An Unhinged Deep Dive Into The CATS Fandom

[@NotDavDraws]

The brainrot radiating from this video, love it. Thanks for your service queen Carley

[@uncarley]

this is the highest compliment

[@dangitgrace5579]

Watching a video about CATS that’s sponsored by a sex toy company is honestly exactly how I want to spend my valentines day and any other way is incorrect

[@cecille5833]

this is what i call using God's internet in a God honoring way

[@liminalprincess]

help? carley I didn’t even know there was a cats fandom. you help me discover something new everyday.

[@uncarley]

so sorry to break the news to you bestie

[@sir-dame-sander]

cats fandom veteran here! I am so sorry. leave while you can

[@benamisai-kham5892]

I always thought the original cats musical had a huge fandom, if we're talking about the new one then I'm surprised

[@blugreen123]

Came here to say the same thing. I had no idea. 😂

[@bookcat123]

I was absolutely into reading Cats fanfics in high school 😂 Edit: …and I’ve just discovered that Rumblepurr’s Jellicle Chronicles is gone. Wow, sudden sad nostalgia.

[@PurpleMonkeySox]

Y’all haven’t lived until you’ve been to a cats drag show 😭❤️✨

[@uncarley]

WHAT

[@PurpleMonkeySox]

Imagine if the cats actually did burlesque… but good not james cordon

[@PurpleMonkeySox]

Look up papa t*tty in the PNW

[@junofrancis]

@@uncarley you've mentioned being from toronto i 10/10 recommend revue cinemas cats showing (i do not know if/when theyre doing it again but i know they've done at least 2 so far.) its a "rowdy" showing with a shadow cast some of whom are drag performers. words can not express.

[@ghosttrain9022]

Isn't Cats itself drag?

[@kyoyameganebereznoff]

My defense of Cats is that every actor on that stage is both a super talented singer and a super talented dancer and they’re all performing the whole show. Plot or not, spectacle or not, it’s impressive.

[@gracel2mart]

I heard of one Cats actress giving herself a type of hip displasia only seen in cats, bc she was doing so well at the cat movements for years

[@BooksRebound]

Bold to get into the drama 20min into a 23min video lmao. Thats iconic behavior. "You will sit there, and you *will* watch me!"

[@uncarley]

my channel is me info dumping for hours on end

[@margaretgleason]

i need you to know that i just spent a week working backstage for CATS: Young Actors Edition with a cast of 29 8-13 year old who were VERY INTO CATS. this video is healing something deep in my soul.

[@uncarley]

OH MY GOD

[@Man-ej6uv]

you deserve a purple heart

[@susannahlewis8464]

Good lord, who decided that was a good idea???

[@imprettyinept7012]

Ngl 13 year old me would be happy to hear that. I'd always get confused looks whenever I brought up my genuine love for Cats, so it's nice to know all those Cats fans found each other. Although I get it, 8-13 is like the height of children being annoying lol.

[@emmasdot]

The Cats soundtrack according to Carley: 1. This is My Name and Here are Some Adjectives to Describe Me 2. Actually Here Is My Name 3. Midnight 4. My Name is Jellicle 5. Slippery Jinglebleans

[@bro.that.is.adorable.2633]

If you haven’t seen it yet, I highly recommend Black Nerd Comedy’s video about CATS (2019). This movie causes him to descend into madness

[@uncarley]

omg i will watch!

[@zanay9038]

Kennie JD's video is similarly unhinged/unhinging

[@kaemincha]

truly it was the best video i saw about the madness of CATS at the time, and i watched a lot of videos

[@Hessed3712]

He still hasn’t recovered 🤣

[@VenusAD]

Welp, I know what I'm watching next.

[@margot9349]

a criminal lack of discussion around skimbleshanks

[@kaylamatters]

My favorite cat for sureeeee

[@dwell7315]

As a music nerd I love him bc his song is in 13/4, a truly NONSENSE time signature

[@castielabloodwings6301]

I love him!!! But my favorite is Rum Tum Tugger

[@isabellefreitag_]

I love how sometimes I randomly develop intense hyperfocus on the most bizarre things, like the 2019 Cats movie and all the musical by proxy, and then Carley just grants my wish for a serious debate on the topic and drops a full 24 minute video on the subject so I don't have to have lengthy conversations with the voices in my head. I appreciate your service, bestie

[@uncarley]

i make videos because i stumble upon niche things and NEED to talk about them so im happy to fill that void in your life

[@claiternaiter446]

Same! Just a few days ago I started randomly watching old Cats video essays and all the sudden here’s a new one for us! The timing is excellent.

[@Yahoodoraze]

Im so glad I’m not alone in this 😪

[@sir-dame-sander]

re: “there are no themes or plots in cats” there are ABSOLUTELY themes and plots in cats but like 99% of them are on complete accident, which is frankly far far worse than there being none in the first place. most of cats can fall into place in six-ish different concise ways, none of which I think were even remotely intended by alw (by ts eliot Maybe, but that’s another story). analyzing them got so bad for me I had to make a whole 40 minute video about it. unfortunately

[@uncarley]

omg i need to watch this video

[@fairycat23]

Cats musical shipping discourse has such similar energy to Warrior Cats shipping discourse. Please consider making a video about that. There is so much to explore, and yet more because Warriors actually has a plot.

[@bub4522]

Become the cat shipping channel

[@camille1324]

Boy oh boy does it have a plot. Truly one of the literary canons of all time

[@alicethemad1613]

It certainly has plots. Many of them. Some might say too many. Just the most plot ever. This is not a compliment.

[@camille1324]

@@alicethemad1613 idk if I’d be a *better* person if I hadn’t spent a year or two of my childhood gobbling those books down at a rate that literally caused my mother to send me to a child psychologist out of concern that I refused to spend my time doing anything but reading them or talking about them, but I’d certainly be a *different* one.

[@alicethemad1613]

@camille1324 man I never even got past the first book and those things still consumed my life as a child. I was the kid getting into clan wars on the playground being yelled at by teachers because I refused to communicate in anything but meows and hisses.

[@ellaronci2703]

i didnt think this channel could get any more unhinged....but here we are

[@uncarley]

hahahaha THANK YOU

[@ellaronci2703]

@@uncarley so glad to be here 😂💕

[@jurassicsnark]

14:20 I always thought mungojerrie and rumpleteazer were siblings

[@uncarley]

right?? it feels like they're siblings

[@lalas181]

They have huge sibling vibes to me, too, imo.

[@WaftingCurtains]

I def always thought they were siblings.

[@quesorealp]

Theyre usually not, but yeah it turned into REALLY popular fanon a few years ago

[@imprettyinept7012]

It depends on production. Sometimes they have sibling vibes, sometimes they have couple vibes (like in the two recent(ish) Mexico tours where Mungojerrie slaps Rumpleteazer's ass before the cartwheel); cats has no real cannon and any of the cats can be related, dating, or friends depending on the production. That being said, Cats replicas have (unfortunately) been getting more streamlined in recent years so there's a more consistent cannon (but tbh I hate some of the choices like young Grizabella or Macavity being Old Deut's son but that's a me problem) but most of the fandom nowadays generally abides by the rule "no cannon" (all this shit went down several years ago after the 2019 film) and knows that there isn't a correct answer to any of the cats' interpersonal relationships.

[@Sophia-rq6oo]

A wise person once said “fandom isn’t activism” and tumblr (and all other fandom places this sort of thing has spread to) needs to internalise that. Fandom is the sandpit on a playground, if you feel self righteous about something then turn that energy towards actual real life issues instead of trying to control what people do in the sandpit. It’s a literal waste of energy and tbh reeks of a desperate need to control others. Get involved in local community care instead. Join a volunteering group or something. Just go offline.

[@louc.6735]

lmao immediately thought of people drawing warrior cats with palestine flags. like idk on the surface it's harmless but it strikes me as... performative and cringe, idk.

[@Helenex23]

I watched cats when i was a kid, i always thought it was just a fever dream i had

[@uncarley]

honestly fair

[@tocotronicon]

i also think they're siblings, but lbr, that fact has never kept people from shipping two characters before

[@ephemeraltrash6209]

ok as for the mungojerry/rumpleteaser drama, I once adopted a cat whose parents were siblings, and yeah she did have a bunch of extra toes and as rocks, but my point is that cats don't know as much about genetics as we do.

[@sir-dame-sander]

as promised here in MY Insane Cats Fandom Story. formatting this greentext style bc it’d be fucking unreadable as a big block of text - be me - cats the musical fan, dumb teenager - in groupchat with several other cats the musical fans - our number one group activity is keeping up with this one fanfic, “the silver protector and me” - it’s 70k words of munkustrap x the author’s self insert oc - from the moment you pick TPSAM up it’s not great from a writing perspective but the further you read the more unhinged the plotlines get - everyone can shapeshift into normal cats with no explanation. the main character is french n everybody else is incredibly aroused by it. all the girl cats frequently body shame the main character for being too skinny. the love interest is abusive towards his son because he thinks he might be gay. there’s a bunch of sex slavery just like an insane amount - this isn’t really that alarming to us. obviously the author might sort of be goin through it but at the end of the day it’s just a fanfic - however. there is also an author’s note at the end of every chapter where the author (we’ll call her jazzie after her self insert) shares wayyyyy too much about her life - we learn a bunch through these. she’s british. she has a terrible ex. she loves the guy who’s she’s currently dating but he hates cats the musical. she’s been to cats the musical 115 times. she has a 7 year old son - she also links her instagram + tumblr. maybe this was a dick move of us but being teenagers we check them out - jazzie’s instagram is pretty normal other than the fact that everyone but her looks miserable in every photo - whatever. they might just have resting bitch face - jazzie’s tumblr is CRAZY - we discover that she’s been in several bona fide large scale scandals - you name it jazzie has posted it. most recently she’s gotten in trouble for comparing the traditional body modification of various unrelated african cultures to, and I quote, “dumb bimbos getting too much plastic surgery” - she’s also fighting on a daily basis with people who hate her fanfic over its various Issues, including one heated debate with an actual sex trafficking survivor - about a week after we start checking in on jazzie’s tumblr, she posts that she’s going to be taking a break n moving all her mutuals into a discord server - this server will also house the live drafting of new chapters of TPSAM - being idiot teenagers we decide we HAVE to get into this server to watch TPSAM get drafted live. its siren song is far too strong for morals to assuage us - in an attempt to gain mutualhood before jazzie leaves for good, I create my cishetsona - her name is abi n she’s a 17 year old girl living in indiana who loves only two things: cats the musical and her homophobic 23 year old fiancée who works in his dad’s garage - she’s a closet tuggoffelees shipper as well but she openly ships mistoffellees/victoria (which is for some reason the default straight ship in cats even though victoria canonically hooks up with plato. no I’m not sure why either) - abi begins participating in the cats the musical fandom by posting annoyingly heterosexual content - within one (1) week, this has gotten her into jazzie’s discord - a few of my co conspirators have played the same trick. there’s maybe four or five of us in there - inside this discord we are exposed to fandom drama we never even knew existed - jazzie frequently complains to the server about her current boyfriend. she hates how much he dislikes cats the musical, n hates even more that he’s always telling her to pay more attention to their kids (plural) instead of writing cats the musical sex slave fic - do you remember how I only mentioned the 7 year old son earlier. this is the first mention we hear of another kid - the next day something terrible happens - we MEET the other kid - he is 12 years old n he is a SERVER MODERATOR - this means he’s been fully privy to the active drafts of his mother’s super explicit cats the musical sex slave fanfic - apparently nobody on the server was aware this moderator was jazzie’s son either, because her genuine mutuals seem just as shocked as we do - at this point one of the real mutuals snaps n tells jazzie that while she loves TPSAM, kids shouldn’t be anywhere near it. a good half of the server enthusiastically agrees with this - jazzie takes this as a personal attack on her parenting abilities n the server fucking implodes - a couple days later the whole thing gets taken offline - abi gets a message from jazzie apologizing for the whole situation n thanking her for not attacking her like everyone else - I don’t have the energy left to tell her abi isn’t real, so abi says “thank you. it’s no problem” - there is brief discussion of reporting jazzie to some kind of authority, but we decide that’ll probably only make it worse for her kids, so we don’t - we figure she got the message to not involve her preteen son in the drafting of her sex slave fanfiction when all of her friends left her - TPSAM has not updated since. I really hope it’s because jazzie stopped neglecting her kids for it - it’s for the best she stopped. I hope her family is doing better now - but frankly I’m a bit sad we’ll never get lines like “can I cum in you?” “oui!” ever again

[@uschilou]

This was everything and I thank you for sharing.

[@ricardojanate]

Thank you for sharing this. I'm living for the unhinged actions of everybody involved, creating a cishetsona lol, infiltrating the servers and tracking this person online footprint down. And than there is jazzie, oh god. Truly unhinged behavior, but more of an electric chair than be friends with, truly insane girlboss gatekeep gaslight behaviour.

[@ufollie]

cishetsona plzzzz

[@RespektTheBovril]

Thank you for sharing this with us, this is what the internet was created for. Also obsessed with the concept of a cishetsona

[@juliayang3294]

i love this. thank you so much

[@emerycorner]

when the cats movie came out, i kept sending screenshots of the characters to my friend and that scared them

[@uncarley]

hahahaha iconic

[@graciesugarbee]

The ultimate power move

[@dillm412]

I was in a production of Crazy for You and someone in the cast found a really old, homemade website where somebody had hand-drawn each character in Crazy for You as a jellicle cat. The cats fandom goes to unknown depths

[@nightcrysalin]

Cats feels like a Riverdale plot

[@daisymae6]

My secondary school did cats for their yearly drama production when I was 13 or 14. It was an interesting decision.

[@uncarley]

OH MY GOD

[@graceelizabeth130]

ours did hairspray...(doing it again this year) with a MAJORITY white school 🤢

[@Hessed3712]

Definitely a choice.

[@lucyo9636]

Mine too and I was IN IT 😭

[@ciarabecker9800]

There is literally no interpersonal text between the characters. All their relationships are inferred by the body language of the actors and thus change from show to show. And there are people on the internet who will tell you that it is immutably immoral to ship cats.

[@raekwonmalik]

not exactly the gift i expected to receive on valentines day, but i’m grateful nonetheless! thanks carley ❤

[@uncarley]

happy valentines day!

[@chr.ist.ian_v2517]

Why am I legitimately locked in to this drama rn. Please 😭

[@uncarley]

SAME tho when i found out about this i literally locked in

[@godoggo9346]

It is the “Heavyside Layer” not heavenside. But your freestyling of a song about “words that describe me” was so on point that it’s overall a very accurate background/intro section. Ok so you mentioned the movie is based on the musical based on the book. But did you know the book is based on stories T.S. Elliot told his niece, and also some made up words his niece would say. Like “jellicle cats” comes from her little british toddler pronunciation of “jolly little cats,” there is also the rival troupe of “pollicle dogs” whoch comes from “poor little dogs.”

[@samamander404]

I think we can all agree that while Cats is absolutely the fever dream we remember it as, Memory was, is, and always will be a soul-breaking bop 🙌

[@WaftingCurtains]

I tear up almost every time I hear it

[@caroline7420]

Honestly memory is probably the only reason it’s still on Broadway. By intermission people are terrified and scarred but at last there is that one stunning masterpiece of a balled at the end to right the wrongs that have taken place.

[@syd3360]

In the delirium of 2020 all me and my housemates watched for like 2 weeks was the cats stage recording and THAT was when i realised i was a mentally ill queen Thank u for validating my life choices xoxo

[@septiceye_3706]

I absolutely love how the sponsored segment gives "talking to your distant relatives on Skype in 2011" energy. 😭😭😭😭 That really sent me down on memory lane for a bit.

[@uncarley]

hahahaha

[@loulyz9422]

Exactly the person I want to spend my Valentine’s Day with

[@uncarley]

happy valentines day bestie!

[@BandanaBoy78]

unhinged to drop this video on Valentine’s Day. unhinged to say “insertable tail” on this ad read. Thank you for your service

[@EmberAwoken]

I HAVE BEEN SUMMONED!! 2:46 Explaining how cousins works is literally my favorite thing! So first cousins share a set of grandparents. Second cousins share great grandparents and so on. Your first cousins’ child would still be your first cousin but once removed (there is one generation difference between you). That child’s child would be twice removed. Your child would be second cousins to that child. It’s quite easy once you know exactly what “once removed” means.

[@Emilia-hj5xw]

you had me googling 'cat musical orgy' and I think Im on a government list now

[@iylamstoy]

Fun fact, my spouse and I’s first date was watching Cats 2019 in theaters. We were both like this looks terrible wanna go see it? We are married now and also currently watching Riverdale because of you.

[@alicethemad1613]

That’s a diamond solid relationship. You two are literally bound together by bad media

[@ahaziahjoshua1397]

Carly telling us nearly every video that its a bad one to start off on is hilarious

[@uncarley]

at this point i dont even know what video is a good one to start at

[@helloihaveacoupon]

i don’t know anything about cats, but i’m still going to watch this cause it’s carley🤷🏻‍♀️

[@uncarley]

you are so kind!

[@rnr212]

"MY name is JingleBEANS and I like to playtheguitar and I AM KIND but ALso SLIPPery" as a legitimate imitation of Andrew Lloyd Webber's lyrics had me cackling

[@MagnifineGlass]

Thank you for sacrificing your sanity for us haha! You're like the protective layer between me and pop culture I'm scared of 😂

[@uncarley]

so happy to help!

[@MagnifineGlass]

❤ happy Valentine's day!! Hope you feel all the love pouring your way 😊 ​@@uncarley

[@mossalto]

I think the primer on what the deal with Cats actually is should be Lindsay Ellis' video on how the hell Cats happened and Sideways' video on how the film just entirely missed the very little point the musical actually had, with this video as a nice chaser of how batshit people can be about literally anything

[@Sugarcube12897]

Bro I'm in tears that song was beautiful and then I come back to you singing lines/ scat singing about being a cat 😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@sir-dame-sander]

re: tuggofflees. I’ve never been a very active shipper myself but it’s always been so funny to me how people keep trying to cancel them for having a “problematic narrative” when there’s no consistent narrative between them. sure, maybe actors will flirt depending on which production you’re seeing but that’s the extent of it. all this “who’s the boy who’s the girl” “mistoffellees is like a child” (INSANE thing to say in general) “tugger doesn’t listen when people say no” is I guarantee you based 100% on one or two incredibly specific fanfics they read. the only canonically abusive relationship in cats (n one of the only canon relationships in cats in general) happened between demeter + macavity, we know this for sure since she’s explicitly hiding from him the whole show. there is Nothing like that going on with literally any other pairing

[@sir-dame-sander]

sorry for leaving like 3+ comments I only have one more n I promise it’s an insane cats fandom story

[@AGK1999FE]

Yes. Who cares. Also idk, I don't like the "gender roles" and "who's the boy and who is the girl" thing. Guys are allowed to be small and feminine. Girls are allowed to big and masculine. I just don't see relationships that way, I see it as a character being with a character

[@sir-dame-sander]

@@AGK1999FE exactly, yeah. I suppose it becomes a problem when that’s the *only* way relationships are ever portrayed but it’s still a very real dynamic that people just have sometimes. also when it comes to a stage show like cats appearance (and to an extent personality) is EXTREMELY subjective anyway thanks to hundreds of different actors playing the same written role. there have been plenty of small tuggers + large mistos, I’ve seen tugger played like a femme glamrocker n mistoffellees played like a classically masculine dandy. hell tugger was even a mid 2000s rapper for a little bit in the london revival. appearance/personality in theatre really just depends on who’s playing who n when

[@quesorealp]

I have not seen anybody in the fandom trash on tuggoff for reasons other than being “overated”, but to be fair i’ve only known about it since 2022. All of that is so wild since actors characterization’s in Cats vary so much it!! Some fanfics are weird, sure, but they’re just that, fanfics.

[@sir-dame-sander]

@@quesorealp YOU ARE SO SO LUCKY. IVE SEEN DISCOURSE I CANT EVEN COMPREHEND TO THIS DAY

[@natbatrat-d7e]

weirdest episode of “siblings or dating?” i’ve ever seen

[@SnapeArgento]

I was a part of the musical theatre fandom (so I had interactions with the cats fandom), There's an edit with rum tum and jemima with the original song from glee "pretending", and many MANY fanart of them

[@meganriley253]

Having sudden memories of watching Caroline in the City back in the 90s. It was a sitcom where the funny neighbor characters job was 'dancer in Cats' so she was often turning up in full costume doing weird stuff.

[@mariaraquelfs]

Such a good sitcom that's forgotten. Lauren Graham playing a side character is enough to be in mu top 10 90s sitcoms

[@LoversLane16]

I played Victoria at age EIGHT in a dance recital. Full cat head and unitard. WHO LET THIS HAPPEN. WHO PITCHED THIS TO ME.

[@uncarley]

NO JAIL!!

[@user-lp3ew1xb5u]

This show was advertised in the same dramatic tone as Apocalypse Now - like something with MAJOR integrity and art when I was growing up in the 90s. That's the vibe that sold tickets back then I guess. I'm sure there's some old commercials somewhere on KZbins. The songs ARE iconic.

[@karakask5488]

I was a kid when Cats came out, and people were obsessed! There were definitely fawning news segments and people waiting in line. It was a whole thing... that I promptly forgot until the horror movie came out in 2019. Thanks for digging up some (possibly traumatizing) memories.

[@uncarley]

it was CATS-mania!

[@kittikataclysmic]

My high school drama teacher really really hated Cats. Like with a burning passion. All you had to do if you didn’t want to do class, was mention Cats, and she'd go on half hour rants about how much Cats sucks and how bad it is. Really great way to waste class time and also really funny. I was still in high school when Cats the movie came out, and everyone knew it was gonna suck. So, a bunch of theatre kids from my high school got like all the seats at a showing of Cats and tricked my drama teacher to show up to the theatre. The entire movie theatre was filled up with high school theatre kids and 1 adult who was tricked into being there. And she hated Cats. It was a whole event. Unfortunately (or, perhaps, fortunately), the theatre kids who planned all of this and invited everyone forgot to invite me and my sister. Like, the next day in school, they were asking me where i was and why i didn’t show, and they genuinely thought they told us the info. But they didn’t and we got accidentally left out. And my sister and i have never seen Cats the movie musical. I blame Cats the movie for every bad thing that's happened since, including the pandemic. You should look into the Warrior Cats fandom.

[@Faeree]

I blame Cats 2019 for the pandemic. Rise of Skywalker as well.

[@thewrongcrowd6311]

i really want to start a discussion around gay fiction written by women for women, because as a gay man i can always tell... if its a first person pov the main character is often a stand in for a woman pov, its a gay man who's written like a heterosexual woman: he's often the bottom in the relationship, is submissive, described as small etc. Also the way the sex/romance is depicted mimics what women traditionally find hot and attractive, it's made to appeal to a female audience and is not actually accurate to how most gay men experience sexuality and romance most of the time (and thats not even beginning to cover how gay sex written by someone who obviously has never had anal sex is HILARIOUS to read because its like oh honey no it does not work that way...)

[@julieannelovesbooks]

I am so confused. How did I get here. Why am I here? Help?

[@honorhonor4458]

a deep dive on the most romantic musical ever on valentines day!

[@uncarley]

always!

[@WaftingCurtains]

As soon as you mentioned fandom drama I was like oh boy this is going to be about shipping isn't it???? I love Cats and always will, I've seen it in the theaters a lot of times. Memory is my favorite musical song. Thanks for this. (I also have assumed they're siblings.)

[@katieward9701]

Carley, one of your best. What valuable information. Such a privilege to be able to consume content and immediately know which characters will have fanfic.

[@katieward9701]

Anime is another fun one to do this with. You can tell who’s getting called babygirl on tumblr by a single glance

[@uncarley]

omg thank you this is so so kind it warmed my cold heart

[@gabriellepotvin8052]

As someone that made a présentation full of screenshots of the cats movies for a paper I did for a class for my master's degreee ,It is madness

[@whatalsaid]

I miss the person I was 23 minutes ago BEFORE I found out about the Cats online fandom,

[@erikdaniels0n]

I had no idea Carly was a musical theatre girlie. We love to see it

[@uncarley]

unfortunately i am yes

[@erikdaniels0n]

@@uncarleyme too slay queen

[@schmegan2]

today i learned the cats fandom drama is pretty much exactly like the hetalia fandom drama and if you understand those words im so sorry

[@uncarley]

oh no another rabbit hold to fall down

[@Joannachin]

I understood your words

[@lalas181]

I hate that this feels correct. /lh

[@mariusmiller5702]

this video has singlehandedly pointed me out in the crowd and so here are my notes as a certified CATShead: -mungojerrie and rumpleteazer are either a bonded pair of cats or from the same litter, as outlined in some of the extraneous texts and the subtext of their song. -shipping kittens is generally frowned upon because of the obvious human standards. unfortunately street cats do not give a shit about all that. plus, the whole orgy thing. also none of it is real -I think as far as all shipping in this fandom goes...."Hal, it's about cats." perhaps we should calm down or lower the standards because its literally spandex and lycra felines singing showtunes for two hours about the behaviours of a house animal... it might not be that deep. I understand why it can FEEL that deep, but I promise there are real gay people in real life who need advocacy more than "fursonas from children's poems on broadway" do. when it comes to CATS(and most fan spaces, honestly) and I want to get upset about something or hit back with some kind of scathing reply I imagine myself saying it in front of a family member and suddenly it becomes clear how unhinged and out of touch it sounds. btw this is somehow one of the more embarassing things I've publicly commented about. christ. I'm a cats fan in a youtube comment section. anyways hope this helped... someone.

[@whoislega]

When my cousins & I were between the ages of 3 & 7 years old, we saw the play in person with our families. We loved it so much that we asked to buy the VHS recording and CD so that we could act it out in the living room every night for months lmao

[@Kay-wp8xf]

My aunt, the music teacher at my elementary school, played Cats when I was in her class. I remember thinking it was weird. Looking back... I don't think she knew what she had put in the VHS for hwr full class of third graders.

[@ciciamanda.]

i absolutely love hearing about drama that i am in no way a part of. Its kinda like watching my chickens argue over who gets to sleep on the highest peg. there are 0 stakes and 0 reasons for me to take a stance

[@lizabee484]

Lmfao I literally saw the national tour last year and got to hang out with the cast for a hot second. And the idea that one of them would stumble across this video or the CATS fandom is…. So fun and funny to me. Also they were all so talented and sweet and kind, very lovely people!

[@mikaylamcfadden7866]

I went to a rowdy showing of this and it did not disappoint. This is best drunk with friends. Never want to seee it again

[@patiolinguist]

I was suddenly reminded of that episode of the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt where Titus jumps on stage and spontaneously joins the production of Cats lol

[@TheCroniclesOfMe]

Carley did this for us* *me and my bestie who suffered/starred in a community theatre production of Cats and we both love your videos

[@ladygaygay94]

An unhinged deep dive into a fandom I had no previous knowledge of is the best and weirdest Valentine I’ve ever received. Thanks bestie

[@IanFontova]

This channel has improved my life. It provides the exact kind of knowledge that I want to fill my brain storage with. I lke to think that it's a limited storage and I'm making this choice

[@libby8920]

i am loving these fun videos so much

[@uncarley]

omg thank you! i am having a blast making them

[@Mecharnie_Dobbs]

14:20 Victoria seems underage in the film. It's not stated. It's a vibe.

[@bunnyellabell]

in my honors english class we read the poems the musical is based on and had a choice to act out or dress up as much as we want. i made cat ears and wore them to class and it was so fun. who did my teacher assign to me? grizabella! :) i also had to do rum tum tugger because my group partner didn't show to class. i love the original cats musical so much! rum tum tugger, mungojerrie & rumpleteazer, and magical mister mistoffelees are my fav performances. also it's important to explain that the book is about cat personality types! like rum tum tugger is a cat who is super picky and independent. mistoffelees is the cat who is super sneaky and plays tricks. i believe the lore is these domestic cats get a special name depending on their personality and actions, and that's how the cats know them by. kinda like how dusty is also firepaw/heart/star when he joins thunderclan. it's like cat culture lore lol. but i think that's why the play lacks any substantial plot; the book is literally just "this cat so sneaky so quiet he must be magician. his special name is mistoffelees" honestly they could've done better && the 2019 movie should not exist!!! :)

[@20mgzoloft]

i didn't expect this video at all but im here for it

[@uncarley]

you can never pin me down

[@srose1088]

When I was a kid, I had a cats face paint kit with instructions for the main characters faces. It actually worked really well. I had it for many halloweens.

[@Rossella-P]

so this video made me watch the musical for the first time, now im rewatching it so i can fully understand the drama the circle of life truly

[@_evanwalsh_]

why do all the cat's names sound like slurs 😭 ty for delivering us this important news carley it needed to be heard

[@frankievalentine6112]

No one has ever explained CATS to me before and I'm so glad it was you, Miss Carley. Finally I understand something that has always seemed beyond understanding. 😆😆😆

[@allyson--]

[@thrawn4emp]

It's so much more fun watching other fandom drama 😭😭😭 i feel like everyone in a fandom should watch this so we can see how absolutely ridiculous our shit is (lookin' at you ofmd)

[@crowteethh]

me when my only experience of ANY musicals was seeing the cats play live in a theatre at like 12

[@Annesakae]

The first time I saw cats on stage, the sound was off so no one knew what the actors were saying but then they fixed it at intermission and it became abundantly clear that the first half we sat through was not supposed to be like that. Then I saw the cats movie and wondered if actually, there wasn't a sound problem for the stage production, I'm supposed to be confused.

[@erikdaniels0n]

omg a new Carly deep dive. Happy Valentine’s Day to us!

[@uncarley]

happy valentines day!

[@kilgirlietrout]

As an 80s baby from NYC, I hate Memories with a passion. It was the background to the impossible to escape the commercials.

[@moonjunuwu]

this entire video is like when you’re writing an essay and you realise that about 600 words ago you started ranting and it all makes no sense

[@fubyyzwrld]

i always saw the trailer for this musical on my barney VCR tape it’s burned in my mind 😭

[@HanneVr-_-._.]

I absolutely love cats the musical (tho never enough to be considered in the fandom) so when the movie came out I was so annoyed people didn’t take the musical serious. That being said the musical is absolutely NOT SERIOUS WHATSOEVER. A great video about cats is the one from sideways. A masterpiece😌

[@uncarley]

the movie destroys the musical

[@HanneVr-_-._.]

@@uncarley oh absolutely! But it did bring a newfound appreciation for the musical to some people so that’s a little win.

[@liana7010]

omg thank you for the valentine's gift, queen

[@uncarley]

happy valentines day!

[@niabb2692]

HIGHLY recommend looking into south park fandom drama next- been going on in forums since the late nineties and it is fascinating. would love to study them

[@octaviabarr6740]

One of my most traumatic memories is being in the front row of Cats and watching a cat crawl up a pipe right at the level of my legs and then stare at me for the first three songs. Thanks for making me remember this, Carley, I will be seeking damages!

[@KaelaCeleste]

can’t explain how much this video means to me as a cats apologist

[@lcruisin]

Ariana, what are you doing here?! I love your Cats video!!!

[@wormgirl0690]

I just exited my cats deep dive hyperfixation phase yet here you are re-igniting it, thank you Carley

[@sallyparker11]

I played mungojerrie in our HIGH SCHOOL PRODUCTION OF CATS. (Yes I had to do this in high school and wearing a Lycra bodysuit on stage did wonders for my self esteem). We were told mungojerrie and rumpleteazer were twins because they had the same markings and colours, but now that I think about it idk if my teacher made that up or what. Also yeah I played the boy cat because we had no boys who could dance lol 🙃

[@kaitlinbrandt8785]

There was this guy I did theatre with in high school who went on to play Skimbleshanks in the national tour of Cats. I still follow him on Insta and he was posting all this fan art that he was getting from the Cats fandom and I was like “….wtf who is making detailed fan art for a random cat actor in a national tour?” This video had me cackling, I had NO IDEA the Cats fandom ran this deep. Love u Carley xxx

[@geode5224]

carley, you spoil us with quality content on this holiest of ash wednesday: watching this video 8 times instead of rewatching saltburn, bless

[@symwinter]

Carley's cat songs are great. I need an out of context super cut of them.

[@rinslife12]

The Hays code being mentioned is fucking insane bc I did my NHD project on it like 3 years ago💀💀

[@valerie767]

I never wanted this video to end

[@dearjubs]

haven't watched it yet but this video already saved my life, you are so necessary!!

[@uncarley]

omg thank you bestie!!

[@geisantts]

finding out rn that there is a cats fandom and I'm here for the gossip! thank you for your services, queen