10 Ways LOLcats Make Everyday Life Better

Posted at 3:38 PM Oct 01, 2008

By Bonnie Ruberg

To be honest, I was going to write a list about how internet memes have made life better for women. I was going to say that Chuck Norris jokes have let us ladies be more coarse, and that Paris Hilton's presidential campaign video proved that even the ditziest of American women is smarter than John McCain. Then I realized that the upside to most memes -- like Rickrolling and Ghost Ride the Whip -- is that they distract men so that women can get the actual work done in the world.

The exception to this rule, of course, is the lovable phenomenon known as LOLcats. LOLcats, contrary to what the seven humans left on earth who don't love them may believe, are a meme that reaches far and wide, spreading its adorable tentacles even outside internet culture. LOLcats have also, strangely but irrefutably (hear that? you can't refute it), made everyday life better. Here's how:

10. LOLcats make it okay to suck at spelling
I don't know about you, reader, but I am an awful speller. Like, awful. And maybe that's alright for some people, but I'm a writer. People pay me every day to type up ideas I'm supposed to know how to accurately construct out of letters. Now that LOLcats have arrived in the world though, I have an excuse: "Of course I know how to spell cheeseburger. I was just being LOLcat."

9. LOLcats make demon pets worth loving
The things that animals do in the most hilarious of LOLcat images would drive a normal pet owner crazy. I once lived with a roommate who had an absolutely adorable, but absolutely insane, cat. She scratched friends and strangers alike and flung her body from across the room onto your promptly bleeding chest. Once I starting thinking of her as a LOLcat though, she got that much cuter. Oh look, the cat is in the oven again. Snap!

8. LOLcats let boys appreciate cuteness without looking sissy
Guys love LOLcats just as much as the next internet user, if not more. Sure, they have snarky and ironic things written on them. But that just gives boys an excuse to stare while really experiencing an inner "Awww."

7.LOLcats make it okay to be adorable
I can't be the only one who reverts to being seven-years-old every now and then. The popularity of LOLcats makes it alright to says things like "lolz" and then cower into a cat-like position. No, it's not normal, but at least it's "Internet cool."

6.LOLcats make us careful with words
Each LOLcat caption is only a few words long. No long rants, just concise funny. Heck, even punctuation is frowned upon as it implies there might be a whole sentence involved. Internet commentators, you have a lot to learn. Internet journalists, we might, too.

5.LOLcats let us comment on... anything
Millions of years ago, before the first LOLcat image was created, we had nothing to do with pictures of animals. Now basically anything can be LOLcat-ed -- religious images, celeb pictures, etc. Suddenly we all have the right to say whatever we want, in concise misspelled form.

4.LOLcats make the masses creative
Along with YouTube, Twittering, etc. LOLcats are giving Internet dorks something constructive to do with our dorky energy. Look, we're creating! Sure, we're creating bizarre photos of puppies hugging birds accompanied by captions about cheeseburgers, but it's something.

3.LOLcats are always, always relevant
As an online writer who often has to go searching for relevant photos that don't infringe on any nasty copyright laws, I love that there's a LOLcat for every occasion. Relationship post? Post about politics? Bear attacks? Yup, yup, and yup.

2.LOLcats bring people together
Who doesn't love LOLcats? No one, that's who. See, now we're all friends.

1.LOLcats make dorkiness cool
Suddenly it's okay to love cats hiding in computers, in ceilings, making nerdy programming references. Well, at least, it's cool on the Internet. Wait, the Internet is cool, right? It is to everyone on the Internet, and there are a heck of a lot of us.