Buttered cat debunked

Published on 17 September 2025 by Gee
(French version published on 12 October 2017)

I keep seeing this joke told with a mistake, so I felt I had to write a more detailed article about it.

For the record, I'm talking about this kind of joke.

Buttered cat debunked

💡 You're probably familiar with this joke based on two popular sayings taken literally:

Gee: “A cat always lands on its feet. A slice of toast always lands buttered side down. Or jammed side down. Or Nutellaed side. Or whatever you want, I don't give a damn, it's not my problem if you eat what you (the text becomes illegible)...” A cat goes: “Meow.” A slice of toast is shown with text that says: ”(Insert toast cry here.)”

▶️ The joke is usually to claim that if you attach a slice of toast to a cat's back (buttered/jammed side out), then the {cat + toast} combination cannot touch the ground and must therefore spin indefinitely.

A guy throws a cat with a slice of toast attached to its back: “There you go! (Insert witty remark about perpetual motion and infinite energy creation.)” The cat starts spinning around while levitating: “VRRRRRRRR...” The smiley face: “So you don't even bother to write dialogues, unbelievable."

But that's completely stupid.

The guy talks to Gee, treating him like an idiot: “Well, yeah, we know. It's a joke. It's not true, indeed. Are you dumb?” Gee looks at him with a jaded expression.

No, no!

I understand what the joke means... but there's a mistake IN the joke.

▶️ Indeed, if I attach the slice of bread to the animal's back, this is what happens when I let go.

Gee lets go of the cat, who says “Meoow.” The cat falls straight to the ground, landing on its feet. The smiley face says: “(Insert snarky, fake-smart comment from a little smiley face nuisance who's got nothing better to do with his life.)”

Well, yes, the cat lands on its feet.

We said so. Like, right from the start.

The toast didn't fall at all, so there's no problem to report.

⚠️ Note that if we had dropped the cat on the toast side, according to the two principles outlined at the beginning, it would have turned around and also landed on its feet.

Gee conducts the experiment, the cat turns around to land on its feet, thinking, “Will you leave me and my muzzle alone?” The smiley face, annoyed: “Screw you, Gee.”

(The toast could have landed upright since it was buttered on one side, but the cat's back would probably have touched the ground during the process, so no.)

Why would the whole thing start spinning?!

The guy, still confident: “Uuuuh, but no, you're overthinking it, uuuh... JOKING!” Gee, annoyed: “For f#ck's sake, just because it's humor doesn't mean it shouldn't be done properly!”

⚠️ Of course, the more perceptive among you will have noticed that for the joke to work, the toast would have had to be attached TO THE ANIMAL'S PAWS, with the buttered side FACING INWARD!

So when the animal has its paws down, it can't land because the toast rule would be violated:

A cat with a piece of toast tied between its paws, at the bottom: “Meeooow.” The piece of toast says: “No way, dude. I always fall on the buttered side.”

And when the animal is in another position, it is impossible for it to land because the cat rule would be violated:

The cat upside down, with the slice of bread in the air, thinks: “I'm gonna throw up if you keep this up...”

▶️ And so, in this case, it works: the cat can spin indefinitely since no position allows it to fall.

Gee clarifies: “It could also levitate indefinitely, but let's face it, that would be much less funny.” The cat, levitating with a piece of toast between its paws, looking like it's really fed up: “Meeeoooow!” It thinks: “Can someone take off this damn piece of toast?!”

There you go. That was my psychologically rigid comic strip version of the joke.

Thank you for your attention.

Text says: “(Insert punchline.)” The smiley face: “Lazy bastard.” Note: Comic strip licensed under CC BY SA (grisebouille.net), drawn on October 11, 2017 by Gee.

Published on 17 September 2025 by Gee
(French version published on 12 October 2017)

Buttered cat debunked

Buttered cat debunked

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