LOLcats

Sometime around the year 2005, an anonymous 4chan user (are there any other kind?) used the word "lolcat" and started a phenomenon that may never fully be explained. By June 14th, 2006, LOLcats.com had been registered, and soon images of fuzzy kittens splattered with the grammatical roadkill known as "LOLspeak" began appearing all over the internet and in email inboxes. You can see more examples of when LOLcats crossed the line in Ian Coopers "When LOLcats Attack".

In January 2007 Icanhascheezburger.com appeared, and English professors around the globe screamed in horror.  The very first picture to appear on Icanhascheezburger was a grey cat known as Happycat, begging for a cheezburger. Created by a blogger from Hawaii,  this small collection of cutsie images and internet memes soon exploded in popularity and according to TIME Magazine,  was acquired by a group of investors in September 2007 for US $2 million.  Yes,  you read that right, two million US dollars for a blog site that allowed people to post their own pictures of cats with terribly mispelled "capshuns".  The American dream lives on, and it is laughing at you and your 9-5 job.

The first LOLcat book was published in 2008, bringing these fuzzy destroyers of grammar off of the internet and onto coffee tables around the world.  We can only imagine what may come next, Rick Astley "rick rolling" people at parades? 

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The virus has breached reality, we'll never contain it now.

 The popularity of LOLcats has spawned numerous copycat sites,  including ones that promote dogs instead of cats, slap captions on celebrities, and several that offer lolcat translator programs for those who wish to be amused but lack an understanding of lolspeak. Others, apparently having mastered the language, have chosen to work together to translate the Christian bible into lolspeak for some nefarious purpose only known to those who are followers of this strange cult.