# Happy Cat

Happy Cat is a smiling British Shorthair whose photograph became the visual anchor of the LOLcats format after circulating on Something Awful in the mid-2000s. In 2007, someone slapped the caption 'I Can Has Cheezburger?' onto the picture, launching a website of the same name and turning the cat into one of the founding icons of internet cat culture.

## Origin
The earliest tracked appearance of the picture online is on the site of a Russian cat food brand also called Happy Cat, where the animal appeared as a secondary figure as early as 2003[2]. From there the image jumped to English-language forums through Something Awful; the poster commonly credited as FancyCat is likely the 'Fancy Cat' account registered on the forum in 2002, though that user's post history is incomplete[5].

The earliest verifiable Something Awful sighting is dated May 12th, 2004, in an article titled 'The Grocery Gauntlet' by Reid 'Frolixo' Paskiewicz[1]. Meme reference sites like YTMND Wiki and Encyclopedia Dramatica both point back to Something Awful as the launchpad for the picture's spread across the English-speaking web[4].

- **Platform:** Happycat.ru / Something Awful (viral spread)
- **Creator:** Unknown
- **Date:** 2003

## Overview
The Happy Cat template is a photograph of a plump grey-and-white British Shorthair sitting upright with an open-mouthed grin, its teeth showing in a look that reads as delighted or dumbfounded depending on the caption[3]. Editors treat the picture as a blank slate for image macros, dropping white Impact-font captions across the top and bottom in the standard LOLcats style[4]. The pose is neutral enough that the same face works for wholesome food cravings, feigned confusion, and mock existential dread.

The cat's real biography sits in dispute. Some sources identify the animal as Frank, a British Shorthair born in 1994 who died in 2007, while a Russian blog post from corpuscola calls it Misha and lists a 2003 birth year[6]. Neither account has ever been confirmed, and Happy Cat's exact identity was never resolved in any published record[3].

## How It Spread
In 2007, an anonymous editor pasted the caption 'I Can Has Cheezburger?' across the top of the Happy Cat photo. That single edit kicked off the LOLcats format and inspired the I Can Has Cheezburger website, which turned captioned cat photos into a mainstream meme category[3].

The same face was reused for NEDM, short for 'Not Even Doom Music,' a YTMND-era catchphrase that attached itself to the cat's grin and lived on through image macros[7]. Another spinoff, 'Oh God How Did This Get In Here I Am Not Good With Computer,' pairs a poorly cropped version of the picture with a self-deprecating admission of tech illiteracy, used online as an ironic reply to anyone doing something clumsy with a computer[3].

Meme historians credit Happy Cat as one of the small handful of images that seeded the LOLcats era, with every downstream template from Cheezburger to NEDM tracing back to the same open-mouthed grin[4].

## How to Use
Typical Happy Cat macros pair the photo with two lines of white Impact-font text in the classic LOLcats convention, often written in broken 'LOLspeak' English. The top line commonly sets up a mock request or observation and the bottom line delivers the punchline, as with the founding 'I Can Has Cheezburger?' caption[3].

## Frequently Asked Questions
### What is Happy Cat?
Happy Cat is the smiling British Shorthair whose photograph became the base image for the LOLcats format, most famously the 'I Can Has Cheezburger?' macro from 2007[3].

### Where did Happy Cat come from?
The picture first appeared around 2003 on the site of a Russian cat food brand called Happy Cat, then jumped to Something Awful, where forum users passed it around before it spread across the English-speaking web[2].

### What does Happy Cat mean?
On its own Happy Cat is just the cat's grinning face, but the image works as a blank canvas for jokes; captions range from food cravings to confusion to the tech-illiterate 'Oh God How Did This Get In Here' punchline[3].

### How do you use Happy Cat?
People typically drop white Impact-font text above and below the photo in the classic LOLcats style, often written in broken 'LOLspeak' English like the founding 'I Can Has Cheezburger?' caption[4].

### Is Happy Cat still popular?
Happy Cat is regarded as a classic 2000s image rather than a currently trending meme, remembered mainly as one of the founding LOLcats and the visual anchor of the I Can Has Cheezburger brand[1].

## References
1. [https://www.somethingawful.com/photoshop-phriday/the-grocery-gauntlet/1/](<https://www.somethingawful.com/photoshop-phriday/the-grocery-gauntlet/1/>)
2. [https://happycat.ru/](<https://happycat.ru/>)
3. [https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/happy-cat](<https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/happy-cat>)
4. [https://encyclopediadramatica.online/Happy_Cat](<https://encyclopediadramatica.online/Happy_Cat>)
5. [https://forums.somethingawful.com/member.php?action=getinfo&username=Fancy+Cat](<https://forums.somethingawful.com/member.php?action=getinfo&username=Fancy+Cat>)
6. [https://corpuscola.blogspot.com/](<https://corpuscola.blogspot.com/>)
7. [https://ytmnd.fandom.com/wiki/Happy_Cat](<https://ytmnd.fandom.com/wiki/Happy_Cat>)

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Source: https://meme.com/memes/happy-cat
Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library