If You Watch X Backwards, It's About Y
About
If You Watch X Backwards, It’s About Y is a snowclone template often seen on online message boards, to change the narrative of a popular films using reverse chronology. It is used to highlight the hilarious or ridiculous aspects of the movie or comment on traditional cinematic and narrative conventions.
Origin
One of the earliest instances of flipping a movie’s narrative appeared on the SomethingAwful forums[6] on May 20th, 2006 and linked on the Discarded Lies forum on May 21st, 2006.[5] The original post re-imagined Star Wars, Titanic, The Lord of the Rings, Batman Begins and Carry on Camping.
Several months later, on January 3rd, 2007, the trope appeared in a question on Yahoo! Answers.[1] That June, YouTuber Bigshot210[2] uploaded an edited montage of Jaws arranged in reverse chronology. The description was nearly word for word from the Yahoo! Answers question, reading: “The story of a shark who throws-up humans until they open the beach.” The video has since been removed due to a copyright claim by NBC Universal.
Spread
On February 20th, 2009, Redditor sixdoublefive321[3] posted a thread[4] using the Jaws line as the topic. Several people in the comments began posting their own versions of the snowclone and the thread eventually amassed over 3500 points overall. That year, more threads appeared on the Call of Duty forums[7], the xkcd forums[8], and 4chan’s /b/ (random) board[15] and /v/ (video games) board.[16] Blogs including Unreality Magazine[9] and Popped Culture[10] also posted about the snowclone.
In 2010, threads appeared on The Escapist[11] and Reddit.[12] A third Reddit thread[13] was posted on February 26th, 2011, eliciting additional instances. If You Watch X Backwards images and text posts were featured on Mental Floss[17], Laughing Squid[18], Buzzfeed[19], Funny or Die[20], Pop Hangover[21] and the Atlantic[22] in March 2011.
Single-Topic Blogs
In early 2011, several single topic blogs were launched to curate similar jokes in both image macros and text posts, including IYWIB.com[25], If You Watch It Backwards[14] and Watch It Backwards[23] on Tumblr, as well as @IfYouWatchItBackwards on Twitter.[24]
Notable Examples
Search Interest
Search for “If you watch X backwards” spiked in March 2011, the same month the single topic blog was created.
External References
[1] Yahoo! Answers – Is it harmful to watch movies backwards?
[2] YouTube – Bigshot210’s channel
[3] Reddit – sixdoublefive321
[4] Reddit – If you watch the movie `Jaws’ backwards, it’s a movie about a shark that keeps throwing up people until they have to open a beach.
[5] Discarded Lies – Backwards Movies-this is fun!
[6] Something Awful – Backwards Movies Requires archive account to view
[7] Call of Duty Forums – If you watch a movie backwards
[8] xkcd forums – If you watch it backwards…
[9] Unreality – Watching 15 Movies Backwards
[10] Popped Culture – If You Watch Jaws Backwards…
[11] The Escapist – If You Watch X Backwards, It’s About Y
[12] Reddit – What’s your favorite “If you watch X backwards…”?
[13] Reddit – If you watch 127 hours backwards its a lovely film about a disabled man finding an arm in the desert
[14] If You Watch It Backwards – Home
[15] chanarchive – If you watch The Matrix backwards..
[16] chanarchive – If you play Metal Gear Solid 1 backwards…
[17] Mental Floss – If You Watch It Backwards …
[18] Laughing Squid – If You Watch it Backwards
[19] Buzzfeed – If You Watch It Backwards
[20] Funny or Die – If You Watch It Backwards
[21] Pop Hangover – If You Watch It Backwards
[22] The Atlantic – If You Watch It Backwards
[23] Tumblr – Watch It Backwards
[24] Twitter – @IfYouWatchItBackwards
[25]IYWIB.com – If You Watch It Backwards
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Top Comments
Jake
Jul 29, 2011 at 06:19PM EDT+40
If you play Legend of Zelda backwards its about a guy who runs away from an evil tyrant while losing his items a having less and less hearts until he doesn’t realise he’s a hero.
Jimmy
May 27, 2011 at 10:56PM EDT+31
If you watch Inception backwards… I can’t finish this, I need to see it again to understand.
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