I can't place the exact reason, but the description for Viral Marketing that says "unlike most examples on this page, it often works" seems weird to me. You can sort of see what I mean by looking at the converse statement, "unlike Viral Marketing, most examples on this page don't often work."
I don't think I could work it into the article itself justifiably, but I thought it was kind of funny and worth noting somewhere. The know your meme "this... thing" entry links to an article about Jim Profit (which is the first I've heard of him).
This article itself claims that "TV Tropes now speaks nothing of Jim Profit, bans anything remotely resembling him on sight, and even speaking of him is grounds for a ban. Just a typical fascist day on TV Tropes really…"
We've been slacking on our fascist banning, guys!
A chub from the Grant Corporation
Is it too soon to pronounce “The Fox” by Ylvis as a forced meme?
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Yes. And why would it be, anyway?
Taking steps to abandon this handle.
Not being a hater, but doesn't the popularity of MLP:Fi M count as a forced meme? A bunch of /co/ people made snide remarks on it, and then actually started watching it...
Three-Puppet Saluter
So... what exactly distinguishes a forced meme from a standard "ha ha, it's funny because someone said it on the Internet" meme? Either way, there's usually very little purpose to the image macro other than its memeness.
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A forced meme is when something is intentionally put forward with the intent of making it into a meme— whether or not it's successful in doing so.
I don't think the Skyrim meme -although it IS used ad nauseam- truly qualifies as a forced meme. YMMV, but I find it unlikely that the developers put the somewhat trite phrase with the intent to make it a meme, and I don't think that the catchphrase emerged as a meme because people felt the need to force it. Then again, all memes are on the whole forced memes, so it's a matter of personal judgement to me.
The arrow in the knee joke isn't a forced meme; it evolved naturally, as a joke on the repetitious nature of the guard's bank of stock phrases. It did however, get old real fast for a lot of people, especially the ones that weren't playing Skyrim.
Would "memetic engineering" be a cool rename? Or at least mentioned for the sake of the pun?
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Considering it's arguably the most famous example of this, could this trope possibly be renamed to "Stop Trying To Make 'Fetch' Happen"? It's also clearer.
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"Arguably most famous example" = Fan Myopia, plain and simple. Not everyone has seen...whatever show that came from (honestly, I have no idea without looking), and the title seems more like something an apathetic dog would say.
I've got a question, does an overused catchphrase make for a forced meme or not? You know on Metokur they use their catchphrase "Glad I Could Help" way too much and it annoys me sometimes. Do you think this qualifies as a forced meme or not?
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I don't really think so; they aren't really the same. A catchphrase is generally intended as an identifiable trait associated with a specific character; a meme is an in-joke intended to be shared.
'Crammed-In Catchphrase' (or something less stupid) would likely be a valid trope, but there's a 99% chance it would degenerate into 'Character I Don't Like from Show I Don't Like has a catchphrase that I find annoying'.
Was, is, and always will be in a passionate love affair with the semicolon.
Can we add the Emoji Movie's "Emoji Pop" dance sequence? It was clearly an attempted "Hey, kids! Do this totally viral thing!" I think they even SAID it was "viral" in the film.