Twenty years ago, the name Leeroy Jenkins rang through the halls of Upper Blackrock Spire, and now it echoes through eternity. On May 11, 2005, the famous “Leeroy!!” video was posted to WarcraftMovies, a website dedicated to World of Warcraft machinima.
The video came from a guild called Pals for Life. In it, the guild leader addressed the group in a semi-serious tone, asking after coming up with a detailed plan, “Can you give me a number crunch real quick?” In response, the apparent number-crunching guy laid down the first meme of the video, “I’m coming up with 32.33 repeating, of course, percentage of survival.” Don’t ever tell Leroy the odds, because that’s when he declared, “Times up,” and delivered a battlecry for the ages, “Leeeeeeeeeroy Jenkins!!!”
Soon after charging in from an AFK state, Leeroy Jenkins stepped on a bunch of dragon eggs that spawned hatchlings, killing everybody in the room. When the dust settled a bit, Leeroy was berated, “Goddamn it, Leeroy,” one said, another adding in, “You moron.” Taking things in stride, Leeroy responded with words of wisdom, “At least I have chicken.”
It’s gone down in history as a defining moment for viral clips while bringing some gaming culture into the mainstream. The list of pop culture references to Leeroy Jenkins includes a Family Guy bit, trivia on Jeopardy!, a How I Met Your Mother impersonation, a Howard Stern segment, and even U.S. House Rep. Jared Huffman using the rallying call during a Speaker of the House vote. Blizzard kept Leeroy Jenkins alive by turning him into a staple Hearthstone card, rewarding the “Jenkins” title for a World of Warcraft achievement, and making a Leeroy Jenkins NPC voiced by Ben Schulz (the real Leeroy Jenkins) in the Warlords of Draenor expansion.
Kotaku confirmed in 2017 that the beloved clip was staged as a comedy skit by the Pals for Life guild after much speculation about its authenticity. Ben Vinson, the video recorder (not Leeroy himself), said, “We didn’t think anyone would believe it was real, we thought it was so obviously satire, but we were wrong.” I guess everyone just wants to believe that charging headfirst into danger — chicken in hand — is the best way to go down.
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