner table in front of a plate of salad was posted to Tumblr in June 2018 with the caption He no like vegetals.
When were the two pictures put together?
On 1 May 2019, when a Twitter user posting as MISSINGEGIRL placed them side by side with the line these photos together is making me lose it. The post gathered more than 275,000 likes within three months.
How many text boxes does the template have?
Two. The left box holds the accusation on the woman panel and the right box holds the flat, unbothered reply on the cat panel.
Which panel should carry the punchline?
The cat, every time. The left box sets up a complaint at full volume and the right box deflates it in as few words as possible. Reversing that order breaks the format.
Have the people involved responded to the meme?
Yes. Armstrong publicly addressed it in October 2019, saying she had moved on and pointing to her work with domestic violence shelters. She and Stillabower were both given a Shorty Award for meme of the year in May 2020.
Is the woman yelling at a cat meme still current?
It peaked across 2019 and 2020 and remains instantly readable today, which makes it a reliable choice rather than a fashionable one. Nobody will need it explained.
Can I swap the cat for a different animal or picture?
Yes, and people do. The joke survives any deadpan second panel, but Smudge is the version everyone recognizes, so a swap trades recognition for novelty.