The Phrase “Kilroy Was Here” (2017) | Hacker News Reader

The Phrase “Kilroy Was Here” (2017)

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149 pointsVaslo47 comments

In his 'obscene' opus set in WW2, Thomas Pynchon proposed that the scrawling of Kilroy was in fact originally part of a schematic representing a "band-pass filter".

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/77/Ki...

My father told me of once that when he was working at the RAF research Establishment at Farnborough, someone was was very pleased to have created a circuit which would plot a Chad on an oscilloscope. A little recursion...

That's a band-stop (notch) filter. The inductor lets through low frequencies, and the capacitor lets through the highs. Stuff in between gets blocked.

V is a fascinating novel, and Kilroy shows up a few times. My mind went here immediately as well, as probably would happen for any reader of this work.

WWII is just one of many eras that V dabbles in. I imagine many on HN with an appreciation for literature and history would enjoy it.

> Unfortunately, it was later revealed by one of the show's consultants that the vault footage was "recreated" (i.e., completely made up), which should make you think twice about the historical accuracy of anything aired on this cable channel!

More people need to call out the history channel. What a bunch of claptrap they air on that as if it were fact. History is so important to people’s understanding of current events, and the history channel just serves up whatever conspiracies get the most ratings. I’ve even seen people cite this garbage as if it had validity, or kids use it in school reports as if it’s got some semblance of accuracy.

Last I saw of the History Channel, it seemed to be a steady diet of ancient alien theories, and magical artifacts or arcane technology in the hands of the Nazis.

Ha! This is all a cover. Every Asimov fan knows the real story -- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Message_(short_story)

(Joking, of course :)

That's great. I wasn't familiar with it, but thankfully archive.org has a copy. https://archive.org/details/completestories01asim/page/n99/m...

I've worked through the Foundation series and my favorite is by far the Foundation's Edge. Perhaps because it is more modern and mature than the previous books. I haven't even started looking at other novels written by Asimov. Do you have any recommendations?

Try his short stories collection. They are some of the best I've ever read. Also if you're looking for a longer novel, try Caves of Steel series. Out of all his novels I read, this stood out the most for me.

As someone who grew up shortly after WW2 ended, Kilroy was everywhere and this story brings back fond memories of finding the meme in the most unlikely and difficult to access places.

I think it mostly stopped with Generation X, I don't know, but I'm willing to bet, that most instances of Kilroy that you find are over forty years old with the majority being over sixty years old.

I'm willing to bet, that most instances of Kilroy that you find are over forty years old with the majority being over sixty years old.

The most recent memory I have of it is from the Styx song Mr. Roboto. That was 1983.

The Nashville Megaman rock opera band The Protomen [1] has a member who goes by the pseudonym K.I.L.R.O.Y. who opens every show. [2] They've covered Mr. Roboto and are heavily influenced by 80s rock culture generally (they did an entire album of Queen covers). They were formed in 2003 but are still very much active.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Protomen

[2] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yM80mAAHqk

I've been waiting for ACT III possibly longer than any other piece of media at this point. At least I'm better off than GRR Martin fans.

Around 1988 - (I was approx 8) me and some other children in my class were tasked with making a school paper. I remember that image being on the front cover - where there was a crudely drawn picture of a school wall, with some graffiti on it, (one of which was that image). I'd never seen it at school before (I don't think there was any graffiti at all at school) and I remember it really sticking in my mind. Not sure if it had the slogan written. I enjoyed sketching it on bits of paper for a while but it always had to be on a brick wall when I did it, to denote it was graffiti.

Nope. Not over. Hide this in my source every time. Also, it’s tattooed somewhere important to me.

We called it a "Chad" (the article says "Mr Chad" - I'm only 50 so the Mr may have been dropped by my time). Popular around early to mid 1980's UK.

I can remember doodling a chad and seeing many chad doodles. If you had a pencil in your hand and no idea what to do, it was a go to. If I had to estimate then I think Chads disappeared in the early to mid 1990s.

In my experience 8)

The explanation I heard was that during the second world war, as the US and British forces advanced in Europe, the Americans would chalk 'Kilroy was here' on some landmark, and the British would add the Chad graphic, reminiscent of a gang sign. 'Chad' used to be associated with protests against shortages due to war rationing, a forlorn figure peering over a wall exclaiming "Wot, no fish?" or "Wot, no sugar?"

The title 'The Story Behind the Phrase"Kilroy Was Here"' is a pretty blatant clickbait lie, when the entire article is pretty much admitting that nobody knows where it originated.

The article appears to be lifted straight from Wikipedia.

It inspired perhaps the greatest modern work of all time! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kilroy_Was_Here_(album)

Domo arigato!

Finding Kilroys while exploring is always a treat. I have a page of ones that I found on UMD's campus[1].

[1]: https://yossarian.net/media/kilroy/

I first saw the drawing and the phrase in my grandparent's bathroom when I was growing up. Always makes me nostalgic whenever I see it in public.

There's seems to be no evidence of it before WW2.

"Foo was here" was 1942 in Australia (You'd suspect foo was from FUBAR) - https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/247899915

Kilroy seems to have merged with Chad from the British, post war?

You can see with Bugs Bunny it was just the words - https://rhslegend.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Bugs-Bunny-...

I think the welder story is the best bet - https://www.wbur.org/radioboston/2011/04/15/kilroy-was-here

"Kilroy is 78 years old now and remembers the transit company contest that recognized his dad and said he’ll never forget what the Kilroy family was given for winning: a trolley car."

Chad! Wikipedia says it's fallen out of favour or popular culture or something, but I certainly remember it as a cartoon from school (15-20y ago I suppose), and graffiti since for sure. If there was a history/war link then it's lost on my memory and probably was then too.

The oddest part of the story is the suggestion that the concept of meme arose with the internet, instead of with Richard Dawkins in the mid 1970s.

The parenthetical (em-dash-ical?) quip about the internet serves to educate the least knowledgeable, while all other usage of the word suggests no such thing. In fact, the first usage is a link to a page clearly attributing the word to Dawkins.

Richard Dawkins' concept of a meme is much broader and more abstract, a self-perpetuating idea (that need not be graphical in nature.) The internet meme, while it still fits Dawkins' concept of a meme, is a distinctive phenomenon, and is essentially graffiti released from its former physical constraints, allowing it to spread virally, often without any clear reason behind its popularity. The Chad/Kilroy meme, because of its origins in worldwide troop movement during WWII which enhanced its spread, bears a striking resemblance to a modern internet meme for that reason.

There's a fellow roaming round the street / I think most of all I'd like to meet / I must consider him a clever lad / Making like a young Sir Galahad

Everywhere I go I think he's been / He autographs the walls around the scene / If you look hard enough you'll find him there / In rooms of public places everywhere

Kilroy was here / Left his name around the place / Kilroy was here / Thought I've never seen his face /

On a short vacation with my friends / I found I had time on my hands to spare / Surveyed my telescope around the land / And saw his name imprinted in the sand

Kilroy was here / Left his name around the place / Kilroy was here / Thought I've never seen his face /

I wonder could he be a cavalier / Or a roving musketeer / Or just a dustman who's insane / Everyplace regardless where or when / The public poet strikes again and again and again /

If I ever meet that man at all / I'll hang a plaque upon my bedroom wall / A monument erected in his name / Would help to contribute towards his name

Kilroy was here / Left his name around the place / Kilroy was here / Thought I've never seen his face

- Roy Wood / The Move

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wOhDE0EswgM

Similarly...

"Tina Chopp is God." All over Bellingham, WA in the early 1980s, then Seattle, usually scribbled in alleys and under bridges.

I have a copy of the "Book Of Tina Chopp" stored somewhere on a backup drive. No idea if it's still findable online. Mostly a slim link to the memories of my enjoyable days in Bellingham way back when, though I don't know if I'll actually ever read it.

Meanwhile, this gives you a taste of the old days: https://www.abebooks.com/book-search/title/tina-official-new...

Also, my uncle had a boat. Named "Little Schmo". Had a line drawing over the name, looking just like the drawing in the article. Early 1950s. (I'm that old.) Some things were better then.

I remember seeing on our university VAX in the early 80s in Germany. Either on the screen or on print-outs. Probably more commonly on the screen, but occasionally someone sent it to the printer.

No idea whether a local operator (yeah, there was one sysadmin and 1 or 2 operators for 2 VAXes) or even DEC had installed it.

Still here.

Always loved this tidbit of history. As a kid who was obsessed with WWII, I would hunt for them in old photos and videos.

The 1991 computer game Crystal Caves had a sign saying “Kilroy was here”. As a kid I never got the reference but learned about it much later.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crystal_Caves

Then there's Don Martin's cartoon in Mad Magazine:

"FONEBONE IS WATCHING YOU"

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/fonebone-is-watching-you...

Fine art, indeed!

https://fineartamerica.com/featured/mona-lisa-by-da-vinci-do...

Somewhat off topic: I found that written in the ceiling in many buildings at the Air Force Academy in Colorado. I also found it in crawl spaces at many other bases where you can see the foundation. It must have resonated with a lot of people, or been an early meme?

I’m in my mid-30s and American; I can’t recall ever having seen or heard this phrase in my entire life.

I have a Kilroy sticker on my car.

"Unfortunately, it was later revealed by one of the show's consultants that the vault footage was "recreated" (i.e., completely made up)"

Good grief, the History Channel is junk.

Am I misremembering or did this character/message appear in Kurt Vonnegut book? Not Kilgore Trout, but actual Kilroy. This and Styx's Mr Roboto were the first 2 things that came to mind

Not Vonnegut to my knowledge, but Pynchon in _V_.

Once I seen " Shouts of laughter, tears of joy, I was here before Kilroy"

tldr The expression likely derives from "Foo was here," scrawled by Australian soldiers in the Great War. The precise moniker "Kilroy" is disputed, the prevailing theory crediting a technician James J. Kilroy of Braintree, MA who chalked the "easter egg" epigram on panels of WWII battleships (panels which became inaccessible after the ship was fully built).

I distinctly remember seeing "Foo was here" graffiti drawings on walls (and in school kid's exercise books) over 60 years ago in Australia.

Never knew this was so old and always wondered where it came from.

Thank you for this wonderful trip back into history

Kilroy was never here. He just thought he was.

Ha. The story behind my username.

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