Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Cool Story, Bro.

If you google this phrase, "Cool story, Bro." the Urban Dictionary will pop up with a hilarious-because-it's-true definition. It brought on a discussion about something else.

Memes.

Ever heard of it? Wikipedia defines it " is an idea, behavior or style that spreads from person to person within a culture. While genes transmit biological information, memes are said to transmit ideas and belief information.

I copied a piece I found about the origin of "meme" because it fascinated me.

Richard Dawkins, the British biologist, is the inventor of the term. It's such a beautiful example of changing times requiring new words, which we invent from old ones. Here he is in his book, "The Selfish Gene" describing it.


"We need a name for the new replicator, a noun that conveys the idea of a unit of cultural transmission, or a unit of imitation. 'Mimeme' comes from a suitable Greek root, but I want a monosyllable that sounds a bit like 'gene'. I hope my classicist friends will forgive me if I abbreviate mimeme to meme. If it is any consolation, it could alternatively be thought of as being related to 'memory', or to the French word meme. It should be pronounced to rhyme with 'cream'."

Which brings me back to "Cool Story, Bro."

I'll just post the Urban Dictionary's version right here: 

1. An appropriate response to a story that went nowhere and/or was completely uninteresting.
"This one time me and my brother were eating sandwiches and he was like 'dude, I hate mustard' and I was like 'yeah.'"
"Cool story bro."

2. Cool story, bro is the ultimate shut down to faggotry, obvious trolling, and tl;dr infecting the internets, to which there is no response
Troll: "Halo invented the FPS video game genre!"

Other Guy: "Cool Story Bro"

"Funny because it's true" is like the definition of the Age of Internet. We are a people needing quick ways or words or phrases to express a certain feeling or experience that is common to many, and makes us all feel like One Big Family with little Inside Jokes. 

:)
I love it.

2 comments:

  1. See, and I thought it was pronounced Meh Meh (may may) -- and I thought that was totally appropriate for what always seemed like the internet version of the rabbit trail;)

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