G20 Cats: 3 Cats At G20 Summit Go Viral [Video]
The G20 Summit is generally a staid event, but it took a few cats to liven up the G20 Summit and help it go viral online. The cats that found their way into the G20 Summit as leaders around the world, including President Barack Obama, got ready to step into the spotlight actually found themselves feline famous by Sunday.
As reported on Twitter by Duncan Stone — a cameraman, editor and producer for BBC News — the cats stole the spotlight from the world leaders.
Obama and Putin upstaged by three cats. #G20Turkey #G20AntalyaSummit pic.twitter.com/svxZAoX45D
— Duncan Stone (@DuncanCStone) November 15, 2015
Stone’s video is going viral across the Internet, especially with YouTube video titles such as “Turkey: Cats break through G20’s tight security” being used to portray the adorable little cats as they meandered about the strange landscape inside the G20 Summit. That YouTube video, uploaded to YouTube on November 15, received nearly 2,000 video views in four hours. The audio from the video doesn’t necessarily show the G20 Summit crowd reacting loudly to the cats — if they even noticed the cats — nor does it show anyone trying to shoo the cats away.
“Despite the tight security at the G20 summit, a clowder [group] of cats playfully walked around the reception area of the summit in Antalya, Sunday. G20, which stands for Group of Twenty, is an assembly of governments and leaders from 20 of the world’s largest economies. The themes of this year’s summit are inclusiveness, implementation and investment.”
With at least three cats being seen and filmed at the G20 Summit, one would wonder the meaning of such a symbolic event, even as world leaders gathered in Turkey to talk about serious world issues. As reported by the Guardian, the G20 Summit sought to help leaders like Obama and Putin develop tactics to fight against terrorism.
Noble and much-needed goals, but a war-weary world wide web found their focus going back to the G20 cats. All sorts of rationale and humorous comments are flowing into social media sites about the cats unexpectedly making a grand cat-like entrance on the G20 stage. While some joked that the cats arrived at the G20 Summit to capture the “rats” in their presence, others took a lighter approach and posted memes of a cat representing security near a motorcycle in a leather jacket. The security cat told the other three cats to move along in the funny meme.
Certain Twitter users joked that it was “Caturday,” while others likened the cats to bomb-sniffing feline special forces. Talk of the cats performing on the “catwalk” followed.
“They are Turkey’s K-9 trained cats searching for possible bombs. Only in Turkey like special forces.”
Most everyone who saw the playful video of cute cats at a serious political event admitted that the light-hearted nature of the three cats helped to improve the somber mood felt around the world due to recent tragedies.
“I have no idea why this makes me happy, but it does.”
While conspiracy theories abounded, as some social media users theorized that the cats might have had tiny cameras on them in order to scout out the area, others looked at the cats as potential threats themselves, wondering why no security forces killed the wandering cats.
“I’m really surprised nobody shot the cats.”
The three cats at the G20 Summit in Turkey, as reported by The Independent?, may have upstaged the leaders as they gathered, but some video viewers noted that Turkey is known for having plenty of cats wandering around. The Daily Mail noted just how many cats wander the streets of Istanbul, Turkey, calling it a little known fact abroad.
With a G20 Summit “family photo” coming out of Antalya, Turkey, where world leaders can be seen shaking hands in the below video, it’s not a stretch to assume that the proliferation of cats would be prevalent nearly an eight-hour drive from Istanbul away.
It appears the cats at the G20 are almost getting more attention than the political resolutions at the event, as reported by the Huffington Post?.
[AP Photo/Susan Walsh]
