Memenatomy 101: LOLCats

Posted by Jenn Lowther

For the second installment of Memenatomy 101, I bring you the LOLCat. I think that this is my favorite meme of all time. A LOLcat is a picture of a cat with a funny and usually grammatically incorrect caption - this language has been termed kitty pidgin or LOLspeak. As with any language, it has evolved to a point where the language has converged to a new set of rules in spelling and grammar. If you are unfamiliar with LOLspeak, you can refer to the LOLspeak glossary or if you’re feeling a bit lazy, check out the LOLspeak translator. If you want to make your very own LOLcat, checkout the LOLCat Buildr. I’ve posted mine below.

moar funny pictures

Common Themes

LOLcats have several themes that are extremely common, below are some of the most common themes that you will find

• “Im in ur noun, verb-ing ur related noun.” This is the theme that I’ve used in the above LOLcat picture.

• “I has a noun” shows a cat in possession of an object.

• “Invisible noun” show pictures of cats apparently interacting with said invisible object.

• “flavor” shots specifically show a cat (or another animal) licking/eating an item, person or animal (including sometimes themselves) and remarking how “[noun] haz a flavor.”

• a cat with a specific look, which is described by adjective, and the text, “[adjective] cat is [adjective]“, “[adjective] cat is not [adjective]” or “Your offering pleases [adjective] cat.

• sub variation:”adjective cat is not amused”, or “[adjective] cat has run out of [noun]“

Variations

LOLrus - This is the same as LOLcats but featuring Walrus’ and usually a bukit.

LOLcode is a programing language inspired by LOLspeak

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
I HAS A VAR
IM IN YR LOOP
UPZ VAR!!1
VISIBLE VAR
IZ VAR BIGR THAN 10? GTFO. KTHX
KTHX
KTHXBYE

LOLTheist is a take on LOLcats, using religious icons and imagery.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 14th, 2008 at 12:39 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.