Leeroy Jenkins
Leeroy Jenkins, sometimes misspelled Leroy Jenkins, (A tribute Leeroy Jenkins) and often elongated with numerous additional letters, is an Internet phenomenon named for a character in an online game that became popular thanks to a machinima video of the game that circulated around the Internet. The clip first appeared among the players of Blizzard Entertainment's popular MMORPG World of Warcraft but has subsequently spread well beyond the boundaries of that community.
So ubiquitous is the Leeroy Jenkins phenomenon that he was mentioned as part of a clue on the November 16, 2005 episode of the game show Jeopardy! as part of their college week tournament.
Fuck you.
Leeroy's origins
The video was released by the World of Warcraft Alliance player guild PALS FOR LIFE on the Laughing Skull server. Leeroy appears as a paladin in the video, which was apparently intended as a promotion for the guild. It begins with Leeroy away from his keyboard ("AFK") while the rest of his group meticulously plans a raid on the Rookery - a part of the instance dungeon Upper Blackrock Spire. Just as they are discussing tactics and calculating the possible rate of survival for the attack (32.%) Leeroy suddenly springs to life, shouts his battle cry, "LEEERRROYYYY JENNNNKINNNNSSS!!!", and charges fearlessly into the Rookery to the complete and utter incredulity of his team mates. In an attempt to save him, they follow him in and are quickly overwhelmed. Leeroy is now vied as a hero in all internet games.
Leeroy's rise in popularity
Leeroy was given a substantial boost in notoriety by the publication of an article in the August 2005 issue of PC Gamer UK by author Craig Pearson, entitled "The Ballad of Leeroy Jenkins". Pearson's article claims that the original video was designed as a negative commentary on the kind of "nerd-guilds" that meticulously and statistically plan out raids the way Leeroy's guild was apparently doing. Leeroy is in fact the hero of the piece, acting against the geekiness of his guild.
Those familiar with game play in World of Warcraft have noted that the "plans" his guildmates were making are so flawed that the video must be staged. There is abundant evidence for this, including:
- an overall plan to activate all the enemies and fight them at once would be a rather unlikely occurrence among actual players of the game.
- the dragon hatchlings in the Rookery are an optional engagement, not a required one. Indeed it's entirely possible to simply skip the eggs in The Rookery. While the Devout Shoulders item mentioned does require this engagement, it is considerably easier to do so a few at a time rather than all at once.
- various other players and guilds on the same server have asserted the video was staged: they state that Leeroy's guild, "Pals for Life", had beaten encounters much more difficult than the Rookery. This is supported by text in the chat window (lower left corner) of the video showing that one of the members had said "WIPE TIME!" just before the video had begun being filmed. "Wipe" is slang for the death of all members of a party.
- The phrase "Divine Intervention" is a skill used by a Paladin to sacrifice himself to save another player. The player who is "D.I.ed" is unable to take damage but is also immobilized and unable to inflict damage.
- Players who have gone through the game enough to attempt this instance would know better than to ask about a soulstone when there is no warlock in the group.
A sidebar found in Pearson's article titled "How to Be a Leeroy: Perhaps You Already Are?" cites Urban Dictionary as an indication that Leeroy has become a descriptive noun; "to Leeroy" is even being used as a verb in some circles. The article further encourages the readers to send in their best examples of being a Leeroy to "I'm a Leeroy" at the magazine's address.
Expansion of Leeroy as a meme
Leeroy's popularity has spread to other Internet venues as well. In the popular free-to-play MMORPG Guild Wars, a dwarven character named Kilroy Stonekin relates the death of his family and calls the players to battle with a similar shout of his own name. Unlike Leeroy, Kilroy's shout conveys benefit to his players rather than spelling their demise.
Also, within the popular online multi-user dungeon Abandoned Realms, there is an NPC called "Leroy". This dwarven paladin wields a "paladin's polearm" and charges randomly into innocent bystanders, shouting a warcry as he does so. Leroy resides within the main city in the game, so everyone has an equal chance to be attacked by Leroy's "fanatical charge".
In NCSoft's City of Villains, there is a recurring Arachnos soldier NPC by the name of "Jenkins" (whom you typically have to rescue because he keeps getting himself captured.) City of Villains developer Positron recently announced to players that the character "...was definitely inspired by a certain Internet movie."
Similarly, Leeroy appears as a direct tribute in Artix Entertainment's popular Web game Adventure Quest where he travels with the players to battle at "Vamprook Spyre", where you, Leeroy, Grodd, and Amani are planing the raid of the dungeon filled with "Vampragons", a telekinetic dragon/vampire hybrid. The dialogue is copied nearly word for word from the movie, much to the annoyance of some people, who feel that AQ has simply bastardized the whole thing.
The website community YTMND has served to extensively promote and to expand the Leeroy Jenkins meme among the viewers of its various websites and has a number of sites dealing with him including one documenting his supposed suicide. [1] In particular the community has extensively promoted his battle cry.
YTMND has also had substantial effect on the meme in the form of artwork that was originally used on its Leeroy tribute site. The artwork, which has subsequently been replaced with a still from the original video, is a digitally edited picture from the film Black Knight, featuring the hero standing on a bucket of KFC, instead of a rock. This image has been widely distributed and is in fact utilized by Uncyclopedia in their parody article regarding the meme.
In the MMORPG Second Life, in which players can upload any soundbite they wish and play it as part of a "gesture" that their avatar makes (using chat commands or keyboard shortcuts), the "LEEERRROYYYY JENNNNKINNNNSSS!!!" exclamation has begun to spread and be used to show off players' wittiness and "MMO street cred," exhibiting the meme to establish them as part of some kind of Leeroy in-group. Since some players lack the knowledge or ability to successfully find, format, and upload soundbites, a popular meme-bite like this one (which has not yet reached the ubiquity of R. Lee Ermey clips from Full Metal Jacket, for example), players who possess the hot meme-bite may refuse to give it away when asked in order to taunt and humiliate the one requesting it, either accurately or inaccurately accusing the requester of being "a noob." The soundbite is played as a taunt, and then a fake item is finally given instead, which, instead of being the sound, is a grenade that blows up immediately when equipped, killing everyone except the guy who wanted the Leeroy sound, and causing everyone else to come back blaming the "Leeroy."
A reference to Leeroy has also appeared in the April 24, 2006 installment of the popular webcomic, Ctrl+Alt+Del. A character supposedly belonging to "The Center for Crimes Against MMOs", is given the name L. Jenkins, obviously a reference to our friend Leeroy.
Number of downloads
As of December 2005 the Warcraft Movies website reports well over 1,000,000,000 downloads of the original Leeroy Jenkins video [2]. However it is difficult to estimate the total number of people who have seen the original video largely because it has appeared on numerous other websites, file sharing networks, and has been sent extensively by email as well. Leeroy's large public exposure likely heavily depended on word of mouth.
Leeroy merchandise
Numerous sites have sprung up offering everything from underclothing to coffee mugs sporting Leeroy or related information. Many of these are offered as part of CafePress.com or 99dogs.com and it is difficult to estimate what success, if any, these retailers have had with said merchandise.
Derivative works
Numerous works derived from and based on Leeroy Jenkins have appeared on the net. Several remixes and spinoff videos have parodied the phenomena. The number of such derivative works is not clear but websites including the tribute website www.leeroyjenkins.net contain numerous examples and actively encourage the submission of new material.
In general, these videos are not controversial. However, a video posted at whatisdeepfried.com combines the original machinima with U.S. Army footage and references to Casey Sheehan, the deceased son of anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan. In the video "Leeroy" is reputedly the cause of Casey's death in Iraq, though it likewise names President George W. Bush as culpable.
What was Leeroy saying?
Several discussions on the Internet have surrounded the content of Leeroy's initial shout and his last line. Originally, it sounds like "Alright, chums up, let's do this." but possibilities include "Alright, chums, I'm back. Let's do this..." "All right, dumb-dumbs. Let's do this...", "All right, thumbs up, Lets do this..." and "All right, time's up. Let's do this..."[3] have been suggested. "...Guns up..." is similarly another possibility, as is "Spawn's up".
Some disagreement over his last line has also been offered. Due to poor sound quality, it is hard to determine what Leeroy exactly says in his last line, with some discussion as to whether he says "At least I ain't chicken", "At least I'm not chicken", or "At least I have chicken".
Sources where the video was posted by the guild directly, including GameSpot, identify the content of the phrase as "All right chums, I'm back. Let's do this..." and "At least I have chicken" respectively. It has been pointed out that the word "back" is never actually heard in the first line, although the soundtrack does appear to drop out for a moment when it would have been heard. [4].
Dialogue
The full dialog of the original video is difficult to reconstruct based on the material. As a consequence of this individual transcripts may vary heavily.
The following is therefore a best approximation based on available material:
Player 1: [talking to teammates outside cave] OK guys, these eggs have given us a lot of trouble in the past, uh does anybody need anything off this guy or can we bypass him?
Player 2: Uhh, I think Leeroy needs something from this guy.
Player 1: Oh, does he need those Devout Shoulders? Doesn't - isn't he a paladin?
Player 2: Yeah, but that will help him heal better, he'll have more mana.
Player 1: [sighs] Christ. OK, uhh well what we'll do, I'll run in first, uh gather up all the eggs, we can kinda just, ya know blast them all down with AOE. Um, I will use Intimidating Shout, to kinda scatter'em, so we don't have to fight a whole bunch of them at once. Uhh, when my Shouts are done, uhh, I'll need Anfrony to come in and drop his Shout too, uh so we can keep them scattered and not have to fight too many. Um, when his is done, Bass of course will need to run in and do the same thing. Uhh, we're gonna need Divine Intervention on our mages, uhh so they can, uhh, AE, uh so we can of course get them down fast, cause we're bringing all these guys, I mean, we'll be in trouble if we don't take them down quick. Uhh I think this is a pretty good plan, we should be able to pull it off this time. Uhh, what do you think Abduhl? Can you give me a number crunch real quick?
Abduhl: Uhhh.. yeah gimme a sec... I'm coming up with thirty-two point three three, repeating of course, percentage, of survival.
Player 1: That's a lot better than we usually do, uhh, alright, you think we're ready guys? [interrupted]
Leeroy: All right chums, I'm (back)! Let's do this! LEEROOOOOOOY JEEENKIIIIIINSSS!!! [runs into cave]
-Short pause-
Player 2: [incredulous] ... Oh my God he just ran in. [runs in]
Player 1: Save him! Oh jeez, stick to the plan. Oh jeez, let's go, let's go! [follows]
Player 1 [laughing]: Stick to the plan guys, stick to the plan!
Player 1: Oh jeez, oh fuck.
[Indistinguishable]: Gimme a Divine Intervention, hurry up.
Player 1: Shoutin'!
Player 3: I can't cast! I can't move, am I lagging, guys? I can't move!
Player 1: What the—what the hell?
[Another Player]: I can't AE!
Player 3: I can't move!
Player 1: Oh my God...
[Another Player]: The eggs keep respawning! More respawning!!
[Indistinguishable]: I don't think you can cast with that shit on!
[Another player]: Oh my God!
Leeroy: We got em, we got em! I got it, I got it.
Player 2: Take it off! Take it off! [muffled shouts]
Player 1: Stay down, Stay down. Oh my God..
Player 1: Goddamnit Leeroy! Goddamn it...
[Various others]: Yeah, Leeroy you moron, Leeroy! [various put-downs of Leeroy amongst group]
Player 1: Listen, this is ridiculous.
[Indistinguishable]: You dumbass.
Leeroy: I'm on it.
Player 1: I'm down, Forekin down. Goddamnit. [shouting, then a pause, followed by other put-downs] Why do you do this shit, Leeroy?
[Another Player]: Spiffy, rez us! Spiffy, rez us!
Player 2: I'm trying!
Leeroy [crying]: It's not my fault!
Player 1: Who's Soulstoned? We do have a Soulstone up, don't we? [everyone dies] Think I need a Soulstone?
Player 2: Yeah but you need a Warlock.
Player 2 [noticing everybody is dead]: ... Oh God...
Player 1: Oh for - [sighs] Great job! For Christ's sake! [indistinguishable] Leeroy, you are just stupid as hell.
[Another Player]: Oh my God...
Leeroy: ... 'Least I have chicken...
External links
- Home of PALS FOR LIFE - original site for Leeroy Jenkin's guild.
- World of Warcraft: Leeroy Jenkins Tribute Page - lists numerous Leeroy Jenkins videos, sound mixes and mp3 files.
- Google Video low resolution mirror
- An interview with Leeroy Jenkins
- Leeroy's Thottbot profile
- Appearance of Leeroy Jenkins's name on Jeopardy!
- Deepfried's controversial Leeroy Video
- The Legend of Leeroy Jenkins on AdventureQuest
- GuildWiki on Kilroy Stonekin
- Tribute Leeroy Jenkins Song