I See What You Did There
Added 15 years ago by Chris Menning • Updated 5 days ago by Y F
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| About • Origin • Spread • Search Interest • External References • |
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Tags: image macros macros lol see i see what you did there comment comments sitcom reaction image
Additional References: Encyclopedia Dramatica
About
"I See What You Did There", sometimes shortened as ICWYDT or ISWYDT, is a phrase typically found online either in comments or captions for image macros. Depending on its tone, it can convey a condescending response to a banal joke, a genuine admiration for another person’s wit or a threat akin to “I know what you did.”
Origin
The expression had been used in pop culture previous to the internet, first seen in a March 1996 episode[2] of the television comedy Friends titled “The One Where Dr. Ramoray Dies.”[1] In the scene, Joey (played by Matt LeBlanc) is explaining to Phoebe (played by Lisa Kudrow) how he writes his own lines on the television show he works on. He tells her that he took the original line "If we don't get this woman to a hospital, she's going to die" and changed it to "If this woman doesn't get to a hospital, she's not gonna live." Realizing he just rephrased the script and did not do any actual writing, Phoebe responds with "I see what you did there" as a method of patronizing him.
Online, one of the earliest archived uses of the phrase appeared on the Ultimate Ju-jitsu Forum[3] on July 18th, 2003 when a member posted a joke about a Jujitsu martial arts center named the Boy Club, asking if it was a reference to the blue corner of a ju-jitsu mat, to which another poster responded with “ah ha, i see what you did there."
Spread
“I See What You Did There” has been used on a variety of topical message boards between 2003 and 2007, including hobby forum ilXor[4], the Killer Movies community[5] and the Newgrounds forums.[6] In 2004, two acronym versions of the phrase were defined on Urban Dictionary, OICWYDT[7] and ISWYDT.[8] The former is attributed to the LiveJournal community indiefucks[9], which has been active since June 2002. The following year in 2005, "i see what you did there" as a full phrase was added to Urban Dictionary.[10]
Notable Examples
Image macros bearing the phrase started to appear throughout 2007 and 2008, with instances posted on I Can Has Cheezburger?[12][13], My[confined]Space[14], eBaum’s World[11] and Halolz.[15] Collections of these image macros can be found on Buzzfeed[16], Quickmeme[17] and the Chive.[18] Additional instances of both image macros and captionless pictures can be found on Tumblr[19], FunnyJunk[20] and Reddit.[21]
Rage Face
As early as in August 2011, the phrase became paired with a reaction face that had been circulating on 4chan since that February,[24] with the earliest known instance posted by Tumblr user dyselxia[25] in a joke about juice beverages.
Later that month, a rage comic featuring the face was posted on Memebase.[27] On October 1st, it was added to All The Rage Faces[28] and made its debut on Reddit[29] in a rage comic posted on October 29th. As of July 2012, there are more than 100 rage comics on Reddit[26] with the I See What You Did There face. There are more than 20 Facebook fan pages[22] for the rage face, with the largest one[23] having 98,896 fans as of July 2012.
Search Interest
Although the phrase is relatively common in everyday speech, search volume for the phrase did not pick up until mid-2005.
External References
[1] Friends.tktv.net – Transcript of "The One Where Dr. Ramoray Dies"
[2] Wikipedia – The One Where Dr. Ramoray Dies
[3] Ultimate Ju-jitsu Forum – For Rob (now in Newcastle)
[4] ilXor -Taking Sides: Def Leppard vs. Bon Jovi
[5] Killer Movies – If you found nude photos…
[6] Newgrounds BBS – Response to Photoshop Spongebob Squarepants.
[7] Urban Dictionary – OICWYDT
[9] LiveJournal – indiefucks
[10] Urban Dictionary – Definition for I See What You Did There
[11] eBaum's World – I see what u did there 7/13/2008
[12] I Can Has Cheezburger – I See What You Did There
[13] I Can Has Cheezburger – We See What You Did There
[14] My[confined]Space – I See What You Did There
[15] Halolz – I See What You Did There
[16] Buzzfeed – The Best of the I See What You Did There Meme
[17] Quickmeme – I See What You Did There
[18] The Chive – I See What You Did There
[19] Tumblr – Posts tagged "i see what you did there"
[20] FunnyJunk – Search results for "i see what you did there"
[21] Reddit – Search results for "i see what you did there"
[22] Facebook – Search results for "i see what you did there"
[23] Facebook – I See What You Did There
[24] chanarchive – Use of reaction face without the phrase "i see what you did there"
[25] Tumblr – HI-C WHAT YOU DID THERE.
[26] Reddit – Search for "i see what you did there" in only /r/fffffffuuuuuuuuuuuu
[27] Memebase – Rage Comics: I See What You Did Troll
[28] All The Rage Faces – I See What You Did There
[29] Reddit – I see what you did there…
Entry Editors ( 6 )
Recent Videos ( 4 )
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LiveLeak.com - Funny orange pealing
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Airplane Snore
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I see what you did there, Hulu Plus
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Lois Thinks Superman Has a Nice Big...
Recent Images ( 215 )
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Lucifer
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Oh, Family Handyman...
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I SEE IT
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IP Pun
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"Please Take Me"
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I C What You Did There
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Obama sees what you did
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One Punch Man Sees What You Did There
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I see what you did there
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Toyota Prius ///M
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Truck driver has obviously watched Final Destination 2
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Boss Bass' drinking buddy sees through your joke.
Comments ( 41 )
Would love to see some research on this.
I'm pretty sure it started with Futurama.
i agree, research please? where this come from hmm? thanks kym
i do not see what you did there…
i never have understood this meme, it would be nice if you could do some resaerching on it.
It looks like the ice cream guy in the main pic is "Mr.Tastee" from "the adventures of Pete and Pete".
I put up a photo from the series as reference.
i c wut u did thar
Possible origin: Arrested Development, season 1, episode "Missing Kitty" (March 28, 2004). GOB, a magician, is showing his nephew George Michael a magic trick when George Michael's father Michael walks in the room.
Michael, to George Michael: "…There certainly isn't going to be any magic. It is a path to a lonely life where people mock you and you don't even realize it."
GOB: "But Michael, I'm a magi--oh, I see what you did."
I don't remember hearing it in Futurama.
I don't watch Futurama too often so I wouldn't know if it came from there, but isn't Arrested Development to under rated for it to spread so much?
Possible earlier origin: 3rd Rock From the Sun (1998), season 4, episode 3 "Feelin' Albright."
Sally storms out of the kitchen, breaking a crockpot in the process.
Tommy:"We just lost one crockpot, and gained one crackpot."
Harry:"I see what you did there."
Possible earlier sighting than 3rd Rock.
Mr Saturday Night (1992):
Repeated Line: "See what I did there?"
Isn't "I see what you did thar" worth at least a paragraph of this?
i c wut u did thear
LOL@ Stevie Wonder.
The Futurama "I see what you did there" pic originated on the episode "Lesser of Two Evils" where Flexo steals the atom, and Bender seemingly conceals his neck area with a map, after Fry takes away the map, he has a sweater on saying "alright, take it!" then Fry makes the trademark look!
I think that's notable info for the article, right?
oh, and he doesn't actually say "I see what you did there" it's just the pic…
In the first episode of Season 1 on disk 3 of Arrested Development, Gob is talking to Michael and George Michael, Michael is mocking Gob, and after a moment Gob says, "I see what you did there".
I'd think this episode's original air date would align nicely with the original spike in Google Searches – but I'm not sure.
Not drawing conclusions but here's some data:
Google doesn't show searches for it until October 2007 (Google Trends)
However there are posts found by Google which reference it in text or in a pic such as a lolcat as early as 2004, where it seems to have really propagated. But as far as the origin, the Arrested Development episode air date of March 04 would match up well as a possible inspiration for those lolcat picture phrases. There's also an early version of the "orly" owl with the "I see what you did there" phrase.
It is used before this of course, but not as a sarcastic or joking response to someone else's pun or joke or put down.
Akshually, I like this meme a lot lol. I use it frequetly.
WHAT, sorry but to the people saying it "started at futurama", that's plain bullshit.
I can't go into detail, because I'm not a newfag zo I know the rules, but it DEFINATLY started with the queen of the interwebz (BOXXY), and she will forever be our queen, FUCK TABBY, fkin wailord queen of newfags
and it's "I see wat u did thar!"
@Shift One: I can agree it's I see what you did thar", but fucc you with that Boxxy shit. "..I'm not a newfag" yeah, only newfags would even bring her up. Fucc Boxxy, she was and still is cancer that kills us. She isn't our queen, she is the instigator in the Civil War that divided and even broke us. If you weren't a newfag you would know that and NOT even mention her name.
Hush with the Boxxy crap before I have to get the stupid, unfunny flame war images out. ;>> <<;
The phrase in question is definitely very, very common as "I see what you did thar" when used as text, where in images, it's "I see what you did there" as stated in the article.
+1 confirm
+1flamewar- erm I mean confirm
hahaha this is an awesome meme
Both pictures are of the pelican. I don't know if it a mistake or a glitch, but the top picture should be of Futurama Fry.
Wait, what happened to the pic with Fry? Can no one see it or is it just me?
boxxy. god in girl form…
Show the samepic twice –
I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE!
Aye sea what ye done thar.
EYE C WAT U DEED THAR O_O
Oh look, someone took the time to thumbs down all the comments.
Lol, a newfag or two downvoted all our comments.
So brave.
this joke also appears in dead rising 2, when you kill the psychopath seymour redding
OMG 100th person to favorite this article!
I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE 3 YEARS AGO. xD
XBOX360 --→ X BOX 360
(X Button, Square Button, Circle Button)I SEE WUT YU DID THAR.
this meme is confirmed
i see whut you did there
I DID WHAT YOU SEE THERE.
I didn't.
It is better if some internet research happens on this.
I SEE WHAT YOU DID THERE 3 YEARS AGO. xD
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