There's probably no other expression of Netspeak that's more recognized than "LOL".

It's so recognizable that we know what it is when we see it, whether it's presented as LOL or Lol or lol. (Or even lols, lolz, or lulz as some Commonwealth folks like to type it. Plus the "ell oh ell" that only the cool folks use.)

So what does it mean? It means "laughing out loud", of course. But I have to admit, I still chuckle whenever I see a LOL on my PC screen. Not because I also find that person's 'LOL' reaction to be funny. No, I find it funny because my sense of humor, after all these years, still automatically translates LOL into something else a split-second before I recognize it for the "laughing out loud" that it's intended to be.

See, having watched LOL become such a heavily-used expression on the internet, my own sense of perception has a tendency to translate LOL as not even an expression of communication, but a mere exclamation of random noise. In other words, I have a tendency to view LOL as the internet's own homegrown kind of Tourette's Syndrome.

"LOL yeah i was ridin bikes with my girl and she opened her mouth to say somthin LOL and then a bug flew into her mouth LOL and she freaked out and jumped off her bike LOL and started chuggin her water bottel and coughin it up LOL. ROTFLMAO!1!!"

So anytime I see somebody type something with so many LOLs in it, I laugh completely despite the writer's original intention. Because I'm convinced that if this line had been spoken out loud, he'd be considered to have Tourette's, or at the very least a nervous tic:

"(LAWL!) So yeah I was riding bikes with my girl and she opened her mouth to say something (LAWL!) and then a bug flew into her mouth (LAWL!) and she freaked out and jumped off her bike (LAWL!)..."

And you get the picture. I know it's a harmless expression, but I still chuckle at some people's dependency on the term. Please note (before the Thought Police cuff me): I'm not making fun of people with Tourette Syndrome. I know it's a neurological disorder that's not to be made fun of. But that's exactly why it's so funny here: it makes people (me in this case) wonder if peoples' LOLing has somehow translated into e-Tourette condition where it's not even a genuine abbreviation anymore so much as it's neurological reaction to spending so much time on the Internet.

Netspeak and texting jargon in general makes me crack up. I'm as guilty as the next person in that I use it at times (I use BTW [by the way] and BFD [you figure it out] a lot), but I still enjoy typing out the complete words for what I'm thinking and feeling. And if I truly am "laughing out loud" I try to punctuate my feelings with an appropriately snarky or funny comment. I know I'm not alone in this. Just look at all the responses to the Stooge's jokes. Instead of merely LOLing, people take the time to add their own puns to his zingers, plus the occasional Yoda smiley.

In researching for this post, I consulted Wikipedia's definition of LOL. Deep into the article, it states that,

In Welsh, lol means nonsense, e.g. If a person would say "stupid nonsense" in Welsh they would say "lol wirion".

No wonder Rogueish dislikes Netspeak so much. He's probably thinking we're all a bunch of Welsh people goofing on him and his Liverpool heritage.

Anyway, I'll close this out by saying that I'm totally reconciled to the presence of LOL in the everyday world. I still find the term funny in and of itself, but I'll just have to keep reminding myself that no, the person who typed that does not have Tourette's. They might be tawking eNgl3sh, but it doesn't mean they have a brain disorder.

Unless they just haven't been properly diagnosed yet.

LOL.