Uploaded: Mar 26, 2009

View count (Apr 2013): 99,059

“Boxing Cats” is (incorrectly) regarded across the internet as the “oldest cat video of all time.”[i] The 1894 film by Thomas Edison was shot using a kinetoscope just one year before the Lumière brothers premiered Exiting the Factory, which is largely considered to be the first film. “Boxing Cats,” uploaded to the public on the Library of Congress’s YouTube channel, questions many aspects of the internet cat trend. Perhaps YouTube’s recent influx of cat videos isn’t a recent influx at all. On the other hand, claims that this is the “oldest cat video of all time” also represent an interpretation of old media through the lens of new media trends. No matter where you stand, “Boxing Cats” is an important piece of this chicken-or-the-egg debate.