The Real True Historic Origin of LOLCats?

To be fair, it doesn't predate Aloysius "Gorilla" Koford's classic 1912-1913 comic strip. But this image, from the March 1929 issue of Parents' magazine, could be the first captioned photograph version of the LOLcat. Unearthed by> digital archivist Jason Scott, The photo was advertised as the perfect decoration for a child's nursery. Although, in that context, I personally find it a little nightmare inducing. I can haz yer soul for to nom?

UPDATE: Digital archivist Jason Scott says, "I didn't unearth it - a helpful person off Flickr had hundreds of scans of magazines from the 1920s and this was one of the scans. It's from a 1929 issue of Parents' Magazine. It has well been established that Harry Whittier Frees predates this by at least 20 years. I would call this an "Early" LOLcat but hardly the first."

See the full vintage ad over on the Mental_Floss blog

• [impy]

  I was going to point out Frees as well. Another significant proto-LOLer is the painter Arthur Thiele (1841-1916), whose comic repertoire also included apes and dogs:
  http://www.livelovelaughtoday.com/LLLCatArt/Thiele.html

  So… http://tinyurl.com/yf5ff87

• [Jason Scott]

  Repair this immediately.

  I didn’t unearth it – a helpful person off Flickr had hundreds of scans of magazines from the 1920s and this was one of the scans. It’s from a 1929 issue of Parents’ Magazine. It has well been established that Harry Whittier Frees predates this by at least 20 years. I would call this an “Early” LOLcat but hardly the first.

  • [Maggie Koerth-Baker]

    My apologies. I’ll get that changed asap.

  • [Anonymous]

    Simon says, “Please” repair this immediately.

    Your concern is warranted, but there’s no need to be brusque. Lighten up and enjoy life!

• [jimkirk]

  Things like this always make me want to send the $2 (including the polychrome frame) to Photocraft Studios, Dept. D, 120 LaSalle Ave., Kenmore, N. Y.

  Ads on old matchbooks or the backs of comic books have the same effect.

• [Daemon]

  Merely captioning a picture of a cat does not a lolcat make…

• [Anonymous]

  Aloysius is also Snuffleupagus’ first name and the middle name of legendary weirdo/guitar god John Fahey. I learned these things today, prior to reading this post. A strange confluence of Aloysius’s is afoot.

• [querent]

  “I can haz yer soul for to nom?”

  oh man, I lolled hard, from the gut. awesomeness. thanks.

• [Anonymous]

  “All memes have a finite shelf-life.”

  the 7-day week has held on for a good while now.

• [Anonymous]

  The livejournal cat_macros community is having a field day with this one, making modern versions of it.

  http://community.livejournal.com/cat_macros/5395235.html

  (yeah, I also posted this comment on mental floss, but I’m not a bot… just lazy)

• [libelle]

  I can haz your soul to eat?

• [octopod]

  Harry Whittier Frees ?

• [Binaryloop]

  I’m growing a bit weary of the LOLcat meme. Sure it was funny back in 2006/2007. But, it’s getting old.

  In addition to LOLCats I’m thinking that: ‘Fail’, ‘Win’, ‘Epic’, ‘I can haz’ and ‘nom,nom,nom’… are getting tired and boring too. All memes have a finite shelf-life.

  • [phisrow]

    That is actually just the feeling of you getting old.

  • [octopod]

    tl;dr

  • [Moriarty]

    “All memes have a finite shelf-life.”

    Are you trying to tell me you don’t still wear your hamsterdance t-shirt?

• [Anonymous]

  I find the cat’s verbiage appropriately villainous for the photo.

  IT MUST BE SO!

• [Dave Rattigan]

  Reminds me of a picture that appeared in LIFE magazine years ago: http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o181/klinkie90/silly/acf8re2.jpg

• [Shelby Davis]

  octopod already alluded, but here’s a 1905(!) example:

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Harry_Whittier_Frees_-_What%27s_Delaying_My_Dinner.jpg

  • [octopod]

    as noted on other boards, the main interest is in finding examples from old kingdom or pre-dynastic egypt.