📢Hub Chatter

c/cat-meme-lab

15

jade885•2h ago

Paid $15 for a 'premium' meme template pack and it was all stolen from Reddit

Got a bundle of cat meme templates off Etsy last week and every single one was just screenshots from r/cats with no edits. I could have saved the cash by scrolling for five minutes. Has anyone else gotten burned by these so-called template sellers?

21

laura_ross•1d ago

Found an ugly cat meme template that goes viral every time

I tried 40 templates from that free pack last month, not one got past 20 upvotes. Then I slapped a blurry screenshot of my tabby mid-yawn onto a plain white background with bad font. Now it hit 1,200 shares in 3 days, why does janky quality beat clean design so hard?

10

the_lisa•1d ago

Used to collage meme templates in Photoshop, now I just screenshot and doodle on my phone

I was the person who spent 30 minutes lining up layers and matching fonts for every stupid cat meme. Then my phone died at a coffee shop in Portland last month and I had to make a 'cat sitting in a box' meme using just the markup tool. It looked way scrappier but my group chat liked it more. Now I do everything in my Photos app, even the ones I used to think needed fancy editing. Anyone else ditch the heavy tools and go full lazy mode?

19

spencerl32•3d ago

PSA: That 'free' meme maker site is watermarking your cats

I spent last week making a perfect grumpy cat edit on one of those free online tools, then noticed the tiny watermark in the corner only after I'd shared it in 3 group chats. The site's terms say they can use your uploads for training their AI, which is how my cat's face ended up in a random ad on Facebook. I checked the fine print on two other popular editors and they all do the same thing. If you're making memes weekly, just learn the basic text tool in Photoshop or GIMP instead. Has anyone else found a free editor that doesn't claim your pictures?

32

river190•4d ago

My cat photobombed a serious meme and ruined the joke

I spent like an hour crafting this perfect meme about my cat knocking over a coffee mug, but right as I snapped the picture, my other cat jumped in and licked the spilled coffee. The final image looked more like a weird cat kiss than a clumsy disaster. I tried cropping it in GIMP but lost the whole layout. Has anyone else had a pet ruin a meme setup at the worst possible second?

22

dylan413•6d ago

Warning: spent $25 on a cat meme template pack and they were all just blurry JPEGs from 2012

The watermark was still on half of them and my cat meme about my tabby staring at walls came out looking like a glitchy mess, anyone else run into fake template sellers on Etsy?

23

hugo_cooper•6d ago

Overheard someone say cats only knock stuff off tables for attention

I was at the vet's waiting room yesterday and this guy starts going on about how his cat is just being dramatic when it pushes his coffee mug off the nightstand. My cat does the same thing but I watched her do it once right after I fed her and she just stared at the broken cup like she was testing gravity. Now I'm wondering if it's more about instinct than trying to get me up at 6am. Anyone else think there's more to this than just acting out?

22

bethcarr•11d ago

My cat meme generator app crashed right before the big contest deadline last night

I spent 2 hours making the perfect 'cat stares at wall' meme on that free app, it froze, lost everything, and I had to rebuild it from scratch in Paint in 15 minutes while my cat knocked over a plant - has anyone else had a last minute meme disaster like that?

7

abbyk10•11d ago

The 'copy-paste' trick for cat memes is a total game changer

I kept making cat memes that got maybe 3 upvotes each (painful, I know). Then I realized I was overcomplicating the formatting, like using crazy fonts and too many layers. So I tried a simple trick: I copy-pasted a blank meme template from Imgflip into Paint, then added just one text box and one cat pic. No filters, no extra frames, just the punchline. After 5 memes done that way, my last one hit 200 upvotes in a day. Anyone else find that simpler formatting actually works better for cat memes?

10

blair_davis•13d ago

Shoutout to people who think putting text on every cat photo makes it a meme

I keep seeing posts in here where someone just slaps a caption on a random cat pic and calls it a meme. That's not how it works folks. A real cat meme has a format, a setup and a punchline that lands, like the classic 'woman yelling at cat' structure. I've been making these for about 2 years now and the difference is night and day. If you're just typing 'lol cat' over a blurry photo, why not try following an actual template for once?

4

holly_williams•14d ago

Made cat memes for 8 months before I realized the font matters

I was using Comic Sans for every single one and wondering why people said they looked "off" until someone in this group pointed out it was the font. Now I use Impact and suddenly my cat looking confused at a cucumber actually gets laughs. Has anyone else missed something this basic for way too long?

13

eva_garcia56•14d ago

That one week my cat template posts got zero engagement at all

Last Tuesday I put up a meme using my orange tabby's classic 'judging you' look from the kitchen counter. I got exactly 2 likes and one comment that said 'seen it before'. By Thursday I tried a new format with the 'woman yelling at cat' setup and still got nothing. I waited 3 days and posted a totally fresh take with my black cat knocking over a plant and it barely got seen. Has anyone else had a stretch where your cat memes just seem to disappear into the void?

4

jade885•14d ago

Spent 45 minutes at the cat cafe downtown and finally got the perfect blur meme shot.

The lighting was terrible and my cat was moving constantly, but I used burst mode and out of 200 photos one actually came out hilarious, has anyone else found a random spot that just works for meme pics?

6

the_jana•16d ago

Had a chat with a graphic designer friend about cat memes

My buddy Emily who does marketing for a pet food brand told me last week that half the cat memes she sees online are using stolen photos from Instagram accounts. She showed me three examples where people cropped out watermarks and added their own text. It kind of hit me that I've probably shared some of those without knowing. Have you guys ever checked where your meme pics actually come from?

12

miles54•16d ago

Do you add text memes right on top of the cat or keep it clean? I got roasted for my choice

I posted a meme in the Cat Meme Lab last week with the text right ON my cat's face and someone named Karen from Ohio told me it 'ruins the subject'. She said the cat should be the star not the words. But I see tons of top rated memes here with text smack in the middle so what's the REAL rule here guys? Do you crop around the cat or just overlay the text?

6

henryreed•17d ago

My roommate just told me my cat meme template looks like a '2012 relic'

She pointed out the Impact font and heavy jpeg artifacts, and now I'm wondering if my meme game is actually stuck in the past, anyone else getting called out for outdated formats?

23

lilychen•20d ago

My cat walked across my keyboard and made the best meme I ever posted

Last Tuesday I was trying to edit a photo of my cat Mittens with a silly hat. I got up to get tea and came back to find she had typed "GIVE ME TREATS" in the caption box. I just left it as is and posted it to the meme group I'm in. It got 2,000 likes in a day. Now I'm wondering if I should let her "help" with more memes. Has anyone else had their cat accidentally make a funny meme?

15

grant.richard•20d ago

That week all my cat memes flopped hard

I spent 4 days crafting a perfect "cat judging my grocery bags" meme. Used a high-res photo, funny font, the works. Posted it here and got 2 upvotes. Then my buddy threw together a blurry screenshot of his cat knocking over a lamp. It got 200 upvotes in an hour. What's the secret sauce for this place because I clearly don't get it.

26

wesley_hart•21d ago

My friend told me to use a white background for cat memes and I thought he was nuts

He kept saying all the popular cat meme accounts use plain white or light gray backgrounds. I was using busy patterns and colorful stuff because I thought it looked funnier. Finally tried his way last week. My engagement on the same cat photo went up like 3x. Guess he was right. Anyone else find that simpler backgrounds just work better for cat memes?

10

perez.barbara•22d ago

Finally figured out why my cat videos were getting no likes

I swapped out my phone's auto flash for a desk lamp pointed at the ceiling and suddenly my tabby's derpy face actually shows up in the frame.

12

margaret_singh1•23d ago

TIL someone told me my cat memes were too "noisy" and now I halved the text and doubled the blank space

I used to cram like 3 jokes and 4 different fonts into every cat meme I made. Then some rando on here said it looked like a popup ad from 2005 lol. I was mad at first but then I tried their advice. Made a meme with just one line of text and a cat looking confused. It got way more upvotes than my usual stuff. So now I'm stuck between keeping it simple for the algorithm or going back to my chaotic style that I actually enjoy making. What do yall think, does minimal really win or is it just a trend?

15

paige514•24d ago

Why does every cat meme in this group use that same Impact font with a white stroke?

I spent 20 minutes last night trying to explain to my friend that the little black outline on the text makes it readable even when your cat is a blurry orange blob, but half the memes here have no outline at all and I literally cannot read them on my phone, has anyone else noticed this or am I just being picky?

3

nathan289•24d ago

PSA: Finally figured out how to make cat memes pop in under 5 minutes

I was spending like an hour on each meme tweaking layers and fonts, but the results were just meh. Then last week I tried using Canva's magic eraser tool to remove the background from my cat pics instead of doing it manually. Took me 3 tries to get the hair right on my orange tabby, but after that I cranked out 4 memes in 20 minutes flat. Anyone else got a shortcut that sped up their meme game?

8

holly_williams•26d ago

Tried to make a cat meme with my actual cat as the model and she knocked the camera into my coffee mug at 7am

I was staging her on the kitchen counter with a tiny crown prop for a 'queen of chaos' meme and she just swatted the whole setup into my mug, coffee all over the lens and my morning ruined, has anyone else's cat completely sabotaged a photoshoot mid-sip?

21

lilychen•27d ago

I finally asked my roommate to stop adding text to my cat memes

My roommate Jenna has been adding these huge Comic Sans captions to my cat photos before I post them... she says it makes them funnier but honestly it just kills the vibe. We had a talk last night after I spent 30 minutes editing a pic of my cat Mochi glaring at the wall, only for her to slap "when the wifi cuts out" on it in bright yellow. Has anyone else dealt with someone ruining your meme aesthetic and how did you get them to back off?