Bigamy on the small screen

A meme is an idea that spreads among people in a particular community: a saying, a joke, a tagline. On the internet, the term almost always refers to humorous lines or ideas from movies, videogames, books, etcetera. Here are some of the most recognisable movie memes:

“One does not simply . . .”

This comes from Lord of the Rings — The Fellowship of the Ring, specifically. The line is spoken by Sean Bean’s character Boromir: “One does not simply walk into Mordor”. In the meme, the ellipsis is replaced by something else, usually with humorous intent. I tried to find some good examples: “One does not simply touch MC Hammer” or the IT geek joke “One does not simply Telnet in Mordor”.

“It’s a trap!”

One of the oldest memes on the internet, this one comes from Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi. The squid-like character Admiral Ackbar, played by Tim Rose, exclaims this after realising the Rebel fleet has been fed false information and led into an ambush. It’s particularly popular with YouTubers, who insert that little clip of Ackbar into their reviews, rants, Let’s Plays, etcetera.

“That escalated quickly.”

This one comes from Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, where it’s said by Will Ferrell. On the internet, people tend to behave towards each other in ways they would never dare to face to face. So when two people on a forum or in the YouTube comments section have an argument and resort to calling each other child molesters and Nazis and other ridiculous things within four or five messages, it’s a fair bet an outside spectator will quote this line at some point. It’s also used in other places, such as Let’s Players commenting on things suddenly getting out hand in whatever game they’re playing.

“Luke, I am your father.”

This one is actually a mistake, coming from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire strikes back. Darth Vader, voiced by James Earl Jones, tells Luke Skywalker (Mark Hamill) that he didn’t kill Luke’s father, saying “No, I am your father.” Somehow the above version became mistaken for the real thing – although over the past decade, the number of pedantic nerds like me correcting anyone who uses the wrong version has been growing.

“This is Sparta!”

The line shouted by Kind Leonidas (Gerard Butler) in the comic-based action fest 300 became an internet meme almost immediately, mostly by being translated into funny gifs, along with the text “This is Sparta!” with the word Sparta replaced to read something like “This is Reddit!” – or an animated gif of Butler’s screaming face composited onto other images for comic effect.