# Who's Kilroy???

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-kilroy/145972>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [January 1, 2003, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-kilroy/145972 "2003-01-01T00:33:01Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Tia3child](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/54ee81/32.png) [@Tia3child](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tia3child)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 12:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-kilroy/145972/1 "2003-01-01T00:33:01Z")

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OKay I did not even bother to look this up and I’ll take any little snippets that may follow for my laziness, but Who’s Kilroy? Let me explain…

Through out the entire song “Thank You Mr. Roboto” I keep hearing “I’ve got a secret”. Then finally at the end we finally hear “I’m Kilroy…” Well Thats the secret, but should I know who Kilroy is???

Is Kilroy by chance a reference to that Kilroy was here craze that started with the metal workers like in the pre World War era? OKay and I know there was an article right here: [http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mkilroy.html](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mkilroy.html) but I don’t think it mentions the song in it.

So Refering only to the song Mr. Roboto, who’s Kilroy

Happy New Year btw

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**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-kilroy/145972/2 "2003-01-01T00:55:30Z")

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[This site on Styx’ music](http://styx.8k.com/photo4.html) has one interpretation:

> [@](#):
>
> The album Kilroy was here, by the group Styx tells a fictitious story about a world famous rock star named Kilroy.  
> \<snip\>  
> Mr. Roboto is a song that addresses the issue of class, specifically the lower working class. In a world that technology is advancing so rapidly that robots and other automated machines take over human jobs, its too easy to overlook how this can affect people on the personal level. In fact the end of this song explains the workers getting fed up. They throw away the mask, so everyone can see who they really are, human beings with feelings.
> 
> Mr. Roboto explains what it feels like to lose your job to a machine.

Hope this helps.

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**Author:** ![sleeping](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/839c29/32.png) [@sleeping](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sleeping)\
**Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whos-kilroy/145972/3 "2003-01-01T06:33:33Z")

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Here are some links I found

[http://www.worldtrans.org/pos/kilroy.html](http://www.worldtrans.org/pos/kilroy.html)

[http://www.killroy.com/history.htm](http://www.killroy.com/history.htm)

not completely sure of their authenticity but they make some sense (although I think I heard of the name and phrase used earlier, in the early 1900’s)