upcoming snowclone alert

[Arnold Zwicky]

On Nov 18, 2010, at 3:12 PM, James Harbeck wrote:
>
>>>
>> http://jezebel.com/5691185/your-latest-internet-meme--tons-of-fucking-sequins
>>
>>> Assuming its popularity is sufficiently widespread, expect to see a
>>> little fad for "tons of... fuckin' X" come and go.
>>
>> Is this really a snowclone? Given the workaday use of both "tons of" and
>> "fucking" as intensifying modifiers, this doesn't seem like a snowclone
>> to me any more than "a lot of [insert size] X" would be.
>
> The point is that it will be used as carrying a specific reference to
> that instance of usage. People will be using "tons of fuckin' X" with
> the expectation that you know it's a reference to that video. Does
> that not meet the requirement?

no.  that makes it a playful variation/allusion.

yes, people are expected to get the point of reference.  but the frame isn't being used as a template on its own, with some kind of idiom-like content.  though it might even become, for a little while, something of a cliche-like fashion. (it could, of course, develop into a snowclone.)

the point of having such terminological distinctions is to make conceptual distinctions that seem to correspond to different ways that people use and process things.  if every allusive Economist headline -- and they are legion -- counted as a snowclone, then there would be no point to the concept of snowclone or the term "snowclone".

yes, yes, i understand that the boundaries aren't fixed, that things change over time, and that the classifications are different for different people.  that shouldn't mean that the distinction is meaningless.

arnold

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