I'm sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome I am

About

“Sorry, I can’t hear you over the sound of how awesome I am” is a catchphrase, often in demotivational macros, mainly used to depict a photo in which someone or something got a pose, a stare or anything supposedly so badass, so cool, so “awesome” that, in this particular instant, all his/its other fellows humans/things could bow to his/its feet.
That is to say, while, most of the time, it’s a simple way to describe someone’s unique awesomeness, it can also be an ironic way to point at a failed pose, a particular awkward moment or to mock on someone’s ego.

Origin

The catchphrase initially came from a Start Trek page from the Fiveminute.com website.
It’s basically about the first Star Trek series’s episodes being parodied and textually rewritten in funny dialogues, much like fanfictions.
On February 2005, the author, Kira, posted his parody for the “Return of the Archons” episode.
The ending is written as follows:

Spock: The computer built by Landru was indeed an impressive feat of engineering, Captain. Quite fascinating.
Kirk: True, but it still wasn’t as impressive a feat of engineering as me. I’m truly a marvel of humankind.
Spock: If you say so, Captain.
Kirk: Number of supercomputers outsmarted by Spock: zero. Number of supercomputers outsmarted by Kirk: one.
Spock: But I was the one who told you that logic puzzle in the first place.
Kirk: Sorry, Spock, can’t hear you over the sound of how awesome I am.
Spock: But --
Kirk: Awesome!
Spock: Sigh.
(The Enterprise warps off at Ludicrous Speed)

THE END

Demotivational trend

That catchphrase has been seen, by many, as a realistic sum up of William Shatner’s (Captain Kirk) ego. As a matter of fact, the first image macro reusing it featured Captain Kirk:

Image courtesy of Echosphere.net

• August 2006 article talking about that new trend

Impact on real life

While the demotivational trend was growing, not focusing only on Shatner’s performance and starting to gather more pictures, this catchphrase has been used in real life on two notable occasions:

- First, around september 2007, the Blackwater version became a well-known poster circulating among security contractors and U.S soldiers in Iraq as some kind of picturesque way to depict Blackwater group’s rudeness and “testosterone-fueled excess”, quick to start an incident.

- On June 2009, dozens of the following version, featuring Edmonton’s police chief,

were posted, seemingly as some kind of protest, on the walls of Edmonton’s police headquarters, followed by bulks emailed to members.

Impact on Internet

While the derivatives are only taking place in image macros, there has been a crave for goodies featuring the catchphrase.

T-shirts:

• Driftdimension.co.uk
• http://t-shirts.cafepress.com/
• Redbubble.com
• Jaxxshirts.com

Pins:

• Zazzle.fr

Or Facebook groups:

• Like this one
• Or that other one
• Or even that one

The catchphrase has also been reused as an achievement for the World of Warcraft MMORPG#.