Watch It for the Meme is a YMMV item that refers to a significant portion of the audience of a work watching it specifically to see something from the work that underwent a Memetic Mutation, however, it has a significant set of uses that just list off memes from the work, regardless of whether they had an impact on whether people did or did not check out the work as a result.
Category explanationsnote
Correct Use: The work gains a significant audience due to people viewing it just to see a meme that originated from it.
Misuse: Lists a meme but doesn't explain how it brought people in, OR lists a meme from a work that was already popular and didn't have a significant effect on the audience numbers. May be redundant with Signature Scene, Memetic Mutation, or other tropes or audience reactions.
ZCE: Self-explanatory, if it's just a list of memes with no explanation, it goes here.
Other: If you aren't sure where it goes or it's just a low explanation pothole, drop it here.
Wicks Checked 31/50
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Uncategorized:
- Gush.Live Action Films: Speaking of Airplane! - I saw it for the first time after having known every joke in it for years. I'd actually performed in a ripoff of the "What's our vector, Victor?" bit. And I still laughed myself sick. personal anecdote
- TooBleakStoppedCaring.Film: The Room. Johnny is borderline incomprehensible and finds stories about domestic abuse funny, Lisa is incredibly stupid and/or callous, Mark is a douchey moron, and Denny has drug problems and a very creepy relationship with Johnny and Lisa. The universally poor writing and acting don't help, either. Some of the supporting cast aren't much better; Claudette is a more pragmatic version of Lisa, Chris-R is a violent drug dealer who holds Denny at gunpoint, Mike does absolutely nothing plot-relevant, Peter is decently nice but goes missing halfway through the film, and Steven casually saunters into the plot in the last twenty minutes and acts as if we have any idea who he is. Michelle is the Only Sane Man who actually bothers to stick around for the duration of the film, and that isn't enough to prevent Johnny's suicide. The darkness of the film is one of many, many reasons people would rather watch it to make fun of it. I mean The Room is a meme hence the trope but is the pothole text conveying that aspect correctly?
- Trivia.Bohemian Rhapsody: Colbert Bump: The song "I'm In Love With My Car", one of the few relatively obscure songs of Queen's discography, gained a popularity boost after the film's release, mainly due to curiosity regarding why it's made as the film's Running Gag. Inversion, work makes people consume real-life meme?
- YMMV.Adventures Of Sonic The Hedgehog: Cult Classic: The show has a sizable fanbase. Most of its fans grew up with it, others came from the memes. Many elements of this show would also make it into other adaptations and even the main games themselves (e.g. Sonic eating chili dogs in Sonic and the Black Knight). One notable fan is Ian Jones-Quartey, who included countless references to the show in OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes.
- YMMV.Madagascar Escape 2 Africa: Watch It for the Meme: After the "Moto Moto likes you" meme became a thing, it's not uncommon to see people watching the movie only for Moto Moto. It's a blockbuster sequel; might it be too popular to count?
Correct use: 10/ 50
- PeripheryDemographic.Live Action TV: The children's TV show LazyTown is also known to be popular with teenagers and young adults as well as parents, possibly due to its quirkiness and Large Ham villain. Though given Sportacus's and Robbie's tight pants we can be reasonably sure that some of the adult appeal is deliberate. It also gained a fanbase of older teens and young adults who discovered the memes via SiIvaGunner or other methods in late 2016.
- WesternAnimation.The Three Bears: In late 2017, this short became popular on the internet for a Twitter tweet with a clip (later uploaded to YouTube) of Papa Bear's "SOMEBODY TOUCH-A MY SPAGHETTE!" line. Admit it, that's what you're here for.
- YMMV.Bakemonogatari: Watch It for the Meme: There is a good number of fans who started the series because of either "Renai Circulation" or the toothbrush scene.
- YMMV.Batmetal: Watch It for the Meme: People flock over the videos just to see Batman sing death metal and/or the weirdness of the videos. Nuff said.
- YMMV.Futurama S 6 E 3 Attack Of The Killer App: Watch It for the Meme: People nowadays watch the episode just to hear Fry say "Shut up and take my money!"
- YMMV.Ghost Stories: Watch It for the Meme: The most likely reason that you're here is because of the ADV dub.
- YMMV.Hololive: Watch It for the Meme: Most people who get into watching hololive content likely did so because of the group's wackier personalities (e.g. Matsuri or Korone) rather than anything actually idol-related. It speaks volumes when the more dedicated to "singing and dancing" idols of the group like Sora and especially AZKi get relatively fewer fan clips than the others. EN members', especially Gura, rapid popularity growth is mostly attributed to various memes about them.
- YMMV.The Most Popular Girls In School: Watch It for the Meme: There are people who mainly watch this show specifically for the one-liners and quotes.
- YMMV.Nosferatu: Watch It for the Meme: Some viewers watch the film just to find out who was the guy flickering the lights in an episode of SpongeBob SquarePants.
- YMMV.Oceans Eleven: As mentioned under Popcultural Osmosis, many gamers only watch Ocean's Twelve just for the laser dance scene, which features the same music Counter-Strike player ph00n used in one of his most famous playthroughs
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Misuse: 15/ 50
- Wabbit Twouble: Bugs Bunny messes with Elmer Fudd when he goes on a camping trip to a national park. Or, the cartoon with Big Chungus.
- VideoGame.Beatmania: Distracted by the Sexy: Dai, a male dancer who always appears on HHH songs (and then switched to kors k on Tricoro) is either overly distracting, or flamboyantly awesome. Categorized here based on Tanks judgement
- YMMV.AMV Hell: Watch It for the Meme: If your first exposure to a certain anime is a spoilery, often gore-filled scene in AMV Hell, it can be fun picking up the series and seeing just how it gets to that point in the first place. Watch other works, having watched this one? And the stuff in here might not necessarily be a meme?
- YMMV.The Big Lebowski: I Am Not Shazam: For those who only know the film for its "Find a stranger in the alps" scene, some may confuse the Dude as Larry, and Big Al as "Big Al" Lebowski. This would be "has only watched the memes, not the film itself"
- YMMV.Boktai: Watch It for the Meme: A lot of people on the internet probably remember this series for an animation done for NiN10Doh!: To the 64th Power (though the animation does have quite a few inaccuracies). Wouldn't this be more of a "best known for the meme"?
- YMMV.Casablanca: Watch It for the Meme: Watch it for any of the most famous lines; possibly even watch it for the Beam Me Up, Scotty!, as many people now realize that it isn't "Play it again, Sam." In fact, the majority of this movie's most famous lines are in the end scene, causing it to practically overdose on Memetic Mutation in the last ten minutes or so.
- YMMV.Castlevania II Simons Quest: Watch It for the Meme: Play it so that the game can interrupt you and inform you that it's a horrible night to have a curse.
- YMMV.Dinosaur Adventure: Watch It for the Meme: Watching for Oro's "Yee". You need to see the Italian version for that as it never happens in the English dub.
- YMMV.Dawn Of War: Watch It for the Meme: Pretty much the main reason to play Soulstorm is to watch General Stubbs lose 100 Baneblades, Commander Boreale give his SPESS MAHREENS speech, and FEHL THE EMPRAH, and Chaos Lord Carron rant about METAL BAWKSES. Categorized here based on Tanks judgement
- YMMV.Eversion: Watch It for the Meme: For the increasingly horrible universe the game is set in.
- Relatedly, DeceasedCrab's Let's Play of the game for the phrase "Stop your cheery lies!"
- YMMV.History Of The World Part I: Watch It for the Meme: Some people watched the movie just to see the Spanish Inquisition. We guess people really can expect the Spanish Inquisition. Shouldn't that be Just Here for Godzilla?
- YMMV.Flashdance: Watch It for the Meme: Can you name the main character? The plot? The actress who played the main character? Probably not. Have you seen the water bucket scene referenced more times than you can count? Yes. Should be Memetic Mutation
- YMMV.Judge Dredd: Watch It for the Meme: Armand Assante and Sylvester Stallone both mangling the word "law" in the most hammy ways possible.
- YMMV.Molly Of Denali: Watch It for the Meme: Quite a few people only learned about the series due to the infamous "Clark Newman" meme. "learned about" does not mean "watched"
- YMMV.World Of Tanks: Watch It for the Meme: Some players would proceed for the German TD line (Particularly the Hetzer and StuG) just for the memes associated with it. The tanks' potential is just a mere bonus. This could be a trope of some sort but "Did it for the memes" isn't exactly what this trope is meant to refer to.
ZCE: 3/ 50
- WMG.Lucky Star: No, you fool! That high a Pop Culture Reference Count coupled with the memetic power of both Lucky Star and Abridged Series could DESTROY US ALL! *Cue Epic music, random symbolism, everyone gets hugged and turned into chocolate coronet-dipping sauce* wut. massive sinkhole, "power" is the WIFTM pothole
- YMMV.The Brave Fighter Of Sun Fighbird: Watch It for the Meme: Many people watched the anime due to the above-mentioned meme. reffing a diff entry doesn't count as context
- YMMV.I Will Survive: Watch It for the Meme: It would have remained an obscure Zootopia fan-comic if not for this.
- YMMV.Sinistar: Watch It for the Meme: "Beware! I live!"
Other: 3/ 50
- JustForFun.Sum This Up In One Trope: AC:Watch It for the Meme: JFF page
- Pantheon.Dream Works Animation: AC:Bee Movie: Barry B. Benson, God of Meme-Based Popularity (B Boy, Freddy Benson, The one who sings jazz) serves as a Quasideity in the Hall of Memes (House of Popularity) Pantheon
- YMMV.Super Mario World: Cult Classic: The show failed in its day and killed off any possibility of future Mario cartoons, but it does have some fans who Watch It for the Meme. not pothole but needs elaboration
