# Lolcats and I Can Has Cheezburger?

> A cat caption blog led to a book with 141,133 shipments reported by its publisher.

- Owner: Cheezburger (site); the lolcat format has no single owner
- Kind: Meme & format
- Sector: Culture (no sector)
- Seed date: 2007-01-11
- Milestone date: 2008-10-26
- Date basis: Documented milestone; not a measured attention peak.
- Spread Score: 34 (Niche, provisional), v1.3
- Mechanics: Shareable output, Catchphrase, Maker origin, Platform jump, Press loop

## Summary

A Happycat image became a submission-driven blog. Caption tools, press coverage and a book carried lolcats beyond forums. The book's bestseller entry is the milestone anchor; the later network financing covered many humor sites.

## Timeline

- 2005 — 4chan users (Open web) — 4chan users shared captioned cat pictures in Caturday threads.
- 2007-01-11 — Eric Nakagawa and Kari Unebasami (Open web) — Eric Nakagawa and Kari Unebasami launched I Can Has Cheezburger? around the Happycat image.
- 2007-04-23 — Anil Dash (Open web) — Anil Dash analyzed lolcat grammar and linked to a tool for making captioned cat pictures.

The full timeline, metrics and sources are on the case page, or via the Pro API (https://howitspread.com/developers).

Canonical URL: https://howitspread.com/cases/lolcats

Cite as: How It Spread (2026). “Lolcats and I Can Has Cheezburger?.” Case HIS-01571. Spread Score v1.3: 34/100. Updated 2026-10-23. https://howitspread.com/id/HIS-01571