[lbo-talk] Evolution of a hip, ironic catchphrase: Don't tase me, bro!

[B.]

At first conservative talk shows were really happy
that "Don't Tase Me, Bro" was becoming a catch phrase
-- it made fun of the stupid activist-y guy who got
what he deserved. FOX News even ran a remix of a song
made from the guy's screaming and his famous taser
phrase. (Though, oddly, Tucker Carlson said the way
the police acted was "disgusting." Maybe he hadn't yet
gotten the memo that the right punditocracy was
supposed to make fun of the tasered guy, not criticize
the cops.)

Also, what quickly happened with the "Don't Tase Me,
Bro" slogan is a big reason why I now groan about a
once-innocuous movie -- Napoleon Dynamite. Anyone
remember those few minutes a couple years back when it
was really fun, a funny, quirky little movie you could
be proud you said you liked? Then the shirts came out
with 'quesa-dilla' slogans on them, greeting cards,
schools began using Napoleon as a figure in their
policies and handouts ("Don't be like Napoleon and do
this..") and soon what was really initially a little
gem of a movie became an overexposed nightmare that I
wanted to run away from every time I saw it referred
to in the culture.

"Played out" doesn't even begin to describe it.

-B.

Andy F wrote:

"http://www.salon.com/comics/boll/2007/10/04/boll/"