What it doesn't mean
'Fail' already existed as a noun in phrases like 'without fail'. What the internet added was 'fail' as a stand-alone noun and exclamation for a botched attempt, which Time credited FAIL Blog with helping to popularise.
The joke is in the gap between how easy it should have been and how badly it went. Wiktionary's definition stresses failure 'where success should have been reasonably expected'.
What it really means
For a few years at the end of the 2000s, the internet's favourite verdict was two words in capital letters: EPIC FAIL.
The phrase means a complete, spectacular failure, and the comedy is in the gap. A small mistake is just a mistake. An epic fail is the parking ticket stuck to a car parked under a "No Parking" sign, the wedding cake face-down on the floor, the plan that collapses in the most obvious possible way. Wiktionary defines it as an utter failure "especially where success should have been reasonably expected", and traces it to 4chan.
Its great amplifier was FAIL Blog, launched on 3 January 2008 and soon part of the same Cheezburger network that spread the lolcats. It posted photos of things going wrong, captioned FAIL or EPIC FAIL, and by January 2010 it had 1.1 million unique visitors a month. Time credited it with helping to popularise fail as both a noun and an exclamation.
The word escaped the internet quickly. In September 2008, during the financial crisis, a protester held up a sign reading FAIL behind the US Treasury Secretary and the Federal Reserve chairman at a Senate hearing. By 2011 Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad was calling it "what the kids call epic fail", which is usually a sign the kids are about to stop.
That is roughly what happened. Epic fail now sounds like a period piece. But its main legacy survived: fail as a noun, as in "that was a fail", has settled into everyday English.
Where it comes from
- Undated
Wiktionary labels 'epic fail' as originally 4chan slang; it gives no date.
- 3 January 2008
FAIL Blog launches; later that year it joins the Cheezburger network, home of the lolcats.
- September 2008
During the financial crisis, a protester holds up a 'FAIL' sign behind the Treasury Secretary and the Federal Reserve chairman at a Senate hearing.
- January 2010
FAIL Blog is drawing 1.1 million unique visitors a month.
In real life
- A photo of a 'No Parking' sign with a car parked directly beneath it, captioned EPIC FAIL — the classic 2008 format.
- 'I locked my keys in the car. With the engine running. Epic fail.' — self-mockery, now with a slightly retro ring.
- 'That's what the kids call epic fail.' — Saul Goodman in Breaking Bad (Wiktionary dates the quotation to 2011), by which time the phrase was being quoted as youth slang.
Questions
Q01What does epic fail mean?
A complete and spectacular failure, usually a funny one, where success should have been easy. Cambridge Dictionary defines it as something that has been done very badly or gone completely wrong.
Q02Where did epic fail come from?
Wiktionary traces it to 4chan. FAIL Blog, launched in January 2008, spread 'fail' and 'epic fail' to a mass audience.
Q03Do people still say epic fail?
Less often, and it now sounds like late-2000s internet. Plain 'fail' as a noun ('that was a fail') is still common.
Sources
- epic fail — Wiktionary (definition; 4chan origin; 2011 Breaking Bad quotation).
- Fail Blog — Wikipedia (launched 3 January 2008; Cheezburger network; Time on 'fail'; September 2008 hearing; 2010 traffic).
- epic fail — Cambridge Dictionary (informal).