Lollerskates

About

“Lollerskates” is an Internet slang used as a superlative of LOL, in similar vein to ROFLCOPTER. Since being adopted into online colloquialism, it has been also paired up with a GIF animation of an ASCII character roller-skating with Lollerskates.

Origin

Exactly when the term “lollerskates” was first used is unknown, but the creator of the graphic Andrew S. contacted Know Your meme to share his story.

Hi. I made the original lollerskates.gif. The original file is still online at http://www.doomworld.com/linguica/lollerskates.gif and the file info says it dates from Jan 8 2003 (which sounds right to me).

The backstory is pretty dumb, I had downloaded a mouse-gesture program that included, among other things, a gesture that would type “:-D LOL :-D” when you did a “L” gesture if I remember correctly. I was on IRC constantly at the time and I started using the gesture a lot because it annoyed people and was therefore funny. Eventually I edited the gesture to say “:-D LOLLERSKATES :-D” and then later I edited it to be multiple lines with the ASCII man on the lollerskates. For some reason (presumably because I was bored) in January 2003 I made an animated GIF out of it.

I’m not sure where the “lollerskates” expression came from originally but I know I didn’t invent it.

One of its earliest mention can be found in a January 2003 question from a alt.fan.dragonball Usenet talk.
It shows that the “lollerskates” slang was used before.

Another early instance (July 2003) can be found on the Finnish Kosto.org website [ Warning, potential NSFW content ahead ], here.

As the Google insights show, “lollerskates” popularity seems to have been mostly influenced by the “Roflcopter” fame from the beginning of February 2004.

Presence on the Net

Starting in July 2003, Urban Dictionary entries have been made, for a total of 9 entries.

There are also some websites named after it:

• http://lollerskates.org/
• http://www.lollerskates.info/
• http://www.lollerskates.com/ (Doesn’t work anymore)
• http://lollerskate.net/
• http://lollerskater.tumblr.com/
• Lollerskates vs Roflcoptor

And blogs:

• http://lollerskates.9gag.com/
• A 2006 blog

On Y.T.M.N.D

Starting the 7th of May 2004 with LOLLERSKATES!!1 by user Mynameisdan, many YTMNDs have been made:

• roflcopter vs lollerskates
• lolololollerskates
• disco lollerskating
• Lollerskate with Hal -DaSilva
• LOLLERCALC
• lollerskates
• lollerskates.
• A Lollerskates that doesn’t suck!
• LOLLERSKATE!!!
• roflcopter vs lollerskates II
• LOLLERSKATES!!! 2!!!!
• LOLLERSKATES
• LOLLERSKATES!
• LOLLERSKATES!!
• lollerderby
• LOLLERSKATES!!11
• ROFLOLMAOMG

Youtube videos

- DeviantArt animation