They're In UR Computer, Fuelin a Trend

Animals + semiliterate captions = unstoppable online phenomenon
By Marie Morris,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 26, 2007 10:00 AM CDT
They're In UR Computer, Fuelin a Trend
Y U FROWIN MEEH OUT   ((c) Kitty de Medici)

From humble origins—a photo of a hungry feline—the website "I Can Haz Cheezburger" has grown into a hot destination, seeding the Web with "LOLcats" and appalling grammar and spelling. The Journal tracks down founder Eric Nakagawa, who was out of work when inspiration struck and says the site now generates "more than enough to pay my bills."

Nakagawa picks about a dozen daily posts from hundreds of reader submissions captioned in what one expert calls "kitty pidgin." With hundreds of thousands of visitors each day, the 9-month-old site is both a community and an exceedingly addictive time-waster, with its own inside jokes and recurring characters. They're in ur browser, gettin U to read this. (More internet stories.)

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