How LOLCat Changed Internet Culture
In 2007, a photo of a grinning British Shorthair cat with the caption "I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?" spread across the internet. It inspired a website, a business empire, a Bible translation, and a programming language.
LOLcat speak became one of the first meme dialects that millions of people could recognise. Here's how it changed internet culture.
The Counterintuitive Truth: LOLcat Grammar Has Rules
LOLcat speak looks like random misspelling. But fans followed surprisingly consistent patterns — using "can has" for requests, "iz" for "is," and specific misspellings like "teh."
Break the patterns and fans could tell it was "wrong." We call this meme grammar: informal but real rules that develop inside a joke language.
Common LOLcat Patterns
| Standard English | LOLcat |
|---|---|
| Can I have | I can has |
| is | iz |
| the | teh |
| cheeseburger | cheezburger |
| please | plz |
| oh hi | oh hai |
| seriously | srsly |
| invisible | invisibul |
Try it: LOLCat Translator
Timeline
| Year | Milestone |
|---|---|
| Mid-2000s | Captioned cat photos spread on image boards, including "Caturday" posts |
| 2007 | I Can Has Cheezburger? website launches |
| 2007 | LOLCODE programming language created |
| 2007 | LOLcat Bible Translation Project begins |
| 2010 | LOLcat Bible published as a book |
Why LOLcats Spread
- Cats — reliably popular online
- Easy to create — photo plus caption
- Shared language — recognisable style
- Participation — anyone could make one
- Harmless humour — broad appeal
We call this remixable format: a meme template simple enough for everyone to copy and extend.
LOLcat's Cultural Impact
A Business Model
I Can Has Cheezburger? grew into the Cheezburger Network, a group of humour sites built on user-submitted memes.
A Programming Language
LOLCODE turned LOLcat grammar into code.
A Bible Translation
Volunteers translated the Bible into LOLcat speak, starting with "Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs…"
A Blueprint for Meme Dialects
LOLcat showed that memes could have their own language — leading to:
- Doge (2013) — Doge Translator
- Dolan — Dolan Translator
- Spooderman — Spooderman Translator
- UwU — UwU Translator
Famous LOLcat Phrases
- "I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?"
- "I'm in ur base, killin ur d00dz" (and countless "in ur ___" variations)
- "Ceiling Cat is watching you"
- "Invisible bike"
- "Oh hai"
LOLcat vs Leetspeak
| Leetspeak | LOLcat | |
|---|---|---|
| Era | 1980s–2000s | 2007 onward |
| Community | Hackers, gamers | General internet users |
| Style | Number and symbol swaps | Baby-talk grammar |
| Purpose | Status | Comedy |
What Experts Say
Linguists have studied LOLcat as an example of playful register: users deliberately writing "wrong" English to signal humour and community membership. Researchers such as Lauren Gawne and Jill Vaughan have published analyses of LOLcat language, showing how its creative errors followed patterns.
Where Meme Dialects Are Heading
LOLcat is now nostalgic, but its template lives on. We predict every major meme era will continue producing its own "dialect" — and AI-generated memes will speed the cycle so much that new meme grammars may rise and fade within months rather than years.