The great thing about your post is that you confirm lolcats as a subject worthy of an article in Salon. Only in a world where lolcats exist can one say "unsuccessful magazine is unsuccessful" and have others understand you.

In trying to deride Salon, you prove them right.

Slow day for Salon? I guess since you can't smear Palin anymore, you guys have run out of ideas.

Unsuccessful magazine is unsuccessful.

Epic Fail! LULZ!!!! You divided by zero!

I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. The caption added is mine, but the picture is what it is...

http://mine.icanhascheezburger.com/view.aspx?ciid=2019627

Thank you, Jay Dixit, for finally treating the lolcats phenomenon with some thoughtfulness.

This was a short article, and I think you barely scratched the surface of lolcats as a subject. I would have enjoyed hearing more about their history, propagation, popularity. The whole thing creates a linguistic spectacle as well, doesn't it? And the spin-offs, of course. You didn't mention "The Real Origin of Laugh-Out-Loud Cats" (on Flickr) for example, which is by itself an incredible amount of work, all to tip a hat to lolcats.

I see a huge number of negative comments, especially people who don't find lolcats to be lolworthy. Well, you know, whether or not something is funny is so subjective as to be not worth mentioning. However, I do agree that the problem with any analysis of comedy is that it threatens to defunny the comedy. And that's too bad, because somehow, along with so many internet fads (quality or not, right? i.e. who remembers "I KISS YOU") this is somehow history in the making.

Thanks, Jay... and Salon... for including the lolcats. :)

U FORGOT 2 MENSHUN TEH WAYS IN WHICH LOLCATS CAN BE USD BY UNDR-REPRESENTD GROUPS 2 MAK SERIOUS POINTS BOUT POLITICAL AN CIVIL RIGHTS ISSUEZ. PLUS, U FORGOT 2 MENSHUN US AT TEH LULZ-WERD (lolcats + The L-Word).

the one where the two cats hug over their long awaited cheeseburger to all my teacher friends at work today. We sit in classrooms, exposed to the language of these cats everyday, waiting for our cheeseburger to come in. Sad, it's true, the students in my class, supposedly the smarter ones, actually do write like this. Now that's real pathos. I know real sadness, can't I laugh a little? Too much to ask for the real intellectuals out there who profess in their university ampitheaters to allow some of us lower class intellectuals to laugh at stupid cats? Cats are hilarious! I have at least ten undeveloped rolls of film ( I hate digital pics) of my cats in various stages of pre-sleep, sleep, pre-waking sleep, and post-waking sleep. Why? Because their faces are very charismatic and make me laugh. My life sucks mostly, these cats provide me with a "who cares about you" moment that puts my life in perspective. Cats don't REALLY care about much. But it's funny to personify them (see something I can teach in class!) as human beings. Yes it is. To those fascists who refuse to laugh at anything, what the hell is "funny" anyway? Isn't it subjective? I think pigs are hilarious, I giggle uncontrollably at Miss Piggy whatever she does, because, hello, she is a pig. A pig. In lipstick and heels. Who is going to write me a three page letter telling me I am lowbrow who laughs at leaves blowing. I am a lowbrow who laughs at leaves blowing. There I saved you the time.

That's what lol-cat speak sounds like to me

"Professor G indahouse aiii. Big shout out de Harvard massiv I iz done a capital 'H', coz Harvard iz a place innit - u see I ain't no ignoranus. Fings like 'apple' and 'orange' do not start with a capital letter, unless dey iz at de start of a sentence - but some of you brainboxes probably know dat already innit.Me name be Ali G and me represent de UK."

I can't tell if half of the elitist commenters are upset over the lolcats phenomenon or this article about the phenomenon. I thought it was a serious (as it can be in two pages and a popular magazine) attempt to address one of the most important trends in media. The analysis was well reasoned. Examples well chosen. The following of other lol-sites really does help refine what is so compelling about lolcats.

You're both wide of the mark.

simply that the captions were take-offs of IM spelling and grammar... it totally loses the funny spin if it is simply supposed to be cats being short on spelling and grammar rules.

It's an evolved thing, which means there's not a "it's simply this" about LOLspeak, or "kitty pidgin" as one observer (http://www.dashes.com/anil/2007/04/cats-can-has-gr.html) calls it.

If it helps, think of it as an hybrid of netjoke humor of the form "Im in ur noun, verb-ing ur related noun," internet memes ("http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_want), lamer-l33t-speak "d00dz!!1!" and bad grammar.

kthx

Sign at a Prop 8 protest in NYC:

"I can has equal rights?"

While I clean the local catbox, go on and click the link at my signacha~

There are about twice as many pro-LOLcat letters on here than letters from haters. I would say that makes Salon firmly a LULZ state.

The haters self-parody is almost as entertaining, though. Guys: references to Ziggy explain a lot, as well as harrumphing about non-existent racist agendas and some golden cultural age that never was.

BTW, I'm (a touch) over 30 and love LOLcats. The darkness of the humor is often really smart, and the human alienation represented by the whole genre is spot-on--and what is most humor if not tragedy made palatable, processable, and ultimately...bearable?

"A brown and black calico looks out the window of his apartment only to notice a beautiful white female on the balcony across the way. His heart quickens"

ACtually, HER heart quickens. Calicos are female, so surely this is about a lesbian cheezburger moment.

a cyber-classic from the halcyon "pre-911" days...

[click link]