Woman Yelling at a Cat

Woman Yelling at a Cat is a meme format combining two completely unrelated images: Taylor Armstrong crying and pointing during a 2011 episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, and Smudge, a white cat photographed sitting at a dinner table looking confused by a plate of vegetables in 2018. Twitter user @MISSINGEGIRL put them together on May 1, 2019, the tweet got 78,900 retweets and 276,800 likes, and within weeks it became one of the most used meme templates on the internet.

The genius of this meme is the collision. On one side: raw human emotion, tears, drama, a woman at the absolute end of her rope. On the other side: a cat who looks like he just found out salad exists and is personally offended by it. The contrast is so absurd that it works for basically any argument, disagreement, or confrontation you can think of.

Part 1: The Woman — Taylor Armstrong's Worst Dinner Party

On December 5th, 2011, Season 2, Episode 14 of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills aired. The episode was called "Malibu Beach Party From Hell" — and it earned that title. During a group dinner, cast member Taylor Armstrong broke down crying during a heated argument. Fellow cast member Kyle Richards tried to hold her back and calm her down.

The next day, the Daily Mail published an article about the episode with a still image of Taylor pointing and crying while Kyle hugged her. That screenshot would sit in the internet's back pocket for nearly eight years before finding its true purpose.

The image circulated occasionally as a reaction image on Twitter and 4chan throughout the 2010s, but it never broke through as a standalone meme. It was too specific, too emotional, too tied to a reality TV moment that most people didn't have context for. It needed something to balance it out. Something completely absurd.

Part 2: The Cat — He No Like Vegetals

On June 19th, 2018, Tumblr user deadbefordeath posted a photograph of a white cat sitting in a chair at a dinner table. In front of the cat was a plate with vegetables on it. The cat's expression was... everything. Confused. Disgusted. Personally victimized by the concept of salad.

The caption? "he no like vegetals."

The post racked up over 50,300 likes and reblogs on Tumblr within a year. The cat was eventually identified as Smudge, a white cat from Canada whose owners created the Instagram account @smudge_lord on May 27, 2019 — right as the combined meme was blowing up.

The Mashup: May 1, 2019

Both images had been floating around the internet independently for years. Taylor's breakdown was a niche reaction image. Smudge's dinner table photo was a beloved Tumblr post. Neither was a capital-M Meme on its own.

Then on May 1st, 2019, Twitter user @MISSINGEGIRL posted them side by side with the caption: "These photos together is making me lose it."

That's it. No clever caption. No object labels. Just: "look at these two images next to each other." The tweet exploded — 78,900 retweets and 276,800 likes in two months. The internet immediately understood the assignment.

The very next day, May 2nd, Twitter user @lc28__ created the first known captioned meme using the format. By June 2nd, Redditor PerpetualWinter had made the first object-labeling version on r/memes. On June 9th, a template was posted to r/memes, and a version by Redditor Apple-Trump hit 38,600 upvotes in twelve days.

The format spread to r/dankmemes, r/me_irl, and basically every meme subreddit in existence. By November 2019, EbaumsWorld published a listicle of the "49 Best Woman Yelling at a Cat Memes." It was everywhere.

Why This Meme Works So Perfectly

A lot of memes go viral and die within a week. Woman Yelling at a Cat has endured for years. Here's why:

The emotional contrast is unmatched. You have genuine human distress — tears, pointing, someone being physically held back — paired with a cat who looks mildly inconvenienced at best. The gap between these two energy levels is comedy gold. It's like putting a screaming heavy metal concert next to a cat napping in a sunbeam.

It's a two-panel argument template. The left side is the angry/emotional/wrong take. The right side is the calm/confused/correct response. This maps perfectly onto literally any disagreement: "My mom saying I'll catch a cold without a jacket" vs. "Me, a grown adult who understands how viruses work."

The cat is doing absolutely nothing wrong. Smudge is just sitting there. Existing. Perhaps mildly confused by vegetables. And yet someone is screaming at him across a table. The injustice of it is inherently funny and deeply relatable to anyone who's ever been yelled at for something that wasn't their fault.

Object labeling makes it infinitely versatile. Like the Distracted Boyfriend before it, Woman Yelling at a Cat is an object-labeling powerhouse. Two characters, two labels, instant joke. The barrier to creating your own version is essentially zero.

The Thurston Waffles Crossover

In October 2019, Facebook user KucingMenangid posted a remix video that replaced Smudge with Thurston Waffles, another famous internet cat known for his dramatic meowing. The video got 727,000 views, 25,000 shares, and 12,000 reactions in just over a week. The meme cinematic universe was expanding.

Cultural Impact: From Twitter to Everywhere

Woman Yelling at a Cat transcended the internet in ways few memes do. It became one of those rare formats that your parents might actually recognize. Smudge got merchandise deals. The format appeared on t-shirts, mugs, stickers, and probably at least one wedding invitation.

What makes the cultural impact especially interesting is that the meme forced a reckoning with context. Taylor Armstrong's original scene was genuinely emotional — she was going through real personal struggles at the time. The meme strips that context entirely and pairs her raw emotion with a cat who hates salad. Some people found this disrespectful. Others argued the meme had given the image a completely new, separate meaning that had nothing to do with the original context.

Taylor Armstrong herself eventually embraced it, appearing in meme-related content and acknowledging the format's popularity. Smudge, being a cat, had no comment.

Face Swapping Into This Meme

This is a medium-difficulty swap. The woman side works great for face-swapping since Taylor's face is clearly visible and front-facing. The cat side is where it gets fun — swapping your face onto Smudge creates something deeply unhinged and extremely shareable.

Pro tip: Face swap works best on the woman side. For the cat side, try character swap for a more natural-looking blend. Either way, the two-panel format means you can swap one side or both — put yourself in an argument with yourself for maximum chaos.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is the woman in the Woman Yelling at a Cat meme?

Taylor Armstrong from The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills, Season 2, Episode 14 ("Malibu Beach Party From Hell"), which aired December 5, 2011. The woman next to her is Kyle Richards, trying to calm her down during an argument.

Who is the cat?

Smudge, a white cat from Canada. The original photo was posted to Tumblr on June 19, 2018 by user deadbefordeath with the caption "he no like vegetals." The post got over 50,300 likes and reblogs. Smudge's Instagram @smudge_lord launched May 27, 2019.

Who created the combined meme?

Twitter user @MISSINGEGIRL on May 1, 2019. The tweet placing both images side by side with the caption "These photos together is making me lose it" received 78,900 retweets and 276,800 likes.

Is Smudge the Cat still alive?

As of the meme's peak popularity, Smudge was alive and well in Canada, continuing to not like vegetals. Check @smudge_lord on Instagram for the latest updates on everyone's favorite confused dinner guest.