X is the Y of Z

“X is the Y of Z” is a snowclone–an adaptable, Mad Libs-like idiom like “May I compare thee to an X?”, “X is the new Y,” and “I for one welcome our new X overlords.” This snowclone touches on every subject imaginable, including music. So without further adieu, today’s topic is…

The Spice Girls

Being called The Beatles of this or the Led Zeppelin of that or the U2 of whatever would be a true honor. Not everyone is so lucky:

“Having looked up what Bratz are on Wikipedia, I feel reliably informed that they are the Spice Girls of the Toy World. Well, they are tall, skinny and have abnormal heads on tiny necks. Wikipedia make no reference to Victoria Beckham, but what else are you to take from that?”

(Dec. 8, 2008, Boffer)

“Horrors! Bulgaria’s famous, tasty shopska, the ‘traditional’ meal starter that woos even hardened hearts across this fine land, is something of the ‘Spice Girls of salads’.”

(2007, Tom Masters, Eastern Europe, Lonely Planet Publications, p. 137)

“#63: Kurt Warner – The Spice Girls of quarterbacks, Warner hit the U.S. scene quickly after success in Europe, shined on the big stage for a brief while, and disappeared off the face of the earth not long thereafter (but not before several pathetic comeback attempts). Warner has the strange distinction of having a number of the best seasons in NFL history (1999, 2001) and the worst (2002, 2003) — it’s like the clock struck twelve right in the middle of Super Bowl XXXVI. But at least his breathtaking highs of 1999-2001 (and decent play since 2004) are enough to get him onto this list at #63… Some cinderellas probably won’t even make it that far.”

(Aug. 10, 2007, armchairgm)

“In addition to all the babies, Apatow also cast a slew of fellow Jews. ‘We are like the Spice Girls of Jews. That’s how I look at. I didn’t set out to make the movie too Jew-centric, to create a word for this conversation, but Seth is a Jewish guy and all his friends are Jewish, at least the ones I cast in the movie, so I thought it’d be funny that they talk about it, because it’s truthful to their experience. I didn’t set out to make any kind of statement like ‘You can have five Jews in a movie.’”

(May 29, 2007, Judd Apatow, CanMag)

“Have to go with #2. They’re like the Spice Girls of douche bags.“

(April 2, 2007, Hot Chicks with Douchebags)

“The Craig of Cult is filled with very scary people. People appreciate Craig because they are unable to recognize that he is a fool – just like them. Craig is the Spice Girls of academics. Someday the Cult of Craig will feel profound embarrassment for having enjoyed him so.”

(Oct. 2, 2005, Professor Performance)

“Beds are more complex and I hate hotel sheets—they are like pajamas for corpses. I placed them wrinkled under the comforter—for sheets do not have the virility of porcelain—toilets are the Spice Girls of cleaning.”

(Nov. 2003, Eleanor Levine, Milk)

“Professional female killers were the Spice Girls of the Ancient World, but they were Spice Girls with attitude and spikes in their hands. They did not mime to the music. When they scored a hit, you stayed hit.”

(Sept. 13, 2000, Philip Howard, KZU)

Mark Peters is a language columnist and humorist who writes for Good, Visual Thesaurus and other mags, while maintaining too many blogs, including Wordlustitude, The Rosa Parks of Blogs, and The Pancake Proverbs.

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