O RLY?

History

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 added in large letters (using the Impact typeface) 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!", "SRSLY?", and a number of others.

Outside of Internet forums, O RLY? has been referenced in various video games, including World of Warcraft in which the auctioneer characters O’Reely and Yarly are a reference to "O RLY?" and "YA RLY!", respectively.{{cite web|url=https://www.wired.com/gamelife/2008/01/14-pop-culture/|title=14 Pop Culture Easter Eggs in World of Warcraft

O'Reilly Media's book covers on programming and technology have been parodied online using the term O RLY?, first popularised by a meme generator by Ben Halpern.

Hoots computer worm

In 2006, anti-virus company Sophos discovered a computer worm known as "W32/Hoots-A", which sends a graphical image of a snowy owl with the letters "O RLY?" to a print queue when it infects a Windows-based computer. A Sophos spokesman said that it appeared that the virus, written in Visual Basic, was not written by a professional, but that: "it appears this malware was written for a specific organization, by someone who had inside knowledge of their IT infrastructure."

References

References

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5. Sutherland, JJ. (May 16, 2006). "'O RLY!' Worm Confirms Faith In Humanity". [[NPR]].
6. John White. (2001-02-17). "Snowy Owl (Nyctea scandiaca)003 – Silly lookingface".
7. Patrizio, Andy. (December 7, 2007). "O RLY? Thank Photoshop For Internet's Goofy Memes". QuinStreet Inc./InternetNews.com.
8. Clark, Neils. (2009). "Game Addiction: The Experience and the Effects". McFarland.
9. Leswing, Kif. "These hilarious memes perfectly capture what it's like to work in tech".
10. Staff Writers. (2006-05-12). "Sophos discovers hooting virus". crn.com.au.
11. Khare, Sharon. (May 15, 2006). "Owl Virus Targets Network Printers". Tech2.
12. (May 12, 2006). "Hoots mon, there's a worm in my printer!". Incisive Financial Publishing Limited.