Quote Originally Posted by Big D
Perhaps... but for an internet fad, it's not bad. A lot of fads/trends suffer from being quite introverted in-jokes, requiring inside/specialised knowledge in order to understand them. AYB could be an example. Other fads are in poor taste, or something that simply wouldn't be found funny off-line - such as bears threatening to rape people, or various natural disaster/warfare jokes.
The owls, however, are simple and 'clean' humour - all that's required is knowledge of internet shorthand, and an appreciation for anthropomorphic humour.
It's not internet shorthand, it's a 4chan fad, nobody says "O RLY" when they would normally write "Oh really?" it's meant to mean "Look at what you posted, try applying it to yourself first". Of course it kinda lost that when the internet raped it like it does to everything else, just look at l33t.

And that Katrinahax ytmnd was HILARIOUS.

Feel free to call me heartless now, I don't care.