OH HAI! Welcome to Caturday Night Fights.
Tonight's matchup: lolcats vs. lolpresidents
Ladies and gentlemen... LLLLLET'S GET READY TO LLLLLLOOOOOOLLLL!
Now I've been on the Internets since the beginning of time (world wide web goddess) and I've seen many a silly cat picture, but it wasn't until just recently that I became acquainted with the term "lolcat". My husband, Lord of the Blogs, pointed me to this website I Can Has Cheezburger which has the quintessential lolcat collection. I became instantly curious about where this all started...what is a lolcat? and what do cheezburgers have to do with anything?
Lolcats, a compound of lol and cat, are photos of cats with humorous captions. They are a type of image macro1, and are also referred to as cat macros. Lolcats are created for the purpose of sharing with others on imageboards and other internet forums, especially on Saturdays ("Caturdays"). Lolcats are similar to other animal-based image macros such as the O RLY? owl, but the cuteness of cats "enhances" the appeal and increasing prominence of the Internet meme. Lolcat is a good example for anthropomorphisation.
Lolcat images usually consist of a photo of a cat with a large caption characteristically formatted in a sans serif font such as Impact or Arial Black. The image is, on occasion, digitally edited for effect. The caption generally acts 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 syntax, featuring "strangely-conjugated verbs, but [a tendency] to converge to a new set of rules in spelling and grammar." These altered rules of English have been referred to as a type of pidgin or baby talk. The text parodies the grammar-poor patois stereotypically attributed to internet slang.
Frequently, lolcat captions take the form of Snowclone2 in which nouns and verbs are replaced in a phrase. Some phrases have a known source while others seem to be specific to the lolcat form.
(wikipedia)
I thought these definitions were interesting...
1Image Macro - An image macro is a picture with text superimposed, typically through the use of graphics software such as Adobe Photoshop, Microsoft Paint, or GIMP. ...image macros are used to emphasize a certain phrase (often a meme) by superimposing it over a related picture. In some forums, use of image macros outside of certain subforums is seen as annoying or disruptive, and may be prohibited.
2Snowclone - A snowclone or catch structure is a type of formula-based cliché which uses an old idiom in a new context. It was originally defined as "a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different jokey variants by lazy journalists and writers." The term emphasizes the use of a familiar (and often particular) formula and previous cultural knowledge of the reader to express information about an idea. The idea being discussed is usually contextually different in meaning from the original use of that formula but can be understood using the same trope as the original formulation.
At the speed of the Internet the lolcat phenomenon has spwnd [sic], loltrek, loljesus, lolbees, lolbrarians, lolbots, and of course, lolpresidents. Each of these have adopted the lolcat snowclones and applied the memes to the new subject matter - or invented entirely new themes.
Example: Here is the Cheezburger cat that started it all.
And here is the lolpresident equivalent.
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Without further ado let the games begin.
Round 1: INVISIBLE
DING!
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Round 2: DO NOT WANT
DING! DING!
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Round 3: Random I just liked these.
DING! DING! DING!
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Bonus Round: lolrus vs. lolpresident
I don't find this particularly funny but this is the pic that started the lolrus and the bucket snowclone. For more info see: The Complete Walrus Bucket Saga
DING! DING! DING! DING!
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OK now go vote for your favorite. If you think lol____ does not belong on dkos, vote for the pie.
Photo credits: All photos taken from one of the following
Fark
I Can Has Cheezburger
LOL President