LOLCat Bible Translation Project

The LOLCat Bible Translation Project was a wiki-based website set up in July 2007 by Martin Grondin, where editors aim to parody the entire Bible in "LOLspeak", the slang popularized by the LOLcat Internet phenomenon.[1] The project relies on contributors to adapt passages. As of March 27, 2008, approximately 61% of the text had been adapted, and Grondin stated that he hoped the entire New Testament would be complete by the end of 2008.[2]

LOLCat Bible Translation Project
Full nameLOLCat Bible Translation Project
Other namesLOLcat Bible: In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez an da Erfs n stuffs
Complete Bible
published		2010
Textual basisNone[note 1]
Translation typeComplete re-imagining[note 2]
Reading levelUnknown
PublisherUlysses Press
Copyright© 2007, 2010 Martin Grondin
Websitewww.lolcatbible.com at the Wayback Machine (archived 2019-03-27)

Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem.

Da Urfs no had shapez An haded dark face, An Ceiling Cat rode invisible bike over teh waterz.

At start, no has lyte. An Ceiling Cat sayz, i can haz lite? An lite wuz.
Genesis 1:1 in other translations
So liek teh Ceiling Kitteh lieks teh ppl lots and he sez 'Oh hai I givez u me only kitteh and ifs u beleeves him u wont evr diez no moar, kthxbai!'
John 3:16 in other translations

A book version of the website was released in 2010, containing selected extracts such as the stories of the creation of the earth, Adam and Eve, and Noah.[3]

Writing process

In the process of adaptation, various changes were made to the source material, for example, changing the main characters to cats – e.g., Jesus Christ becomes "Happy Cat", God the "Ceiling Cat", and Satan the "Basement Cat" – while the "gifts" and "blessings" of God have become "cheezburgerz", and people in general have become "kittehs".[2][note 3] The style of writing employed varies, but the most devoted contributors were described as those who utilized as many as possible of the gags and themes used in the different lolcat images.[2]

Unlike most Bible translation efforts, the LOLCat Bible Translation Project did not depend on one translator or a group of prominent ones, but on crowdsourced translation. Untranslated sections were available for translation by anyone willing to register on the wiki. The most active members of that crowd were listed on the project's Active users list.[4]

Critical response

The project was praised by Ben Huh, owner of the website that popularized lolcats,[5] icanhascheezburger.com, who noted that the LOLCat Bible had inspired other religious texts to be translated into LOLspeak, such as the Qur'an, and that it has made clear that "the ability to publish is now open to anyone".[2] An editorial in the Chicago Tribune commented, "The effort to translate the Bible into a language full of grammatical errors, hacker acronyms and Internet lingo may appear distasteful or blasphemous to some, but not to worry. Much of the translation only loosely follows the Bible. It's crowded with references to lolcats pictures and to ambiguous Internet humor, and these references can only be understood by people who spend too much time on the Web."[6]

gollark: Your teachers *guess* what your grades will be, and you get offers based on that, then have to hope that you get the predicted ones or better.
gollark: We have an insane system where it's partly based on *predicted* grades, too.
gollark: Some universities have them, but otherwise it's based on A-level grades, sometimes other things and (ugh) "personal statements".
gollark: I mean, here in the UK, we actually don't have standardized university entrance exams (yes I am 14 minutes late to this now).
gollark: That's... pretty okay, then?

See also

Notes
  1. As evidenced by the quotations given, it is incorrect to speak of a "textual basis" in the usual sense (such as the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece, or even "varied English Bible translations and LOL-cat memes", albeit the latter is likely accurate).
  2. Into "LOL-speak", a highly ungrammatical and misspelled form of internet humor and internet slang. Only very loosely based in the Biblical narrative, but instead a derivative work inspired by the Bible, full of references to the "LOL-cats" internet memes (see below reference); thus not a translation or paraphrase of the actual Biblical text, as evidenced by the quotation of Genesis given, which bears no resemblance to any actual passage in Genesis.
  3. Other changes include "Hover Cat" for the Holy Spirit and "Bird Cats" for angels. The use of "cheezburgers" is an allusion to the I Can Has Cheezburger? meme.

References
  1. Guzman, Monika (2007-10-19). "Time Killer: The "lolcat" bible". Seattle Post-Intelligencer. Retrieved 2007-12-23.
  2. Amter, Charlie (2007-12-16). "Lolcat Bible Translation Project presents the Gospel according to Fluffy". Los Angeles Times. Archived from the original on 2007-12-24. Retrieved 2007-12-23. Also available here at latimes.com under the title "It's the Gospel according to kittah".
  3. Google Books preview: Ceiling Cat Maek Awl teh Stuffz, p. 14; Adam An Eve, p. 17; Noah's Reely Big Bowt, p.26. Accessed 2013-08-15
  4. LOLCat Bible wiki Active users list. Accessed 2013-08-15.
  5. "Lolcats' demented captions create a new Web language", Tamara Ikenberg, The News Journal, 9 July 2007
  6. "The Gospel according to kitty". Chicago Tribune. 2008-01-01. Archived from the original on 2008-01-17. Retrieved 2010-12-07.
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