What it doesn't mean
Know Your Meme points to 19th- and early-20th-century photographers, such as Harry Pointer and Harry Whittier Frees, who posed and captioned cats long before the internet.
It has its own consistent rules: odd verb forms ('I can has'), playful misspellings ('cheezburger') and set templates such as 'Im in ur [noun], [verb]-ing ur [noun]'. Fans even used it to write LOLCODE, a joke programming language.
What it really means
Before the internet had TikTok cats or reaction-GIF cats, it had lolcats: photos of cats with captions in a strange, cheerful broken English. The most famous showed a round grey cat looking hopeful above the words I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?
The format grew out of 4chan. According to Time, "Caturday" threads of cat pictures started there in early 2005, and the domain lolcats.com was registered in June 2006. On 11 January 2007 the website I Can Has Cheezburger? launched, and the captions reached everyone. The American Dialect Society made lolcat a runner-up in the "Most Creative" category of its 2007 Word of the Year awards.
The language of the captions, lolspeak, had rules of its own. Verbs went wrong in consistent ways ("I can has"), words were spelled phonetically ("cheezburger"), and templates repeated: "Im in ur [noun], [verb]-ing ur [noun]". The captions were set in a heavy sans-serif font, usually Impact. Fans built a whole culture on it, from the LOLCat Bible Translation Project to LOLCODE, a joke programming language.
The idea wasn't wholly new. Know Your Meme points to photographers such as Harry Pointer in the 19th century and Harry Whittier Frees in the early 20th, who posed cats and gave them captions.
Lolspeak faded as meme formats moved on, and today it belongs to the late 2000s as clearly as dial-up belongs to the 1990s. Cats, of course, never left.
Where it comes from
- Early 2005
'Caturday' cat-picture threads begin on 4chan, according to Time.
- 14 June 2006
The domain lolcats.com is registered.
- 11 January 2007
The I Can Has Cheezburger? website launches and carries the format to a mass audience.
- 2007
'Lolcat' is runner-up in the 'Most Creative' category of the American Dialect Society's Word of the Year awards.
In real life
- A chubby grey cat stares hopefully at the camera: 'I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?' — the caption that named a website.
- A cat sitting in a laundry basket: 'IM IN UR BASKIT, SLEEPIN ON UR SOX' — the classic 'Im in ur…' template.
- Typing 'i can has coffee?' in a group chat today is a fond joke for anyone who was online in 2007.
Questions
Q01What does 'I can has cheezburger?' mean?
'Can I have a cheeseburger?', in lolspeak, the deliberately broken English of lolcat captions. It was the caption of a famous cat photo and gave its name to the I Can Has Cheezburger? website, launched in January 2007.
Q02What is a lolcat?
A photo of a cat with a caption in lolspeak, usually in a heavy sans-serif font such as Impact. The format came out of 4chan's 'Caturday' threads around 2005.
Q03Are lolcats still a thing?
Hardly. Cat memes are as popular as ever, but the lolspeak caption style now reads as a nostalgic throwback to the late 2000s.
Q04What is lolspeak?
The playful broken English of lolcat captions: misspellings, odd grammar and baby-talk verb forms, used for comic effect.
Sources
- Lolcat — Wikipedia (4chan origin; domain registrations; I Can Has Cheezburger? launched 11 January 2007; American Dialect Society 2007 'Most Creative' runner-up; LOLCODE).
- LOLcats — Know Your Meme (Caturday, early 2005; earlier captioned-cat photographers; 2007 growth).