Lolcat Explained

A lolcat (pronounced), or LOLcat, is an image macro of one or more cats. Lolcat images' idiosyncratic and intentionally grammatically incorrect text is known as lolspeak.

Lolcat is a compound word of the acronymic abbreviation LOL (laugh out loud) and the word "cat".[1] [2] A synonym for lolcat is cat macro or cat meme, since the images are a type of image macro and also a well-known genre of Internet meme.[3] Lolcats are commonly designed for photo sharing imageboards and other Internet forums.

History

British portrait photographer Harry Pointer created a carte de visite series featuring cats posed in various situations in the early 1870s. To these he usually added amusing text intended to further enhance their appeal.[4] These souvenir cards were known as Brighton Cats. Other early figures include Harry Whittier Frees and (using taxidermied animals) Walter Potter.[5]

The first recorded use of the term "lolcat" was used on 4chan, an anonymous imageboard.[6] [7] [8] The word "Lolcat" was in use as early as June 2006; the domain name lolcats.com was registered on June 14, 2006.[9] Their popularity was spread through usage on forums such as Something Awful.[10] The News Journal states that "some trace the lolcats back to the site 4chan, which features bizarre cat pictures on Saturdays, or 'Caturdays'." Ikenburg adds that the images have been "slinking around the Internet for years under various labels, but they did not become a sensation until early 2007 with the advent of I Can Has Cheezburger?"[11] The first image on "I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?" was posted on January 11, 2007, and was allegedly from the Something Awful website."[12] [13] Lev Grossman of Time wrote that the oldest known example "probably dates to 2006",[14] but later corrected himself in a blog post[15] where he recanted his statement based on the anecdotal evidence readers had sent him, placing the origin of "Caturday" and many of the images now known by a few as "lolcats" in early 2005. The domain name "caturday.com" was registered on April 30, 2005.[16]

The term lolcat gained national media attention in the United States when it was covered by Time, which wrote that non-commercialized phenomena of the sort are increasingly rare, stating that lolcats have "a distinctly old-school, early 1990s, Usenet feel to [them]".[17] Entertainment Weekly put them on its end-of-the-decade, "best-of" list, saying, "Da cutest distractshun of da decaid? Y, lolcats of corse! We can neber haz enuf of deez capshioned pics of cuddlie kittehs."[18] "Lolcat" was also a runner-up under the "Most Creative" category under the American Dialect Society Word of the Year Awards, losing out to"Googlegänger".[19]

Format

Lolcat is a compound word made from the acronym "LOL" and "cat". Lolcat images comprise a photo of a cat with a large caption characteristically superimposed onto the image in a heavy, sans-serif font such as Impact or Arial Black.[20] Such images and memes following the format are often digitally edited for comedic effect.

Captions act as a speech balloon encompassing a comment from the cat, or as a description of the depicted scene. The caption is intentionally written with deviations from standard English spelling and grammar, featuring "conjugated verbs, but a tendency to converge to a new set of rules in spelling and grammar".[21] [22]

The text parodies the grammar-poor patois stereotypically attributed to Internet slang. Frequently, lolcat captions take the form of phrasal templates. Some phrases have a known source, usually a well-known Internet meme, such as All your base are belong to us or Do not want,[23] while others don't. The language of lolcats has also been likened to baby talk,[24] however it draws on a variety of linguistic resources, not just the imitation of baby talk.[25]

Common themes include jokes of the form "Im in ur [noun], [verb]-ing ur [related noun]."[26] Many lolcat images capture cats performing characteristically human actions or appearing to use modern technology, such as computers.

There are several well-known Lolcat images and single-word captions that have spawned many variations and imitations, including "Ceiling Cat" (see below). Others include Fail (a cat with a slice of processed cheese on its face)[27] and "I Can Has Cheezburger" (a portrait of a blue British Shorthair).[28] Another popular format is "[Adjective] cat is [adjective/noun]."

Recurring characters

"Ceiling Cat" is a character spawned by the meme. The original image was an image macro with a picture of a cat looking out of a hole in a ceiling, captioned "Ceiling Cat is watching you masturbate."[29] There followed numerous examples with the format "Ceiling Cat is watching you [''verb'' ending in / rhyming with -ate]" with Ceiling Cat superimposed in the upper left hand corner of an image macro depicting the appropriate action. The underlying theme is that the cat is looking down on one, almost in a form of judgment.

"Ceiling Cat" and the corresponding "Basement Cat" (a black cat who lives in the basement) are said to represent good and evil in the lolcat universe, and in some cases God and Satan, as in the LOLCat Bible Translation Project.[30] [31] [32]

Ceiling Cat by Eva & Franco Mattes, a 2016 taxidermy cat installation mimicking the meme, is in the collection of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.[33]

Offshoots and parodies

Variations on the lolcat concept include captioning photos of other animals in a similar style (e.g. loldogs for dogs, etc.).

The syntax of lolcat captions was used as the basis for LOLCODE, an esoteric programming language with interpreters and compilers available in .NET Framework, Perl, etc.

In the Java edition of the video game Minecraft, there is an option to change language settings to LOLCAT.

Another example is Polandball, which uses broken English, reminiscent of the lolcat meme.

lolcat, a variant of the Unix utility cat, outputs text in rainbow colours.[34]

See also

References

Notes and References

  1. News: Dwight . Silverman . Web photo phenomenon centers on felines, poor spelling . Houston Chronicle . June 6, 2007 . April 1, 2012 . June 18, 2013 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130618165552/http://www.chron.com/business/silverman/article/Web-photo-phenomenon-centers-on-felines-poor-1809345.php . live .
  2. News: With 'LOLcats' Internet Fad, Anyone Can Get In on the Joke . February 13, 2008 . Rutkoff . Aaron . August 25, 2007 . The Wall Street Journal . New York . July 15, 2018 . https://web.archive.org/web/20180715151951/https://www.wsj.com/articles/SB118798557326508182 . live .
  3. News:
  4. Web site: Harry Pointer's Brighton Cats . Photohistory-sussex.co.uk . March 22, 2012 . July 16, 2011 . https://web.archive.org/web/20110716022815/http://www.photohistory-sussex.co.uk/BTNPointerCats.htm . live .
  5. Web site: Even in the 1870s, humans were obsessed with ridiculous photos of cats . Cyriaque Lamar . April 9, 2012 . July 7, 2012 . July 10, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120710171033/http://io9.com/5900334/even-in-the-1870s-humans-were-obsessed-with-ridiculous-photos-of-cats . live .
  6. Web site: Funny how 'stupid' site is addictive . The Star . Langton . Jerry . September 22, 2007 . October 4, 2008 . June 22, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080622184259/http://www.thestar.com/living/article/257955 . live .
  7. Web site: Iz not cats everywhere? Online trend spreads across campus . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20071117142809/http://media.www.dailypennsylvanian.com/media/storage/paper882/news/2007/11/14/News/Iz.Not.Cats.Everywhere.Online.Trend.Spreads.Across.Campus-3099929.shtml . November 17, 2007.
  8. News: david . smith . the unseen face behind today's counterculture . August 25, 2008 . August 19, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080819190907/http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/editorials/archives/2008/07/23/2003418192 . live .
  9. Web site: WHOIS domain registration information results for lolcats.com from . Network Solutions . March 22, 2012 . March 13, 2012 . https://web.archive.org/web/20120313204653/http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/results.jsp?domain=lolcats.com . live .
  10. News: Microtrends: LOLcats . . Tom Whitwell . May 12, 2007 . October 21, 2008 . August 30, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080830032119/http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article1772506.ece . live .
  11. "Lolcats' demented captions create a new Web language," Tamara Ikenberg, The News Journal, July 9, 2007
  12. Web site: About « Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures – I Can Has Cheezburger? . Icanhascheezburger.com . December 13, 2007 . March 22, 2012 . November 27, 2010 . https://web.archive.org/web/20101127200651/http://icanhascheezburger.com/about/ . live .
  13. "Original Picture, cheezburger, ICANHASCHEEZBURGER, September 26, 2007 icanhascheezburger.com
  14. Creating a Cute Cat Frenzy . Lev Grossman . . July 12, 2007 . July 16, 2007 . this has also spawned the digg dog which is part of the popular site titled digg.com . July 16, 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070716080708/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1642897,00.html . dead .
  15. Lolcats Addendum: Where I Got the Story Wrong . Lev Grossman . . July 16, 2007 . February 15, 2010.
  16. Web site: Whois Domain Information For Caturday.com . June 18, 2015 . January 19, 2016 . https://web.archive.org/web/20160119150249/http://whois.domaintools.com/caturday.com . live .
  17. Lev . Grossman . Cashing in on Cute Cats . Lev Grossman . July 12, 2007 . July 12, 2007 . . July 14, 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070714083604/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1642897,00.html . dead . Partial scan of the print edition: fcrunk.wellimean.com
  18. Geier, Thom, et al. (December 11, 2009). "The 100 Greatest Movies, TV shows, Albums, Books, Characters, Scenes, Episodes, Songs, Dresses, Music Videos, and Trends that entertained us over the past 10 Years ". Entertainment Weekly. (1079/1080):74-84
  19. Web site: Americandialect.org . March 22, 2012 . January 26, 2021 . https://web.archive.org/web/20210126023409/http://www.americandialect.org/Word-of-the-Year_2007.pdf . live .
  20. Web site: Anil Dash: Cats Can Has Grammar . Anil Dash . Anil Dash . April 23, 2007 . May 3, 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20130826113454/http://dashes.com/anil/2007/04/cats-can-has-gr.html . August 26, 2013 . dead .
  21. Web site: I'M IN YR X Y-ING YOUR Z – A Grammar of Lolcats . Annalee Newitz . Annalee Newitz . Table of Malcontents, a Wired blog . April 27, 2007 . April 29, 2007 . These images ... usually include a cute cat saying something related to buckets, cheeseburgers, or whatever else with conjugated verbs. . April 30, 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070430021504/http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/2007/04/im_in_yr_x_ying.html . live .
  22. Web site: Language Log: Kitty Pidgin and asymmetrical tail-wags . Mark Liberman . Mark Liberman . April 25, 2007 . April 28, 2007 . April 28, 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20070428035037/http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004442.html . live .
  23. Web site: Top ten Star Wars myths and legends: Do not want . VirginMedia.com . December 30, 2008 . December 16, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081216135049/http://www.virginmedia.com/movies/movieextras/top10s/top-ten-star-wars-myths-and-legends.php?ssid=10 . live .
  24. News: Lolcat site needz ur skillz . Associated Press . Peter . Svensson . April 24, 2008 . October 15, 2008 . December 12, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20081212135431/http://www.usatoday.com/tech/webguide/internetlife/2008-04-24-lolcats-job-search_N.htm . live .
  25. Web site: I can haz language play: The construction of language and identity in LOLspeak . Gawne . Lauren . Vaughan . Jill M. . January 2012 . June 30, 2016.
  26. News: This be funny storyz . . Jay Cridlin . June 1, 2007 . April 7, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20101104070709/http://www.tbt.com/entertainment/news/article41041.ece?lol . November 4, 2010 . dead .
  27. Web site: Charles Bremner Toulouse . Microtrends: Failure – Times Online . Technology.timesonline.co.uk . March 22, 2012 . May 15, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080515211114/http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article3304328.ece . live .
  28. Bloggers Bring in the Big Bucks . . Tozzi, John . July 13, 2007 . January 10, 2008 . February 15, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080215230339/http://www.businessweek.com/smallbiz/content/jul2007/sb20070713_202390.htm . dead .
  29. Web site: I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER? » Blog Archive » ceiling cat is watching you masturbate. . icanhascheezburger.com . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20070204143319/http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/01/24/ceiling-cat-is-watching-you-masturbate/ . January 24, 2007 . February 4, 2007 . September 13, 2017.
  30. News: Charlie . Amter . Lolcat Bible Translation Project presents the Gospel according to Fluffy . December 16, 2007 . Los Angeles Times . December 23, 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20071224021046/http://www.latimes.com/technology/la-ca-lolcat16dec16%2C1%2C6069575.story?ctrack=1&cset=true . December 24, 2007 . dead.
  31. Web site: How one hungry 'kitteh' can has the Internet lol . Horan . Brianna . June 18, 2008. dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090215050105/http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/tribunereview/news/today/s_568828.html . February 15, 2009.
  32. Web site: Time killer: The "lolcat" Bible . Guzman . Monica . October 19, 2007 . June 18, 2008 . April 15, 2008 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080415165033/http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/thebigblog/archives/124063.asp?from=blog_last3 . live .
  33. News: Museums wants 2 show u memez now. They shud be careful . Kennicott . Philip . April 8, 2019 . The Washington Post . en . January 17, 2020 . September 6, 2020 . https://web.archive.org/web/20200906191512/https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/museums/museums-wants-2-show-u-memez-now-they-shud-be-careful/2019/04/05/6a44b5a4-559d-11e9-814f-e2f46684196e_story.html . live .
  34. Web site: Lolcat – A Command Line Tool to Output Rainbow Of Colors in Linux Terminal . Tecmint . June 13, 2015 . March 6, 2019 . March 6, 2019 . https://web.archive.org/web/20190306111527/https://www.tecmint.com/lolcat-command-to-output-rainbow-of-colors-in-linux-terminal/ . live .

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Lolcat".

Except where otherwise indicated, Everything.Explained.Today is © Copyright 2009-2024, A B Cryer, All Rights Reserved. Cookie policy.