Longcat

2004Photoshop meme / image macroclassic

Also known as: Nobiko · Nobiiru · Nobiiru-tan · Shiro · Shiroi

Longcat is a 2004-2005 image-macro meme featuring a white Japanese rescue cat named Shiro with hilariously elongated paws and the catchphrase "Longcat is looooooooooong.

Longcat is one of the internet's earliest cat memes, based on a photo of a white Japanese cat being held up with absurdly outstretched paws2. The image first surfaced on Japan's Futaba Channel around 2004-2005 before migrating to 4chan's /b/ board, where it inspired photoshop edits, a fan mythology called Catnarok, and the catchphrase "Longcat is loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong." The real cat, named Shiro, was a rescue who lived to age 18 and died in September 2020.

catsearly internet memesexploitable templatesjapanese internet memes4chan memes

Overview

The original Longcat photo shows a white cat held up by human hands, her body stretched to a striking length. The appeal is immediate: the cat looks absurdly, impossibly long. The image became a photoshop playground, with users stretching the cat's midsection to extreme proportions and placing her next to buildings and landmarks for scale. The catchphrase "Longcat is loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong" became an internet staple2, and the meme sparked a linguistic habit of using redundant adjective constructions for comedic emphasis: "Bad movie is bad," "Smart man was smart," "HOT LAVA IS HOT"4.

The cat behind the meme was a white domestic cat named Shiro (シロ), born around 2002. In a 2019 interview, Shiro's owner said she was originally found on the street as a thin cat with gray hair, and over time grew into a fluffy white coat. She measured about 65 centimeters (26 inches) from head to toe and was deaf1.

The photo first appeared on Futaba Channel (2chan), Japan's major anonymous imageboard, between 2004 and 2005. It was posted by a Japanese man, and on 2chan the cat earned the nickname "nobiiru" (のびーる), meaning "stretch," with the affectionate variation "nobiiru-tan" also in use2. Unlike the LOLcats wave that would soon follow, Longcat never carried misspelled captions. The Oh Internet wiki described her as "a meme in its own right," separate from and predating the LOLcat format2.

Origin & Background

Platform
Futaba Channel / 2chan (source photo), 4chan /b/ (English-language spread)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2004-2005

The cat behind the meme was a white domestic cat named Shiro (シロ), born around 2002. In a 2019 interview, Shiro's owner said she was originally found on the street as a thin cat with gray hair, and over time grew into a fluffy white coat. She measured about 65 centimeters (26 inches) from head to toe and was deaf.

The photo first appeared on Futaba Channel (2chan), Japan's major anonymous imageboard, between 2004 and 2005. It was posted by a Japanese man, and on 2chan the cat earned the nickname "nobiiru" (のびーる), meaning "stretch," with the affectionate variation "nobiiru-tan" also in use. Unlike the LOLcats wave that would soon follow, Longcat never carried misspelled captions. The Oh Internet wiki described her as "a meme in its own right," separate from and predating the LOLcat format.

How It Spread

Longcat crossed into English-speaking internet communities through 4chan's /b/ (random) board, where the name "Longcat" was coined. Despite the cat being female, the meme community almost universally referred to Longcat using male pronouns. An Urban Dictionary entry was created on September 16, 2006, attributing the meme to /b/.

The meme's mainstream peak came in May 2007, when Longcat appeared on the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, which drove Google search interest to its highest point. The following year, on June 29, 2008, a dedicated website launched at Longc.at, featuring a visual representation of the cat's supposed infinite length.

By 2009, 4chan's community had built an elaborate fan mythology around the character. In this lore, Longcat would one day face her nemesis Tacgnol, a similarly elongated black cat whose name is "Longcat" spelled backward, in a world-ending clash called "Catnarok". Flash animations celebrating the meme also circulated, including "LongCat's Song" by Brian "Okk" Raddatz. In March 2011, I Can Has Cheezburger posted a retrospective compilation covering the meme's online history.

On September 20, 2020, Shiro died at the age of 18 after a period of ill health. The cat's owner, tweeting as @aerosubaru, shared memorial photos that drew tens of thousands of likes and retweets within 24 hours. The outpouring showed just how deeply the internet had bonded with this particular cat over more than a decade.

Platforms

4chanForums9GAG

Timeline

2006

Longcat image emerges

2006-2008

Becomes cult meme

2007-01-01

Longcat started spreading across social media platforms

2008-2012

Gradually fades from mainstream

2009-01-01

Brands and companies started using Longcat in marketing

2011-01-01

Longcat entered the broader pop culture conversation

2012+

Largely forgotten

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The classic Longcat format involves editing the original photo to exaggerate the cat's length or placing her in scenes that emphasize scale. Common approaches:

1

Stretch the midsection: Extend the cat's torso in Photoshop to absurd proportions

2

Scale comparisons: Place Longcat next to buildings, landmarks, or massive objects to show her towering over them

3

Catnarok edits: Depict Longcat and Tacgnol facing off in an apocalyptic showdown

4

Adjective-doubling: Apply the "Longcat is long" structure to any subject ("Tall building is tall," "Bad movie is bad")

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

Longcat occupies a key spot in the history of internet cat memes. She predated the LOLcats explosion, making her one of the earliest cats to achieve meme fame on imageboards. While LOLcats relied on intentionally misspelled captions in the "I Can Has Cheezburger" style, Longcat's humor came purely from the visual and its edits, pointing toward the photoshop-heavy meme culture that would define the late 2000s.

The "X is X" adjective-doubling format spread far beyond Longcat's origin, becoming a general-purpose comedic construction across forums, imageboards, and social media.

When Shiro died in 2020, the response was notable. News outlets covered the death, and social media tributes poured in from users who had grown up with the meme. It was one of the few times a meme born on anonymous imageboards received genuine mainstream mourning.

Fun Facts

Shiro's owner revealed in a 2019 interview that the cat was deaf, and at age 17, she no longer climbed to high places but was "relaxing and living her life".

Despite being female, Longcat was almost universally referred to as male by the English-speaking meme community.

Longcat predated the LOLcats explosion and never carried misspelled captions, making her distinct from the "I Can Has Cheezburger" style of cat memes.

The "X is X" adjective format ("Longcat is long") became so widespread that it is used in contexts completely unrelated to the original meme.

Derivatives & Variations

Similar extended animal images

A variation of Longcat

(2006)

Parodies and variations

A variation of Longcat

(2006)

Length-based humor memes

A variation of Longcat

(2006)

Frequently Asked Questions

Longcat

2004Photoshop meme / image macroclassic

Also known as: Nobiko · Nobiiru · Nobiiru-tan · Shiro · Shiroi

Longcat is a 2004-2005 image-macro meme featuring a white Japanese rescue cat named Shiro with hilariously elongated paws and the catchphrase "Longcat is looooooooooong.

Longcat is one of the internet's earliest cat memes, based on a photo of a white Japanese cat being held up with absurdly outstretched paws. The image first surfaced on Japan's Futaba Channel around 2004-2005 before migrating to 4chan's /b/ board, where it inspired photoshop edits, a fan mythology called Catnarok, and the catchphrase "Longcat is loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong." The real cat, named Shiro, was a rescue who lived to age 18 and died in September 2020.

cats early internet memes exploitable templates japanese internet memes 4chan memes

Overview

The original Longcat photo shows a white cat held up by human hands, her body stretched to a striking length. The appeal is immediate: the cat looks absurdly, impossibly long. The image became a photoshop playground, with users stretching the cat's midsection to extreme proportions and placing her next to buildings and landmarks for scale. The catchphrase "Longcat is loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong" became an internet staple, and the meme sparked a linguistic habit of using redundant adjective constructions for comedic emphasis: "Bad movie is bad," "Smart man was smart," "HOT LAVA IS HOT".

The cat behind the meme was a white domestic cat named Shiro (シロ), born around 2002. In a 2019 interview, Shiro's owner said she was originally found on the street as a thin cat with gray hair, and over time grew into a fluffy white coat. She measured about 65 centimeters (26 inches) from head to toe and was deaf.

The photo first appeared on Futaba Channel (2chan), Japan's major anonymous imageboard, between 2004 and 2005. It was posted by a Japanese man, and on 2chan the cat earned the nickname "nobiiru" (のびーる), meaning "stretch," with the affectionate variation "nobiiru-tan" also in use. Unlike the LOLcats wave that would soon follow, Longcat never carried misspelled captions. The Oh Internet wiki described her as "a meme in its own right," separate from and predating the LOLcat format.

Origin & Background

Platform
Futaba Channel / 2chan (source photo), 4chan /b/ (English-language spread)
Creator
Unknown
Date
2004-2005

The cat behind the meme was a white domestic cat named Shiro (シロ), born around 2002. In a 2019 interview, Shiro's owner said she was originally found on the street as a thin cat with gray hair, and over time grew into a fluffy white coat. She measured about 65 centimeters (26 inches) from head to toe and was deaf.

The photo first appeared on Futaba Channel (2chan), Japan's major anonymous imageboard, between 2004 and 2005. It was posted by a Japanese man, and on 2chan the cat earned the nickname "nobiiru" (のびーる), meaning "stretch," with the affectionate variation "nobiiru-tan" also in use. Unlike the LOLcats wave that would soon follow, Longcat never carried misspelled captions. The Oh Internet wiki described her as "a meme in its own right," separate from and predating the LOLcat format.

How It Spread

Longcat crossed into English-speaking internet communities through 4chan's /b/ (random) board, where the name "Longcat" was coined. Despite the cat being female, the meme community almost universally referred to Longcat using male pronouns. An Urban Dictionary entry was created on September 16, 2006, attributing the meme to /b/.

The meme's mainstream peak came in May 2007, when Longcat appeared on the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, which drove Google search interest to its highest point. The following year, on June 29, 2008, a dedicated website launched at Longc.at, featuring a visual representation of the cat's supposed infinite length.

By 2009, 4chan's community had built an elaborate fan mythology around the character. In this lore, Longcat would one day face her nemesis Tacgnol, a similarly elongated black cat whose name is "Longcat" spelled backward, in a world-ending clash called "Catnarok". Flash animations celebrating the meme also circulated, including "LongCat's Song" by Brian "Okk" Raddatz. In March 2011, I Can Has Cheezburger posted a retrospective compilation covering the meme's online history.

On September 20, 2020, Shiro died at the age of 18 after a period of ill health. The cat's owner, tweeting as @aerosubaru, shared memorial photos that drew tens of thousands of likes and retweets within 24 hours. The outpouring showed just how deeply the internet had bonded with this particular cat over more than a decade.

Platforms

4chanForums9GAG

Timeline

2006

Longcat image emerges

2006-2008

Becomes cult meme

2007-01-01

Longcat started spreading across social media platforms

2008-2012

Gradually fades from mainstream

2009-01-01

Brands and companies started using Longcat in marketing

2011-01-01

Longcat entered the broader pop culture conversation

2012+

Largely forgotten

View on Google Trends

How to Use This Meme

The classic Longcat format involves editing the original photo to exaggerate the cat's length or placing her in scenes that emphasize scale. Common approaches:

1

Stretch the midsection: Extend the cat's torso in Photoshop to absurd proportions

2

Scale comparisons: Place Longcat next to buildings, landmarks, or massive objects to show her towering over them

3

Catnarok edits: Depict Longcat and Tacgnol facing off in an apocalyptic showdown

4

Adjective-doubling: Apply the "Longcat is long" structure to any subject ("Tall building is tall," "Bad movie is bad")

Create Your Own

Cultural Impact

Longcat occupies a key spot in the history of internet cat memes. She predated the LOLcats explosion, making her one of the earliest cats to achieve meme fame on imageboards. While LOLcats relied on intentionally misspelled captions in the "I Can Has Cheezburger" style, Longcat's humor came purely from the visual and its edits, pointing toward the photoshop-heavy meme culture that would define the late 2000s.

The "X is X" adjective-doubling format spread far beyond Longcat's origin, becoming a general-purpose comedic construction across forums, imageboards, and social media.

When Shiro died in 2020, the response was notable. News outlets covered the death, and social media tributes poured in from users who had grown up with the meme. It was one of the few times a meme born on anonymous imageboards received genuine mainstream mourning.

Fun Facts

Shiro's owner revealed in a 2019 interview that the cat was deaf, and at age 17, she no longer climbed to high places but was "relaxing and living her life".

Despite being female, Longcat was almost universally referred to as male by the English-speaking meme community.

Longcat predated the LOLcats explosion and never carried misspelled captions, making her distinct from the "I Can Has Cheezburger" style of cat memes.

The "X is X" adjective format ("Longcat is long") became so widespread that it is used in contexts completely unrelated to the original meme.

Derivatives & Variations

Similar extended animal images

A variation of Longcat

(2006)

Parodies and variations

A variation of Longcat

(2006)

Length-based humor memes

A variation of Longcat

(2006)

Frequently Asked Questions