Summary
One of the biggestWorld of Warcraftcontent creators just stumbled into the Forest Leather Belt–the item responsible for one of the most iconic memes inWoWhistory. ThisWorld of Warcraftitem doesn’t exist on modern servers as it was anymore, but players can still encounter it on the Classic Era Season of Mastery servers.
From Mankrik’s Wife to Thunderfury, Blessed Blade of the Windseeker,World of Warcrafthas been the source of many hilarious memesover the last two decades. Among these pop culture references stands the “Four Strength Four Stam Leather Belt,” an innocuous item drop that became iconic thanks to the soundboard harassment of aWorld of Warcraftplayer named Joe and his Ventrillo server.
ThoughWorld of Warcraft’s stat squishesand world revamp permanently changed the Forest Leather Belt–the Uncommon item at the heart of this meme–in modernWoW, it still exists inClassic. Recently,World of Warcraftlore master and content creator PlatinumWoW shared an image of the Forest Leather Belt, which had dropped for his character on the Classic Era Season of Discovery servers. Within days, the comments and reposts of the image were filled with hundreds of players parroting the meme back and forth to one another.
The ‘4 Strength 4 Stam Leather Belt’ WoW Meme
This particular meme dates back to 2007, when the famous soundboard troll VideoCompiler hacked into a Ventrillo server. AWoWplayer named Joe had the Forest Leather Belt drop for him, prompting him to exclaim “Awe, dude, four Strength four Stam Leather Belt? Aughh! Level 18? Ughh, ohhgh.” VideoCompiler used a soundboard to capture Joe’s reaction, harassing him and his unsuspecting server by spamming and remixing his words until he was finally kicked and banned. The results of this captured video becamea legendary meme inWorld of Warcraft.
The leather belt meme spread from there over the years, with an invocation on Urban Dictionary and appearances in several tribute videos and remixes that combine the sound clip with music fromMario,Tetris, and many other games. It did notbreak out ofWorld of Warcraftlike the legendary Leeroy Jenkins did, but the reaction to PlatinumWoW’s image is proof enough that the Four Strength Four Stam Leather Belt made its mark on history.
Fans who appreciated PlatinumWoW’s humor are in luck. Over the last five years, he has put out hundreds of hours worth of entertaining video essays coveringWorld of Warcraftloreand game mechanics. He has even made multiple official videos for Blizzard recently. Players can find PlatinumWoW’s work on both his YouTube channel and the officialWorld of Warcraftone.
World of Warcraft
WHERE TO PLAY
World of Warcraft is an incredibly successful MMORPG that has been going strong for almost two decades. It’s one of the highest-grossing franchises in history and is widely considered the most popular MMORPG ever made.
