# Where the Clapping Cat Meme Came From

HTML page: https://knightcatai.com/blog/clapping-cat-meme-origin

The clapping cat meme is Black Cat Clapping. Credit @merkurianin, 25 September 2026. A clip made here is new, not that reel.
Published 2026-10-14.
The clapping cat is the pet that stands up, grins with a row of human teeth, and slow-claps. People also call it Black Cat Clapping. Here is the sourced origin, and what this site does with it.

## Short answer

Credit [@merkurianin](https://www.instagram.com/merkurianin/) (Aleksandr Kim). [Know Your Meme’s Black Cat Clapping entry](https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/black-cat-clapping) says he posted the clip on Instagram on **25 September 2026**: he gives food to his cat, and the cat smiles and claps. The grin and the hands are AI. Knight Cat AI is not affiliated with him.

A video you make on the [clapping cat page](/clapping-cat-ai) is newly generated from your photo. It is not his reel.

Checked notes, without recycled like counts, are on the [clapping cat trend](/trends/clapping-cat).

## What the meme is

Know Your Meme filed the entry on 5 October 2026 and describes a black cat with human hands, slowly clapping and smiling. The joke in the copies is sarcastic applause: the cat claps at something that did not deserve a clap.

The original cat is the creator’s pet. The human features are the generated part. That is why the still on this site asks for two small human hands and a wide human smile, and why the knight paw line (“animal paws, no human fingers”) is skipped for this template. That line would cancel the hands.

## What this site makes

One pet photo. No people. A free watermarked still, then 1 credit for a 10 second, 9:16, 720p video with clap sound. The still model is Google Nano Banana. The video model is Alibaba Wan 3.0. Both run through APIMart.

The prompts are on the [prompts page](/prompts#clapping-cat) and in [the clapping cat prompt](/blog/clapping-cat-prompt).

If you want the armor meme instead, that origin is the [knight cat trend](/trends/knight-cat).

## Also on Knight Cat AI

- [Home](https://knightcatai.com/index.md): https://knightcatai.com/
- [How it works](https://knightcatai.com/how-it-works.md): https://knightcatai.com/#create
- [Pricing](https://knightcatai.com/pricing.md): https://knightcatai.com/pricing
- [FAQ](https://knightcatai.com/faq.md): https://knightcatai.com/#faqs
- [About](https://knightcatai.com/about.md): https://knightcatai.com/about
- [Refunds](https://knightcatai.com/refund.md): https://knightcatai.com/refund
- [Blog](https://knightcatai.com/blog.md): https://knightcatai.com/blog
- [The Clapping Cat Prompt, Copied](https://knightcatai.com/blog/clapping-cat-prompt.md): https://knightcatai.com/blog/clapping-cat-prompt
- [How to Take the Perfect Photo for a Knight Cat Video](https://knightcatai.com/blog/perfect-pet-photo-for-knight-cat.md): https://knightcatai.com/blog/perfect-pet-photo-for-knight-cat
- [Knight Cat vs Cat Knight vs Kitten Knight](https://knightcatai.com/blog/knight-cat-vs-cat-knight-vs-kitten-knight.md): https://knightcatai.com/blog/knight-cat-vs-cat-knight-vs-kitten-knight
- [Where Did the Knight Cat Trend Come From?](https://knightcatai.com/blog/knight-cat-trend-origin.md): https://knightcatai.com/blog/knight-cat-trend-origin
- [Knight Cat Captions, Sounds & Hashtags That Work](https://knightcatai.com/blog/knight-cat-captions-sounds-hashtags.md): https://knightcatai.com/blog/knight-cat-captions-sounds-hashtags
- [Knight kitten](https://knightcatai.com/knight-kitten.md): https://knightcatai.com/knight-kitten
- [Clapping Cat](https://knightcatai.com/clapping-cat-ai.md): https://knightcatai.com/clapping-cat-ai
- [Knight Cat Trend Origin](https://knightcatai.com/trends/knight-cat.md): https://knightcatai.com/trends/knight-cat
- [Clapping Cat Trend Origin](https://knightcatai.com/trends/clapping-cat.md): https://knightcatai.com/trends/clapping-cat