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A disturbing incident in which someone dressed in a Cat in the Hat costume chased a teenager in West Kelowna, B.C., occurred amid an online trend that twists the popular children’s character into something sinister, leading police in some jurisdictions to warn of offline consequences.
While the incident in the Okanagan region last month happened in real life and has triggered an RCMP investigation, the Cat in the Hat social media trend typically involves generative AI depictions of the character and his distinctive red-and-white striped hat standing outside schools, homes or other locations.
Posts include TikTok videos with thousands of views showing the character in front of B.C. secondary schools or malls.
Other posts have included the names of individuals and their schools along with onscreen text such as “see you soon” or “bye bye.”
With captions like “watch out,” and “you’re next,” the unsettling images are leading police to warn the posts may have real world consequences if taken too far.
This week the Nechako Lakes school district in B.C.’s central Interior said it was aware of the social media trend and asked community members to report the posts to police.
B.C. RCMP spokesman Staff Sgt. Kris Clark said police were aware of the trend, including a case in Fort St. James in the Nechako Lakes school district, as well as the West Kelowna incident on Aug. 24 that was described by police on Tuesday.
Clark said he was “not aware of any other events in B.C. RCMP jurisdictions.”
The criminality
Regarding criminality, “it would depend on the totality of the circumstances and whether sufficient evidence existed before an assessment for charge approval could be made,” he said.
“Generally speaking, based on what I have seen, some potential offences could be uttering threats or criminal harassment; however, there are any number of others that may be considered depending on the available evidence.”
West Kelowna RCMP had said last month’s “concerning prank” may constitute criminal harassment, and other charges such as assault, uttering threats or intimidation could be considered if the evidence supported them.
“Regardless of whether the individual intended the behaviour as a joke, following a young person and causing them to fear for their safety is extremely concerning,” Cpl. Devon Gerrits said in a statement, which included a photo of the character taken at night.
“People should understand that behaviour intended as a prank can have serious consequences when it causes another person to reasonably fear for their safety.”
Police in Tennessee, meanwhile, have said a student was arrested for making threats against school property with an AI-generated Cat in the Hat post and a teenager in Colorado was charged with harassment for a similar post that implied the character would appear outside a middle school and homes.
The Cat in the Hat character first appeared in the book of the same name by Theodor “Dr. Seuss” Geisel in 1957, but the costumed version from the videos is seemingly inspired by the 2003 live-action movie starring Canadian actor Mike Myers.
A viral post about the costume from the movie going up for auction may have sparked the horror-inspired trend, with some commenters describing it as uncanny and “nightmare fuel.”
