It Will Be Fun, They Said

About

“It Will Be Fun, They Said is a phrase typically used in image macros with the snowclone template “X, They Said.” The template was popularized with the creation of the Laundry Room Viking image macro series started in August of 2011.

Origin

In the real-time strategy (RTS) game Warcraft 2, released on December 9th, 1995, human footmen would often say the phrase “‘Join the army!’, they said. ‘See the world!’, they said. I’d rather be sailing.” In the World War II RTSCompany of Heroes, released on September 12th, 2006, the engineer squad would sometimes respond by saying “Join the army they said. It’ll be fun they said” when selected by the player. The TV Tropes^[2] page for “‘Join the Army,’ They Said” was created on August 7th, 2010.

Laundry Room Viking

During the aftermath of Hurricane Irene on August 29th, 2011, a photograph of a man wearing a viking helmet in a flooded laundry room was uploaded to Facebook. According to Redditor ShivamJ^[1], who claims to be a friend of the man shown in the picture, the first image macro featuring the caption “Do the laundry they said / it will be fun, they said” (shown below) was uploaded in the following month of September.

Spread

On February 10th, 2012, FunnyJunk^[5] user zidude submitted an image macro of a boy holding a bloody chunk of snow with the caption “Throw the ice they said / it will be fun they said” (shown below, left). Within eight months, the post received over 630 up votes and 41,000 views. On April 8th, Redditor Questmuncher332 submitted a post to the /r/funny^[7] subreddit titled “Go kayaking they said. It’ll be fun they said,” which featured a photograph of a man in a kayak being pursued by a shark (shown below, right).

On April 23rd, developer Matthew Mihok^[3] released a 3D explorer application for Nasa’s space apps^[4] hackathon, which included a photograph of the sky on the homepage with the caption “‘Join the army,’ they said! ‘See the world.’ they said! I’d rather be sailing the solar system” (shown below).

On May 30th, Pinterest^[8] user wigimeg created a “They Said” pinboard, featuring image macros with the snowclone template. On June 1st, Redditor Fiddloco submitted a post to the /r/aww^[6] subreddit titled “Play with the lion cubs they said, it will be fun they said!”, featuring a photograph of a woman looking distraught with several lion cubs on top of her. Within five months, the post received over 15,800 up votes and 700 comments.