Cat memes are one of the great unifying forces of the internet. No matter your background, interests, or sense of humor, there’s a pretty good chance that at some point you’ve laughed at a cat with a weird expression, a silly caption, or a completely bizarre situation. They’re everywhere, on social media feeds, group chats, and even in the form of merchandise. But where did cat memes come from, and why have they taken such a tight hold of internet culture?
Their history goes back much longer than the internet. Humans have been amusing themselves with cats for centuries, ancient Egyptians worshipped them, 19th-century photographers dressed them up in little clothes, and artists have been using them as the topic of playful or fantastical paintings for decades.
But the modern cat meme has its roots in the ancient days of internet culture, when forums and imageboards started spreading funny cat pictures with intentionally absurd captions. One of the earliest and most famous is "I Can Has Cheezburger?" that launched in 2007. It featured images of cats with grammatically incorrect English captions, so-called "LOLspeak." The absurdity of the grammar paired with the cuteness of the cats made it immediately viral, setting the stage for the internet's long-standing obsession.
Then the floodgates opened. Cats like Grumpy Cat, with her perpetually annoyed expression, and Lil Bub, with her trademark tongue-out look, became full-fledged celebrities. These weren't just photos anymore, they were brands, with books, merch, and media appearances to prove it. Cat memes had moved from random funny pictures to cultural touchstones, each representing a specific mood, reaction, or worldview.
Part of why cat memes endure is that cats themselves are such inherently anarchic creatures. They're solemn one moment and ridiculous the next. They stuff themselves into boxes too small for them, knock things off of tables with the kind of accidental malice only a cat can manage, and make faces that seem specially engineered for internet captions.
And their unpredictability is precisely what renders them infinitely meme-able because whatever human emotion you want to exaggerate, joy, rage, confusion, smugness, there's a cat picture out there that captures it perfectly.
Accessibility is another aspect. Though there are undoubtedly memes that are based on niche information or insider knowledge, cat memes are for all. You do not necessarily need to know gaming culture or political subtext to be able to laugh at a cross-eyed kitten. That wide-ranging appeal made them a mainstay of the early internet and continues to render them appealing in a balkanized online environment.
Cat memes also show the collaborative nature of online communities. Somebody makes a funny picture, captions it, and then other people riff on it, remix it, or spin it off. The meme mutates and spreads, with each subsequent iteration funnier or weirder than the last. Cats are the perfect tabula rasa for that creativity, instantly recognizable but susceptible to endless re-interpretation.
