Surprised kitten is surprised

As Sean Bonner tweeted over the weekend, this may well be the best 17 seconds of your life.

Boing Boing editor/partner and tech culture journalist Xeni Jardin hosts and produces Boing Boing's in-flight TV channel on Virgin America airlines (#10 on the dial), and writes about living with breast cancer. Diagnosed in 2011. @xeni on Twitter. email: xeni@boingboing.net.

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Anonymous

This is why I am and always will be a “cat person.”
Anonymous

This is soooooo cute! Antone know how I can make this my screensaver?
Anonymous

he is sooooooooo cute
Anonymous

If youtube and lolcats have yet to cause a dramatic increase in cat adoptions from animal shelters, this video sure will.
nixiebunny

Godwin’s law on the second comment! A new record!

But seriously, newborn humans do this too. It’s called the startle reflex.
- Jerril
  
  Baby humans do it so they’re ready to grab tree branches or Moms fur when dropped (go go monkey reflexes).
  
  Baby kittens do it because that way 5 out of 6 ends are sharp.
RedMonkey

Sadly, yes, that was the best 17 seconds of my life.
Anonymous

wow, this is so cute.
ripplepoppy

The best 17 seconds of thumb-biting squeeking giggling. Feel that sweet dopamine rush come on? Thank you Xeni!!!! <3 <3 <3
ripplepoppy

No, the word i wanted was endorphins… !surprise! makes it all better.
deckard68

I don’t think she’s surprised, she’s just emulating the fingers of her mommy or daddy. But that doesn’t make it less cute!
Anonymous

Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!
Anonymous

This is by far one of my biggest smiles this week!!! Thank you so much for sharing this :)
apoxia

I love you tickle kitty.
bakatbakastakat.cz

This rampant exploitation of animals must stop!
…wait, play it again, hee hee.
Ben Morris

Slightly offtopic: thank you for posting a link to the youtube vid as well as embedding it. It makes it much easier for people for whom Flash won’t work reliably to watch it by other means.
Anonymous

“If this isn’t the cutest thing you’ve seen, check your ID as you may in fact be Hitler.”

Meaning Hitler is the only person to have seen things more cute than this?

Actually, I think the implication is that Hitler was incapable of recognizing cuteness, so nothing has ever been the cutest thing he’s ever seen.
mechko

1) This is unbelievably cute and I’m going to use this video to get close to this chick I’ve been seeing :D

2) Why is a discussion about the cutest thing on the internetz so closely intertwined with a discussion about Hitler?
- Gloria
  
  It’s the internet. If you stripped away all detritus and all the flimflam, yep, you’d find that pure internet is kitties and Hitler.
- Anonymous
  
  Because every conversation on the internet turns to a discussion of Hitler within twenty comments or so. True fact.
gATO

Watching this again and again, and then sending it to all my co-workers, has made years of carefully constructing a dark, tough-guy persona dissapear down the drain.
Anonymous

Who cares why the kitten is actually freaking out. It’s just super cute. Life needs more moements like this.
Anonymous

this is the best pick me up for ever. thanks Angel
Kimmo

That’s pretty bloody cute, but I’m damn glad I can recall many instances of having more fun than this vid provides.

Warranted a ‘heh’ and a smile from me.

Maybe I’m Hitler… come to think of it, I was ranting in favour of genocide the other day
PlanetWebfoot

Thanks for the post, everyone needs 17 seconds of that each day.
taiki24

Awww, how adorable! I wish I could get a kitten… but they aren’t allowed in my dorm. This video tickles my cat-lovin’ heart, though.
Anonymous

The kitten isn’t surprised. That’s just its natural defensive posture when on it’s back. Pretty much all kittens do it when playing with their siblings (or in this case, human).
- Anonymous
  
  Not just kittens, we have ferrets that do it too
Anonymous

My kids are making me play this over and over and over!!! And I don’t even mind!
Anonymous

Hitler invented the internet AND developed this reflex in kittens, I won’t reveal how…
Robert

Thanks, now I had to go and find my kitteh and give her a hug.
Anonymous

I love the comment, “I love you tickle kitty.” haha soooo adorable!
Anonymous

cute=)
Anonymous

Too cute.Animals remain innocence more often than humanbeing.
V

The Cute! IT BUURRNNSSS!!!
Ian70

I’d say less surprised and more in the traditional on-back-defensive position.. limbs ready, claws poised.. ready to defend a fuzzy little tummy that needs ta get -tickled-!!
==tickletickletickletickletickle==

also. SO ADORABLE!!
Anonymous

This is absolutely the sweetest thing I have seen!
mneptok

“If this isn’t the cutest thing you’ve seen, check your ID as you may in fact be Hitler.”

Meaning Hitler is the only person to have seen things more cute than this?

“If you don’t think this is cute ….”

FTFY.
a_user

meh – he/she thinks you’re going to attack/kill he/she
Anonymous

That’s some Bodhisattva right there — those 17 seconds could save all beings from suffering. Thank you!
circuit

“If this isn’t the cutest thing you’ve seen, check your ID as you may in fact be Hitler.”

Meaning Hitler is the only person to have seen things more cute than this?

Yes Hitler had a secret bunker where he hoarded all the cute collected from all of Europe and part of Africa.
Anonymous

omg, this is amazing. it just made my day!
gollux

Thorny paws and needle teeth.

Many’s the war wound I’ve incurred this way. But try explaining to some people that it’s fun having your cat put your wrist in a clench with his front paws while gnawing on your hand and kicking the crap out of your forearm with his hind legs.
Anonymous

This kitteh is cheaper and better than any mental therapy.
EH

I was going to send this to my friends over the weekend, but that dang ShareThis widget every blog has had expanded itself over the video and refused to disappear. I certainly wasn’t about to click on any part of it, so thank you BoingBoing for taking up the slack. :)
Xeni Jardin

Best comment on this video I’ve seen yet, spotted on Twitter:

“If this isn’t the cutest thing you’ve seen, check your ID as you may in fact be Hitler.”

(http://twitter.com/DanBerlinka/status/6207964250)
- Anonymous
  
  Actually Hitler loved animals. Sadly he would have loved this video were he still alive today (god forbid).
- Anonymous
  
  For what it’s worth, Hitler was quite an avid fan of animals. XD
Anonymous

This is so cute, I wander when he grows older if he will do that…
Anonymous

annoyed commenter is no longer annoyed =)
i needed that.
Anonymous

This literally is the cutest thing I’ve ever seen … every time I need a pick-me-up from now on, I’m totally watching this.
2k

I miss my cat… :(