Oh, really?

O RLY? I've never understood the humor in the O RLY? owl since first sighting of it. Sure, I smile, but it's a dumbfounded smile. I'm just noting that it's now in fingerspelling form.

Why should the owl be associated with saying "O RLY?"? The owl hoots "tu-whit tu-hoo," not "o really?" The owl was apparently first used with sarcasm. Although sarcasm isn't what the owl symbolize, the picture may be funny because owl is usually thought of as wise, and yet this owl stares wide-eyed in disbelief.

I wonder if Deaf people will ever start fingerspelling "ORLY" instead of signing "OH-I-SEE, REALLY?" Since the humor of "O RLY?" lies in written form with picture, it may be easier to transmute to sign language than English.

If Deaf and hearing people want to be sarcastic, they can fingerspell O-R-L-Y, which happens to be easy to fingerspell, actually. Then again, orly or orlie reminds me of the nickname some people have for Orlando Bloom. There's also the fact that o rly can be seen as making fun of O'Reilly in the O'Reilly Factor.