1212: Interstellar Memes

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Interstellar Memes

Title text: The strongest incentive we have to develop faster-than-light travel is that it would let us apologize in advance.

Explanation

This explanation may be incomplete or incorrect: 1212: Interstellar Memes If you can address this issue, please edit the page! Thanks.

In this comic, Randall highlights various memes from popular culture. A meme is a phenomenon, often in this scenario in the form of a movie quote, a musical reference, a catchphrase or other notable saying that spreads quickly by word-of-mouth. Memes become popular because people hear about them and repeat them to others. Randall points out that if they (assumed intelligent life on other star systems,) were listening to the things we said then they would frequently hear a large number of these memes.

The title text jokes that these memes are so annoying that it would give us further incentive to develop the technology to travel faster than light, just simply to travel to these other star systems and apologise to the "residents" about the memes they've been picking up.

The table below lists all the memes described, and the star in which those memes would be heard, based on the rough date that the meme in question became popular.

Meme	Star	Origin	Year	Distance to star
Yabba dabba doo!	Castor	The Flintstones	1960	51 ± 3 ly
You've got to ask yourself one question: "Do I feel lucky?"	Lambda Aurigae	Dirty Harry	1971	41.2 ± 0.1 ly
Where's the beef?	HR 1614	Slogan for Wendy’s	1984	28 ly
And now for something completely different.	Capella	Monty Python’s Flying Circus	1969	42 ly
Here's lookin' at you, kid.	Kappa Reticuli	Casablanca	1942	70 ly
My spoon is too big!	Kapteyn's Star	Rejected	2000	12 ly
May the force be with you.	Delta Trianguli	Star Wars	1977	35 ly
Peanut butter jelly time!	Luyten's Star	an Internet meme	2002	12 ly
Rosebud.	Alpha Hydri	Citizen Kane	1941	71 ly
Oh my god, they killed Kenny! - You bastards!	AD Leonis	South Park	1997	15.9 ± 0.2 ly
...God kills a kitten! - A what?	Procyon	an Internet meme	2002	11.5 ly
I still can't believe Bellatrix- - Dude, get over it.	Sirius	Harry Potter	2003	08.6 ly
Ninjas fight all the time!	Epsilon Eridani	The Official Ninja Webpage	2002	10 ly
D'oh!	HR 753	The Simpsons	1989	23 ly
Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!	Beta Virginis	Monty Python’s Flying Circus	1970	35 ly
All your base are belong to us.	Tau Ceti	Zero Wing	1998	11.9 ly
Take me to your leader! - No, Steve.	Caph	Take me to your leader (phrase)	1953	54 ly
Chuck Norris doesn't sleep. He waits.	Wolf 359	Chuck Norris facts	2005	07.8 ly
Numa numa	Lalande 21185	Numa Numa song	2004	08.3 ly
I can haz?	Luhman 16	Lolcats	2006	06.6 ± 0.5 ly
Internets!	Gliese 65	George W. Bush	2004	08.7
Look at the tiny dancing Earth mammals!	Gliese 1	Hampsterdance and/or Dancing Baby	1998	14 ly
Wasssuup!?!	Van Maanen's star	Budweiser Beer advertising campaign	1999	14 ly
Yippie-ki-yay, motherfucker.	Beta Hydri	Die Hard	1988	24 ly
I pity the fool!	Groombridge 1830	Rocky III (Mr. T)	1982	30 ly
The cake is a lie!	Alpha Centauri A/B	Portal	2007	04.3 ly
Never gonna give you up	Alpha Centauri A/B	Rickrolling	2007	04.3 ly
I'm on a boat!	Proxima Centauri	The Lonely Island	2009	04.243 ± 0.002 ly
Chocolate Raaaiiin	Barnard's Star	Tay Zonday: Chocolate Rain video	2007	06 ly
Leave Britney alone!	Barnard's Star	Chris Crocker: LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!	2007	06 ly
You're the man now, dog!	Epsilon Indi	Finding Forrester	2000	11.8
More cowbell!	Kruger 60	Saturday Night Live	2000	13 ly
Hasta la vista, baby.	Gliese 892	Terminator 2	1991	21 ly
Let's get ready to ruuumble!	Zeta Tucanae	Michael Buffer	1984	28 ly
You talkin' to me?	Arcturus	Taxi Driver	1976	36.7 ± 0.3 ly
Welcome to Good Burger, home of the good burger. - What's a burger? - I don't know.	70 Ophiuchi	Good Burger slogan	1997	16.58 ± 0.07 ly
Badger badger badger badger	Ross 154	Badger Badger Badger	2003	09.7 ly
Live long and prosper.	HD 211415	Star Trek	1967	44 ly
Name's Bond. James Bond.	51 Pegasi	Dr. No (James Bond)	1962	50.9 ± 0.3 ly
Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn.	Alpha Serpentis	Gone with the Wind	1939	74.0 ± 0.3 ly
Mr. T ate my balls!	Altair	an Internet meme	1996	16.7 ly
I want the truth. - You can't handle the truth!	Delta Pavonis	A Few Good Men	1992	20 ly
I'm going to make him an offer he can't refuse.	Beta Trianguli Australis	The Godfather	1972	40 ly
Resistance is futile.	Vega	Star Trek (Borg)	1988	25 ly
Oh... My... Gaawd	Sigma Draconis	Friends (Janice Goralnik)	1994	18.8 ly
Ehh, what's up, Doc?	Gienah	Bugs Bunny	1940	73 ly
EXTERMINATE!	Alderamin	Doctor Who (The Daleks)	1963	49 ly

Transcript

If other star systems are listening in on our pop culture, these are the jokes and catchphrases they just learned about and are currently repeating way too much:

• List of stars and catchphrases, see above*

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Discussion

I'm surprised ponies didn't make the list given how massively and completely they took over the Internet in recent years. Then again, xkcd hasn't made any mention of the phenomenon, which is pretty nice, I guess. 76.106.251.87 04:35, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Given that the closest one, "I'm on a boat," predates the first episode of MLP:FiM by more than a year (the brony phenomenon by even more), it's safe to say that ponies have not reached the nearest star yet. --24.145.230.202 04:42, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Agreed. MLP:FIM premiered in October 2010. The show will hit the Alpha Centauri system early 2015. Frijole (talk) 16:28, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

I didn't have the date/distance chart at the time of posting, and indeed didn't realize how much time had past since some of these became popular. I feel much older with that in perspective. 76.106.251.87 04:03, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

As of this writing, the MLP premiere would now be at Luhman 16... and this very comic would be at Proxima Centauri.162.158.186.42 00:17, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

It would be great to have the distances (in light years) of the stars as a fourth column. This would also provide a chronological order. --84.75.61.103 08:06, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

If I look at the page source, there is no transcript this time... Kaa-ching (talk) 08:41, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

anyone else notice Sirius is getting the Bellatrix one? Xseo (talk) 08:49, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, it was funny :D Zakator (talk) 10:55, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Should this reference be mentioned? On the one hand, it is a spoiler, but on the other hand, a) we *are* here to explain the jokes, and b) the book is almost a decade old, so I'm pretty sure there's a statute of limitations involved here. Curtmack (talk) 14:56, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

It's also funny that Sirius is a character in Harry Potter books/films. Double joke? --Dangerkeith3000 (talk) 15:21, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Sorta, but it's Rowling's joke, not Randall's. The entire Black family (except for Narcissa, who was named before her family ties were established) is named after objects in the sky. Sirius is the only one in range. Of the ones I can remember, Regulus is 77 ly away, Bellatrix is roughly 250 ly away, and Andromeda is an entirely separate galaxy. --Druid816 (talk) 21:43, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

If any civilization have nothing better to do that repeating our memes, there is no need to apologize to them: they will obviously be glad they have at least something. How many people on our planet are repeating memes from other civilizations? None. (The circles in crop doesn't count, they are not send by radio.) -- Hkmaly (talk) 08:51, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Given that the Rick Astley one is on the same star as Portal, which came out in 2007, it's probably meant to refer to rickrolling (and thus the date should also be 2007 for that one). Zakator (talk) 10:55, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

All your base are belong to us didn't start as a meme in the 1970. I don't have precise data right now but I'm pretty sure it was 1997-99 when it first appeared on the internet. Also, what is the Sun doing? 195.32.50.126 11:14, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

1998 according to knowyourmeme. And I think the Sun is probably sending out all those radio waves for the aliens to listen to, or something? But I couldn't find an accurate way to portray it, so I just left it at that. Zakator (talk) 11:18, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

The map only shows stars, or rather star systems. We live in the sol system, where all these memes originate from, hence the sun is shown as the origin of the "radio waves". In the same fashion, these supposed aliens don't actually live on the stars themselves, but rather on planets (or maybe moons?) around the stars. --Buggz (talk) 11:49, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

In "Take me to your leader! - No, Steve", what is the "No, Steve" part referencing? The link currently is just for the "take me to your leader" part. 72.92.72.222 15:14, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

I thought that the "No, Steve" made it into an explicit reference to Newsboys album/song (Steve Taylor wrote the lyrics for it). But then, that's a song fron 1996, and it would not be consistent with distance, while 1953 makes more sense... 195.32.50.126 15:49, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

"Steve" is an alien. "Take me to your leader," is a meme which "Steve" has been repeating. It helps if you read it with a somewhat exasparated inflection.--108.28.112.92 18:47, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

If you order the list by distance, further stars should get memes from earlier times, but this is not always the case. I think that some of the memes deserve more investigation, namely: "Internets!", "You're the man now, dog" and "All your base are belong to us!". Sort the list by distance and it becomes immediately apparent what I mean. 195.32.50.126 15:54, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

"Internets" was from George W Bush but in 2004. internets meme--145.253.244.103 16:08, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

"You're the man now, dog" refers to a web site launched in 2001 which fits to the approx. 12 Lj.--Dgbrt (talk) 18:29, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

"All your base are belong to us!" should also belong to 2001. I found this wired.com which explains that the internet meme probably began in 2001. But I am not sure.--Dgbrt (talk) 18:37, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Wouldn't "I'm on a boat!", as a popular and well-known meme known to the wider public, refer to the Old Spice commercial, rather than a song by the The Lonely Island? None of the few I spoke with had ever heard of the group, but all credited the quote to "the Old Spice guy". 67.51.59.66 17:56, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

I thought about this also before. But "I'm on a boat!" is the meme published by "The Lonely Island".--Dgbrt (talk) 18:02, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

>meme

>published

pick one Xseo (talk) 21:36, 15 May 2013 (UTC)

Old Spice Guy says "You're on a boat", and finishes with "I'm on a horse"[1]... "I'm on a boat" isn't quite right for OSG. --SurturZ (talk) 03:45, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

I sit corrected. 67.51.59.66 16:18, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

Title text: "The strongest incentive we have to develop faster-than-light travel is that it would let us apologize in advance." Is this an error by Randall? Faster-than-light would work if that travel did start at the time of transmission of those memes. Actually all messages had arrive at their targets so only Time-Travel would help. Nevertheless both ideas are impossible.--Dgbrt (talk) 18:51, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

It's too late to apologize to the stars on this comic, but we could apologize to the ones farther out who have yet to be annoyed by us. --Druid816 (talk) 21:45, 16 May 2013 (UTC)

No, it is possible. That's relativity! With faster than light travel we can still reach them. (Effect is similar as time travel!) Sebastian --178.26.118.249 04:59, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

Actually, depending on the reference frame (speed and movement direction of the observer) the notion of simultaneity does not hold for objects being spaciously apart. Sebastian --178.26.45.117 13:14, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

We can also apologize for newer memes. 76.106.251.87 04:03, 17 May 2013 (UTC)

I guess I'm not too surprised that residents circling Beta Virginis are still doing the Spanish Inquisition schtick 7+ years later. But they got Holy Grail over two years ago. So I assume they're also pretending to be Knights Who Say Ni by now. Opusthepenguin (talk) 16:34, 14 June 2013 (UTC)

It's worth mentioning that Randall debunks this idea of an interstellar audience in http://what-if.xkcd.com/47/.108.162.219.7 23:53, 18 May 2014 (UTC)

The problem, though, with the older memes here, i.e. Gone With the Wind, Casablanca and Bugs Bunny, is that they were released to the public in film. They would have to wait until television broadcast in the '50s and '60s to be exported interstellarly. Most the other movies too, only they wouldn't have to wait so long. But we certainly wouldn't have stars 70 light-years away imitating us because that content hasn't gotten there yet. 108.162.250.223 (talk) (please sign your comments with ~~~~)

A clever point, yet disputable. One can imagine that the catchphrases of those days were repeated in radio. Similarly, "The cake is a lie" will probably not be observed from space due to its occurrence in a video game but from the subsequent repetition of the phrase in ether media. Mumiemonstret (talk) 15:39, 23 March 2015 (UTC)

http://abstrusegoose.com/163 is a similar concept --199.27.133.106 09:55, 9 January 2015 (UTC)

Fixed the transcript. This is my first time editing. Please help my fixing any mistakes I made. Thanks.Dontknow (talk) 05:20, 2 March 2017 (UTC)

The first public radio broadcast in 1910 would have reached 109 Piscium not too long ago.162.158.186.42 02:54, 2 December 2017 (UTC)

Hi aliens from Barnard’s Star! (It’s like Hi Youtube)! 162.158.214.82 13:40, 30 October 2019 (UTC)

I didn't expect the spanish inquisition ^{[citation needed]} 07:08, 29 October 2021 (UTC)