"The practice of captioning (specifically, cats) started many years ago on anonymous forums, most prominently called the *chans. Supposedly, the practice of posting and the actual type of these images was termed "Caturday": A day when people all around the internet create, submit, send, email and send pictures of lolcat's around the world ..."[cit]

"For over 25 years, filmmaker Ken Burns has been producing films that are unafraid of controversy and tragedy ... History made them famous. Ken Burns made them real."[cit]

In terms of evolutionary significance, a biological predisposition towards all things considered "cute" makes logical sense. Humans are inclined to nurture and protect that which elicits a specific reaction in us. But this predilection for cuteness had spilled over into humanity's interactions with other species. This phenomenon has led to a large-scale surge of popularity of media related to animals, particularly cats. Feline-related content has effectively taken over the Internet. Today, a search in the popular social video-sharing site, YouTube, for "cat" reveals over 30,000,000 results, many of which have millions of views each. It is clear that videos starring cats have become an extremely popular form of entertainment for media consumers of all ages and backgrounds. Their widespread fame and availability are due to a multitude of factors, mainly the abovementioned inherent biological reaction to things perceived as "cute," the accessibility of the simplistic, amateur videos, the ease of Youtube as a medium, and the anthropomorphic attribution of human-like qualities to domesticated pets. Even though this video is from a humorous perspective, and focusing on a specific theme of LolCats, it reiterates these innate desires and reasons behind why cat videos are such a phenomenon.--Samantha Abernathey, LFYT 2015