Origin of cat memes (a brief history of this internet gold)

 What is the origin of cat memes? Well, they actually became popular in the early 2000's (on the internet). But what many people don't realize is that they actually kind of began in the 1800's (if you can believe that!) Certain photographers, such as the English Harry Pointer, would take photos of their cats in humorous poses, and even sometimes add text to the photos! That sounds hilarious. 

Funny nose boop cat meme

In the early 2000's, a trend known as "LOLcats" emerged, which was cats doing funny things, with humorous text on them. 

Early internet spread

Cat photos became popular online as early as the 1990s, but the actual "memes" weren't born until later on. You can attribute the spread of cat memes largely to sites like 4chan, around 2005-2007. In 2007, with the creation of the website "I can has cheezburger?", the LOLcat trend reached full mainstream status.

Thoughts

As you can see, internet memes featuring our feline friends have been around for a while and are a staple of web culture. I personally love these, being a cat lover myself, and they are some of my favorite images to look at and share online!

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