by Kacey Stapleton

Created on: September 02, 2010   Last Updated: September 03, 2010

The formula is simple.  Give people a dose of adorable and they will come back again and again.  This is especially true of office dwellers trapped in a maze of drab cubicles performing countless, usually thankless tasks.  Even a causal observer will notice an escapist trend among personal effects of the trapped worker.  If allowed by management pictures of kittens, babies, or even better tiny tots actually holding a kitty appear interspersed among the post-it notes, scribbled on calendars and late project notices.  Anything cute and fuzzy is a balm to the stressed out soul, so sites like

LOLcats will naturally be visited frequently.   

The site is not the first of this breed of Internet phenomena. Before LOLcats, an earlier example of a daily fix for the cuteness deficient was Hampster Dance, which hit the web in 1998.  A simply made Geocities page with an array of dancing hamsters and mice accompanied by Roger Miller’s “Whistle Stop” played at fast speed spread like a virus through emailed recommendations. Named for creator Deidre LaCarte’s pet hamster Hampton, the dancing rodents had an almost hypnotic effect that calmed both fretful two-year-olds and ruffled CEOs. Unfortunately, LaCarte then a student failed to register Hampsterdance as a domain name allowing copycats to steal away the fun. The similarity between Hampster Dance and LOLcats is in the of complexity.  The trance inducing continuous loop is missing, but once you click on the site and start scrolling through the pictures and texts of the grammatically challenged kitties a sizable chuck of time is about to go missing from your day. But, then again cats were a much better bet to go viral than hamsters no matter how tirelessly they dance.

Felines in general have captured humankind’s fascination and imagination throughout history. Capable of being both comical and elegant these creatures are natural models. Cats have featured prominently in art since the Egyptians. Even Samuel Finley Breese Morse, the man more famous for inventing the code that bears his name was susceptible to the cuteness factor of kitties. His 1824 oil painting entitled Miss Hone depicts a charming little girl and her equally adorable kitten.  Perhaps the inventor knew someone who desperately needed a few stress relieving office decorations. 

Comical pictures of cavorting cats aren’t a new concept, but LOLcats managed a unique twist giving the stars of their site a special language.  A combination of abbreviations, texting lingo, and poor grammar captioned on each image on LOLcats gives the kitties a distinct personality.  Explaining humor is often impossible so trying to justify why the picture of a wistfully eyed kitten with the caption reading “I can haz cheeseburger?” is hysterically funny is a challenge.  There is no way to truly understand the formula of LOLcats success other than most humans love cats, and all of us need a good laugh.  

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