O RLY?

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O RLY? is an Internet phenomenon, typically presented as an image macro featuring a Snowy Owl. The phrase "O RLY?" ("Oh, really?") is typically used in a sarcastic or sardonic manner, often in response to a statement that the speaker feels is obvious, or blatantly false and/or self-contradictory.^[1] Some internet forum trolls may also reply "O RLY?" in response to a lengthy or overly detailed post. This term is also used in a friendly conversation, the response to "O RLY" being "YA RLY" ("Yeah, really") and so forth, repeating this.

Contents 1 History 2 Use in commercial works 3 Computer worm 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] History

The phrase "O RLY?" was used on the Something Awful Forums at least as early as August 2003.^[2] The original "O RLY?" Snowy Owl image macro is based on a photo taken by nature photographer John White, which he posted to the newsgroup alt.binaries.pictures.animals in 2001.^[3] The snowy owl image was photoshopped on 4chan after the word filtering of the word "repost" to "owl".^[4] An owl is also on the cover of the O'Reilly book "Learning the Unix Operating System", creating an additional play on words for those familiar with O'Reilly covers.

[edit] Use in commercial works

This article may contain excessive, poor or irrelevant examples. You can improve the article by adding more descriptive text and removing less pertinent examples. See Wikipedia's guide to writing better articles for further suggestions.

• In the Game Boy Advance game Mega Man Battle Network 6, if the player tries the Humor program at Cyber Academy, Lan responds to a certain joke with "O Rly?" and MegaMan.EXE replies with "Ya Rly!". Also, if the player tries it at the Expo Site, there is a "No Wai!" joke.^[5]
• In the Xbox 360 version of the football game Blitz: The League, one of the hidden gamer achievements is called "O RLY?" It is earned by losing a Campaign Mode game by more than 24 points. The image of this achievement is, appropriately enough, of a snowy owl.^[6]
• In the Nintendo DS game Apollo Justice: Ace Attorney, one of the characters is named Olga Orly, a clear reference to this phenomenon.^[7]
• The promotional video announcing the American license of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, "Adventures of the ASOS Brigade Episode 00: Made by Fans for Fans," features a short segment using pictures with the caption "O RLY?" in both English and Japanese. The segment starts with Yuki Nagato making a statement in Japanese, with an "O RLY?" image displayed, and with her replying, in Japanese, "Really." The segment ends with another picture saying "NO WAI!"^[8]
• In the MMORPG EverQuest 2, Orly and Yarly are two Hooluk (owl-like race) NPCs that stand above the portal on Whisperwind Isle in The Barren Sky.^[9][10]
• In the text-based game Alter Aeon, ORLY is an emote that players can use, which results in "hooting" at another player.^[11]

[edit] Computer worm

On May 10, 2006, anti-virus company Sophos discovered a computer worm known as "W32/Hoots-A", which sends a graphical image of the snowy owl to a print queue when it infects a Windows-based computer.^[12][13]

[edit] See also

Look up o rly? in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Lolcat
• Image macro

[edit] References

• Stephen Phillips (2006-01-18). "Internet Term of the Week". The Independent Tiger Weekly. http://tigerweekly.com/article/01-18-2006/1524. Retrieved on 2008-03-30. 

[edit] External links

• O RLY? Gallery including original concept