Hello everybody!
This post really has two reasons for existence. The first, a linguistic reason, is to pose a question to the readers about our use and perception of language. The second is to post a series of pictures (not my own) that will assuredly make the reader smile and/or laugh. Hopefully you’ll enjoy both.
Caturday
From what I gather, the phenomenon of funny cat pictures began on one particular web image board. I’m not going to give the name of the board as it’s an board where people can post anonymously, so there’s frequently content there I don’t want to endorse. Regardless, a tradition called Caturday arose. On Saturdays, people would find pictures of cats with interesting expressions, then caption them in humorous ways. These have been posted in various places on the internet, and it’s not uncommon for them to show up in random discussions on all sorts of sites. Recently, I went looking for more of them (as I find them quite funny), and found a treasure trove of cats, strangely enough, posted on a BodyBuilding forum. Based on these images, I’ve been able to make a Linguistic observation:
Cats have bad grammar, and it’s funnier that way
In many of the pictures I found, I’ve noted pretty significant deviations from conventional English Grammar. Ranging from the incorrect application of language rules (“eated”), to internet style contractions (“plz” for “Please”), to out and out incorrect verb agreement (“I are serious cat”), many of these captions use blatantly bad grammar. Here are some examples:
The fact of the matter, though, is that the bad grammar somehow makes it funnier. Somehow, saying “I am a Serious Cat, and this is a Serious Thread” doesn’t have the same ring to it. The best explanation I’ve come up with is that the grammatical errors remind English speakers of the speech of children, and thus, come up with more cuteness. If you have any ideas, I’d like to hear them.
A meme is born
Before I go, I’d like to talk a bit more about the “im in ur ____, ____ing your ____” construction. I’m not sure what the original version was, but since its inception, it has truly become an internet meme, a sort of internet in-joke that’s become a cliché due to frequent posting. There are lots of different variations on this construction (“im in your fridge, eating ur foodz”), and it has even been applied outside of cats. This past November, when the Democrats gained control of the US Congress, this picture promptly popped up online featuring the new Speaker of the House:
Just to think, from such humble roots, Caturday has spawned a new internet sensation reaching as far as the US Congress. Oh, the glory of the internet.
Followup: I’ve discussed the LOLCat dialect a bit more recently, so if you’re interested in this phenomenon and the heights it has reached, you might want to read “im in ur programmz, codin in ur dialect”
Tagged with Conventional Linguistics, Language Humor, Language, Computers, and the Internet, Speech and Grammar Errors | 34 Comments
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Great post!
I think grammar and spelling have always been the target of humor, probably since the first large commercial bulletin board systems (GEnie, CompuServ, AOL) brought techies and non-techies together. I imagine certain large image boards and forums popularized the idea of the caption contest. It would be interesting to see where the two converged. I think “Limecat”, the image of the irritated cat wearing a lime rind helmet, was instrumental in bringing images of cats into the mix.
It’s funny you mention that particular meme at the end, since I had been wondering about it myself last week. There is some evidence suggesting it was spawned on the same image board responsible for Caturday. In the wikipedia entry for that image board, there is a link to another wiki that tries to catalog all the memes that began on that board. That wiki claims that “I’m in ur base killin ur d00ds” was the first example.
http://plonkmedia.org/thorn/images/254/i%20question.jpg
that’s all i have to say (i’m sad that it wasn’t me that came up with the quote)
and yes, i’m new here, but i hate capital letters unless it’s in a TLA (three letter acronym) or the like… MPAA, FBI, DOA, etc…
[...] The O Rly phenomenon used to affect me in the same way. There are actually people out there (example) researching this [...]
[...] and assorted geek memes. What’s really interesting to me (and apparently Anil and some linguist guy I’d never heard of) is the fact that that LOLcat syntax and usage, however hilariously [...]
“i’m in ur base killin ur doods” was clearly the genesis of the phenomenon.
The members of afore-not-mentioned imageboard like to take particularly hilarious malapropisms, bad grammar, etc. from the sites they ridicule or invade and transform them into in-jokes.
Some examples:
* Be an hero (“Kill yourself”)
* Subject Verb Object (Korea Eat Cat)
* But their posting muddy dicks
* so i herd u like mudkips
* “Basically I go accurately and on special lines”
* how do i shot web?
* DOG HELP ME GET APPLES
And so on…
“im in ur ____, ____ing your ____”
As was said before, from “im in ur base, killin ur doods”.. though I’m not 100% on the original spelling. Came from a Warcraft II game, in response to the question “Where are you?”
[...] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Works consulted -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Linguistic Mystic — im in mai blog, postin’ bout cats: The Cuteness of Grammatical errors [...]
re: The bad grammar makes it funnier. Yes, the lolcats speak in a way that reminds of children but there is also something else. The cats are unsocialised in human terms and think in concepts that are borrowed from English in much the same way as loanwords from English operate in Japanese and French etc..
There is also a similarity to the way that Newspeak was constructed (see the appendix to Orwell’s 1984 for details of this)
Basically, cats speak in the way they do because they have a different set of priorities and their speech reveals their cognitive processes to be utterly consonant with their own interests and nothing else.
Hope this helps ;)
[...] Another really good explanation [...]
[...] the joke without crossing the line into explaining it so hard it isn’t funny anymore (cf with this rather more heavy-handed [...]
I don’t think it came from Warcraft, at least not Warcraft II. It’s likely it’s been around a while, possibly as early as Red Alert. Just because there are a lot of warcraft harpies around doesn’t mean they get to take credit, they try to take credit for all internet phrases.
dude… you broke rules 1 and 2 soooooooooo hard
Anonymous,
I’m not sure I understand what you’re talking about by saying that I’m breaking Rules one and two. Could you maybe clarify?
LingMystic
I think there’s something besides childlikeness. The captions aren’t just misspelled, they’re *phonetically* spelled. To read them you have to sound them out. My guess is that this activates parts of the brain that don’t get used in normal reading. Why is that funny? Dunno. But it may be that it is the *reader* who becomes more childish.
For what it’s worth, the site you dare not name reminds me very strongly of the ancient http://www.fatchicksinpartyhats.com (warning: if you find ICHC too offensive you will hate the above). The grammar/spelling has a similar effect on me. Again, for what it’s worth fatchicks is undeniably offensive, rude, homophobic and damn near indefensible. But I thought it was hilarious, and the spelling/grammar made it much harder (for me) to take serious offense. If the person being rude is misspelling everything, it may make you feel superior, and hence more forgiving.
Or it may be the old advertiser/educator trick of leaving the last word off the end of the ..: if you make it so the the reader has to work to complete the thought then they have some sort of investment in its success.
[...] for the development of said meme/macro/fad/"kitty pidgin" available here, here, here, here, here and here, if you're interested). However, I simply must point out the following [...]
The original was “I’m in ur base killing ur d00ds”, from some online multiplayer game.
[...] suddenly, you realize that somebody has written a programming language based off of the dialect of Lolcats/Cat Macros, and your faith in humanity’s inherent good is completely [...]
“im in ur base, killing your doodz” probably has a similar history to “all your base are belong to us”, which seems to stem from Japanenglish and probably a Japanese computer game (but don’t quote me…). Perhaps the lolcat thing on 4chan (with its Japanese heritage) resonates with the same meme. The grammar may be more accessible to non-native English speakers, helping its proliferation? It would be interesting to correlate lolcat and Japanese from a linguistics POV.
For the love of god. “In ur base, killin ur doodz” came from a Starcraft game. KEKEKEKE
And please stop calling them LOLcats.
Anonymous does not forgive.
[...] on this later) grammar is one of the reasons why I love the LOLCats macros so much. This is from Linguist Mystic: In many of the pictures I found, I’ve noted pretty significant deviations from conventional [...]
[...] is Kitty pidgin may be true after all. ‘Cats have bad grammar, and it’s funnier that way’ – LinguisticMystic.com True. I don’t think they photos were funny if the caption were taken out. And the photos with [...]
Those are mostly made from the people (or so I hear) at 4chan.org and Gaiaonline.com (on gaia it’s made by the people called GDers)
[...] Warning, this site may induce the following: 1. gut-clenching chuckling and laughing 2. decrease of productivity rate 3. a sudden urge to dress your pets in drag and take pictures of them in compromising positions 4. typing in lolcat dialect [...]
[...] 最早搞笑猫咪的出处并不确定，比较广泛接受的说法是一些语言学生的网站 linguisticmystic，据说他们的灵感来自一些被猫咪爱好者加了搞笑注解的猫咪图片。在他们把自己的几张搞笑猫咪贴上网页后，引起了很多 Geek 们的跟风并光大之。这是其中的一张： 我给你做了些点心，但是没忍住自己吃了…… [...]
[...] was an article about lolcats in this week’s Time magazine. GK and I talk to each other in lolcat all the time, but listening to old people try to do it is just [...]
http://www.katurday.com is also a nice place to get LOLCat images.
very interesting, but I don’t agree with you
Idetrorce
As a budding linguist and one who was around to witness the birth of caturday, I’ll assure you that the incorrect grammar is cute. In fact, the BBS on which it originated is very deeply enamored with anime and the Japanese “kawaii” complex; as an example you can see in Japanese media in particular the use of “-tan” as an honorific; which is meant to be a childish misspoken “chan”, such as “onee-tan” as a child speaking to his or her older sister.
The infection iz spreading! H4h4h4h4 /strokes white cat furiously
4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org 4chan.org
Anon (above):
Yes, that’s the image board on which LOLCats originated. Rather than trying to battle anonymous, I’ll simply let the links stay, with the warning that….
THE ABOVE SITE IS NOT SAFE FOR WORK, and is almost certain to contain images and content that I don’t recommend or endorse in any way.
Regardless, thanks for stopping by, and for birthing Caturday
Will
[...] I’m aware of on “Caturday” and the emergence of meow-meow on the i-way: the Cuteness of Grammatical Errors, im in ur programmz, codin in ur dialect: LOLCode and Feline [...]
[...] your writings in plain sight – What can computer image processing teach us about language? – im in mai blog, postin’ bout cats: The Cuteness of Grammatical errors – im in ur programmz, codin in ur dialect: LOLCode and Feline Dialectology – The glottal stop: your [...]
“Im in ur X Ying ur Z” started as a StarCraft screenshot posted on SomethingAwful with one player saying to another, “I’m in ur base killin ur d00ds”.