post #4306702
▲ Original Image

Blue Smurf Cat, among various other names, is a meme that arose to popularity on TikTok in 2023. The original image, titled Smurf Sighting, is a digital painting created by artist Nate Hallinan in September 8th, 2014, wherein he reinterpreted the smurf as a feline species in a symbiotic relationship with a fungus.

Hallinan's art piece didn't draw wide-spread attention until almost nine years later when, on August 26th, 2020, TikTok @ghojam1 posted a eight-image slideshow of the blue smurf cat cropped and photoshopped into alternate colors, as well as accompanied by an excerpt from "Keep Their Heads Ringin'" by Dr. Dre. The next day, @ghojam posted another slideshow, now consisting of three versions of the image with the caption "шайлушай" (shailushai; a nonsense word deriving from the word шалопай shalopai, meaning "little scoundrel; scamp; varmint") and the lyrics "We Live, We Love, We Lie" from a previously unknown remix of "The Spectre" by Alan Walker. The elements of this second slideshow became the more popular version and spawned derivative works by other remixers as well as artists recreating Halliman's original work.

External links

• Nate Hallinan's original posts
• Art of Nate Hallinan
• ArtStation
• Smurf Cat / Шайлушай — KnowYourMeme