SPOKANE, Wash. — You can add a Spokane internet celebrity to the growing list of people, and now animals, attempting to convince late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel that Gonzaga University is real.
Spokane's "Keyboard Cat" has uploaded a video of the feline playing the keyboard while wearing Gonzaga gear amidst a backdrop of the McCarthey Athletic Center.
To be clear, Skinny the cat didn't post the video. His owner Charlie Schmidt did.
"I don't watch basketball unless Gonzaga is playing," said Schmidt, a Gonzaga Prep alumnus and GU fan.
Schmidt's wife works at Gonzaga and the couple have a child who is a current student at the university.
"Keyboard Cat" first gained internet popularity after Schmidt uploaded a video recorded in the 1980's of him manipulating his cat "Fatso" to play the keyboard.
Schmidt's original YouTube video has been viewed over 54 million times. The video is considered to be one of the most popular online cat videos of all time and has since become an internet meme.
Fatso's successor, a similar looking cat named "Bento," starred as Keyboard Cat in commercials before passing away last year.
Schmidt's current "Keyboard Cat" is an eight-year-old male named "Skinny."
Schmidt recorded the brief video of Skinny wearing Gonzaga gear and playing in the Kennel using a green-screen at his South Hill home.
The artist says he was inspired to record his most recent video following a series of jokes Kimmel has made on his talk show which claim that Gonzaga doesn't exist.
"I'm a Jimmy Kimmel fan. And it turns out he's a keyboard cat fan," said Schmidt.
Kimmel reportedly eulogized Bento's passing last year in an on-air sketch.
"I was just thinking: if [Kimmel] needs proof that Spokane exists, he knows Keyboard Cat exists because he's written him checks!" Schmidt said of his cat's appearances on Kimmel's show.
He said if the video doesn't make Kimmel's air, he hopes Gonzaga fans would latch on to it.
Schmidt added that he thinks Kimmel's GU jabs were pretty funny and establishes a somewhat "mythical" perception about Gonzaga and Spokane.
"We like myths. And [Kimmel's] got a myth going there and it's Spokane's moment to be mythical for a minute," Schmidt said.
"Spokane is a place where people think nothing happens, right? And so Gonzaga is an example of something happening," Schmidt said.