Snakes on a Plane (2005)

Snakes on a Background

Snakes On A Plane is a meme which began in anticipation of the 2006 film Snakes on a Plane, starring Samuel L Jackson. No words can describe the movie any better than the title already does.

Respecting the sheer honesty of the title and the its reflection of the movie’s inner awesome, the internets exploded in parody of the already ridiculous movie.

New Line Cinema, the studio that produced the film, even did a 5-day reshoot in order to help the film live up to the expectations of its cult following.

Snakes on a Formula

Many of the images created by the movie’s fans follow a simple formula:

1. Start with the title: Snakes on a Plane
2. Next, alter it while keeping the same flow, but changing the meaning. Example: Snakes love John Coltrane
3. Throw in a bad MS Paint drawing of a snake, an image of Samuel L. Jackson, and a Jackson-esque action movie catchphrase to tie it all together. Example: That’s some smooth jazz, motherfucker!

Snakes on a Mainstream Media

The movie’s pre-release popularity on the internets was noticed by television and print personalities such as Jon Stewart and Keith Olbermann. According to movie’s Wikipedia page:

On August 21, 2006, during a segment on the show called “Snakes on a Plane: Could it Muthafuckin Happen Here”, correspondent Samantha Bee asked a snake expert if there had been any reported snake attacks on planes. He denied it, to which Bee replied, “I’ve had it with these motherfuckin’ experts denying that there’s motherfuckin’ snakes on motherfuckin’ planes!”

Snakes on a C’est la vie

The film’s title has also taken on a meaning on it’s own. According to UrbanDictionary user Case Smith, “Snakes on a plane” is:

A simple existential observation that has the same meaning as “Whaddya gonna do?” or “Shit Happens”. Taken from the upcoming Samuel L. Jackson movie of the same name, and immortilised by screenwriter Josh Friedman on his blog post of Wednesday, August 17, 2005."

Snakes on a Remix

Like many memes, Snakes on a Plane has met other memes and copulated to produce numerous mashups.

One popular mashup is a combination of Snakes on a Plane and the famous All Your Base Are Belong To Us meme.

Snakes on a Censorship

The movie’s catchphrase “I’ve had it with these muthafuckin snakes on this muthafuckin plane!” is not PG. Ensuingly, whenever the movie is shown on cable it is replaced by another, better phrase, directly recorded by Samuel L. Jackson:

Snakes on a Graph

Birthed with the 2005 trailer, grows quickly through 2006, major spike in popularity around the film’s release, then a fairly quick fade into near-obscurity.

blue = “snakes on a plane”

[[more videos/images needed]]