# Happy Cat / I Can Has Cheezburger Happy Cat is a photograph of a grinning British Shorthair cat that became one of the earliest and most influential image macros on the internet. First discovered on a Russian cat food company's website and posted to Something Awful forums around 2003, the image was captioned "I Can Has Cheezburger?" in 2007, spawning the LOLcats movement and a website that sold for $2 million within months of its creation[5]. ## Origin The source photograph came from the website of a Russian cat food company called Happy Cat. The image appeared on their site as early as 2003, showing a British Shorthair with a distinctive grin[4]. The company went out of business at some point after the image spread online[1]. There are conflicting accounts about the cat's identity. Some sources say Happy Cat was a British Shorthair named Frank, born in 1994, who died on November 16, 2007[1]. A blog post from a user called corpuscola claims the cat's name was actually Misha and that it was born in 2003[4]. Neither claim is definitively verified. The image was brought to the Something Awful forums around 2003 by a user identified as FancyCat (or "Fancy Cat" as two words). While no archived post from this specific user survives, the YTMND Wiki and multiple other sources point to Something Awful as the birthplace of the meme[3]. A user named "Fancy Cat" with a 2002 registration date exists on Something Awful, though their post history is incomplete[4]. The earliest verifiable Something Awful appearance was on May 12, 2004, in an article called "The Grocery Gauntlet" by Reid "Frolixo" Paskiewicz[4]. In 2004, a Something Awful user known as Jer fought a parking ticket with a rambling appeal letter that included a page with Happy Cat and the caption "oh god how did this get in here I am not good with computers"[1]. That phrase became a meme of its own, used ironically to feign technological incompetence[4]. - **Platform:** Russian cat food website (source photo), Something Awful (meme adoption), I Can Has Cheezburger website (viral spread) - **Creator:** FancyCat / Fancy Cat (original Something Awful poster), Eric Nakagawa (website creator), Kari Unebasami (website co-creator) - **Date:** 2003 (original image), 2007 (captioned version) ## Overview Happy Cat is a photograph of a blue-grey British Shorthair sitting on the ground with a wide, almost human-like grin. The cat's round face and amused expression made it instantly exploitable for captions and Photoshop edits. The image originally came from a Russian cat food brand also called "Happy Cat," where the cat appeared on the company's website but was not the primary mascot[1]. The meme exists in two distinct phases. In its first life (2003-2006), Happy Cat was a Something Awful and YTMND in-joke, used in Photoshop threads, spliced into other images, and adopted as the mascot of the NEDM (Not Even Doom Music) fad[3]. In its second life (2007 onward), the "I Can Has Cheezburger?" caption turned Happy Cat into the founding image of the LOLcats genre, a format where cat photos are overlaid with intentionally broken English captions known as "lolspeak"[5]. ## How It Spread **Something Awful era (2003-2004):** Forum users ran with the image quickly, Photoshopping Happy Cat into various contexts and creating merchandise. Limited edition Happy Cat shirts, stickers, and hand-painted portraits were sold on SAMart, Something Awful's marketplace[3]. The cat's popularity was high enough that posting it eventually became semi-bannable, as the forums tended to reject their own memes once they spread too far[2]. **YTMND era (2005-2006):** Happy Cat got a second wind when YTMND users adopted the image for NEDM, a fad that started as a reaction to an animal cruelty video on Ogrish. Someone had responded to the disturbing content by saying "not even Doom music" could make it acceptable. YTMND users turned this into a meme, and Happy Cat's grinning face became the official NEDM mascot, paired with the song "We Interrupt This Program" by Coburn[2]. Flash animations and remix sites featuring Happy Cat flooded YTMND throughout 2005[1]. **I Can Has Cheezburger (January 2007):** On January 11, 2007, software developer Eric Nakagawa was having a bad day at work and asked his friend Kari Unebasami to send him something funny[6]. Unebasami sent the Happy Cat image with "I Can Has Cheezburger?" captioned on it. Nakagawa found it so amusing that they registered icanhascheezburger.com and began posting similar captioned cat images[5]. The site grew fast, pulling in up to 1.5 million daily hits at its peak in May 2007[5]. By July 2007, the site was receiving around 500 image submissions per day[5]. **Acquisition and media empire (September 2007):** A group of investors led by Ben Huh acquired the website for $2 million in September 2007[5]. Huh's strategy was hands-off: "Don't friggin' touch a thing. There's a community here. Without submissions, there's no content. And without content, there's no traffic"[9]. Under his leadership, traffic grew from 10 million to 30 million monthly page views[9]. The site became the flagship of the Cheezburger Network, which expanded to include FAIL Blog and Know Your Meme[5]. ## How to Use The classic "I Can Has Cheezburger" format follows a simple template: 1. Find or take a photo of a cat with an expressive face 2. Open an image editor and add text in Impact font (white text, black outline) 3. Write the caption in lolspeak: drop articles, replace "s" with "z," misspell words phonetically, use baby-talk grammar 4. Common structures include "I CAN HAS [noun]?", "IM IN UR [noun], [verb]ING UR [noun]", and "[activity], UR DOIN IT WRONG" ## Cultural Impact The "I Can Has Cheezburger?" image is widely considered the first LOLcat, or at least the image that brought the format to mainstream attention[3]. Before this meme, captioned image humor was mostly confined to forums like Something Awful and 4chan. After it, the format spread everywhere. The website's $2 million acquisition in 2007 proved that internet memes could be monetized at scale[5]. Ben Huh told CNET in 2008 that the key question was whether they could "pump out memes" and "popularize memes" beyond a single hit[6]. The Cheezburger Network's expansion into FAIL Blog and Know Your Meme created a template for viral content businesses that influenced later platforms. The Impact font, already standard on Something Awful, became the universal meme typeface partly through I Can Has Cheezburger's LOL Builder tool, which set it as the default[5]. The site also popularized the top-and-bottom caption format that dominated image macros for the next decade. LOLwork, the Bravo reality series about the Cheezburger office, brought meme culture to cable television audiences[5]. The two published books brought LOLcats into physical retail spaces, making them visible to people who might never visit the website[5]. ## Fun Facts - The typeface Impact became the default meme font largely because it was already standard on Something Awful and was set as the default in I Can Has Cheezburger's LOL Builder tool[5]. - Someone attempted to sell Happy Cat merchandise under the "Rude Kitty" brand on Myspace, but YTMND users organized to shut it down[2]. - The I Can Has Cheezburger website ran a wiki called SpeakLolSpeak.com dedicated to documenting lolspeak phrases until 2013[5]. - At its peak in May 2007, the website received up to 1.5 million daily hits, just months after launching[5]. - The cat in the original photo may have been named either Frank or Misha, depending on which source you believe. The conflicting accounts have never been resolved[4]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is Happy Cat / I Can Has Cheezburger? Happy Cat is a photograph of a grinning British Shorthair cat from a Russian cat food company's website. When captioned with "I Can Has Cheezburger?" in 2007, the image launched the LOLcats meme format and an influential website[4]. ### Where did Happy Cat come from? The original photo appeared on the website of a Russian cat food brand called Happy Cat around 2003. It was discovered by Something Awful forum users and posted to the community by a user called FancyCat[1]. ### What does "I Can Has Cheezburger" mean? It's intentionally broken English meant to mimic how a cat might ask for a cheeseburger. The grammar style, known as lolspeak, drops articles, replaces letters phonetically, and uses baby-talk sentence structures[7]. ### How do you use the I Can Has Cheezburger meme? Take a photo of a cat with an expressive face, add text in Impact font using lolspeak grammar, and share it. Common formats include "I CAN HAS [thing]?" and "[activity], UR DOIN IT WRONG"[5]. ### Is Happy Cat still popular? Happy Cat is no longer in active circulation as a meme format. The I Can Has Cheezburger website transitioned to professional editorial content by 2017, and the LOLcat format has largely been replaced by newer meme styles[5]. ### Who created the I Can Has Cheezburger website? Eric Nakagawa and Kari Unebasami created the website on January 11, 2007 after Nakagawa saw the captioned Happy Cat image while having a bad day at work[6]. ### How much did I Can Has Cheezburger sell for? A group of investors led by Ben Huh acquired the website for $2 million in September 2007, roughly eight months after it was created[5]. ### What is NEDM and how is Happy Cat connected? NEDM stands for "Not Even Doom Music," a catchphrase from YTMND that originated as a reaction to an animal cruelty video. Happy Cat's smiling face became the official mascot of the NEDM fad[2]. ### What breed is the Happy Cat? Happy Cat is a British Shorthair, a breed that traces its origins to cats brought to Britain by Roman soldiers. The blue-grey coloring seen in the meme photo is the breed's most popular variety[7]. ### What happened to the original Happy Cat? According to Encyclopedia Dramatica and Oh Internet, the cat lived under the name Frank and died on November 16, 2007. However, another source claims the cat was named Misha and was born in 2003, making the identity uncertain[4]. ### What is lolspeak? Lolspeak is the intentionally broken English style used in LOLcat captions. It drops articles, replaces "s" with "z," misspells words phonetically, and uses simplified grammar designed to sound like a cat attempting human language[7]. ### Who owns I Can Has Cheezburger now? Literally Media acquired the Cheezburger Network, which includes I Can Has Cheezburger, in 2016[5]. ## References 1. [Happycat - Oh Internet]() 2. [Happycat - Encyclopedia Dramatica]() 3. [Happycat - YTMND]() 4. [Happy Cat / I Can Has Cheezburger - Know Your Meme]() 5. [I Can Has Cheezburger?]() 6. [Blast From The Past: The Origins Of The 'I Can Has Cheezburger' Meme]() 7. [What Kind of Cat Is the I Can Has Cheezburger Cat? Meme Felines - Catster]() 8. [Can I Has Cheezburger: The Iconic Cat Meme's Legacy Explained | PetShun]() 9. [slang - Origin of "I can haz"? - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange]() 10. [I Can Has Cheezburger? | Meme Reference]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/happy-cat-and-i-can-has-cheezburger Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library