The 2011 internet meme that began as a Pop-Tart-bodied cat GIF posted by Christopher Torres is Nyan Cat.
Torres, who used the online name “prguitarman,” posted the animation on his LOL-Comics website on April 2, 2011. He created the character after viewers suggested combining a cat and a Pop-Tart during a livestream drawing session. The design was inspired partly by his pet cat Marty.
The meme became globally recognizable after a YouTube user combined Torres’s animation with the Japanese song “Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!” The resulting video was uploaded on April 5, 2011, and popularized the name Nyan Cat. Torres originally called the character Pop-Tart Cat, but accepted the internet’s preferred name.
Nyan Cat is sometimes confused with Keyboard Cat, another famous animal meme, but Keyboard Cat features a real cat playing a keyboard. Grumpy Cat was also a different internet-famous cat and became prominent later.