Memes / Theatre

As seen on stage, and repeated endlessly on the streets (okay, one of them you're not supposed to say in public, but that's never stopped anybody before).

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Please add entries in the following format:

• The name of the play (if it belongs in the "Other" folder).
  • The meme. [[labelnote:Explanation]]The explanation behind the meme, if necessary.[[/labelnote]] ^ExplanationLike this.
  • Further mutations and successor memes, if any.

• Works with their own page:

• Hamilton
• Les Misérables
• Six: The Musical

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Gilbert and Sullivan

• The Pirates of Penzance:
  • "I am the very model of a Modern Major General." It has its own page. Go there for details.
  • With Catlike Tread! *STOMP* Upon our prey we steal! *STOMP* ^ExplanationThe "sneaking about while making a lot of noise or talking about how stealthy they are being (or both)" is widely used in crime-caper and spy-thriller parodies. Admittedly, most uses don't involve singing. The melody itself has also become a memetic mutation, spawning first "Hail, Hail, the Gang's All Here" which in turn mutated to the Black Comedy variant "Hail, Hail the Gangrene's Here".
  • A policeman's lot is not an 'appy one. ^ExplanationThe song is about how criminals aren't so different from ordinary people, but the quote is mostly used to descrie the general awfulness and underappreciated nature of police work
• H.M.S. Pinafore:
  "What, never?"
  "No, never!"
  "What, never?"
  "Well, hardly ever!"
  • The Memetic Mutation on this one was so big back in Gilbert and Sullivan's day that Gilbert remarked he never wanted to hear it quoted again. "What, never?" some nearby wag remarked. The writer was unable to stop himself from responding in kind.
    • The finale of The Pirates of Penzance originally had, after the revelation that the pirates were noblemen gone wrong, a variation on this exchange: "What, all noblemen?" (etc.)
    • Shows up in satires, for self-deprecation, or to question the truth of a negative statement ("I don't...", "They won't...", "He'll never...", "She didn't...". Often shortened to "'<Negative statement>', 'What never?', 'Well, hardly ever.'" or "<Negative statement>, well, hardly ever."

Shakespeare

• Hamlet:
  • Pretty much every saying by Polonius — for example, "Neither a borrower nor a lender be" — has been parroted ad nauseum as though there is actual wisdom in it, when it was actually understood to be semantic garbage from an old fool trying to sound wise.
  • "To be or not to be?": Parodied, punned on, and played with innumerable times. Also used seriously in fiction to indicate that a character is suicidal. ^ExplanationFrom Act 3, Scene 1
    • "Whether it is nobler in the mind to suffer the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune..." ^ExplanationFrom the same speech, wondering if he should survive the anguish he's going through.
    • "To sleep: perchance to dream..." ^ExplanationFrom the same speech, wondering if there will be peace after death.
  • "Though this be madness, yet there's method in't." In its most common modern mutation, turned into "There's method to my madness."
  • "Murder most foul..." ^ExplanationFrom Act 1, Scene 5: When the ghost Hamlet sees explains why he exists, claiming he was murdered. Used for the title of an Agatha Christie murder mystery, at least one non-fiction true-crime book, a game, and used surprisingly often in articles about real life murders.
  • "Alas, Poor Yorick. I knew him, Horatio." Both the speech itself and the visual of a guy talking to a skull have mutated. (And the line is often misquoted as "Alas, poor Yorick, I knew him well.")
    • The Animaniacs did a version, using the "translated into modern English" technique.
    • Hugo Reinhold's "Philosophizing Monkey" statue is a combination mutation of this visual and Auguste Rodin's "The Thinker".
    • Mark Twain parodied the whole soliloquy in Huckleberry Finn.
  • "The play's the thing" ^ExplanationFrom Act 2, Scene 2: Hamlet uses the play as a plan for his uncle's conscience to admit the crime of murdering Hamlet's father. Some playwrights used to believe that their work would cause the audience to have better moral values.
  • "O! I am slain!" ^ExplanationFrom Act 3, Scene 4: Polonius gets stabbed by Hamlet from behind a curtain and announces he has been killed.
• Macbeth, or "The Scottish Play":
  • "Double, double, toil and trouble. Fire, burn and cauldron, bubble. Eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog." ^ExplanationFrom Act 4, Scene 1: This scene has long served as the basis for a common presentation of witches in general, stooping over a steaming cauldron. It's also a likely source of "eye of newt" as a standard ingredient in witches' brews, magic potions, and spells in general.
  • "What? You egg! Young fry of treachery!"^ExplanationFrom Act 4, Scene 2: The Murderer, who believes that Macduff is a traitor, shouts this when he stabs Young Macbeth for calling him a liar.
    • "He has killed me, Mother."
  • "Out, damned spot!"^ExplanationFrom Act 5, Scene 1: Lady Macbeth shouts this while sleepwalking, trying to wash her hands. She imagines that bloodstains from the murders are still on her hands.
  • It is a tale, told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.^ExplanationFrom Act 5, Scene 5: Macbeth says this after Lady Macbeth's death. It's either used seriously when a character becomes a Nihilist, or, thanks to Applicability, for a different type of a tale told by an idiot.
• Romeo and Juliet:
  • The entire balcony scene became a theatre meme.
  • "Romeo, Romeo... wherefore art thou Romeo?": Mutated into being understood as "where are you, Romeo?" rather than the real meaning, "why did you have to be Romeo (Montague)?"
  • What's in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet. ^ExplanationFrom Act 2, Scene 2: Juilet believes that a name is a meaningless convention and that she only loves Romeo, not the Montague name.
  • "A plague on both your houses!" ^ExplanationFrom Act 3, Scene 1: Mercutio shouts this as he wishes illwill toward the Capulet and Montague families for Tybalt stabbing Mercutio.
  • Two households, both alike in dignity... ^ExplanationThe first line of the prologue, introducing the feuding families.
    • Star-Crossed Lovers. ^ExplanationThe sixth line of the prologue, which means that Romeo and Juilet are destined for tragedy.
  • The Analogy Backfire of describing a relationship as "like Romeo and Juliet". What, you're both going to kill yourselves in the end?
  • "Do you bite your thumb, sir?" Get two Shakespeare fans in a room, bite your thumb, and prepare to see the whole scene reenacted.
• Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: "Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads."
• Henry V:
  • We few, we happy few, we band of brothers. ^ExplanationFrom Act 4, Scene 3: This is a part of St. Crispin Day's speech.
    • "...we band of buggered."
  • Once more unto the breach! ^ExplanationFrom Act 3, Scene 1: This quote was from King Henry V's own speech. Nowadays it means, "Let's try again once more."
  • "The game's afoot." ^ExplanationFrom Act 3, Scene 1: This quote would later be associated with Sherlock Holmes.
• Henry VI:
  • The first thing we do, let's kill all the lawyers! ^ExplanationFrom Part 2, Act 4, Scene 2: Dick the Butcher says this, believing a society without lawyers will go closer to utopia.
• Julius Caesar:
  • Et Tu, Brute? ^ExplanationFrom Act 3, Scene 1: Translates to "Even you, Brutus?"
  • Beware the ides of March! ^ExplanationFrom Act 1, Scene 2: Translates to "Beware at March 15th!"
  • Cry havoc, and let slip the dogs of war!^ExplanationFrom Act 3, Scene 1: Used at the beginning of hostilities
  • Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!^ExplanationFrom Act 3, Scene 2: Beginning a speech
• The Merchant of Venice:
  • A "pound of flesh", a lawful but nevertheless unreasonable recompense that is ruthlessly pursued. ^ExplanationFrom Act 4, Scene 1.
  • Shylock, as a term for a loan shark. ^ExplanationShylock is a moneylender in the play.
• A Winter's Tale:
  • Exit, pursued by a bear, the most famous stage direction in history. ^ExplanationFrom Act 3, Scene 3

Other

• "The Hills are Alive": The famous opening sequence of the film The Sound of Music.
  • The cimematography is widely copied and parodied, the most common forms are "person spinning joyously in a meadow sings about something stupid or depressing"; "person spinning joyously in a meadow has something bad happen to them"; and simply "Person spinning joyously in meadow singing (badly)". Another common parody is to overlay the soundtrack of birds and music with unpleasant noises.
  • The phrase has also become a memetic mutation, crossing over into Horror fandom, where it is used to herald something bad about to happen.
• RENT:
  • 525,600 minutes, "Seasons of Love". ^ExplanationThe first song of Act 2.
    • Mutated into being used to refer to almost anything related to the span of a year
    • Oh, Rent! Rent!
  • MOO WITH ME!!! ^ExplanationNear the end of Act 1, Maureen appears and does a hilariously obnoxious performance art piece, which ends with her mooing like a cow and subsequently commanding the audience - yes, YOU, the audience - to moo with her. It's customary for the audience to then moo until Maureen silences you.
• According to No Exit, "Hell is other people." It is most commonly mutated into either "Hell is X" or "X is other people".
• She Stoops To Conquer: "Ask me no questions, and I'll tell you no fibs."^ExplanationFrom Act III
• Little Shop of Horrors: "FEED MEEEEEE, SEYMOUR." ^ExplanationSaid by Audrey II the Plant when it wants to eat more blood.
• It's becoming increasingly common on MLIA to write a comment actually related to the post, then, at the end of the comment, begin singing a Wicked-song.
• "The Time Warp" from The Rocky Horror Picture Show: used when things are getting weird, possibly also part of the inspiration for the Peter Panda Dance in the movie The Pacifier.
• "We love you Conrad, oh, yes we do-ooooo!" from Bye Bye Birdie. a common mutation is simply appending "Oh, yes, we do-ooooo!" to the end of a statement.
• A very old meme comes from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's play Götz von Berlichingen, in which the title character's castle is under attack in the third act and a bishop demands his surrender. Götz responds with "Leck mich im Arsch," which translates to, essentially, "kiss my ass." Almost immediately after the play's debut, it became the most famous quote from the play, to the point where "to quote Götz von Berlichingen" is a common German euphemism. Mozart even wrote a song that consists almost entirely of quoting it.
• Peer Gynt: To be "utterly yourself"/Sig selv nok. Entered Norwegian political debate decades ago. The play will never stop mutating.
• Avenue Q:
  • Everyone's a little bit racist, sometimes! ^ExplanationFrom one of their songs about how everybody can say something racist sometimes, but it's all right any way.
  • The Internet Is for Porn! ^ExplanationFrom one of their songs where Kate Monster tries to show how the internet can be used for other things besides porn to no avail.
  • Schaaaa-den-freude! ^ExplanationGerman for "Happiness at the misfortune of others," pretty much a song about Comedic Sociopathy, with a dose of Humans Are Bastards.
• The King and I gives us memes, tropes, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
• Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street: "AAAT LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAST! MY AAARRRMM IS COMPLEEEEETE AGAAAAAAAAAAAAAIN!!!" (When Sweeney picks up his razor again.) It is difficult for any two Sweeney fans to get together and discuss the musical without at least one of them parodying that. In all probability, both will in sycronisation.
• From Cyrano de Bergerac, "I have a wife and three children!"
• The Vagabond King: "And to Hell with Burgundy!" ^ExplanationOriginally the final line of the rousing "Song of the Vagabonds," wildly divorced from its original context by haters of fine wines, e.g. Peter in The Goon Show: "I like claret, and to hell with Burgundy!"
• Chicago "Give 'em the Ol' Razzle Dazzle". ^ExplanationFrom the song "Razzle Dazzle", a big song-and-dance number about how you win trials bý Chewbacca Defense. Nowadays, a common caption on pictures of anything that looks like it's dancing.
  • "HE HAD IT COMIN'!" ^ExplanationFrom the song "Cell Block Tango", a song about how six women were completely justified in killing someone, now a common exclamation when someone gets well and truly burned.
• From Finale, "Weather, BITCH!" ^Explanation During rehearsal, the actor playing Alex, a weatherman wrote "Weather, BITCH!" on a wipeoff board to be his makeshift weathermap. A gif was later tweeted to the official twitter (https://twitter.com/finalemusical/status/858070587184259073) and proceeded to go viral.
• The Spongebob Musical:
  • "Enjoy your last intermission...ever." ^note  A line from the end of "Tomorrow Is" that got a huge negative reaction at the very last performance of the show's Broadway run.
• I My Ruination: Pedro Pascal laughing then crying.^ExplanationA Streetcar Named Desire writer Tennessee Williams (portrayed in the first performance by Pedro Pascal) experiences a drunken mood swing one night before the Oscars, prompting concerned Streetcar director Elia Kazan (portrayed originally by a headlining Paul Giamatti) to exclaim, "Hey!" multiple times, before asking, "What's going on?" The Zoom recording of Williams' mood swing has since found use among Pascal's fans as a Reaction Video, with Giamatti's rectangle cropped out.
• Willy's Chocolate Experience:
  • Willy's Chocolate Experience is Krabby Land ^explanation The experience in general has been widely compared to Krabby Land from SpongeBob SquarePants, with numerous memes, edits and explanation videos comparing Willy's Chocolate Experience to the eponymous Crappy Carnival.
  • Bartender/Meth Lab Oompa Loompa ^explanationOne particular pic of a Wonkidoodle (one of the not-Oompa-Loompas) in the Jellybean Room, standing next to a table with a chemistry set on it, and smoke rising behind her, with an expression that's equal parts depressed, bored, sour, frustrated and humiliated. Everyone agreed that the whole setup looked more like a meth lab than a chocolate factory, with many memes containing references to Breaking Bad.
    • The Oompa Loompa is Squidward. ^explanation As an extension of the comparisons with Krabby Land mentioned above, some people have likened Wonkidoodle actress Kristy Paterson's depressed expression to Squidward Tentacles, and often cast him as the "depressed Oompa Loompa" in crossover memes.
  • The Unknown ^explanationThe concept of "an evil chocolate maker who lives in the walls" turned The Unknown into an overnight Memetic Badass favorite, especially inspired by a widely-seen video from the event where one of the rotating performers playing Willy says "What is that? It's The Unknown!" in a tone of Dull Surprise, then The Unknown emerges from behind a mirror and scares a child. Some people have even noted that The Unknown is exactly the kind of eccentric, macabre villain that Roald Dahl might've come up with. It's also received some overlap with Dead by Daylight, which also has a villain called the Unknown (thought that Unknown is a mite scarier than the villain of the Experience). People cosplaying as the Unknown were spotted at Dublin Comic Con and ACME Glasgow not long after.

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