HOW-TO
How 2 Mak Ur Own Lolcat
By Nathan Rome
The wonderment that is the “lolcat.” These mischievous cats have taken over the Internet and our hearts completely. In case you missed the article in Time magazine covering the phenomenon, a lolcat is a photo of an animal, although usually a cat, hence “lolcat,” with a humorous caption written in broken English (often referred to as “lolspeak” or “Kitteh”) that attempts to speak for the animal or the situation. Don’t judge it by its description though. One must see a lolcat to truly understand its awesomeness.
If you haven’t seen a lolcat, then you should definitely go on ICanHazCheezburger or Lolcat Web sites and familiarize yourself with the format. Doing so is critical to making your own lolcat and, really, is just good fun.
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with lolcats and what they typically include, you’re obviously going to want to make your own and share it with everyone you know. Many sites feature lolcat builders to assist you with this process. I recommend ICanHazCheezburger’s. You can select from one of their images or upload your own. Make sure to create an account so you can save your lolcats and send all of your friends and relatives a link to the image!
The only thing ICanHazCheezburger doesn’t have is an integrated lolcat translator. Unless you’re a seasoned lolcat vet, you’re going to need a translator to accurately translate your message into Kitteh. So once you select or upload your image, I recommend opening a second Web browser window and going here: http://speaklolcat.com/. This is one of my favorite lolcat translators. Its translations are a little more thorough than some of its competitors.
SpeakLolcat is pretty simple to use. Just type your message into the box on top, then hit translate. It will put the translated message in the box below. If the message doesn’t seem all that different from what you originally typed in, you might revamp it slightly in the top box. Remember, lolcats are all about the simplicity so use basic verbs and adjectives for the best translation.
Once you’ve got your message translated to your liking, just copy and paste it into the second step on ICanHazCheezburger. The great thing about this site is that it allows you to choose what text goes on the top, middle and bottom as well as the ability to format the text in different ways – allowing you to make a truly unique lolcat.
After that, just click “save,” or “save and submit” to share it with everyone and amaze them with your awesomeness and creativity. There you have it, your own piece of the Internet phenomenon – a true testament of the Internet’s awesome power, your very own lolcat.
E-mail the author: Nathan Rome