About

Eepy is a slang term derived from the word "sleepy," and is typically used alongside images of cute animals. The word likely stems from the meme And Why He Eepy, which originated in 2021. In subsequent years, the word came to be used on its own, often as a caption for an image macro featuring a cat.

Origin

While misspelling and breaking up the letters in the word "sleepy" into "sl" and "eepy" has been a practice on the internet for years,^[1][2][3] the earliest known notable use of the phrase is a November 24th, 2021, X^[4] post by user @AnimalsCaption (seen below).

pic.twitter.com/M2tB83DiIY

— Animals with Captions (@AnimalsCaption) November 24, 2021

The word was used in subsequent X posts by @AnimalsCaption in November and December 2021 as well (shown below).^[5][6]

Spread

On May 11th, 2022, Instagram^[7] page @fatfatmillycat posted a meme featuring the text "eepy" and a sleeping cat, gathering over 3,900 likes in a year (seen below, left). On September 18th, 2022, Instagram^[8] page @sadasscats reposted a meme posted by TikToker @blackmilkkkk, gathering over 23,000 likes in a year (seen below, right).

On October 10th, Instagram^[9] page @rartcattos posted a meme using the word "eepy," and gathering over 32,000 likes in a year (seen below, left). On November 30th, Instagram^[10] page @cat_bois posted a meme using the word as well, gathering over 24,000 likes in ten months (seen below, right).

Related Memes

And Why He Eepy?

And Why He Eepy? refers to a series of memes using a caption with a purposeful misspelling of the word "sleepy" alongside images of a sleepy-looking animal, such as a cat, or various characters. The catchphrase is a reference to the Why He Ourple? meme and was first posted to Twitter in late 2021, inspiring variants over the following year, typically exploitable image macros and redraws of the original.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References