“Uh yeah, she’s probably the biggest superstar in social media,” he texted. This was confirmed by my friend, Clif, whose life actually is impacted greatly by Peyton Manning. Their expressions said that Grumpy Cat had a much bigger impact on their lives than Peyton Manning. The three editors shook their heads solemnly.

“ You never heard of Grumpy Cat!” they shouted all at once. When I recounted this conversation to the editors at the Guardian’s San Francisco office they squealed. “I’m calling on behalf of Grumpy Cat,” a public relations woman chirped, adding that she was offering me a special one-on-one interview “with the official spokescat of Friskies!”.

My mate CliffĪll of this changed when my phone rang early on Tuesday morning. Grumpy Cat is the biggest superstar in social media. That she spent four weeks in Vancouver shooting her own full-length feature movie called Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever and that the comedian Aubrey Plaza did her grumpy kitty cat voice. That she goes, every March, to the South By Southwest festival and is considered the star of the week. That she has 8.4m likes on Facebook and 1.2m followers on Instagram. Until this week I had not heard of Grumpy Cat. “I think they should have us throw out the first pitch every night.” “They won that night,” Grumpy Cat’s owner Tabatha Bundesen gushes. Grumpy Cat’s manager, a man dressed all in black and handing out businesses cards that identify him as Ben Lashes, scrolls through his phone to show me a picture of Grumpy Cat throwing out the first pitch at an Arizona Diamondbacks game.

Grouchy cat