At this point in our modern times it is safe to assume that just about everyone has randomly come across at least one funny cat photo online. It is also safe to assume that when you saw that photo, you loved it. I mean c’mon, cats are simultaneously really funny and really adorable. It’s no wonder the LOLcat phenomenon became what it is… wait, WHAT? You have actually NEVER heard of an LOLcat? Oh no. This can continue no longer. Here’s your mini-history lesson:
Traditionally, LOLcat photos feature a cat doing something funny and/or downright adorable, with a large caption written in “lolspeak” – understood to be the language cats think in (why cats apparently speak in broken english and have bad spelling, i have no idea, but let’s not look too deeply into this one).
The first modern record of the term “lolcat” dates back to June 2006, first mentioned on the online imageboard “4chan.” The imageboard still hosts “Caturdays,” which feature strange photos of cats every Saturday. On June 14, 2006, LOLcats.com was officially registered as a domain name. However, the craze didn’t become, well, a craze until January 11, 2007, when the now-iconic “I Can Has Cheezburger” image was posted on icanhascheezburger.com.
Since then, every blog under the sun has featured pictures of cats doing weird things. They have evolved past the LOLcat format, sometimes showing several images of cats all doing the same funny thing, sometimes dropping the caption, etc. But did you know that funny cat photos actually date back to the mid-1800s?
Oh yeah. People have been obsessively photographing cats (its kind of creepy now that I think about it) since Harry Pointer gained fame for a series of carte-de-viste photographs featuring his pet cats in 1870. The photos showed the cats doing really silly human-like things, like attempting to ride a bicycle, and even had silly captions! Quickly, Pointer realized that he didn’t even have to pose his cats doing funny things as long as the caption was amusing – this is EXACTLY what LOLcats does!
So, in honor of Harry Pointer and all the creepy cat-obsessed photographers throughout history, I give you my own funny cat blog. This is my cat, “Zucchini.” He is really weird. Take a look.
Don't upset him. He will eat your brain.
Sometimes he chills in the sink. Don't ask me. Ask the weirdo in the sink.
I think he thinks he is human.
He's the only recorded instance of a cat with flying powers. Ever.
See? He's a wanna-be human. (btw he refuses to drink water from anywhere else)
Got pictures of your cat being weird? Email them to us at alie.l@pixable.com!
Pixable is a start-up founded by three MIT students and is now located in New York City.
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