NYANYANYANYANYANYANYANYANYANYANYAN~!

The original Nyan Cat doodle, before the gif!

On April 2, 2011, 25 year old Christopher Torres created a gif of a cat crossed with a Pop Tart, based on his own cat Marty. Of the origin of the cat, he said, "I was doing a donation drive for the Red Cross and in-between drawings in my Livestream video chat, two different people mentioned I should draw a 'Pop Tart' and a 'cat'."
On January 30, 2011, an UTAU cover (featuring the voice Momone Momo) of the earlier 2010 song "Nyanyanyanyanyanyanya!" featuring Vocaloid singer Hatsune Miku was uploaded to Niconico.
"Nyan Cat" is the name of a YouTube video uploaded on April 5, 2011 combining both of these things, creating the Nyan Cat we all know and love today.
Nyan Cat is known to be a friendly, cute, and cheerful cat who protects the Earth. It is said that his relationship with others is always positive, even with those who may be his enemies or dislike him. If someone offended him, he wasn't even upset.

Many riffs, covers, and fanworks derive from our lovable Nyan Cat. Here are some of my favorite examples!

Honestly I think about this video a lot, definitely the epitome of 2011.

Three different versions of a Nyan Cat Picrew!

Nyan Cat has spawned many variations (see next textbox), but probably the best known of these would be Tac Nayn, also known as "Eater of Souls". Instead of a Pop Tart, Tac Nayn's body is a Belgian waffle. Some consider him a twin to Nyan Cat, or an evil version of him, but others may interpret him more playfully as his begruding "opposites attract" friend... sometimes even shipping the two!

Fan Art (click me to expand!)

These are just a handful of my favorite fan works, all are linked with credit when you click on them!

^ These are all by SweetKittyCat on DeviantArt, probably the first person to really popularize this dynamic! Many "revival" pieces are references to these.