1939
Kilroy was here
You might remember it as Mr Chad, Foo was here
No copy of this image is currently available to show.
- SourceNo single original
- MediaNot held by ViralWorld
A meme that spread across the world on ships and walls, forty years before the internet.
What this was
A doodle of a long-nosed man peering over a wall with the words Kilroy was here, chalked by American servicemen on everything from landing craft to the Potsdam Conference. Reproduced without attribution, mutated locally, and recognised everywhere — the shape of a meme, in wartime.
It first appeared in 1939.
Where it came from
There is no original to identify: this spread through many separate posts at once rather than from a first one. ViralWorld holds no copy of it either — what it was, when it spread and what people called it is the record.
Nothing here is claimed to be the first version of this, because research established there was not one — it appeared in many places at once.
Not established. This index only names a creator where the evidence supports it.
- What happens
- A doodle of a long-nosed man peering over a wall with the words Kilroy was here, chalked by American servicemen on everything from landing craft to the Potsdam Conference. Reproduced without attribution, mutated locally, and recognised everywhere — the shape of a meme, in wartime.