The 'Leeeeeeeeeeeeroy Jenkins' World Of Warcraft Meme Is 10 Years Old—How Did That Happen?

As astonishing it is to believe, it was 10 years ago on 11 May 2005 that the Leeroy Jenkins video was uploaded to a forum—and a meme was born. Jebus, did they even have internet 10 years ago, it seems like another age.

It showed a bunch of World of Warcraft players planning a raid, a raid which was subsequently ruined by one Leeroy Jenkins (aka Ben Schulz), who prematurely charged into battle shouting the now legendary name while his teammates stood around in shock.

Such was its infamy that it's been referenced in movies like Wreck-it-Ralph and TV shows including South Park. World of Warcraft itself it has nods to the incident, with a "Leeeeeeeeroy" achievement in the game and Jenkins also has a card named after him in the WoW Hearthstone card-battle game.

There is talk that the whole thing was staged, but don't let that sort of slander ruin it this tenth anniversary for you. Instead enjoy some of these memes below that arose around this early viral star.

It'll be something to tell your grandkids in the future when they come to visit and laugh at how lame the internet was when you were their age.

And here's the incident re-imagined as a short film.