When you have 50 pictures in a presentation about web programming, about half of them tend to fall into the lolcat category. Of course that grows old quickly.
But in a presentation about the dodo every picture is both relevant and interesting. The 60th picture is as engaging as the 3rd.
In other words, with web programming pictures are used because text is boring and the presenter wants the audience to know he doesn't work at IBM.
Incidentally, most presentations that I've seen that have contained lolcats have been by people who do "work at IBM". I've used a lolcat once or twice, but I stopped after I noticed that :)
Apparently it is now cool to use the word "fuck" a lot, since the corporate types seem to have trouble emulating this. Even that is getting old now, forcing speakers to be even more obscene. My favorite example was a friend describing mod_perl during a talk -- "When all you have is a nailgun, everything looks like the Messiah". I am not sure what was funnier, that remark, or the horrified look on people's faces.
That was kind of what I was getting at...soon, we're going to be seeing lots of picture-filled presentations on AJAX, where every other slide is a profanity. ;-)
But in a presentation about the dodo every picture is both relevant and interesting. The 60th picture is as engaging as the 3rd.
In other words, with web programming pictures are used because text is boring and the presenter wants the audience to know he doesn't work at IBM.