LOLTrek

Let’s talk about lolcats. Lolcats, or cat macros, are a subset of image macros. They’re pictures of cats with captions typed across them. In essence they’re the “Hang In There Baby” posters gone feral.

Anil Dash has a great post about them, in which he identifies a number of lolcat subclasses and discusses kitty pidgin, the mangled English used in many lolcat pictures. Kitty pidgin is surprisingly regular, which I suppose means, as Anil Dash puts it, that cats can has regular grammar.

A number of sites collect lolcat pictures, among them I Can Has Cheezburger and Meme Cats. If you browse through those sites, you’ll quickly get a feel for how lolcats work. If you’re inspired to make your own, remember: use Impact or Arial Black, and put a black outline around white letters.

While this is nice and all, I quickly realized that there are no long-form lolcat works. The closest is Spatch’s wonderful Cat Town, and it’s only a relative to lolcats. That set my fevered brain to spinning: what would a lolcat story look like? What if lolcats had a TV channel? What kind of shows would be on it?

The answer is clear: they would show Star Trek.



























































And thanks to Gunther Schmidl for the “Invisible Klingon” suggestion.

[tags]lolcats, meme-cats, cat-macros, star-trek[/tags]

574 thoughts on “LOLTrek

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  2. This is totally awesome. And totally not slagging the server, amazingly. She’ll hold together.

    [Do you hear me baby? Hold together.]

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  4. That made laughing noises come out of my face.

    Also, big kudos on *not* resisting the urge to throw Sisko in there, but managing to do it without making the whole thing about the ‘crossover’.

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  7. Oh, that is *most* excellent. If only I could speex lolcatz better!

  8. SO FULL OF WINS AND AWSUM

    Seriously, this rules, and the “commercials” were divine inspiration.

  9. This is great. I did want to point out one thing. While using the Impact font (or other Serif) seems to be across-the-board, many of the best image macros have used colors other than white. So, even though Wikipedia says that white is most often used, we should encourage artistic freedom.

    Seems like the trend began with the “O RLY?” owl, which has been around since the early 1990s. LOLcats are far more well-known these days, and with so many people making them, why limit creativity?

  10. is SO funny i hasd many lolls!

    [i thinks dancing studio commercial would be slightly improved if “invisible” were added, but why mess with purrfection]

  11. Oh this is great! I absolutely love it! Two of my favorite things combined purrfectly. Thank yous!

  12. David Gerrold is a friend of mine, I am sooooo gonna show him this!!!

    He will giggle a lot at it!!!

  13. This was hilarious the whole way through, but the very last panel killed me. I r ded! Ded from teh Sisko!

  14. ZOMG this was only mildly amusing to me until Commander Sisko showed up, now it pwns

  15. I’ll sway from the pack to say I think this is lame. That kind of kitty speak is only cute when it’s done with kitties and even then it’s getting old. And some of that is more 1337 speak than kitty speak.

  16. I hate you now sir….not because it wasn’t funny…but because I didn’t think of it first.

    Curses on you Oh Bald headed, water drinking, star trek loving ewok hater.

    LOLOLZ

  17. I didn’t think I could laugh today. I wuz wrong.

    THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

  18. Imagine Bold white letters with a black surrounding that says…

    Very but very very good – Thanx

  19. I haven’t laughed so hard in ages… will definitely be pimping this all over the place:).

  20. Seeing that pidgin English used with minority actors veers over the line to racism. Is everyone here too young to remember the controversy about Jar Jar Binks and his patois?

  21. “The closest is Spatch’s wonderful Cat Town, and it’s only a relative to lolcats.”

    If Cat Town is a relative, it’s the grandfather.

  22. Seeing that pidgin English used with minority actors veers over the line to racism. Is everyone here too young to remember the controversy about Jar Jar Binks and his patois?

    I don’t think that example fits. Jar Jar Binks was in effect a Stepin Fetchit character, and was the only one speaking in a stereotypical slave patois. Here the pidgin is applied across the board, with only Mr. Spock unaffected.

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  24. what cracks me up is Spock speaking normally…

    you do realise you’ve now got to do all the others…

  25. You need turn “Be” to “Am” in sentences. Sound too much like ebonics, not lik catz…

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  28. Very nice.
    I knew this was going to happen however. I mean really.. is it not true that All Yor Tribble Already belong to US?

  29. Holy crap, that is the hardest I’ve laughed since the Iraq invasion began.

  30. It’s funny, my friend just showed me these episodes and then sends me this. HILARIOUS! I loved it!

  31. This are LOLTrek.
    It are full of win and lulz.
    MOAR! plzkthxbai.

  32. Stephen, yep, you are on the first page now, good luck, just went popular 21 min ago.

  33. I am mightily amused. Also, I propose “Kidgin” as a name for the language. Or perhaps, given the level of artistic culture reflected, “Kitschin.”

  34. Are you going to adapt that for Dragon*Con TV?

    Sadly, no. DCTV has to be more careful about reusing things like existing Star Trek stories.

    Joyce: “Kitschin” is excellent.

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  36. I has can have many laffs and startled my dog. We is can have thanks you!!!

  37. Is not Christina Applegate in Food Commercial. Is Jennifer Jason Leigh of Fast Times at Ridgemont High, etc. Hair colour, hairline, sultry look up under the eyebrows, etc. Think about it.

  38. f***ing stupid. just proven you have no grasp of “meme cats” by using ebonics in every other picture. “this be sucking”

  39. omghee. hilarious AND you brought out the world’s first lol cat grammarnazis. BRAVO.

  40. This is one of the funniest things I have seen on the internet in a really long time. Kudos!

  41. I’ve never seen the episode. And now, thanks to your abbreviated version, I don’t have to!

    It was hillarious! I laughed, and am still laughing. So are all my Trekkie/Trekker (whichever you prefer) friends.

    Have you ever considered writing Coles/Cliffs notes? LOL!

  42. (Kirk”WHUT?”#3)
    :::snkkrsnikk:::
    (“DONOTWANT”)
    :::heegigglesnortheehee:::
    (“INVISIBLEKLINGON”)
    BWAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!

    You is win 8)

  43. Oh, and for those who haven’t seen the episode — you really should. It’s a funny one, plus for space considerations I left out the awesome bar fight scene.

  44. I heard from StarLady42 that you’re having a babee today? Congrats! It’s my birthday too! May the 4th be with you!

    And this made me lol long, and lol hard. Thanks!

  45. I was missing the bar scene.

    I’M IN UR BAR, FIGHTIN’ UR XTRAS

    And LOVE the cameo by Avery Brooks!

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  47. Construction Commercial Cat Cameo.
    Construction Commercial Cat Cameo.
    Construction Commercial Cat Cameo.
    Construction Commercial Cat Cameo.

    – Zippy

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  49. lol wut? ur lolcat is terrible. has u ever even seen a lolcat? u talks about grammer liek u noes it, but u doesnt.

    also, sorri coz i linkd ur image wehastrouble37.jpg, n it breaked. the link r gone now.

  50. All your jokes are belong to us funny 🙂 Whut? Hilarious it are, muchly too. Also enjoyed it I did. Starting to sound like Yoda, I am. Stop, I must. Yeeees….

    ~ Jonathan Rich, I am

  51. Even our furry friends without opposable thumbs (we am having no opposable thumbs?) would applaud at this. For the lolcat grammarnazis, how do you say “I am jealous I didn’t think of this first” in lolcateese?

    Hey man, just doing the Trek or are you going to next conquer Shakespear? Because LolHamlet would be pretty funny…

  52. For an original Trekkie, though the years, this was a great nostalgic LOL !!

  53. wurd: Because of bandwidth problems, I disabled hotlinking. If you want, you can copy the image to your own server and use that in the link.

  54. Dere wuz no catz n “construction commercial”. I M GYPED!!! (roflmfao)

  55. And I thought “remastered” TOS was good … in lolcat it’s even better!

  56. purrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

  57. If only the Internet would do every single original Star Trek episode this way. My life would be complete. Please… someone… entertain me!

  58. I gots many lolses from “Main screen turn on,” myself. Make your time, kittehs!

  59. My math class had an assignment based on that episode. We watched it in class and then had to calculate something–probably how many tribbles existed in the end based on some concept we were learning.

  60. Picard: What do you think, Mr. Data?
    Data: I believe the required answer is Ha! Ha! Ha! Actually Captain, I am amazed that Star Fleet survived the Kirk era.

  61. WTH!!! lol, this was sooo hilarious! i laughed so hard, what is a tribble!!!??? lol!!

  62. I am still be laffing for many minutes – I be having animals in mah home that are looking like tribbles with haed attached similar to furry cat-type heads! And long fuzzy tails!

  63. Argh! lafter not stop – am having trouble obtain oxygen into lungs, and strange liquids squirts out noze…

  64. TOO Funny!!!! As a die-hard Star Trek fan, and cat lover, thought this was hilarious. The Trouble with Tribbles was also my favorite Star Trek episode.

    You missed Scotty’s last line “and where they will be no Tribble at all”

  65. OH MY!!, absolutely brillant, I have not laughed this in a long time. This is one of my favorite Star Trek Episodes. Now with more comedy than originally presented, and the cat commercials are too, too cute, I have sent this link to all my incognito trekkies. I want more, maybe a borg spinoff?

  66. Die hard trekie here. wantz more kitteh wantz more 2, she lyk comershells

  67. “This tribble is dead.”

    “Hey that my line.”

    Bloody genius!

  68. I read through about half the comments and didn’t see anything about this, soooo…

    I love how all the commercials have cats in them. Heh, even the construction commercial.

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  71. What I like most about it is how Spock is unaffected. Do you think this is actually how he feels *all the time*?! He explains something complicated and to his Vulcan ears Kirk’s response sounds like “WHUT?! I be firing the flashy blue lights at em!”

  72. That made me laugh harder than a lot of the lolcats they’ve been posting lately!
    Thanks !

  73. um
    this was good, but kinda stupid at times.

    i is shutting up now.

  74. [Comment by Tom
    Those were GREAT screenshots. You RUINED them with your stupid dialogue!!
    Posted on May 15, 2007 at 3:51 pm]

    O HAI CODE WUN ALERT

    sumbodee pls to be beemin teh Tom up wit teh klingons

    k thks bai

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  76. awesomestest! just please don’t lol a star trek enterprise episode because that show was lamestest.

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  78. You are an inspiration! In fact, you inspired me to attack a feature length film! What better film than one that has been essentially LOLed every Saturday for more than 30 years? “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” becomes “The LOLcky Horror Picture Show”!

  79. You are the Shakespeare of lolcat-speek.

    Wait, I don’t like Shakespeare. You are the Kurt Vonnegut of lolcat-speke.

  80. Whut’s that?
    I is feeling very strange now.
    Might be sever lolcat-illnezz.
    Pleaze can anyone get Bones here.

  81. LMAO! This is so great! I have to show this to my buddy the next time he comes over. We’ve both been Trek fans since the first season wayyyy back when. Thanks for this. *snork*

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  86. It was great until the Sisko reference. Then greatness evolved into sheer, unadulterated genius, with the subtlety of nothing less than a master.

    *cough* Yeah, can you tell which series is my favourite? 🙂

  87. K, I laff so hard, now I gots
    togo wipe up. Funny !cuz I hate
    STARTREK…EHH HEH

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  90. I can has more episodz plz k thx bye.

    Seriously, this is the single best LOL-anything in the universe, ever. Even better than the LOLfox firefox advert. Yes. All my frendz will has link 2 dis. Wether they likez it or not.

  91. Iz in ur blog, laughin at ur pikshurs

    The last one with Sisko was brilliant. Thanks for the laugh!

  92. Well Done!
    LOL Cats + Star Trek + Zero Wing =
    1-Laughs * 6.02 * 10^23 !!!
    Thank you!
    I sent the link to several friends, all old Trekkies like me.
    PML

  93. h0 d33r LMAO.this b3s t3h funni3rst tr3ks thing i ar3 C!1.pL33z d00 m0r
    ausum j0b,make mes laft0rz m0st xs3l3nt

  94. You gotz 2 much commentz 2 B needin mine but this B 2 gud to no add mor commentz. Me luv cats bestest critter. Me luv Tribbles bestest Trek. Cats + Tribbles = Bestest of the Best!!1!

  95. I absolutely love this! Friggin’ hilarious! I’m a newbie to lolcats in general, but I’ve shown this to a bunch of Trek buddies.

    uz be fnny guy. im in uz blog, laffn @ yuz loltrekz

  96. I have a question: may I use some of those sweet pictures in forums? I’d not link to here but upload them myself. I can also give credits when posting. I’m mainly thinking of “Whut”, of course, and “Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Hmph”.

  97. Too bad you couldn’t have worked in that other classic Trek comment by Bones: “Goddammit, Jim, I’m a Doctor, not a ____.” (You fill in the blank.)

  98. I haz luvd deh Star Treks fur deh minny yearz, and am deh big fan of deh feelynz tu. Dis am deh funyist stuffs un deh hole wyd werld. Eye sulute yus!
    Liv deh long tiemz and do deh prozpurrs!

  99. This is a PANIC!

    Any plans to do the same with other Trek episodes? I can imagine “Space Seed” done this way.

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  101. You made my day–lolcats and Trek and tribbles. The commercials are great (dance commercial!) and I love that Spock doesn’t speak lolcat but has his actual Tw/T lines!

    I bow before you, Nerd God and Meme-Originator…

    ps” I can has icon of “Im in yr…charmin’ yr wimmin” if I credit you?

  102. Lol Trek is so brilliant! but they left out the fight scene in the pub.

    Kurk Captain is Garbage
    Enterprise should be hauled away AS Garbage

    Scott: WTH!!!!! – punch Klingons

  103. Yeah, I left that out for space and time considerations. This LOLTrek has been altered to fit the medium: it has been edited for time.

  104. Ai almoat nebber laffs allowd at teh websites, but when ai readed tihs ai hadda gets owt of mai chayre tew slaps mai thighs propperly an hoooowl wif teh laffter.

    Ai go naow tew send tihs tew mai geekfrenz.

    Yew rules.

    kthxbai xxxxx

  105. And bonus points for the Settlers reference, too (caught it on 2nd or 3rd time through…)

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  108. I can’t help it: I love LOLcats. I hang on the I Can Has Cheezburger? RSS feed for morsels of happiness in an otherwise bleak work day.

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  110. Best. Part. Of. My. WEEK.

    Possibly also of my whole year so far.

    Kirk: WHUT? is awesome… but the best thing… The best thing ever… Is Spock bein’ all immune to the lulz. His proper-y grammar is made of win.

  111. Sorry Trish- definitely Applegate.
    These screenshots are from syndication, not original airings, 189.Other.

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  114. I’m the perfect mix of trekkie and lol-cat fan to find this deeply amusing. Thank for that enjoyable distraction.

  115. Big thanks for the LOL job on my favourite episode. I felt compelled to feature a Kirk “Whut?” pic on my blog today to properly explain my own confusion. This is still great.

  116. This is a PANIC!

    Any plans to do the same with other Trek episodes? I can imagine “Space Seed” done this way.

  117. Funny stuff. Brilliant use of “Whut?” with the same confounded expression as well as not changing Spock’s lines at all. More! More!
    Maybe do Apocalypse Now or something? Or More Trek, of course!

    1. A while back I really wanted to do this with Amok Time, but I waited too long. I believe the lolcat fever has broken; the moment is over.

  118. I’s in ur computarz
    hackin ur usrnme
    chngn ur site
    and lolin sum moar

  119. The only thing you missed is the shot in the food replicator, when the tribbles are in the coffee cup and all over the plates, captioned:
    “NOM NOM NOM NOM”

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