if at first you don't succeed

Ever since epic fail (or EPIC FAIL) became the phrase du jour, I've been kind of wondering where it came from and why it suddenly seemed to be showing just about everywhere. I figured that, like pwned or haxxor, epic fail originally had some kind of connection to gaming, but after a few rounds with google didn't give me any more insight, I gave up.

Luckily, it looks like someone more industrious was pondering the same thing and managed to come up with an actual, you know, answer. I heart the internets.