system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: Why do cats love to push things off tables?

What is with that?!
gpt
I did a report for an animal behavior class in undergrad on animal play. It overwhelmingly focused on younger animals and why it is such a common trend across species to mess around with each other and fuck around with objects. As far as playing with each other, it seems to be a natural inclination to enjoy it but the evolutionary purpose seems to be that it reinforces social norms, learning how hard you can bite someone without it being aggressive, seeing how you can figure your social standing in the pack by whether or not you groom the others, as well as running and chasing to build hunting skills and refine motor movement/muscle memory/whatever you want to call it.

Playing with objects seems to be important for that latter part as well. It helps them develop and refine motor functions that can be applied later on in life for actually not ass hole tasks. So, that's why kittens would do that kind of thing, it feels enjoyable for them, and it feels enjoyable because a billion years ago, the saber tooth tigers that liked swatting hamsters off of rocks wound up with better developed neuromuscular systems which allowed more successful not-dying. Traits got passed on.

I can only assume adults do it because that youthful drive to refine motor skills doesn't just disappear.

Edit: Obligatory "holy crap, thank you for the gold" edit...holy crap, thank you for the gold!