# I Can Has Cheezburger I Can Has Cheezburger (ICHC) is a blog-format website and internet meme that launched in January 2007, built around a single image of a smiling gray cat (known as Happycat) captioned with the grammatically mangled question "I can has cheezburger?"[1]. Created by Eric Nakagawa and Kari Unebasami, the site became one of the most important hubs for lolcat culture and animal-based image macros, pulling in up to 1.5 million daily hits at its peak[1]. ICHC didn't just popularize lolspeak and captioned cat photos. It proved that internet memes could be a real business, leading to a $2 million acquisition and an entire network of humor sites[1]. ## Origin On January 11, 2007, Hawaiian blogger Eric Nakagawa posted an image he'd found on the comedy forum Something Awful[3]. The photo showed a chubby gray cat with a wide, almost pleading smile. Nakagawa slapped on the now-iconic caption "I can has cheezburger?" and uploaded it to a simple blog. Kari Unebasami helped co-create and develop the site alongside him[3]. The image itself, featuring the cat that would become known as Happycat, had been floating around various corners of the internet before Nakagawa grabbed it. The lolspeak caption format, with its butchered grammar and phonetic spelling, was already a feature of image macros circulating on Something Awful and 4chan[3]. But Nakagawa's blog gave these scattered jokes a permanent home. He kept posting similar images and eventually converted the site into a monetized blog with regular updates[3]. - **Platform:** Something Awful (source image), Blogger (website) - **Creator:** Eric Nakagawa (site creator), Kari Unebasami (co-creator) - **Date:** 2007 ## Overview I Can Has Cheezburger is both a specific image macro and the website that grew around it. The original image shows a round-faced, grinning British Shorthair cat (nicknamed Happycat) with the Impact-font caption "I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?" in the classic lolcat style[3]. The deliberately broken English, swapping grammar rules for cuteness, became the template for thousands of user-submitted animal photos with similar captions[1]. The site ran on a simple formula: funny animal pictures plus lolspeak captions. Readers could submit their own creations using the site's built-in "LOL Builder" tool, and the best ones got posted to the front page[3]. At its height, ICHC was receiving 8,000 submissions per day, though only about a dozen made the cut[3]. ## How It Spread ICHC took off fast. By May 2007, the site was pulling 1.5 million daily hits[3]. The timing was perfect: internet users were primed for silly cat content, and the barrier to participation was low. Anyone with a cat photo and a sense of humor could contribute. In July 2007, the site was receiving around 500 submissions per day from readers[3]. By January 2008, that number had ballooned to 8,000 daily submissions, though only about twelve images per day actually made it onto the site[3]. Updates were strategically timed to match when readers were most likely to visit: mornings, lunch breaks, and evenings[3]. As of 2008, ICHC was pulling roughly 2 million page views daily[3]. The financial validation came in September 2007, when a group of investors acquired the blog for $2 million[3]. Under the leadership of Ben Huh, ICHC became the flagship property of the Cheezburger Network, which eventually expanded to include FAIL Blog and Know Your Meme[3]. The acquisition proved that internet humor communities could generate real revenue, not just pageviews. The site encouraged interactivity through a voting system where users rated images on a scale of one to five "cheezburgers"[3]. Running themes developed organically: Ceiling Cat (a white cat peering through a hole), Basement Cat (a black cat as the evil counterpart), the Lolrus and his "bukkit," "invisible" objects, "om nom nom" eating sounds, and "monorail kitteh"[3]. The site also popularized snowclone phrases like "I'm in your [noun], [verb]ing your [noun]" and "[activity], ur doin it right/wrong"[3]. ICHC also ran a lolspeak wiki at SpeakLolSpeak.com until 2013, designed as a collection of important lolspeak phrases and translations[3]. The use of Impact font became so standardized across the site and its network that it defined the visual language of an entire generation of image macros[3]. This font choice traced back to Something Awful, where Impact was the default for image macros, and ICHC's LOL Builder tool kept it as the standard option[3]. By 2016, the Cheezburger Network was acquired by Literally Media[3]. By 2017, the site had shifted away from user-generated content entirely, relying instead on a full editorial team to create original posts[3]. ## How to Use The classic ICHC format is straightforward: 1. Find a photo of a cat (or other animal) in a funny, expressive, or awkward pose 2. Write a caption in lolspeak: swap "have" for "has," "the" for "teh," add extra letters, and use phonetic spelling ("cheezburger" instead of "cheeseburger") 3. Set the text in Impact font, white with a black outline, typically split between the top and bottom of the image 4. Common caption structures include asking for something ("I can has [thing]?"), declaring ownership ("I has a [thing]"), or commenting on an activity ("[thing], ur doin it wrong") ## Cultural Impact ICHC was one of the first internet properties to prove that memes could be monetized at scale. The $2 million acquisition in 2007 sent a clear signal to investors that online humor communities had real financial value[3]. The Cheezburger Network expanded into television with LOLwork, a reality show on Bravo that followed Ben Huh and his staff as they created content for the site[3]. The show gave mainstream audiences a look at the weird business of professional meme curation. ICHC produced two books: *I Can Has Cheezburger?: A LOLcat Colleckshun* in 2008 and *How To Take Over The Wurld: An LOLcat Guide 2 Winning* in 2009[3]. FAIL Blog also released *Fail Nation: A Visual Romp Through the World of Epic Fails* in October 2009[3]. The site's influence on internet language was significant. Lolspeak phrases like "oh hai," "kthxbai," and "om nom nom" spread well beyond the ICHC community[3]. The academic world even got in on it: the hashtag #ICanHazPDF, derived directly from the site's name, became a tool researchers used on Twitter to request free copies of paywalled academic papers[3]. The related meme "I has a shuvel" (lolspeak for "I have a shovel") followed a similar trajectory through early meme culture. The image first appeared on YTMND in March 2006, was posted on eBaum's World Forums in July 2006, and made its way to ICHC by January 2007[2]. It shared the same "I has a [thing]" grammatical structure that defined lolspeak humor[2]. ## Fun Facts - The original Happycat image came from Something Awful, not from Nakagawa's own cat[3]. - At its peak, ICHC rejected over 99% of daily submissions, posting only about 12 out of 8,000[3]. - The Impact font became the standard for lolcat images because it was the default choice in Something Awful image macros, and ICHC's LOL Builder kept the tradition going[3]. - ICHC ran a dedicated lolspeak dictionary wiki at SpeakLolSpeak.com for six years before shutting it down in 2013[3]. - The site's name is technically a grammatically incorrect question: the "correct" lolspeak would arguably be "I can haz cheezburger?" but the "has" spelling stuck[1]. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### What is I Can Has Cheezburger? I Can Has Cheezburger (ICHC) is a website and image macro meme built around photos of cats with funny captions written in lolspeak, a deliberately broken form of English[3]. ### Where did I Can Has Cheezburger come from? Eric Nakagawa created the site on January 11, 2007, by posting an image of a smiling cat (Happycat) from Something Awful with the caption "I can has cheezburger?"[3]. ### What does I Can Has Cheezburger mean? The phrase is lolspeak for "Can I have a cheeseburger?" written as if a cat is making a polite, slightly confused request for food[1]. ### How do you use I Can Has Cheezburger? Find a funny animal photo, write a caption in lolspeak (broken grammar, phonetic spelling), and set it in Impact font. Common formats include "I can has [thing]?" or "I has a [thing]"[3]. ### Is I Can Has Cheezburger still popular? The site still exists under Literally Media's ownership (acquired in 2016) with an editorial team producing content, though its cultural dominance peaked around 2007-2009[3]. ### How much was I Can Has Cheezburger sold for? A group of investors acquired the site in September 2007 for $2 million, making it one of the first meme sites to sell for a significant amount[3]. ### Who is Happycat? Happycat is the nickname for the smiling gray British Shorthair cat in the original "I can has cheezburger?" image. The photo originated on Something Awful before Nakagawa used it to launch ICHC[3]. ### What is lolspeak? Lolspeak is the intentionally misspelled, grammatically incorrect dialect used in lolcat image macros. Common features include "has" instead of "have," "teh" instead of "the," and phonetic spellings like "cheezburger"[3]. ### What is the Cheezburger Network? The Cheezburger Network is the company that grew out of ICHC, led by Ben Huh. It included FAIL Blog, Know Your Meme, Memebase, and other humor sites before being acquired by Literally Media in 2016[3]. ### What was LOLwork? LOLwork was a reality television series on Bravo that followed Ben Huh and the Cheezburger staff as they created content for the network[3]. ### What is #ICanHazPDF? A Twitter hashtag derived from the ICHC name, used by academics to request free copies of research papers stuck behind journal paywalls[3]. ### Did I Can Has Cheezburger publish any books? Yes. *I Can Has Cheezburger?: A LOLcat Colleckshun* came out in 2008, followed by *How To Take Over The Wurld: An LOLcat Guide 2 Winning* in 2009[3]. ## References 1. [I Can Has Cheezburger?]() 2. [I Can Has Cheezburger - Urban Dictionary]() 3. [I Can Has Cheezburger - Know Your Meme]() --- Source: https://meme.com/memes/i-can-has-cheezburger Published by meme.com — The Internet Meme Library