For the past several days, a blog full of cat pictures with eccentric captions known as I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER? has been the most popular blog across the entire WordPress blog network. The implications are staggering. Meg Frost's crack-like Cute Overload blog has certainly demonstrated the Web public's massive appetite for cunningly-described images of cuddly animals, but I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER? ascends to new heights in the cuteocracy*.
Until now, the lolcats meme has drifted across the face of the Web, decentralized and uncollected. But with I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?, the webmasters known as cheezburger and tofuburger have given us the gift of a lolcat archive. This presents two distinct advantages: we can mainline intense doses of cuteness; and we can also watch in fascination as the lolcat meme changes from week to week -- pictures and phrases drift from one lolcat to the next, gaining silliness with each iteration. Some lolcat phrases please more than others: no matter what happens, every single "DO NOT WANT" picture cracks me up. But the "mah bucket" meme doesn't work for me.
Ever since Anil Dash offered a preliminary grammar of lolcat speak, I've become fascinated the stuff collected by cheezburger and tofuburger, as well as lolgeeks, loltrek, and Nick Mathewson's quantum lolcats. The popularity of I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER? demonstrates that for some bizarre reason, the rest of the Web is fascinated too.
* Credit to Jeff Diehlfor coining the term "cuteocracy."
