History Main / TheCatchPhraseCatchesOn

-->-- Jackie Chiles, ''{{Seinfeld}}'' Finale

* "Bond. James Bond" (in almost every Bond movie, to the point were the writers took heat for leaving it out ''QuantumOfSolace''.)

* LewisCarroll brought quite a few words and phrases into the language, including "chortle", "galumph", "portmanteau word", and less meaningful but still recognisable terms like "jabberwocky", "brillig", and "slithy".

** He also encouraged people calling into his show to say "ditto" rather than waste airtime gushing about how much they agreed with him, which led to Limbaugh fans being called "dittoheads".

* "Bond. James Bond" (in all but one Bond movie, and they took heat for leaving it out of that one.)

** Considering he was not just "a linguist" but an associate editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, it makes a lot of sense. (And appropriately enough, "hobbit" is now in the OED.)

* "[Example A] [exhibits trait X], [example B] not so much." suddenly became a pretty popular way to make a comparison after {{Borat}} came out.

* Similarly, many people refer to [[MadScientist Mad Scientists]] in any context as [[GirlGenius Sparks]].

* ''BuffyTheVampireSlayer''. See BuffySpeak.

** Step 1: Think of a meme. Step 2: ? [[StepThreeProfit Step 3: PROFIT!]]

* ''BattlestarGalactica'' serves up "frak" for use as a minced oath.

* ''WesternAnimation/YoungJustice'' Whelmed. Aster. Concerted. Thank you, Robin.

!!Examples

* In ''StrangerInAStrangeLand'', Robert A. Heinlein coined the term "grok," which means literally "to drink", but also "to love," "to understand," "to empathize," and - you get the picture. The term became popular among hippies and science fiction fans, and is now included in the Oxford English Dictionary.

* Police are popularly referred to as "Five-O" thanks to ''{{Hawaii Five-O}}''.

* ''HowIMetYourMother'' has several of these: "eating a sandwich" and "reading a magazine" are euphemisms for smoking weed and masturbating, respectively. Also, many of Barney and Ted's rules, like Revertigo and The Mermaid Theory. Phrases like, "Suit up!" and "Legen - wait for it - dary!" have become more popular.

* WilliamShakespeare contributed 1,700 new words to the English language (where would the Internet be without the word "rant"?), created scores of phrases (from the obvious "to be or not to be" to "with bated breath" and "ForegoneConclusion") and popularized the uses of various method of phrases constructions such as combining two adjectives with the word "and". That's right: When you say "that was ''blank'' and ''blank''" (e.g., "I like it fast and loose", "I like my women like my coffee, strong and bitter"), you probably owe it to Shakespeare.

** Likewise, Alexander Pushkin is WilliamShakespeare for Russian language, although he was a poet and writer, not a dramatist.

* ''FamilyGuy'' can have an effect on a viewers speaking pattern, but it seems "giggity" and "What the Deuce?" saw wider usage than just fans.

* A lot of the fans/'phans' of ''DannyPhantom'' pick up insults from the show. Most notably 'cheese head' or 'you are one seriously crazed-up fruit loop'. Coincidentally, both were originally describing Vlad.

* ''SouthPark'':

** [[SelfDemonstratingArticle As illustrated above.]]

* ''Film/TheGodfather'' brought the line, "make you [[AnOfferYouCantRefuse an offer you can't refuse.]]" Usually this is supposed to mean that the deal is so good you'd be crazy to pass it up, but the original offer from the movie is actually extortion: "Either his brains or his signature would be on the contract."

* Many people use the Newspeak from ''[[NineteenEightyFour 1984]]'' to make a point - for example, "doubleplusgood", "doublethink", "thought police", and "thoughtcrime". It also created the term "Big Brother" to refer to a dominating or intrusive force of authority.

* In ''[[StrangerInAStrangeLand Stranger in a Strange Land]]'', Robert A. Heinlein coined the term "grok," which means literally "to drink", but also "to love," "to understand," "to empathize," and - you get the picture. The term became popular among hippies and science fiction fans, and is now included in the Oxford English Dictionary.

* Phrases such as "White Man's burden" and a cigar being "a smoke" come from [[RudyardKipling Kipling]].

** [[YourMileageMayVary Jack out and smell the soykaf, uh, chummer!]]

* {{Shadowrun}}'s FutureSlang is so convincing players tend to start using it in everyday conversations.

A specific form of {{Memetic Mutation}}, it is the cultural effect that a runaway hit show can have on the English language. Characters' [[PersonalDictionary personal vocabularies]] often seep into the real world, especially if they [[{{Neologism}} give a name to a phenomenon that didn't formerly have one]].

* ''Film/MeanGirls'' has Gretchen Weiners making a failed attempt at introducing the word, "Fetch."

** {{Resistance is Futile}}. (They popularized it, but the phrase dates back at least to CoolHandLuke.)

** Similarly, JohannWolfgangVonGoethe for German. Many sayings and idioms can be traced back directly to his works, most famously {{Faust}}.

* The AustinPowers movies brought statements such as, "Yeah, baby, yeah!" and "Oh, Be-have, baby!", "[[FrickinLaserBeams Friken' Laser-beams"]] as well as making "shag" a more popular term in the USA.

* ''Literature/TheBible'' is probably the Ur-Example, supplying the meaning of so many words and phrases that have become so common that most people don't realize their origin as biblical metaphors. For example, the "parable of the talents" brought about the use of "talent" (being a unit of weight for valuables) to mean "aptitude or ability." A lot of very common names also come from the Bible -- even parents who don't necessarily know that the name comes from the Bible use them.

** [[BeamMeUpScotty "Doublespeak"]] is not from the book, but was probably coined on the same principles and certainly would have been at home there.
* Phrases such as "White Man's burden" and a cigar being "a smoke" come from Kipling.
* Lewis Carroll brought quite a few words and phrases into the language, including "chortle", "galumph", "portmanteau word", and less meaningful but still recognisable terms like "jabberwocky", "brillig", and "slithy".

* "Muggles", a term originating for J.R. Rowling's HarryPotter books, is used by most fangroups to refer to "anyone who isn't a part of our fandom", and thus wouldn't understand what they're talking about.

* ''{{Seinfeld}}'' is the trope namer. The show's main characters come up with their own lexicon of terms that may or may not be shared by other characters.

* D&D gave us hit points, now used as a universal term for life bars in video games.

* Believe it or not, the current use of "nimrod" to mean a stupid, silly, or foolish person derives from Bugs Bunny using it sarcastically to taunt Elmer Fudd. (Nimrod is a Bible character described as a "mighty hunter before the Lord.")

* A lot of the fans/'phans' of DannyPhantom pick up insults from the show. Most notably 'cheese head' or 'you are one seriously crazed-up fruit loop'. Coincidentally, both were originally describing Vlad.

* For a while, Jim Carrey movies tried to launch a SeinLanguage CatchPhrase... "[[Film/TheMask Somebody stop me!]]" "[[AceVentura Alrighty then!]]" etc.