R.I.P. Henri, le Chat Noir, angst-ridden feline YouTube star for the ages
"Je suis un chat noir." Henri the existential cat made his YouTube debut on May 24, 2007, and quickly became an Internet sensation. He and Will Braden, aka "the thieving filmmaker," would go on to make 17 short films together.
We are tres desole to report that YouTube cat-video sensation Henri, le Chat Noir has died at the ripe old age of 17. His collaborator Will Braden, aka the "thieving filmmaker," announced Henry's passing in a moving Facebook post. Apparently, Henri had a deteriorating spinal condition and had been rendered largely immobile as a result. Despite the pandemic, a local vet made a home visit to "help him pass peacefully, surrounded by those that loved him," Braden wrote.
Henri (nee Henry) was not actually Braden's cat; the Facebook post identifies Braden's mother as Henri's real-life caretaker. Henri lived in an undisclosed location in Seattle's North End, largely oblivious to his online celebrity. He was a rescue cat, adopted from a local animal shelter as a kitten, who shared his living space with a second white cat, known to his fans as 'l'Imbecile Blanc," who survives him. While a student at the Seattle Film Institute, Braden noted Henri's "regal presence and distinguished personality," and he featured the cat in a short film for class. The video hit YouTube on May 24, 2007, and Henri's existential musings soon began winning enthusiastic fans.
It was the 2012 sequel (embedded below), Henri 2: Paws de Deux, that went truly viral and turned Henri into an Internet celebrity, with many declaring it to be the best cat video on the Internet. Indeed, the short film won the Golden Kitty Award at the Walker Art Center's Internet Cat Video Festival. Henri gave a suitably world-weary statement on his win via Braden: "That I have received this golden, smiling idol for a film documenting my metaphysical torment speaks volumes about the spiritual void of humanity. Shiny and meaningless, life marches on."
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