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Narrative
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"Welcome to the American Museum of Pop Culture, with artifacts dating as far, far, back... as six months ago."
Joel McHale, The Soup
Even my crappy onomonopeotics can evoke one of the most recognizable pieces of music ever used in a movie, Strauss' "Thus Spake Zarustrutha". Hum just those five notes on a crowded bus and everyone around you will get a glint of recognition in their eyes. And even the middleschooler who has, with a straight face, said the words, "Justin Timberlake is, like, a musical genius," will know exactly from whence they came. He'll turn to you and say, "Isn't that from the one where Homer goes to space?"...Damn kids ruin everything.
Classics, almost by definition, are works that are considered to be of high quality, are influential on later works, and are widely known. However, one will often find that only scholars and enthusiasts have first-hand knowledge of the material in question, and that the masses know it either only by title or by homages, parodies, direct references and allusions found in more populist works. Essentially, various bits and pieces of high culture are most widely known through their use in pop culture. Ill-informed people might even think these bits and pieces are original to the popular work.
Pieta Plagiarism exists because of this phenomenon. Most artists would be copying some other usage than the sculpture.
Frequently results in Beam Me Up Scotty, It Was His Sled, and Covered Up.
Compare Memetic Mutation, Older Than They Think, Weird Al Effect, Seinfeld Is Unfunny, Small Reference Pools, The Theme Park Version, Repurposed Pop Song.
— 2001: A Space Odyssey review, Revolution Science Fiction Examples:
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