Lolcalization

About

This meme comes from Yugioh the Abridged Series by LittleKuriboh (aka CardGamesFTW or Ninjabridge) on YouTube. It is "created" by one of the characters. The meme functioned as a plot device and as part of the running joke in the series making fun of 4kids censorship. It is difficult to tell if this was made to be a forced meme that caught on or if it was supposed to only be a plot device, but caught on in real life. Considering memes have come from the series naturally, there is less need to force memes, so the latter is more likely.

Origin

In the episode, Seto Kaiba creates a meme, lolcalization, to win a card game against the head of localization of his/ his father's company. Kaiba's opponent can destroy memes, and most of the cards in Kaiba's deck are memes. While distracting everyone with a flashback he creates the meme by posting a picture on the internet of a cat with a rice ball that says "I can haz rice ball?", turning his opponent into a meme and turning his opponent's strength against him. ^{[1] [2]}

Kaiba gives an example of lolcalization by showing a screenshot of One Piece before and after editing, which is also part of the Invisible gun meme. This suggests that Invisible gun is now a part of lolcalization.

Variations

As Kaiba explains, all you have to do is take a picture and localize it. There is a Lolcalization thread on amvhell.com where "you take a [sic] anime screenshot or picture, and edit it so it "appeals to kids/american [sic] audiences" ala 4kids"^[3] which is a more specific definition.
There has been a reference to lolcalization at cheezburger.com. ^[4] However, this picture doesn’t seem to be lolcalized and may not be an actual instance of the meme. This reference does tie the meme back to lolcats, which was the format of the picture that Kaiba "created" the meme with.

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External References

^[1] YouTube – Episode 52 – Seto Kaiba vs. The World / posted 4-29-2011

^[2] Yugioh Wikia – Yu-Gi-Oh: The Abridged Series – Episode 52 – Transcript / post date not listed

^[3] Amv Hell – "The "LOL"calization Game!":http://amvhell.com/showthread.php?t=3982 / posted 5-5-2011

^[4] Cheezburger – zniper lolcalized by sachiel / post date not listed