Bingus

The Story of Bingus

Bingus is a hairless Sphynx cat who became one of the defining memes of 2020. The original video showed a person gently stretching and scrunching the cat's face while it stared calmly at the camera. Its wide eyes, pink skin, and total lack of hair made it immediately memorable.

The video originated on Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, from an account called Lelemaoshe. On March 22, 2020, Instagram user subarusocks reposted the footage. The next day, user big_chungles shared it again and it picked up 27,000 views. By June 2020, commenters were calling the cat "Bingus" for no apparent reason. Nobody knows who coined the name or why.

In September 2020, a Reddit post titled "ah h bingus" went viral and cemented the cat as a meme icon. The name spread until "Bingus" became shorthand for all Sphynx cats online. A rivalry meme between Bingus and Big Floppa developed across Reddit and Instagram, with users pledging loyalty to one faction or the other.

The cat's real name, breed specifics, and owner remain unconfirmed. Investigations by Reddit users traced the original video to the Douyin breeder account, suggesting the cat may have been named Han Han and was likely born around October 2019. The owner has never come forward publicly. Bingus exists entirely as an internet figure, with no confirmed social media presence of his own.