The joke works because the pieces do not belong together
A cat is familiar, and a pastry is familiar; the surprise comes from treating them as one creature. That mismatch gives Nyan Cat its comic logic: the image is easy to recognize, but hard to explain as anything ordinary. The pastry is not merely something the cat is carrying. It becomes the cat’s body, turning a simple visual into an absurd little puzzle.
A simple shape makes the absurdity portable
The pastry’s neat, rectangular outline contrasts with the cat’s face and legs. In pixel art, where details are limited, that strong shape stays legible even when the animation is small. The combination also gives viewers two instantly readable things to remember, rather than a complicated character design.
That clarity helped make the image easy to repeat and remix. The pastry-cat is strange enough to invite a second look, yet simple enough to recognize at a glance—a useful balance for a joke that travels through tiny screens and endless copies.
