"He's so scary!" sixteen-year-old Skye recoils at the mention of the Cat in the Hat. Viral images purporting to show a life-sized version of the Dr Seuss character have sparked fear and confusion among teenagers. The posts, seen by millions, have convinced some young people that the character is real and that they might be able to meet it, prompting police forces in Ireland and the UK to issue statements confirming that the images and videos are fake.
"I was having a sleepover," Skye elaborates, "but everyone started watching Cat in the Hat videos. When I started walking down my friends' driveway, I got totally freaked out that the Cat in the Hat was going to jump out. I had to call my mum to pick me up." A quick scroll through TikTok reveals numerous accounts, many of them created in the past few weeks, sharing photos and videos of an elusive black-and-white feline wearing the famous, towering, crooked red-and-white striped hat.
One post showing someone in a Cat in the Hat costume, accompanied by the caption "What should I do?", has received 14.6m views in just three weeks. The comments add to the sense of frenzy, with followers asking, "Why is he taxidermied?" Others zoom in on parts of the costume and post conspiracy theories about Mike Myers, who played the character in the 2003 film, being trapped inside. Another popular account set up this week, posts videos of a real person dressed in a cat in the hat costume, dancing, with captions like "Kent I'm coming. lock your doors." Other users are sharing the videos, adding their own captions and locations across the UK.
Many of the AI generated images have been centred on the Irish counties of Limerick and Wexford, where shaky videos purportedly showed the character wandering through the streets, causing alarm and confusion among residents. In Wexfordl Gardaí quickly dismissed the sightings as fake and confirmed that the images had been generated using artificial intelligence. That has not stopped the pictures and videos from spreading online - along with unverified claims posted without evidence that the Cat in the Hat has been involved in violent assaults.
"I low-key wanna go meet him…" says 14-year-old Lily, who heard that the Cat in the Hat had arranged a "meet and greet", inviting local TikTok followers to come to the woods in Galashiels, a small town in the Scottish Borders. Her mother was horrified by the prospect. "You are not going to meet anyone in the woods in the middle of the night!" she told her.
There is a point at which viral dancing videos and AI-generated clips of the Cat in the Hat become something potentially more sinister, with real-world consequences beyond their impact on teenage imaginations. In England, South Yorkshire Police has denied social media claims that a 'killer Cat in the Hat' has been spotted. Posts about the alleged sightings have attracted hundreds of thousands of views on TikTok.
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