The Infomaniac's CD / Whoops! You Have To Put The CD In Your Computer!

About

Whoops! You Have To Put The CD In Your Computer! is a infamous line spoken by the Infomaniac from the Windows game LEGO Island. When LEGO Island is run on a computer that doesn't have the game CD inserted in a disc drive, the game plays a video of the Infomaniac informing the player to "put the CD in [their] computer".^[1] Starting in the late-2010s, the line has been parodied and has since become a subject of YouTube Poops.

History

LEGO Island is a action-adventure video game for Microsoft Windows machines, developed by Mindscape. LEGO Island is host to a variety of characters, but most notably being The Infomaniac who serves as the game's guide on what to do and where to go.^[2]

Released in 1997, LEGO Island was programmed in a time where CD-ROM drive speeds were slow and hard drive storage was smaller contrast to subsequent 21st century advancements. To deal with these limitations, Mindscape used a technique many games used at the time (e.g. The Neverhood) involving streaming data off the disc as the game is running.^[3]

However, this meant that the game could not run without the CD data (since the game was bigger than the hard drives at the time). As a preventive measure, a cutscene was added to the game if it could not read the CD data of the Infomaniac informing the player to insert the CD back in the computer.^[4] (see below)

"…Whoops! You have to put the CD in your computer!"

Curiously however, fans have discovered that the line was originally "Whoops! You have to put the CD back in your computer!", as it was meant to play when the disc was ejected during gameplay. The recording was edited to remove "back" in the line, as its original intent could not be implemented in-game^[4][5].

Spread

While the quote was not a meme during LEGO Island's release (as far as that has been documented), the Infomaniac and his various eccentric quotes slowly managed to gain memetic status during the period of 2010^[6][7]. Various videos of glitches in the Infomaniac's speech were made, which resulted in the "No CD" line being uploaded to YouTube by 45009235 in June 10, 2010^[8].

The meme would lay dormant until the late-2010s following through 2020, when edits of the cutscene were being made by users of the YouTube Poop community. This would ultimately culminate in the Disc Error YTP Collab, consisting of 40 participants (see below).

Various Examples

External References