All About The LOLcat
May 5th, 2007
I’m sure you’ve heard of it – I can’t stop looking. No, I’m not talking about Twitter, I mean the strange creation called “LOLcats“: photographs of cats with cute phrases written in text message or leet speak on them.
Here’s one I just made using our two cats, Lilikoi and Java:

Here are of my favorite examples:
Here are the best sites I’ve found that collect LOLcat pictures:
- The unquestionably best resource: I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?.
- Some more vintage LOLcat examples at Error: Access Denied.
- Meme Cats.
- ROLFcats.
- LOLcats Compendium on flickr.
Now you may want to create your own:
Once you get the general idea, it’s time to branch off:
Analysis
- Anil Dash does a smart breakdown of the language used in LOLcats (invisible items, I’m in Ur X Ying your Z, etc.)
- Zero Sum Mind has a really involved analysis.
- Lanelle log has another breakdown.
- Kottke.org doesn’t think the LOLcats are funny. Is this the result? LOLkottke.
- LOLcats have always been popular on Digg – even to the point where they get in on the HD DVD game.
- LOLcat Bible.
Variations
- The walrus (with his pail, also called a lolrus), gerbils (gebril), and the lolsnake.
- Here’s a place that tries to do Star Trek as LOL cat style. Personally, I don’t find this as funny because I don’t see Star Trek as a cute show, so imagining Kirk saying “No Wai You Be Up To No Good” doesn’t do it for me. A for effort though.
- Here’s someone applying the LOL style to MySpace photographs.
- LOLcats as applied to… librarians.
- LOLgay. Saturdrag? Whuttabot Saturgay?
- Twitter likes LOLcats, as they pop up as error messages. Check out examples at the Twitter Fan Wiki.
- LOLgeeks.
- LOLbushes.
So to sum up, I find LOLcats really hilarious. I think it’s partly because we’re obsessed with our cats, and even talk to them in cute voices.
Here are some more cat-related links (because it’s Caturday):
- Check out MyCatBlogLog for more cat links and news. Some other cat related memes are Ceiling Cat and Stuff On My Cat, Cats that Look Like Hitler, etc.
- Engtech is running a contest where he invites folks to LOL-ify his cat. Here’s my entry:

I don’t think I’m gonna win. So why don’t you have a go? You can download a bunch of cat photographs via the engtech blog.
Meanwhile, I’m creating a new page for the above LOLcat resources, to which I’ll add to over time.