Oh, the internet. I wonder if you really have lead to a decrease in my productivity: on one hand, it’s full of almost everything, including cute cats. Then there are folks that cross the line. Take into consideration Grant — a lonely guy who loves cat memes, has an OkayCupid profile (ladies, he’s single) and admits he can relate to serial killers. Okay, maybe not everyone is like that (I hope for the sake of my female friends on OkayCupid). There is, of course, another place to meet people when you’re in your late 20s: dog parks. Unless you’re a cat lover, and this is the central theme at work in the new off centre documentary from Vice Films, Lil Bub & Friendz. Cat lovers trapped mostly inside their houses take to the internet to share photos and videos, building a community, and sometimes those become worthy of a meme manager.
Meet Ben Cafer, a meme manger for NanCat, Scumbag Steve, Success Kid and Grumpy Cat. The fact that these things exist is baffling when I assumed memes were organic, but talk about an overnight success. Lil Bub is an adorable cat that morphs into a big time property, including t-shirts, posters, etc. We’re talking Justin Beiber dough.
This is all pretty absurd. I suppose memes and Reddit may be a fad (God, I sound older than I am), but the selling of these trends as a counter culture is fascinating. I’d love to see a documentary further exploring this idea of whether this meme creation is organic. In all honesty, Ben Cafer deserves his own documentary. I’m curious how a meme manager truly operates — is he scouting talent and how does one make the next big thing happen? Now that we know Ben Cafer exists is there a firm somewhere that can optimize your cats results? This film is just cracking the surface of an interesting eco-system, hipsters selling images of their cats to each other in “alternative” kinds of stores like indie record and comic shops (although NanCat merch is available in Toys R Us and Urban Outfitters we learn).
But back to what’s on screen: we spend an awful lot of time with Michael Bridavsky, who looks like a younger tattooed version of Judd Apatow, and his beloved Lil Bub. Bridavsky runs a recording studio and Lil Bub, the king of cute cat stuff online goes viral, and thus they go on the road from New York City to a cute cat film fest in Minneapolis. From the runt of a litter to internet success story, this film doesn’t start with the “makings of” so much the present reality.
Lil Bub & Friendz is a thin, yet useful look behind the meme into a world that pretty much sprung up organically like that obnoxious Harlem Shake thing that I’m glad has run its course. Andy Capper and Juliette Eisner have directed a brief exploration of this counter culture. It perhaps at times feels like a little too bloated for how thin the material is (either that or they could have added in more subjects, a meme doc might be worth making, as this is not the definite one). I imagine online this will find an audience, much like those cats and Scumbag Steve have.