Image macro

An image macro is a piece of digital media featuring a picture, or artwork, with some form of text superimposed. The text frequently appears at the top and bottom of the image. Image macros are one of the most common forms of internet memes, and often feature a witty message or catchphrase, although not all image macros are necessarily humorous. LOLcats, which are images of expressive cats coupled with texts, are considered to be the first notable occurrence of image macros. Advice animal image macros, also referred to as stock-character macros, are also highly associated with the image macro template.
Etymology and use.
The term "image macro" originated on the Something Awful forums. The name derived from the fact that the "macros" were a short bit of text a user could enter that the forum software would automatically parse and expand into the code for a pre-defined image. This, in turn, related to the computer science topic of a macro; "a rule or pattern that specifies how a certain input sequence (often a sequence of characters) should be mapped to an output sequence (also often a sequence of characters) according to a defined procedure".
Beginning in 2007, lolcats and similar image macros (a form of internet phenomenon) spread beyond the initial communities who created them and became widely popular.
Formats.
Although they come in many forms, the most common type of image macros consists of:
Examples.
Cats and other animals in general have been a popular choice for images with humorous captions since the mid 2000s. Some common animal-related image macros include lolcats, every time you masturbate... God kills a kitten, O RLY?, Doge and Grumpy Cat.
O RLY is often used on the internet as an abbreviation for the phrase "Oh, really?" Originally started with a snowy owl photograph (which is the classic O RLY image macro), it spread out over the Web quickly and was followed by other macros that convey a wide range of emotions.
Another style of image macro that has amassed its own separate subculture is the "lolcat", an image combining a photograph of a cat with text intended to contribute humour. The text is often idiosyncratic and grammatically incorrect, and its use in this way is known as "lolspeak". Many times, the image is told from the point of view of the animal.
"Rage faces" from Rage Comics are used to humorously depict an everyday or exaggerated situation or reaction. Although Rage Comics in themselves are not image macros, images of specific rage faces are taken and put into image macro format and used in conjunction to their implied emotion or context.
Another popular type of image macro includes a picture of a certain person or figure drawn from various sources in front of a colored background, known as "advice animals". These "characters" often share the same image, but different internet users can choose different humorous captions. These characters can include "Bad Luck Brian", "Success Kid", and "Scumbag Steve", among others. Bad Luck Brian image captions are used for unfortunate situations, Success Kid image captions depict an everyday situation involving good luck, and Scumbag Steve captions describe an unfriendly action taken by somebody.
Websites such as Know Your Meme document image macros such as Bad Luck Brian that have become popular enough to become internet memes, covering such topics as their original intended meaning, spread and popularity (as measured by Google search interest over time).
Another common trend in image macros is using specific scenes from television or movies such as One does not simply walk into Mordor from Lord of the Rings and 'Not Sure If-' from Futurama that uses a screen image of the character Fry looking unsure with his eyes squinted.
Reception.
Some image macros have been criticised for creating space for "dogwhistling", by leaving ambiguous space for interpretations along racist, sexist and other lines. The ambiguity in interpretations is referred to as Poe's Law, where there is difficulty separating satire and sincere communication within image macros.