Irritating YouTube Cat Meme Hits Central Asia

Since April, Internet users everywhere have been gripped by a bandwidth-hogging phenomenon: the bizarre Nyan Cat meme. And why not? Surely everybody (especially pre-teens and weary Central Asia correspondents) loves the idea of a flying digital cat ensconced in a giant pop tart radiating a space rainbow in its wake. All to the accompaniment of a cute ditty on a ten-hour loop, of course. (Warning: You will have to watch to the end for your "view" to be counted; over 740,000 others already have.)

Now, somebody has created an Uzbek variant complete with the cat wearing a puss-sized Uzbek traditional hat and wrapped inside a lepyoshka, the flat bread beloved of Central Asians. Also, the cat is patriotically emitting the colors of the national flag and flying over recognizable historical landmarks of Uzbekistan. The video is mercifully shorter that the original, and irritation levels will depend largely on how much Uzbek pop appeals.

There are already US- and Russian-themed versions out there, so will other Central Asian copycats follow? An Akhal-Teke horse with a watermelon for a body flying on a Turkmen carpet, repeating verses from Turkmenbashi’s Rukhnama for 15 hours, perhaps?