The Cat in the Hat Has Come to Glasgow, and TikTok Is Terrified

There is apparently a man in a Cat in the Hat costume terrorising Britain. He has been spotted outside houses, wandering around housing schemes and lurking beneath streetlights. Parents are warning their children, siblings are filming response videos and, somehow, even grannies have got involved. Now, according to TikTok, he has made his way to Glasgow.

Except, of course, he isn't real.

The latest Cat in the Hat panic is an AI-generated internet hoax, with images and videos placing the character into recognisable streets and residential areas. What makes it so effective is how quickly the story has become localised. It isn't simply the Cat in the Hat is scary; it is the Cat in the Hat is in Glasgow. Then he is in another town. Then another. Suddenly everyone knows someone who has supposedly seen him.

It feels remarkably similar to the killer clown panic of 2016. Back then, sinister-looking clowns were supposedly appearing outside schools, in parks and around residential areas. Some sightings were real, some were pranks and plenty were rumours, but the internet transformed them into a nationwide phenomenon. The Cat in the Hat is essentially the AI-era version: a recognisable character, a slightly sinister image, a supposed sighting and an audience ready to make it bigger.