Maxwell the cat

Origin

The cat known as Maxwell is actually named Jess. The source is a photograph posted by the Imgur user Voidhawk42 on November 20th, 2017, showing a black-and-white cat sitting on a sheet of paper reading ‘please do not bend’.

The name changed five years later. On October 12th, 2022 a low-poly 3D model based on the cat appeared on the Steam Workshop for use in Garry’s Mod and other Source games, and on October 21st the Steam user ScottRim modified it into a carryable item, uploading it as ‘Maxwell the carryable cat’. That is where the name in circulation comes from.

Spread

It exploded in early November 2022, when a GIF of the 3D model spinning on the spot was posted to Twitter. There is nothing to it beyond a cat rotating, and it spread anyway.

Sound completed it. Weebl’s track ‘Stockmarket’ became so bound to the GIF that it is effectively the cat’s own music, known as Maxwell’s Theme. Maxwell then outgrew the spinning GIF and became a character dropped into all manner of strange and unrelated situations.

Usage

• A decorative element left rotating in a corner or in the background
• Edits laying it and ‘Stockmarket’ over something to puncture the mood
• Jokes that simply produce it with no context at all

Meaning nothing is the whole of it, which puts it in the family of memes that get less funny the harder anyone explains them.

Sources

• Know Your Meme, ‘Maxwell the Cat / Spinning Cat’ — Voidhawk42’s original photo of November 20th, 2017; the cat’s real name Jess; the Steam Workshop model of October 12th, 2022; ScottRim’s ‘Maxwell the carryable cat’ of October 21st; the spinning GIF of November 2022; Weebl’s ‘Stockmarket’
• Kotaku, ‘The Full Story Behind That Spinning Cat You’re Seeing Everywhere Now’ — the cat’s identity and how it became a meme