What exactly is (or isn't) Memetic Mutation?

Maybe there should be a FandomMeme/ namespace for fandom in-jokes (like what most of the memes in a work's Memes/ namespace seem to be right now), and the Memes/ namespace for more widespread memes (e.g. The Cake Is a Lie, Zero Wing, Arthur's fist) and things such as WebOriginal.Virgin Vs Chad and WebOriginal.Creamsicle.

Although since The New '10s, the Internet is a bit more fractured and widespread. The only memes I can think of being worthy to trope are Bowsette and any of those '00s gems from Weezer's Pork and Beans video.

Also WebOriginal.LOL Cats have a page here.

The previous Wiki Talk thread that discussed troping memes pointed out that many of the tropes on these pages were audience reactions to the memes and not what, actually, is in the meme itself.

Edited by ccorb on Sep 23rd 2020 at 5:02:37 AM

I also agree on splitting Memetic Mutation into something like Fandom Meme & a trope based on its original definition.

As mentioned by @AlleyOop; in practice, almost all of the existing entries we have on Memetic Mutation are really just fandom memes, not "mutations" or ones that have escaped into (mainstream) pop culture.

By creating a separate trope like Fandom Meme, we would be able to keep all the Memetic Mutation contributions we have had over the years, solve the Trope Decay issue that has been long plaguing Memetic Mutation, and also prevent future disputes on what is Memetic Mutation and what isn't.

It's a perfect solution.

Edited by Asoktenchea on Sep 24th 2020 at 3:54:38 PM

You know, aside from the part where we would have to clean up 19,000+ wicks.

Meh, I'd be willing.

We'd need a wick check to go to TRS, so anyone interested can come to this thread.

Except for the part where we've long declared that TV Tropes is not for memes in a general sense.

- So... What?

So... Is Memes from one work being applicable to another, a YMMV or nothing at all?

The first is from somewhere else, the second is due to the work only.

YMMV.The Helpful Fox Senko San:

But Fandom memes aren't just "general memes", they're part of a work's fanbase's culture, which we do discuss here. Not allowing us to discuss it leaves a big gap in our ability to properly explore these things; it just doesn't make sense to be so limiting and it's not like Fandom Memes would somehow lead to us trying to trope, say, Boomer Memes. It's just a facet of fandom culture that shouldn't be ignored because "memes".

Hell, the actual definition of Memetic Mutation seems a lot closer to "general memes" than Fandom Memes would.

got into this discussion after seeing that notice in hololive YMMV...

now I wonder if FBK's "Beat up a pineapple" is considered a meme

Memetic Mutation as a trope I understand as something that is repeatedly used outside of context to create another joke. If enough people use it without referencing where it came from, then it grew from a meme into the trope.

This also has been a consistent problem with ongoing TV shows, when what people add at best count as episode comments and never mentioned by anyone again a week later.

Like Memes.RWBY. Going by the definition of Memetic Mutation in accordance to the various comments in this thread, the page should be shaved to a mere fraction of what it has now become (read: three freaking subpages).

I did a Memetic Mutation Wick Check fairly recently and there's an unopened TRS thread too.

Memes.RWBY has come up again on ATT. I'm seriously considering the sledgehammer option.

Hold off. A TRS thread just opened.