If you give a cat a keyboard
It’s no secret that cats are popular online. In fact, an entire kitty subculture has emerged on the Web in the form of cat photos with funny sayings written on them.
At first, they were called cat macros, but now go mostly by the name lolcats — combining the Web abbreviation for “laugh out loud” (LOL) and “cats.” The captions are written as if the cat is commenting on the situation depicted in the photo, which sometimes is digitally altered for exaggeration.
For example, a lolcat posted online recently showed a black-andwhite cat sticking out its tongue. Its eyes looked artificially brightened and bugged out with the aid of an image-editing program such as Photoshop. The caption: “mai tung dryd out.”
To the casual viewer, lolcats might seem nonsensical at first. But once you get into the cadence of how they’re written, they can be quite funny.
The Intelligence Group, which monitors the Web for things that appeal to Gen X, Gen Y and tweens, recently identified lolcats as a hot online trend.
The most popular of the lolcat sites is arguably I Can Has Cheezburger? (icanhascheezburger.com). It started in January with an image of a pudgy kitty, a big smile on its face and wide eyes, and the caption: “I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?” That spawned funny follow-up photos with burger kitty, and, well, here we are today.
Other lolcat sites include:
community.livejournal.com/cat_macroskscakes.com/LolCats
dropline.net/catslolcats2.com
macrocats.com
Most images posted on the sites are family-friendly, but some occasionally feature naughty humor or noncat subject matter that might be considered inappropriate for kids.
Root around at some of these Web sites, and before you know it, you might be sucked into the lolcat subculture.
CREATE AN LOLCAT
1. Find an engaging photo of a cat.
2. Think of a funny caption.
3. Add it to the photo with imageediting software.
4. Use a sans serif font.
5. Make it read as if written by the cat, with bad grammar and spelling.
6. Post it to one of the Web sites listed.
7. Laugh.
