For the second installment of Memenatomy 101, I bring you the LOLCat. I think that this is my favorite meme of all time. A LOLcat is a picture of a cat with a funny and usually grammatically incorrect caption – this language has been termed kitty pidgin or LOLspeak. As with any language, it has evolved to a point where the language has converged to a new set of rules in spelling and grammar. If you are unfamiliar with LOLspeak, you can refer to the LOLspeak glossary or if you’re feeling a bit lazy, check out the LOLspeak translator. If you want to make your very own LOLcat, checkout the LOLCat Buildr. I’ve posted mine below.

moar funny pictures

Common Themes

LOLcats have several themes that are extremely common, below are some of the most common themes that you will find

• “Im in ur noun, verb-ing ur related noun.” This is the theme that I’ve used in the above LOLcat picture.

• “I has a noun” shows a cat in possession of an object.

• “Invisible noun” show pictures of cats apparently interacting with said invisible object.

• “flavor” shots specifically show a cat (or another animal) licking/eating an item, person or animal (including sometimes themselves) and remarking how “[noun] haz a flavor.”

• a cat with a specific look, which is described by adjective, and the text, “[adjective] cat is [adjective]“, “[adjective] cat is not [adjective]” or “Your offering pleases [adjective] cat.

• sub variation:”adjective cat is not amused”, or “[adjective] cat has run out of [noun]“

Variations

LOLrus – This is the same as LOLcats but featuring Walrus’ and usually a bukit.

LOLcode is a programing language inspired by LOLspeak

HAI
CAN HAS STDIO?
I HAS A VAR
IM IN YR LOOP
UPZ VAR!!1
VISIBLE VAR
IZ VAR BIGR THAN 10? GTFO. KTHX
KTHX
KTHXBYE

LOLTheist is a take on LOLcats, using religious icons and imagery.

For the first installment of Memenatomy 101, I’ll cover the RickRoll.

So we are all on the same page, let me give you a quick definition of RickRoll: A RickRoll is when you post a misleading link with the pretext that you are sending the person to a site that promises to be exciting and/or interesting, but instead you send them to Rick Astley’s music video “Never Going to Give You Up”.

Evolution

The RickRoll originated as the duckroll on 4chan. The premise was the same as the RickRoll, except instead of being sent to the music video, you were directed to an animated gif of a toy duck rolling across the computer screen.

The site responsible for the first RickRoll has been claimed by many sites and forums and the first instance of the RickRoll may be lost to us forever…unfortunatly the lyrics to ‘Never Going to Give You Up’ will forever be etched into my head (damn, I’m humming it as I type).

**Update: It appears that you can no longer embed the RickRoll’d video from youtube so you’ll have to visit youtube to watch it, I’ll do the next best thing though and embed BarakRoll’d
Variations

As with any good meme, this one too is evolving infront of our eyes. Below are links to some of my favorite rickroll variations:

• TayRoll
• MuppetRoll
• MarioRoll
• BarakRoll (this one is by far my favorite variation)

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SXGi91b8a0M]
The latest development in the RickRoll meme, has been to bring the RickRoll into real life. The creative ways to do this are endless, but my favorites are the prank dialer, when RocketBoom RickRolled Next New Networks founder Tim Shey at the office with a singing telegram, and when a University basketball game got RickRolled by a guy dressed up as Rick Astley.

Now go pick a victim and get your RickRoll on!