O RLY?

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"ORLY" redirects here. For other uses, see Orly (disambiguation).

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O RLY?, short for "Oh, really?" is a popular Internet phenomenon, typically presented as an image macro featuring a Snowy Owl. The phrase "O RLY?" is typically used in a sarcastic or sardonic manner, often in response to a statement that the speaker feels is obvious, or blatantly self-contradictory. Some Internet forum trolls may also reply "O RLY?" in response to a lengthy post (and also "TLDR").

1 History
2 Use outside of the Internet
3 Computer worm
4 The ORLY? expression in hex
5 See also
6 References
7 External links

[edit] History

The phrase "o rly?" was used on the Something Awful Forums at least as early as August 2003.^[1] 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.^[2] The snowy owl image was Photoshopped on 4chan after the word filtering of the word "repost" to "owl".^[3] The owl image macro was posted or linked to on other websites, spawning many more image macros involving owls, notably those with "YA RLY" and "NO WAI".

[edit] Use outside of the Internet

Image:Megamanrly.jpg

"O Rly? Ya Rly!" in Mega Man Battle Network 6.

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.^[4]

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.^[5]

In Striker 2: USB Laser Guided Missile Launcher game/toy, the O RLY owl appears as a secret character dressed in a Santa's outfit.

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!"^[6]

The Australian sketch show The Ronnie Johns Half Hour included a sketch called Ham1337 in which Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy was translated via subtitles into internet abbreviations. At one point, the subtitles read "O RLY?", "YA RLY", "NO WAI!".

In the popular MMORPG World of Warcraft, in the Undercity, there is an NPC called Auctioneer Yarly, and in Booty Bay there is an NPC named Auctioneer O'Reely. In addition, eastern Tanaris is home to a white owl named O'Reilly.

Dave TV show Totally Viral features the O Rly owl in its opening titles.

[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 computer.^[7]^[8]

Experts at SophosLabs™, Sophos's global network of virus, spyware and spam analysis centers, have discovered a worm that attempts to send a photograph of an owl to attached network printers. The W32/Hoots-A worm is written in Visual Basic and spreads via network shares. Once it has infected a computer it attempts to send a graphical image of an owl with the legend "O RLY?" to a number of predefined print queues. "This isn't the work of a professional virus writer. Most malware authors these days encrypt their executables with packers in an attempt to make them harder to detect, this one does not. It is also written in Visual Basic, which is unusual for a virus today. But the smoking gun is that the worm has hardcoded within it the specific network paths to almost 40 different printers," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos. "It appears this malware was written for a specific organization, by someone who had inside knowledge of their IT infrastructure." The phrase "O RLY?" is internet slang for "Oh really?", and is often accompanied by a picture of a snowy white owl. "Why the author should want to print out pictures of an owl is, of course, anybody's guess," continued Cluley. Sophos has only received reports of the malware from one customer, and is working with the organization to provide more information which may help identify the creator of the worm. Sophos recommends companies put in place a consolidated solution to defend against viruses, spyware and spam, and ensure that it is automatically updated as new threats emerge.