Snowclone
Etymology
Coined in 2004 by the economist Glen Whitman at the suggestion of the linguist Geoffrey Pullum, on the blog Language Log. It is named for the hackneyed frame "Eskimos have N words for snow," itself a favorite example of the pattern — a coinage, and a deliberately self-referential one.
noun · /SNOH-klohn/
A cliché sentence-template with adjustable slots that writers endlessly refill.
What it names
The reusable phrasal mold — "X is the new Y," "have N words for Z," "in space, no one can hear you W" — that lets you spot formula masquerading as freshness.
Example
Every trend piece reaches for the same snowclone: "orange is the new black," "sitting is the new smoking," "quiet is the new loud."
Related idea
A cliché is a fixed stale phrase; a snowclone is the adjustable stencil behind a whole family of them.