Recently, the New York Times highlighted one of my favorite websites – LOLCats and the I Can Has Cheezburger network. I’m a huge fan of the site – I can has tasty article, nom nom nom. I even have several LOLCats posted in my office (although I’d like to admit that one is a gecko subtitled “I has feets”). So I legitimately LOL’d at the chance to write about this site and how it has impacted pop culture – and more importantly how it shows that even Gen Y’s silliest ideas can turn into an empire.
“Three years ago Ben Huh visited a blog devoted to silly cat pictures — and saw vast potential,” says the Times. Around that same time, I found a way to sheepishly waste hours on the Internet, ROFL’ing to photos of cats with silly captions. Anyone who has trolled the Internet as much as the next Millennial knows what an LOLCat is (link to urban dictionary), has found solace in a hilarious and sad-but-true pie chart on GraphJam.com, has chuckled at the epic fails on FailBlog, or pasted a FailBook link on their very own Facebook wall. It’s hard not to be subjected to Huh’s empire of amazingly time-consuming sites. But is it really just time wasting? On the contrary. LOLCats is actually serious business.
As a generation, we’ve got the bad rep of being consistently distracted. I know. It’s not our fault that we were raised on gadgets and can multi-task in ways that other generations can only imagine. But who said that distraction always has to be bad?
I’m a sucker for obscure internet humor sites and memes – spending my nights (and work days) laughing at Hipster Cat and Socially Awkward Penguin or on my favorite blog. I devote these hours to something very important; giving my brain a break from my nine-to-five and lowering my stress level by having a few laughs that may or may not be caused by some furballs and witty captions.
There are so many self-help articles out there on how to stop distraction from ruining your life, especially at the office, like Fast Company’s “Facebook is a Big Employee Distraction, But Is It All Bad?” which describes the vast amount of time that we waste on sites like Facebook at the office. However, I’m on the side of good in this epic battle of using distractions for positive influences in life. Wired magazine recently had a blog that described distraction (through the use of social sites) as necessary for a brain to maintain creativity and help achieve success in projects by giving the grey matter a much-needed break. I double-dog/cat dare you to go to LOLCats or FailBlog and spend 15 minutes without leaving the site refreshed and with a smile on your face.
If I were an employer, I would demand that my employees take a mentally-refreshing break every few hours to get up, walk around the office, and giggle at a witty caption and funny-looking furry animals, perhaps with a Star Wars theme.
Ben Huh, the CEO of Pet Holdings, Inc. which runs The Cheezburger Network, is only 31 this year, and his business has accomplished an astonishing amount. He founded the Cheezburger Network in 2007, and grew it to one of the largest blog networks in the world. According to the Times, “the company will generate a seven-figure sum from advertising, licensing fees and merchandise sales (this year). The company has published five books based on its blogs…Three more books are in production, along with a line of greeting cards and desktop calendars.” He’s been featured in the LA Times and Time Magazine as well.
What’s his mission? Oh, just “to make the world happy for five minutes a day.” He’s one of many young people who have revolutionized the way we function online (or how we distract ourselves online), on par with people like Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg (born in 1984). If anything, Huh’s success – and those of other young entrepreneurs – should be an inspiring tale of following your dreams, and that isn’t just “we can do it!” Millennial hype.
Huh and his staff are keeping smart and monitoring cultural trends and Internet memes to make sure the product is constantly evolving to meet the needs of the audience. He’s capitalizing on the user-generated content movement and the need to crowdsource everything. In short, they’re always trying to find the next “inside joke” online. Hard work and determination and chasing ideas should be an inspiration to every young person, even if your dreams include angry-looking cats and white impact font.
Wrong. This all started months before Huh decided to rip off 4chan for his own profit.
you're right… /b/tard.
Correct me if I'm wrong, I get that he paid for the site, but it's more the fact that the idea itself isn't original that I think Ethan has an issue with.
I mean, if our economy is moving towards service and idea-generated businesses like advertising, PR, web dev etc., it's got to be important for us to define where the line is in terms of idea ownership. Sure Huh was willing to pay to capitalize on his unoriginality, but not everyone is so noble.
Love the great comments – thanks.
I do understand some of the background on the debate with Huh's “rip off” of 4chan as stated below by Ethan, but I'm not an expert in the matter by any means – so I won't try to debate anything with you on the origins of anything concerning this. However, I will say that I believe Huh took the idea and the content and turned it into something that any entrepreneur should admire. And I like that the article pointed out that their staff really tries to stay on top of pop culture and the interwebs – as I'm a planner and try to do the same thing – in order to get the most up-to-date pulse of the consumer. Evan – you make a fantastic point. That's something that anyone working with social media, crowdsourcing, etc. has to deal with at an agency, business, etc. – the idea of who owns the ideas. AdAge is littered with articles about such things…just hoping that we can finally settle on that line!
Anyone have anything to say about it being a handy distraction tool? Anything about having sites like this spark your creativity or use as a stress relief tool? ROFL anyone?
Well, for one, the Internet is a huge distraction. No one read the paper at work, only at the breakfast table, but now sitting in cubicles means access to news sites during all hours of the day. I mean, many of the people I know don't do much work as much as they read Pitchfork or browse Facebook. Maybe someone should write an article on how the Internet has made us lazier when it comes to getting down to working.
I think that's a great idea! I'd love to have opposing views on stuff – makes for a way better conversation. I don't think I've ever been on pitchfork, but I think the majority of people I know are Facebook browsers for sure. I like the “work hard, play hard” mantra – but I would be it gets out of hand at many a workplaces, especially ones that are pretty relaxed.
@Evan (because my computer won't let me simply “reply”):
I was wandering around NYC yesterday and came across a sign about that — something like “Your ideas can be stolen, too. Protect your thoughts.” I've got to admit, it scared me a bit. It's like we're a step away from having to copyright EVERYTHING.