Bento, an alleged “distant relative” of the 1980s video artist and woman cat pianist Fatso, whose performance persona became popularized in the late-aughts as “Keyboard Cat,” has died. (Surprise!! Keyboard Cat has been dead this whole time. SURPRISE!! Keyboard Cat was a woman).
The ancestry (from Know Your Meme) is likely lore, since in his in memoriam, Bento’s (and Fatso’s) owner Charlie Schmidt says that Bento was adopted in 2010 from a shelter. Bento’s schtick piggybacked on the piano stylings of Fatso, though he used the tools God gave him and branched out into many performance arts, eventually finding commercial success of his own. He was in a pistachio ad, spoofed Banksy’s documentary, and made the Guardian’s 2013 “Best 10 Cats on the Internet” list.