What Kind of Sorcery Is This?

Submission 35,187

About

What Kind of Sorcery Is This?, also known as What Kind of Wizardry Is This?, is a catchphrase used to describe a bizarre or seemingly bizarre situation.

Origin

While the exact origin of the phrase is unknown, the expression has been used on television, film and colloquial speech since before the internet.^[1] Online, however, the earliest available usage of the phrase was on February 3rd, 2008 in a piece of Harry Potter fanfiction by Potterfan3002.^[2] They wrote:

"What sorcery is this?!" the dementor hissed, its hand smoking from where it had been on the young wizard's neck.

Precursor

Prior to its use on the internet, the phrase "What sorcery is this?" was used in a variety of pieces of pop culture. For example, the Joker (portrayed by Caesar Romero) used the phrase on the episode of Batman, which aired on January 27th, 1966.^[4] Nearly four decades later, on October 25th, 1994, the character Goliath uttered the phrase on an episode of Gargoyles.^[5]

Spread

Throughout the next decade, the phrase became slowly adopted by many internet users as a hyperbolic caption for what they deem inexplicable events. For example, Wordpress^[3] user behula used it to describe a woman on April 1st, 2011 (shown below, left).

The following year, in 2012, the phrase was used to describe an optical illusion on the website MemeCenter^[7] (shown below, center). Additionally, on the site, the phrase was added into a Oh Crap Rage Comic (shown below, right).^[8]

On June 12th, 2013, Urban Dictionary ^[6] user procletnika defined the expression as "Used when you don't have a clue what you've just witnessed and when you appeal to a supernatural explanation, because you are too ignorant to be aware of the scientific explanation." The post received more than 60 upvotes in six years (shown below).