Pictures of Cats

In the mid and late 2000s, cat pictures became a popular web search. This was partly due to online activity by cat lovers, reflecting their sincere affection for the feline form, but much of the interest revolved around humorous, irony-tinged sites.

Fast Facts

1. Lolcats are humorous pictures of cats, accompanied by captions in broken English
2. Kitlers are "cats that look like Hitler"
3. Popular humor sites: I Can Has Cheezburger?, MyCatHatesYou.com
4. Popular non-humor sites: Catster, Cat of the Day

Feline Humor

Though gently humorous images of cats had previously been popular—notably the "Hang in There, Baby" posters that adorned children's bedroom walls in the 1980s—sharper-edged feline humor became popular in the mid and late 2000s. Notable sites include the following.

• MyCatHatesYou.com: Founded in 2001 by Microsoft programmer Jim Edgar, the site features sinister-looking cats. Edgar went on to publish a photo book with the same theme, 2004's bestselling Bad Cat: 244 Not-So-Pretty Kitties And Cats Gone Bad.

• Hitler Cats: This photoblog features "Kitlers," non-photoshopped images of cats whose color patterns are reminiscent of Adolf Hitler—particularly the bangs and mustache. A similar image was used in early 2008 for an anti-fascist campaign by Germany's Green Party.¹

• I Can Has Cheezburger?: This popular photoblog, begun in January 2007 by Eric Nakagawa, receives hundreds of thousands of page views per day.² The site is credited with the Lolcats (laugh-out-loud cats) phenomenon. The first image posted on the site was that of a stout, bright-eyed gray cat named Happycat, with the caption, "I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?"

Feline Appreciation

Not all of the online sources for cat pictures are meant to be humorous. Many are used simply to express affection for one of America's most common house pets.

• Cat of the Day: This blog features daily user-submitted profiles of pets, including photos and biographical blurbs.

• World Famous Random Kitten Generator: As its name suggests, this site randomly displays endearing images of kittens at the click of a button.

• Catster: A social networking site for cats and their owners, featuring images and detailed profiles.

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