Whack-a Kitty: A Humorous or Harmful Video?

Published June 19, 2009

I love funny cat videos and l enjoy sharing them with our readers. Sometimes I spend hours searching YouTube, one of my favorite sources for just that purrfect one to include in my blog posts. Since there is an abundance of creative and innovative budding movie "directors" uploading videos of their precious kitties, it sometimes becomes a dauntless task for me to choose a super-exceptional one.

I have often featured Aaron Rift's delightful productions of his series, "The Cat Diaries", and am thrilled that his kittens and cats have tickled the fancy of a growing bunch of kitty loving followers. His clowder of cats and kittens, the stars of his entertaining productions, are obviously adored and cherished. Mr. Rift's strong knowledge of feline behavior is obvious. Most importantly his cats appear to be having a delightful time as they play and romp in front of his camera.

Photo credit: Brandi Hoenig
This being said, during my journey through the YouTube selection of kitty-land the other day, I ran across a video that really set me back on my heels. Taking into consideration the British idiom, "One man's meat is another man's poison" and allowing for the possibility that some folks find even "twisted" humor to be appealing, I still cannot wrap my head around how anyone can find anything funny about the video, "Whack-a-Kitty" Even the title sets my teeth on edge. It sounds like a mafia production to me.

While its creator, rbelluso may consider that this will appeal to cat lovers, it amazes me to what lengths some people will go to get their "15 minutes of fame". The video description reads, "A litter of kittens replaces mechanic moles in a live version of the classic carnival game. But don't worry for the cats' cerebral health -- the mallet is doing less whacking and more gentle petting. It's time to play Whack-A-Kitty! It's like the game Whack-A-Mole on cute overload. We had a lot of fun making this video and so did the kittens."

While the video included a disclaimer in big bold letters, "PLEASE NOTE THAT NO KITTENS WERE INJURED IN THE MAKING OF THIS VIDEO", it is hard for me to buy that these adorable young kittens would not be adversely affected with what appears to me as aggressive and insensitive tactics. I would imagine that these little balls of fluff might become rather head-shy from being "bopped" repeatedly by an ominous appearing material- covered mallet repeatedly descending on their delicate heads.

So without further amew, take a moment to watch the video to which I am referring.