A slow Tuesday afternoon spent chewing Arnott’s Assortments led to the discovery of a fascinating YouTub sub genre. The journey began with the question: how to spell cheezburger?, which inevitably led to kittens, which always leads to babies.

And thus I give you YouTube sub genre # 329:  baby v cat, or the lesser known, cat v baby.

A global phenomenon, the scenario is self explanatory. Various permutations of baby, be it:

a) terrytowelling jumpsuited (feet included)

b) bald, and crawling

c) fluff headed

d) very often resembling a serious, fat, white businessman.

Combined with the tantalising concept of a cat. Which is always:

a) disdainful

b) dismissive

c) completely immune to a baby’s wiley charms

d) sometimes dangerous and nearly always pissed off.

It’s the juxtaposition of the delighted baby meets the i-don’t-give-a-rat’s-ass-how-much-you-love-me-unhand-me-you-bald-fool attitude of the cat that serves to boil down, to its very essence, the phenomenon of ohai humour. Variations on the theme include: cat jumps on baby, baby bites cat, cat annoys sleeping baby, baby squashes cat, toddler v kitten, cat quietly endures humiliation at hands of baby, etc.

And for a international twist, asia baby pats cat (also here and here) and the lesser known, and quintessially Indian, slum baby v mangey feral cat.

Next week, kitten v watermelon.