Many people seem to think that cats are funny. As cats are one of the most popular pets in the world, there are a large number of materials about cats and humor in all forms of media ranging from cat joke books to home made cat videos. The huge interest in cats has even sparked a huge internet culture surrounding cat humor.
The amusement often stems from seeing a cat carry out everyday human activities with comical results. An example is the mundane act of looking into a mirror. When a cat looks into a mirror, a common reaction is to approach the mirror cautiously, and then back away suddenly in fear as their own reflection in the mirror moves. Watching on the sidelines, pet owners not only laugh at the situation but also record these scenes on video to share with others.
In addition to funny videoes, edited photos of cats mimicking human activities or operating modern technology have surfaced on the internet. The photos are often candid shots of the furry feline in an unusual pose. Funny captions are then added onto the photo. These kind of images have come to be known as “lolcat”. “lol” is an internet slang for “laugh out loud” and is commonly used to represent laughter in typed form.
A sample lolcat could be one where a cat is caught standing in its hind legs and its right front leg stretched up to the right. With a caption, the image editor could give the impression that the cat is a rock and roll star. Sometimes, a picture with a cat in a regular sitting pose would be used, but the key to the humor is coming up with the appropriate caption that suits the image.
The caption is not written in ordinary English language. A slang known as “lolspeak” or “kitty pidgin” is used instead. Lolspeak is a parody of internet slang that often misspell English words and contain many grammatical errors. The use of this slang enhances the hilarity of the images. Several language rules regarding kitty lolspeak could be found on the internet.
There are a few common rules to observe in order to be a good writer of kitty pidgin. One is the heavy misuse of the verb “to be”. English syntactic rules are also abandoned as a free word order is utilized to the user’s fancy.
Misspelling is a major part of kitty pidgin. Some ways this has been done is replacing S with Z and importantly, “the” must be spelled as “teh”. In addition, lots of exclamation marks could be used in a single sentence, as well as using different internet abbreviations together in one word.
So in addition to funny cat video lolcat has gone from being an amusing hobby to an internet culture that has been featured by the news and entertainment industry. Similar types of image captioning are now used with other well loved pets such as dogs and rabbits. Spin offs such as a lolcat comic book was published in 2008 and even the bible had been translated into lolspeak. This cultural phenomena is a proof that cats are funny.
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