From Wikipedia: A snowclone is a type of cliché and phrasal template originally defined as "a multi-use, customizable, instantly recognizable, time-worn, quoted or misquoted phrase or sentence that can be used in an entirely open array of different jokey variants by lazy journalists and writers."
That means, when you take a well worn phrase and replace certain words to create a new phrase that cause people to immediately say, “I saw what you did there.”, you’ve created a snowclone.
Old phrase - Pink is the new black.
New phrase - Black is the new black.
Okay, that’s great for a lazy fashion writer, trying to explain the changes of the season- but it’s pretty bland as far as snowclones go. Let’s pick another.
Cliché - Pink is the new black.
Snowclone - Random is the new order (this was used for an ipod shuffle ad).
Nice.
The first snowclone that I’d really noticed, and this was from years before I’d even heard of the word, was a take off on “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!”. It seemed to me that every time a journalist had three things in their article, whoever did the headlines just had to use that cliché. Lazy, lazy headline writer.
Of course, you might think that I’m against such practices. You’d be wrong. I love snowclones. I don’t care that the originator was lazy. As far as I’m concerned, lazy is the new black.
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