Category Archives: Snowclones

The Snowclone(s)¹ Database was inspired primarily by Mark Liberman et al’s Language Log and Chris Weigl’s Eggcorn Database. If you are here, you probably already have some idea of what a snowclone is, but in case you’re not sure, here’s some quick review.

A snowclone is a particular kind of cliche, popularly originated by Geoff Pullum. The name comes from Dr. Pullum’s much-maligned “If Eskimos have N words for snow, X surely have Y words for Z”. An easier example might be “X is the new Y.” The short definition of this neologism might be n. fill-in-the-blank headline. The phenomenon is real enough to have 90,000 Google hits as of this moment and a Wikipedia entry.

The definition of snowclone is somewhat fluid, by its nature, but there are some ground rules. I consider a high number of google hits with significant variation evidence for a phrase’s snowclonehood. Snowclones are a subset of cliches, but not all cliches are snowclones. (Depending how how strictly you define “cliche”, not all snowclones are cliches, either.) Your favorite Simpsons quote is not necessarily a snowclone.

I first discussed snowclones here.
¹ My usage varies freely, as far as I can tell, between “the snowclone database” and “the snowclones database”. Be welcome to use either.

“I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.”

From the episode “Deep Space Homer ” on the TV show, The Simpsons, 1994. (Originally broadcast Feb. 24, 1994.)

On The Simpsons Archive.

Introduced on Language Log here.

As far as I can tell, this snowclone originated with dialogue in The Wizard of Oz (1939): “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!“

The variables may be plural or singular, count or non-count:

filling and sanding and brickwork oh my!
comments and trackbacks and thumbnails oh my!
mugging and sugging and pugging oh my!
servals and binturongs and coatimundis oh my!
goblins and wizards and orcs oh my!
turtles and lizards and snakes oh my!
goblins and witches and halfwits oh my!
lions and tigers and misogynists oh my!
trojans and dialers and spies oh my!
night elves and taurens and gnomes oh my!
kiddies and kiddies and kiddies oh my!
ilyrians and romans and greeks oh my!
ninjas and ninjas and ninjas oh my!
lions and hyenas and pumbaa oh my!
ligers and tigons and pizzlies oh my!
turtles and rabbits and moles oh my!

To my ear, there is a stress limitation on the variables; that is, the stress pattern of the snowclone must match “LIons and TIgers and BEARS, oh MY!” The “hyenas” of “LIons and hyEnas and PUMbaa oh MY!” would then violate this constraint. To my eye, however, the constraint is much laxer, so I’d let it pass in writing. It does seem that for other people, “oh my!” is a strong enough this-is-a-snowclone signal to give them greater flexibility on the variables. “Cursors, and Text, and HTML…. Oh My!” is awkward no matter what, though. 😉

This snowclone was one of my [Erin’s] original inspirations for the Snowclones Database. I discussed it with some Livejournal friends here.

Please be advised: this entry is incomplete.
Origin unknown.

There are a couple of variations on this. In one, Y is really the short form of X, e.g., in “when I say ‘rare’ what I really mean is that it was thought to be extinct until 1994 when a hiker found a grove of about 100 of the plants in the middle of a one million acre wilderness area outside Sydney, Australia.” (link) In the other, Y is the opposite of X, or they contrast in meaning in some way. E.g., “when I say ‘today’, I mean ‘tomorrow’.” (link)