Serious Cat — Close-up of a white cat with a serious, stern expression next to an inset of the original photo on a laptop

Serious Cat

2005image macroclassic

Published November 3, 2026

Serious Cat is an image macro based on a 2003 photograph of a white cat with an unusually stern, almost offended expression. The photo first appeared on Japanese imageboard gazo-box.com, surfaced in 2005 on the Korean comedy site Humor University as 'Jae-Young Cat,' and reached 4chan and LOLcat blogs in 2006 as a reaction face for mock-serious internet arguments. By November 2007, the 'I are serious cat. This is serious thread' catchphrase had its own single-serving website at SeriousCat.com.

lolcat memes image macro memes cats reaction memes catchphrase memes

Overview

The joke works on exaggerated deadpan. The cat's wide eyes and tight mouth read as grave disapproval, which clashes with whatever the image gets attached to. Users typically Photoshop the face onto other bodies or caption the plain image with 'I are serious cat. This is serious thread'3.

On I Can Has Cheezburger, the macro appeared alongside more cheerful cat captions and became the LOLcat template for warning that a thread had turned combative4. Image edits also swapped the cat's head onto human subjects, keeping only the face unchanged against the new scene3.

Origin & Background

Platform
Humor University (Korea) / 4chan (English-speaking spread)
Date
2005

On November 4, 2003, a photo of a white cat with a stern expression was uploaded to the Japanese imageboard gazo-box.com, where it went unnoticed outside a small circle of visitors for years1. The archived page shows the image on a 2ch-style joyful board, posted among ordinary cat snapshots rather than as a joke1.

In early 2005, a user on the Korean comedy site Humor University paired the photo with a shot of DJ Jae Young from the group DJ DOC, pointing out the strong facial resemblance between the two6. Korean posters renamed the cat 'Jae-Young Cat' and the comparison bounced through DCInside and RuliWeb7. Jae-Young Cat and one of its derivatives later ranked among Naver Boom's most reblogged pictures of 20058.

How It Spread

In August 2006, Serious Cat started turning up on 4chan and YTMND, where English-speaking users rebuilt the Korean joke as an image macro about overly intense forum debates3. By July 2007, the caption 'I are serious cat. This is serious thread' took hold on I Can Has Cheezburger and traveled to Digg within the same year45.

On November 5, 2007, a single-serving site called SeriousCat.com launched to host the plain image at a dedicated URL, a common gag for individual LOLcats at the time9. Nearly two decades later, Reddit user u/randomguy9I surfaced the unedited 2003 gazo-box.com photograph on r/LostMedia on April 21, 2025, earning over 2,000 upvotes within two days and resolving the long-standing origin question for Serious Cat's source image2.

Timeline

2003-11-04

A photo of a white cat with a stern expression is uploaded to Japanese imageboard gazo-box.com.

2005

Earliest known Photoshop appears on Humor University, pairing the cat with Korean DJ Jae Young as 'Jae-Young Cat.'

2005

Jae-Young Cat and a derivative rank among Naver Boom's most reblogged pictures of the year.

2006-08

Image begins appearing on 4chan and YTMND as 'Serious Cat.'

2007-07-19

'I are serious cat. This is serious thread' macro posted on I Can Has Cheezburger.

2007-11-05

Single-serving site SeriousCat.com launches.

2025-04-21

Reddit user u/randomguy9I identifies the original 2003 gazo-box.com photo on r/LostMedia.

How to Use This Meme

To use Serious Cat, people typically overlay the cat's face on another subject in Photoshop or paste the plain image into a thread as a mock-stern reaction, often with the broken-English line 'I are serious cat. This is serious thread' to signal that an argument has grown ridiculous4.

Frequently Asked Questions