In 2007, VH1 aired Acceptable.TV, a sketch comedy series with an unusual gimmick. Each episode featured short pilots for made-up shows, and viewers voted online on which ones would come back the following week. Fans could also submit their own shows. The series came from writer Dan Harmon, who later created Community and co-created Rick and Morty, along with collaborators including Jack Black.
One of its recurring segments, Operation: Kitten Calendar, aimed squarely at the competition reality shows that dominated television at the time. Aspiring photographers competed, with deadly seriousness, for the chance to shoot the next great kitten calendar.
Why the joke worked
By the mid-2000s, competition reality shows had a set formula: intense contestants, a stern judge, dramatic music, confessional interviews and a solemn elimination at the end of every episode. The Apprentice, Top Model and Project Runway all followed it. Apply that formula to something as trivial as kitten photography, and the formula itself becomes the punchline.
A preview of internet TV
Acceptable.TV lasted only one season on cable, but it anticipated where television was going: short episodes, audience voting and fan-made content, all of which became normal on YouTube a few years later. Harmon had already been running Channel 101, a monthly Los Angeles screening night where audiences voted on short pilots, and the VH1 show brought that format to a national audience.
And the kittens?
The internet ended up proving the parody right. A few years later, cat videos and cat photos became among the most-shared content online. Somewhere, a real kitten calendar photographer is very serious about their craft.
Sources: Acceptable.TV, Wikipedia; Channel 101, Wikipedia; Dan Harmon, Wikipedia.
