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Forced Meme (view source)

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{{trope}}
[[File:forced-meme2_108.png|link=Brental Floss (Music)|right]]
 
{{quote|''"Milhouse is not a meme. But "Milhouse is not a meme" IS a meme. If you fully understand this you have reached /b/ enlightenment."''|''LURKMORE wiki''}}
 
{{quote|''"Joey, stop trying to turn '[[Brooklyn Rage]]' into a catchphrase, [[It Will Never Catch On|it's never going to work]]."'' <ref>It worked.</ref>|'''Yami Yugi''', ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series (Web Video)|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]''}}
 
Forcing a [[Me Me]] is the act of trying to intentionally raise the popularity of something to memetic status. It can involve mass repetition of a phrase or trying to convince someone else that it is already memetic. Calling a meme a [[Forced Meme]] can be hard to disprove and is an excellent way to slander an annoying up-and-coming meme.
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== Anime and Manga ==
* In chapter 24 of the [[Yuru Yuri|Yuru-Yuri]] manga, [[Genki Girl|Kyouko]] annoys [[The Straight Man|Yui]] - for a change - by attempting to make the term "[[Perfectly Cromulent Word|washargling]]" popular in reference to [[Seinfeldian Conversation|cold prevention]]. Her staring at the "camera" implies that she [[Breaking the Fourth Wall|wants the readers]] to use the term.
* In ''[[Bakuman｡ (Manga)|Bakuman｡]]'', while running ''Tanto'', Shuujin tries to do this. It doesn't really work.
 
 
== Comic Books ==
* In ''[[Kick-Ass (Comic Bookcomics)|Kick-Ass]]'', Dave and his friends try to bring the work "tunk" in to the mainstream as a new curse word.
 
 
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{{quote| '''Regina:''' Gretchen, stop trying to make "fetch" happen! It's not going to happen!}}
** [[Hilarious in Hindsight|There are now t-shirts being sold with a p.o'ed bulldog with the words "stop trying to make fetch happen." ]]
* In the ''[[Josie and Thethe PussycatsPussy Cats]]'' live action film, a corporation uses subliminal messages to do this constantly, like making the word "jerkin'" into a synonym for "cool."
* Parodied in ''[[An American Carol]]'', when Michael Malone is trying to calm down a crowd of antiwar college students and they repeat the last three or four words of every one of his sentences in mantra-like "hey hey, ho ho" manner.
* A similar case occurs in ''[[Mary Poppins]]'', when the madcap chimney sweeps, singing "Step In Time," appear out of the Banks's fireplace and start running amok through the house, mimicking (in song) anything said by the various characters they encounter. Leads to a [[Crowning Moment of Funny]] when a maid screams "Aaah!" and the chimney sweeps chime in with "Aaah! Step in time!"
* "[[Terminator|Hasta la vista, baby]]!"
** Reviews around the release of ''Terminator 3'' actually praised its ''aversion'' to trying to [[Sequel Escalation|one-up the first two's catchphrases]].
* ''[[Beowulf (Filmfilm)|Beowulf]]'' had "I am Beowulf", which didn't catch on considering [[This Is Sparta]] had already been done by ''[[300 (Film)|Three Hundred]]''.
 
 
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== Live Action TV ==
* On ''[[Community (TV)|Community]]'', Pierce keeps trying to force "streets ahead".
** He succeeded in the real world, if one counts the show's fanbase.
* On ''[[News Radio]]'', Beth tries to make the phrase "bitchcakes" popular. Strangely enough, it seems to work.
* An episode of ''[[The Muppet Show]]'' featured John Cleese as a ([[Kayfabe]]) extremely reluctant host who was forced to perform show tunes against his will. He kept protesting, but the Muppets would just take every one of his sentences and turn it into a song lyric. The whole thing eventually snowballed into a showstopping rendition of "[http://youtu.be/KH4rxcePMYg#t=4m15s To Dream the Impossible Dream.]"
* Barney on ''[[How I Met Your Mother (TV)|How I Met Your Mother]]'' is constantly coming up with new expressions and concepts which he tries to popularize. ("It's gonna be a ''thing''.") Some of these have fizzled; others have caught on in-show and even in real life. Occasionally one will come back to bite him, like his "lemon law" did.
** But he never cares because he is so happy that it's a "''thing''".
* Michael in the ''Zoey101'' episode "Drippin' Episode" tried to make "drippin'" catch on as a synonym for "cool." Other characters repeatedly told him it would never catch on...until the last minute of the episode, when it apparently ''has.'' Problem is, nobody believes that ''he'' started it, which prompts him to try making another [[Forced Meme]]..."flump" as a synonym for "not cool."
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== Music ==
* At the turn of [[The Nineties]], [[Michael Jackson]] was jealous of the media nicknames given to Elvis Presley ("The King of Rock and Roll"), Bruce Springsteen ("The Boss"), etc., so his handlers came up with "The King of Pop, Rock, and Soul" for him. It was introduced to the public via an awards ceremony speech given by Elizabeth Taylor and shortened to "The King of Pop" soon afterwards. In the run-up to the release of ''Dangerous'' in 1991, Jackson's management urged MTV and [[FOXFox]] to use the phrase in all press releases, etc. related to Jackson and his videos. Rumors flew that the former was ''forced'' to use the phrase constantly; these were confirmed in the 2011 oral history ''I Want My MTV''. This effort partially succeeded, since fans embraced the nickname right away, but once word got out about its origins, Jackson's publicity machine continuing to push it even as his career entered its downward spiral led to articles/news items to cheekily call him the "self-proclaimed King of Pop" in later years. The meme persists today -- even Jermaine Jackson's announcement to the press that Michael had died started with: "My brother, legendary King of Pop Michael Jackson..." -- and fans insist it isn't a forced one.
 
 
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* One ''[[Zits]]'' strip featured Jeremy trying to get his slang term "plasmic" (meaning, "fine", as in "How are you?" "Plasmic") to catch on. It didn't, and he wound up giving up right away.
** Something similar happened in another strip, where Pierce tries to popularize saying "fully" instead of "totally." It was only in one strip, so presumably it didn't catch on.
* Scott Adams, creator of ''[[Dilbert (Comic Strip)|Dilbert]]'', has admitted to several attempts to force memes that failed - including porcelain cruise (number 2 in the lavatory) and Powerpoint Poisoning. Luckily, he has plenty of memes and tropes arising from his non-attempts (e.g. [[Pointy-Haired Boss]]).
 
== Pro Wrestling ==
* In 2005, the former [[Wrestlecrap]] message boards (now the Freaking Awesome Network forums) tried to get Dennis Stamp ("I'm not booked" from ''Beyond the Mat'') over as a meme, and it worked, at least on said message board.
** It may have [[Ascended Meme|ascended]] when [[Zack Ryder]] referenced Dennis Stamp and recreated the trampoline scene on his Internet show.
** RD Reynolds and Triple Kelly tried to force "Basketball Jones" (Triple Kelly's nickname for [[Batista]]) as a meme, even going as far as to [[Fun Withwith Autocensors|filter Batista's name into that aforementioned name]]. It didn't go over with the boards, though.
* The color commentators (Jerry Lawler and Michael Cole being the worst offenders) seem to have lots of stock phrases that they use over and over, but most of them never catch on among anyone else. Of particular note is Lawler's "Krispy Kreme" wisecrack, which I think was used ''one'' other time by someone else.
** Anything related to Cole after his heel turn. Just talk to anyone of his "Cole Miners" and see how quickly they keep reusing anything Cole has said over and over again.
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== Video Games ==
* In ''[[Final Fantasy VIII (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VIII]]'', [[Genki Girl|Selphie]] tries to force "Booyaka" into being cool. In ''[[Dissidia]]'' she admits that it failed. Unsurprisingly.
* ''[[Touhou (Video Game)|Touhou]]'' [[Touhou (Video Game)/Memes|already has a metric ton of memes]], but fans still try to pile on more. Some of them catch, but others are rejected before they can get off the ground (the "since I'm Nazrin" meme attempt, for example). Still others (Cirno's "[[Japanese Pronouns|Atai]] = Eye" translation, for example) keep getting flogged, [[Discredited Meme|despite most of fanon ignoring the meme's existence]].
** Sakuya padding/Lazy Meiling/Knifing jokes are still spammed, despite flames and downvoting comments.
** Rengeteki. <ref>An attempt to give a [[Fan Nickname]] to an obscure nameless PC-98 midboss. It even affected this wiki. [[Brother Chuck|Mima-sama did not approve]]</ref>.
** Another glaring example is "Yoshika is a cab driver." Despite a brief flurry of Youtube comments and one really bad photoshopped post on Danbooru, this attempt at a forced meme died swiftly and completely.
* ''[[Pokémon]]'': FUCK YEAH, SEAKING! initially started as one, but his since been accepted as a meme.
** ''[[Pokémon Black and White (Video Game)|Pokémon Black and White]]'''s Smugleaf: A Meme In the Making. [[Sarcasm Mode|Thanks, Kotaku.]]
* In ''[[World of Warcraft]]'', in response to the sudden popularity of the [[Ascended Extra|minor]] Horde character [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Varok]] [[Memetic Badass|Saurfang]] (due to the [[Chuck Norris]]-themed 'Facts' actually being [[Actually Pretty Funny|funny/awesome]]), many Alliance players attempted to use the same meme to promote Alliance minor heroes, in hopes of recreating the Saurfang phenomenon.
** To date, they have tried this for Bolvar Fordragon initially, then Magni Bronzebeard when that didn't catch on, then Varian Wrynn (... with ''[[Creator's Pet|disastarous]]'' results), then Magni's brother Muradin Bronzebeard, and now with the upcoming expansion Cataclysm, this is being attempted again with Genn Greymane and [http://www.wowpedia.org/Darius_Crowley Darius Crowley]. To date, none of these characters have actually caught on, despite many of them being generally likable (or at least tolerable) by the ''entire'' playerbase. Although it has resulted in Blizzard giving many of these characters, Bolvar in particular, more prominent roles in the story. <ref>[[Hilarious in Hindsight|Saying he could hold back the entire Scourge on his own is pretty much true now.]]</ref>
* With the release of ''[[Portal 2 (Video Game)|Portal 2]]'', several attempts have been made to get something to catch on to be the next "The cake is a lie!". This has included "SPAAAAACE!", "I'm a potato!" and "combustible lemons". While they have caught on among ''Portal'' fans, none of them have manage to achieve the same widespread popularity. The most likely reason is simply because it couldn't possibly be just as unique and fresh as the original was - which was what amplified the popularity of those original memes.
** It could also be an attempt by the writers to make the memes of ''Portal 2'' to be not so popular as the cake meme due to how [[Creator Backlash|they got sick of everyone telling them how the cake is a lie.]]
* In ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' forums on Bay 12, referring to {{spoiler|going to Hell}} as the "circus" or the "clown car" or the "circus tent", the inhabitants as "clowns", and the stuff you dig through to get there as "cotton candy" or just "candy" has met with mixed results, with some fans amusedly adopting the phrasing and others finding it ridiculous.
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** Also occurs in the ''naming'' of tropes. It's a very real debate in the forums, from time to time, whether the purpose of [[TV Tropes]] includes promoting specific fan-speak terms so as to become recognized across ''all'' fandoms. [[Rule of Cautious Editing Judgement|Please, no specific examples here, though]].
* Occasionally this succeeds on 4chan, and other forum Web sites.
** [[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|Milhouse]] was an early attempt on 4chan to force a meme and, in a weird meta way, succeeded. Milhouse became a way to call out subsequent forced attempts and would occasionally appear to ask if he was a meme yet, leading to "Milhouse is not a meme" becoming a meme. Confused yet?
** In other words, "Milhouse isn't a meme" is a meme, Milhouse himself is not the meme. Thus, "Milhouse isn't a meme" acts as a loose metaphor to discredit forced memes.
** 4chan's anonymous posting means it's subject to a disproportionate number of meme-forcing attempts, since it's easy for a single person to pretend to be multiple people while spamming the would-be meme. "Samefag" is the term users have come up with for people who do this (though it's also commonly leveled at ''any'' post that agrees with any prior one).
* On [[YouTube]], people occasionally attempt to become Internet famous by posting odd videos.
* In ''[[Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series (Web Video)|Yu-Gi-Oh the Abridged Series]]'', Joey tries to force "Brooklyn Rage" into becoming a meme, only to be swiftly cut down by Yami (and his [[Hypocritical Humor|"Egyptian Rage"]]). The funny thing is, ''it worked'': Brooklyn Rage became a meme, to the point where Wayne Grayson (Joey's official voice actor in the 4Kids dub) [[Ascended Meme|cites "Brooklyn Rage" as his favourite Joey line]] despite him "never actually saying it in the show".
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F7Ej7M3xWjY CARD GAMES ON MOTORCYCLES!!!]
** "And don't forget. Kroze. KROZE. KROOOOOOOOOZE!!!"
** Yugi's attempts at "Super special awesome!" which Joey continues to deride.
** Lolcolization, which actually sounds pretty funny if it does take off.
* In his review for ''[[Double Team]]'', [[The Nostalgia Critic (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Critic]] [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I1kLfi-yFoA openly demanded] for "Frying the Coke" to be turned into a meme. It... didn't work.
** In his defense, though, he openly admitted that it probably wouldn't catch on.
** It didn't help that he tried to compare "Frying the Coke" to [[Jumping the Shark]], which is a trope, and Nuking the Fridge, which was meant to be the Jumping the Shark trope applied to film. He later clarified "Frying the Coke" to mean an instance where somebody does something so stupid that you can't help but find it awesome. So it is, more or less, an incidental form of [[Crazy Awesome]].
** He succeeded more with "[[Suburban Commando|I was frozen today!]]".
** [[The Nostalgia Chick (Web Video)|The Nostalgia Chick]] successfully made [[Big Lipped Alligator Moment]] into a trope.
* The [[YTMND]] equivalent is called a [http://wiki.ytmnd.com/Forced_fad "forced fad"]. Examples include Moon Man, [[Rugrats|Drew Pickles]], and [[SpongebobSpongeBob SquarePants|Mr. Krabs]].
* Google bombing.
** [[Twitter]] trending, for that matter.
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** See also [http://www.cracked.com/blog/my-failed-attempts-to-start-internet-meme/ My Failed Attempts to Start an Internet Meme].
* After the [[Platypus Comix]] article "[http://www.platypuscomix.net/kidzone/errorsinjudgment.html Errors in Corporate Judgment]" included a Magic Eye puzzle with a description that used "Froggy" as a synonym for "awesome," the author closed the article by declaring "Froggy" official slang for the website.
** Later, he ended a [http://www.platypuscomix.net/fpo/survival/parker.html tribute] to Parker from ''[[Leverage (TV)|Leverage]]'' by wishing people would make "4chan meme[s]" of her pictures and quotes.
* Going way back to the long-ago time of [https://groups.google.com/group/rec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc/browse_thread/thread/4566389eac75a3e0/15507a2c653b76d9?hl=en&ie=UTF-8&oe=utf-8&q=%22monkey+sugar%22+group:rec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc&pli=1#15507a2c653b76d9 2001], the newsgroup rec.arts.tv.mst3k.misc tried an experiment to get the phrase "monkey sugar" into common language. It didn't work, but [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=monkey+sugar it did get an Urban Dictionary page five years later], and the term is still in (infrequent) use on the newsgroup itself.
* On "Metokur" their phrase "Glad I Could Help" serves as this as not only Habermann himself uses it but every other member of this very same site uses it ''all the damn time''.
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== Web Comics ==
* In ''[[UnwindersUnwinder's Tall Comics]]'', Unwinder tries to [http://tallcomics.com/?id=3 force a meme] by [http://epparker.com/tallcomics/?id=4 mentioning it in webcomics he draws]. Webcomics that he started ''solely to spread said meme''.
* ''[[Sweet Bro and Hella Jeff]]'' is intended as a source of memes for the characters in ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]''.
** The ''[[Homestuck (Webcomic)|Homestuck]]'' fandom itself has had a few forced memes trying to ride on the success of "What's in the box, Jack?", involving before-after reaction pictures of characters.
* ''[[Darths and Droids (Webcomic)|Darths and Droids]]'' gave us "Jar Jar, you're a genius", with the author's commentary clearly indicating his intent to create the meme.
* From the pages of ''[[Keychain of Creation]]'' (or rather, its forum): nooooo my scheme
* Since ''[[The Order of the Stick (Webcomic)|The Order of the Stick]]'' has a lot of [[Ensemble Darkhorse|Ensemble Darkhorses]] as it is, some fans picked a totally random Azurite soldier ("That Guy With a Halberd") and tried to elevate him to this status. It sort of worked---he gets brought up a lot when it's time to make [[Crack Pairing|Crack Pairings]], but still, he's no ''O-Chul.''
* Every other line spoken by Musaran in the [[Ciem Webcomic Series]], as well as what would have been some of Dolly's lines, was intended to be pushed for this status. This includes "Nice gallbladder!", "DIIIIIEEEEEE!!!" and "Now I tear off limbs!!!" So far, none of those lines ever truly caught on. Although "DIIIIEEEEE!!!" does bear a lot of similarity to "[[The Legend ofLegendof Zelda CDiCDI Games|You Must Die!]]"
* [[El Goonish Shive (Webcomic)|El Goonish Shive]] seemed to be doing this with "sexy awesome," but the phrased hasn't been used in the comic in years (fans on the board still use it, though).
* [[Bob and George (Webcomic)|Bob and George]]: According to author comments, he expected "Butts Smell Nice" to catch on as a meme, but didn't really push it when it didn't catch on. The memes that did catch on, like "Wanna go do something stupid?" he considered impossible to predict.
* In ''[[Least I Could Do (Webcomic)|Least I Could Do]]'', Rayne tries to spread the use of "vagoo" as a more casual synonym for the vagina. Some time later, one of his female co-workers uses it, he remarks "I knew that would catch on!"
** Oh, "vagoo" (or, rather, "''[[IKEA Erotica|vaG]][[Fate/stay Stay Nightnight|00]]!''" ''did'' catch on, [[Doujinshi|but not]] [[Hentai|because of]] ''[[Least I Could Do]]''...
** He's also tried to invent new games like "Sit On My Face" (complete with theme song!) and "Put It In My Pants" (only rule: no staplers).
* [[Sheldon]] succeeds in doing this with the word "[http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/040112.html Frr]" to win a bet. He succeeds largely by throwing around huge piles of cash to TV and music executives.
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== [[Western Animation]] ==
* In one episode of ''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]'', Stan mentions offhandedly that he's been trying and failing to create a new catchphrase. At least, Klaus liked it.
* The writers hoped that one episode of ''[[The Simpsons (Animationanimation)|The Simpsons]]'' (Homer Defined) would introduce the phrase to "pull a Homer" (to succeed despite idiocy) into the English language. It didn't. Now, the dozens of times they ''didn't'' try to pull of a meme... most of those worked.
** A British [[Buffy-Speak|sportsperson]] used it once, to the confusion of those in the news.
* In the episode of ''[[South Park (Animation)|South Park]]'' where the characters met their "evil" counterparts from another dimension, Cartman kept using the word "hella" as an adverb meaning "very" or "extremely." It never caught on among anyone else, and Kyle kept (unsuccessfully) telling Cartman to stop using it.
** [[Aluminum Christmas Trees|This is real Northern California slang]], occasionally sprouting up elsewhere.
** In another episode, Cartman tried to spread 'meekrob' as a swear word.
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