Sam Has Eyebrows

Sam is a black-and-white cat who became an internet sensation for one delightfully simple reason: the black patches above his eyes look exactly like a pair of raised, worried eyebrows. The markings give his little white face a permanently anxious, quizzical or faintly disapproving expression, as though he is forever reacting to some minor catastrophe — and the internet fell in love with it.

Introduced to the world through an Instagram account devoted to his expressive face, Sam quickly amassed hundreds of thousands of followers who delighted in photographs that paired his eyebrow-laden stare with captions imagining his inner monologue. His look proved endlessly meme-able: the same face could read as concern, skepticism, surprise or resignation depending entirely on the caption, making him a natural reaction-image star.

Sam belongs to the great tradition of cats made famous by a single striking quirk of markings — a feline whose fame rests not on any trick or talent but purely on the accident of where his fur happens to be black and where it happens to be white. In a genre full of grumpy and grouchy cats, Sam stands out as the one who simply looks perpetually, endearingly concerned.