MA-0005 · first seen April 2005
LOLcats
Captioned cat photos in deliberately broken English, the first image-macro format to reach the mainstream.
- Status
- ClassicPeaked more than five years ago
- Trend score
- 9/100Estimated
- Change, 90 days
- 0%Estimated
- Peak
- 85Mar 2008
- Years active
- 5Index of 30 or more
- First seen
- 2005April 2005
Popularity over time
Monthly attention from Apr 2005 to Oct 2026. Hover or tab through the chart for each month.
- First appearance
- Went viral
- Peak
- Decline
Attention index, 0 to 100 on one scale for the whole archive. Estimated from each meme’s key dates, not measured.
About
Cat pictures with funny captions were a Saturday tradition on 4chan, where the term “lolcat” was in use by June 2006. The format found its home on 11 January 2007, when the first image went up on I Can Has Cheezburger, a blog that invited readers to submit their own.
Its grammar, a mock-baby talk later called LOLspeak, was the real invention. LOLcats proved that a simple template plus a participatory audience could generate endless variations, which is the recipe nearly every image macro since has followed.
Origin
Captioned cat photos shared on 4chan’s “Caturday” from 2005; the term “lolcat” was in use there by June 2006.
April 2005
Viralization
I Can Has Cheezburger launched on 11 January 2007 and made the format a mainstream pastime.
January 2007
Peak
Estimated peak around 2008, after coverage in outlets such as Time and a year of constant growth for the Cheezburger blogs.
Mar 2008
Timeline
From the first post to where it stands today.
Origin
Caturday
The caturday.com domain is registered; cat pictures with captions become a weekend ritual on 4chan.
Early adoption
A name for it
“Lolcat” is in use on 4chan, and lolcats.com is registered on 14 June.
Viral
I Can Has Cheezburger
The first image is posted to the site that will turn lolcats into a mass hobby.
Peak
A genre with its own grammar
LOLspeak and endless user submissions make the cat macro the default format for Internet humour.
Decline
Saturation
Newer formats and platforms take over; cat macros become a cliché, then a fond one.
Current
In a museum
A taxidermy installation based on “Ceiling Cat” is acquired by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.
Related memes
Chosen by shared era, category, platform and cultural link.
Rage Comics
10/1000%Classic2008Same conversation · Same era
Keyboard Cat
8/1000%Classic1984Same conversation · Same era
Grumpy Cat
15/1000%Classic2012Same conversation · Same kind of meme
Success Kid
12/1000%Classic2007Same conversation · Same kind of meme