Specifically I'm thinking of that nifty situation where you think of some phrase or idea and instantly verify that a whole bunch of other people are thinking the same thing too. No, not regarding some breaking news story or something relevant to lots of people just now. I mean a totally random, out-there phrase perhaps from a book or a years-old pop-culture reference.
I was thinking about how these phrases should be classified. Not clichés, really - those are different. They aren't surprisingly part of general usage. These are more just random quotes, catch phrases or puchlines that may be unknown in your peer group, but over the broader planet, still have a substantial following. I guess they strike a chord and become memorable on their own, and thus get thrown around without context. Only on a system like Twitter could this happen.
I confess to occasionally acting on the spontaneous recall of one of these, and tweeting it, or almost tweeting it, twigged by some random, innocuous moment in daily life. The cool thing is that at any instant there are many people doing the same thing.
Here are some of my favourites, and a link that shows search results from twitter right now:
- Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition! Search Results
- Who is John Galt? Search Results
- Ladies and gentlemen Mr. Conway Twitty. Search Results
- It's a perfectly cromulent word. Search Results
- Looks like I picked the wrong day to quit sniffing glue. Search Results
