snowclone

"The continued reign of the "new black" snowclone dismays language watchdogs, in part because, like all cliches, it makes for mediocre writing and mediocre thinking. It also betrays a fetish for the new, and the new new. But there are signs that the trope has reached a level of terminal self-consciousness. Casual examination of the year in "new" betrays at least a couple of snowclones coined in a spirit of linguistic pranksterism, the results meant to explode the cliche through their own absurdity — in what way, exactly, is Christmas the new awesome?"
- 'Milk is the new oil, Iraq is the new Korea … enough already!', Drake Bennett, 3 Jan 2008.

http://snowclones.org/
http://blog.oup.com/2007/08/patterns/#more-1061

"is" as the basic structure of associative programming. "new" is just the bling to the most simple code ever, "(with event) x ~= (think about) y". (note the use of aboutequals). suggestions, unintentional or otherwise...

I'm really starting to dislike the "X is the new Y" cliche.

(n) : a type of formula-based cliché which uses an old idiom in a new context, especially in journalism; for example "X is the new Y" or "It's X, but not as we know it"
Ninjawords