Google Meme Observatory
The idea is to use the Google Search Engine's awesome power to track the spread and evolution of memes across the net. Internet: W3 p4wn j00!
- google:a-spectre-is-haunting+the-spectre-of (originally, communism was haunting Europe, but these days, it seems to be global capital; perhaps the authors have misunderstood?) Yes, but flippin' 'eck, everyone seems to be ripping it out of that phrase... --TL
- google:all-your+are-belong-to-us (originally your base, now pretty much everything of yours)
- google:the-internet-is-like (as observed by NTK: they have the T-shirts to prove it. Interesting philosophical discussions on the nature of the Internet do take place, once you've got past the usual 'net is like a {select male or female pudenda}' jokes...)
- google:of-mass-distraction and google:weapons-of-mass (mostly conventional WMDs, but there's a growing mass of others. Keep your browsers peeled for a growth meme...) A wicked 404 message can be found in one of them, but here it is: <http://www.coxar.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/>
- ZOOL is Googleable! <google:death-planet-where-the-intractable>; <google:death-planet-where-the-renegade>
- <google:the-first-rule-of+you-do-not-talk-about+-fight-club>
- <google:ash-nazg-durbatuluk> Not just Lord of the Rings... but... a 'War on Iraq' forum as well?
- <google:googlejuice> Anyone for Recursion Tennis? Interesting that Ward's Wiki is the first hit...
- <google:not-rocket-science> Another slightly irritating meme.
- <google:don't-be-fooled-by+still-i'm-still+-jenny> Knockoffs of the apparently very catchy Jennifer Lopez song 'Jenny from the Block'
- <google:smoking-gun>
- <google:considered-harmful> (see <jargon:considered-harmful> for the origin) and <google:considered-harmless>?
- <google:the-medium-is-the+-message+-massage> (see <google:the-medium-is-the-message> for the origin, and <google:the-medium-is-the-massage> for the original spinoff)
- <google:i-am-jack's> Ah, the Fight Club meme!
- <google:is-the-mind-killer+-fear> - not just beer!
- <google:a-maze-of-twisty-little+all-alike+-passages> - from ADVENT
- <google:separated-by-a-common-language> Attributed (if you check thru the results) to George Bernard Shaw, Churchill, and Oscar Wilde. Who said it first - or was it an Edwardian meme???
- <google:in-spaaace> See In Spaaace.
- <google:deck-of+Iraq> The 'Most Wanted' pack of cards. In more ways than one. Blame GWB. Or Donny Rumsfeld. But please note the amusing imitations... a growth meme? <google:pack-of-cards+Iraq> for the pedants' sake. They're already being talked about in Anchorage and sold on eBay. Phew!
- Is that really a meme? Which are these 'amusing imitations' of which you speak? Check some of the hits on the second pages. Amongst them, a Greenpeace 'pack of polluters', with GWB, and a 'pack of Iraqi artifacts' wherein the looted antiquities are given identification using cards... Now, we also have the Texan Republicans' version: stand up and be counted, Democrat members of the Texas House of Representatives... <http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/3029629.stm> And another: the 'Deck of Weasels' by the right-wing (and I mean worse than Fox) NewsMax: <http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2003/5/7/124825.shtml>
- The New York Times reckons that the original replica Iraq Most Wanted deck was the fastest-growing fad in history, faster than the Hula Hoop of the 1950s: and all thanks to email advertising (read 'spam').
- <google:the-real-Saddam+please-stand-up> Originally a Slim Shady song, then a Flash file... now threatening to be up there with All Your Base. Dang, the best one of the bunch has now 404d. Never mind... if you don't mind popups (or have some means to exterminate them), the first Google result should lead you there.
- <google:second-superpower> Probably rather an old meme by now, but there was a new article in the New York Times about it... is it public opinion, or is it the Internet? Accusations of Google Washing abound...
- google:dammit-Jim-i'm-a+not-a and google:dammit-Jim-i'm-a-doctor-not-a - classic Star Trek meme in the house!
- google:slouching-towards+to-be-born+-bethlehem
- google:where-we're-going-we-don't-need+-roads
- google:did-I-just-see-air-force-one (a meme which seems to be displaying exponential growth... or not.)
- google:wardrobe-malfunction (Besides its Hello Glastonbury karma, this is a contender for Best Euphemism of 2004.)
- google:do-not-taunt
- google:iz-pastede-on-yay
- No idea where this comes from.
- There exists a place called Fandom Wank; originally it was a community on LJ but they got kicked off for offensive behaviour. Now they live on LJ clone Journal Fen: http://www.journalfen.net/userinfo.bml?user=fandom_wank . Basically, they point and laugh at fans they consider 'wanky'; that covers a multitude of sins, from daring to take your fandom seriously to just being dumb. 'My head iz pastede on yay' was coined on fandom wank in response to some badly photoshopped pictures of actors from Lord Of The Rings in intimate situations. It's all a bit schoolyard, really, although every so often (as in this case) they come up with something memorable.
- google:I-for-one-welcome-our-new+overlords+-insect
- google:Your-ideas-are-intriguing-to-me
- google:congressional-medal-of+-honour+-honor
- google:if-you+-strike+become-more+than-you-can-possibly-imagine
- google:the-*-is-strong-in-this-one+-the-force-is
- google:always-two-there-are-*-*-and-*-*+-master+-apprentice
- google:destroy-all+-all-monsters
- google:and-then-a-miracle-occurs
- google:i-know-i'll-use-*-now-they-have-two-problems+-regular-expressions
- Originally regular expressions, in a famous quote by Jamie Zawinski
- google:*-related-program-activities+-mass-destruction
- google:the-end-of-the-*-as-we-know-it+-the-world-as
- google:*-is-dead
- google:the-jack-bauer-of-*
The Language Log calls these 'snowclones': <http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/000350.html>, <http://drzaius.ics.uci.edu/blogs/danyelf/archives/000057.html>.
Obsessive meme genius: <http://www.darryl.com/badges/>. See also <google:we-don't-need-no-stinkin+OR+we-don't-need-no-stinking>.
Not clearly memes:
Category Meme