The phrase "O RLY?" was first popularised on
Internet forums in mid-2003. The earliest publicly viewable
[1] archives of its use on the
Something Awful Forums date from somewhat later, but there are older uses in the registration-only archives. The first image macros were created on the Something Awful Forums, but these did not include
[2] the now ubiquitous
Snowy Owl image macro.
The original O RLY Snowy Owl image macro is based on a photo taken by nature photographer John White, which was
posted by him to the
newsgroup alt.binaries.pictures.animals. The snowy owl image macro was
Photoshopped on
4chan as a response to the
wordfiltering of the word "repost" to "owl"
[3]. The
typeface used for the "O RLY?" text is most likely
Kabel Book, a variant of the
Kabel typeface introduced in the 1920s.
The owl image macro quickly spread to other websites such as
Fark and
YTMND, spawning many more image macros involving owls.
The frequent posting of the O RLY? owl has annoyed some webmasters to the point that the posting of it on some message boards will result in a user ban.
and eventually, the internet would end up as a mess of porn, blogs, and corporate websites.
