History
(Taken directly from my zine "Sadcat Memes" you can order here)
According to the few online resources claiming to document the history of sadcat images, the earliest known 'crying cat' edit is believed to iriginate from a meme generator shared on 11 June 2014 by an anonymous user with the first edit having been based on the 'serious cat' meme that originated in 2005. [1] An early post of this particular edit was made on 9 April 2015 on the German language image posting board, pr0gramm, by the user 'Onix.' [2] This sadcat edit would become popular on pr0gramm in the following years where it would earn the name Schmuserkadser. Sadcat edits would later be popularized on English speaking internet forums and other social media platforms after a 4chan post on /vp/ dated 20 October 2016 after a user shared an edited photo of a corpulent cat laying on its side propped up by a pillow on a couch with the following caption: "First it's smug, then it's fat. It's living my life." Further sadcat edits continued to grow in popularity and usage in early 2017 after several popular Facebook posts from shitposting pages and other platforms.
This image is frequently cited as the origin of the sadcat face used in the majority of edits, though this cannot be confirmed. Speculation as to why this cat appears to be crying varies, though must users claim the cause to be something along the lines of an eye infection or the result of eye drops.