I love cats as much as the next person, but this fad to include LOLcats in every tech presentation was stale a year ago. Today it’s downright rotten. I wonder when the smell will be stark enough that even those putting slides together at the finishing line will think twice.
sebastian
on 09 Mar 09I agree.
Anon
on 09 Mar 09Like most weak humor, it’s a way to be “funny” without having to bust a joke. People who aren’t funny like to do this. The rest of their jokes are “Family Guy” quotes, etc. Weak.
andy
on 09 Mar 09The best part about this post….I knew it was David just by the title! Yes, cats rock, but the LOLcats haz gots 2 go.
Anonymouse Bore
on 09 Mar 09If it bugs you, don’t read it. :)
Joe Casabona
on 09 Mar 09Does this happen a lot? I’m in grad school and haven’t seen this in the academic world, but I also haven’t seen too many ‘real world’ presentations.
Walker Hamilton
on 09 Mar 09People actually do this?!
ewww
katy lavallee
on 09 Mar 09hmm, i guess it’s a good thing i don’t have any reason to do presentations, because this statement just makes me want to make a presentation with ONLY lolcat pictures.
Smartie Cat
on 09 Mar 09Meow.
Paul M. Watson
on 09 Mar 09Good lord yes, please, no more cats who LOL. FOWA Dublin was like a jar stuffed with kittens bursting out.
Justin Reese
on 09 Mar 09I wonder if/when rolcats will become passé.
John Infante
on 09 Mar 09If I was in a position to do so, I would immediately call into my office anyone who gave a presentation including a LOLcat, and demand that they convince me why I shouldn’t fire them.
Spike
on 09 Mar 09I’m in ur prezentation, annoyin’ ur audience.
Aaron
on 09 Mar 09I have no idea where to find this, but Rich Kyanka (the guy who runs Something Awful, a bizarrely profitable business) did a presentation a few years ago for an event at some college.
He claimed (as he always does) that there was no useful information in the presentation, that he had no idea why Something Awful was successful, and that he had nothing to teach anybody about running a successful web site.
The presentation, which was in the pre-lolcats internet era, had a silly picture on almost every slide.
It was hilarious and unexpectedly informative. Something Awful is actually a fairly successful small business and, to relate to another SVN post, they charge actual money for stuff – forum memberships, custom avatars (for yourself and others) on the forums, changing a forum name or background for everyone, and lots of t-shirts, sweatshirts, mugs, etc. with the SA logos.
Anyway, on this occasion it was basically like having lolcats in the presentation… however, it completely fit with the subject of the presentation as well as Rich’s persona. Would anything else be appropriate for a presentation about a web site with the slogan “The internet makes you stupid”?
David Andersen
on 09 Mar 09I can’t believe this was ever funny in a tech presentation.
carlivar
on 09 Mar 09Or just don’t go to tech presentations.
Jérémy Pinat
on 09 Mar 09Lolcats in presentations? Eww :/
If a presentation needs jokes to be interesting… Just don’t do it, ok?
alexis ohanian
on 09 Mar 09Please, please tell me it wasn’t stale when I did it in Feb 2008. This whole time I thought I was a pioneer – a LOLLewis&Clark, if you will.
Big Bang
on 09 Mar 09Aww, come on, everybody loves LOLcats! ‘cause they’re cute, and they can’t spell…’cause they’re cats – penny
W007
on 09 Mar 09LOL
Hans
on 09 Mar 09Children and animal is allways good. Only thing is to choose something currently not over used.
Lolz
on 09 Mar 09OHAI! lolz
Grant
on 09 Mar 09David, you’ve practically guaranteed people will now put LOLCats in their presentations and dedicate them to you.
Aaron Smith
on 10 Mar 09But … wait, no! If I’m not allowed to put LOLcats in my presentation, I’ll have to replace them with images specifically relevant to my topic (and not just vaguely relevant enough for me to get a chuckle from the audience) and thus have my visual aids reinforce what I’m saying instead of distracting people!
... can I DO that?
Mitch
on 11 Mar 09Dude! Why so angry? Chill out and let the cat lovers have their fun! :)
Dill
on 13 Mar 09I couldn’t disagree more. LOLCats are a wonderful mixture of cute and hilarious (although some tend to have retarded mixed in as well).
What about slides with one big WORD in them David? BORING. You do follow them up with titalating talks however ;)
I think most people throw in LOLCats to hide the fact that they might not be the best presenters. You can’t expect the Tech crowd to all be Toastmasters !
This discussion is closed.