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Sometimes a meme about a show, but not in the show, catches the eye of the people responsible for that show, and they decide to actually put it in the show. Note that this is not about references to unrelated memes, which would just be a Shout Out.
Can be an in-joke for an Ascended Fanboy character, or a Promoted Fanboy who makes sure it'll be in the show. Can also be a result of Approval Of God, where the creator would approve of fanworks and memes derived from the source material.
A Sister Trope of Ascended Fanon, Meme Acknowledgment, Continuity Nod, Mythology Gag (the latter two are references to things that were in the show).
Compare Watch It for the Meme, Appropriated Appellation, Pandering to the Base, Forced Meme, Official Fan Submitted Content.
Not to be confused for a show making a Forced Meme itself.
Examples:
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Advertising
- If you watch TV late at night, you can see the ordinary Vince Offer Slap Chop commercial has been replaced by this wonderful gem,
 though, presumably due to rights issues, the bits from Breakin 2 Electric Boogaloo are sadly replaced with some new footage of break-dancers.
- And the other Vince Offer commercial for ShamWOW towels has been replaced by this.
- The Snickers commercial wherein a football player gets a concussion and thinks he's Batman was referenced by Tampa Bay Rays player Will Rhymes after he got nailed with a pitch.
- For a long time, the M&M/Mars company ignored the urban legend that green M&Ms are an aphrodisiac. In 1997, they embraced it, introducing the sexy "Ms. Green" character, with the slogan "what is it about the green ones?" In 2008, they began selling bags of all-green M&Ms for Valentine's Day.
Anime and Manga
- The Flavor Text of Alligator's Sword in Yu-Gi-Oh!.
- Leekspin showed up in the Bleach card game.
- In the preview of episode 245, Ichigo wonders why Kenpachi's Zanpakuto hasn't materialized yet. Renji gets to answer his question by actually saying...this◊. See the Memetic Badass page for more info- it's not exactly like the original meme, but it gets close.
- The School Days OVA featured a "Nice Boat" labeled as such.
- The Gundam fandom has a famous meme about something red being three times faster, coming from original series ace Char 'The Red Comet' Aznable having an Ace Custom said to be three times fast than usual with no visible difference but being red. Gundam 00 seemingly made this reality when Setsuna's Gundam turned red on acquiring its Super Mode, with the technician staff stating "It goes about three times faster now!"
- This has been an Ascended Meme for quite a while, as ever since the original series they quickly put out a truckload of tongue-in-cheek meme-beholden merchandise, like Char's Custom Laptop, or Char's Custom Sneakers. Guaranteed to go three times faster. There was even a Char custom credit card in Japan which actually earned three times the reward points for every thousand yen spent.
- In Char's Counterattack, Gyunei tells Quess that everyone thinks Char is into young girls.
- Ribbons, the villain of Mobile Suit Gundam 00 got a Fan Nickname of the Evil Amuro, because the two characters share a voice actor. In the movie, the man who is seen talking to Aeolia Schenberg at the end and who likely contributed the genetic data for the Ribbons line of Innovades...also has the same voice actor and bears the name "E.A. Ray." In fact, Ribbons and Amuro get to fight each other in Super Robot Wars Z2: Saisei-Hen
- A further Gundam 00 one. Graham Acre's masked samurai persona was nicknamed Bushido Bob and similar names well before Graham identified himself as Mr. Bushido, even adding "That's just what they decided to call me."
- Another infamous meme from the first series has Dozle Zabi's declaration about how when "the Big Zams are mass-produced, the Federation will be beaten in no time". Cue the G-Generation games, where a Mass-Produced Big Zam is actually a unit you can use.
- G Gundam's "With the help of Kyoji" meme has ascended as well, in Dynasty Warriors: Gundam players can have Kyoji and the Devil Gundam as assit units, making it possible to overtake a field or beat an enemy with, well...
- Dynasty Warriors: Gundam also Ascended a Wing meme: English-dubbed Duo Maxwell reacts to the destruction of his Gundam with a really epic Big "NO!" that the fans have loved ever since. It became his death cry in the third game, in both the Japanese and English versions! When he respawns, he says he could have handled that more gracefully.
- The Fullmetal Alchemist fandom started using the number 503 to represent the Ed/Winry pairing, based on a brand of jeans of the same number produced by a company called Edwin. In a later chapter of the manga, the creator gives a nod to this, as Ed is shown to be staying in hotel room 503.
- From the manga, people started calling the second Greed "Greedling" to tell him apart from the original Greed in conversation, and because the human used to create him was called Ling. When Ed meets him again, he decides he's going to call him this.
- In Noir, the first of Bee Train's Girls With Guns trilogy, Kirika's combat skills led to fans describing her as a "witch". In the third series, El Cazador de la Bruja, Ellis is a literal witch.
- From Lucky Star: Because of Miyuki's tendency to know everything and recite it with little provocation, the online community nicknamed her Miwiki. In the Lucky Star OVA, Konata herself referred to Miyuki at one point as Miwiki-san.
- Strike Witches is often mocked for its protagonists' lack of pants. The Funimation advertisement for the series has the tagline "Winning the War on Pants" and refers to it as a "brief" series. Rightstuf touted its "high-flying, no-pants-wearing action."
- Another meme strikes in season two. Minna somehow got quite the reputation for clenching her butt, and a meme formed that she could break anything with it. In season 2, episode 7, this is exactly how she ends up destroying a Neuroi bug that had been plaguing the base.note No, not her base.
- An Axis Powers Hetalia fandom joke was that Spain was known for having a nice ass in comparison to the other characters. The author focused on that aspect of Spain the most as seen here.◊
- With Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha Sound Stage The Movie Side F, the popular meme known as "Befriending" amongst English-speakers has been given a nod, as Arf jokingly explains to an increasingly worried Erio and Caro that the only way to make life-long friends is to blow them up first.
Caro: Is there some secret to maintain such a long-lasting friendship? Fate: Hm...I wonder what it is...We’re all just doing what we usually do. Arf: Maybe it’s that? You first met by blowing each other up, and everything after that was pretty simple. Fate: Huh? Arf: They say it was that way with Nanoha and Alisa. It was the same with Fate and Nanoha too! Fate: Ah... The same with Signum too. ... Caro: So, the most important part is that you went all out on each other? Huh, oh no, Erio, what should we do! If it's that the case, we haven't hit each other that much at all! Erio: Um, yes, we did. At the escalators, when Caro fell and we slammed into each other. Caro: Oh...So that's fine then? Arf: I think for you two, that's good enough.
- Nanoha's Fan Nickname "White Devil" also is given a nod during StrikerS where Quattro constantly referred to Nanoha as "a devil."
- The "burning Arisa" meme got referenced in the card battle game with a card called "Arisa the Burning".
- Toaru Majutsu No Index and Shinryaku! Ika Musume's title characters have often been noted to be very similar. Index-tan episode 3 played on this idea by giving the Fun Size Index many of Ika's characteristics. Which works on more than one level, because a fun-size Ika also has a precedent.
- In Katekyo Hitman Reborn!, Hibari's bird was nicknamed "Hibird" by the fans and subsequently later used officially by the author.
- Episode 7 of The iDOLM@STER introduces a "Nonowa" toy, based on fanmade parodies of Haruka's habit of looking up and to the right when in thought.
- In the third season of Kyo Kara Maoh, Greta names her pet bearbee Yuuram, after her adoptive daddies. It's the fandom's Portmanteau Couple Name for Yuuri and Wolfram.
- Umineko No Naku Koro Ni used Eva-Beatrice's Fan Nickname "Evatrice" in one of the episode previews in the anime.
- Evangelion fanon pegged Shinji as a Supreme Chef, contrasting with Misato's Lethal Chef quirks. In Rebuild of Evangelion, we see Shinji cooking as well as the product of his work...and according to everyone in the movies, his food is really good.
- Pop from Smile Pretty Cure is able to shapeshift into whatever the situation calls for, which led many fans to speculate that he could become human much like previous Pretty Cure Mentor Mascots. Then, in episode 33, it actually happened.
- During the Fourth Shinobi War arc of Naruto several readers started calling Kabuto's resurrected army as "Zombie" Ninjas (technically they are not, although the fact that they come out from a summoned coffin certainly helps), later in the anime's Recap Episode 296, they are called "Zombies" by the main characters.
Card Games
- Magic: The Gathering has an infamous Game Breaker called Morphling, which was dubbed by fans as "Superman". When the card designers later decided to create an Enchant Creature that granted all of Morphling's abilities, they gave it the name "Pemmin's Aura". How is this an example? Pemmin's Aura is a Significant Anagram for "I am Superman".
- Morphling's fellow infamously-broken creatures, Masticore and Psychatog, got similar shout-outs: Deep Analysis shows a dissected Masticore with the flavor text "the subject appears to be broken," while a later version of Shock fulfills fan dreams everywhere by having a bolt of lightning zap the Psychatog.
- Back in the old days, when the Internet was still not widely used and card lists were rare, some people talked about an ultra-rare "Throat Wolf" with, among other abilities, "firstest strike". In Visions the designers, inspired by Throat Wolf, included "Talruum Champion" which has first strike that beats other creatures' first strike.
- Throat Wolf is also mentioned in the novels.
- Unhinged had a card called "Mise," a reference to M:tG slang meaning "to get a lucky draw." There was also a "real" card called "Savage Beatings", at which point M:tG parody site Misetings accused WotC of trying too hard.
- An Urban Legend says that a player in a championship game was so desperate to win they played a card called "Chaos Orb" with the ability to destroy other cards by being dropped onto the opponents field and destroying any card it touches. If you're lucky you might destroy 3 or 4 cards, but instead of simply dropping the card they shredded it and sprinkled the pieces over the opponents field, wiping it out and the judge ruled it a legal move (incarnations of the story from there vary, some say the player won and other say the opposing player called for a count of cards in the players deck). Regardless of the truth to the story, the Unglued set introduced a card called "Chaos Confetti" with the exact same abilities of "Chaos Orb", except it specifies to tear the card apart and sprinkle the pieces over the field. The Flavor Text even says "And you thought it was an urban legend."
- Fake CCG cards themselves. They date to 1994, albeit in text-only format, and were the basis of the "Un" sets.
- At this point, the creators lampshade infinite combos.
Comic Books
- Lugnut's ultimate attack, the Punch Of Kill Everything in Transformers Animated, had its Fan Nickname immortalized in the official Animated comic series "The Arrival - Part 4."
- The same nickname is referenced in Transformers War For Cybertron. Among other things, one skill Soldiers can select to enhance their Whirlwind ability is called "P.o.K.E Alpha".
- The new Lugnut toy was designed to execute a double dose of P.O.K.E. with both hands being spring-loaded, no doubt inspired by the nickname's popularity.
- Shortpacked! introduced featured Mirror Universe Ravage, who as the opposite of a silent master of stealth, constantly updated his Twitter feed with exactly where he was. When Ravage appeared in an official Transformers: Shattered Glass story a few months later, they followed this portrayal.
- Jim Croce's "You Don't Mess Around with Jim" has the line "Don't tug on Superman's cape." Now, in the comics, Supes gets really grumpy when people screw with the cape.
- The song gets invoked in Thunderbolts when the team takes on treacherous member Hyperion...who happens to be a Captain Ersatz of Superman.
- Squirrel Girl's one-shot appearance becoming a meme in Internet forums led to her becoming a permanent recurring character in Great Lakes Avengers. Now she's Luke Cage and Jessica Jones' nanny.
- The main Marvel Universe is called "Earth-616". There's a fan rumor that it was named for the date the Fantastic Four first appeared (supposedly June 1961). This is not true (for one thing, the issue was released in August), but this numbering scheme then became used for real for several Marvel alternate Earths.
- During Fear Itself, the Thunderbolts tie-in arc features a literal Giant-Size Man-Thing, and Songbird refers to him as just that.
- An issue of Invincible Iron Man has Tony returning to the cave where he built the original armor...which even he says was built IN A CAVE! WITH A BOX OF SCRAPS!
- When Mega Man 2's Air Man appears in the Mega Man comic, his line is "You can't beat me."
- 1980s Legion of Super-Heroes fandom came up with "Arm-Fall-Off Boy" as an extreme example of the sort of ludicrous characters who showed up for Legion Try-Outs. Gerard Jones then included him as the very first wannabe-Legionnaire in an issue of Secret Origins. (Legend has it Jones didn't realise Arm-Fall-Off Boy was a fan joke and didn't already exist.)
- Issue #1 of My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic IDW's synopsis uses the fan-coined term "Mane Six" (already more than a Fan Nickname due to being used on a couple of licensed shirts, but this further elevates the term).
- Upon being confronted by Chrysalis, Applejack and Rarity are quick to insult her, and reference the meme of Chrysalis having swiss-cheese legs.
- And of course Derpy's in the comic (though not named), including being lured into a trap by a trail of muffins. Furthermore, when one of the Changelings changes into Derpy, its companion is forced to bonk it on its head to get the derped eyes just right.
- In issue 2, one of the spiders is gray, has a bit of blond hair, one set of its two pairs of eyes in a wall-eyes fashion, and has a pattern of bubbles on its rear section.
- Sweetie Belle as a dictionary (propagated from "The Return of Harmony") pops up in issue #3.
- Hot Topic's #3 varient◊ gives up Epic Wife Throwing, which had become a fandom meme after "The Crystal Empire".
- In My Little Pony Micro Series Issue #2, the 20% cooler meme is referenced in the beginning when Rainbow goes 20% faster after doing a Sonic Rainboom.
- Rainbow gives Tank a "brohoof".
- Rainbow pulls off a Sonic Double Rainboom. There has been a fan-made full length episode entitled "Double Rainboom" that's been in the works for a while and teased. Whether this inspired the comic's term is unclear, though its most likely a reference to the old Double Rainbow meme from YouTube (which many bronies naturally associate Rainbow Dash with).
- In 1994, the Street Fighter comic, Ryu and Ken's master is named Sheng Long, following the English SNES Street Fighter II instruction manuals. This all started because of an April Fools joke.
- The Super Dictionary legendarily illustrated "forty" with Lex Luthor stealing forty cakes. "And That's Terrible". Eventually a canon comic (Superman #709) revealed that, as revenge for not being allowed to enter an early invention in his high school's science fair, Lex Luthor stole forty cakes from the bake sale.
- Bart Simpson’s Treehouse of Horror #15: the bootleg!Bart Simpson in "Boo-tleg" is black and even talked about his plans to sell shirts of himself at the flea market. This is a reference to the Black Bart bootleg phenomenon of the early 1990s.
Film
- "I'm the Juggernaut, Bitch!" in X-Men: The Last Stand, although many felt the line was shoehorned in. The line even got a TV-friendly shout-out in the Black Panther animated series: "I'm the Juggernaut, punk!"
- "I've had it with these motherfucking snakes on this motherfucking plane!" was added to the script when word got round that Samuel L. Jackson was due to star in a film called Snakes on a Plane and Memetic Mutation ensued.
- There was a promo for a TV airing of The Wizard of Oz that used the song "The Great Gig In The Sky" by Pink Floyd, referencing the fan-synchronization of The Wizard Of Oz with the album "Dark Side Of The Moon".
- Sometime in the mid-'90s, one of the Turner networks aired The Wizard of Oz with Dark Side of the Moon as an alternate audio track (usually reserved for Spanish dubbing if available).
- "Not a lot of people know that" was a Beam Me Up, Scotty! line for Michael Caine, as it was from Peter Sellers' impression of him rather than anything he actually said in a movienote Apparently, Caine would recite trivia from the Guinness Book of World Records when on set but off camera, and part of Sellers' impersonation was based on this...until the film Educating Rita where Michael Caine's character was given the line to say.
- Figwit the elf from the Lord of the Rings film series. A background extra played by Bret McKenzie (of Flight of the Conchords) who appears in a shot following Frodo's acceptance of the ring (the name standing for Frodo Is Great! ...Who Is That?), the nickname was eventually used in the series of Topps trading cards featuring the character. Peter Jackson specifically brought him back for Return of the King because of the popularity of the meme, even giving him a couple lines this time around.
- "Team Edward" and "Team Jacob" were Fan Nicknames for factions of Twilight fans that have since ended up ubiquitous enough to get on official merchandise, if you want a Team Edward t-shirt or a Team Jacob bag. Or a Team Tyler's Van shirt.
- In the first Hellraiser, Doug Bradley's character was known simply as "Lead Cenobite". The name "Pinhead" was a nickname given to him by fans of the movie. It wasn't until the second movie that Pinhead became his official name.
- In the first Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Barbossa was never given a first name, But Johnny Depp jokingly referred to him as 'Hector' in the commentary, which caught on with some of the fans. Cut to the third movie, and Hector is his official name.
- Agent Coulson of the 2012 The Avengers movie gained more than a little popularity after his death, sparking the Coulson Lives Project, operating under the hashtag #Coulson Lives (found here) Our prayers have been answered, as Coulson will reappear on the upcoming Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. television series... with the aforementioned hashtag being integral to the marketing.
- In The Expendables 2, several Chuck Norris jokes - and the general meme of Norris as the toughest man in the world - are repurposed to refer to the character played by Norris.
Literature
- Harry Potter:
- The fan abbreviation DADA for Defence Against the Dark Arts was used in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and the fan nickname Voldie for Voldemort was used by Peeves at the end of Deathly Hallows.
- Prior to the seventh book, Draco Malfoy's family home had never appeared or been named, though it was implied to be some kind of castle or mansion. Fans assigned it the name "Malfoy Manor", which became ubiquitous in fanfiction before eventually being made canon in Deathly Hallows.
- Several Star Wars Expanded Universe books make a point of how Han either Shot First or failed to so, in different circumstances.
- The Wheel of Time: In The Gathering Storm, Elaida's Aes Sedai faction is called loyalists, which was previously a fan nickname.
Live Action TV
- The House fandom's name for the Thirteen-Foreman pairing, Foreteen (or Fourteen), was actually used by House himself.
- Another one picked up and spoken by House himself was the fan term "ducklings" to refer to whichever 3+ doctors are working on his team.
- Originally, The X-Files character was named "Cigarette-Smoking Man" in the scripts. But no one ever called him by name. So the fans started calling him "Cancer Man". By Season 3, so did Mulder.
- In LOST, fans gave the smoke monster the nickname 'Smokey'. In season 6, Sawyer referred to him by this name (justified by the fact that Sawyer gives everyone creative nicknames).
- Star Trek: Enterprise: The mysterious figure pulling the evil strings was never identified and given a name, so the Star Trek reviewer SF Debris then gave him the name Future Guy. The fanbase picked it up, and then the creators of the show also used it. The only problem is, it was derived from sarcasm as pointed out in his (video version) "Broken Bow" review: "How sad is it when the master villain's name is derived from sarcasm?"
- Glee's pairing names Finchel, Puckelberry, and Furt showed up all in Episode 2X08. It was titled Furt.
- iCarly used the pairing names for the two major ships on the show, Creddie (Carly/Freddie) and Seddie (Sam/Freddie).
- For a Discovery Channel contest, Awkward Zombie creator Katie Tiedrich created a MythBusters fan-short about firing a pig from a cannon made entirely out of duct tape. The pig thing isn't too implausible, as the 'Busters do use pig carcasses as human analogues, but the "duct tape cannon" seemed like pure ridiculousness. The short didn't win the contest...but was so popular elsewhere that the Mythbusters themselves saw it and loved it. Come the Duct Tape Special, guess what Kari, Tori, and Grant actually made?note They didn't fire a pig, but they did fire a bright-orange cannonball.
- Fringe The fandom names for the alternate Walter and Olivia, "Walternate" (prior to his reveal) and "Fauxlivia" (following her introduction), have both been canonized by the show.
- Sesame Street was the focus of an uproar whereby Cookie Monster was purported to have drastically reduced his cookie intake, or even given them up altogether and been renamed the Veggie Monster. note The actual incriminating scene was of Cookie Monster listening to a song about how "Cookies are a sometimes food", not saying it himself, after which he pointed out that "right now is sometimes", and ate a cookie. In any case, over the course of the whole show, he's more of an Extreme Omnivore for whom cookies are a Trademark Favorite Food; he's happily eaten vegetables, fruit, and numerous random objects. The show has referenced this firestorm on a few occasions. In one sketch, Cookie Monster is about to eat some fruit when interviewer Matt Lauer confronts him about why he "doesn't like cookies", to which the monster replies "You members of media blow story waaaay out of proportion!". In another scene, after eating some vegetables, he said "But remember, me not Veggie Monster. Me still Cookie Monster. Just for record. Me got reputation to think of."
- Spitting Image would often feature film critic Barry Norman (voiced by Rory Bremner), giving him the Catch Phrase "...and why not?". He didn't say it in real life, but it fit with his style and became the first thing anyone thought of regarding him. Years later, Norman said in a review "...and, as Rory Bremner would say, why not?" and also made it the title of his autobiography.
- Originally in the Bonus Round on Wheel of Fortune, a contestant would have to pick five consonants and a vowel to assist in solving the bonus puzzle within a time limit. By the late 1980s, almost every contestant was picking R, S, T, L, N and E in that order, because those letters are the most common. The rules were finally changed in October 1988 to give those letters automatically — in that order — and then ask for three more consonants and a vowel (but also making the puzzles harder and slashing the time limit).
- Miley Cyrus is evidently a fan of the Saturday Night Live sketch "The Miley Cyrus Show", starring Vanessa Bayer as Cyrus, and has often incorporated the sketch's "prrrretty cool" catchphrase on her Twitter account (her sister Noah is also known to use it in YouTube videos). When Miley hosted SNL in March 2011, she used the catchphrase in promos with Kenan Thompson, and even got to act in a "Miley Cyrus Show" sketch dressed as Justin Bieber (one of the highlights of the episode).
- Comedy clip show The Soup would often describe The Hills star Spencer Pratt as having a "creepy flesh-colored beard". The phrase would eventually make it into an episode.
- It's been a running joke among "Gossip Girl" fans that Chuck and Nate are practically lovers. In season five Jack Bass makes a comment about how it's about time Nate professed his true feelings for Chuck.
- Also with regards to Nate fans have been joking about how many of his love interests are cougars. In an early season five episode Chuck Bass of all people turns to Nate for advice on seduction since the woman he has his eyes on is... a cougar. Chuck claims Nate "speaks old lady".
- FOX has now officially used the phrase "manic pixie dream girl" in reference to Trope Codifier Zooey Deschanel and her New Girl character Jess.
Music
- When the Speedy Techno Remake of Caramelldansen was turned into the Caramelldansen Vid, the band Caramell saw it and decided to base the official song video on it (but use the remix of course, not the slower original song). They also made the Japanese mondegreens into the official Japanese version.
- Also, the English version:
From Sweden to UK we will bring our song
Australia, USA, and people of Hong Kong
They have heard this meme all around the world
So come and move your hips, sing ua a a
Look at YouTube clips, do it la la la
You and me can sing this melody
- And the saga continues with their new video, "Boogie Bam Dance".
- When Haddaway performed "What Is Love?" during his appearance on the short-lived show Hit Me Baby One More Time, the backup choreography included the Roxbury headbop.
- In Brazil, a video involving fans of Restart complaining after a cancelled autograph session became popular - especially one of said angry fans, a girl named Georgia Massa, saying it was a "puta falta de sacanagem", a contradictory phrase that could be translated as "fucking lack of unfairness" or This Is Unforgivablenote although "sacanagem" is best translated as "screwing". Then the band and a comedian created a song based on that phrase, and Massa got to meet the band (much to the jealousy of other rabid fangirls). The boys, in turn, wrote the song "Pra Você Lembrar" in order to apologize for the cancelled autograph session.
- After Camron's infamous U MAD appearance on The O' Reilly Factor, www.u-mad.net started up as an official Camron merch store.
- Gary Brolsma's Numa Numa dance video inspired former O-Zone singer Dan Balan to recreate the song as "Sugartunes (Numa Numa}".
- In response to the "Paul Is Dead" conspiracy theory, Paul McCartney released a live album in 1993 called Paul Is Live. The cover depicts the Abbey Road Crossing, but the only figures are Paul and a dog. There are a few differences and subtle references to the conspiracy theory, which can be read about here at The Other Wiki.
- Jimi Hendrix's famous song "Purple Haze" contains the line " 'scuse me while I kiss the sky", but is frequently misheard as " 'scuse me while I kiss this guy". At a handful of later live performances, Jimi would actually use the misheard line for this song - and afterwards (probably) pretend to kiss one of his band members while playing the riff.
- Then, one of those live performances was then used in Guitar Hero 4, so a whole new generation of kids could get the lyric wrong. (The correct, studio version is in Rock Band now, but as DLC).
- The Spinto Band stumbled upon a mash-up that combined their "Oh Mandy" with Rich Boy's "Throw Some D's". They liked it enough that in live performances of the song, they'd sometimes replace the lyrics to the bridge with a few lines from "Throw Some D's".
- After the success of "Weird Al" Yankovic's parody "Gump", the Presidents of the United States of America started ending their live performances of "Lump" with the same line: "And that's all I have to say about that".
- In the 70s, when The Angels sang "Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again?", crowds answered, "No way, get fucked, fuck off" - which The Angels incorporated into their performances.
- Mexican party anthem "El Final" (the end) has the line "te veo besándote con otro" ("I see you kissing/making out with someone else") which is always answered with a "Que poca madre!" when played in a bar ("What little mother" literally, but it it's an expression used when someone wronged someone else, like saying "you bastard!"). Nowadays, most DJs will turn down the volume when playing it at a bar, party, whatever. Albums compilations add the a silent second for people to scream it, karaoke machines show the line on the screen, and both original band Rostros Ocultos or anyone covering it will either stop playing for a second and raise the mike for people to say it, or just have the band scream it while the singer stops. Shortly, the line became part of the song.
- There was a bootleg remix of Madonna's "Holiday" that mashed it up with Stardust's "Music Sounds Better with You". When Mad'House covered the former, they interpolated the bassline and instrumentation of the latter.
- Besides being essentially nothing but this trope, Vocaloid has a recursive-meme example. Someone made a popular Miku cover of "Ievan Polkka," better known as "that leekspin song," complete with her own spinning (waving?) leek. It wasn't long before leeks started showing up in Miku's official artworks and figurines, and they soon became her Trademark Favorite Food. The Uncanny Valley restyled "Hachune Miku" in the video has also generated a lot of merchandise.
Newspaper Comics
- Garfield Minus Garfield, the webcomic that made new comedy out of old Garfield strips by removing the title character so it seemed that Jon was a lonely delusional weirdo, was made into a book. One actually endorsed by writer Jim Davis, too, and complete with several Garfield Minus Garfields actually made by Davis himself. Turns out he's quite good at it.
- And shortly after, he seemed to realize that Jon did seem depressed and hopeless, so Jon/Liz was finally made canon and he was able to interact with more other human characters regularly, while the animals had their own strips — making new strips harder to convert for the webcomic, but responding well to the issues it brought up.
- After Josh Fruhlinger of The Comics Curmudgeon began making jokes about the Archie newspaper comic strip being written by an antiquated mainframe computer called the "Archie Joke-Generating Laugh Unit 3000" (AJGLU-3000 for short), AJGLU-3000 references began cropping up in the strip.
Professional Wrestling
- During a WWE sketch showing WWE personalities at a party, commentator Michael Cole went the Ham and Cheese route and referenced the fandom meme of his calling moves as "VINTAGE ______" by yelling that he is eating VINTAGE SHRIMP!
- Cole and other announcers, notably the AWESOME Matt Striker, have openly referenced and mocked the memetic nature of "VINTAGE".
- Darren Young, at one point, referenced WWE internet fans' penchant for calling him "Black John Cena." Cena also paid it back during one of his promos as well.
- On ''WWE NXT, the term "Future Endeavored" has been used at least twice (by The Miz in the first season and Cody Rhodes in the second).
- Matt Striker also referenced it at WrestleMania, telling Natalya "Good luck in your future endeavors" after she slapped Mr. McMahon in the face.
- Also used in TNA, where Jeremy Borash frequently wishes the person losing their job in the "Feast Or Fired" match "the best of luck in their future endeavours".
- John Laurinaitis has also used this phrase on WWE TV (and possibly Triple H as well, if memory serves).
- It was also on a shirt, briefly, though it and the rest of the "Kayfabe" line of shirts didn't sell well and were quickly removed.
- The Cornette Face, made popular by Botchamania, became an Ascended Meme when Jim Cornette himself asked to talk to a fan who brought a sign of said face to a pro wrestling show.
- And after TNA Victory Road 2011, Cornette tweeted, "Just watched TNA...I need a new face."
- During the feud between John Cena and Brock Lesnar, Cena once referred to Lesnar as a "vanilla gorilla," a common internet nickname for Lesnar.
- When The Rock returned to WWE, he mocked John Cena on, among other things, his wardrobe, calling him "a big fat bowl of Fruity Pebbles". Not long after, Cena helped promote Fruity Pebbles by having his likeness posted on the cereal's boxes. But that's not all...
- The "Miz Girl", a little girl whose reaction (from 3:39 to 3:42) to The Miz becoming WWE Champion became a meme within hours, then an Ascended Meme a week later when the Miz pointed it out in his celebration, giving her the official name of the Miz Girl.
- In the "Lakers vs. Nuggets" episode of Raw, Batista made his entrance with a basketball in his hands. This is a reference to his "Basketballs...don't hold grudges!" quote on Smackdown.
- WWE has pretty much stolen the spotlight out of this lately, such as "The Genesis of the McGillicutty" speech and "He spilled my diet soda!".
- During NXT Season 4, fans have compared Rookie Byron Saxton to Carlton Banks. In most recent episodes, this has been lampshaded by the other rookies, Matt Striker, and even his (new) pro, Dolph Ziggler.
- On the 900 episode of Raw, Edge mocked Sheamus and called him Beaker. The fans took it and ran with it. Fast forward to the October 31st 2011, The Muppets are the host, and Sheamus and Beaker meet.
- WWE wrestler Zack Ryder was somehow able to turn himself into a meme thanks to his home-made Youtube show "Z! True Long Island Story". His show frequently bemoaned the fact that he was being ignored by WWE, often using double entendres aimed at Smart Marks. Eventually WWE took notice of his show's popularity, and Zack became a kind of Running Joke on TV about... how WWE wouldn't push Zack Ryder on television. (And ironically, in this role he received one hell of a good push.)
- The naming of the tag team of Daniel Bryan and Kane was put up to a fan vote... in which all of the choices were pre-existing fan nicknames for the two, including "Team Friendship" and the winning "Hell No".
Video Games
- While the developers were answering questions regarding the new gameplay features of the upcoming Max Payne 2 on the 3DRealms forum, one user asked, "What about moving?". No one knows what he meant but it became a meme fast enough for a bit recorded for the game involving two mobsters.
"But what about moving?"
"What about moving? You put one foot infronta the other."
- One of the one liners in Duke Nukem Forever is "I'm gonna kill you old style", referencing the infamous Ventrilo Harassment video where the admin threatens the Troll that she will do just that, to the confusion of everyone listening.
- The Single Player DLC references the spamming of BALLSBALLSBALLSBALLS in the meme, when a Terminator-esque robot makes you repeat it in order for you to pass off as a Duke clone.
- Blizzard loves this trope.
- In City of Heroes, the Kill Skuls meme, originating from a pair of message board posts, has spawned a badge, in-game graffiti, and a Loading Screen tip.
- "Ascendant who? Sorry, you have the wrong number."
- Nemesis, the eternal mastermind and Xanatos Speed Chess player, is pegged by the playerbase as the source for many things, including substituting "It's a Nemesis plot" for A Wizard Did It. The game developers ascended the meme with two loading screen tips: "It's all a Nemesis plot." and "Not everything is a Nemesis plot."
- After a particularly popular 2008 April Fools' Day new post, "Freem!" caught on, often with the image attached. A loading screen tip in the game now reads simply, "Freem!". The nickname for the development team after the team was cut by ~75% in 2006 also became "Freem Fifteen".
- Heroes of Newerth: TOO BAD ITS ME BLACKSMITH was so popular that the developers used it for their pre-purchase advertisements on their website.
- After Dissidia: Final Fantasy came out, many jokes ensued about Exdeath's obsession with the VOID. Cue the prequel Dissidia 012, and numerous characters mocking Exdeath's obsession and working the word "void" into their pre-battle quotes to him.
- A popular machinima for the first game called "Real Men" became popular not long after its release. Dissidia 012 brought us Kain Highwind, a famous Ensemble Dark Horse and Memetic Badass, as a playable character. He brought along this gem—"I'm about to show you pathetic mockeries the difference between you, and a real man!"
- "Sheng Long" originated in a mistranslation of Ryu's Victory Quote in the Street Fighter II arcade game.note "Sheng Long" is the Chinese reading of the Shoryu in Shoryuken. The legend was elaborated on by an April Fools' joke created by Electronic Gaming Monthly in 1992, which alleged that he was the unlockable True Final Boss of the game. The manual of the SNES version actually named Sheng Long as Ryu and Ken's master, and though that ended up in Canon Discontinuity like most manuals of the time, the legend of Sheng Long would be confirmed in all but name. In 1994, Akuma, brother to Ryu and Ken's master, was introduced in Super Street Fighter II Turbo as the True Final Boss, with an unlocking procedure and red fireball attack recalling EGM's idea of Sheng Long. Finally, in 2008, Gouken, Ryu and Ken's master himself, was confirmed for Street Fighter IV, and fans were astonished to find that Gouken had every single move that Sheng Long was stated to have. "You must defeat Sheng Long to stand a chance", indeed!
- And in Super Street Fighter IV, Ken makes a peculiar reference to flowcharts◊ in his new win quote.◊
- Street Fighter III: Third Strike Online Edition has Evo Moment #37 as a challenge.
- You even get a special title for beating the first challenge with Gouken that says "Also Known as Sheng Long"
- The Mortal Kombat series has several characters that started out as Epileptic Trees, such as Blaze.
- Probably the most famous of these is Ermac. A counter in MK1's option menu, right under "Reptile Battles," listed the number of "Ermacs" — short for "error macros" — that have appeared, leading players to speculate about the existence of a hidden fighter named "Ermac." Mortal Kombat II deliberately fueled similar speculation by showing a counter for "Kano Transformations," which never happened in that game. When Ultimate MK3 was released, Ermac was made into an unlockable character. He's made frequent appearances since then.
- In Mortal Kombat 3, Nightwolf's Friendship has him transforming into Raiden and saying "I've never seen a Kano transformation," which was a memetic response to rumors that Shang Tsung could do that in Mortal Kombat II (again, blame the arcade audit counters).
- Mortal Kombat 9 is said to be dedicated partially to bringing as many of these Epileptic Trees to life, including but not limited to: Skarlet, "feeding the trees" in the Living Forest (an Urban Legend of Zelda until it first became possible in Mortal Kombat Shaolin Monks) and "nudealities" (in the form of Mileena's secret third outfit).
- Team Fortress 2 is a gold mine of ascended memes:
- Ever since the commercial for Shamwow! become popular on the internet, people have been comparing Vince Offer to the Scout. As of one update to the game, The Scout's in-game dialogue includes no less than 3 quotes from the commercial. "No other class gonna do that!" Even the website made to chronicle the update makes a Shamwow! reference or two.
- The "FYI I Am A Medic" Medic achievement is named after the "FYI I Am A Spy" spray and associated YouTube video.
- The Spy update also gave us the "FYI I Am A Spy" achievement which is unlocked by killing an enemy Medic that has just healed you.
- The Spy update announcement, in the form of a mail-order catalog, featured an item called the "Crab walking kit". This is a reference to an in-game bug which causes the spy to walk very strangely when certain conditions are met, and is a common pastime amongst spies not about their backstabbing business.
- Also with the Spy update comes a a new taunt for the spy's cigarette case that pops up randomly and has him pose like a crab and snap his hands like claws.
- The Sandvich; fans had been suggesting its incorporation into the game since its first appearance in "Meet the Scout".
- Although it should be noted that they like to hide upcoming items in "Meet the..." videos. (See also: The Pyro is carrying his flare gun in Meet the Sniper, released before the Pyro update came out.)
- Then, of course, there's the disembodied voice of the announcer. Disembodied, that is until a fan drew her. And then it became official.
- The Fan Nickname "crocket" (a rocket that rolls a Critical Hit, infamous for being especially devastating) is referenced by a Soldier achievement ("Crockets are such BS" for randomly firing two in a row) and a Heavy achievement ("crock block", for surviving a a direct hit from one). Likewise, the term "Demoknight" (a Demoman that uses unlockable weapons to focus on melee attacks) is referenced by an item set called "One Thousand and One Demoknights".
- Several bot names are this, such as Mentlegen and CRITRAWKETS.
- Speaking of Valve, it looks like this VG Cats strip about Portal just got real.◊
- In Diablo there was a fan spoof of a hidden cow level that did not exist. It shows up in Diablo II. That prompted a number of fan spoofs, including a secret bunny level in the hopes that they would show up in Diablo III.
- This was later referenced in Starcraft, made by the same company (Blizzard), in which the cheat to skip a level instantly in campaign mode was "there is no cow level".
- And in Starcraft II, "Terrible terrible damage" (a Verbal Tic-like line from the "Battle Reports") is not only a cheat code in game, but is also said by General Horace Warfield.
- Punch-Out!!: Hey Mac baby, I'm going to go for a ride on your bike!
- For those not in the know, it's referring to the YTMND fad "Nigga Stole My Bike", where Doc Louis riding along on a bicycle while Little Mac trains is reinterpreted as Little Mac chasing after Doc. And that is unbelievable.
- S-I-S-I-G-A-M-I , SHISHIGAMI BANG BANG! Yes, a fan made lyrical declaration of Bang's manliness to the tune of his theme "Reppu" was so awesome, it made its way into BlazBlue Continuum Shift with the seiyuu for Bang singing it!
- On the subject of Bang, he references the "Ice Car" meme in Calamity Trigger Reconstruction when dissuading his colleagues from fighting Jin.
- Also, µ-12. DAT ASS◊
- Blasto, the first hanar Spectre. Started as a joke made by one of the devs in response to questions regarding new companions in Mass Effect 2. Ended up having a movie made about him, complete with the line:
- Also the term "quad" as slang for krogan testicles (they have four). Used where humans would say "pair", as in, "You've got a quad, Shepard." Originated on the forums, appeared everywhere in Mass Effect 2.
- Many, many memes originating in Mass Effect 2 are lampooned in Mass Effect 3, most notably Garrus' love of calibrations and Shepard's horribly bad dancing.
"I'm Garrus Vakarian, and this is now my FAVORITE spot on the Citadel!"
"YOU BIG STUPID JELLYFISH!"
- Remember the first game's "Wrex." "Shepard."? This has new context for Knight Templar players in 3.
- "Your Joker-pilot insists I call myself 'Prothy the Prothean'. I insisted he allow me to throw him out the airlock."
- Remember Niftu Cal, the Biotic God? Now Mass Effect 3 players can make their own biotic gods with the inclusion of the Volus Adept in multiplayer. The class description even includes a reference to the words that created the meme.
- The gold-level biotic challenge also invokes this, with the title "Biotic God" and the banner showing a biotic Volus.
- The Citadel DLC pretty much exists for referencing as many fandom memes as possible.
Javik: Where is the airlock, so that I may throw you out of it?
Shepard: Do I really sound like that? (a bit later) Maybe it's I should go. I should go. I should go.
Garrus: I don't suppose you need anything around here... calibrated? Yeah, okay, maybe I should stop saying that word, but only if Liara stops saying " By the goddess."
"Shepard." "Grunt." "Shepard!" "Wrex." "Commander Shepard." "Shepard, Shepard, Shepard." "Wrex, Grunt..."
- Many Touhou doujin artists portrayed Utsuho Reiuji's encased arm as an Arm Cannon after her first appearance, but it was never actually used that way. However, later in Hisoutensoku, Utsuho has the ability Beam Spam.
- According to legend, DDRMAX2 originally had the correct title for Little Boy (Boy Oh Boy Mix) at the beta location test, but after a fansite's embarrassing typo of "Boy On Boy Mix" turned into a meme, Konami staff thought it was funny enough to insert the error into the game itself.
- An Argentinian "news" network took a sarcastic suggestion on mixed drink recommendations of Grog (followed by an XD, which any internet user would realize means it is a joke) using The Long List from of its possible ingredients out of The Secret of Monkey Island as how to make it, as something teenagers were actually drinking. Tales of Monkey Island's fifth part includes the "Grog XD" drink features in a Grog Machine.
Guybrush: "Grog XD. Heh, it must be that new high energy Grog that all the kids drink these days!
- There was a comedy thread on a Civilization forum calling for giant death robots in Civ V. The Giant Death Robot is now an actual endgame unit in the latter.
- In Civ IV, the practice of jacking up a city's culture output (usually via Great Artist) to quickly acquire territory (especially territory belonging to other civilizations) was dubbed "Culture Bombing" in the fandom. In Civ V, the Great Artist has a special ability named "Culture Bomb" which also expands the Civilization's territory.
- In the first game, all civilizations had the same odds of deciding to use nukes. Ghandi making such threats◊ became a meme, and in V, he is explicitly set to use them more than any other leader. He always could use nukes, but now he always does as the meme suggests.
- With Rock Band having such a massive backlog of available music to play, some gamers are noticing a trend in Rock Band's tracklist, namely that Harmonix seems insistent on adding as much music from bands that Dave Grohl has been involved with (Foo Fighters, Nirvana, Them Crooked Vultures, Tenacious D et al.) as possible, giving the game the nickname Dave Grohl Band...which is something Rock Band 3 acknowledges by having an achievement for playing any five songs from bands featuring Dave Grohl.
- In Marvel Vs Capcom 3, when Deadpool defeats Magneto, he yells out "I JUST BEAT MAG-FREAKIN'-NETO! WHERE YO CURLEH MUSTACHE AT?" Additionally, both Magneto and Sentinel have their MAHVEL BAYBEE schemes as alternate costumes. In the press releases, Magneto was referred to as "still Pringles", by Seth Killian himself. All of this started with this commentary of Marvel Vs Capcom 2.
- And Magneto, Welcome to Die.
- IFC Yipes, the man responsible for the aforementioned MAHVEL, BAYBEE!, seems to have gotten in on the act, hosting his own tournament for MvC3 named after his memetic Curleh Mustache line. For added measure, he's sometimes seen wearing a curly mustache while commentating matches.
- Quite a few lines in Ultimate Marvel vs. Capcom 3 reference the community from the vanilla version, such as Deadpool's victory quote against Spider-Man talking about Wesker (who was originally revealed alongside Spider-Man) cribbing off of Spidey's Maximum Spider with his "Maximum Wesker" (the Fan Nickname for his Phantom Dance hyper).
- The description for the Yusei pack in Yu-Gi-Oh! 5Ds Tag Force 5 asks if you're into crustaceans, referencing his Fan Nickname of "crabhead".
- Photoshopping Kamina's Triangle Shades onto someone automatically makes them more badass. In Super Robot Wars Z2, you can get Kamina's shades as an item, which gives you +20 starting morale.
- Since Warhammer 40000 values Rule Of Cool above all else (besides grim darkness), you get pictures like this one, which became a meme when it was captioned "Drive me closer! I want to hit them with my sword!" Dawn of War II: Retribution references several WH40K memes, and if you send a Commissar into a Chimera APC, that's exactly what he says.
- In the Honest Hearts DLC for Fallout New Vegas, one of the tribal characters is named "Two Bears High Fiving". This is a reference to the rorschach inkblot test in the beginning of the game where one of the inkblots looks like said character's name, but there was no option to say so (until a mod came out).
- The unique 5.56mm pistol is named "That Gun", after the Fan Nickname for the .223 pistol in Fallout 1 and ''2'.
- Madden NFL 12's "Put da team on my back" acheivement, which requires catching a 99-yard touchdown pass as Packers wide receiver Greg Jennings, references an infamous YouTube clip of Madden 11 in which Jennings makes that play with a broken leg.
- One of the characters in Gears of War 3's multiplayer mode might occasionally belt out the line "Your mom is a classy lady!" upon scoring a kill.
- In Dynasty Warriors 3, Yuan Shao gives you characters a stern warning in the battle against Dong Zhuo's forces: "Don't pursue Lu Bu". In Dynasty Warriors 7, you can earn an achievement for defeating Lu Bu in any game mode, entitled "OK, You CAN Pursue Lu Bu".
- There was an Urban Legend of Zelda surrounding a fifth age in Myst. The realtime-3D remake added the Rime Age.
- Back when Tekken 3 hit arcades, there were rumors of a Devil version of Jin. Jin transforms into this form in his PSX ending, and Devil Jin became a fully-realized character in Tekken 5.
- A number of official champion skins in League of Legends started off as player ideas on the community forum. Examples include 'Surprise Party Fiddlesticks' and 'Brolaf'.
- A long-running joke was that the curved yellow projectiles Soraka the Starchild launches from her staff are actually bananas. An update to the game eventually gave Soraka a new /joke line "Yes, that was a banana. No-one expects the banana."
- A tongue-in-cheek strategy guide for the game, Pro as Heck Guide to Master Yi, prominently features the phrase "Get dunked!" When Vi, a later-introduced champion, uses her ultimate, which knocks the opponent into the air and slams them into the ground, one of the things she might say is... you guessed it, "Get dunked!"
- In Fortune Street, when a computer-controlled Donkey Kong lands on a particularly expensive space, one of his possible response lines is "It's on like Donkey Kong!"
- Street Fighter X Tekken is rife with these. One of Balrog's win screen quotes has him clear up that his line back in SFIV was "MY FIGHT MONEY!", not "MY BIKE MONEY!"
- Also in the same game, if the voice is set in English, M. Bison's taunts literally becomes him saying the famous line from the movie: "But for Me, It Was Tuesday". And also, one of his win screen quotes is similar to the one from the cartoon, which he also delivers to Chun-li: "I killed my father too, and you don't hear me complaining about it!"
- My Little Pony Fighting Is Magic: Bionic Farm became a minor meme since Applejack's VA for this game said it for teh lulz at the end of her audition piece. That said, it's now one of the things she says in-game when using Summer Rambo.
- Skullgirls is loaded with these. If it was a meme within the fighting game community, then chances are that it's referenced somewhere in the game.
- The most blatant example, on the other hand, is definitely the meme referenced by both the announcer of the game and by one of the achievements: "REAL SOVIET DAMAGE!" Note
For those not in the know, Skullgirls' lead developer, Mike "Mike Z" Zaimont, was one of the professional gamers Arc System Works hired to make official strategy video for BlazBlue. Mike Z decided to have a little fun and make his video while speaking in a hilarious Large Ham Russian accent, promoting the superiority of communism over capitalist America. The quote above is one of the most memetic lines of the entire video. Further ascending is that future DLC will include Mike Z as REAL SOVIET ANNOUNCER- "Republican Double for DLC!" started as an in-joke from the game's voice actors, and quickly began circling the internet. Now, thanks to the Indiegogo fundraiser reaching $250,000, Republican Double will now actually be DLC.
- Robo-Fortune as well: she started off as a gag by Ms. Fortune's VA Kimlihn Tran, then became an option for a voice-pack like Republican Double before being upgraded to a full-blown character, with her own story mode, stage, and theme music!
- The Pure Pwnage episode that introduced the character of FPS Doug had him repeatedly shouting "Boom, headshot!" while playing Counter Strike. This quickly became a meme, and was used for pictures of headshots (and not the ones where you take pictures of people). When getting a headshot in Modern Warfare 2 online, you will get a medal saying "BOOM, headshot!".
- During Nintendo's 3DS conference at E3, they acknowledged the surprising popularity of the Non-Specific Action Figure (including his Facebook page created by a fan) who appeared in the Miiverse video shown at Nintendo Direct the day before E3 started.
- The song Second Heaven from beatmania IIDX has the line "Somebody screeeeeeam!", which the Japanese fandom Mondegreen'ed into "San-bai ice cream!" ("3-scoop ice cream!") A remix of the song appears in the Spin-Off game Sound Voltex Booth, and said remix's cover art depicts a character holding a 3-scoop ice cream cone.
- Left 4 Dead 2 made a nod to Coach's love for cheeseburgers in The Passing DLC. In the first safe room, Rochelle may start to brainstorm on how to motivate the rest of the survivors and one of the ideas she comes up with is telling Coach that there is a cheeseburger museum in New Orleans.
- Near the beginning of Prototype 2, Alex Mercer karate kicks a helicopter in a cutscene.
- The Play Station Vita remake of Persona 4, The Golden, has the character Marie commenting on how beefsteak should be shortened to "Fsteak."
- There is a cheat code in Street Fighter X Mega Man that allows Guile's theme to override whatever stage song you're in, since "it goes with everything."
- Reggie's "My body is ready" meme from E3 conferences ended up ascending in a Fire Emblem game, of all things.
- The Starcraft II Heart Of The Swarm launch ads have the tagline "The rush begins."
- Dragon Nest has an interesting example. The Paladin has an ability that causes him to shout 'Goddess protect me!' when he uses it. The accent and speed with which the VA says it had many players hear it as 'GLADUS TEK MA!', which rapidly took on meme status in the community. When the game released achievements, the one given for specializing in the Paladin Job was called 'Gladus Tek What?'◊
- Creepy Watson: The Return, made as a promo for a sequel to the game the original Creepy Watson video was made in, as a way of announcing the return of the "feature" of teleporting Watson as an option.
- A glitch in Call Of Juarez Bound In Blood involves a goat that hovers its way up a ladder, which spawned a viral video. "Ladder Goat" made an appearance as an Easter Egg in Call Of Juarez The Cartel (it's the title of a DVD you can find in one level, the finding of which nets you an achievement).
- "IT IS A SECRET TO EVERYBODY!" is the most memorable line from the Zelda franchise, which comes from a Moblin that gives Link money (presumably in exchange to not hurt him). It gets a nod in The Legend Of Zelda Twilight Princess from an NPC who tells Link the exact quote and the line is also the title of a sidequest in Final Fantasy Tactics A 2.
- Surgeon Simulator 2013 has a number of nods to popular Lets Plays in the Steam Edition's achievements. Amongst them are "Shh I Doctor Now.", which is based off a picture of the doctor putting a finger where the patient's mouth is, "Like A Wild Animal", based off the popular "Rage Quit" segment with Rooster Teeth where Gavin slaps all the items off and Michael calls him that, and "Like A Wet Paper Towel", another RT nod, where Gavin, in his excitement, flings the replacement heart away and Michael snaps at him in disbelief.
- The Tails Doll from the Sonic the Hedgehog fandom seems to be shaping into this. Originally a one-shot playable villain, the fans turned him into the subject of countless Creepypastas. The devs then released a rather... dark remix of Tails Doll's theme song, and the Archie Comics series ended up turning Tails Doll into a bonafide Eldritch Abomination.
- The Nancy Drew games have Nancy say "It's locked" in such a deadpan tone a lot of players thought it was hilarious. So naturally, Her Interactive has made sure to include the voice clip in every game, and evne has some in-game advertisements making fun of locked doors.
Visual Novel
- In Katawa Shoujo, Rin (a girl who has no arms) "hugs" Hisao by moving right next to him and declaring "I'm hugging you, Hisao". This had previously been a meme originating in a fan-sketch. Towards the end of her route, in her bad ending, it becomes a "Funny Aneurysm" Moment.
- However in her good ending this meme takes another meaning as she randomly stretches her arms which Hisao interprets it as her hugging the world.
- Toward the end of Lilly's route, the meme in which she asks "Who's there? No answer, it must be that deaf bitch"note Lilly, being blind, can't see Shizune, and Shizune, being deaf-mute, cannot hear or respond to "Who's there?" gets referenced when she asks Misha, Shizune's interpreter, to get something for her. Shizune does so instead, but there's a twist; the two have put aside their differences.
Lilly: (as Shizune hands her the folder) Thank you, Misha.
Hisao narrating: No reply. No reply, that is, save for an odd grin...no...smile...on Shizune's face. A couple of seconds pass before Lilly clicks that it isn't Misha behind her, but Shizune. Her momentary look of surprise is replaced by a slightly bashful smile.
Web Original
Webcomics
- When a particular bit of Insane Troll Logic took off like a rocket in the 8-Bit Theater forums, the author decided to honor it in-comic with the only character suited for the job.
- Homestuck: One of the more popular AUs is Trollcops, depicting Sollux and Terezi as, well, troll cops. When the AlterniaBound album came out, there were two tracks themed around the AU, both called Trollcops.
- In one panel, a faraway Karkat is drawn with less detail and no visible arms, making him look like he's wearing pants up to his neck. Fans referred to him as Pantskat and began drawing fanart of him in his long pants. This made its way back into the comic: when fedorafreak combines a shirt and pair of pants in the Alchemiter, he gets a pair of absurdly long pants. And at another point, Karkat self-deprecates spectacularly about wearing pants hiked up to his armpits as punishment. And then, when Karkat's ancestor is finally shown, he is indeed wearing pants hiked up to his armpits as punishment. Said pants become holy relics of his followers.
- And the original Pantskat pixel of him has been inserted into at least two later flash animations.
- And the Beforan version of Kankri wears a red sweater because Porrim got tired of looking at his "stupid hiked-up pants".
- Which is itself a reference to the fan depiction of Karkat wearing a sweater or turtleneck in a lot of fan art.
- A fan animation on YouTube that lip-synced Gamzee up to the Double Rainbow song became enormously popular in the fandom and cemented Gamzee as the Ensemble Dark Horse amongst the trolls. So, later on, Gamzee mentions a 'double metaphor all the way, across Skaia :o)'.
- Early in the comic, there's a short scene of Gamzee and Tavros chatting to each other like close friends, using each others's emoticons and rapping together (although we don't actually see the rap). This acted as enough Ho Yay to make Gamzee/Tavros a popular ship in the fandom, and it picked up the Idiosyncratic Ship Name "Peanut Butter and Jelly-shipping" or just "PBJ" (since Tavros is associated with the colour brown and Gamzee with purple). Later on, we see the second half of their conversation, in which Gamzee is flirting obviously with Tavros, and he affectionately calls Tavros the 'emotional peanut butter to [Gamzee's] royal jelly'.
- This also served as Andrew's constant Running Gag of referencing gay pornography in most of his works.
- The second Easter Egg joke flash called [S] Ride has a Shout Out to "Cotton Candy," the fan nickname for Roxy/Jane which is based on their pink and light blue chat colors.
- Also, pretty much everything concerning fedorafreak's role in anything since his first brief mention.
- Several of the walkaround flash games had an Easter Egg called "Trickster Mode" that did assorted weird things. From this, fans came up with the idea of Trickster versions of the characters, usually depicted in pastels and bright colors, covered in candy, and generally Sickeningly Sweet. Then along came "[S] Jane: Engage," and now it's a rather terrifying Super Mode.
- A popular fan voice-actor popularized the word "nyeh" in association with Eridan, to the point where some fans think it's something he actually says in canon. When the dancestors, who partly exist to lampoon fandom's stereotypes/misconceptions of the characters, rolled along, of course Eridan's dancestor Cronus used the word.
- At the floor meeting in QUILTBAG, Lisa makes a joke about her disembodied head walking on her pigtails, which had been seen in several Penny and Aggie fanarts.
- A typo in a discussion about Blade Bunny and her phobia of tentacles ultimately led, via the normal Memetic Mutation, to an official illustration of when Bunny meets the Octobus.
Western Animation
- While Transformers Animated has been using a lot of Mythology Gags, the portrayal of the medic Ratchet as old, cranky, and not inclined to put up with other people's slag is not from the earlier series. It is, however, the most common portrayal of Ratchet in fanon. (It's also worth mentioning that Animated Ratchet bears great resemblance to Kup from Transformers The Movie).
- Rhinox's signature weapon from Beast Wars, a pair of machine guns, gained the nickname "Chain Guns of Doom", a name that was later mentioned in the Ultimate Guide.
- It also showed up on the back of the box for the 10th Anniversary reissue of his toy.
- This has also happened for a fan edit of a Transformers Armada promotional comic that portrayed Hot Shot as a mentally challenged lunatic obsessed with "JaAm". Mention of it creeped into Hot Shot's 2009 universe bio, and he also has it on his license plate.
- The Transformers Animated Almanac includes the infamous line "You lived like a warrior ans died to an hero." from the cult fanfiction Dinobots Old Technology.
- Lugnut's P.O.K.E (Punch Of Kill Everything). The name originated with fans and was later made canon.
- From the Cadmus arc episodes of Justice League Unlimited, when most of the big seven turn themselves in:
Guard: Where's Batman? Flash: Running late. The Batmobile lost a wheel. The Joker got away.
- The song had appeared in an episode of Batman The Animated Series before that.
Joker: Crashing through the roof, in a one horse open tree, busting out I go, laughing all the WHEEEEEEEEEEEE!
- Batman The Brave And The Bold: "Clash of the Superheroes!" has Superman, affected by red Kryptonite, turn into a Jerkass and recreate some of the most famous moments of Superdickery history. Jimmy actually says that Superman is "turning into a real di-" only for Lois to interrupt "-fferent person".
- Beam Me Up, Scotty! actually did appear in Star Trek The Animated Series, years after it had become a meme despite never actually appearing in the original Star Trek.
- My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic has a good amount of these.
- The grey pegasus with the blonde mane has walleyes whenever she appears, other constant little shoutouts to the show's sizeable Periphery Demographic here and there... This is pretty much Ascended Meme: The Show.
- As of Jan 21st 2012, Derpy is now canon.
- Brian Boitano has, in at least one occasion during an exhibition, skated to the song "What Would Brian Boitano Do?" from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut.
- And now the Food Network has given Boitano a cooking show. He's calling it What Would Brian Boitano Make?, and it does use a cleaned up version of the song as its theme song.
- On The Simpsons, Milhouse was always known for failure. But since the association with a Forced Meme, he has a habit of spouting them and trying to force memes. It fails every time.
- After senator Fritz Hollings infamously referred to Beavis And Butthead as "Buffcoat and Beaver", other characters calling the duo by the wrong name became a running gag (and yes, Buffcoat and Beaver was actually used in an episode).
- Those famous Felix the Cat clocks? They started out as bootlegs. Because of their popularity, the company began selling an "official" version.
- The "Fry sees what you did there", "Not sure if..." and "Why not Zoidberg?" memes were used by Comedy Central in commercials for Futurama's 7th season.
- The Couch Gag for the 7th season premiere was "Not sure if new episode or just rerun of episode I watched drunk"
- The (rather disturbing) "Are You Happy Now?" episode of SpongeBob SquarePants is apparently this to the "Squidward's Suicide" creepypasta. Why they chose THAT, of all memes to ascend...
- Behold, Josh Keaton (voice of Spider-Man from The Spectacular Spider Man) reading image macros based on 60s Spider-Man
Miscellaneous
- Rick Astley Rickrolls the entire United States. (Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, 2008). Quite possibly THE most epic ascended meme ever.
- Rick Astley loves Rickrolling and even did the article in Time Magazine's Most Influential People on "moot" (founder of 4chan) to thank him for creating people who start things like this.
- The float itself was chosen due to being quite punny.
- The first video uploaded to Nancy Pelosi's official government YouTube account ended up being a Rickroll. Likely a staff member's idea.
- The YMCA website uses the Dance Sensation from the Village People song about them in the "About Us" tab.
- Charlie Sheen has embraced the internet memes spawned from interviews on his drug abuse and firing from Two and a Half Men, such as "Tiger blood" and "Winning!" He even got the word "Winning!" tattooed on his wrist.
- Honda, in its sporty Civic Si model, decided for the 2012 model year to add an indicator light that lets the driver know when VTEC kicks in. Yo.
- Dave Silverman, whose face was used to make the "Are you serious?" face, has a sticker of said face attached to the front door of his office.
- Former NASA flight director Gene Kranz never said "Failure is not an option!" during the Apollo 13 mission, but he liked it so much, feeling it perfectly captured the spirit of NASA, that he used it for the title of his memoirs.
- Six Degrees Of Kevin Bacon is an infamous film trivia game started by a group of college students while they were watching films Kevin Bacon appeared in. The game had penetrated pop culture enough to be referenced by Kevin Bacon himself in commercials and in a charity website that he created.
- Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson has embraced the "watch out, we have a badass over here" meme, coming from a certain video of his recorded years ago.
- Blake Boston A.K.A. "Scumbag Steve" also embraced his meme and even made a song about it.
- At the London 2012 Summer Olympics, an image of American gymnast Mc Kayla Maroney scowling on the podium became a meme called McKayla Is Not Impressed. Near the end of the games she tweeted this◊.
- It became a mild Facebook meme for a while to ask Applebee's's page for Battletoads. Then this happened.
- Barack Obama finished off his Ask Me Anything session on Reddit in 2012 by saying, "By the way, if you want to know what I think about this whole reddit experience — NOT BAD!"
- A photo of Hillary Clinton on her cell phone spawned the "Texts from Hillary tumblr. They decided to retire the blog when they realized they couldn't really top a submission from Hillary herself.
- Consumer reporter Ric Romero of Los Angeles' KABC TV gained notoriety on Fark.com when he reported on the "new" phenomenon of blogging - a year after bloggers led the media in ending Dan Rather's career. After that, any time a reporter reported something incredibly obvious, it was, "Ric Romero reporting", and follow-up reports such as "in other news, water is wet" would be attributed to him. Ric found out about his notoriety in 2009 and challenged Fark.com to donate to his favorite charity, the LA County Fire Dept. "Spark of Love" toy drive. After Farkers donated over $13,000, Romero thanked the Fark community on the air for their donations, and then also reported the "breaking news" that "Water is Wet."
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