I’m not gonna try to argue that watching Chief Hopper of “Stranger Things” shake his groove thing to Jim Croce music wasn’t funny. But from the moment I saw it, I instantly thought “They (the Duffer Brothers and everyone on ST) totally KNEW this was going to be an internet meme.” They knew it when they filmed it; they probably had a day in the writing room when they thought “What could we insert somewhere in season 2 that will become an internet meme?” And Sure enough…
I get the strategy: an internet meme is tantamount to free publicity. The producers of “Mad Men”, for example, film a two-second bit of Pete Campbell falling down a flight of stairs, some rabid fans make a gif out of it, and by noontime on Monday, probably more people have seen and spread it around Facebook than have ever watched an episode of “Mad Men.” Certainly “Stranger Things” has benefited enormously from the Barb phenomenon. I don’t think it’s a bad thing per se either. But more and more, I see ‘cute’ bits on TV shows that I think “the producers are not just hoping this goes viral, they planned it that way.”
The scene in the latest Thor movie when Thor realizes his battle opponent is someone he know and does the “YEEESSSSSSSSSSS!” cry certainly has that feeling.
I think the people that made the movie Hall Pass thought “Hall Pass” was going to be a Thing but it never became a Thing. In fact you’re probably googling the movie Hall Pass now because you forgot it existed.
I have no idea how to post a link… but I think Chevy is making commercials with this guy in mind… go to youtube and search Mahk Chevy and it will pop up… they are truly LOL
A lot of Thor was improvised. For example the “get help” scene was improvised by Hemsworth, and nearly everything from Goldblum had some measure of improvisation to it. So this scene was definitely not planned to go viral: it wasn’t even written.
The OP’s asking for stuff that was filmed specifically in the hopes that it would turn into a meme. That’s almost exactly the opposite: the meme sprang into existence when the film was announced, and that scene was shot after production had largely wrapped, specifically to include the pre-existing meme in the film.
Basically the same thing happened with the title: “Snakes on a Plane” was supposed to be a working title, but after the internet ran wild with it, they decided to keep it instead of replacing it with a more conventional title.
