Cat Casting Perfect Batman Shadow Goes Viral

By Jenna Anderson

The pop culture world very rarely needs a reason to celebrate Batman, as the DC Comics character has evolved into being a household name. The character's iconography, and even the iconography of his sidekicks and villains, have become uniquely ubiquitous — as evident by an endearing viral tweet. A tweet from Twitter user @AuthorTOBurnett shows a photo of a cat poised on top of a dresser, with the shadow cast from the light below perfectly embodying the silhouette of Batman, cape and all. The tweet has taken Twitter by storm, with (at the time of this writing) over 100,000 retweets, and over 700,000 likes. 

The viral tweet is popping up just as The Batman has been thriving in theaters, grossing close to $600 million at the global box office at this point and breaking the Internet with its various elements and behind-the-scenes details. The film stars Robert Pattinson in a new take on the iconic character, with a unique approach to the overall iconography.

"I've definitely found a little interesting thread," Pattinson explained in a recent interview. "He doesn't have a playboy persona at all, so he's kind of a weirdo as Bruce and a weirdo as Batman, and I kept thinking there's a more nihilistic slant to it. 'Cause, normally, in all the other movies, Bruce goes away, trains, and returns to Gotham believing in himself, thinking, I'm gonna change things here. But in this, it's sort of implied that he's had a bit of a breakdown. But this thing he's doing, it's not even working. Like, it's two years into it, and the crime has gotten worse since Bruce started being Batman. The people of Gotham think that he's just another symptom of how shit everything is. There's this scene where he's beating everyone up on this train platform, and I just love that there's a bit in the script where the guy he's saving is also just like: Ahh! It's worse! You're either being mugged by some gang members, or a monster comes and, like, f-cking beats everybody up! The guy has no idea that Batman's come to save him. It just looks like this werewolf."

"And I kept trying to play into that, I kept trying to think, and I'm going to express this so badly, but there's this thing with addressing trauma.... All the other stories say the death of his parents is why Bruce becomes Batman, but I was trying to break that down in what I thought was a real way, instead of trying to rationalize it," Pattinson continued. "He's created this intricate construction for years and years and years, which has culminated in this Batman persona. But it's not like a healthy thing that he's done."

What do you think of this viral photo of a cat channeling Batman? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!

The Batman is now playing exclusively in theaters.

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