Lolcats are cat images with humorous captions that are often grammatically incorrect. They are a popular internet meme and can be found on message boards and dedicated websites. The name comes from “laugh out loud” and “cat”, and the captions often use simplified grammar and consistent structures. Lolcats can reference pop culture, geek culture, and other themes.
A lolcat is a cat image with an idiosyncratic and often grammatically incorrect caption superimposed on it. It’s an excellent example of an Internet meme, a unit of cultural information that is rapidly shared among people. Lolcats appear most frequently on Internet message boards and threaded conversations, although there are several websites dedicated to collecting and displaying the images as well. The basic stylistic format of the lolcat has also spread to other images, such as images of presidents, walruses, and gerbils.
The origins of the lolcat lie in a larger internet concept, the macro image. A macro image is simply a photograph with text overlaid on it. Like other image macros, lolcat captions are typically written in a sans serif font and tend to be short and to the point. Often, the caption refers to pop culture or the internet. As is often the case with memes, many lolcats refer to other lolcats.
The name is a portmanteau of “laugh out loud” (lol) and “cat.” Along with numerous other abbreviations, “lol” is used in chats and text messages to express a physical reaction to a conversation. Using abbreviations also makes typing and texting much faster, ensuring that a conversation is fast-paced. As their name suggests, lolcats are deeply immersed in Internet culture and use a language and grammatical structure that complements a great deal of texting and instant messaging. Speech is often called a type of pidgin, as it uses simplistic but consistent grammatical structures.
The captions on lolcat images can often be grammatically incorrect, but there is a consistency to the incorrect grammar. Most of the captions are snow clones, clichéd formulas like “I’m in your name, I verb your name,” “The adjective cat is an adjective,” or “May I have a name.” It’s also entirely possible to have a grammatically correct lolcat, although the caption words are often incorrect. Many lolcat images include the common themes of “ha” for any conjugation of “have,” along with numbers to replace letters, such as “3” for “E.” Other dialect tendencies such as “Z” for “S” are also very common.
There are numerous lolcat themes and internet users are constantly changing. Many lolcats reference geek culture, while others seem to have invisible objects. Some lolcats want something, as in the case of the classic lolcat “I can has cheezburger”, while others already have something, in the case of “I has a taste”. Others make fun of motivational posters, while some just want to share, as in: “Let me show you my names. My names. Let me show them to you.”
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