Word Watch: Attack of the Clones

In 1979, a cultural milestone occurred when, in the film Apocalypse Now, Robert Duvall's character, Lieutenant Colonel Kilgore, declared, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning."

The words soon became a repeatable, adaptable refrain. A Google search almost 30 years later reveals writers humorously praising the A.M. stench of marshmallows, impeachment, ectoplasm, nepotism and eggnog.

Linguists now have a name for such fill-in-the-blank idioms: snowclones. Christened by Glen Whitman, an economist at California State University at Northridge, the term snowclone was inspired by the frequently repeated yet inaccurate saying, "If Eskimos have N words for snow, then X have Y words for Z." Lazy copywriters, bloggers and journalists love snowclones. They often originate in TV shows, (Oh my God, they killed X!), commercials (Not your father's X) or even Taoist texts (The X that can be spoken of is not the true X).

But there's more to snowclones than cliched prose. Within social groups, such refrains have currency, says Arnold Zwicky, a professor of linguistics at Stanford University. "Snowclones are badges of [cultural literacy] and expressions of solidarity with others."

Snowed In

Snowclone:

"The first rule of Oprah's book club is you do not talk about Oprah's book club."

Original:

"The first rule of fight club is you do not talk about fight club." (Fight Club, 1999)

Snowclone:

"I for one welcome our new massive software giant overlords."

Original:

"I for one welcome our new insect overlords." (The Simpsons, 1994)

Snowclone:

"Chimps are from Mars, bonobos are from Venus."

Original:

"Men are from Mars, women are from Venus." (Book of the same title, 1992)

Snowclone:

"At the movies, no one can hear you snort derisively."

Original:

"In space, no one can hear you scream." (Alien tagline, 1979)