In the 20 years of World of Warcraft, remember the history of the Leeroy Jenkis meme

Released in November 2004, World of Warcraftor simply WoW among fans, it quickly became one of the most iconic and influential MMORPGs in history. In November 2024, the Blizzard classic celebrates its 20 years on the market — so nothing better than remembering one of the game’s biggest memes: Leeroy Jenkis.

Leeroy Jenkis was literally one of the first memes ever and ended up becoming an extremely popular viral sensation back when people were still using dial-up internet. However, the cameraman behind the incident still seems in disbelief that people fell for the “bait”.

Meet Leeroy Jenkis, the most famous World of Warcraft meme

The Leeroy Jenkins meme is one of the most iconic moments on the internet and was born from a hilarious video by World of Warcraft. In 2005, a group of players were planning to face a difficult area full of enemies in the game. They discussed detailed strategies, calculated risks, and carefully planned each move to avoid failure.

However, in the midst of this intense preparation to meet the Rookery on the Upper Blackrock Spire, one of the team members, with the nickname Leeroy Jenkinshe completely ignored the plan and went head first into the dungeon’s enemies, shouting his own name in an epic way.

Naturally, the impulsive act ended up ruining the group’s entire strategy, resulting in a catastrophic defeat. “Leeroy, you’re just stupid,” says one of the group’s friends after Leroy breaks in.

The video quickly went viral on the internet and gained a special place in the hearts of fans. World of Warcraft. But the popularity of the meme was so great that it ended up transcending the barrier of video games to TV series, such as How I Met Your Mother — as well as quiz shows around the world.

Leeroy Jenkis’ World of Warcraft video was staged

Years later, Leeroy was immortalized with several references within the universe of World of Warcraft and even got his own letter in Hearthstone. At the time, most viewers suspected the video was staged — and they were right.

Yes, the video that went viral before anyone knew what viral meant is fake — but that certainly shouldn’t tarnish Leeroy Jenkins’ reputation. “I like people to decide for themselves,” Ben Schulz, the voice behind Leeroy, told Westword in 2007. “It’s more fun this way,” he added.

However, 10 years later, in 2017, the creators of the viral video admitted that it was not real. “We didn’t think anyone would believe it was real, we thought it was obviously satire, but we were wrong,” said Ben “Anfrony” Vinson, who shot the video, to My city.

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