Almost exactly 20 years ago the Paladin Leeroy Jenkins stormed into a room full of dragon eggs, creating the most famous wipe in the history of World of Warcraft and one of the first and most well-known memes from the gaming world.
What meme are we talking about? We’re talking about a video from the World of Warcraft community that was uploaded on May 11, 2005, to the platform warcraftmovies.com and has spread like wildfire across the internet since then.
In the clip that is not even three minutes long, you see 13 members of the Alliance guild “PALS FOR LIFE” standing in the Upper Blackrock Spire
– that’s a dungeon from World of Warcraft. They are preparing for the upcoming battle; like in a military briefing, the team has gathered in a circle around their leader, who is assigning tasks and briefing everyone.
A nice story from the WoW community:
Only a certain Leeroy is sitting somewhat disinterested off to the side of the group. While the fighters check their gear and set their spell order, you see the suddenly active Paladin jump up with a “Alright Chums. Let’s do this. Leeeeeeeroy Jenkins!
and rush into the room, destroying the first eggs.
From each egg, aggressive dragon whelps immediately hatch, blowing the counterattack. Panicking, his surprised comrades follow him, only to witness the most famous wipe in WoW history moments later. The following video alone has over 26 million views:
Legendary Fake for the History Books
Is the video authentic? For many years, the community debated whether the scene in the video was staged or if it actually happened. It is now clear that the guild PALS FOR LIFE practiced the Leeroy clip. Nevertheless, Leeroy Jenkins was able to develop into a pop culture meme and internet phenomenon.
There are references in Mass Effect, How I Met Your Mother, My Name is Earl, or Psych. Even in the Blizzard universe itself, Leeroy has been immortalized, with his own Hearthstone card, a garrison follower, and a WoW achievement.
Moreover, the clip has repeatedly been a topic for studies, such as in this article titled Leeroy Jenkins and Mission Command from the US military. Or in a lecture on “Media and Society”, which discussed one of the first viral videos from the gaming sector.
What does the community say for the anniversary? Many players still remember the video well, including a former game master for World of Warcraft. Mikimao writes on Reddit:
I had been working as a Game Master for World of Warcraft for about 2 weeks when this video came out. I had just finished my night shift and was on my way home when a group of GMs crowded around one of the workstations …
That was THE video, and we laughed so hard at how funny it was. For me, it’s an absolute “I remember where I was” moment in gaming history, lol.
ouphking also feels nostalgic on Reddit: “Damn, I remember when this was brand new. It’s incredible that WoW is still running after more than 20 years.” AnthMosk has never played WoW and celebrates the meme (via Reddit): “I’ve never played this game. I know nothing about it. But I still laughed so hard 20 years ago when watching it. It’s still a blast.”
By the way, Blizzard itself congratulates on the official X channel for the 20th anniversary of Leeroy. They say: “Congratulations on 20 years of fearless memorability.” And there was a nice picture too:
Leeroy Jenkins is actually named Ben Schulz, hails from Colorado, and is an industrial lighting repair technician. After the viral success of the video, he founded the company “Leeroy Jenkins Entertainment,” which is no longer in operation. You can find out more about the people behind the meme here: What ever happened to Leeroy Jenkins?
