The Neurosis of Cat Valentine 

One solitary extraneous note: several times in this video I sarcastically refer to Cat’s difficulty in participating in standard social convention as “inhuman”, when in reality I think the naivety and earnestness of the character are extremely human, and speak to the confusion and baselessness we all feel on some level. We’re all trying to behave like those around us, navigating pleasure and pain to varying degrees of sophistication, and often just barely managing to express ourselves, all the while hoping desperately that we are Human-ing correctly. Everything I said about Cat’s character are distillations of things that are universal to us, and the directness of her behaviour is only striking because we spend so much effort disguising and dressing up our basest humanity. Cat reads as “inhuman” precisely because she is so authentically human. I feel the need to put this in writing due to the subtext of neuro-divergency that revealed itself to me in the late stages of this video’s completion. Also on that note, her "stupidity” doesn’t factor into a neuro-divergent reading of the character. Only her relationships with stimulus, self expression and social convention. Stupidity is a symptom of watching Ben Shapiro videos, not neuro-divergency. I personally was just more relating to the character on a dissociative and addictive level. Anyways that’s me talking on behalf of my loved ones on the spectrum. If you’re autistic, I love you. If you’re not, go fuck yourself. Fuck yourself right to hell. ps. don’t get in the habit of expecting social equity disclaimers from me i do what i want

People thinking that "not being friends" equals "absolute hatred" is so annoying. I remember people saying "Jeanette DRAGGED Ariana in her new book" and then I read it and Jeanette just said things like "we were different. She was rich and I was the breadwinner for my family. We couldn't relate to each other" and I was like "that's NOT dragging wtf"

Some one said the most unrealistic part of victorius was that its a art high-school full of straight people

Honestly the worst part about Cat's character was in how deeply she was fetishized. Her ND traits were flanderized and taken advantage of to put her in fetishy situations and to lean into the "dumb sexy baby" character trope. It's legitimately one of the most awful intersections of ableism and misogyny bc the appeal hinges entirely on the ability to manipulate and take advantage of a girl or woman.

The line “Jennette McCurdy was also nominated for that award. She didnt show up. Would you?” Made me so incredibly sad and it rlly puts you into her perspective, that anytime she was pitted against ariana, she wouldnt win because of the industry and the general populations bias

I LOST MY FUCKING MIND HEARING YOU REFER TO ANDRE AS THE BLACK- THERE'S NO OTHER WAY TO DESCRIBE HIS ARCHETYPE AND IT'S SAD BUT FUNNY AS HELL

"You have a BLACK." Took me smooth out😂💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀 They might aswell have named him Token😂

another interesting thing i noticed about cat's shift is her wardrobe. in the first season when she was just a typical teenage girl who was kind of dumb & neurotic sometimes, so she wore pretty typical late 2000s/early 2010s teenage girl clothes. she wore short shorts/skirts, tank tops and t-shirts with necklaces and rings and the like. in short, clothes that a teenage girl who liked feminine things would wear during that time. however, as the show progressed and her character became more childlike and her brain shifted from dumb teen to young child, she began to wear clothes that were more similar to something a young girl would wear. she started wearing more pink, her clothes had more frills and ruffles, her skirts became longer, her accessories became less like something a teen or adult would wear (like the statement jewelry she wore in s1) and she started to favor bows and some simple jewelry, like things a young child would like to wear. idk if this means anything, but it was something i noticed

My interpretation of the whole "Cat punching Tori" thing wasn't that she was stupid enough to believe it was a genuine request: rather she was mad enough to WANT to punch her, and then kinda sarcastically played dumb. Granted, that was my interpretation when I watched as a kid. I haven't seen it in forever.

"and then Tori sings another fucking song"

Ok "He noticed our genders!" is fucking brilliant.

i LOVE that Liz's actual personality makes jade a realistic (yet exaggerated) teenage version of her

That’s scary. The theater teacher at my high school was the same way and had five favorites that he casted for everything no matter what and would hang out with them and give them As in class. He got fired.

"She gets so high on relief from her suffering that she forgets that the cause of her suffering has not yet gone away" is such a raw line I can't believe it was used to refer to a nickelodeon ariana grande character getting a bug stuck on her ear

my mind literally can’t put it together that Cat Valentine is Ariana Grande

it’s kind of unbelievable how horrible this character would’ve been on screen if it was played by anyone else. extremely well played, ariana

I like to imagine that, in the scene where Cat punches Tori, Cat WAS already angry with Tori, but saw the “if I were you, I’d punch me…” as an invitation to act on her impulses.

Cat Valentine throughout the series (to me, at least) quite literally feels like a neurodivergent person learning that she doesn't need to mask around her friends

cat is so clearly neurodivergent. the writes probably took neurodivergent tendencies and multiplied it 1000 fold for cat. At the time of the show's running, mental health and neurodivergency was just never talked about it, it was extremely taboo. therefor, cat was just seen as stupid and dumb. her friends treated her as such and she was just there for comedic effect

I always thought I irrationally hated Cat but now I realize I didn’t hate her I subconsciously recognized her as cruel caricature making fun of neurodivergent people and I hated that

I listened to the audiobook of "I'm glad my mom died" and it was chilling. Beautifully written, but chilling.

"neurodivergent people already know this but there's a big difference between following social procedure naturally and attempting to behave as one might act" I wasn't expecting a video about cat valentine to teach me something about myself wow

I never even realized how relatively normal she started out.... I only noticed that the baby voice got much more intense

They had to turn leon, ariana, and liz down in the mixes because they were all better vocally than victoria justice. Not saying victoria justice is bad or untalented, just unfortunately surrounded by very talented broadway stars.

I think something that really shows just how mistreated Jeanette McCurdy was is the fact that Sam and Cat wasn't the show that was originally planned. The original plan was for Sam to have her own show where she was working as a school guidance counsellor. Jeanette was going to have her own show but then they decided to turn it into Sam and Cat.

His words are a hurricane and I can't exactly keep up with processing all of them yet I still understand what's he's saying? All that to say this is the perfect thing to watch at 1am when you've only seen 10 episodes of Victorious

“You have a black” can we talk about how that’s all he was there for despite being probably the most talented person in the cast alongside Ariana? He was never important and never got a story unless it had to do with one of the other bland member (like having a crush on jade who is incredibly overrated) or his grandmother who was a byproduct of white writers using racist stereotypes to garner chuckles

The section about Jennette hits different after the release of her book. Cj ahead of the curve as always the points they brought up about her are literally the same ones people r bringing up now. This video is so phenomenal omg

I'm autistic and Cat's physical reaction to intense emotion (circuit board overload) is honestly incredibly relatable. I just wish things like stimming in response to emotions you cannot process wasn't always portrayed as funny and was shown as normal.

Yes, Ariana Grande's current homelessness and lack of relevance is a cautionary tale to us all.

Cat is just so clearly nuerodivergent coded, the way she masks, camoflages, her sensitivity to stimuli, the dopamine hungry way that adhd people feel like they have to fill their impulses, the lack of subtlety. Ironically the more Ariana reveals that Cat is masking the more real the character fighting to socialize and connect with other people underneath feels.

1:05:35 hearing Jade as an adult speaking in a condescending voice does things to me that I am not equipped to deal with right now

I’m here from the Quinton Reviews 8 hour part 2 monstrosity and somehow you putting 2010 Cat up against 2014 Cat is more striking and horrifying than anything I’ve ever seen in my life. If a real person devolved this over 4 years you’d be screaming for brain doctors to be saving this poor, broken person. The voice changes too are crazy, I forgot how different season 1 Cat sounded!

You've convinced me that Ariana Grande is a better actor than she is a singer, wow.

How dare you look this good in a black turtle neck.

"Cut up your drugs, cuddle your stuffed animals, pour some saki, wish misfortune on your enemies, evade your taxes, and don't forget to floss." ...The kids are gonna be alright.

cat HAS kissed robbie more than once! remember that episode where robbie and trina kiss for a play or something and robbie is obsessed with trina and cat is like "it was an acting kiss! it meant nothing!" and to prove her point she kisses robbie? also i want a video about robbie's psychology because that boy also has shit going on

cat saying “i joined a prison gang!!!!!” is like if “:D” were a person

Saw a tweet today that said "I’m genderless. I’m full of gender. I’m a malewife. I’m a biblically accurate angel. I’m a pop idol. I’m the fourth incarnation of god. I’m a convicted criminal. I can never die" And that's the energy I feel radiating from every one of your videos

I know it's not related to Cat or Ariana, but Jennete's choice in "Strong Independent Woman" to cast Maria Bamford as the mother is, in my eyes, perfect. Bamford (a comedienne and voice actress who struggles with mental illness) is able to navigate her role to be that character more realistically, and in a way that (to me) feels like it's relatable to the experience of EDs without being disrespectful.

I see alot of AutiHD in Cat's character. She's got hyperactivity, the inability to manage volume when speaking, a habit of jumping topics, addictive traits and the irritability of ADHD (or at least my experience with it) Whereas there's also the fact that she masks her own behaviour to try to act like others and takes things literally, being unable to tell when a person is being metaphorical/telling a joke, all pretty distinct traits of Austism Then there's the extreme emotional reactions, rejection sensitivity and dominating conversations with her interests, symptoms that overlap between the two disorders Her stupidy though makes this a really insulting stereotype. A person with ADHD won't be constantly bouncing around since they know that's very inappropriate in certain circumstances, and a person with Autism will tend to have sensory issues (which I don't see in her character).Honestly the fact that they turn her into a kid or even a pet that can be easily disciplined is hard to watch with this context

26:40 "She get's so high on the relief from her suffering, that she forgets that the cause of her suffering hasn't yet gone away."

“They noticed our gender” might be the funniest thing anyone has ever said

Timestamps Intro 0:00 Part 1(Into Madness) 1:32 season 1 Cat 3:50 Elevating the text 6:35 season 2 Cat 9:14 season 3 Cat 14:05 Part 2 The Valentine Filter 14:57 Imitation 16:33 Curiosity 19:45 Pleasure 23:38 Part 3 (Bibble) 27:28 Abandonment 32:20 Part 4 (Sam & Cat) 38:20 Part 5 (Little Victories) 43:48 Part 6 57:48 Personal favorite moments: 2:10 9:49 / 27:33 19:35 24:11 35:35 42:16

i wish i could just give jeanette mccurdy a big hug, she deserves it

i feel like her ditzy disconnectedness is a result of the constant trauma she experiences at home. She's very much constantly in a state of dissociation.

"she gets so high on the relief from her suffering that she forgets that the cause of her suffering has not yet gone away" damn i felt that

As someone with adhd her character hits hard, especially the propensity for addiction and difficulty with social cues. I mean yeah it’s exaggerated a lot, but the novelty and stimulation seeking is relatable. The disregard for consequences in favor of immediate gratification. The zoning out. The difficulty in understanding her emotions, difficulty with emotional regulation! People with adhd also tend to have rejection sensitivity disorder, the scene where Cat couldn’t take criticism hit hard because that’s a huge indicator of RSD. It’s interesting that sometimes she seems more aware and then later more ditzy, because I’ve surprised people in the past with how mature I can suddenly be when a lot of the time I act “childish” because I’m sensory seeking. And the “peaking” and being twitchy when she’s emotional seems like stimming which people with neurodivergence tend to do more often

5:53 I interpret this scene as Cat actually being really mad and using her perceived stupidity as a shield to get to punch her supposed friend in the face. I'm not sure if the scene was intended this way (probably not) but that's how I see it

okay youtube i finally watched the guy with painted on cat whiskers admire ariana grande on an academic level for an hour or so

"She tasted God and now everything else tastes like the absence of bliss" is too raw of a fucking line to be from a videoessay about a Disney Channel TV show.

I am both too old and too British to have watched any of these shows or even really recognise Ariana Grande as a celebrity, but holy shit, when I was like, 14 or 15 I was almost EXACTLY like Cat Valentine. Right down to the brain checking out lmao

I’ve never thought of cat valentine as more than comedic relief. I never realized how good of an actor you have to be and how much thought Ariana put into her character. The part that has me shook was the way victorious ended. Sinjin was always the character that was filler for bullying. Nothing more. That monologue made me pause the video and think for a long time. How the “ego” of the characters was the whole show. When they realized it, the show ended. That made me think about all the times they broke the fourth wall and recognized that it was a tv show. Most tv shows don’t do that. It drives me crazy. I’ve seen this show countless times. I grew up with this show. I never noticed any of the times that they talked about background characters or even the last episode, now that it’s laid out in front of me, I feel like it’s been there the whole time. I know it wasn’t the main focus of the video, but I just wanted to say that it blew my mind.

the fact that this is 90 minutes long has me screaming. in an awe-struck way

honestly, the "shruggers" are extremely real. at least in high school it feels like- there will be like 4 people in a class that talk and you will never hear anyone elses voice and when you do its a shock.

If I had a nickle for every time i've watched a multi hour video essay about Victorious, i'd have 3 nickles. Which isn't a lot, but it's crazy how many i've watched.

At 24:51 when he said, "You'll learn not to f***** interrupt me," an ad started playing. It was too brilliant not to be intentional.

This video made me realize why I always identified so strongly with the "weird" characters. It also made me realize that seeing how these neurodivergent-coded characters were treated on TV growing up made me tolerate, expect, and accept that treatment from people IRL.

I wish he had gone over the breakfast club parody episode cuz being a child watching that episode having not even heard of the breakfast club was the most batshit confusing fever dream of an experience

Cj pointing out the musical audio recording talent of ariana grande is what twigged me to notice the skill level of the lead of a band I recently saw at a concert, he was getting the sound guy to change small things between the first few songs and that was super neat to be able to appreciate

There isn’t really anything odd about punching your friend for seducing your boyfriend. IDK why they play it like Kat’s being weird.

"Victorious notoriously denied closure to its chorus, despite its glorious, laborious teen-oriented succuss performing for us. Sometimes I write sentences just in hopes for god to kill me" is such a mood

As a neurodivergent girl, ive always related a lot to her. The way she interacts with other people, her way of talking and her body language is just very relatable. This video explains a lot about why shes so relatable to me.

ngl im really mostly watching this because of the way you speak and the absolute hilarity of the wine glass and wine bottle you wave around as you intricately explain your theories in a way that feels drunk but like, high functioning drunk??? This was just incredible

This video essay made me deeply aware that I am fundamentally the real-person version of Cat Valentine. Thanks to my family’s financial support but general distance in my life, I’m pretty uniquely able to function like a fictional character. I also have very severe anxiety and ADHD which often involves severe depression, which I got sick of, so I’m consciously more hedonistic and more aggressively reject discomfort than any real person I’ve ever met or heard of. This video essay also made me realize I’m actually super, super autistic when I thought I was just a little. So like. Even though you didn’t really talk about it, there’s probably something up with Cat.

they caught me so off gaurd with "you have a black"💀

the “ariana grande fading out of fame” jokes make me giggle so hard

As someone on the spectrum, I actually experienced that moment when Cat though Tori was asking to be punched in the face as a young kid several times. Some kids took advantage of me thinking differently, and almost deliberately seemed to set me up with making these kind of requests so they could beat me afterwards. Like this pair of sisters, I was under the impression the eldest wanted me to put chewing gum in her little sister's hair and that her little sister was fine with it as she was giggling in front of me when her older sister made the request. I did it because I was under the impression her eldest sister was daring me to do so in a truth or dare kind of way, and then was subsequently punched in the face. Another girl who I wanted to befriend as we had a mutual friend group when we were kids had set me up to be beaten by a small group of kids in a similar manner as she made me call them over. Why they beat me up for it, I still have no idea. It's because of this that I have trust issues, and always question why people want me to do or say something specific.

The Jennette McCurdy part of this video was incredible and I hope everyone stayed for it

I’m glad you touched on jennette mccurdy’s trauma, really enjoy her podcast and projects. Sometimes I think about how she’s ashamed of almost everything she ever acted in and get deeply sad for this person I’ve never met. You talking so enthusiastically about something she was apart of-even tangentially-definitely brightened my day.

"cat valentine is autistic" I said to myself one day and now youtube has sent this video to me so i can feel validated in that statement

as a spicy brain haver, i honestly relate to Cat in so many ways. i can genuinely see myself in her sometimes. im glad to see a video talking lightly about her. ive always been a social outcast due to my neurodivergency. seeing cat be free, and weird as her authentic self, and watching her friends love her for it, makes me so happy! Cat honestly helped me to learn how to unmask and find my own chosen family. to find friends who will love me for being weird. and im glad to say, i did find those people! it took me nearly 18 years, but i found them. and i couldnt be happier. thank you to Cat Valentine for being your truest self. and thank you CJ for making this video, and being so kind and genuine.

What I'm taking away is that Cat is an ADHD-coded character taken to the absolute extremes for the sake of comedy. Unfortunately, her neurodivergence is the joke. About what I'd expect from Nickelodeon.

you must be fun at parties. no, like actually. i just imagine everyone sitting around you and u go off about victorious 😭

it's kinda fuuny seeing ariana as kat being upset that her bf was stolen by victoria with what wie know today lol

"And you'll finaly know not to fucking interupt me!" *ad plays*

WHY DID I WATCH A ONE HOUR 22 MINUTE DISSERTATION ON CAT VALENTINE, WATCHING THIS VIDEO IS LIKE HAVING AN ADHD SPIRAL AND I LOVE IT

“I have BPD so I didn’t have to do research on this part. Abandonment hits as hard as drug withdrawals.” Fuuuck, that part

ok i know im 2 years late, but (approx. 37 min in) that tiny little mouse side tangent was the cutest thing then immediately followed by straight rhyming bars all while talking about the plot hole of the show i obsessed over as a kid???? definitely subscribing for the chance youll be back! edit: ...w-wh-what the alsfldahfoafo i watched that show so many damn times and never fully conceptualized that was the ending?!?! are you kidding me?? I have the most distant memory of being utterly devastated when i finished the show for the first time, but i dont remember why... i wonder if i blocked it out from the inability to accept that ending as a 6th grader with nonexistent self regulation skills lol

The cadence and tone as well as the near obsession on subject matter in your videos is incredibly entertaining. Also seeing where all the cast members have gone since & that Ariana, Elizabeth, & Bobbie are still friends was heartwarming.

Shruggers are unironically the creepiest and cleverest bit of world building ever. Still thinking about them.

I always loved Sinjin's "Why You Suck" speech to the main 6. He really made sure that the popular kids in class got a dose of reality. I bet Sinjin's not alone on his opinion of them, either.

I just made this connection after rewatching, but Cat's conflicting feelings towards Robbie like ties directly into the pirate thing. He clearly did something that traumatized her so much that pirates alone are a huge trigger for her, but she still likes him cuz other than this incident (or maybe incidents?) he's mostly a good friend. So her brain likely bounces around a lot between disgust towards him for the trauma he inflicted but also feelings for him for the friendship he displays. Added onto the ND undertones, where social cues are hard to pick up on and sometimes you question if the trauma you faced really happened the way you remember or if your brain is twisting it to be worse than it was and could likely have just been caused by miscommunication and misinterpreted intentions, causing you to doubt your own trauma while srill being triggered by things that remind you of said trauma (is this an ND thing? I don't really know but I'm leaving it lol) and it's no wonder her brain struggles so hard to rationalize her feelings towards him. Especially given that her friends clearly know about the pirate thing, since Jade directly asks him about it, but despite that one mention no one seems to think any less of Robbie and I can see it leading her to wonder if what he did was really so bad if no one else seems to think it was bad enough to unfriend him or even give more than a slap on the wrist over.

I'm neurodivergent, dissociative, and a pothead. It's admittedly really hard for me to not identify with Kat.

“she gets so high on the relief of her suffering, she forgets that the cause of her suffering is still there” don’t we all

The “Tori sings a song or something” bit made me giggle at first and by the 10th time you said it i was SCREAMING

Her downfall was super sad like as a kid I thought they were just doing that to make her more funny but I realize they didn't have to change her character at all she was already super funny and quirky

this hit harder than it should have really. as an adhd maybe-autistic person (waiting on that screening appointment) i found her more relatable than I would have (i never watched the show). The bibble plotlne hit harder than i expected. I get a lot of quick lived food addictions that are intense and all consuming and even with the shows dramatisation of it... its probably one of the most accurate parts about it. i cant stand disney shows in general because i hate the laugh track and the singing but cat valentine is a new fav oops.

I wish the subject of her brother had been brought up, 'cause it is mentioned that Cat would hide in the closet in order to live. Meaning she and other members of her family clearly feared for their lives because of her brother. Also when Jade needed 12 gallons of blood for a play, Cat gets her brother to provide the blood and then is horrified when Jade says she meant to get fake blood. Because somehow Cat's brother produced 12 gallons of real blood in a short amount of time. Cat's hair colour is even caused by her brother smashing a vase on her head, and since Cat liked the colour of the red blood so much, she permanently changed it. It's directly stated that Cat's brother is a danger to himself and others, and is often hospitalized and handcuffed to his bed. And then medicated. I think the fear of ending up like her brother might also cause Cat to try and conform to societal norms. But the fact that she can easily fall prey to others' bad intentions or her own need to feel good inside, leads her to make bad decisions like her brother does. Or like, Cat had to be more upbeat and cheery because her parents are horrified by their son and Cat tries to be the "good one" so they aren't worried as much by having two neuro-divergent children. if that makes sense.

I have an autistic/ADHD reading of Cat - her literal interpretations of things (punching Tori), the rejection sensitivity, the echolalia, the inability to focus, hyperactivity.... It feels like the writers were really trying to punch down neurodivergent people, and that really got in my head as a kid. Even though I related to Cat the most as a kid, I felt like I couldn't be myself because I thought I would get picked on like Cat was.

i had a weird moment in college where i spent a few weeks sitting in a corner of the library and watching this show instead of doing homework, notably despite never having seen a single episode in my childhood. i always found cat very comforting, and the way you put it at around 16:06 explains it well. she is so disconnected from everyone else around her, and so often when she talks it just seems like this desperate attempt to be a part of and connect with the social world around her, but she can’t do it. the nice thing about it though is that she’s so ditzy that it doesn’t bother her. she exists in tandem with the social world she exists in, and yet she is totally disconnected. some of this is definitely a very familiar feeling for a lot of neurodivergent people, and even though she fully existed to be laughed at, seeing this feeling portrayed at all, even somewhat cruelly, is weirdly comforting. maybe it shouldn’t be. still, it was nice to hear you put it into words.

It's unsettling and confronting how much I saw myself in how you talked about Cat's need for stimulus and curiosity feeding into her shopping addiction. I honestly wasn't looking at it that directly until hearing you articulate it.

Hear me out-- Cat thinks the line "I'm a pirate and your my booty" is dirty not because she sees 'Booty' as a swear word, but because she associates it with Robbie "Playing Pirates"

WHEN YOU PUT NATALIE OVER JADE SAYING "MOUTH FEEL" I LOST EVERYTHINGGG

I am coming to the realization I am very much like Cat, and I act (more so in the past, but still today) a lot like her. Watching this video analysis has shed light on so many things I have experienced in my life: neurodivergency/autisim, truama, substance abuse and toxic/manipulative peers. I am also bad with socialization in general, but watching this has been quite insightful. Thank you, CJ, as always I enjoyed the video and your in depth analysis

i am watching this while smoking weed and eating ice cream so you're target audience has been reached 100% this vid is gold

You using natural lighting is the most unhinged flex of this video

The ending were you said “She didn’t show up. Would you?” gave me CHILLS

37:07 - 37:27 That mouse bit was maximum cute

I know everyone's talking about Cat feeling relatable from a neurodivergent angle (and as someone with adhd/possibly autism, same) but (at least from what's been said in this video, never watched the show) her conflicting feelings about Robbie, seeing him as special and wanting him close and getting jealous about him but freaking out at the prospect of a romantic relationship with him is really hitting right in the aromanticism for me.