Pinky the Cat
Encyclopedia
Pinky the Cat is a video that aired on several American reality television
programs in the 1990s before it achieved fame on the Internet as a viral video
in the 2000s. The original footage shows a cat attacking an animal control officer during a promotional video for a pet adoption at an animal shelter
in Placer County, California
.
program. Sometime before 1992, then police chief Willie Weatherford distributed copies of the tape—which he named "Pinky the Cat"—to the media and his friends.
Video clip
s from the full version of Pinky the Cat aired throughout the 1990s on television in the United States
. The American television network ABC
showed clips from the video on TV's Funniest Commercials (1993) and on Real Funny (1996) hosted by comedian Craig Shoemaker
, where the clip was introduced as a public service announcement
. CBS
aired clips on The World's Most Dangerous Animals III (1996). In that program, a voice-over
cautions that "sometimes the animals we should fear the most are those we expect the least" and then shows a "house cat named Pinky going berserk and sinking his teeth deep into a man's thigh."
Carl Pritchard kneels on the ground while petting a cat on a leash in a recording of a pet adoption video for an animal shelter. Carl introduces the cat as "Pinky" and describes the animal as a domestic shorthair
who is a "very loving cat." The cat becomes agitated and leaps out of the hands of the officer and on to the ground, running and jumping around in all directions as it tries to escape from the leash. Still holding the leash but not wanting to pick up the "wildcat," the officer asks someone to retrieve a catchpole
. In the confusion, Colleen Maguire, the director of animal control, arrives to help Carl capture the cat and tries to corral Pinky into a cardboard pet carrier
; the attempt fails as Pinky avoids capture.
Pinky continues to dart around frantically, tangling the leash around Carl's leg in the process. Finally, Pinky decides to pounce, launching itself towards the Carl's right leg and rapidly twisting its body around Carl's upper thigh. The cat grabs on to Carl's leg with all four of its clawed paws and bites into the flesh near the groin. Carl screams once, and the cat digs in again, this time with the tail twitching. Then Carl screams a second time. With renewed effort, Pinky is removed from the Carl's leg and the cat runs away. "Son of a bitch," Carl whispers, followed by a polite "excuse my language," as he doubles over in pain clutching his leg.
ran a story featuring Pinky the Cat on June 28, 2006. The story highlighted the popularity of YouTube and several different Internet memes. Lewis described the video as "an animal shelter adopt-a-pet video gone wrong as Pinky flips out and fails to show that loving side." Two days later, producer Gena Fitzgerald followed-up with a column in The Daily Nightly
, the official blog of NBC Nightly News
. Fitzgerald wondered about Pinky's fate and if the cat was ever adopted.
Pinky the Cat appeared on CNN
during "The Shot" segment on Anderson Cooper 360°
for March 16, 2007. The segment began as Anderson Cooper
ran a related video of a cat that attacked WJW's Kathleen Cochrane during a live report. In response to Cochrane's video, correspondent Erica Hill
upped the ante: "That's bad. But you know what? I'd like to see your cat and raise you Pinky the cat. Take a look." After the video rolled, Hill added, "Pinky's a loving cat all right!"
Keith Olbermann
was inspired by the YouTube Awards
to start an "annual best of stuff we found on the Internets awards". On March 30, 2007, Olbermann appeared on the MSNBC
news commentary program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann
, and bestowed a "Keithie" award on the Pinky the Cat video; The video won the award in the category of "great animal of all the Internets". Commenting on the award, Olbermann said, "Ahh, Pinky, we‘re sure you were finally adopted by a loving family. Unfortunately, the officer now can't have a family."
In a 2007 article in Film Comment
, American cartoonist Matt Groening
revealed that one of his favorite YouTube videos is "the immortal Pinky the Cat."
Reality television
Reality television is a genre of television programming that presents purportedly unscripted dramatic or humorous situations, documents actual events, and usually features ordinary people instead of professional actors, sometimes in a contest or other situation where a prize is awarded...
programs in the 1990s before it achieved fame on the Internet as a viral video
Viral video
A viral video is one that becomes popular through the process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites, social media and email...
in the 2000s. The original footage shows a cat attacking an animal control officer during a promotional video for a pet adoption at an animal shelter
Animal shelter
An animal shelter is a facility that houses homeless, lost, or abandoned animals; primarily a large variety of dogs and cats.Parrots, for example, are the third most common pet owned by people...
in Placer County, California
Placer County, California
Placer County is a county located in both the Sacramento Valley and Sierra Nevada regions of the U.S. state of California, in what is known as the Gold Country. It stretches from the suburbs of Sacramento to Lake Tahoe and the Nevada border. Because of the expansion of the Greater Sacramento,...
.
Background
The video footage was taped by Placer County Animal Control sometime in the early 1990s. The recording was intended as a promotional video for the county's "pet of the week" pet adoptionPet adoption
Pet adoption usually refers to the process of taking guardianship of and responsibility for a pet that a previous owner has abandoned or released to a shelter or rescue organization...
program. Sometime before 1992, then police chief Willie Weatherford distributed copies of the tape—which he named "Pinky the Cat"—to the media and his friends.
Video clip
Video clip
Video clips are short clips of video, usually part of a longer recording. The term is also more loosely used to mean any short video less than the length of a traditional television program.- On the Internet :...
s from the full version of Pinky the Cat aired throughout the 1990s on television in the United States
Television in the United States
Television is one of the major mass media of the United States. Ninety-nine percent of American households have at least one television and the majority of households have more than one...
. The American television network ABC
American Broadcasting Company
The American Broadcasting Company is an American commercial broadcasting television network. Created in 1943 from the former NBC Blue radio network, ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Company and is part of Disney-ABC Television Group. Its first broadcast on television was in 1948...
showed clips from the video on TV's Funniest Commercials (1993) and on Real Funny (1996) hosted by comedian Craig Shoemaker
Craig Shoemaker
Craig Shoemaker is an American comedian, writer, and voice actor. He is best known for his baritone voiced character, The Lovemaster, which he routinely portrays in his stand up act.-Comedy:...
, where the clip was introduced as a public service announcement
Public service announcement
A public service announcement or public service ad is a type of advertisement featured on television, radio, print or other media...
. CBS
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc. is a major US commercial broadcasting television network, which started as a radio network. The name is derived from the initials of the network's former name, Columbia Broadcasting System. The network is sometimes referred to as the "Eye Network" in reference to the shape of...
aired clips on The World's Most Dangerous Animals III (1996). In that program, a voice-over
Voice-over
Voice-over is a production technique where a voice which is not part of the narrative is used in a radio, television production, filmmaking, theatre, or other presentations...
cautions that "sometimes the animals we should fear the most are those we expect the least" and then shows a "house cat named Pinky going berserk and sinking his teeth deep into a man's thigh."
Video
Animal control officerAnimal control officer
Historically, Dog whippers were charged with keeping dogs out of churches in 16th- to 19th- century Europe; they also sometimes filled a general animal-control role in villages, confining strays...
Carl Pritchard kneels on the ground while petting a cat on a leash in a recording of a pet adoption video for an animal shelter. Carl introduces the cat as "Pinky" and describes the animal as a domestic shorthair
Domestic shorthaired cat
A domestic shorthaired cat is a cat fancy term used to describe a shorthaired cat that does not have a pedigree or belong to a recognized cat breed...
who is a "very loving cat." The cat becomes agitated and leaps out of the hands of the officer and on to the ground, running and jumping around in all directions as it tries to escape from the leash. Still holding the leash but not wanting to pick up the "wildcat," the officer asks someone to retrieve a catchpole
Catchpole
Catchpole is a rare surname derived from a law enforcement implement found in medieval England. The 'catchpole' usually consisted of an eight foot wooden pole with some sort of noose or barbed fork on one end. Law enforcement officers would place the noose around the neck of the criminal and use...
. In the confusion, Colleen Maguire, the director of animal control, arrives to help Carl capture the cat and tries to corral Pinky into a cardboard pet carrier
Pet carrier
Pet carriers are small portable boxes/cages used to transport small animals such as cats, lap dogs, guinea pigs from one location to another....
; the attempt fails as Pinky avoids capture.
Pinky continues to dart around frantically, tangling the leash around Carl's leg in the process. Finally, Pinky decides to pounce, launching itself towards the Carl's right leg and rapidly twisting its body around Carl's upper thigh. The cat grabs on to Carl's leg with all four of its clawed paws and bites into the flesh near the groin. Carl screams once, and the cat digs in again, this time with the tail twitching. Then Carl screams a second time. With renewed effort, Pinky is removed from the Carl's leg and the cat runs away. "Son of a bitch," Carl whispers, followed by a polite "excuse my language," as he doubles over in pain clutching his leg.
Reception
NBC reporter George LewisGeorge Lewis (journalist)
George Lewis is an American television journalist for NBC News. His stories have appeared on NBC Nightly News.Lewis joined NBC in December 1969 as a war correspondent covering the Vietnam War. He also covered the Iranian hostage crisis in 1979-1981, the 1989 Tiananmen Square revolt in China, and...
ran a story featuring Pinky the Cat on June 28, 2006. The story highlighted the popularity of YouTube and several different Internet memes. Lewis described the video as "an animal shelter adopt-a-pet video gone wrong as Pinky flips out and fails to show that loving side." Two days later, producer Gena Fitzgerald followed-up with a column in The Daily Nightly
The Daily Nightly
The Daily Nightly is the official blog of NBC Nightly News. It is mainly authored by anchor Brian Williams, with contributions from other NBC News correspondents and producers. The blog provides insight into the planning of the daily broadcast, and features a daily summary of the stories on the...
, the official blog of NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News
NBC Nightly News is the flagship daily evening television news program for NBC News and broadcasts. NBC Nightly News has aired from Studio 3B, located on floors 3 of the NBC Studios is the headquarters of the GE Building forms the centerpiece of 30th Rockefeller Center it is located in the center...
. Fitzgerald wondered about Pinky's fate and if the cat was ever adopted.
Pinky the Cat appeared on CNN
CNN
Cable News Network is a U.S. cable news channel founded in 1980 by Ted Turner. Upon its launch, CNN was the first channel to provide 24-hour television news coverage, and the first all-news television channel in the United States...
during "The Shot" segment on Anderson Cooper 360°
Anderson Cooper 360°
Anderson Cooper 360° is a one-hour television news show on CNN, hosted by the American journalist Anderson Cooper. It is also broadcast around the world on CNN International....
for March 16, 2007. The segment began as Anderson Cooper
Anderson Cooper
Anderson Hays Cooper is an American journalist, author, and television personality. He is the primary anchor of the CNN news show Anderson Cooper 360°. The program is normally broadcast live from a New York City studio; however, Cooper often broadcasts live on location for breaking news stories...
ran a related video of a cat that attacked WJW's Kathleen Cochrane during a live report. In response to Cochrane's video, correspondent Erica Hill
Erica Hill
Erica Ruth Hill is an American journalist and co-anchor of The Early Show on CBS. Prior to her current position, she was the weekday news anchor and Saturday co-anchor of the show. Hill previously worked as an anchor and correspondent for CNN, Headline News and TechTV.- Personal life :Hill was...
upped the ante: "That's bad. But you know what? I'd like to see your cat and raise you Pinky the cat. Take a look." After the video rolled, Hill added, "Pinky's a loving cat all right!"
Keith Olbermann
Keith Olbermann
Keith Theodore Olbermann is an American political commentator and writer. He has been the chief news officer of the Current TV network and the host of Current TV's weeknight political commentary program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann, since June 20, 2011...
was inspired by the YouTube Awards
YouTube Awards
The YouTube Awards are awards given out as formalizedic or comedy genres, as voted by the YouTube community. The awards were organized in 2007 to "call out some of the most popular videos and let the users choose which ones deserve some additional recognition"...
to start an "annual best of stuff we found on the Internets awards". On March 30, 2007, Olbermann appeared on the MSNBC
MSNBC
MSNBC is a cable news channel based in the United States available in the US, Germany , South Africa, the Middle East and Canada...
news commentary program, Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Countdown with Keith Olbermann
Countdown with Keith Olbermann is an hour-long weeknight news and political commentary program that airs on Current TV, where it began airing on June 20, 2011. The program was broadcast on MSNBC from March 31, 2003, to January 21, 2011. On MSNBC, the show presented five selected news stories of...
, and bestowed a "Keithie" award on the Pinky the Cat video; The video won the award in the category of "great animal of all the Internets". Commenting on the award, Olbermann said, "Ahh, Pinky, we‘re sure you were finally adopted by a loving family. Unfortunately, the officer now can't have a family."
In a 2007 article in Film Comment
Film Comment
Film Comment is an arts and culture magazine published by the Film Society of Lincoln Center, of which it is the official publication. Film Comment features critical reviews and in-depth analysis of mainstream, art-house, and avant-garde filmmaking from around the world...
, American cartoonist Matt Groening
Matt Groening
Matthew Abram "Matt" Groening is an American cartoonist, screenwriter, and producer. He is the creator of the comic strip Life in Hell as well as two successful television series, The Simpsons and Futurama....
revealed that one of his favorite YouTube videos is "the immortal Pinky the Cat."
External links
- Pinky the Cat at OurmediaOurmediaOurmedia is a media archive, supported by the Internet Archive, which freely hosts any non-pornographic images, text, and video or audio clips, where this would not violate copyright laws. The website, which launched on March 21, 2005, was founded by Marc Canter and J.D. Lasica.The media archive,...
(Windows Media, Ogg Video, 512Kb MPEG4) - Pinky the Cat on YouTubeYouTubeYouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....