Memetic Mutation - Television Tropes & Idioms

alt title(s): Meme

By the way, NEDM

John Hodgman: [Packets like these] could be anything on the internet. Spam, videos of lonely teens practicing with their lightsabers, comical reimaginings of movie premises — Brokeback Mountain, for example, cats dressed as nuns eating from dishes of gravy...
Jon Stewart: Or maybe even useful information, or news analysis.
John Hodgman: Well, I guess. In fact, these are all Chuck Norris jokes.

The Daily Show, Net Neutrality Act

Sociologists notwithstanding, on the Internet, a "meme" is usually described as a catchy derivative of some aspect of pop culture, parodied and repeated to the point that its origins and original meaning become muddled.

Fandom being what it is, this also applies to characters. Occasionally they are based on in-jokes relating to production or voice actor similarities, but the Internet is liable to spread a "meme" version of a character which is totally (sometimes deliberately) at odds with the original depiction, such as a cheerful version of a dark or scary character, a sexy version of a character featured in a Jekyll And Hyde episode, or softening a depressed one into a simply unlucky character. However, this is different from outright decay since the fandom does it out of fun, not willful ignorance. Indeed, a character who is subject to memes simply shows that the fandom finds them memorable and catchy, even if they only showed up for a fraction of the time compared to other characters. This becomes especially potent for productions that leave the mainstream market relatively quickly.

Depending on how strongly the production company is tied with fandom, this can actually be acknowledged within the series in the form of omake, Fan Service, or Popularity Power.

Another quirk of memes depends on where they're initially propagated. Memes often spread regardless of content, taste, or sensibilities, while the original source may be the only ones who know enough about the source material to use it ironically. As well, some memes reference something common, but become catchy enough to be associated with only a single new thing. Sometimes a meme can escape the internet and get referenced in the medium it parodied. When this is the case you get an Ascended Meme. Some forgotten or discredited memes are even resurrected thanks to the Popularity Polynomial.

Perhaps the most famous meme (which, by its nature, became an Ascended Meme) is Leeroy Jenkins — see? We mentioned the name and you knew who we meant, didn't you?. Over the course of the video, Leeroy became famous by way of becoming a Jeopardy question, and soon reached Ascended Meme status from a parodied appearance in Guild Wars, numerous tribute videos, a Dave Barry mention, and as a card

◊ in the World Of Warcraft card game. (and even, if you listen carefully enough, the Make Love, not Warcraft episode of South Park). Oh, and there's a Jenkins achievement in WoW, as of Wrath of the Lich King. He is also a figure in the newish World of Warcraft Collectable miniatures Game. He even shows up in the sci-fi game Mass Effect as a Red Shirt in the first mission.

Note that while this article refers to internet-based memes, the phenomenon is by no means limited to it. Just as Sein Language is that unique blend of terms you and your friends use, so too is a meme a unique term for a particular group. Most of the time, that group just happens to be the entire internet.

A note: When adding examples, don't just yell out the memetic phrase or concept. Explain it too, for the sake of us noobs.

If you'd like to keep up with the memes of the day, go to knowyourmeme.com

Sub-tropes and specific variants (add new examples to those pages, not here):

Memes by Media