Somehow, We Knew the Cats Would Take Over in the End
You know those pictures of cats with the funny pseudo-textspeak captions on them? Well they made somebody a web tycoon. Advertising Age carries the interview with the one and only Ben Huh (yes, his real name), founder of “I Can Haz Cheezburger,” “Failblog,” “Engrish Funny,” “There I Fixed It,” “Roflrazzi,” and “That Will Buff Out.”
He’s building his web properties into a miniature media empire, with less of a gift for being funny (even though all of his sites are based on humor), than for knowing what is popular. And that’s all it is – funny sites with ads attached, where seemingly everybody takes a minute to goof off at their desk for five minutes to come look.
Which leaves us with the compelling question – why funny cat pictures? Why do they have such broad appeal? Not even a social psychologist with a Master’s in psychology could have dreamed that one up!
Peter Brittain