Memes aren't limited to the Internet, either. Just take a look at these gems that have spawned outside the confines of the computer lab.
Both Politics and Sports are memetic enough to gain their own sections.
Please add entries in the following format:
The meme. [[hottip:Explanation:The explanation behind the meme.]] Explanation
Like this.
Antoine Dodson's "Hide your kids hide your wives hide your husbands cuz they rapin everybody out here" Explanation
A news report of Antoine Dodson's sister's attempted rape that went viral. Was Auto Tuned into the song Bedroom Intruder.
Charles Mackay's 1841 book Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds includes a chapter on catchphrases that amount to Internet memes without the Internet or even computers, making this trope Older Than Radio.
The UK equivalent of "Post No Bills" signs are signs reading "Bill stickers will be prosecuted". Which, naturally, inspired graffiti artists to respond with "Bill Stickers is an innocent man" and the like.
William Stickers, the failed Communist ghostpost-life citizen in Terry Pratchett's Johnny and the Dead, is named in reference to this.
The card game The Spoils is rife with references to Internet memes and popular culture. Cards include A Series of Tubes◊, 0p3r4710n 1337 H4x0rz◊, and various other memes and internet references, including NEDM, Chuck Norris jokes, 1337 and computer games.
Drunk people in Mexico somehow became the greatest Internet fad in 2008. You can absolutely bet any Mexican youth with an internet connection will at least recognize the following names: "Dios Eolo" ("God Aeolus"), a drunk man who claims to have superpowers; "¡Me amarraron como puerrrrrco!" ("I was tied like a piiiiiiiig!") also know as "la canaca", a drunk man who insists on being able to drive under the influence; "Tengo Miedo" ("I'm Afraid"), a sober guy afraid of the alcohol meter; and "Qué pasó, muchacho?" ("What's up, boy?"), an awesomely drunk guy who wants to buy booze after 1:00 AM, when stores are not allowed to sell alcoholic drinks, famous for saying "¡Ni merga!" (kinda like "Fook no!") and the newest one "FUA!fuerza universal aplicada(is kinda like cosmos or ki)".
The Fauxtivational Poster. You know those motivational posters in offices and counsellors offices that expect you to be motivated solely through use of a pretty photograph and a trite saying ("Hope: It's the Tulip of Life that matters, not the Onion of Failure")? The existence of site such as this and this have allowed parodies of these posters - which, although less earnest, are usually a lot more effective - to spring up all over the web.
Since about 2001, you can't open a computer magazine without seeing the phrase, "(This/Next) year will be the year of Desktop Linux."
Well it is growing.
The terrorist Mas Selamat escaped from Singaporean captivity on 27 Feb 2008 through a toilet window. Amid the discussion, a netizen mockingly 'shopped his head onto a Prison Break poster, creating Toilet Break.
Also from Singapore, the 'Boomz' meme, which is remarkably similer to Miss South Carolina below, except this one involves Singapore's Miss World finalist, in a TV interview rather than the actual competition, and the question is more on fashions than geography... just see it for yourself.
The incident when a boy in NS made his maid carry his field pack, causing things like this to show up on forums:[1] In addition, comic strips have spun up on newspapers parodying this.
One from well before the days of the Internet: Vlad the Impaler, whose rather brutal reign inspired quite a few legends. There are numerous stories about various crimes in questionable circumstances brought before Vlad. Moreover, how the story ends usually depends on whether the teller views Vlad as a strict but just ruler who enjoyed the Secret Test of Character, or a Card-Carrying Villain who didn't care. Whether or not any of these actually happened is circumstantial at best. Of course, that's not even getting into other legends the man inspired.
In Spain, the Spanish Phrase "¿Por qué no te callas?" ("Why don't you shut up?") became a MEGA meme after the King of Spain yelled it at Hugo Chavez after the latter called the Spanish PM a fascist, even after his mike was cut.
It was so obvious she was making it up. I don't think she actually thought that the reporter would be dumb enough to believe her.
There's a debatably-true story about the origin of the word 'quiz' which suggests that it originated when someone, for a bet, or maybe an experiment, chalked it on a bunch of walls around Dublin to get people talking about it. It worked, and the word caught on, eventually acquiring meaning.
During winter, there are cries of "SWINE FLU!" whenever anyone mentions that they have a cold.
Dublin universities (especially UCD) - Pat Paterson's exploits and abilities appeared on every toilet door - he was Chuck Norris before the Chuck Norris meme existed. Apparently he was a real person, an Agricultural Science student who was very uncomfortable with fame. The meme got old around 2006, but isn't quite dead.
It should be known that Sean Turner kicks haemophiliacs. If you can think of anything that you shouldn't do, Sean Turner did it.
The letter I, followed by a heart, and then a piece of cheese, has been seen everywhere.
"Don't Stop Believin'" by Journey has gained meme status, especially after The Sopranos' non-ending. You burst out in song in a crowded area and see how many people join. It's rather impressive when it works.
In Detroit, the men they hire to play music at sporting events deliberately invoke this trope at every possible opportunity. They'll even mute the loudspeaker volume for the "born and raised in South Detroit" bit (despite the fact "South Detroit" isn't residential in the slightest), causing many a facepalming from visiting fans and television spectators. It's almost a REQUIREMENT to know the song if you're from the area... or at least that part of it anyways.
Doesn't help that "South Detroit" is a nickname for the Canadian city of Windsor.
You can buy anything at Harrod's. Seriously. If you wanted to buy an elephant, they'd ship it to you (for the right price, of course.)
"Mad, bad, and dangerous to know." Everybody has heard it, although most people don't know it was coined to describe Lord Byron, making it Older Than Radio.
Ever since the Chilean right-wing newspaper "El Mercurio" was caught blatantly lying about the university protests and occupations of 1967, every Chilean person knows that "EL MERCURIO MIENTE!" ("EL MERCURIO LIES").
A few years ago in Australia, the Yellow Pages showed an ad where an unfortunate employee forgot to place the company's ad in the Yellow Pages. The owner screaming "NOT! HAPPY! JAN!" became a meme for someone who's really pissed - it even became a popular protest sign against then-Prime Minister John Howard, "Not Happy, John".
The recent eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, which covered the European skies with thick ash that grouned planes, had spwaned the phrase I HATE ICELAND!!!
From a Scot.
The phenomenon of the Czech genius Jára Cimrman. He received a number of votes at the Greatest Czech contest, and had an asteroid (and almost a mountain) named after him.
He is also entirely fictitious, a subject and purported author of a number of plays at the Czech Jára Cimrman Theater; but as the above demonstrates, playing along with the joke of his actual existence is very much a part of the phenomenon.
"Do Americans really call ... ...'s?" Enter something normal like, "basketball", for the latter and something humorous for the former, like "loopty-swoops". It's based off a few people asking about the American versions of English words in that manner. A variation is "lol at Americans calling ... ...."
The WDWMagic community has The Ladder, whose presence at any construction site is a good sign for the upcoming attraction or, in it's initial appearance during Mission Space's construction, being the epic ride itself.
Yo dawg, I heard you like memes, so we put memes in your memes so you can mutate while you mutate.
"My name is Mud.", popularly attributed to Dr. Samuel Mudd. At least in American English, the phrase is synonymous with calling yourself a fuckup; considering Dr. Mudd was the doctor who tended to the broken leg of John Wilkes Booth (who infamously assassinated Abraham Lincoln at the Ford theatre in 1865), crediting him with the phrase is rather appropriate.
Urban Legends are often the product of memetic mutation. Many of them are the result of true events being retold, and occasionally modified to change things like the location an event took place, the company involved in a business-related legend, or the time period of a time-dependent legend. Thus they get sent around in a form that's utterly detached from reality.
If you ain't living life the Charlie Sheen way, you're not WINNING.
Based on an actual news report about the lack of a proper river-bridge in a rural community named Roberts Field, St. Andrew; the quote comes from Clifton Brown (since nicknamed "Cliff Twang"), a resident who was interviewed by the reporter and spoke in a "posh" American twang in order to try and make a good impression; pieces of the news report and Brown's statements were spliced together into a music video by creator Kevin "DJ Powa" Hamilton. An edited clip of the original news report can be found here.
When the Alice stories were being written a popular meme around London was "WHO are YOU?". Now, of course, it's immortalizing as the dialog of the smoking Caterpillar.
Adding the phrase "big, gay" the front of things. I don't know what where it came from, but it's pretty prevalent. Examples:
Hipsters are a pretty obscure source of memes. You probably haven't heard of them.
I only (do something) ironically.
Pepper Spray Cop. Explanation
During an Occupy protest at University of California Davis, the police reacted by spraying a crowd of seated protestors on a sidewalk with pepper spray. A still from video or still photograph of one of the cops became Pepper Spray Cop.
"If you'd like to make a call, please hang up and try again."
