Can anyone explain lolcats to me? I simply don't get it. My sister promised me something that was 'pee-your-pants' funny, but they inspire more of a chortle. What am I missing?
Can anyone explain lolcats to me? I simply don't get it. My sister promised me something that was 'pee-your-pants' funny, but they inspire more of a chortle. What am I missing?
Ollie
Written Dec. 14, 2007 / Report /
I think things like this are hard to explain. It's a bit like, why did everybody start saying "whazarghhhhh" after the Budweiser advert!? It's kind of viral, but unlike the Bud advert, I don't think there is any advertising scheme behind it. It's just that some folk find it funny. In fact, 9rules has even joined in with their 404 page (or it could be their 'You're not allowed here' page).
Here's the LOLcat Wiki article that may help with understanding the LOLcat origins.
Vidar
Written Dec. 14, 2007 / Report /
peroty
Written Dec. 15, 2007 / Report /
It's one of those things. You either get it, or you don't.
jark
Written Dec. 15, 2007 / Report /
I get it but I just do not find it all that entertaining. People just seem to have this thing about cat pictures that gets them all chummy inside.
alisa
Written Dec. 15, 2007 / Report /
Hai. Here's the Bible in lolcat language:
http://www.lolcatbible.com/
If you didn't get lolcats before, try reading Genesis 1.
RalphDagza
Written Dec. 15, 2007 / Report /
IM IN UR NOTES POSTNG TEH KOMENTS
Vidar
Written Dec. 15, 2007 / Report /
and on that note (lol), do you know what day today is?
shadowsun7
Written Dec. 15, 2007 / Report /
Vidar! That last one was laugh out loud hilarious!
Scrivs
Written Dec. 17, 2007 / Report /
I can't say it is something you either get or you don't because there is really nothing to get. It's a picture of cat, followed by a saying that you have to believe how the cat would say it. Then you laugh. In a nutshell, it's Dane Cook comedy in picture form.
estarla
Written Dec. 17, 2007 / Report /
It's anthropomorphism at its finest, really. When you take anything other than humans and attach a caption to them as if they could talk (with poor grammar and spelling), it's some sort of overt irony. So here we humans are, as supposedly intellectually superior beings, getting some sort of sick rise out of making fun of living, breathing creatures who don't communicate as we do. We twist their snapshots capturing compromising positions and expressions into subjects of our asinine humor while we laugh vindictively on the inside thinking, "Heh heh, they can't actually talk," while knowing we will never ever be called out for this because these helpless animals can't fend for themselves.
In short, it's not really supposed to make any sense. ;)
Disclaimer: My best friend is a cat.
Andrew
Written Dec. 17, 2007 / Report /
I can't believe people actually went as far as doing a lolcat translation of the Bible. I read the first chapter of Genesis and that was about all I could hack.
I think lolcats is probably funniest to the people who have been cat owners, particularly to the kids who grew up tormenting their poor household moggy, lolcats just seems like a logical cyber extension of that torment.
Nils
Written Dec. 17, 2007 / Report /
Thing is, LOLcat jokes aren't really about cats. I don't think a lot of cat owners actually like LOLcats the same way others might. It's a different level.
See, it's like ninjas.
Ninjas aren't particularly funny either. Until you glue captions to them.
That make any more sense?
Vidar
Written Dec. 18, 2007 / Report /
Um... what is all this about torment and intellectual superiority? If you don't think it's funny just say so.
Srsly guys:
Andrew
Written Dec. 18, 2007 / Report /
Perhaps there's a little more to life than 'A' or 'B' ?
silvertje
Written Dec. 18, 2007 / Report /
The LOLcat bible made me ROFL rilly hard ;)
And anything that xkcd.com publishes (see Vidar's first pic) is brilliant!
Fandango
Written Dec. 19, 2007 / Report /
I guess I get it, it doesn't tickle me that much. Its cute... and perhaps another of the differences between my sister and I.
dreamweaver
Written Dec. 19, 2007 / Report /
I think they're funny, and I didn't torment cats as a youth...
My husband and I just spent 10-15 minutes laughing at LOLcats on icanhascheezburger, and for what it's worth, he's only a "cat person" by default (as in, he loves me so he perforce loves my cats), and I find it much funnier than things like Monty Python, or the Three Stooges, or any other slapstick, completely stupid "comedy" out there. Just my weird sense of humor, I guess.
missginsu
Written Dec. 19, 2007 / Report /
Yes, they're dumb. But that's the point, no? If you keep looking at them, I believe you'll eventually find one that pleases you. Repetition is one of the golden rules of comedy.
Vidar
Written Dec. 19, 2007 / Report /
Not when it comes to this.
There's no overanalyzing this kind of humor. Did you ever watch Beavis & Butt Head back in the day? This is like that without the music and the retarded laughter.
Scoopersmith
Written Jan. 9, 2008 / Report /
My Beau and I are major cat lovers and about once every two weeks we go on icanhascheezburger.com and read a few pages together. Sometimes we end up laughing really hard and other times they just aren't that funny.
I have to admit that sometimes the bad grammar gets in the way of the funniness. Other times, for example with a picture of a really little kitten it makes sense... I mean little kids don't speak with perfect grammar, if cats actually talked you couldn't hold their kittens to our high standards right? :)