Henri, le Chat Noir - Memed - video Dailymotion

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Memed is a new series profiling famous viral Internet animals and their rise to meme fame. This episode features Henri, le Chat Noir.  Subscribe to The Pet Collective: http://bit.ly/tpcsub Website: http://www.thepetcollective.tv Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/thepetcollective Twitter: https://twitter.com/petcollectiveTV Tumblr: http://thepetcollective.tumblr.com Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/petcollectivetv/ Google+: http://gplus.to/thepetcollective  No one feels pain and angst like Henri. He is that existential cat that is deeper than anything else on the Internet. Will Braden, creator of Henri's character made a short film back in film school years ago, but slowly but surely, the Internet fell in love and he brought the character back for a sequel and the rest is viral history.   Cat and Meme experts discuss Henri and his success from Tumblr, Buzzfeed and I Can Haz Cheezburger.  Special Thanks to Will Braden and Henry.  Visit Henri, le Chat Noir's website:   http://www.henrilechatnoir.com/  Featuring:   Ryan Broderick, Buzzfeed Amanda Ferri, Tumblr Emily Huh, I Can Haz Cheezburger  Producer: Brittni Brown Camera: Nick Fabiano, Gave Evans, Shawn McPherson, Dan Delorenzo, John McCarthy Graphics: Kate Reynolds, Phillip Cruess Editor: Phillip Cruess, Hunter Hill

Transcript

00:00 (speaking in foreign language)

00:03 When I made the first video and I put it up on YouTube,

00:06 I was literally putting it up on YouTube

00:07 because a few people from my film school and my family

00:11 had said, "Oh, I really wanna show this to so-and-so."

00:14 I mean, that was it.

00:15 I had no idea it was gonna get a lot of views

00:18 or it was gonna turn into anything else.

00:20 It just bit by bit got some traction

00:22 until there was a point where it had 200,000, 300,000 views

00:26 or so.

00:27 I couldn't imagine that this little thing

00:29 that I had made for film school, 300,000 people had seen it.

00:32 (upbeat music)

00:35 It's crafted, it's very specific.

00:42 There's less that people can do with it on their own.

00:44 So in that sense, it's less of a meme

00:45 and more of just a character.

00:48 (speaking in foreign language)

00:50 I'm Will Braden and I am the creator of Henri Le Chat Noir,

00:53 the existential French cat.

00:56 I was house sitting, so I was taking care of Henri

00:59 and I had a project due the next day.

01:01 We had been watching a lot of old French new wave

01:04 and those types of film in class.

01:07 And so I decided if I do a parody of that

01:10 and I make it funny, maybe no one will notice

01:13 that I didn't really follow the directions exactly.

01:15 And it worked, I got an A.

01:17 People ask me about cat videos.

01:20 Henri is a cat video.

01:22 It is different than if you happen to be filming your cat

01:25 and it sneezes and falls off a chair

01:27 and then you get 10 million views.

01:28 That's a lot different than trying to sort of

01:30 craft something to make people laugh.

01:32 Not better or worse, just different sides of it.

01:35 He's cute and he's black and white,

01:37 so he kind of has that like French look to him.

01:39 With the owner going and being like,

01:40 I'm gonna give a narrative of like,

01:42 this cat being existential and having these deep thoughts

01:45 and like, of course it's gonna be in French.

01:48 People worry that the cat is actually depressed

01:53 or things like that, which I never would have thought

01:55 that anyone would think this was anything but a joke.

01:58 I have to tell people, the cat's happy.

02:00 I wouldn't do any of this if the cat were really sad.

02:03 Henri, the existential cat, is absolutely hilarious.

02:05 It's really easy to imagine a cat just like,

02:09 sitting by a windowsill and like,

02:11 thinking existential thoughts.

02:13 Henri, first of all, that awesome French accent

02:16 and attitude, I think he understands life

02:19 probably more than the rest of us can.

02:20 And I think that's why we love him

02:22 is because he's saying things

02:24 that we would have never thought of.

02:26 - In contrast to his character, he's really easygoing.

02:29 He's so happy.

02:30 So much of the time, he's really just sitting there purring

02:33 and happy.

02:34 He doesn't mind at all being in the spotlight.

02:35 I wouldn't be doing any of this if he was bothered by it,

02:38 but really he likes the attention.

02:41 We got him as a kitten from the Seattle Animal Shelter.

02:43 He was just by far the cutest cat there.

02:47 I got to see him firsthand when he was a little kitten

02:50 and man, even back then, had a lot of personality.

02:53 There was a lot of comments on YouTube on the video,

02:59 but I didn't realize how many people

03:01 were wanting a second one.

03:03 Now the second video, it really blew up very quickly.

03:07 I think it got a million views within a week.

03:09 - It's just so absurd and so great.

03:12 - It's just a cat in its natural setting

03:15 being kind of a jerk.

03:17 It's not trying to be anything too elaborate or too crazy.

03:20 And it's, again, showcasing the cat.

03:22 I think that's what people love.

03:23 - It was so much fun just watching it blow up

03:25 and seeing all the different places where it would show up.

03:27 - We enjoy looking at these lolcats

03:29 and seeing them on TV, internet, everywhere,

03:32 on social media.

03:33 - People universally really got a kick out of it

03:36 and that's the whole point of this is to make people laugh.

03:40 - So these famous lolcats that are now in pop culture,

03:42 they're becoming celebrities

03:43 and they're just known around the world

03:45 and they're here to stay.

03:47 They are a popular, popular thing that we wanna watch.

03:50 - Join me now, won't you,

03:51 in welcoming the wonderful Will Braden.

03:54 - The Friskies Award was really fun.

03:55 It was fun going down to Los Angeles for it.

03:58 It was really surreal to get the Lifetime Achievement Award.

04:01 It also was just funny to see the absurdity

04:03 of this sort of glamorous, kind of fun thing

04:06 put on with the black and white, morose cat.

04:10 But it was a lot of fun.

04:11 I liked it.

04:12 - Thank you so much.

04:13 Thank you to Friskies.

04:14 I'm honored to be the youngest Lifetime Achievement Award

04:17 recipient in the history of Lifetime Achievement Awards.

04:20 - I think people respond to the character and the videos

04:27 because everybody that has a cat

04:29 imagines them having sort of a backstory.

04:32 The Henri character is just taking that to a ridiculous

04:34 and absurd extreme for the sake of comedy.

04:37 - I think that's really what makes that cat go from

04:39 just being like, "I'm a normal cat,"

04:41 to being like, "You don't understand my pain.

04:43 "You don't understand my struggle.

04:45 "There's something more to me than just being a cat."

04:48 - A lot of people think cats and animals aren't smart,

04:52 but I mean, he's a smart, smart fellow.

04:55 - It's funny for a cat to be depressed

04:59 and in an existential crisis

05:00 because they don't have existential crisis.

05:03 They have a really happy life of a house cat.

05:06 That's the conceit of the character,

05:07 is how negative can I make him

05:10 for the sake of making people laugh?

05:12 - You know, it's awesome to have a cat remind you of that.

05:15 So I think that's why we love Henri

05:16 and because he is such a deep thinker.

05:18 - If you want to make a viral pet video

05:22 or a pet video in general,

05:24 my biggest piece of advice is let your pet dictate

05:27 what you're making.

05:28 If there's something about their personality,

05:30 something funny that they do or whatever,

05:31 let that be the genesis of it.

05:33 Don't come up with an idea

05:34 and then try to get your pet to act it out or do it.

05:37 It's not gonna work.

05:38 I just tell people, if you come up with the original idea

05:40 and your cat wants to be on board with it, film it.

05:43 (speaks in foreign language)

05:46 (upbeat music)

05:50 (upbeat music)

05:53 (upbeat music)

05:56 (upbeat music)

05:58 (upbeat music)

Henri, le Chat Noir - Memed

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