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When did this usage become common, especially in a sarcastic or ironic context?

Carnegie Mellon erroneously sends computer science admission letters to 800, because computers. [emphasis added]

(source for example: https://boingboing.net/2015/02/17/carnegie-mellon-erroneously-se.html)

tchrist
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wrschneider
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  • I remember Language Log mentioning this: http://languagelog.ldc.upenn.edu/nll/?p=9959 – herisson Sep 02 '15 at 21:29
  • @sumelic: In that (rather silly) example, you could translate the non-verbalised action as I am running away, in which case there's no need for *of. OP's (typo, I suspect) context is different. In the construction A because B* we expect *B* to be a statement, not just a bare noun. I've never heard any competent native speaker say I'm going to bed because late, or It's hot because sun, for example, and I doubt I ever will. If this is indeed an "emerging usage", it has very little currency, and I doubt it'll catch on. – FumbleFingers Sep 02 '15 at 21:55
  • What evidence are you offering that this usage has become common? I've only found the example you give (plus one in an otherwise ungrammatical post, and one unidentifiable possibility) in the first 80 Google hits for "because computers". – Edwin Ashworth Sep 02 '15 at 21:57
  • Here's an example from 2013 on this very site: http://english.stackexchange.com/questions/141724/why-don-t-snow-and-plow-well-or-plough-rhyme?lq=1#comment290778_141724 – herisson Sep 08 '15 at 22:44

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In my experience, such usage is far from common -- it's downright nonexistent.

Gary Clay Rector
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  • It goes along with Internet slang like the "derp" in the linked article. Perhaps your experience is not exhaustive. – herisson Sep 03 '15 at 03:41
  • The use of "because" in the headline of that article is clearly an error, probably caused by some automaton (or possibly an ignoramus) that clipped off the end of the headline. Of course, I know that my experience is not exhaustive. No human being's is, yet on this, I stand my ground as an editor with nonexhaustive experience of only a little over fifty years. – Gary Clay Rector Sep 06 '15 at 11:19