What is a Lolcat?
A lolcat is an image of cat with an idiosyncratic and often grammatically incorrect caption superimposed. It is an excellent example of an Internet meme, a unit of cultural information which is rapidly shared between people. Lolcats most frequently pop up on Internet boards and in threaded conversations, although there are several websites dedicated to collecting and displaying the images as well. The basic stylistic format of the lolcat has also spread to other images, such as pictures of presidents, walruses, and gerbils. The origins of the lolcat are found in a larger Internet concept, the image macro. An image macro is simply a photograph with superimposed text. Like other image macros, lolcat captions are typically written in a sans serif font, and they tend to be short and to the point. Frequently, the caption references popular or Internet culture. As often happens with memes, many lolcats reference other lolcats. The name is a portmanteau of “laugh out loud” (lol) and “cat.” Al
