--- title: Keyboard Cat Death Plunges Internet Into Mourning description: Fans of Internet icon Keyboard Cat are mourning the feline YouTube sensation in the wake of his March 8 death. canonical: https://time.com/5205719/keyboard-cat-dead-internet-reactions/ author: Megan McCluskey article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2018-03-19T18:47:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T07:51:28.881Z og:title: The Internet Is Inconsolable Over the Death of Keyboard Cat og:description: "I don’t want to live in a world where keyboard cat is dead" og:url: https://time.com/5205719/keyboard-cat-dead-internet-reactions/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab6e74b513963e26/69892b42cf40a82eadc4bb18/screen-shot-2018-03-19-at-2-13-28-pm.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Screen Shot 2018-03-19 at 2.13.28 PM og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: The Internet Is Inconsolable Over the Death of Keyboard Cat twitter:description: "I don’t want to live in a world where keyboard cat is dead" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab6e74b513963e26/69892b42cf40a82eadc4bb18/screen-shot-2018-03-19-at-2-13-28-pm.png?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # The Internet Is Inconsolable Over the Death of Keyboard Cat  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 19, 2018 6:47 PM UTC  Charlie Schmidt  by [Megan McCluskey](https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/)  ## Megan McCluskey Staff Writer Mar 19, 2018 6:47 PM UTC Fans of [Keyboard Cat](http://content.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1897059,00.html) are mourning the [feline YouTube sensation](http://time.com/5049496/top-viral-youtube-videos-2017/) in the wake of his March 8 death. After 9-year-old Bento’s owner, Charlie Schmidt, confirmed his passing in a [tribute video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffgzh93MdQM) on Friday, [cat lovers](http://time.com/2798972/studies-show-cat-people-are-smarter-than-dog-people/) everywhere flocked to Twitter to grieve the loss of the Internet icon. Bento was adopted by Schmidt in 2009 after [1984 footage](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J---aiyznGQ) of his previous cat, Fatso—a.k.a. the original Keyboard Cat—went viral in 2007\. He then became a YouTube star in his own right with a string of videos and commercials that featured him pawing a small electronic piano. “R.I.P. Bento the keyboard cat,” wrote Twitter user @AlphaOmegaSin in remembrance of Bento. “You’ll always and forever be one of my favorite old internet memes.” Others shared more specific memories of their favorite Keyboard Cat moment. “[Play Haley Off, Keyboard Cat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SJ5w4MkFofc) is still to this day the funniest youtube clip I’ve ever seen,” tweeted @DragonflyJonez. “RIP to a legend.” > [](https://twitter.com/AlphaOmegaSin/status/975368325508321280) > [](https://twitter.com/DragonflyJonez/status/975773228009512960) See some of the reactions below. > [](https://twitter.com/jbillinson/status/975417237699026944) > [](https://twitter.com/NatSom3/status/975610693264158720) > [](https://twitter.com/SassyHotSauce/status/975512961488859136) > [](https://twitter.com/999999999lives/status/975440877349941248) > [](https://twitter.com/realspacerag/status/975784973973168128) > [](https://twitter.com/NHSCats/status/975772692535226368) > [](https://twitter.com/3hunnathot/status/975768540967002112) > [](https://twitter.com/Justin7MIH/status/975768402760433664) ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5205719/keyboard-cat-dead-internet-reactions/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5205719/keyboard-cat-dead-internet-reactions/"},"headline":"The Internet Is Inconsolable Over the Death of Keyboard Cat","datePublished":"2018-03-19T18:47:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T07:51:28.881Z","description":"\"I don’t want to live in a world where keyboard cat is dead\"","url":"https://time.com/5205719/keyboard-cat-dead-internet-reactions/","keywords":["Newsfeed","viral","YouTube","memes"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab6e74b513963e26/69892b42cf40a82eadc4bb18/screen-shot-2018-03-19-at-2-13-28-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Megan McCluskey","jobTitle":"Staff Writer","url":"https://time.com/author/megan-mccluskey/"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltab6e74b513963e26/69892b42cf40a82eadc4bb18/screen-shot-2018-03-19-at-2-13-28-pm.png?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Screen Shot 2018-03-19 at 2.13.28 PM","caption":"","creditText":"Charlie Schmidt","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/time-section-newsfeed/","name":"Newsfeed"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5205719/keyboard-cat-dead-internet-reactions/","name":"The Internet Is Inconsolable Over the Death of Keyboard Cat"}}]}] ```