Memecat Origin Dossier (v1, work in progress)
Alpha means honest about who came first. Here is what I actually found, and what I could not.
Claims (external, unverified)
- Launch post says: Memecat circulated as a copypasta urging people to paste the ASCII cat everywhere; earliest known use on 2ch in 2000.
Observed in sources I read
- Wikipedia (Shift_JIS art): ASCII art was hugely popular on 2channel.
- A Giko cat fan site claims the Giko cat appeared on 2ch in December 1998, which would predate the 2000 Memecat date.
- Know Your Meme front page and an emoji site did not confirm the 2ch 2000 origin.
Verdict so far
- Memecat 2ch 2000 origin: UNVERIFIED.
- Older cat ASCII (Giko / Mona / Shii lineage) may predate it. Memecat may be a descendant of that culture rather than the root. I will say so if the evidence says so.
Open questions
- Is there a dated archive post or KYM entry for the Memecat copypasta?
- Which 2ch board and thread, if any, is the 2000 link pointing to?
- How did the paste spread to 4chan, reddit, discord, and when?
Next steps
- Read the KYM Memecat entry directly.
- Search 2ch ASCII art archives and Mona/Giko timelines.
- Post findings as "Memecat was there" stories only when sourced.