Why do you follow lolcows?

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Aside from the standard comedy value, it's always interesting to see things from people who genuinely understand the world in a very different way. You get these flashes of insight into how people like Chris and Jace see life, full of drama and conspiracy and villains that they (as the hero) need to somehow strike down. It's a more exciting, magical world they see when they look out their window. Reading about the antics of these guys lets me buy temporarily into this dramatic vision of a world where everyone is like a saturday morning cartoon hero with a whole rogues gallery of colorful characters arrayed against them instead of just boring old circumstance and coincidences that really are nothing personal. It's a more interesting, funny, and sad place to visit but definitely not one I'd want to live in.
 
I like lolcows for the main reason that people are strange. There is no better way to see strange people on the internet than observing a lolcow. I also am a fan of mary sues, and lolcows supply plenty of them. In addition, they have bizarre interests which can be subcategorized into strange, unworldly subcultures that man was not meant to know, such as fluffies or wizards.
 
I follow them to learn more about them as a cautionary tale viewpoint. It really shows a what if someone was raised in a questionable way to the point of not being able of relating to the world, and not realizing the potential within them. I also follow them to learn about and improving myself as a person and making the most out of everything.
 
I'm into anything bizarro, and lolcows provide it in spades. It's like watching a strange hybrid of sitcom and reality TV show, with characters too strange for fiction and storylines no one could predict.

There's the cautionary aspect - I lost weight, for instance, because I looked at Chris' expanding girth, looked at my own waistline and thought, "Christ, I don't want to end up like that guy."

And there's the comfort/sadism aspect. When life isn't going my way, it's good to see that there are people doing stupider things and making worse mistakes.
 
Another thing I love about following lolcows is doing some detective work and unearthing tons of crazy shit they've done in the past, and communities they've become infamous in. It's like stumbling upon an abandoned cinema and finding obscure movies in storage that are as amazingly bad as The Room.
 
I don't follow the lolcows but rather the works they do. So basically Christian with his comics, Mykan with his fanfics, etc., and I do a snark fest at them.

The only time I follow the lolcow's drama is when said drama factors into the context/subtext of the lolstory in question. Obvious example being Christian's tendency to involve/remove his girlfriends. Not-so-obvious example being one of the factoring reasons why Beast Boy is an angster in Mykan's stories.
 
There's really nothing more indulgent than a good hearty laugh at someone else's expense, I think it's nearly universal. To me, that's pretty much the gist of it, my interest in lolcows isn't particularly sophisticated or nuanced.

I work a dead-end job, and live a fairly tame and mundane life. Lolcows make that a whole lot more amusing.
 
Varkhan Sol said:
Aside from the standard comedy value, it's always interesting to see things from people who genuinely understand the world in a very different way. You get these flashes of insight into how people like Chris and Jace see life, full of drama and conspiracy and villains that they (as the hero) need to somehow strike down. It's a more exciting, magical world they see when they look out their window. Reading about the antics of these guys lets me buy temporarily into this dramatic vision of a world where everyone is like a saturday morning cartoon hero with a whole rogues gallery of colorful characters arrayed against them instead of just boring old circumstance and coincidences that really are nothing personal. It's a more interesting, funny, and sad place to visit but definitely not one I'd want to live in.
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So true. There's something fun about imagining what goes through a lolcow's head. Whether it's MLW heading a massive conspiracy to prevent Chris from getting a girlfriend, or whatever crucial danger situation Jace happens to be in. I also have a fascination with weird psychology, and figuring out why they do the things they do. Anyone can do funny shit, but a good lolcow is funny on a meta level, where not only are their actions funny, but all the motivations and reasons for doing all the funny shit they do. It's especially good when you're following it in real time and being taken deeper down the rabbit hole than you could have possibly imagined.
 
StallChaser said:
So true. There's something fun about imagining what goes through a lolcow's head. Whether it's MLW heading a massive conspiracy to prevent Chris from getting a girlfriend, or whatever crucial danger situation Jace happens to be in. I also have a fascination with weird psychology, and figuring out why they do the things they do. Anyone can do funny shit, but a good lolcow is funny on a meta level, where not only are their actions funny, but all the motivations and reasons for doing all the funny shit they do. It's especially good when you're following it in real time and being taken deeper down the rabbit hole than you could have possibly imagined.
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That's true. One of my favourite aspects of following Chris in particular is trying to figure out what he'll do in a given situation, or why he's become involved in his most recent bizarre shenanigan, based on what we know about him.
 
I have often wondered this over the last few years. I know I'm a newer member but Ive been lurking you guys for AGES. I think it's alot of things for me. Part entertainment, as I don't watch TV, and even when I did an hour watching some trashy people flail about on Springer is beans compared to the extensive details and histories that the average lolcow feels the overwhelming need to provide to the entire world. Part of it is a warning and reminder of how not to behave in life or online, as I was an obnoxiously self centered over dramatic teen and well into my twenties. Part of it though, is some wierd masochistic thing about me that i don't yet grasp. It's why i read fstdt, world nut daily, conservapedia. I watch Chris, Raven, Pixy, Kai, and it's the same. I let get mildly frustrated by the fact that these people and groups exist and that they just don't get that they are doing it all wrong. With GK it's something else entirely. I am a survivor of spousal abuse, and have worked with other survivors. He is so textbook. His communications to past and present love interests should be shown to people as a "what to watch out for" guide. And while common sense tells me otherwise, part of me hopes that through peer interaction (i.e. people like us constantly telling what he is doing wrong and WHY it is wrong) and through his behavior backfiring and having strong, amazing women like Heather simply walk away, that maybe, just maybe, this abuser can change. He's young. Maybe. I hope.
 
For those moments when a lolcow's crazy beliefs sync up perfectly with the actions of their trolls and create a sort of alternate reality. Chris is the classic example: he was presented with the sort of over-the-top conflicts he wrote about, with trolls pretending to be the cartoonishly evil villains he'd long imagined himself fighting. He wasn't just trolled; he was given a personalized alternate-reality game that reflected his own worldview, and he bought into it completely.

It's a rare phenomenon, even among lolcows (although Jace seems especially susceptible to it), but when you see it, it's goddamn magical. Trolls get their content, and lolcows get to have the sort of adventures they think they deserve.

Unless it involves Gail. Then it just bums me out.
 
i mostly follow lolcows because i get bored on the train. they're easy to read about and it makes me feel much better about the state of my own affairs while i'm sitting next to a piss-coated bum.
 
I like to read about their antics because they're entertaining and they affirm to me I'm not a huge failure like Chris-Chan.
 
I try to find ways in which these people who fail so completely are similar to me (i.e. Chris's habit of blaming everyone else for things) and then improve those things so that I can be a better person. Also, I just like internet drama and I like watching stupid people feel the well-deserved consequences of their actions.
 
Following lolcows is like exploring the Earth, replacing the strange lands and cultures with new, baffling forms that the human condition can take. If it hadn't been for the internet, would we know that not only do some people find anthropomorphic foxes with bowel incontinence arousing, but that there are enough of them in the world to form a living, breathing community? The internet has opened the doors to some of the most incomprehensible people on the planet, and what ever reason I find them absolutely fascinating. They're like the platypi or the aye-ayes of the human race.

I'll make an exception for shuddercows though. Nick Bate and his ilk are too horrifying to be interesting.
 
One big reason I follow lolcows is that it reminds me that even with my own social awkwardness, weirdness, and mental issues, I could be far worse off. Lolcows like Chris, to me, are almost like a glimpse into what-could-have-been if I had continued being an anti-social shut-in that refused to find work (mostly due to metal illness but still) like how I was in my teens/early 20s. I'm also fascinated by abnormal psychology, the weirder the better for the most part, so there are plenty of lolcows that can indulge that for me. They're more like cautionary tales and case studies than sources of schadenfreude to me.
 
Because some of them either hit close to home for me, or are just really setting themselves up to be easy targets (i.e. Andrew Dobson).
 
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