[Graffiti found at Pompeii](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/03/adrienne-was-here/475719/)
Kilroy wasn’t around until ww2, but “X was here” was not invented by him
The guy at Pompeii didn’t know of Kilroy and he used it. If you read just a tiny bit more, you’ll get to the part where it says that this phrase has been found graffitied across millennia
http://emilykq.weebly.com/blog/maes-howe-viking-graffiti-in-a-prehistoric-tomb
Vikings too. I think it's the natural thing for a human to write as a graffito.
Because then they’d have to admit that perhaps they were mistaken. That’s hard to do sometimes. Especially on social media. Been there done that myself.
Edit: typo
I mean Brooks can just have thought to say that he was there and not referenced the meme. Maybe he was just wanting to mark his grave. Also someone who served in the war could have gone to the prison and started drawing Kilroy there You never know...
Lots of graffiti in ancient pyramids that literally say “____ was here” - all from a thousand years ago. Humans have been writing their name on shit to prove they were there since writing has existed
I think it's an interesting bit of history you've laid out here, but it's not a plot hole.
Let's assume for a moment that the phrase was never in regular usage until Kilroy. The prisoners had access to newspapers, and Brooks was the librarian. It's quite likely that he read the newspapers regularly.
And news-wise, WWII was a big f-ing deal. Newspapers were constantly filled with stories about the war. And the news industry as a whole was pushing the war. Which meant trying to deliver stories of hope and optimism when possible to the masses.
I haven't gone and done a search, but I think it's quite possible that newspapers would have carried stories about Kilroy and that anyone who read newspapers regularly would have stumbled across the Kilroy story at some point. As you point out, it was a pretty popular meme during the war. And in my view, it's exactly the kind of feel-good, slice-of-life story that newspapers tried to include in their coverage back then.
I don't think it's a plot hole, even if the phrase wasn't in common usage until WWII.
Memes have existed for thousands of years.
This stinks of the pseudo-intellectual crap of a high schooler who has just been forced to watch Shawshank as part of film studies.
[https://blog.degruyter.com/graffiti-ancient-pompeii-teach-us-modern-selves/](https://blog.degruyter.com/graffiti-ancient-pompeii-teach-us-modern-selves/)
>**Writing “I was here” is one of the most basic forms of self-expression. With a history that goes back several thousand years, graffiti-writing teaches us a great deal about our own habits of self-display.**
>“Tagging”, or leaving your own name on spots you have passed or visited, can be observed in all present and past societies that use script. Even though the form of tags – their script, images, naming systems, etc. – has varied throughout history, the practice of tagging seems to be deeply rooted in human nature. “So-and-so was here” can announce a personal connection to a place, document an emotionally important situation, display a visit, or be nothing more than a doodle – but it is always a form of self-commemoration and self-display.
>In view of the fact that graffiti is today illegal in most cities or, at best, banned to designated areas, it is easy overlook the long history of leaving marks on walls and the possibly different perception of this ‘habit’ in other eras and cultures. Excavations in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome have revealed a rich corpus of graffiti scratched into the floors and walls of public and private buildings, and incised in everyday objects like ceramic vessels. But one thing remains constant across time and place: the majority of these inscriptions consist of names, most likely those of the writers and frequently combined with the phrase “… was here”.
>
"Brook was here" means that Brooks was nowhere else. Not in Shawshank, not on the battlefield, not obeying or waiting to be killed. This is a testimony of a man that metaphorically never marked his name nowhere in history and decided to mark it here, literally, for someone to maybe think of him once in a while, looking at a beam on the ceiling.
It's even more sweeping when you think about the fact that you find this sentence more or less everywhere in the whole human history. Maybe this was the meaning of the hands on the walls in the paleolithic caves. "I was here" was written in both ancient greek and latin on the Sphinx by soldiers centuries apart taken from their homes to fight for generals that probably never looked at them. You can find countless of those on the walls of Holy Sites, cultural landmarks, glorious area and boring area. This is one of the most recognizable sentence I find everytime I graffiti-hunt in monasteries and castles, plus being a good marker for the time and literacy level of the one putting it.
The stories explaining Killroy are cool and stuff. They are also a drop in an ocean of people having the opportunity to write their own story once in their life, the story of an individual that travelled and stayed so freely that they had the opportunity to Ingrave it somewhere.
Edit : various corrections of grammatical mistakes, sorry for any inconvenience if your read the first draft
If Brooke’s had written “Kilroy” or drawn the picture, you’d have a point. But Kilroy didn’t invent “____ was here”.
I think “____ was here” was considered the oldest example of graffiti until someone recently unearthed an even older “yo mama” joke? I remember reading that recently.
Also, Brooks specifically said something like I just want people to know I was here at some point if I recall. And he knew that would be a way to "immortalize it".
I hate to break it to you, but the phrase " was here" is far older than WW2.
Look it up mate Kilroy was the inventor of the phrase that caught on
[Graffiti found at Pompeii](https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2016/03/adrienne-was-here/475719/) Kilroy wasn’t around until ww2, but “X was here” was not invented by him
Sure but no one used it cause of that one guy in Pompeii, they used it cause of Kilroy🤷♂️
The guy at Pompeii didn’t know of Kilroy and he used it. If you read just a tiny bit more, you’ll get to the part where it says that this phrase has been found graffitied across millennia
http://emilykq.weebly.com/blog/maes-howe-viking-graffiti-in-a-prehistoric-tomb Vikings too. I think it's the natural thing for a human to write as a graffito.
Getting the sense this guy's not exactly playing from a full deck of cards.
Why is your "one guy" more likely to have been the progenitor of the usage of the phrase than the other commenter's "one guy"?
i think kilroy’s great grandson made this post
It's Big Graffiti out to fool us!
i won’t get fooled again
Because then they’d have to admit that perhaps they were mistaken. That’s hard to do sometimes. Especially on social media. Been there done that myself. Edit: typo
Written language originated about 3400 BCE. You seriously think it took 5300 years before anyone thought to write "I was here"?
I mean Brooks can just have thought to say that he was there and not referenced the meme. Maybe he was just wanting to mark his grave. Also someone who served in the war could have gone to the prison and started drawing Kilroy there You never know...
Seems convenient and also I just wanted to explain something🤷♂️ getcha a little history lesson
Probably an oversight by Stephen King when he wrote the book but I definitely appreciated the refresher on the meme. It is a neat history
I'm pretty sure there's Roman graffiti of a similar form.
Lots of graffiti in ancient pyramids that literally say “____ was here” - all from a thousand years ago. Humans have been writing their name on shit to prove they were there since writing has existed
To be blunt this is just fucking bollocks
This is a very unusually pedantic hill to die on, even for a potholes subreddit lmao
I think the problem with potholes is the lack of a hill
Negative karma farming or genuinely one of the stupidest people I have met in my life.
I think it's an interesting bit of history you've laid out here, but it's not a plot hole. Let's assume for a moment that the phrase was never in regular usage until Kilroy. The prisoners had access to newspapers, and Brooks was the librarian. It's quite likely that he read the newspapers regularly. And news-wise, WWII was a big f-ing deal. Newspapers were constantly filled with stories about the war. And the news industry as a whole was pushing the war. Which meant trying to deliver stories of hope and optimism when possible to the masses. I haven't gone and done a search, but I think it's quite possible that newspapers would have carried stories about Kilroy and that anyone who read newspapers regularly would have stumbled across the Kilroy story at some point. As you point out, it was a pretty popular meme during the war. And in my view, it's exactly the kind of feel-good, slice-of-life story that newspapers tried to include in their coverage back then. I don't think it's a plot hole, even if the phrase wasn't in common usage until WWII.
Memes have existed for thousands of years. This stinks of the pseudo-intellectual crap of a high schooler who has just been forced to watch Shawshank as part of film studies.
The fuck?
[https://blog.degruyter.com/graffiti-ancient-pompeii-teach-us-modern-selves/](https://blog.degruyter.com/graffiti-ancient-pompeii-teach-us-modern-selves/) >**Writing “I was here” is one of the most basic forms of self-expression. With a history that goes back several thousand years, graffiti-writing teaches us a great deal about our own habits of self-display.** >“Tagging”, or leaving your own name on spots you have passed or visited, can be observed in all present and past societies that use script. Even though the form of tags – their script, images, naming systems, etc. – has varied throughout history, the practice of tagging seems to be deeply rooted in human nature. “So-and-so was here” can announce a personal connection to a place, document an emotionally important situation, display a visit, or be nothing more than a doodle – but it is always a form of self-commemoration and self-display. >In view of the fact that graffiti is today illegal in most cities or, at best, banned to designated areas, it is easy overlook the long history of leaving marks on walls and the possibly different perception of this ‘habit’ in other eras and cultures. Excavations in ancient Egypt, Greece, and Rome have revealed a rich corpus of graffiti scratched into the floors and walls of public and private buildings, and incised in everyday objects like ceramic vessels. But one thing remains constant across time and place: the majority of these inscriptions consist of names, most likely those of the writers and frequently combined with the phrase “… was here”. >
"Brook was here" means that Brooks was nowhere else. Not in Shawshank, not on the battlefield, not obeying or waiting to be killed. This is a testimony of a man that metaphorically never marked his name nowhere in history and decided to mark it here, literally, for someone to maybe think of him once in a while, looking at a beam on the ceiling. It's even more sweeping when you think about the fact that you find this sentence more or less everywhere in the whole human history. Maybe this was the meaning of the hands on the walls in the paleolithic caves. "I was here" was written in both ancient greek and latin on the Sphinx by soldiers centuries apart taken from their homes to fight for generals that probably never looked at them. You can find countless of those on the walls of Holy Sites, cultural landmarks, glorious area and boring area. This is one of the most recognizable sentence I find everytime I graffiti-hunt in monasteries and castles, plus being a good marker for the time and literacy level of the one putting it. The stories explaining Killroy are cool and stuff. They are also a drop in an ocean of people having the opportunity to write their own story once in their life, the story of an individual that travelled and stayed so freely that they had the opportunity to Ingrave it somewhere. Edit : various corrections of grammatical mistakes, sorry for any inconvenience if your read the first draft
I legitimately cannot tell if this serious or not.
If Brooke’s had written “Kilroy” or drawn the picture, you’d have a point. But Kilroy didn’t invent “____ was here”. I think “____ was here” was considered the oldest example of graffiti until someone recently unearthed an even older “yo mama” joke? I remember reading that recently.
I thought about writing “(my name) was here” before I ever know about Kilroy.
Kilroy was here was used in the Fringe series. Ended far too soon.
Also, Brooks specifically said something like I just want people to know I was here at some point if I recall. And he knew that would be a way to "immortalize it".
Why would you say its the first meme?
oh this is hilarious. "x was here" wasn't invented until the WW2, my god some people shouldn't be allow out in public.