About

"I Know He Ate a Cheese" (often stylized without capitalization) is an expression referencing a scene in the cartoon television series Tom and Jerry, in which Jerry the mouse eats a large wedge of cheese that changes the shape of his entire body.

Origin

In 1952, the Tom and Jerry cartoon short "Fit to Be Tied" was broadcast, in which the cat character Tom delivers the mouse character Jerry dishes of cheese wedges after being assaulted by Jerry's canine friend Spike. After Jerry consumes a large piece of cheese bigger than his entire body, his shape conforms to that of the cheese wedge (shown below).^[1]

On December 19th 2014, Tumblr user Papayajuan^[2] posted a screen captured image of Jerry in the shape of the cheese wedge. On July 10th, 2015 Tumblr user Hakushokuwaisei^[3] reblogged the original post Papayajuan and added the caption "i know he ate a cheese." Within two years, the initial post has gained nearly 45,000 notes.

Spread

On September 28th, 2015, the I-know-he-ate-a-cheese Tumblr blog was launched. On October 1st, Tumblr user spooky-garnet uploaded a post titled "cheesememe.png," featuring a photoshopped picture of the character Amethyst from "Steven Universe": with Jerry the mouse edited over her face (shown below, left). On October 2nd, Tumblr user malcolmspooks^[5] posted a grid of Jerry image macros with captions spelling out the sentence "he ate a cheese when no-one else would" (shown below, right).

Various Examples

External References