Cat Trends on the Internet

Cat fancying is tailor-made for the Internet. Never mind that all the things you love about your kitty – how soft she is, how she lays on your chest when you're taking a nap and how she makes that piece of string pay for its sins – are impossible to create in cyberspace.

The Web is full of sites uniting communities of cat lovers, and videos and memes catering to those who find unlikely kitty behavior utterly hilarious. Know Your Meme tracks well over a dozen separate humorous cat trends, from "Keyboard Cat" -- a piano-savvy feline who turns up whenever someone is embarrassing herself -- to "Spaghetti Cat," a Zelig-like, pasta-loving kitty who even has her own theme song and music video.


Perhaps the most viral cat meme is "Lolcats," image macros of cats complimented by captions with intentionally poor grammar and spelling -- which is how cats would talk, of course. Popularized by the Web site I Can Has Cheezburger, the meme has spawned two #1 New York Times best sellers, an art show, and even a musical at this year's New York Fringe Festival, I Can Has Cheezburger: The MusicLOL!

To Ben Huh, CEO of the Cheezbuger network -- which also has sites dedicated to Loldogs and people failing to do things correctly -- cat humor is well-suited for the Web. "It's the fact that cats are very emotive and can show lots of different expressions in a short amount of time," he writes in an e-mail. "Also, they tend not to react to cameras, so it's easy to catch them doing what they do."

Besides, Huh adds, a cat community is a darn hard thing to assemble off-line. "Dog owners have a social outlet when they walk their dogs or take them to the park," he says. "Our experiences with cats tend to be personal and private, so the Internet really serves as a giant litterbox for cat owners."

Tags: animalsiteswelove, Ben Huh, BenHuh, i can has cheezburger, ICanHasCheezburger, KeyboardCat, lolcats, memes, spaghetti cat, SpaghettiCat