Lolcat: Difference between revisions
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negatory, monsieur. if this is only going to act as an indiscriminate list magnet we ought to just redirect it to image macro. cite it or lose it. |
Too much WP:OR, too little encyclopaedic content, already covered at the target |
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{{pp-semi-vandalism|expiry=June 20, 2007}} |
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[[Image:470089252 0edc71099b o d.jpg|thumb|right|A typical cat image macro.]] |
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'''Lolcats''', a [[compound (linguistics)|compound]] of [[LOL (Internet slang)|lol]] and [[cat]],<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.radioopensource.org/i-can-has-talking-animals/ |title=I Can Has Talking Animals? |accessdate=2007-04-29|work=[[Open Source (radio show)]]}}</ref><ref name="Silverman">{{cite web |
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| last = Silverman |
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| first = Dwight |
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| authorlink = |
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| title = I'M IN UR NEWSPAPER WRITIN MAH COLUM |
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| work = |
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| publisher = Chron.com |
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| date = 2007-6-6 |
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| url = http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/business/4862013.html |
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| format = |
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| doi = |
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| accessdate = 2007-06-06 }} |
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</ref> are [[Photograph|photos]] of cats with [[humorous]] captions. They are a type of [[image macro]], and are thus also referred to as '''cat macros'''. Lolcats are created for the purpose of [[Photo sharing|sharing them]] with others on [[imageboard]]s and other [[internet forum]]s, especially on Saturdays ("Caturdays").<ref name="lm">{{cite web |
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| url = http://linguisticmystic.com/2007/02/07/im-in-mai-blog-postin-bout-cats-the-cuteness-of-grammatical-errors/ |
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| title = im in mai blog, postin’ bout cats: The Cuteness of Grammatical errors |
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| publisher = Linguistic Mystic |
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| date = [[2007-02-07]] |
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| accessdate = 2007-04-29 |
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| quote = A tradition called Caturday arose. On Saturdays, people would find pictures of cats with interesting expressions, then caption them in humorous ways. These have been posted in various places on the internet, and it’s not uncommon for them to show up in random discussions on all sorts of sites... I’ve noted pretty significant deviations from conventional English Grammar. |
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}}</ref> |
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Lolcat images usually consist of a photo of a cat with a caption characteristically formatted in a [[sans serif]] font such as [[Impact (typeface)|Impact]] or [[Arial Black]].<ref name="cats has grammar">{{cite web|url=http://www.dashes.com/anil/2007/04/23/cats_can_has_gr|title=Anil Dash: Cats Can Has Grammar|author=[[Anil Dash]]|date=[[2007-04-23]]|accessdate=2007-05-03}}</ref> The image is, on occasion, [[Photo editing|photoshopped]] for effect. The caption generally acts as a [[speech balloon]] encompassing a [[cat communication|comment from the cat]], or is a simple description of the depicted scene. The caption is intentionally written with deviations from standard English spelling and syntax<ref name= "cats has grammar" /> featuring "strangely-conjugated verbs, but [a tendency] to converge to a new set of rules in spelling and grammar."<ref> |
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{{cite web |
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| url = http://blog.wired.com/tableofmalcontents/2007/04/im_in_yr_x_ying.html |
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| title = I'M IN YR X Y-ING YOUR Z -- A Grammar of Lolcats |
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| author = [[Annalee Newitz]] |
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| publisher = [[Table of Malcontents]], a ''[[Wired (magazine)|Wired]]'' blog |
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| date = [[2007-04-27]] |
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| accessdate = 2007-04-29 |
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| quote = These images... usually include a cute cat saying something related to buckets, cheeseburgers, or whatever else with strangely-conjugated verbs. |
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}}</ref> These altered rules of English have been referred to as a type of [[Pidgin English|pidgin]]<ref name= "cats has grammar" /> or [[Baby talk#Baby talk with pets|baby talk]].<ref name= "kitty pidgin"> |
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{{cite web |
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| url=http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/004442.html |
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| title=Language Log: Kitty Pidgin and asymmetrical tail-wags |
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| author=[[Mark Liberman]]|date=[[2007-04-25]]|accessdate=2007-04-28 |
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}}</ref> The text is frequently in the form of a [[snowclone]] parodying the grammar-poor [[patois]] stereotypically attributed to [[internet slang]]. |
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Lolcats are similar to other animal-based image macros, such as the [[O RLY?]] [[owl]] and captioned pictures of various animals such as dogs and bees. <ref name="slate"> |
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{{cite web |
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| last = Agger |
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| first = Michael |
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| authorlink = |
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| title = Cat power: You cannot resist lolcats |
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| work = |
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| publisher = [[Slate (magazine)|Slate Magazine]] |
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| date = 2007-05-21 |
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| url = http://www.slate.com/id/2166338/ |
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| format = |
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| accessdate = 2007-05-21 }} |
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</ref> |
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==Recurring structures== |
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Frequently, lolcat captions take the form of snowclones where nouns and verbs are replaced in a phrase. Some phrases have a known source while others seem to be specific to the lolcat form. These conventions are being built into a [[esoteric programming language|toy programming language]] called "LOLcode".<ref name="Silverman"/> |
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==See also== |
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* [[Cuteness]] |
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* [[List of snowclones]] |
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==References== |
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{{reflist}} |
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==External links== |
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* [http://icanhascheezburger.com/ ICanHasCheezburger.com] |
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* [http://lolcats2.com/ Lolcat image gallery] |
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* [http://macrocats.com/ Macrocats image gallery] |
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* [http://lolcode.com/ LOLCODE programming language] |
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[[Category:Internet memes]] |
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[[Category:Internet slang]] |
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[[Category:Web humor]] |
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[[Category:Photography by genre]] |
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[[Category:Cats in popular culture]] |
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Revision as of 11:04, 16 June 2007
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