Cat Man Do
Cat Man Do? What are we talking about? Well, we probably know by now that it is the Simon’s Cat video that has had a massive 22 million views at early March 2011. But a Google search brings up a whole range of other items, which I will briefly discuss as well.
The first point of note is that this is a clever play on the word “Katmandu”, the well known capital city of Nepal. Nepal is to the northeast of India, sandwiched between India and China. I remember in the 1970s it was a place for backpackers to go to. It had a hippie and adventurous image. I am sure many people still visit from the west in their gap year.
The video is priceless. The opening image is of the classic, albeit slightly exaggerated, bedroom scene of a man and his cat. The bed is heavily scratched and the floor is littered with cat toys of various descriptions most of which are toy mice. Simon is fast asleep and the cat is doing his well known work – waking him up.
Note: We know that the cartoonist is Simon (Englishman Simon Tofield) but is the person in the video Simon? I think he is because this is based on the experiences of Mr Tofield. Is the cat male or female? He looks male. Only a male cat would use a baseball bat! in fact Simon Tofield’s cat is called Hugh and Hugh was the inspiration for the video.
There is a bedside clock ticking away. Simon’s cat starts by jumping up and down and then kneading the duvet cover that is immediately above the man. Strictly speaking this is incorrect cat behavior under these circumstances – sorry to be a bit serious for a moment.
Cats sometimes try and wake us up in the morning but kneading is not one of the tricks employed. Kneading is usually done when the cat is on us and relaxed, for example on our lap. The cat is doing no more than mimicking his or her behavior when he or she was a kitten at mother’ nipple to stimulate the flow of milk.
Simon’s cat meows louder and louder without success and then taps him on the cheek. This is classic cat wake up behavior. Mine taps me on the nose sometimes. She has even gently bitten my nose.
Then we get into the realms of fantasy. Simon’s cat pulls his ear and smashes him over the head with a baseball bat. The cat immediately pretends he is asleep at the bottom of the bed when Simon wakes up with a black eye. Cat indicates that he wants food. Job done. Cat wins. Don’t they always. They deserve to.
The short video won “Best Comedy” award at the British Animation Awards 2008
What else does a Google.com search for Cat Man Do bring up. Briefly..
It appears that the top listed site is a dead site about the real Katmandu. A sort of tourist guide. The links are hopeless – nothing to do with Katmandu.
After Wikipedia’s page on Katmandu we have a Google Blogspot site of an American veterinarian, Dr. Arnold Plotnick (MS, DVM, ACVIM, ABVP). He is known as, “Cat Man Do”. Not sure about that.
One of the topics on the site’s home page is about cats eating grass. In this case is it wheatgrass, which is a particularly juicy looking grass from Montana, USA. The people who sell the grass in tubs claim great benefits for cats but Dr. Plotnick says there is no requirement for a cat to eat grass.
We do know though that cats like to eat grass. Sometimes it makes them sick but they still chew on the next day. I have my own theory on this: Cat Eating Grass.
Next listed is an insurance claims management company called Cat Man Do! and then we have a restaurant of the same title….
