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Here’s Why You Can’t Enable The Hilarious ‘Lawyer Cat’ Filter On Zoom
By Mikelle Leow, 11 Feb 2021
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Video screenshot via Judge Roy Ferguson
The greatest gift that the Zoom-reliant era has brought the world is, quite possibly, the video of a lawyer who attended a hearing with a cat filter on.
When alerted of the blunder, attorney Rod Ponton scrambled to convince his audience, “I’m here live, I’m not a cat,” to which Judge Roy Ferguson responded, “I can see that.”
“I’m here live, I’m not a cat,” says lawyer after Zoom filter mishap
— Lawrence Hurley (@lawrencehurley) February 9, 2021
“I can see that,” responds judge pic.twitter.com/HclKlAUwbM
The account was glorious from start to end, from the wide-eyed stare of the “cat” fumbling to shut off the filter to the long amused pause from the judge.
If you’re hoping to immortalize the moment by using the filter yourself, the sad news is it’s actually pretty challenging to do that—which can be surprising to many, given how easily and wonderfully the gaffe happened. Fast Company reports that the filter comes from a now-obsolete software for old Dell laptop cameras called Dell Webcam Central.
The program can’t run in newer operating systems like Windows 10, and support for it ended in 2012. So there’s no way to access the now-christened ‘Lawyer Cat’ filter conveniently.
When asked by Fast Company if the company will bring the filter back to appease a new generation, Glen Robson, chief technology officer of the client solutions group at Dell Technologies, simply responded, “Never underestimate the power of a software upgrade. Mr. Ponton was likely running an outdated driver which may have held him in cat filter limbo a little too long.”
Nevertheless, if you’re still hell-bent on using the filter, Debugger has published a tutorial to accomplish that, though the method to do so is pretty laborious.
Judge Roy Ferguson, who shared the unforgettable video, described that the moment is now up on the internet to demonstrate the law industry’s exemplary resolve to adapt to the remote-working era. He also expressed appreciation for everyone in the conversation, who “handled it with dignity, and the filtered lawyer showed incredible grace.”
“True professionalism all around!” Judge Ferguson commended.
[via Fast Company, cover image via Judge Roy Ferguson]
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