“Say ‘Cheese!‘“ is what photographers often say to get people to smile. A popular joke is:
 
“When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?”
     
The jocular one-liner was posted to the newsgroup alt.support.dystonia on November 28, 1998 and has been printed on many images. New York-born comedian George Carlin (1937-2008) is frequently credited with the line, but it isn’t his.
   
     
GeorgeCarlin.net
George Didn’t Say That! (Part 2: The Bogus Quote List)
Various one-liners, part 5
(...)
10. When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?
       
Google Groups: alt.support.dystonia
Humor
Gene
11/28/98
(...)
When cheese gets it’s picture taken, what does it say?
 
Google Groups: rec.humor
Things To Ponder
Joke List
12/28/98
(...)
When cheese gets it’s picture taken, what does it say?
   
9 February 1999, Vancouver (BC) Sun, “City Limits,” pg, B5:
- When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?
     
The Jewish Magazine (March 1999)
When cheese gets it’s picture taken, what does it say?
 
A Prairie Home Companion - Jokes 1999
March 16, 1999
(...)
When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?
Rita Gillmer, Baton Rouge, , LA
   
30 May 1999, Star-Gazette, (Elmira, NY), “The joke’s on us,” pg. E1:
When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?
 
Google Books
Curtains Up!:
Theatre Games and Storytelling
By Robert E. Rubinstein
Golden, CO: Fulcrum Resources
2000
Pg. 51:
When cheese has its picture taken, what does it say?
   
Google Books
A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Health Fair
Compiled and Edited by Fred Neil
College Station, TX: Virtualbookworm Publishing Inc.
2002
Pg. 177:
When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?
     
YouTube
When cheese gets it’s picture taken, what does it say
phanshows
Published on Apr 2, 2013
 
Google Books
I Funny TV:
A Middle School Story
By James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein
New York, NY: Little, Brown
2015
Pg. ?:
I try another one-liner on him: “When cheese has its picture taken, what does it say?”
 
Ask Reddit
When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say? (self.AskReddit)
submitted June 24, 2015 by desmictan1213