![]() I could analyse this video for deeper lessons it has to impart. ![]() Whenever something goes viral people seem to want to make it mean something. The existence of Lawyer Cat, of course, implies the existence of an entirely feline justice system that exists just out of sight, under the surface of the world we think we know: you can see the little cat prisons, the cat police, a kitten in a suit with his tie loosened, sitting at a kitchen table late at night surrounded by Chinese takeaway cartons and folders of submissions and heavy tomes about tort law, wiping one paw across his furrowed brow and saying “God damn it” under his breath. The video conjures the existence of Lawyer Cat, tireless defender of justice and adorable little mister. The judge replies, “I can see that”, but, of course, he can do no such thing. ![]() This is swiftly followed by the fantastic humiliation of Ponton having to announce to the judge, explicitly, that he is “not a cat”. Ponton explains that his assistant is trying to help him turn off the filter, and then says something the heroism of which is almost too much to bear: “I’m prepared to go forward with it.” The situation is so serious that he is willing to forgo his dignity and continue proceedings, which could take several hours, even if he must present throughout as a kitten. The eyes of the cat dart madly around as Ponton, unseen, desperately looks for a way to resume human form, an expression on its little face that says nothing so much as, “Help, I am an attorney at law trapped inside the digital body of a kitten.” It’s not a word, but a high, quivering groan, a sound so perfectly guilty and panicked that even if you were unable to see the screen I reckon you could guess that it was the sound of a man unexpectedly presenting in court as a small animal. As the judge suggests to Ponton that he may have a filter on, one of the non-cat lawyers, who goes by the name of “Gibbs”, puts on his glasses and leans forward to confirm that he is indeed Zooming with a cat this morning. There is a moment of understandable silence. So: the call begins, and instead of seeing three lawyers, the participants are presented with two lawyers and a kitten. And yet here, in this most sombre of environments, a CGI cat appeared, complete with enormous, verge-of-tears eyes and a little mouth moving plaintively. There are few occasions more inherently grave than a court hearing. Just as with the priest, here the delight comes from the dissonance between the absurdity of the image and the seriousness of the setting. God willing, it won’t be the last time either. There was also the Italian priest who livestreamed mass while his phone cycled through filters that rendered him as, among other things, a boxer, a wizard and a wolf. It’s not the first time that unseasoned users of videocall software have fallen foul of filters.
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