If you spend any amount of time scrolling on the internet, then you most likely have come across “lolcow” content. Incidents like Gabriel Gage’s (aka: NovaOnline) famous “NOT THE THERVER” crashout, or Tophia Slydell’s (aka: Tophiachu) infamous TikTok lives, and most recently, everything that Ash Trevino said and did, but behind the viral incidents lies a range of extremely problematic behavior. But what exactly is a lolcow, and why are the people and content so controversial and harmful?
The word Lolcow is literally a combination of the words lol (laugh out loud) and cow. So when referring to a person as a lolcow, it means someone who is “milked” for laughs, whether that be through their words or their actions. The term originated from the internet forum site “Kiwi Farms” in around the early 2000s. The unfortunate victims of this label often share similar traits, those being a lack of “conventional” physical attractiveness and a range of mental health disorders. The entire premise of lolcow content is finding these individuals, who often are minding their own business on the interwebs, and posting content that resonates with them: transforming them into a spectacle that the public can laugh at. This is evident in three of the most tragic cases of documented “lolcow” behavior.
The documentation of Christine Weston Chandler (Chris Chan)
The documentation of Daniel Larson
The documentation Joshua Block (WorldofT-shirts)
All of the listed individuals above are famous for their “strange” behavior. With the widespread attention with these individuals, the interactions turned from mocking to full-on harassing, trolling, and stalking. The trolls in the communities encouraged the most outlandish, dangerous, and erratic behavior, all in for audience entertainment. Currently, Larson is serving jail time for making government-related threats during a mental breakdown. Christine Chandler was released from prison in March of 2023. (Her case is graphic, so please research her charges at your own discretion.) And Joshua Block who is now a raging alcoholic, almost to a deadly point. But why is this content so harmful? Simple answer. It’s an unfiltered, harassment slop. It’s profitable for content farms that cover lolcows, furthering its reach across the internet.
People shouldn’t be excusing the horrific actions of some lolcows, and this article wasn’t made in defense of people who actively prey on vulnerable people on the internet, trolls, or lolcows themselves. However, this type of content shouldn’t be the only thing in which a person consumes; it’s also important that viewers check their reasons for interacting with lolcow and lolcow media, is it to genuinely support a creator just being themselves? Or to contribute to a cycle of milking a person for laughs, to satisfy the feeling of schadenfreude.
