Pop Culture Thinks Cats Are Funny Felines
Many people in the world have pet cats and seem to think that cats are funny. A lot of materials regarding cat humor can be found in the television and the internet and this ranges from videos of cats to joke books. The popularity of cats is further evidenced by the advent of an internet culture based off cat humor.
Many people find it funny to see a cat trying out something that seems to be a normal activity to most humans. This is because cats respond in an unexpected way that are comical to watch. Thanks to their curious nature, cats are always poking their noses into things they find, however, these adventures do not always end well. One unsuspecting cat who attempted to look at their own reflection in the mirror ended up jumping backwards in fright as the image on the other side moves with them. Watching on the sidelines, pet owners not only laugh at the situation but also record these scenes on video to share with others.
Funny videoes are not the only form of cat humor. Recently, photos of cats in a funny pose coupled with a caption have been uploaded by many users. These digitally altered images, known as "lolcat", often portrays the cat as having human habits or controlling modern technology. The name comes from the internet slang abbreviation "lol", which means to "laugh out loud". Internet users would use the abbreviation when they come across something funny.
A still of a cat doing a regular activity such a stretching on its hind legs could be changed into an image of a rock and roll kitty. This can be done by captioning the image with references to rock and roll. Even with photos where the cat is just sitting, adding a hilarious caption would change the nature of the picture. These forms the basis for lolcat.
The language used for the captions are meant to create humor as well. Parodied off internet slang that is most often riddled with ungrammatical sentences and misspelled words, this language or slang has been named "lolspeak" or "kitty pidgin". Enthusiasts wishing to learn this slang could find guides easily 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.
Spelling errors are a good thing in lolspeak. Similar sounding consonants can be substituted for one another and the English definite article "the" should be misspelled as "teh". Emotions can be shown through text by using a disproportionate amount of exclamation marks or using a long list of internet slang short forms to form a single word.
While funny cat video has always been a staple in game shows featuring home videos, lolcat has gone so far as to catch attention from the news and entertainment media. This cultural phenomena has even caught on with other popular domestic animals such as dogs and rabbits, forming "loldogs", "lolrabbits" and so on. The bible has been translated into kitty pidgin as a parody and a comic book based off lolcat was published in 2008. With so much focus on cat humor, cats must be really funny!
