Few internet memes have captured such a strange mix of sadness, awkwardness and reluctant joy quite like Sad Cat Dance. A niche anime-inspired animation evolved into one of the most recognisable redraw meme formats of the early 2020s, spreading rapidly across Twitter, TikTok and YouTube. Centred around a teary-eyed character dancing while visibly uncomfortable, Sad Cat Dance resonates because of its emotional contradiction — moving your body while your face says you’d rather be anywhere else.
Despite its simple premise, the meme has deep roots in anime fandom culture, remix trends and redraw communities. Over time, Sad Cat Dance detached itself from its original source material and became a flexible visual shorthand for emotional exhaustion, social pressure and ironic participation — themes that struck a chord with online creators worldwide.
Origin of The Meme
The earliest roots of Sad Cat Dance can be traced back to January 16, 2021, when video game creator Benedique uploaded a YouTube video titled “Chainsaw Man Dance Game.”
The video showcased a custom-made rhythm game inspired by Dance Dance Revolution, featuring Kobeni Higashiyama from the Chainsaw Man manga dancing while crying.
The animation stood out due to its contrast: upbeat rhythm-game mechanics paired with Kobeni’s visible emotional distress. The video gained significant traction among Chainsaw Man fans, amassing over three million views within a year, largely because it visualised a fan-favourite character’s anxiety in an unexpectedly humorous format.
While this video didn’t yet establish the Sad Cat Dance meme as it’s known today, it laid the emotional and visual foundation for what would come next.
The Birth of the “Sad Cat” Version
On November 18, 2021, creator Ha Anime uploaded a video titled “Not Kobeni dance, but let’s still make her dance.” Rather than using Kobeni directly, the animation featured a similar character design wearing cat ears, performing a hesitant, looping dance while appearing visibly uncomfortable.
This version proved pivotal. The simplified character design, the addition of cat features, and the easily loopable animation made it far more adaptable for redraws and edits. The video quickly gained popularity, reaching around six million views within ten months on YouTube.
This animation is now widely recognised as the direct visual template for the Sad Cat Dance meme.
Spread and Redraw Culture
The meme truly took shape in August 2022, when artist Dokun27 posted a refined redraw version featuring a reluctant character being begged to dance, set to the song “Gypsy in My Mind.” This iteration added narrative context — the character doesn’t want to dance, but gives in anyway — which became a defining emotional beat of the meme.
Dokun27’s version received over 122,000 likes on Twitter in just two weeks, sparking a wave of redraws across fandoms, from anime and video games to original characters and VTubers.
Shortly after, on September 7, 2022, artist Darkra shared a version featuring a Night Elf Druid from World of Warcraft, cleverly adapting the meme by using the character’s in-universe ears and tail rather than costume accessories. This post gained over 1,500 likes in a single day, demonstrating how adaptable the format had become.
TikTok Explosion
While Sad Cat Dance originated on YouTube and Twitter, TikTok played a major role in its mainstream resurgence. Short-form edits using slowed versions of the dance, ironic captions, and melancholic audio tracks allowed the meme to thrive in TikTok’s algorithm-driven ecosystem.
@vaselayulitkas Pomni Sad Cat Dance meme #TADC #animation #animationmeme #theamazingdigitalcircus #fypシ #pomni
Creators frequently used the dance to represent:
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Social burnout
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Being pressured into participation
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Pretending to enjoy situations
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“Me when I’m exhausted but still showing up” humour
@morhunap Mirabeau Studios [SFM] Sell the Fumo, Jeanne #b3d #sadcatdance #sfm #blender #dancer #mirabelle #mirabeau #morhun
By late 2022 and into 2023, the Sad Cat Dance had become less about its anime roots and more about relatable emotional performance, making it one of the most emotionally expressive redraw memes of its era.
Why Sad Cat Dance Endures
@escapefromtarkov #sadcatdance #escapefromtarkov #tarkov #tarkovmemes #побегизтаркова #тарков #тарковмемы
♬ оригинальный звук – Escape from Tarkov – Escape from Tarkov
Sad Cat Dance endures because it captures a uniquely modern feeling — performing happiness while emotionally drained. Its simplicity makes it endlessly adaptable, while its expression communicates a universal experience without needing dialogue.
It’s surprising how a fan-made animation inspired by Chainsaw Man has since evolved into a standalone cultural reference — one that continues to reappear whenever the internet needs to express reluctant participation, ironic joy, or quiet emotional collapse…but make it dance.
