NOTE: This was created to clean up examples from Ascended Meme as per the Trope Repair Shop thread. Please check if your example fits better there.

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Memes happen. Whether it's a Catch Phrase that catches on, an intentionally or unintentionally funny moment, or an unfortunate coincidence, these things spread throughout the Internet like a virus. Sometimes crew members catch on and reference them.

It can be anything - a line at a convention, a You Tube video, even a piece of supplementary material - to qualify for this trope, it just has to be outside the show.

Oftentimes, this takes the form of a "lesser" worker (as in, not the creator or showrunner themselves) referencing it, as trying to get it put in the script could potentially cause an uproar. Plus, a lot of memes are OOC, risque, or just plain random, which wouldn't fit at all in canon. The Expanded Universe gets more leeway in this department.

A Sister Trope to Ascended Meme, which is when the show itself references the meme.

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Examples:

Anime And Manga

• Wayne Grayson, voice of Joey in Yu Gi Oh has said "Brooklyn Rage!!" several times at a 2008 convention. He referred to it as "his favorite line" even though:
  "It's not even a line my character says, but I've been saying it all weekend".
  • Card Games on Motorcycles.
  • Dan Green once read a dialogue between Yami Yugi and Yugi from the Abridged Series. It has to be seen to be believed.

Comic Books

• In How to Draw Transformers, Simon Furman acknowledges one of his favorite phrases, when he writes "THE END! Though, as I've been known to say, "It never ends!"."

Live Action TV

• "Bear" Grylls of Man Vs Wild has occasionally made jokes about reacting to events with "better drink my own pee" just like the meme parodying this trait of his.

Professional Wrestling

• There are "Future Endeavored!" t-shirts now.

Video Games

• Garland's Dissidia Final Fantasy voice actor, Christopher Sabat, gave us this little gem.
• At Comic-Con 2011, a panel featuring the voice directors for Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 had Taliesin Jaffe (the English VA for Blanka and Adon in Street Fighter IV) belting out "Would anybody like...SOME POUND CAKE?!" and "JAGUAR SLEEPOVER!" The former is a meme originating from one of Egoraptor's sketches from the Street Fighter Collab on Newgrounds and the latter is an oft-quoted Mondegreen of Adon's Jaguar Revolver Ultra in IV.
• David Hayter, English voice of Solid Snake, has been known to spend a lot of time saying "OhmyGodhotnessIwannaBANGYOU" and "CRAB...BATTLE...", references to two popular Metal Gear Solid Flash parody shorts. (He also claimed that the voice over director on the games brought in Metal Gear Awesome for the cast to watch together during the recording of Metal Gear Solid 4.)
• Bio Ware is now selling "Enchantment!" and "Morrigan Disapproves" t-shirts, based off of Dragon Age.
• The Touhou character Hong Meiling. No-one could decide what to call her (she's Chinese, yet her name in Chinese characters could very well be a Japanese name), so everyone decided to call her China. It became a Discredited Meme...until ZUN said that he also calls her China. Poor Meiling...
• The Elder Scrolls V Skyrim: On Xbox360, you can get an "Arrow in the Knee" accessory for your Avatar.

Visual Novels

• At one particular Comiket, 0verflow named their booth "Nice Boat".

Western Animation

• My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic has a lot of these.
  • This season 2 promo acknowledges acknowledged the fan terms "brony" (term for fans of the show, usually defined as the older male ones) and "DJ Pon-3" (for the DJ pony seen in "Suited for Success").
  • May 30, 2012 saw the announcement of a special edition toy for Comic-con. The toy packaging is nameless, but contains a gray pegasus pony with blond hair, bubbles cutie mark, and yellow walleyes. The package is complete with muffins on the box art.
  • WeLoveFine's officially licensed My Little Pony line of shirts is at least half ascended memes.
  • Also inverted in a way: Ghost of True Capitalist Radio would often describe himself as "Melting Pot of Friendship" to deflect accusations of racism. He also hates the show and its fandom. So a "fan" recorded Tara Strong saying that she's a Melting Pot of Friendship in her Twilight Sparkle voice. Ghost took it well.
  • A DVD box set featured a "Now 20% cooler!" sticker.
• The Legend Of Korra fandom managed to get Steve Blum to read out some "Comedy Amon" jokes at a convention.
• For the TV bumpers promoting the 2012 season of Futurama, Comedy Central had Billy West read lines that take off of the "Not Sure If..." meme originated online.

Real Life

• Ryan Gosling has been asked in interviews about fuckyeahryangosling.tumblr.com and has read out some of the captions of the images on that site.