So The Friskies Internet Cat Video Awards were held on Wednesday. As usual, I sent my human in my place to take photos and scribble down notes. According to her, it was a lot of fun, but in the midst of her telling me about all the festivities, I gleaned something that I had only suspected, but now know for an absolute fact:
Humans really want to be be cats. Like, really, really want to be cats.
Here I present Exhibit A: the “Catify” app that was enthusiastically promoted. It replaces a perfectly good cat face with your human face on your tablet or phone, like some cloning experiment gone wrong.
Next up is Exhibit B: The Treat Stand, with cupcakes, human food platters… and Friskies Party Mix! There were no cats in attendance, so I can only gather that the Party Mix was for the humans.
It was not a Tibetan influence that inspired this chandelier — those are cans of Friskies!
The stage featured two giant cat statues, reminiscent of ancient Egyptian cats, surrounding a video screen. Featuring cats, of course.
On a cat tree in a corner sat the Friskies catuettes, waiting to be given to their new owners.
All this could have been shrugged off as mere feline worship (which, of course, is only our due). Even the cat carrier containing the envelopes with the winners could have fallen into that category. But the entertainment gave way the truth.
At least John Fulton of Must Love Cats just sang original tunes about us kitties and did not go overboard… but things got a little crazy after him.
There was an a cappella group that pretended they were cats.
And there was this guy, dressed up to do an interpretive dance as Nyan Cat. Seriously, I think most of the humans there were dreaming they were cats for a day, although in their hearts they must have known that even a cartoon cat came closer than they did.
At least the award winners seemed to be fairly happy in their human skins. Will Braden, the filmmaker behind Henri le Chat Noir, won a Lifetime Achievement Award.
The $15,000 Grand Prize Winner was Oskar, the blind cat, and his human Mick Szydlowski accepted the award for him. Szydlowski seemed like a genuinely nice guy and he hoped that Oskar’s videos would encourage special needs cat adoption.
Here are all the humans taking credit for their cats’ hard work.
The moment that came closest to the truth was a surprise onscreen cameo by Henri, who pointed out, “Cat video awards should be presented to the cats themselves.” Although in the end, cats were the biggest beneficiaries — 250,000 cans of Friskies were donated to 25 shelters!
As my human was leaving, she noticed that Will Braden had been snagged by the Catify guy.
While around the back, the giant cat statues were being carefully wrapped up for storage. Does this mean we will see The Friskies again in 2013?
We were rooting for Glogirly, but congarats to sweet Oskar and all the category winners. Nyla playing fetch was pretty cute too. We think Katie Glogirly’s type of videos need their own category. Maybe next year.
What a fun event! Thank you to Sparkle’s mom for sharing her pictures.
We think humans trying to be cats is just wrong, Sparkle. They can try and try, but they will never be like us. Thanks for sharing all those pictures with us. We were hoping Glogrily would have won, but it was nice Oskar got the grand prize. But the real winners are all the shelters that got all the yummy food!! YAY!!
We’re not surprised that humans want to behave like cats – although the thought of them trying to lick their backs clean made us laugh and laugh!!
Luv Hannah and Lucy xx xx
We think you’re definitely on to something, Sparkle. Just this week, we caught the Mommy licking her finger and wiping sumthing off her face. HaHaMeow!
Mom didn’t watch it live, but did watch it later….with da Bourb of course. At least watching the video she could um…fast forward…through some of the stranger parts. Yeah to the winners and for the HUGE donation!!!
That is so great for that shelter to win that big prize. We did like that video of Oscar a lot. Katie was good too.
We have to agree that the silly humans are always acting like cats. They are finally getting the message about how smart we kitties are for sure.
Have a terrific Friday.
What a great job your human did of taking notes for you! Looks like a fabulous time. Wow that cat tower rocks!
That really does sound like an interesting event and I am sure there was catnip everywhere!
Yes, cats should take their awards. I want to see an all cat gathering, none of those humans…
What a fun your human had! Oh that Catify Yourself thing is hysterical! Funny and scary at the same time…
What a great time your human had and we appreciate the photos! Oh, yes, I agree with you Sparkle, there are many cat wannabes out there!
Our congratulations go to Oskar and his human, Mick along with the other kitties, but Katie and Glogirly gave it an excellent try. We can’t wait for more creative ventures from them 🙂
Have a good weekend!
Tom
Ewww… the Catification thingy creeped the Momma out.
That Nyan cat guy… he creeped US out! Verrrrryyy Scarrrryyy.
What we think that humans don’t get is that in order to really be like cats, the wouldn’t do any of that stuff. No self respecting cat would… right?
Harry, Dexter and Tipp
This is really amusing that the humans want to be more like us. Don’t they know it is not possible?
I loved the canned food chandeliers though! Wished my human had some.
Purrs
This was a great write-up, Sparkle! And your point of view I think is spot-on. Can you blame the humans though? I mean who WOULDN’T want to be a cat??? That Catify thing is pretty scary looking though. I think the humans should just stick to being humans.
Thanks for making your human root for us and laugh when they played our video clip. Glogirly & Flat Katie wish they could have been there with her.
…did your human eat any of the Party Mix???
; ) Katie
Oh that was so cool!
Lordy! There is no accounting for the eccentricities of humans!!
Glogirly and Katie was robbed!!!
Looks like a super event!!! Wow, wasn’t that a great donation of so many tins of cat food 🙂
Awesome coverage your human did on your behalf. We’d do some scratching to get our paws one of those golden kitties!
well, it doesn’t really surprise us that folks would want to be more like us kitties…but that Catify thing is a bit creepy, mol! What a great event, Sparkle, thanks for sharing! Such a benefit to the shelters that received the food! we do hope there will be more “Friskies” in the future 🙂
Pip, Smidgen, Minnie, HOllie
Your human gets to go to really cool events on your behalf Sparkle! That looks like it was a fun time even if no cats were there.
A wonderful job! Love, love, LOVE this write-up! What sights! The cat tower and tibetian can chimes/chandeliers were awesome! Congrats to the winners and the shelters who are winners above all others! Don’t suppose there was a catnip fairy anywhere? Maybe for 2013.
We think Katie got robbed. But it is good the shelters got food
Bah! That show sucked and you know why. Pffttt! Your remarks were good though.
Well, except for the Katie-Was-Robbed aspect of it all, it does look pretty fun. And I worship at the Church of Henri.
You’re spot on, Sparkle! Of course they want to be cats! What a fun event! Wish I could have been there!
How fun to be around a bunch of cat people, but yes, kinda disappointing that no cats were there! Oh, we mostly like to be admired from afar, so maybe it’s just as well. Thanks for telling us all about it. We made Teri let us watch it ‘live’ and well, we were kinda disappointed that Henri is really not that guys cat! We know who Katie belongs to, though, hahameow!
Sparkle! Me is so happy that yous has given us the lowdown on what happened!
That is just too cool!
Kisses
Nellie
Wow, cool post and looks like the event was fun! We voted for Katie but if she couldn’t win, we are glad that Oskar won.