The timeline
| Date | Event | Evidence |
|---|---|---|
| 2018-05-06 | StrayRogue posts the original GIF: a white creature flat on a table, captioned "smack smack" | Verified: tweet syndication data, created 2018-05-06 |
| 2018-05-07 | DitzyFlama's edit adds bongo drums and music; the cat gets its name | Single source (official site timeline), pending cross-reference |
| 2018-09 | Instrument wave: guitar, piano, xylophone and full-band versions spread | Single source, pending cross-reference |
| 2018-09-27 | kuroni publishes bongocat-osu, the open-source version of Hamish Duncanson's overlay; the first verifiable desktop Bongo Cat | Verified: GitHub API |
| 2018-10-18 | Externalizable creates the bongo.cat repository; the meme becomes playable | Verified: GitHub API |
| 2019-04-29 | MMmmmoko creates Bongo-Cat-Mver; the model-ecosystem era begins | Verified: GitHub API |
The tweet that started it
The original is two frames of a simple white creature lying on a table, slapping it. The artist is StrayRogue, and the post is still up. We verified the date against Twitter's own syndication data: created 2018-05-06. The drawing style is deliberately minimal, which is exactly why it spread; anyone could redraw it, and everyone did.
The edit that named it
The bongos came a day later, in an edit credited to DitzyFlama that paired the slap with drum beats and music. This is the moment the creature became "Bongo Cat". Honest caveat: this date and the "Athletic" soundtrack attribution currently rest on the official bongocat.pet timeline as their only source, so we mark them as single-source rather than verified. The web toy page covers what the meme sounded like when it went playable.
The instrument wave
By September 2018 the format had escaped the bongos: the same cat played guitar, piano, xylophone and entire bands, often set to well-known tracks. This wave established the core mechanic that every later version copied: input goes in, the cat slams on cue. It is also the reason the meme reads as a what-is-it question rather than a single fixed image.
From meme to software
Three dates turned the joke into software. On 2018-09-27, kuroni published bongocat-osu, the open-source version of Hamish Duncanson's streaming overlay, and the cat moved from timelines to the desktop. On 2018-10-18, Externalizable created the bongo.cat repository, putting the cat in every browser. On 2019-04-29, MMmmmoko created Bongo-Cat-Mver, the Windows overlay whose model format the modern pets still build on. Everything this wiki covers, including the main open-source pet, descends from those three steps.
One correction worth carrying: the official site's timeline places Mver itself in "late 2018", but the Mver repository was created on 2019-04-29. Late 2018 does contain a real desktop milestone, just a different one: kuroni's repository, created 2018-09-27, is the checkable origin of the desktop cat.