Classical Pianist Adds Extended Harmony To 'Deranged Yelling Cat' — A Masterpiece Emerges

Aug 27, 2021

It goes without saying that the internet is a strange place — and YouTube is no exception. According to Statista, users uploaded an average of 500 hours of video to the platform every minute in May 2019, which means there’s plenty of potential for there to be a few weird videos on the platform. But weirdness isn’t always a bad thing. Thanks to the video platform, you can watch a porcupine eat a carrot or a group of nuns banging their heads to techno. And now, thanks to Conor Broderick’s Harmony Works channel, you can watch a deranged cat as its yowls are harmonized by a piano!

We know that sounds oddly niche and that your time is limited, but the video really is funny to watch. The original video, which went viral after the account BrooklynStray uploaded it in 2011, shows a clearly upset cat as it lets out a couple of strange, yodel-like yells. Amazingly, the video has accumulated more than 15 million views, making it somewhat of a well-known clip on the platform. Broderick, who dedicates his channel to posting his music and harmonizing viral videos, breathed new life into the original clip in 2020. And the YouTube community has loved it.

Although Broderick’s video has only received around 30,000 views — a far cry from 15 million — the comments section is full of users saying how much they love the video. One YouTube even calls it the “best video on the internet to date.” Read on to find out more about this fun video and Broderick’s unique YouTube channel.

While Broderick’s remixed version of the yelling cat is far from being viral, he’s certainly convinced his fans that it’s worth watching.

“This NEEDS to go viral! So much talent here. You nailed this!!!” one user wrote.

“This is the best harmonized animal video on the net. Never before have a video reached so deep into my soul in such a profound way. My only wish now is that there was more of this to cherish,” another viewer added.

“I suspect I'm one of many who will immediately add this to their, BEST THINGS EVER, lists! Don't you hiss at me!” one of the top comments reads.

Other viral videos that Broderick has harmonized include “Toilet Grenade” and “SQUISH THAT CAT.”

And beyond the silly stuff, Broderick is also a talented musician. In a talented cover, the pianist gets groovy playing along to Amber Mark’s “Mixer,” which really allows Broderick to show off his musical ability. And that’s not to say that his other videos don’t require talent — because they do. After all, harmonizing guttural cat noises isn’t easy.

A harmony, according to Encyclopedia Britannica, is broadly defined as “the sound of two or more notes heard simultaneously.”

“Harmony in the Western sense is a comparatively recent invention having a rather limited geographic spread. It arose less than a millennium ago in the music of western Europe and is embraced today only in those musical cultures that trace their origins to that area,” the Encyclopedia Britannica entry explains. 

The Key to making a harmony that sounds good is following a pattern of notes that “is based on certain relationships among musical tones that the human ear accepts almost reflexively.”

As you can see below, Broderick has mastered the art of harmonizing.

What do you think of Broderick’s videos? Have you seen the original? Let us know — and be sure to pass this fun clip on to others.