Bento the Keyboard Cat died this Saturday, March 8. He was 9 years old. This cat has been the internet sensation for a long time. He was first known in 2009 when a video of a cat melodiously playing the piano went viral.
After this, Bento was noted, starring in pistachio commercials and in his own marketing that generated a lot of income for owner Charlie Schmidt. Yesterday a video in tribute to Bento the Keyboard Cat was filmed by the networks. This was also an official confirmation of the death of the beloved cat.
The Keyboard cat has an ancestor!
When Bento became a celebrity on YouTube, the original Keyboard Cat had already passed away. The first video was made in 1984 with Schmidt’s old cat, Fatso, who had died before the Internet explosion in 2009.
Then, Schmidt made his way to an animal shelter near his town, hoping to find a suitable replacement. He found another cat to be able to love, and that revived these videos that millions of people shared in their networks.
A Cat-lebrity
Bento the Keyboard Cat was an orange Tabby, a little bigger than usual. In addition to appearing in Pistachio commercials, we could also see this cute cat in Starburst commercials, thanks to his viral success.
Bento frequented his fans in his hometown of Spokane, Washington and even appeared on a national advertising campaign for the Shelter Pet project, encouraging people to adopt animals from shelters instead of buying them at a pet store.
Keyboard Cat and Charlie Schmidt made a great team. They encouraged and raised awareness about animal shelters for almost a decade, while making all their fans laugh with their musical follies.
Behind the story
As we said, the video was recorded in 1984 on VHS by Charlie Schmidt. When asked what made this video come to light, the owner of Bento said he wanted to show his 15 years old daughter the cat with a talent for music. At that moment he realized that the tape was deteriorating very fast, so he digitized the tape. Later, a close friend of Schmidt suggested that he put this tape on the YouTube platform, and he did, but it was a few years before this video exploded on the networks.
First Stephen Hawking dies and now the Keyboard Cat, will this be a sign of the end of the world?