If It Fits I Sits

2011Image macro / catchphraseclassic

Also known as: If I Fits I Sits · IIFIS

If It Fits I Sits is a 2011 image-macro meme of cats crammed into impossibly small spaces, playing on the USPS's "If It Fits, It Ships" catchphrase.

"If It Fits I Sits" is a LOLcat image macro series built around photos of cats (and occasionally other pets) squeezing themselves into absurdly small or inappropriate spaces. The phrase, a lolspeak riff on the United States Postal Service's "If It Fits, It Ships" ad campaign, first appeared on ICanHasCheezburger in October 2011 and blew up on Reddit the very next day13. It became one of the most recognizable cat meme formats of the early 2010s, spawning its own subreddit and spreading across Tumblr, Flickr, and countless pet blogs.

lolcat memescatsimage macro memescheezburger network memesearly 2010s memes

Overview

The format is simple: take a photo of a cat crammed into a box, bowl, shoe, vase, sink, or any container clearly not designed for feline occupation, then slap on the caption "If it fits, I sits" in classic lolspeak1. The grammatically mangled phrasing follows the same intentionally broken English that powered the entire LOLcat movement on 4chan and ICanHasCheezburger throughout the late 2000s1.

The joke taps into a well-documented cat behavior. Cats genuinely love cramming into tight spaces, whether it's a shoebox, a Tupperware container, or a cereal bowl5. The meme gave this quirk a punchy one-liner, and pet owners ran with it. Dogs occasionally make appearances in the format too, though cats dominate by a wide margin2.

The catchphrase traces back to the USPS holiday advertising campaign in 2009, which used the slogan "If It Fits, It Ships" to promote their flat-rate shipping boxes3. Someone in the LOLcat community took that slogan and twisted it into lolspeak: "If it fits, I sits."

The earliest known image macro using this exact phrase appeared on ICanHasCheezburger on October 10, 20113. It showed a cat wedged inside an egg carton with the caption "If it fits… I sits"2. The image perfectly captured the absurdity of a cat choosing an egg carton over any of the more comfortable surfaces in a house.

The very next day, October 11, 2011, a Redditor named Tears reposted the same image to r/funny with the title "Cat Logic At Its Best"3. That post pulled in over 17,219 upvotes, which was a massive number for Reddit at the time3.

Origin & Background

Platform
ICanHasCheezburger (first instance), Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2011

The catchphrase traces back to the USPS holiday advertising campaign in 2009, which used the slogan "If It Fits, It Ships" to promote their flat-rate shipping boxes. Someone in the LOLcat community took that slogan and twisted it into lolspeak: "If it fits, I sits."

The earliest known image macro using this exact phrase appeared on ICanHasCheezburger on October 10, 2011. It showed a cat wedged inside an egg carton with the caption "If it fits… I sits". The image perfectly captured the absurdity of a cat choosing an egg carton over any of the more comfortable surfaces in a house.

The very next day, October 11, 2011, a Redditor named Tears reposted the same image to r/funny with the title "Cat Logic At Its Best". That post pulled in over 17,219 upvotes, which was a massive number for Reddit at the time.

How It Spread

After the Reddit explosion in October 2011, hundreds of similar cat-in-weird-place image macros flooded the site. Many of these were filed under the related concept of "Cat Logic," a broader LOLcat trend poking fun at the lazy, mischievous, and baffling decision-making of house cats.

The phrase jumped to Tumblr and Flickr quickly, and pet bloggers across the internet adopted it as a ready-made caption for any photo of a cat sitting somewhere ridiculous. By March 12, 2012, the meme had enough momentum to warrant its own dedicated subreddit, r/IfItFitsISits. The sub became a collection point for the best examples of the format, and it still exists today.

Facebook and Tumblr picked up the format heavily through 2012 and 2013, with the phrase becoming standard vocabulary for anyone posting cat photos online. HuffPost ran a compilation video titled "If It Fits, I Sits: A Supercut Of Animals Sitting In Small Spaces," featuring both cats and dogs squeezing into containers far too small for them. The article noted that buying a pet an expensive bed was pointless when the animal would just sleep in a bowl on the kitchen table.

The meme was part of a larger wave of lolspeak content that had been building since roughly 2005 on 4chan before spreading to dedicated humor sites. By the time "If It Fits I Sits" arrived, the audience for grammatically butchered cat captions was already enormous.

How to Use This Meme

The format is dead simple:

1

Photograph a cat (or dog, or any pet) sitting in a space that's obviously too small, too weird, or too inconvenient for the animal

2

Add the caption "If it fits, I sits" in impact font or lolspeak styling

3

Post to r/IfItFitsISits, a cat-themed subreddit, or any social media platform

Cultural Impact

The meme crossed over from internet humor into mainstream pet culture. HuffPost's supercut video brought it to audiences who might never have visited ICanHasCheezburger or r/funny. Pet supply companies and animal shelters adopted the phrase in marketing materials, knowing that cat owners would immediately get the reference.

"If It Fits I Sits" also fed into broader conversations about why cats actually love small spaces. Animal behaviorists have explained that tight spaces make cats feel secure and warm, which gave the meme a layer of real science underneath the jokes.

The phrase joined a small club of LOLcat-era catchphrases that outlived the format's peak popularity. While most image macros from 2011 faded, "If It Fits I Sits" stuck around because the underlying behavior never stopped. As long as cats keep sitting in boxes, the meme writes itself.

Fun Facts

The USPS slogan "If It Fits, It Ships" was originally part of a holiday ad campaign in 2009 promoting flat-rate boxes. The LOLcat community repurposed it within two years.

The original image macro featured a cat in an egg carton, not a cardboard box, which is the more commonly associated container.

The Reddit post that launched the meme used the title "Cat Logic At Its Best" rather than the now-famous catchphrase itself.

Encyclopedia Dramatica's entry on the meme includes it in a list of over 80 named cat memes, showing just how deep cat meme culture runs.

HuffPost's article corrected itself after initially crediting UPS instead of USPS for the original shipping slogan.

Derivatives & Variations

r/IfItFitsISits subreddit

— Launched March 12, 2012, this dedicated subreddit collects the best examples of cats and other animals cramming into small spaces[3].

"Cat Logic" memes

— A related LOLcat concept that "If It Fits I Sits" often falls under, mocking the bizarre behavioral choices of domestic cats[3].

Dog variations

— While cats dominate the format, dog owners also contributed photos of their pets squeezing into small beds, boxes, and bags[2].

HuffPost supercut

— A compilation video collecting the best animal-in-small-space clips into one video, bridging the meme from image macros into video format[2].

Frequently Asked Questions

If It Fits I Sits

2011Image macro / catchphraseclassic

Also known as: If I Fits I Sits · IIFIS

If It Fits I Sits is a 2011 image-macro meme of cats crammed into impossibly small spaces, playing on the USPS's "If It Fits, It Ships" catchphrase.

"If It Fits I Sits" is a LOLcat image macro series built around photos of cats (and occasionally other pets) squeezing themselves into absurdly small or inappropriate spaces. The phrase, a lolspeak riff on the United States Postal Service's "If It Fits, It Ships" ad campaign, first appeared on ICanHasCheezburger in October 2011 and blew up on Reddit the very next day. It became one of the most recognizable cat meme formats of the early 2010s, spawning its own subreddit and spreading across Tumblr, Flickr, and countless pet blogs.

lolcat memes cats image macro memes cheezburger network memes early 2010s memes

Overview

The format is simple: take a photo of a cat crammed into a box, bowl, shoe, vase, sink, or any container clearly not designed for feline occupation, then slap on the caption "If it fits, I sits" in classic lolspeak. The grammatically mangled phrasing follows the same intentionally broken English that powered the entire LOLcat movement on 4chan and ICanHasCheezburger throughout the late 2000s.

The joke taps into a well-documented cat behavior. Cats genuinely love cramming into tight spaces, whether it's a shoebox, a Tupperware container, or a cereal bowl. The meme gave this quirk a punchy one-liner, and pet owners ran with it. Dogs occasionally make appearances in the format too, though cats dominate by a wide margin.

The catchphrase traces back to the USPS holiday advertising campaign in 2009, which used the slogan "If It Fits, It Ships" to promote their flat-rate shipping boxes. Someone in the LOLcat community took that slogan and twisted it into lolspeak: "If it fits, I sits."

The earliest known image macro using this exact phrase appeared on ICanHasCheezburger on October 10, 2011. It showed a cat wedged inside an egg carton with the caption "If it fits… I sits". The image perfectly captured the absurdity of a cat choosing an egg carton over any of the more comfortable surfaces in a house.

The very next day, October 11, 2011, a Redditor named Tears reposted the same image to r/funny with the title "Cat Logic At Its Best". That post pulled in over 17,219 upvotes, which was a massive number for Reddit at the time.

Origin & Background

Platform
ICanHasCheezburger (first instance), Reddit (viral spread)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2011

The catchphrase traces back to the USPS holiday advertising campaign in 2009, which used the slogan "If It Fits, It Ships" to promote their flat-rate shipping boxes. Someone in the LOLcat community took that slogan and twisted it into lolspeak: "If it fits, I sits."

The earliest known image macro using this exact phrase appeared on ICanHasCheezburger on October 10, 2011. It showed a cat wedged inside an egg carton with the caption "If it fits… I sits". The image perfectly captured the absurdity of a cat choosing an egg carton over any of the more comfortable surfaces in a house.

The very next day, October 11, 2011, a Redditor named Tears reposted the same image to r/funny with the title "Cat Logic At Its Best". That post pulled in over 17,219 upvotes, which was a massive number for Reddit at the time.

How It Spread

After the Reddit explosion in October 2011, hundreds of similar cat-in-weird-place image macros flooded the site. Many of these were filed under the related concept of "Cat Logic," a broader LOLcat trend poking fun at the lazy, mischievous, and baffling decision-making of house cats.

The phrase jumped to Tumblr and Flickr quickly, and pet bloggers across the internet adopted it as a ready-made caption for any photo of a cat sitting somewhere ridiculous. By March 12, 2012, the meme had enough momentum to warrant its own dedicated subreddit, r/IfItFitsISits. The sub became a collection point for the best examples of the format, and it still exists today.

Facebook and Tumblr picked up the format heavily through 2012 and 2013, with the phrase becoming standard vocabulary for anyone posting cat photos online. HuffPost ran a compilation video titled "If It Fits, I Sits: A Supercut Of Animals Sitting In Small Spaces," featuring both cats and dogs squeezing into containers far too small for them. The article noted that buying a pet an expensive bed was pointless when the animal would just sleep in a bowl on the kitchen table.

The meme was part of a larger wave of lolspeak content that had been building since roughly 2005 on 4chan before spreading to dedicated humor sites. By the time "If It Fits I Sits" arrived, the audience for grammatically butchered cat captions was already enormous.

How to Use This Meme

The format is dead simple:

1

Photograph a cat (or dog, or any pet) sitting in a space that's obviously too small, too weird, or too inconvenient for the animal

2

Add the caption "If it fits, I sits" in impact font or lolspeak styling

3

Post to r/IfItFitsISits, a cat-themed subreddit, or any social media platform

Cultural Impact

The meme crossed over from internet humor into mainstream pet culture. HuffPost's supercut video brought it to audiences who might never have visited ICanHasCheezburger or r/funny. Pet supply companies and animal shelters adopted the phrase in marketing materials, knowing that cat owners would immediately get the reference.

"If It Fits I Sits" also fed into broader conversations about why cats actually love small spaces. Animal behaviorists have explained that tight spaces make cats feel secure and warm, which gave the meme a layer of real science underneath the jokes.

The phrase joined a small club of LOLcat-era catchphrases that outlived the format's peak popularity. While most image macros from 2011 faded, "If It Fits I Sits" stuck around because the underlying behavior never stopped. As long as cats keep sitting in boxes, the meme writes itself.

Fun Facts

The USPS slogan "If It Fits, It Ships" was originally part of a holiday ad campaign in 2009 promoting flat-rate boxes. The LOLcat community repurposed it within two years.

The original image macro featured a cat in an egg carton, not a cardboard box, which is the more commonly associated container.

The Reddit post that launched the meme used the title "Cat Logic At Its Best" rather than the now-famous catchphrase itself.

Encyclopedia Dramatica's entry on the meme includes it in a list of over 80 named cat memes, showing just how deep cat meme culture runs.

HuffPost's article corrected itself after initially crediting UPS instead of USPS for the original shipping slogan.

Derivatives & Variations

r/IfItFitsISits subreddit

— Launched March 12, 2012, this dedicated subreddit collects the best examples of cats and other animals cramming into small spaces[3].

"Cat Logic" memes

— A related LOLcat concept that "If It Fits I Sits" often falls under, mocking the bizarre behavioral choices of domestic cats[3].

Dog variations

— While cats dominate the format, dog owners also contributed photos of their pets squeezing into small beds, boxes, and bags[2].

HuffPost supercut

— A compilation video collecting the best animal-in-small-space clips into one video, bridging the meme from image macros into video format[2].

Frequently Asked Questions