Scott Porad

The LOLcat below was voted to the homepage of I Can Has Cheezburger? recently. (Yes, I say “voted” because it’s the community who chooses which LOLs make it to the homepage. Just click the Vote link at the top of the page and you can vote too!)

Anyhow, this LOL struck me, but I couldn’t quite put my finger on why, so I thought I’d ask a few people around I Can Has Cheezburger? World HQ what they thought…

Sonya

I like the full sentence lols—it’s funny because of the hoity toity cat attitude. (Also, you should do a blog post about how so many lols are full sentences now instead of lolspeak. Interesting transition.)

Martin

a. LOL, but not ROFL

b. It has a sort if Rain-Man vibe to it. With the “Definitely”

d. The distinction the cat has made between himself and nature is cute, even if it has been overdone lately (I’m looking at you, Dreamworks Animation Studio).

It would also be funnier if the cat were speaking LOLspeak. “Cow poopz. I haz definitely stepdeded in cow poopz. I hates nature.”

Jay

This photo is hilarious. It’s funny because everyone has stepped in poop at least once in their life. The part that really makes it funny though is the juxtaposition of the cat hating the outdoors since cats are usually outdoor animals. We don’t get prima donna LOLs either, so it’s kind of a fresh take.

Kiki

He looks like people. also he has too many toes, also: tuxedo cats are very urbane and fastidious.

Stefan

It is alright.
The concept it excellent, the delivery is ok.
It falls in the category of lols that I find disappointing.

After listening to what everyone else had to say, I finally figured out what it was that touched me about this LOL. This cat is Michael Cera, or at least, every character that Michael Cera has played recently. If Michael Cera stepped in cow poo, this is exactly what he would say!!

With that in mind, I headed over to the Look-Alike Builder to create a TLL of a cat and Michael Cera. But, while Googling for a picture of Michael Cera I came across the video below. Seriously, I couldn’t make this up even if I tried.

Now, one last thing: while digging around about Michael Cera I noticed that his web site, http://www.michaelcera.com is redirecting to his Twitter page.

Do you think I should tweet him with this post?

Oh, no…wait, a better idea! Why don’t you do it for me? We can flood Michael Cera with tweets about being a LOLcat. Click here to send a tweet to Michael Cera!

Picture Is Unrelated is one of our newer sites—is not LOLs, but rather a WTF?! picture site.  I like to describe the pictures on Picture is Unrelated this way:

I can describe what is going on, but I can’t explain it.

Take a look at the picture below. We have a guy with a gun and some squash.  Clearly, he’s posing with the squash.  Did he use the gun to hunt the squash?  Last I checked, squash were basically inanimate, so I’m not sure why he needed the gun.

None of the squash seem damaged, so I don’t think he’s shot them yet.  But, maybe he’s planning to shoot them. And, why is the cat in the picture?  And, and what is the cat looking at? 

Seriously, what is going on in this picture?

I believe I am currently experiencing an emotion called being perplexed. Like absurdity, our minds are wired to avoid perplexing situations, to do everything we can to bring order to the world because our minds believe that order is safe.

In fact, our minds are wired to build templates of various situations in the world so we can better understand them.  This is one of the biggest reasons mistakes happen—because our mind looked at the world through a template that didn’t accurately reflect what was happening.

Like LOLs, WTF pics provide an opportunity to wonder and marvel at a perplexing situation which is a human emotion that we don’t experience very often. This is a new and refreshing feeling for us to enjoy, and one that keeps us coming back over-and-over again!

One of the things we sell in LOLMart are WIN and FAIL stamps.  Of course, we eat our own dogfood, so we have a Wall of Fail at our office for recording WIN and FAIL.

Basically, we operate like elementary school: when you have success around here you get a gold star WIN stamp under your name.  And, when you screw up you get sent to detention a FAIL.  It’s mainly in good humor, but thank goodness there’s a lot more WIN than FAIL on the wall!

Earlier today someone sort of dropped the ball on something…it was minor, but it really was a FAIL.  It was a total Homer Simpson moment: DOH!  So, we got the stamp out and memorialized the FAIL.

This got me to thinking: there are million ways to FAIL, but when you break it down they all fit into two categories: brain fart and fat finger.

FAIL With Your Mind

A “brain fart” is when your mind temporarily stops operating.  A mental lapse.  In grown up parlance, oh, wait, brain fart is actually a scientific term.  Yikes!

Anyhoo…if you’re human then you’ve committed a brain fart, so you know what it is.  Do not try and tell me that you’ve never had a brain fart.  And, when you look at Failblog.org there are many, many, many FAILs where you say to yourself, “what was that person thinking?!”

FAIL With Your Body

On the other hand, a “fat finger” is a physical lapse.  A time when, although your body intends to do one thing, it ends up doing another.  A fat finger is a problem of execution.

Like brain farts, when you look at Failblog.org you can see many FAILs where the protagonist simply does not land the dismount, so to speak, and FAILs.

Spirit = Mind + Body Union

Now, I’ve used the Chart Builder on GraphJam.com to map out how these types of FAIL interact with each other.  As you can see, a brain fart or a fat finger by itself is funny, sometimes even LOL funny.  But, it’s the FAILs that consist of both brain fart and fat finger where you can really LMAO.

So, ladies and gentlemen, with no further adieu, I give you FAIL: