Memetic Mutation/Real Life/Sports

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAAL! GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAA...

BBRRRRRRRZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ

You probably won't understand many of these memes unless you're a die-hard sports fan, but it's hard to deny their impact.


Moller: "He fires! He scoooooooooooores!!!! LA FACE WITH AN OAKLAND BOOTY!!!!!"

  • The score is tied at 28. Fine. Because Brett Favre is the quarterback of the Minnesota Vikings.
  • Tony Kornheiser: Why
  • "Batista with the CAAAAAAAAAAAAAATCH!"
  • Evgeni Plushenko loves his quads. Because if you don't do a quad, you're not a real skater. TRUFAX.
    • Platinum Medal.
  • Towel Power started when then-Vancouver Canucks head coach Roger Nielson raised a white towel on the end of a hockey stick, making a mock surrender to the dodgy officiating of the series with the Chicago Black Hawks in the 1982 Stanley Cup playoffs. Nielson was ejected after several players copied his sentiment. Ever since, Vancouver Canucks fans have brought white towels to their games and whirl them enthusiastically to support the team.
    • So does everyone else. Including Chicago fans, who HATE Vancouver.
  • Kyle Wellwood is fat. Popularized by Toronto Maple Leafs blog Down Goes Brown.
    • Another Maple Leafs-based meme is Luke Schenn, Memetic Sex God, which portrays the aforementioned Schenn as being able to impregnate people by simply looking at them.
    • Travis Hair, the proprietor of Five For Howling, a Phoenix Coyotes blog, along with Chemmy, who runs the Leafs blog Pension Plan Puppets created the "Throw The Snake" phenomenon for the team's 2010 Stanley Cup Playoff run, as a response to the Detroit Red Wings' octopus tradition.
  • For the 2010 Stanley Cup Playoffs, the NHL released a series of ads showing great moments in Stanley Cup history (Bobby Orr's game-winner, Patrick Roy making a save in the '86 Cup Finals, etc.) reversed, with a line stating "What If Bobby Didn't Fly"? and then the Tagline "History Will Be Made". Naturally, hockey fans rallied to make parodies such this as well as this.
  • In Brazil, criticizing announcer Galvão Bueno (present in most of Rede Globo's sports broadcasts) is a national pastime. It reached severe memetic status during the opening ceremony of 2010 FIFA World Cup, when "Cala Boca Galvão" ("Shut Up Galvão") became the Twitter top trending topic worldwide. Seeing foreigners confused, a Brazilian created a fake explanation ("GALVAO is a very rare bird in Brazil. CALA BOCA means SAVE, the brazilians are very sad because lots of GALVAOS die everyday.") that also became a meme, with the creation of a "Galvão Foundation" and saying Lady Gaga would record a song to help them.
  • Anything involving UFC fighter Lyoto Machida and urine. (It seems that both he and his dad are aware of the meme enough to intentionally feed it.)
    • Ditto for Anderson Silva and dancing.
  • After a tie game with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2008, Philadelphia Eagles QB Donovan McNabb reveals that he didn't know an NFL game could end in a tie.
  • In every single World Cup 2010 thread on a certain site: BRRZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ. To elaborate: In South Africa, a plastic horn called the vuvuzela is strongly associated with football, and played at every soccer match in support. It probably would have stayed there... if not for the World Cup there exposing everyone to the weird, droning noise of the thing.
    • Youtube even joined in on the fun, with a soccer ball icon on videos that, when clicked, caused vuvuzela... sounds to play.
    • I don't see what's so wrong with the--BRRRZZZZ!--with the--BBBRRRRZZZZ!--with--BBBBBBRRZZZZZZZZZZZZZ-cut it out!
    • Also, anything related to Paul the octopus and his "predictions".
      • This may have something to do with EVERY SINGLE ONE being correct...

Encyclopedia Dramatica: It is a known fact that Paul makes Vegas bookies shit bricks.

    • On the other side of the luck spectrum, in Brazil Mick Jagger became the official jinx of the Cup, due to his presence during USA, England, and Brazil's defeats (and a network discovered he was also in England's eliminations in 1998 and 2006).
  • Little roller up along first; BEHIND THE BAG! It gets through Buckner! Here comes Knight and the Mets win it!
  • These guys came to play [insert sport here]!
  • "I PERSONALLY GUARANTEE THAT THE CLEVELAND CAVALIERS WILL WIN AN NBA CHAMPIONSHIP BEFORE THE SELF-TITLED FORMER 'KING' WINS ONE." Um, yeah, Dan Gilbert's Caps Lock key is loud.
    • Before, you simply announced that you were leaving a team. Nowadays, it's all about "taking your talents to" a different team.
      • "Taking my talents to South Beach" has become a catch-all expression for anything: Using the bathroom, dates with Rosie Palms, quitting a job, moving, leaving a party, etc.
      • Even Mario once proclaimed in an interview for Mario Sports Mix that he's taking his talents to the Mushroom Kingdom!
  • Not sure if this should go here or not, but recently the Boise State University/University of Idaho sports rivalry flared up a bit more than usual when the BSU president, in a newspaper interview, referred to U of I fans as "nasty" and "inebriated". Since then, "nasty and inebriated" has become something of a meme—apparently it's even being put on T-shirts.
  • Chris Johnson has GETTING AWAY FROM THE COPS SPEED.
  • Devin Hester, you are ridiculous!
    • Don't get Devin Hester a Christmas present, because he'll just return it.
  • Cigar Guy. For those not in the know, Tiger Woods at one point lobbed a shot right into a photographer's face (thankfully saved by an unfortunate camera). While the image of a blurry ball about to smack someone in the noggin is hilarious, photoshoppers worldwide focused in on a strange looking fellow who to all appearances was grinning ear to ear behind a ridiculous combination of Porn Stache, Cigar, and Turban.
  • Marv Mauve Albert: VINCE CAWTER!!!YES!!!!
    • "Bill Parcells does a sur-pris-ingly good me."
  • Randy Moss is a slouch!
    • The gloves on his helmet actually make him look like a walrus.
  • HOLY TOLEDO!
  • Rex Ryan wants as many wins as he has chins.
    • Rex Ryan's newly discovered foot fetish.
    • He dyed his hair because he's looking to become a head coach.
    • I think we're the team to beat.
    • Kris Jenkins in a golf cart.
    • Ryan's predictions of the Jets winning the Super Bowl every year have become quite memetic. The first two years people laughed because the Jets got to the AFC Championship Game and choked, but things became absolutely hilarious in the third year because Ryan again predicted that the Jets would win the Super Bowl, yet the Jets failed to even make the playoffs. Namath he ain't.
  • I'm not a machine. I'm Albert Pujols.
    • Why didn't you eliminate them, Albert?
      • Shut up.
  • Hans Moleman Productions Presents: Man Getting Hit By Football
    • When Brett Favre was caught on camera being hit in the groin with a football during a practice session (seen here), comparisons being drawn to the above were inevitable—especially since at this stage of his career Favre's advanced age was a frequent subject of derision.
  • Gary Bettman is booed in every single NHL arena he walks in to. EVERY.SINGLE.ONE.
  • Nobody touches the Shaqtus.
    • They can't touch the Shaqzongas either.
    • Shaq is sometimes referred to as "Shaw" after a common typo.
    • His infamously poor free throw shooting—to the point that promos for his turn as an anchor for Inside the NBA features him bricking an FT.
  • Nom nom
  • The supposed Randy Moss/Tom Brady "catfight" which came down to Moss saying Brady looked like a girl.
  • Amongst Latin American baseball fans, there's the iconic shout by Ernesto Jerez every time there's a home-run: "A LO PROFUNDOO Y ¡¡¡¡NO NO NO NO NO NO, DÍGANLE QUE NO A ESA PELOTA!!!!"
  • Livan Hernandez, the Cuban defector who was quickly escorted into the Florida Marlins' lineup, gave a broken-English speech that became a South Florida meme following the 1997 World Series victory: "Team happy...Miami happy...everybody happy!"
  • Dennis Hopper for Nike. "Bad things, man".
  • The Wave.
  • Rats and octopi on the ice.
  • 1908. Cubs. Often yelled at them by cardinal fans... uh... nuff said
    • "1940! 1940! 1940!". Before the New York Rangers won the Stanley Cup in 1994, it didn't matter if they beat your team, because you could always get them back by taunting them with that chant.
    • Ditto the "1918!" chant and the Boston Red Sox prior to 2004.
    • Speaking of 1994... OJ did it didn't do it.
  • LET'S GET READY TO RUMBLLLLLLE!
  • "Go crazy, folks! Go crazy!"
  • "I don't believe what I just saw!"
  • "Havlicek stole the ball! It's all over! It's all over!"
  • "...and that was the worst baserunning in the history of the game!"
  • Jay Cutler doesn't always throw interceptions, but when he does, he throws them in the red zone. Also Phillip Rivers made him cry.
  • After LeBron James' infamous "Decision", depicting the Unholy Trinity (James, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade) as the nWo. "He is the third man in this picture!"
    • And after LeBron's extremely poor performance in the 2010-2011 finals, wherein he seemed to vanish in the 4th quarter, the internet flooded with jokes at his expense. For instance: "I asked LeBron for change for a dollar. He gave me 75 cents and said 'Sorry, I don't have a 4th quarter.'"
    • Prior to either of these, the biggest meme associated with "King James" was the "crab dribble" incident, wherein he defended an obvious travel by claiming it was the perfectly legal crab dribble (which is real, but involves actual, uh, dribbling). This eventually mutated into a YouTube fad of leaving "LeBron traveled" as a comment on videos featuring him, regardless of context.
  • Gus Johnson orgasms on live television. Okay, not really, but with calls like this and this, you wouldn't tell the difference.
  • Late Cleveland Indians play-by-play man Herb Score became a local legend for his interesting approach to the English language.Among his more famous ones:
    • "It could be fair; it could be foul... It is!
    • During the top of the eleventh inning, game six of the 1997 ALCS: "It's a fly to deep left-center... The Indians are going to the World Series! (Beat) Maybe!"
  • NOT SO FAST, HORN MAN! WAIT FOR THE RED LIGHT TO COME ON!
  • NHL goalies tend to be the most memetic players in the sport. Blackh...err..Sharks fans know Niemi says "no" and Bruins fans know Tim Thomas LOVES his cheeseburgers.
  • Pierre "Penishead" McGuire is high on young hockey players who are MONSTERS with BIG BODY PRESENCE!
  • Dan Carcillo makes daddys proud.
    • turn on or no?
  • Fuck Clemson.[2]
  • THEY SUPPOSED TO BE SEC?
  • Former Chicago Bears and current Washington Redskins QB Rex Grossman has mutated into Memetic Badass "Rax Grissman", a headstrong alpha male who invariably unleashes the dragon by throwing deep, after screwing up his Bears' sure-fire Super Bowl victory by tossing a long bomb even though that was the absolute worst thing he could possibly do in that situation. Rax Grissman's motto is "Fuck it, I'm going deep!"
    • "Unleashing the dragon" has spun off into a meme in and of itself, with "dragon" being shorthand for a spectacularly long pass, "leg dragon" a long-range field goal, and "land dragon" an impressive run.
    • Speaking of the Redskins, after a local DC sports radio host launched into a very long, furious rant about the teams shortcomings after a 59-28 loss to the Eagles, it has been customary to respond to any complaints about the 'Skins with the exclamation "GET 'EM!".
  • During the 2011 NHL playoffs, Chicago fan Vince Vaughn attended game 4 of the Blackhawks-Canucks series. Though the Blackhawks would eventually lose the series, they won the game (and the next one, and the next one), and a picture of Vaughn, in full Blackhawks gear, laughing at Vancouver goalie Roberto Luongo for his incredibly poor performance quickly became so iconic that the city itself is now often referred to as "Vaughncouver."
    • Don't forget the fact that The Fratellis' "Chelsea Dagger," the Blackhawks' goal song, has become the anthem of the Canucks' failures, as in the past three seasons they've lost two playoff series to the Blackhawks, and in the third choked away a 3-game lead before winning in game seven. The song also has overall meme status, as it's (I'm being quite subjective here) easily the most Ear Worm-y goal song in the entire NHL.
  • Winning the World Series in six games? George Costanza seriously hopes you guys don't do this.
  • "Shhoooooooot!" as a common phrase for Steve Smith of the Edmonton Oilers and Chicago Blackhawks for Calgary Flames fans when Smith was in control of the puck after Smith accidentally scored on his own net during game 7. It was the series losing goal for the Oilers... on Smith's birthday.
  • A few days after the Denver Broncos (led by third-string quarterback Tim Tebow) were thrashed 45-10 by the Detroit Lions, editor Bill Williamson wrote a column stating that it was time to think about centering their game around a different quarterback. Anti-Tebow ESPN commenters took to the message boards posting strings of "X > Tebow" comments,[4] growing more and more absurd with each post. Also a victim of the Streisand Effect, as moderators' attempts to quash any further "X > Tebow" comments only encouraged the meme to spread to other non-Tebow areas of the site. Which both gained strength and reversed after the Broncos won six straight, finished 7-4 under Tebow, beat the Steelers in overtime on a pass for 80 yards in the playoffs (before reality ensued and the Broncos got utterly curbstomped by the Patriots in the next round of the playoffs), and won multiple sloppy games ending in big plays for the win. And then there's this.
    • Tebowing would later inspire Bradying, which is the act of adopting the limp, sullen position taken by Tom Brady after his New England Patriots lost Super Bowl XLVI
  • Kirk Herbstreit's earthquake face. While Herbstreit was being interviewed by Chris Fowler after the 2011 Oklahoma State/Kansas State football game, a magnitude 5.6 earthquake (the biggest in Oklahoma history) occurred and Herbstreit looked scared out of his mind while on air, yet didn't say a word until Fowler (finally) stopped talking to let him answer a question.
  • One from Chile: Pedro Carcuro's Catch Phrase "¡ME PONGO DE PIEEEEEEEE!" ("I'm now on my feet!") whenever a Crowning Moment of Awesome happens.
  • Rasheed Wallace wants you to know Both teams played hard.[5]
  • Dammit, Pronger![6]
  • Whenever something crazy or unlikely happens at the end of a game, a common explanation is that somebody pressed the Buffalo Wild Wings button.
  • Tony Hibbert's long goalless run has achieved Memetic Mutation status amongst Everton supporters.
  • Ilya Bryzgalov would like to remind you that's hockey you know. It's only game. Why you heff to be mad?
  • No mention for the Manning Face?
  • The Buffalo Bills are often referred to as the Razorcakes after a popular analogy for the team—a cake that looks great and tastes delicious at first but is actually filled with razors. They've certainly earned the moniker—there was a brief period in the 2011-2012 season when they were at the top of their division after upsetting the New England Patriots, but they missed the playoffs after losing six straight games
  • Alex Rodriguez as a centaur. An ex-girlfriend of A-Rod's claimed he had a self portrait of himself as a centaur above his bed. Everyone who heard this rightly found it the most ridiculous thing ever, and years later it still gets mocked, even by actual news sources like ESPN.
  • "To everyone in Canada outside of BC, you're welcome." [7]
  • 2011 World Series:
  • yfw da bears win the superb owl. Originating on 4chan's /sp/ (sports) board and accompanied by a picture of a happy-looking bear, it's typically cited as an example of the delusional nature of Bears fans, who seem to go into every season thinking they'll win it all.
    • The "superb owl" spelling error has spilled into other sports championships, such as the Worlds Eries, the NBA Champion's Hip/NBAF Inals, and the venerable Stan Lee Cup.
  • The SF Giants' Brandon Belt is a giraffe. It's blown up to the point where one of the giraffes at the Six Flags Vallejo Discovery Kingdom is named after him.
  • RONDOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! [9]
  • Did Scott Gomez Score Last Game? Non. [10]

  1. T.O. bought the tickets to Mexico that Romo used before that lost playoff game, which could be seen as partly his fault.
  2. The rallying cry of college football blog Every Day Should Be Saturday, or EDSBS for short.
  3. EDSBS's mockery of the average Paul Finebaum Radio Network listener, whose audience can be most charitably described as "redneck". PAWWWWWWWLLLL is also an EDSBS nickname for Finebaum himself.
  4. X = something or someone undesirable (ex. Ryan Leaf, JaMarcus Russell, two of the biggest QB draft busts of all time)
  5. Rasheed doesn't like talking at post-game conferences, so he'll say the minimum that's required of him to avoid getting fined.
  6. From one hockey blogger's "NHL Suspension Flow Chart", used in relation to how superstar defenseman Chris Pronger can seemingly get away with anything.
  7. From the Twitter account for the Los Angeles Kings, which posted the aforementioned tweet shortly after the Kings' Game 1 victory over the Vancouver Canucks in the 2012 Stanley Cup Playoffs. The tweet references the fact that just about everyone in Canada despises the Canucks because they're both highly visible and currently the only dominant Canada-based team, and because of their play style, which critics have described as dirty and whiny.
  8. Every time the Cardinals won a postseason away game, it was a "happy flight." Rafael Furcal made this a thing.
  9. Chris Webber marking out over Rajon Rondo.
  10. The Montreal Canadiens' Scott Gomez has an unfortunate habit of going on long scoring droughts.