If you’re like me, PopWatchers, your life revolves around waiting for the latest lolcats on I Can Has Cheezburger?. An ongoing stream of photos of cute animals in ridiculous situations with even more disarmingly cute, horribly misspelled captions? I can’t resist. Even Wikipedia has to yield to the lolcats’ undeniable charms in its ever-growing article: "See also: Cuteness."
So it was with surprise and appreciation that I discovered my beloved lolcats and their endearing sans-serif fonts had made their way into the world of cartoon cats over at Achewood (pictured), a brilliantly subversive, often potty-mouthed webcomic written and drawn daily by Chris Onstad. Achewood uses a variety of characters to comment on modern life and current events: there’s Ray, the helicopter-owning record label impresario; Roast Beef, the depressive, cripplingly neurotic computer geek who happens to be Ray’s best friend; Philippe, a five-year old otter who once ran for President, and far too many more to list. The strip is heavily character-driven, taking on long story arcs (the best of which is the epic "Great Outdoor Fight") between one-off gags, so it’s best to start at the beginning — but catch up quick, because this week’s strips have been bringing unprecedented lols.
In a nutshell, Ray makes himself a lolcat image and gets criticized byRoast Beef. After the two fight, Ray whips up a lolcat for his pal as away of making amends but somehow the picture winds up on the nightlynews. Beef, mid-coitus with his fiancée, happens to have the TV on. Theresult is perhaps the funniest single panel in Achewood history, andsurely one far more hilarious than an anonymous feline with bad grammar skillsriding an invisible bike. But give the strip a read, PopWatchers, andlet us know which deliver more lols: actual cats or cartoon cats?
Ugh. Please, no more! I hate these things with the fire of a thousand burning suns.
See also: http://community.livejournal.com/cat_macros/
Wait, no more achewood or no more lolcats? Because if you’re doubting, even for a second, the staying power of lolcats your whole outlook comes in to question. Lolcats fulfill a societal need not met since kennedy.
Since.
Kennedy.
MTVs Kennedy
The thing I love about lolcats (or cat macros) is that when they’re done right, by someone who really gets that it’s not just weird-ass baby talk printed on a cute cat picture, they’re ridiculously hilarious.
For example:
http://icanhascheezburger.com/2007/07/09/thx-jim/#comments
If this blog entry gets Achewood a few new readers who, in turn, one day end up giving Chris Onstad some of their money, than that would be pretty awesome. Cuz the dude deserves the mad cash. Maybe even six hundred dollars.
I agree completely with Jen. I like lolcats (and lolbots) in general, but far too many are random cat pictures with completely unrelated babble, but there do exist genuinely funny and clever ones:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stutefish/650361412/
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/05/cheez_doing_it_wrong.jpg
http://i0005.photobucket.com/albums/0005/icanhascheezburger/2007/6/12/1/128261114448593750lolcatalignr.jpg
What is so interesting to me is that this is a completely new kind of joke, with its own format and punchlines; it’s not a knock-knock joke, it’s not “a walks into a bar”. Also it implies that cats can understand and speak English, but not well.
And Achewood frikkin’ rules.
Please correct spelling in article (“Cheezeburger”)
Ha ha…that’s right. “Cheezburger” only has 2 e’s.
I take it this is where the kitten peering up with “Srsly guys really srsly” came from. 
CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE CAR-LS JUN-IOR MILK-SHAKE
the author misses the point completely
Congrats, David Greenwald, on completely missing the point of those comics.
no
nobody likes lolcats who is not 13 years old
Thanks for wrecking achewood. Who says satire is dead?
Hasbro: I want it all to go away! It’s so stupid! I hate the pictures, and the writing, and everything about it.
no: YES. (Ha.) You seriously have to be a teenager whose writing skills come from text messaging to like this stuff. It’s just not funny.
you are wasting a lot of time hating lolcats.
Some are funny. some aren’t. Just relax….