The GaMERCaT is a Gaming Webcomic created by Samantha "Celesse" Whitten about a cat who is a gamer. The webcomic centers on the adventures of Gamercat, his sidekick the Annoying Fairy (a parody of Navi), and his protege Glitch, a stray kitten he brought home one day, to whom he wants to teach all about gaming. Later comics introduce a formed "gang" of gamer cats. Alongside Gamercat and Glitch are Sweet, the big tough guy, and Pixel, the only female gamer cat until Nano came along. When not simply hanging out with the others, Sweet & Pixel seem to fight over who should be the better influence for Glitch: Sweet wants him to play violent games to make him tough, while Pixel wants him to play cute friendly games to keep his innocence.
Many of the strips are parodies of popular video games. Others are centered on Gamercat's difficulty interacting with humans while getting and playing video games, or interactions between the cats.
It can be found on Tapas
and the official website (though Tapas gets the new strips first, followed by the official website). The webcomic went on hiatus in March 2019 and around a year later the author confirmed the hiatus was indefinite.
Compare VG Cats, another gaming webcomic with cats.
Tropes associated with Gamercat include:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Nano to Gamercat, who isn't ugly but is too young for him, is into really dark stuff like Dark Souls, can be really super creepy, and is suffocatingly affectionate.
- Affectionate Parody: Of various video games.
- Annoying Video Game Helper: The Annoying Fairy, as she is meant to be a pastiche of Navi.
- Art Evolution: In the earlier strips, Gamercat was drawn in a more simplistic way and had a very chibi look. Later comics have a more detailed art style. Hilariously lampshaded by Pixel when Gamercat complains about the face lift that Pokémon received.
- His eyes now also have color when they go wide. They are now green.
- Art Shift: "Stylistic" has them parodying the trend of Pokémon Detective Pikachu and Sonic the Hedgehog (2020) to hyper-render their cartoon characters to make them 'realistic' by having Glitch and Gamercat do it too, with Gamercat going "Yes. This is the future".
- Bad Future: When Glitch sets the 3DS clock to the year 2050, Gamercat's Animal Crossing town is filled with dead trees, torrential rain, weeds and dead grass everywhere, and the animals no longer remember he exists.
- Berserk Button: Try to read a walkthrough to play a game under Gamercat's watch. Just try it.
- And don't ever tell him you're not going for all the trophies/achievements in your game.
- Seems to be Pixel's trigger, too.
- Don't hit on Sweet's sisters.
- And don't ever tell him you're not going for all the trophies/achievements in your game.
- Big Brother Mentor: Gamercat to Glitch. Sweets and Pixel also sometimes act as mentors to Glitch.
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: Sans doesn't so much as break the fourth wall as he does relax on it, the lazy bum. He uses the panel corners as a hammock and casually walks off-comic after jumping off the panel. Poor Gamercat is left hopelessly confused.
- Call-Back: Gamercat reflects on his purchase of a PlayStation Vita when Sony announces two new colors for the system and Glitch asks if Sony gave up on the Vita too long ago for it to matter. For his part, Gamercat shoved his Vita into a drawer somewhere not long after buying it, but it was also the thing he had just walked out of the store with when he first met Glitch, so if he hadn't bought it at all, the two might never have met. Gamercat concludes that although it was expensive and he barely played the thing, it wasn't a wasted purchase.
- Calvin Ball: Their custom Monopoly rules which make no sense at all and were improvised when the cats discovered most of the game's materials were missing. They replace the Chance cards with Pokémon cards & most of the player tokens with Skylanders figures, and they only move one space at a time since the dice are missing. Despite the chaotic mess, it is freaking awesome.
- Cerebus Rollercoaster: Downplayed. The comic is mainly comedy, but there have been a couple episodes here & there that had no punchline or comedy to speak of.
- Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: Anonymice haven't been seen in years.
- Clingy Jealous Girl: Nano's quite clingy towards Gamercat, whom she considers her "future boyfriend" despite his clear lack of interest.Nano: HUSSIE! THIS IS MY FUTURE BOYFRIEND AND IF YOU DON'T BACK OFF I WILL DESTROY YOU WITH MY SUNLIGHT SPEAR! PRAISE THE SUN!!
- Damsel in Distress: Parodied. As he argues with Sweet, Nano visualizes Gamercat as this by imagining him being held hostage à la Pauline in the original Donkey Kong arcade game (with Sweet as the big bad ape & herself as Jumpman/Mario, of course). She promises Gamercat she will rescue her "fair prince", even though Gamercat was even shown wearing Pauline's dress.
- Character Development: Gamercat was once very critical of the way mobile games work compared to console games (paying to play as you go rather than buying the whole thing up front for the cost of a regular game), but as he explains the model to Glitch he doesn't seem to mind it too much anymore. He probably became more tolerant of it because of how Pixel introduced him to mobile gaming.
- Covert Pervert: Gamercat, surprisingly enough. See Double Entendre below.
- Crush Blush: Gamercat the first time he sees Pixel.
- Nano to Gamercat.
- Cute Kitten: Glitch is utterly adorable. This even kicks off an entire story arc, as when Gamercat realizes how much girls find Glitch adorable, he uses Glitch to his advantage to pick up girls.
- Played with in Nano's case.
- Cuteness Proximity: Pixel's reaction to Glitch.
- Cute and Psycho: Played for Laughs with Nano.
- Deadpan Snarker: Sweet is pretty stoic most of the time, but can get pretty snarky.
- Double Entendre: When Gamercat tries flirting with a female cat he finds out she also likes videogames so he asks her if she wants to try out his custom joystick note . Obviously, she doesn't take it well.
- Exposition Fairy: Played with, "Annoying Fairy" is a parody of Navi but is a bad role model, as she once encouraged Gamercat to binge on junk food, (Mainly for the free game codes) and then insults him when he becomes overweight, and pressured Gamercat into buying a Zelda game (In which he didn't seem to want in the first place) as well as a strategy guide. And tried to corrupt Glitch by giving into Gamer Greed.
- Face of a Thug: Sweet has this effect on Nano: when he randomly pops up to see what's going on, she runs away terrified by his intimidating appearance. Cue a perplexed Sweet and an extremely amused Gamercat.
- For Science!: This comic here.
- Formula-Breaking Episode: One story arc is with Sweet and Pixel fighting over what games Glitch should play, in which Gamercat asks Glitch what he personally wants to play. Cue them playing Monopoly, with their own rules, cards, and representative tokens due to missing pieces.
- Fluffy the Terrible: Sweet.
- Furry Reminder: The comic has this in spades. It's what makes the "cat" part of "Gamercat" relevant and keeps the comic from just being about some friends who play games.
- Gamercat reluctantly accepts a subquest to rescue chickens... but brings them all back to their owner as a cat would bring his master prey: dead.
- Don't hog a demo kiosk for too long while Gamercat is waiting behind you for his turn. He might just run out of patience, hop up onto the kiosk in front of you, and start cleaning his... you know.
- When we first meet Glitch, he's playing one of the classic Pokémon games on Game Boy. His entire team is Magikarps because he likes fish.
- Later, he coaches Sweet, who never played the games when they were new, through Red; Gamercat investigates only to find Sweet's team is nothing but Pidgeys and Rattatas. Apparently Glitch took the franchise's famous slogan at face value and thought it meant you should capture literally every single creature you come across in the game, though again notice how they're still prey species for cats.
- When Gamercat shows Glitch and Nano the classic videogame Pong, both instinctively run to the TV screen and try to catch the moving dot with their paws. Made even funnier by Sweet and Gamercat commenting on how today's "kids" have no self-control.
- Even Gamercat himself isn't immune to this, though: In another Portal 2 parody, GLaDOS lures him into a trap with a laser pointer, and it works.
- Neither Glitch nor Gamercat seem to care too much for other typical cat toys or catnip, though.
- Malcolm discovers a bunch of games he doesn't remember buying, and Gamercat & the Annoying Fairy quickly come up with a solution: Have Gamercat vomit on Malcolm's jacket, which will take long enough that Malcolm will get more worried about his jacket than the games he doesn't remember buying. What sets Gamercat off? E.T. for Atari 2600.
- Glitch embarrasses the hell out of Gamercat in front of a pretty girl cat at the park by saying the first thing that came to mind:Glitch: One time Gamercat threw up his dinner in his food bowl then ate it again.
- When Gamercat and Glitch want Malcolm to preorder the PS4 & Xbox One, they try to motivate him the only way cats know how - by
bringing him the latest dead thing they found and shove it into his mouth. While he's asleep. For some reason, he doesn't appreciate it as much as a cat might have. - After Pixel introduces him to the magic of taking selfies, especially selfies with friends, Gamercat decides to take his first selfie with Malcolm... who is using the bathroom at the time.
- He also gets addicted to Instagram and jokingly says one of the pictures was taken at the beach... but it's obviously his litterbox.
- Outside of games, the cats can only be understood by each other. Everyone else hears what they say as different versions of cat sounds. Gamercat's speech as heard by humans consists entirely of "Mao"s, while Glitch's speech consists of "Mew"s.
- Guilty Pleasure: Very early on, Gamercat makes sure the coast is clear before playing Robot Unicorn Attack.
- Gamercat implied a microtransaction game is another one.
- Impact Silhouette: When confronted by a spider, Sweet makes one of these in Gamercat's home's wall with 'nope' above it in perfectly-formed letters. Gamercat is left wondering how that happened.
- Jerkass: The fairy, who drives Gamercat to a nervous breakdown by telling him about all the various games coming out during a holiday season, and also driving Glitch to use the microtransactions in mobile games.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Sweet is a considerably bigger cat who is almost about to beat up Gamercat for snatching his Xbox One, except Glitch enters the room, causing an awkward standstill. Not only does Sweet refuse to harm Gamercat in front of a little kid, but he also takes up Glitch's offer to play Wii U with them, which calms him down enough that he simply shrugs Gamercat's actions off. Before you know it, he becomes one of Gamercat's friends and is part of the group.
- Played with the Annoying Fairy. She worries that Gamercat is a bad influence on Glitch, but ignores the fact that she is much worse of an influence.
- Heroic BSoD: Gamercat undergoes this (with his mind fizzling) when Pixel tries to snap him out of the mania caused of the fairy. Needless to say, it did not go well.
- High on Catnip: When Gamercat and Glitch start playing with cat toys containing catnip, things go exactly as you'd expect.
- Iconic Item: Gamercat's red bandana (and red scarf in the winter).
- Impact Silhouette: In this comic, Sweet leaves one in the wall after fleeing from a spider. Above his own silhouette are four others that spell "NOPE".
- Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Glitch is this in spades.
- Irony: The comic jokes that the reason Captain Toad can't jump is that his backpack is too heavy. This is actually the canon reason, though not stated in-game.
- Massively Numbered Siblings: Sweet has eight sisters, and who knows how many brothers he has as well? Justified as a cat though it stands out given how he's the only one besides Glitch to have any family mentioned.
- My Sister Is Off-Limits: Gamercat learned this when a female cat he was trying to flirt with called her older brother... turns out it is Sweet He also says this of the rest of his sisters.
- Nearly Normal Animal: Gamercat is of the "Largely Normal Animal" variety. He's smart enough to play video games but whenever he tries to speak, humans only hear a bunch of "meows". Though, cats in this universe are capable of writing on paper and running an online videogame support chatroom"On the internet, nobody knows you're a cat."
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Pixel attempts to snap Gamercat from his addictive holiday gaming frenzy spurred by the Fairy by giving him some Tough Love in the form of telling him that he'd never be able to play all the games. The result is the above-mentioned BSOD.
- Not Allowed to Grow Up: Glitch is still a kitten more than a year after his introduction. Not that it's a bad thing.
- Oh, Crap!: After Glitch gets the hang of the "freemium" model of gaming, he accidentally gets carried away and buys over a thousand dollars' worth of crap in the game. Gamercat only realizes this too late, resulting in this look.
- Parental Abandonment: In one comic Glitch goes to the store to get an Xbox One when a snowstorm starts. He starts to freeze when a female cat that looks a fair bit like him saves him and leads him to a trashcan to stay warm in. The cat stays with him but mysteriously vanishes right as the light from Malcolm's flashlight shines on the two of them implying that she wasn't real. Glitch asked for a "miracle" in a letter to Santa intending to get lucky and get a Xbox One for Gamercat, but his miracle was instead being saved by the female cat and being found by Malcolm and Gamercat. In a later comic, the female cat is shown hugging Glitch with the words "Happy Mother's Day" above the two of them. This implies that she was Glitch's mother and that she is dead, but continues to watch over him and protect him.
- Perpetual Frowner: Sweet tends to have a mildly bored frown on his face often.
- Precocious Crush: Nano towards Gamercat.
- Punched Across the Room: What Gamercat gets for his... not-so-subtle flirting here.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: Games creator Samantha Whitten is currently hooked on in real life get parodied in the comic while she's playing them.
- Real Men Wear Pink: When playing Super Mario 3D World, Sweet chooses to play as Peach.
- Running Gag: The mindless nature of Cookie Clicker, of which Gamercat is a reluctant fan. It crops up from time to time, especially when Gamercat gets overwhelmed by the intense resource management aspects of Stardew Valley and decides Cookie Clicker is the most he can handle for right now.
- Ship Tease: Quite a bit between Gamercat and Pixel, most notably in Privy-See and Enabler.
- Taken a step further in True Love and Mistletoe Mayhem.
- Taken a step further in True Love
- Shrinking Violet: Pixel was pretty leery of Gamercat when they first met.
- Slasher Smile: Pixel pulls one off when she shows Gamercat what he used to look like.
- Sleep Cute: When Gamercat sees Glitch getting sleepy, he puts him to bed. Glitch climbs out of his bed and cuddles with Gamercat. Unfortunately, the moment is ruined (temporarily) by Glitch vomiting on Gamercat. However, as seen in the next comic, Gamercat still allows Glitch to cuddle atop him after getting himself cleaned up.
- Strange Minds Think Alike: Gamercat finds out that a stray kitten (who later is named Glitch) has a Game Boy because someone threw it in the garbage can he lives in. He proceeds to complain how sad that is... that someone threw away a perfectly working Game Boy. The kitten agrees.
- When Gamercat has gone bananas in organizing his plan for maximizing his purchasing and playing of all the new games coming out for the holidays, Pixel and Glitch recruit Sweet to help snap him out of it. Instead, Sweet comments Gamercat has done all of his work for him before asking Gamercat about playtime timespan between releases, something Gamercat has "an algorithm for."
- Spiders Are Scary: Malcolm, Gamercat, Pixel, and Sweet are all terrified of spiders especially the one currently in Malcolm's house.
- Subverted by Glitch, who barely even glances at the spider before squishing and eating it. Nano also subverts this, as she gives Gamercat a Valentine's Day giftbox filled with them. She's later seen with Glitch, the two eating spiders while legitimately confused why Gamercat didn't like them.
- The Bus Came Back: Nano first appeared during the interviews for a fourth member of the gaming group. A year later in real-world time, she showed up again, and revealed that she never was Nyan Cat to start with.
- The Comically Serious: The running gag with Sweet is that he is pretty deadpan to most of the stuff going around him, which makes for great humor to contrast against the spazzy Gamercat. It's especially hilarious when he's shown running around dressed as Peach. However, there are moments of him being Not So Stoic, he has the biggest reaction in regards to the spider and he's still prone to getting frustrated comically (such as his failing attempts to teach Glitch not to win by button mashing... and getting his tail handed to him.)
- Tough Love: Pixel tries this on Gamercat to snap him back into sense, comparing it to quickly ripping off a bandage. It backfires.
- Vomit Indiscretion Shot:
- Glitch vomits while he tries to look cute for Malcolm, Gamercat's owner. He still adopts him.
- It happens again in this strip, ruining another attempt at cuteness.
- Another instance, with a 'special guest'. Kittens in this comic seem to have a bit of a barfing problem.
