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What Does 'I Put On My Robe And Wizard Hat' Mean? The Ancient Internet Chatroom Meme Explained
Chatrooms were the place where internet culture began, twenty years before Skibidi Toilet, more than a decade before Advice Animals emerged. And back in the day, there was a legendary rogue, a poster called "bloodninja" whose trollish exploits in chatrooms earned them an enduring place in meme history. Bloodninja's most famous line, "I put on my robe and wizard hat," has since become a key reference to the old internet and lives on in posts and comments to this day. Let's explain what this meme means and where it comes from.
Where Does 'I Put On My Robe And Wizard Hat' Come From?
Back around the turn of the millennium, in possibly 2002 or perhaps earlier (the record, like for much of these earliest days of the internet, is full of holes) users on chatrooms like bash.org used the web for something people were always going to use the web for: roleplay.
These roleplayers would have conversations in text-only chats describing their fantasies, and narrating certain things they wanted to do to one another. Often, users would picture wearing costumes and being different people. This roleplaying famously took place within World of Warcraft, where it attracted controversy, but also on other text-only web chat forums.
At some point in 2002, a user named Britneyspears14 logged onto a chatroom (likely bash) and connected to a user named bloodninja. The conversation started out normally enough, but quickly took a turn when bloodninja announced "I put on my robe and wizard hat" and began casting spells. What was attractive a moment ago turned strange and off-putting.
Bloodninja: Baby, I been havin a tough night so treat me nice aight?
BritneySpears14: Aight.
Bloodninja: Slip out of those pants baby, yeah.
BritneySpears14: I slip out of my pants, just for you, Bloodninja.
Bloodninja: Oh yeah, aight. Aight, I put on my robe and wizard hat.
BritneySpears14: Oh, I like to play dress up.
Bloodninja: Me too baby.
BritneySpears14: I kiss you softly on your chest.
Bloodninja: I cast Lvl 3 Eroticism. You turn into a real beautiful woman.
BritneySpears14: Hey…
Bloodninja: I meditate to regain my mana, before casting Lvl 8 * of the Infinite.
BritneySpears14: Funny I still don't see it.
Bloodninja: I spend my mana reserves to cast Mighty of the Beyondness.
BritneySpears14: You are the worst cyber partner ever. This is ridiculous.
Bloodninja: Don't f**k with me biznitch, I'm the mightiest sorcerer of the lands.
Bloodninja: I steal yo soul and cast Lightning Lvl 1,000,000 Your body explodes into a fine * mist, because you are only a Lvl 2 Druid.
BritneySpears14: Don't ever message me again you piece.
Bloodninja: Robots are trying to drill my brain but my lightning shield inflicts DOA attack, leaving the robots as flaming piles of metal.
Bloodninja: King Arthur congratulates me for destroying Dr. Robotnik's evil army of Robot Socialist Republics. The cold war ends. Reagan steals my accomplishments and makes like it was cause of him.
Bloodninja: You still there baby? I think it's getting hard now.
Bloodninja: Baby?
Who Was Bloodninja?
The roleplay chatrooms were, naturally, a place where people acted strange and said freaky things. This was the perfect ground for an enterprising troll to step in and make their name, which was what Bloodninja did. In addition to the "wizard hat" chat, other chat logs of Bloodninja live on, including ones where they pretend to be a rhinoceros and one where they pretend to be a Papa John's delivery man.
The identity of Bloodninja remains unknown, but unconfirmed chatter on Reddit speculates that they were just a teenager at the time of their trolling career, and may still be alive. Regardless, their name lives on as an anonymous internet legend, and perhaps that's how they'd prefer it to be.
What Does 'I Put On My Robe And Wizard Hat' Mean?
The meme became a way to reference the weirdness and ridiculousness of ERP, sometimes in a self-deprecating way by people who did it themselves. It also became just a fun thing to say, an early example of how you could post chaotically and bring about fun for others. There is a little bit of Bloodninja's DNA in many memes since then, in every troll post and prank online.
For the full story behind "I put on my robe and wizard hat," be sure to check out Know Your Meme's encyclopedia entry
