(And, speaking of which, how did the intentional illiteracy of the internet come into being? By which I mean the proliferation of semi-phonetic abbreviations, such as ORLY.)
1. yes
2. People like Dryad invented it.. also this:
The phrase "O RLY?" was used on the Something Awful Forums at least as early as August 2003. 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. According to White, the owl's expression in the photo was due to the bird panting to cool off, similar to a dog. The expression was interpreted by an unidentified person to say "oh really?", and the phrase O RLY? was photoshopped in large letters at the bottom of the image. The O RLY? owl quickly became a standard retort to disputed statements to express disbelief, and was followed by other owl image macros with phrases such as "YA RLY", ""NO WAI!" and a number of others.
AlienSheep
La Quinta, CA
August 2008
MAR 11, 2010 02:05 PM