online cultural question

[adrian_turtle]

Where did the expression "nom nom nom" come from? And when? I don't think I'd ever seen it before 2007, maybe late 2006. Was it connected with the lolcats, or something as self-consciously cutesy? Now it's escaped into the wild, and I've seen people using it to mean simply "yum yum."

I know it's so pervasive now that people use it without intending to be disgusting about it, but I still hate it.