(note: The lolcat image above is from I can Has Cheezburger which has a “share to your hearts content policy”)

This is one of favourite images and captions ever – it really and truly made me laugh out loud.  If you haven’t heard of lolcats before, check out the wiki entry and the associated links, which explain the phenomenon in detail.  What I originally found most interesting about the practices in general was the complex linguistic rules that had developed for the captioning of the images.

But more recently these practices have spread to the commenting on the images as well.  And in a wonderful blend of old and new literacies, people are writing fictional stories, limericks, and even haiku in lolcat language as a response to each image.  There are some wonderful examples to accompany the above image for example.  Here are a couple of poems by a commenter named “Jack Deth”:

Jack Deth’s lolcat poem

Kitteh awl strettcht aowt in t3h Bath
Eckskayping t3h Summer Sun’s rath
Wen t3h door suddenlee oapennd
Kitteh starrted 2 hoapin
2 eckskayp daown a well beeten path

Jack.

Jack Deth’s Lolcat Haiku

Kitteh in Baff Tubb
Wuntz to haowl lyke Hewminz do
Wen it raynz Inside

Klawz an Serrammick
Du nawt wurk well 4 Kitteh
No kan haz trackshun

Diss nawt lyke Baff Tyme
Tubb dry. Kitteh in kontrol
Lykes it much dat way

Jack.

And here is a story from B!

B!’s recount/story:

OMG!! REminded me of da tiem we had BIG GINORMUS erfkwayk, in NOrfridge. We wuz helpin our nayberrs, make sure eveyone okay. One naybor sez, I can’t fin ma kitteh, kin U halp?

I sez yeah, sure I halp fin kitteh. Der no power, iz dark, stranj apartmint, all twisted furnishoors. I crawlin, callin for da kitteh, not find him, not find him. Den I tink, if I skeerded lil kitteh, where I go? I go bocks! So I go in bafroom, an iz all wet everywhere, ecksept in da tub! Guess where lil kitteh wuz? LOL he finded de onlee dry spot in de world to wait for his hoomin to come get him!. I scoopt up da lil guy, he was skeered and floofy, but glad to not be alone! Den I give him to hims daddee, an he feel much better!!

But I always remember kitteh in da dry tub….

There’s also some fun threads about Hitchcock, a lot of alternative captions which are equally as hysterical, and repeated questions about where to get the shower curtain.

Does it make me a bad person to be planning photoshoots with my kittens when they arrive for the sole purpose of adding to lolcats?