http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ForcedMeme

note It actually worked. Yami Yugi, Yu-Gi-Oh! The Abridged Series "Joey, stop trying to turn 'Brooklyn rage' into a catchphrase, it's never going to work."

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Forcing a Meme 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.

Given the nature of the Internet, very few forced memes actually become accepted memes. People are naturally attracted to freedom and don't like being told what they should like. The few that do become accepted memes often do so only because people have made a meme about the meme, which means it's funny for a different reason than originally intended. That said, different people like different memes, and it's not uncommon for people to accuse a meme they don't like but see too often as being forced on them.

Compare AstroTurf, a supposed Viral Marketing campaign that's being engineered by the company itself. Contrast the Streisand Effect, when something turns memetic entirely because someone is trying very hard to remove it from the Internet.

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Examples

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Anime and Manga

In chapter 24 of the Yuru-Yuri manga, Kyouko annoys Yui (for a change) by attempting to make the term "washargling" popular in reference to cold prevention. Her staring at the "camera" implies that she wants the readers to use the term too.

In Bakuman。, while running Tanto, Shuujin tries to do this. It doesn't really work.

Comic Books

In Kick-Ass, Dave and his friends try to bring the word "tunk", conceived of as the Spear Counterpart of cunt, into the mainstream as a new curse word. They succeed.

In a print issue of Nodwick, new profanity "krutz" appears complete with marketing campaign and informative brochures to make sure it catches on. It succeeds wildly, with the heroes' (previously unnamed) hometown even getting renamed Krutzing Hollow. The word is magically powerful and almost addictive to use, made so by the villains, who are using it to channel negative emotions and suffering to power a resurrection spell.

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Films — Animation

Films — Live-Action

In Mean Girls, Gretchen tries to make "fetch" into a cool slang term, using it constantly in conversations. This eventually led to Regina's outburst, "Gretchen, stop trying to make 'fetch' happen! It's not going to happen!", which itself became a meme (and thus made "fetch" a meme as well for a bit).

In the Josie and the Pussycats live-action film, a corporation uses subliminal messages to do this constantly, like making the word "jerkin'" into a synonym for "cool."

Reviews around the release of Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines actually praised its aversion to trying to one-up the first two's catchphrases. The closest we ever get is "Talk to the hand", which (a) already existed as a cliché and (b) was played as corny even in-universe.

The scene in Jerry Maguire where two characters continuously shout "Show me the money!" probably only exists to make a meme out of the line. It worked, much to the chagrin of one of the actors.

The Captain America: The Winter Soldier Blu-Ray dedicated a two minute featurette to a phrase Anthony Mackie liked to use at the end of takes, "Cut the check!", as a possible attempt to popularize the phrase among Marvel fans.

Mary Poppins pokes fun at the phenomenon with "Step in Time", a song that makes anything anyone says part of the song.

Literature

The children's book Frindle is about a boy who tries to enter a new word, "frindle", into the English language. Not only does he succeed, but he gets rich from it in the Distant Finale

The BattleTech novel D.R.T. It stands for "Dead Right There" and is used multiple times throughout the novel in an incredibly awkward and forced manner (not that such a phrase could be used any other way) that made it sound significantly like the author was indeed trying to turn it into a meme.

Live-Action TV

Music

Newspaper Comics

Zits has a couple of strips about Jeremy or his friends trying to introduce new slang, like "plasmic" (meaning "fine", as in "How are you?" "Plasmic"), or "fully" (meaning "totally"). None of this ever caught on.

Scott Adams, creator of 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. the original Pointy-Haired Boss).

Drabble once devoted a week's worth of strips trying to coin the word "Drabbleation" to mean the act of remembering embarrassing moments.

The Boondocks had an arc in which Caesar reads a comic about making new slang words. Examples include replacing "cool" and "money" with "sudsy" and "Pillsbury", respectively. This inspires Caesar to make his own slang by replacing, "I'm leaving", with, "I'm Snuffleupagus". It doesn't really catch on with anyone else, except for Grandad, who's unfortunately old enough to make new slang uncool.

One Pearls Before Swine strip has Rat come up with a phrase he hopes sweeps the nation, and the creator Stephan Pastis admitted he always attempts to get the phrase to catch on. See the strip here .

. One strip of Calvin and Hobbes has Calvin come up with own personal rallying cry, and settles on "So what?!". Hobbes: That's a tough cry to rally around.

Calvin: SO WHAT?! SO WHAT?!

Professional Wrestling

Sports

Following a 1969 panel that voted him the Greatest Living Ballplayer, Joe DiMaggio would insist on being referred to as so whenever he was introduced at events for the rest of his life (late 1998). This despite other worthy candidates for the distinction being alive at the time (Ted Williams, Stan Musial), and players such as Willie Mays and Henry Aaron finishing up their careers a few years later with credentials that were worthy enough to usurp DiMaggio for the distinction.

Tabletop Games

To try and ease the transition from Warhammer to Warhammer: Age of Sigmar, Games Workshop released free army lists updating existing forces for the new game. Not only do these rules require players to shout faction warcries like "WAAAGH!!" or "For the Lady!" when activating certain units' special abilities, there are even wackier things such as a model who gets re-rolls if you have a more impressive mustache than your opponent, a formation that gets bonuses if you never crack a smile, and a model that will cost you the game if you for whatever reason kneel during the match. This has not helped an already thoroughly-Broken Base, and some have accused GW of taking a Cargo Cult approach to creating fun rather than creating a situation where fun can develop.

Video Games

Web Comics

Web Original

Western Animation