Celticangel.org

Def:
(WordNet) adj. pertaining to or having finely developed buttocks.

(Merriam-Webster) adj. having shapely buttocks.

Okay. Why do I love this word so much? Well…because my nickname is Calliope. (Yes. And my new girly jeans are very flattering to the posterior. giggle)

In a fit of insanity, I thought that it might be fun to go through all 530 pages of LOLcats over at Icanhascheezburger.com. Really, it’s kind of an anthropological exploration of a cultural subgroup if you think about it. As I go through the site, I’ll be posting the humorous bits of comedic kitties (etc.) that I discover. I will also be paying particular attention to the trend of translating biblical stories into LOLspeak/the LOLcat culture. It’s fascinating what they’ve done with the creation story and more over on ICHC. I may even forget myself and go so far as to analyze LOLspeak itself. You have been warned.

I think, at this point, that you all now know a bit too much about the way I think. Let’s start with the LOLcats, shall we?

Beginning where I must at the beginning…This is the very first LOLcat listed on the site (date: Jan. 11, 2007):

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

This rebuttal appeared on 12 January 2007:

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

…And this is the first appearance of the “I Has a Flavor” paradigm (at least according to the date stamp):

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

I’m not sure if you all know this, but I am a big fan of slang. You know, argot or vernacular. Perhaps it’s the snob in me that likes to be “in the know” or it could just be I’m amused by the twists and turns that language takes.

Um…except for adverbs for some reason. There’s an “ly” on that word, people! Yes. Really.

Anyway, I love all of the different ways that people have come up with to say that something is good or laudable and, of course, the opposite. There are the confusing examples (remember “bad”? Which could mean “bad” or “good” depending upon the circumstances? Yes? You’ve just dated yourself. That was about 20 years ago. How do I know this? Well…there’s this high school reunion coming up next year… I know. I feel old, too.) …but we won’t get into those.

A while back there was this phrase used to connote someone (or thing) was very cool: All that and a bag of chips. I loved that one. It was clever. It was a bit more that just being “all that.”

Then came: Made of Win. for example: Oh my God. That was hilarious. You are made of win.

The opposite of Made of Win, is, of course: Made of Fail (or, Made of Suck and Fail, for the really bad things.) This seems to be an outgrowth of the popular “fail” which you can see more about at Fail Blog. (Yes. Fail. As in didn’t manage to do it.)

And right about here you would find a whole bunch of LOL Cat induced slang, which is a place that “fail” and “ur doing it wrong” are popular, but that is a topic that could have a whole post (or series of posts) dedicated to it.

So, at last we come to the good/bad set that I encountered only recently. Whereas you might have previously said, “Oh my God, that is so awesome!” now you can say, “Awesomesauce.” This looks to be quite the time saver. It was only today that I discovered its antithesis: Lamesauce. I called my sister to tell her about this, and she added that she has also encountered “Weaksauce.”

I would just like to point out here that my father makes the best applesauce. Yep. Awesomesauce Applesauce.

Moving on.

We’ve talked about the good and the bad, and now we have…The Retro.

Rad is back. Short for “radical,” which was also used back in the 80s. I’ve seen it in print and I’ve even heard it in conversation. How long before we start hearing “gag me with an entire place setting” again? It looks like style and language both cycle back through. (And for style retro proof check out this music video – La Roux – Bulletproof. Thanks, Dave!)

This has been your slang update.