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Read other letters about this article
Lolcats: either you 'get' them and laugh helplessly at them, or you just don't see the point at all. As support for my assertion, I submit this letters column.
I laugh helplessly at lolcats. (The funny ones, anyway. The lolcat phenomenon is an example of Sturgeon's Law: "Ninety percent of everything is crap.")
I was disappointed that the author didn't mention the importance of the mangled language to the humor. Part of the pleasure that I (a technical writer and editor for more than 20 years, so usually Very Strict about language) get from lolcats is decoding the capshuns, er, captions.
I also enjoy the way the "mangling" follows very definite rules and has its own sound and rhythm, almost as if it were poetry, and the way it creates its own reality. Lolspeak plays into our view of cats as furry little anarchists, refusing to follow rules. It reinforces our feelings toward our pets as our "babies". It's playful. And play is a good thing. We don't get enough of it in our lives.
A friend once observed that the most literate of our friends have "an adversarial relationship with the English language". Making or just appreciating a lolcat, we get to break a few rules and make a few rules and change reality a little bit.
Or maybe the appeal of lolcats is the satisfaction we feel when TEH JOKE, WE GETZ IT.
