Talking Animals is a Youtube channel created by Andrew Grantham, who goes by the username of “Klaatu42”. His “Ultimate Dog Tease” was the most-watched Youtube video of 2011 and has been featured on television shows and commercials.
But that isn’t the only thing he’s done. At least with talking animals. He proceeded to make other videos, most of them also successful enough to result in millions of individual hits.
Two things, specifically, have generated continued fan interest. One is his yearly Christmas carol remake featuring submissions from dozens of pet owners, such as this one for Deck the Halls:
And another is a series of videos featuring two sibling cats, Jupiter and Kona, whose owner supplied him with plenty of great footage. One example:
There are dozens of other videos available from Klaatu42, and he’s parleyed the success into a career doing video editing. A merchandising effort has provided free advertising for him, and all profits directly made from the merchandise have gone to fund animal shelters.
One thing has been learned along the way, however: the value of written authorization. When he first started making these videos, he relied on simple verbal agreements from pet owners. Among his first videos was “Kitty is a bad mystic”, featuring a very regal-looking cat attempting to con an interviewer out of a treat. The video caught on, shirts were selling… and the cat’s owner revoked his permission. The cat was already somewhat famous due to its distinctive appearance, and the owner was apparently displeased by the existing fame being supplanted by the “Mystic Cat” label. The video was pulled.
And in the way of Youtube, someone else – someone who had nothing to do with the video – uploaded it again. And it was pulled by Youtube. And uploaded again. And pulled again. This has been going on for about eight years, with different people, or at least different accounts, continuing to upload it.
I appreciate when people enjoy well-produced humor, but property rights should be respected. For the record, and for as long as it is available (I’m letting Klaatu42 know about the most recent iteration) here’s the video that started the ongoing efforts.
It’s worth noting that this video will likely be taken down soon… and it should be. It was uploaded by someone that has no rights to the animal or the work done in dubbing the video.
Question for the night: what video is most likely to bring you a laugh? Feel encouraged to post a link.
