The LOLCats meme has been with us since the early days of the internet, and it gave humanity a reason to adore and fall for the internet's unofficial mascot even more because of their expressiveness and cuteness.
For those unaware, LOLCats are memes that feature pictures of cats in various situations and making expressions that come with an appropriate caption, usually written in Broken English, that depends on the picture's context.
However, how did these memes that take advantageof a cat's furry cuteness started?
Here are some facts you may want to know:
The Started In The 1870s
Believe it or not, the meme's roots go as far as the 1870s, when British photographer Harry Pointer took black-and-white photographs of cats posed in various situations, with them sometimes dressed in human clothing, per Know Your Meme.
Pointer isn't the only one to make such pictures. American photographer Harry Whittier Frees also produced similar-looking photographs.
Even then, people's humor appears to be the same as we have in modern times, with the cats' pictures from both photographers bearing humorous text referencing the context of the photo, per the Huffington Post.
It Never Truly Died Out
The fad of taking pictures of cats in various situations and contexts survived into the 1970s, when a motivational poster from Jennifer McKnight-Tronts showed a picture of a kitten hanging onto a tree branch with the caption "Hang in There!" appearing on the top of the little feline's head.
This motivational poster spawned various imitations, with some of them being drawn in a cartoon style with the caption, "Hang in There, Baby!"
It Re-emerged On 4Chan
The trend of taking pictures of cats and adding a caption eventually found itself on the internet, specifically on 4chan. According to an article in The Star, the LOLCats meme first came to be on 4Chan's imageboard in 2005, with an anonymous user posting a picture of a relaxed cat waiting for "Caturday."
Meanwhile, Lev Grossman claimed in a blog post they wrote for Time Magazine's Techland that the anonymous 4Chan user posted the picture as a protest to "Furry Friday" threads." on the social media platform.
It Got An EXHIBISHUN
From there it slowly spread into pop culture, with the media catching on to the trend. Time Magazine published an article about the LOLCat phenomenon that showed that a Google search of the term gave 3.3 million results, while the I Can Has Cheezburger website was receiving 200-500 LOLCat submissions per day.
The I Can Has Cheezburger website is where people submit various memes featuring animals, with cats being the most frequently featured. The website is still operational to this day despite its age.
Aside from Time Magazine's article, Entertainment Weekly ranked LOLCats as the 99th in a list of "100 Greatest Movies, TV Shows, and More" on Jan. 5, 2008. Meanwhile, The Atlantic published an article about the academic study of LOLcats, with it focusing on the meme's appeal to the public.
This appeal culminated in an exhibition hosted by the Huffington Post at the Framer's Gallery in London on Nov. 10, 2012, titled "LOLCAT-TEH EXHIBISHUN." It features 49 original LOLCat-inspired artworks.
The Huffington Post eventually held a new version of the exhibition at the Framer's Gallery on Jan. 24, 2013.
Cats Are More Appealing Since The 1870s
You may have noticed by now that cats have a tight hold on people's hearts, with them being plastered on memes and other forms of media. A study in Switzerland on 212 couples revealed that cats were more capable than their partners of alleviating negative moods.
This finding agrees with another finding from a study conducted by Central Missouri State University. According to the finding, people feel that cats create feelings of extraversion, neuroticism, agreeableness, and openness.
Ben Huh, CEO of the Cheezburger Network, explained that Cats have very expressive facial and body expressions, providing humanity with the perfect canvas to express human emotion using animals, making them "awesome for captioning and anthropomorphisation."
He also added that assigning complex human emotions in pictures of cats gives the furry felines the ability to mimic a human's behavior.
This may be the reason why the LOLCats memes are such a success.
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