Looks like we’ve lost another musical icon.
"Popular for its gimmicks on the keyboard, a cat named Bento became one of the Internet’s earliest memes and soon, turned into the culture icon nearly a decade ago. Lovingly known as Keyboard Cat, it sadly breathed its last on March 8 at the age of nine."
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffgzh93MdQM
Some have been a bit confused by this news as the og clip of Keyboard Cat was recorded in 1984. Bento is technically the 2nd ‘Keyboard Cat’ and the first, Fatso, passed away years before he became a worldwide sensation.
"Fatso (who died in 1987)[2][3] was owned (and manipulated in the video) by Charlie Schmidt of Spokane, Washington, United States. Later, Brad O’Farrell, who was the syndication manager of the video website My Damn Channel, obtained Schmidt’s permission to reuse the footage, appending it to the end of a blooper video to "play" that person offstage after the mistake or gaffe in a similar manner as getting the hook in the days of vaudeville.[4] The appending of Schmidt’s video to other blooper and other viral videos became popular, with such videos usually accompanied with the title Play Him Off, Keyboard Cat or a variant. "Keyboard Cat" was ranked No. 2 on Current TV’s list of 50 Greatest Viral Videos.[5]
Later, in 2009, Schmidt became owner of Bento, another cat that resembled Fatso, and which he used to create new Keyboard Cat videos, until Bento’s death in 2018.[3]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Keyboard_Cat
One of those videos featured Question Mark & the Mysterians ’96 Tears’, which I thought would be appropriate considering the melancholy nature of the event.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LWOYM9R7QGE
"Although you come with saws and axes, in the end I shall grow over your graves."