O Rly? Ya Rly! NO WAI! YAHWEH! SRSLY?! TTLY!

O RLY?, short for "Oh, really?" is a popular Internet phenomenon, typically presented as an image macro featuring a Snowy Owl. The usual conversation flow starts with O RLY?, triggering a YA RLY ("Yeah, really") response, followed by a NO WAI! ("No way!"). These may be used in combination with any number of expressions, such as "YAHWEH!" ("Yeah way!"), "SRSLY?!" ("Seriously?!"), or "TTLY!" ("Totally!").

The phrase "O RLY?" is typically used in a sarcastic or sardonic manner, often in response to a statement that the speaker feels is obvious, or blatantly self-contradictory. Some Internet forum trolls may also reply O RLY? in response to a lengthy post (and also "TLDR").

History

The phrase "o rly?" was used on the Something Awful Forums at least as early as August 2003. The original "O RLY?" Snowy Owl image macro is based on a photo taken by nature photographer Ron White, which he posted to the newsgroup alt.binaries.pictures.animals in 2001. The snowy owl image was Photoshopped on 4chan after the word filtering of the word "repost" to "owl". The owl image macro was posted or linked to on other websites, spawning many more image macros involving owls, notably those with "YA RLY" and "NO WAI".

Use outside of the Internet
"O Rly? Ya Rly!" in Mega Man Battle Network 6.
"O Rly? Ya Rly!" in Mega Man Battle Network 6.

In the Game Boy Advance game Mega Man Battle Network 6, if the player tries the Humor program at Cyber Academy, Lan responds to a certain joke with "O Rly?" and MegaMan.EXE replies with "Ya Rly!". Also, if the player tries it at the Expo Site, there is a "No Wai!" joke.

In the Xbox 360 version of the football game Blitz: The League, one of the hidden gamer achievements is called "O RLY?" It is earned by losing a Campaign Mode game by more than 24 points. The image of this achievement is, appropriately enough, of a snowy owl.

In Striker 2: USB Laser Guided Missile Launcher game/toy, the O RLY owl appears as a secret character dressed in a santa's outfit.

The promotional video announcing the American license of The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya, "Adventures of the ASOS Brigade Episode 00: Made by Fans for Fans," features a short segment using pictures with the caption "O RLY?" in both English and Japanese. The segment starts with Yuki Nagato making a statement in Japanese, with an "O RLY?" image displayed, and with her replying, in Japanese, "Really." The segment ends with another picture saying "NO WAI!"

The Australian sketch show The Ronnie Johns Half Hour included a sketch called Ham1337 in which Hamlet's "To be or not to be" soliloquy was translated via subtitles into internet abbreviations. At one point, the subtitles read "O RLY?", "YA RLY", "NO WAI!".

Computer worm

On May 10, 2006, anti-virus company Sophos discovered a computer worm known as "W32/Hoots-A", which sends a graphical image of the snowy owl to a print queue when it infects a computer.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I see it got started years ago *Bumps head*

 

O Rlly?????

 

YA RLY!

 

o.o SRSLY

 

Ttly !

 

No Wai!!!!!

 

Yahweh !

 

O Rlly!!!!!!

 

Ya Rly!

 

Srsly!!!!!

 

Srsly ?

 

SHUT THE **** UP!!!!!!! lol, combo breaker.

 

No Wai!!!!!!

 

*Ignores Da Freak* YAHWEH!

 

YAWEH!!!!!

 

TTLY!!!! XD

 

(This is getting out of hand lol) SRSLY?!

 

Srsly !

 

Lomgetfnowaiiiii!!!