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John is Kill

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About

“John is Kill” refers to a copypasta story that is meant to survey what people were doing at the time of the Beatles singer-songwriter John Lennon’s death on December 8th, 1980. The story, which is marked by improper English grammar and spelling errors, has inspired a number of variations featuring other deceased celebrities and musicians in substitute of the English rock star.

Origin

On January 10th, 2012, an Anonymous 4chan user posted a thread on /tv/ – Television & Film board, apologizing for his “poor English” and asking other users “when were you when heat legend dies”, a misspelling of deceased actor Heath Ledger.[14]



On the same day, Body Building Forums member HITSTICK53 posted a thread titled “when were you when heat legend dies?”.[12] On August 22nd, 2012, a version of the copypasta featuring the deceased Beatles musician John Lennon was posted to 4chan.[15]



apology for poor english

when were you when john lenin dies?

i was sat at home eating smegma butter when pjotr ring

‘john is kill’

‘no’

Spread

On the same day, Redditor Petryz submitted a screenshot of the original 4chan thread to the /r/4chan subreddit, where it gained over 3,000 up votes and 50 comments prior to being archived.[7] On August 28th, 2012, the screenshot was reposted on FunnyJunk, accumulating upwards of 127,000 views and 1,500 comments in the following two years.[1] On September 17th, a thread was created on 4chan urging users to post comments on Skrillex YouTube videos suggesting that the electronic music producer had died. Two days later, a compilation of hoax YouTube comments titled “When was you when Skrillex die?” was highlighted on FunnyJunk.[9]



On October 23rd, Newgrounds Forums user Slint posted the “John is kill” copypasta in a thread titled “when were you when”.[6] On November 22nd, the copypasta was reposted to the /sp/ (sports) board on 4chan.[4] On April 2nd, 2013, YouTuber TheStolken uploaded a dramatic reading of the original copypasta (shown below).



On November 30th, a variation of the copypasta with deceased actor Paul Walker substituted for John Lennon was posted on 4chan. On December 1st, Redditor KINGcjb55 submitted a screenshot of the Paul Walker thread to the /r/4chan subreddit, where it gathered more than 2,100 up votes and 45 comments in four months.[8] On January 8th, 2014, Urban Dictionary user OLPZach submitted an entry for “john is kill,” citing 4chan as the origin of the copypasta.[5]



Search Interest

External References

[1]FunnyJunk – John Is Kill

[2]Battlefield Forums – Related topic

[3]Yahoo Answers – When were you when john lenin dies?

[4]Archive Foolz – /sp/ , /tv/

[5]Urban Dictionary – john is kill

[6]Newgrounds – when were you when

[7]Reddit – john is kil

[8]Reddit – paul is kill

[9]FunnyJunk – When was you when Skrillex die?

[10]Reddit – Heat Legend

[11]Imgur – Heat Legend

[12]Bodybuilding – when were you when heat legend dies?

[13]Funnyjunk – Heat Legend

[14]4chan – heat is die

[15]4chan – john is kill

[15]4chan – paul is die


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