Buttercupping a Thread: this is a reference to the very popular (and, as I've explained in a brilliant previous post, somewhat overrated) film The Princess Bride. Again, if you're an internet discussion sort of person, you've seen this happen. Somebody in the discussion misuses a word. Then a Princess Bride geek comes in with an implied verbal chortle, snark guns a-blazing: "You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means." At which point, I imagine, the aforementioned geek chuckles to himself and revels in his or her own superiority for the rest of the day. To my eyes, this is much, much worse than Godwinning a thread. Here's the thing: if the context of the poster is clear, you're pretty much being a dick if you're highlighting a usage error--it's along the same lines as triumphantly pointing out the careless grammatical error that is endemic to nearly all blogging. Furthermore, it's mildly amusing, at best, when Mandy Patinkin says it in the movie. It will never, ever be funny when you say it. So please don't.
Pastafarying a thread: atheist geeks pull this one all the time. If they encounter an ultra-religious person, they'll bring out a (supposedly) hilarious reference to The Flying Spaghetti Monster. (Are you a Pastafarian? Have you been touched by His Noodly Appendages?) The idea, of course, is that coming up with a Flying Spaghetti Monster is no more, or less, silly than worshipping Jesus (or as atheist geeks like to call him, "Jebus"--side note: the year 2000 called, folks, it wants its relevance back). To the geek pulling this verbal prank, it's no less funny the 500th time than it was the first--it's a little like when your dad or grandfather would always say "Chee'burger, chee'burger" whenever he was barbecuing, years after the Saturday Night Live sketch that gave birth to the reference passed from memory. The point is, gang, it's freakin' tired. Religion is silly, we get it. Curb your urge to post this one, and just have a snack. Maybe some spaghetti.
Jesusing a thread: I've seen this rendered as "Jesus-jacking" also, which definitely has a cool, alliterative quality. This is just as bad as pastafarying a thread, and should serve as a healthy reminder that when fundamentalists take on super-atheists, there are knuckleheads on both sides. The Jesus who's in the Bible was definitely funky fresh, and it's more than okay to worship Him. But chances are, screeds about His greatness and the fact that most of you are going to be Left Behind are out of place in a discussion as to whether or not Batman's batsuit should or shouldn't have nipples (answer: of course it should--protruding and perky). There's a time and a place, and in a way, you're insulting the Son of the Big Guy by rendering Him a non-sequitur on a thread. If I were God, Jr., I'd totally leave you behind for that.
Iambic pentamering a thread: this one, as far as I'm concerned, is the internet thread equivalent of wearing a "kick me" sign. It is the unwarranted and incredibly pretentious use of the archaic term "methinks." Usually it's accompanied by a quotation (wrong, most of the time) from Hamlet: "The lady doth protest too much, methinks." Now, "methinks" was a great term for Shakespeare and his contemporaries, because they could render the filler idea "it seems to me" in a neat, iambic word--unstressed, stressed, "me-THINKS." Only had eight syllables in your line? Add "methinks" and boom--iambic pentameter. But write it on an internet thread in the 21st century, and what's your message, exactly? "I'm cool because I've heard of Shakespeare"? Seriously? Better than this is going back for seconds on those noodly appendages.
At any rate, I hope I've helped you to be slightly less dickish on the internet. And if you take offense at what I've written, well, Hitler would have taken offense too, you Nazi.
