These are not the Snowclones you’re looking for …

After some mindless surfing & searching after the origin of the russian reversal joke “In Soviet Russia X Y’s you!”, I discovered a blog called The Snowclones Database.

Wikipedia describes a snowclone as:

A type of cliché and phrasal template originally defined as “a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different jokey variants by lazy journalists and writers.”

It emphasizes the use of a familiar (and often particular) formula and previous cultural knowledge of the reader to express information about an idea. The idea being discussed may be different in meaning from the original formula, but can be understood using the same trope as the original formulation.

You might wan’t to read the article at IEEE Spectrum Snowclone is the New Cliché , which digs a bit further on this subject.

I bookmarked & highlighted some of my favorite snowclones from The Snowclones Database. It’s a quite interesting resource, as they search for the origin & meaning of these phrasal templates. This is only a small selection. If you like what you see, then go over to the blog & discover some more or just click the links below:

• The Snowclones Database

  • If Eskimos have N words for snow, X have Y words for Z

    • c. 1940s (?), as described in Geoffrey Pullum’s The Great Eskimo Vocabulary Hoax.

      This is the journalistic cliché that started it all — the granddaddy bleached conditional that inspired the name “snowclone.” A collection of examples has been collated from the web here.

  • In Soviet Russia, X Ys you!
    • Originated with Yakov Smirnoff’s “In Soviet Russia, TV watches you!”, which has also come to be known as the “Russian reversal.” X and Y are placed in such a way that if they were reversed, the statement would be perfectly mundane

• The Snowclones Database

  • (Dammit Jim,) I’m an X, not a Y!
    • c. 1966-1969 [and later; this expression appears in several Star Trek shows and films], Dr. McCoy in Star Trek to the erstwhile Captain Kirk: “Dammit Jim, I’m a doctor, not a(n) {engineer, mechanic, bricklayer}!”
  • In X, no one can hear you Y
    • 1979, the film Alien: “In space, no one can hear you scream.”
  • X is the new Y

• The Snowclones Database

  • Im in ur X Yin(g) ur Z
    • I have traced references to this to 2004, but it may be older than that. According to the wiki spoof site Encylopedia Dramatica it originated as “Im in ur base killin ur d00ds”. Sources around the web believe that the phrase appeared on a StarCraft screenshot in the Something Awful forums
  • that’s not an X; this is an X
    • Most people connect this with Dundee’s line in Crocodile Dundee (1986): “That’s not a knife; that’s a knife”
  • To X or not to X
    • c. 1600, from William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, “to be or not to be.”
    • Hamlet’s original utterance is morose and philosophical, of course. You can’t get much more emo than pondering suicide, considering whether not “to be.” Since X is so semantically flexible, however, modern variants do not recall this feeling of overwhelming responsibility.

• The Snowclones Database

  • we’re gonna need a bigger X
    • This originated in the 1975 movie Jaws. The group setting out to kill the great white shark are told, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
  • WWXD?
    • “WWJD?” for “what would Jesus do?” became popular in the 1990s “as a personal motto for … Christians who used the phrase as a reminder of their belief that Jesus is the example to be followed in daily life
  • the only good X is a dead X
    • The original, “the only good Indian is a dead Indian”, has been attributed to American Civil War General Philip Sheridan
  • my X runneth over
    • This snowclone goes back to the 1611 King James translation of the Bible, Psalm 23, verse 5, “Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over.” The original version implies gratitude to a higher power (”thou”) for life’s plenty. Modern variants are more likely to carry a sense only of “too much” and not allude to this gratitude.
  • got X?
    • This snowclone originated with the 1993 California Milk Board ad
    • the ad was very popular, and was part of a set of similarly-themed ads in which the protagonist finds himself alone with a mouthful of something sticky and no milk. Its ubiquity is what I think helped snowcloneize the phrase, since “got X?” isn’t a particularly idiomatic construction.
    • This snowclone is used in situations where someone is trying to sell X, or it is presumed that X is something everyone needs or wants.
  • If X is wrong, I don’t want to be right
    • This one may be traced to the 1972 soul song “(If Loving You Is Wrong) I Don’t Want to Be Right.”
    • X may be something that is considered morally wrong (”lusting after naked Daniel Radcliffe”), morally ambiguous, or wrong on some other level (”using ‘irregardless’”).

• The Snowclones Database

  • my kingdom for a(n?) X
    
    • “A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse!” speaks the eponymous King Richard in desperation as the battle turns against him in William Shakespeare’s c. 1591 Richard III.
  • these are not the X you’re looking for
    • This snowclone comes from dialogue in the 1977 film Star Wars:
    • sometimes it’s a direct reference to someone’s attempt to wave away another person’s curiosity