It feels practically inescapable at this point, but if you’ve spent any time on TikTok, Twitter, or even Instagram, you’ll probably have seen the blue Smurf cat pop up on your feed. It’s almost like Gen Z’s answer to the Rickroll; you think you’re safe watching a regular TikTok and then, bam! Blue Smurf cat is here. So why has this weird little creature become such a meme? And more importantly, where did it come from?
The first question is easy, the internet is a strange but simple place, even though the original image is actually quite old (more on this in a bit) it was only a matter of time before the right people found it and bestowed meme status upon it. As it turns out, all the image needed was an electro-pop beat from the mid-2010s to accompany it and thus the legend was born.
The specific song used is “The Spectre” by Alan Walker. In fact, the song has become so attached to this image that even Mr. Walker himself has acknowledged its existence. A video taken at one of his concerts in Kuala Lumpur shows the blue Smurf cat making an appearance on the big screen while he plays the song.
Of course, the internet did what it does best, took the idea and ran with it, and it kept on running to the point that people got a bit sick of the sight of it. The cat has appeared in all kinds of videos, but it’s probably seen most in TikTok slideshows, as previously mentioned, some of these are akin to Rickrolls with the appearance of the cat Smurf pic at the end almost feeling like a jumpscare if you weren’t expecting it.
The phrase “The image hasn’t loaded yet but I swear to god if it’s that realistic cat smurf again” sort of became a meme in itself as users would comment under the slideshows. Variations started to crop up too, like the strawberry elephant.
But anyway, where did this strange pic come from? The image first appeared on TikTok with Russian captions giving it the name Shailushai towards the end of August but the blue Smurf cat has been around a lot longer than that. The artist credited with the creation of the image is Nate Hallinan. A quick look at his website shows that he specializes in realistic 3D renders. This specific image comes from 2014 and is supposed to be a realistic re-imagining of what Smurfs would actually look like in a realistic setting.
Like people, memes come with an expiration date. Eventually, it becomes too saturated, people start to get sick of seeing it, and when CG5 turns a meme into a song, you know it’s over. A meme’s life isn’t particularly long, and it seems like Blue Smurf cat’s heyday might already be in the past.