About
Gary the Goat is the nickname given to a goat owned by Australian comedian James Dezarnaulds (a.k.a. Jimbo Bazoobi), who became internet famous for traveling and performing stand-up comedy tours with the farm animal across Australia.
Origin
On January 31st, 2012, the “Gary the Goat” Facebook[1] page was launched, which highlights photos and video featuring Gary the Goat. In the next three years, the page gathered over 466,000 likes.
Spread
In January 2013, Gary was thrust into the spotlight after Dezarnaulds was fined for allowing the goat to eat plants on public property. On January 23rd, the Australian news channel 7 News aired a segment about the legal battle, which noted that the case was thrown out by magistrate Carolyn Barkell (shown below).
On February 23rd, 2014, BuzzFeed[2] highlighted several photos of Gary in a post about the goat’s Australian tour (shown below).
The YouTube Channel
Gary the Goat saw a huge resurgence in online popularity following the launch of the YouTube channel in March 2014, with the first uploaded video featuring Gary and his owner attending an Australian Mardi Gras celebration dressed in flamboyant costumes (shown below, left). On March 23rd, the channel uploaded a video of Gary playing on a children’s playground (shown below, right).
On April 2nd, 2014, Dezarnaulds uploaded a video featuring roadtrip footage with Gary (shown below, left). On May 30th, the YouTube channel uploaded a video in which Gary chases after his owner on a road in Cooktown, Australia (shown below, right). On June 12th, Redditor AtomicSlothCreature submitted the video to the /r/videos[3] subreddit, where it gathered upwards of 2,100 upvotes and 100 comments in the first 24 hours.