2005 / Video / Player-made World of Warcraft satire
Leeroy Jenkins
A raid plan, a plate of chicken, and the loudest possible decision to ignore both.
The original is off-site. HAHrchives preserves the story and a route back to it.
What happened
While the group solemnly calculates a plan, Leeroy returns from getting chicken, yells his own name, and charges into a room full of dragon eggs. The raid follows, chaos wins, and he offers the immortal defense: “At least I have chicken.”
Where it came from
World of Warcraft guild PALS FOR LIFE released its video “Leeroy!!” to WarcraftMovies in May 2005. Ben Schulz played Leeroy; the guild later confirmed that the elaborate raid wipe was a deliberately staged satire.
Why it mattered
Leeroy Jenkins is early gaming culture at its funniest: players using a shared virtual world to make a homemade sketch, then watching its one ridiculous decision become a sentence everyone understood.
How it spread
The clip traveled from WarcraftMovies and game forums into broader internet culture, where the name became shorthand for charging into any plan with fearless, catastrophic confidence. Blizzard later embraced the character inside its own games.
Keep going
The same corner of the internet
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