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Leeroy Jenkins appears on The Daily Show
Seems like someone used a Scroll of Resurrection on Jon Stewart, with our beloved WoW making two separate appearances on The Daily Show this week. We all know Stewart possesses an encyclopedic knowledge of geek culture, but twice in one week? We're just saying. The first reference came on Tuesday with his Words of Warcraft bit. While addressing the mounting tension between Iran and Israel, Stewart characterized the conflict using a WoW reference on the fly-in graphic. Not a big deal, right? The follow-up came last night when Leroy Jenkins swarmed the show. Look, you really need to go see the video. If I recap the joke for you, I'll kill the joke dead. Don't worry about subtlety. Just like Jenkins himself, there's no way you're going to miss the appearance. Our favorite part? Jon's own reaction to the shenanigans. (To quote our own McCurley, "I love how Jon Stewart legitimately loves the video.")
WoW's 18 easiest achievements
Every Thursday, The Overachiever shows you how to work toward those sweet achievement points. This week, the phrase "low-hanging fruit" comes to mind. While I collect suggestions for our next article on evil achievements, I thought it might be amusing to turn toward achievements that are considerably easier to get. The 17 achievements (and one Feat of Strength) in today's column are all things that you can do without any real preparation. I'm going to ignore the super-obvious picks (Shave and a Haircut, anyone? You don't need me to tell you about that) and head straight for the more esoteric stuff. I'm also going to bypass extremely expensive achievements that, while quick, will bankrupt the average player, so nothing like Grand Ice Mammoth. (Looks like I need to update OverAchiever: Straight to the poorhouse, come to think of it.) I briefly considered including achievements that you can only get at the end of a long quest chain or reputation grind but canned that idea too. For example, Skyshattered is relatively easy these days with a 410% mount and a little practice, but you'll only be able to access it after a quest grind, so nuts to that. I also eliminated You'll Feel Right As Rain, Critter Gitter, and Fungal Frenzy for that reason. They're all easy, but you can't just toddle off to get them unless you've already put some work in. These are all achievements that the average player -- assuming a friend or two, a tiny bit of luck, and a little time -- can just run out and get whenever he or she wants.
WoW Archivist: The legacy of Leeroy Jenkins
The WoW Archivist explores the secrets of World of Warcraft's past. What did the game look like years ago? Who is etched into WoW's history? What secrets does the game still hold? Leeroy Jenkins is easily the most recognizable name in all World of Warcraft. It isn't Thrall, it isn't Arthas, it isn't Chris Metzen or Ghostcrawler. It's Leeroy Jenkins. Leeroy has transcended the realm of geekdom in a way that no other aspect of World of Warcraft can. While World of Warcraft may have made appearances in shows such as Stargate Atlantis, Leeroy has found a place on How I Met Your Mother, My Name is Earl, Scrubs, and beyond -- he has become a genre and a trope unto himself. Leeroy Jenkins has been mentioned and plugged so many times in pop culture that the days of his being a World of Warcraft reference are in decline and we're coming to a point that most of the world has no idea of the origin of the joke. It's just a funny thing that exists, disembodied from its nerdy, video game roots. So who is this Leeroy Jenkins fellow, and why is he so gosh-darn funny?
WoW Insider responds to Comedy Central for their response to our post about their post
Comedy Central's Indecision 2008 blog is feeling froggy -- after we posted about their failed attempt at World of Warcraft humor, they got the original writer of their article, who is apparently an old school D&D gamer, to respond to our allegations that the piece wasn't funny. He calls us WoW players "Lancelot-come-latelies," and says that before we ever rolled our first Night Elf, he was rolling d20s in his friend's parents' basement.Which may be true. But he's wrong about one thing: we WoW players are funny. Just look at our memes, our injokes, and our heroes, from Steve to Leeroy Jenkins. We know funny. Tony DiGerolamo probably hasn't even ever tricked somebody into /gquitting -- he wouldn't know funny if it was an epic drop off of Saurfang himself! And he wants to play the nerd card by claiming he's nerdier than us? Listen, Tony, you may have been hanging out with your friends in basements, but we're hanging out in basements alone!Wait...At any rate, we hope the excellent Indecision 2008 blog has learned something from this experience: leave the Warcraft humor to those who've powerleveled it up to a 375 skill, and stick to the political jokes. Seriously, though, is Lewis Black hiring? Because I've got some jokes about Warlocks that are comedy gold!
