Still here.
Always loved this tidbit of history. As a kid who was obsessed with WWII, I would hunt for them in old photos and videos.
The Phrase “Kilroy Was Here” (2017)
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Re: The Phrase “Kilroy Was Here” (2017)
#12I have a Kilroy sticker on my car.
Re: The Phrase “Kilroy Was Here” (2017)
#13tldr The expression likely derives from "Foo was here," scrawled by Australian
soldiers in the Great War. The precise moniker "Kilroy" is disputed, the
prevailing theory crediting a technician James J. Kilroy of Braintree, MA who
chalked the "easter egg" epigram on panels of WWII battleships (panels which became
inaccessible after the ship was fully built).
Re: The Phrase “Kilroy Was Here” (2017)
#14Ha! This is all a cover. Every Asimov fan knows the real story -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Message_(short_story) (Joking, of course :)
That's great. I wasn't familiar with it, but thankfully archive.org has a copy. https://archive.org/details/completestories01asim/page/n99/m...
Re: The Phrase “Kilroy Was Here” (2017)
#15We called it a "Chad" (the article says "Mr Chad" - I'm only 50 so the Mr may have been dropped by my time). Popular around early to mid 1980's UK.
I can remember doodling a chad and seeing many chad doodles. If you had a pencil in your hand and no idea what to do, it was a go to. If I had to estimate then I think Chads disappeared in the early to mid 1990s.
In my experience 8)
Re: The Phrase “Kilroy Was Here” (2017)
#16Chad! Wikipedia says it's fallen out of favour or popular culture or something, but I certainly remember it as a cartoon from school (15-20y ago I suppose), and graffiti since for sure. If there was a history/war link then it's lost on my memory and probably was then too.
Re: The Phrase “Kilroy Was Here” (2017)
#17As someone who grew up shortly after WW2 ended, Kilroy was everywhere and this story brings back fond memories of finding the meme in the most unlikely and difficult to access places. I think it mostly stopped with Generation X, I don't know, but I'm willing to bet, that most instances of Kilroy that you find are over forty years old with the majority being over sixty years old.
I'm willing to bet, that most instances of Kilroy that you find are over forty years old with the majority being over sixty years old. The most recent memory I have of it is from the Styx song Mr. Roboto. That was 1983.
The Nashville Megaman rock opera band The Protomen [1] has a member who goes by the pseudonym K.I.L.R.O.Y. who opens every show. [2] They've covered Mr. Roboto and are heavily influenced by 80s rock culture generally (they did an entire album of Queen covers). They were formed in 2003 but are still very much active.
Re: The Phrase “Kilroy Was Here” (2017)
#18The title 'The Story Behind the Phrase"Kilroy Was Here"' is a pretty blatant clickbait lie, when the entire article is pretty much admitting that nobody knows where it originated.
Re: The Phrase “Kilroy Was Here” (2017)
#19As someone who grew up shortly after WW2 ended, Kilroy was everywhere and this story brings back fond memories of finding the meme in the most unlikely and difficult to access places. I think it mostly stopped with Generation X, I don't know, but I'm willing to bet, that most instances of Kilroy that you find are over forty years old with the majority being over sixty years old.
Nope. Not over. Hide this in my source every time.
Also, it’s tattooed somewhere important to me.
Re: The Phrase “Kilroy Was Here” (2017)
#20Thank you for this wonderful trip back into history