[2][3] ICHC was instrumental in bringing animal-based image macros and lolspeak into mainstream usage, and in making Internet memes profitable.

[4] ICHC was created on January 11, 2007 when Nakagawa posted an image from comedy website Something Awful of a cat, known as Happycat, with the caption "I can has cheezburger?"

Nakagawa continued to post similar images and eventually converted the site to a monetized blog.

[5] It became the flagship site of the Cheezburger Network, led by Ben Huh, which also includes FAIL Blog and Know Your Meme.

[8] By January 2008, the average was 8000[4] though only about a dozen or so submissions per day were posted to the website,[9] while updates were timed to coincide with when readers were most likely to be visiting the site – morning, lunchtime and evenings.

By 2017, the site, along with the rest of the Cheezburger network, no longer relied on user-submitted or user-generated content ("UGC"), instead relying on a full editorial team who continue to create fresh and humorous content daily for the large reader base to enjoy.

The site is maintained by a full editorial team that seeks to deliver fresh, entertaining, and humorous content.