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Kilroy was here is an American popular culture expression that became popular during World War II; it is typically seen in graffiti. Its origins are debated, but the phrase and the distinctive accompanying doodle — a bald-headed man (sometimes depicted as having a few hairs) with a prominent nose peeking over a wall with the fingers of each hand clutching the wall — became associated with GIs in the 1940s.

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The image came from WWI British or Australian graffiti, while the name came from a shipyard worker who got tired of people stealing credit for his work, so he scrawled “Kilroy was here” on the parts he made. American soldiers being transported by ship to England kept finding the name in the most inaccessible and craziest parts of the ship and were inspired to similarly scrawl it all over Europe. After some exposure to the British while training in England for the African, Italian, and Normandy campaigns, they paired the English icon of a guy peering over the wall with the American phrase, and thus the full meme was born.