Let’s face it, the amount of cat humor that exists online is a bit excessive. Since the launch of icanhascheezeburger.com in 2007 and popular viral videos like SNL’s “Laser Cats” skit, the new social media-savvy generation has embraced cats and kitten humor alike to a new extreme. But why has this trend lasted and even gained popularity over the last 5 years, you may ask? The answer is simple: cats are hilarious.

At one point in time you may have once thought that this fad would fade in to obscurity like so many others, but to your annoyance (and let’s not kid ourselves, secret pleasure) it has stuck around and continues to thrive. And there’s more good news to be had: the trend is no longer viral. Am I denying that I own at least 4 different t-shirts relating to cat humor? Absolutely not. But do I admit that they are obnoxious and possibly detrimental to my sanity? Maybe.

(example of a “cat and mouse” shirt that I may or may not own)

Whether it’s icanhascheezeburger’s translation of the entire Bible (that’s right, the ENTIRE bible) into LOLcat speak, or apps on your iPhone that let you insert cats that shoot lasers out of their eyes in to any photo (search CatPaint in the App Store for this one) it’s undeniable that the cat has the ability to entertain and make us giggle uncontrollably, no matter the context.

Above all, the memes and GIFs department of cat humor have got to be my favorite. You can find anything and everything that you could ever be interested in linked to cat humor. Are you interested in seeing Ryan Gosling hanging out at Disneyland with a bunch of cats? Done. http://ryangoslingdisneylandcats.tumblr.com/

Do you like fine works of art that insert cats? Done.

Are you more into political humor? Ceiling cat will hook you up with a whole set of memes for that.

What we, as a society, can take away from this seemingly never ending trend is that no matter how much our intelligence progresses, our humor will always remain at a 3rd grade level, and for online cat humor, this is the most positive news ever.

Grade: A-