If You Watch X Backwards, It's About Y (2009)
added Nov 27, 2009 at 01:56PM UTC
About
If You Watch X Backwards, It’s About Y is a popular formulaic joke on online message boards, which involves narrating the synopsis of popular films in reverse chronology.
Origin
The source material of the joke comes from an edited montage of the 1975 megahit film Jaws uploaded by YouTuber BigShot210 in June 2007. Arranged in reverse chronology, the video description read:
The story of a shark who throws-up humans until they open the beach.

Then in February 2009, Reddit user sixdoublefive321 posted an epic thread bearing the title “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.” The thread quickly went viral around the Internets and amassed over 3500 up votes, with many commenters sharing their own versions of the “If you watch X backwards.”
Formula
The snowclone “If you watch X backwards, it’s about Y” has been applied to a wide range of popular films, usually highlighting the hilarious or ridiculous aspects of the movie or commenting on its cinematic and narrative conventions. For instance:
“If you watch The Karate Kid backwards, it’s about this karate champ who slowly becomes a pussy and ends up moving back to Jersey”
or
“If you watch Rambo backwards, it’s about a man who brings people back to life with his magical vacuum gun.”
Uplifting stories about characters fighting against all odds to achieve their dreams become tragedies of self-defeat or laziness. Gratuitous violence turns into one character’s quest to undo the inexplicable harm done to everyone on screen when he or she arrives.
This meme possesses two very strong characteristics that attributed to its success:
1. It’s personal: Construct the backwards stories of your favorite movies.
2. It displays your clevertude: Construct them in unexpected / hilarious ways for extra win.
Current State of the Meme
While the reddit thread is the most well known example of “If You Watch X Backwards” the meme spread to many other message boards around 2009 and continues on today with diminished activity. “If You Watch X backwards” threads still appear with relative frequency on /b/ and the video-game version sometimes appears on on /v/.
Notable Examples
- If you watch The Curious Case of Benjamin Button backwards, its about a normal guy.
- If you watch Memento backwards, it makes complete sense.
- If you watch Pulp Fiction backwards, it wouldn’t make a difference.
- If you watch Pimp My Ride backwards, you will see that Xzibit removes things from cars to make them more normal looking and socially acceptable, while minimizing weight.
- If you watch “Stalingrad” backwards, it’s about some Nazi’s that escape the cold, revive their friends and go to a beach.
- If you watch Harry Potter backwards it’s about a young wizard who gets sent into witness protection after a violent altercation.
- If you play Pac-Man backwards, its about a yellow guy vomiting little dots. Pretty messy, if you think about it.
- If you watch Ocean’s 11 backwards, it’s about a bunch of guys donating money to a casino, then leaving in style.
- If you watch Pretty Woman backwards its about Richard Gere transforming Julia Roberts into a hooker.
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If You Watch X Backwards, It's About Y
by bman4750
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If You Watch X Backwards, It's About Y
by slowlydirt
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If You Watch X Backwards, It's About Y
by coolme1015
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If You Watch X Backwards, It's About Y
by gekkegerrit
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If You Watch X Backwards, It's About Y
by gekkegerrit
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If You Watch X Backwards, It's About Y
by gekkegerrit
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If You Watch X Backwards, It's About Y
by gekkegerrit
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If You Watch X Backwards, It's About Y
by LEAFYGUYDS
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If You Watch X Backwards, It's About Y
by cumulopimpus
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If You Watch X Backwards, It's About Y
by MrEccentric
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Meme Details
Origin
Year
2009
Tags
movies, film, cinema, reverse, reddit, chronology, snowclone, jaws, karate kid, rambo



















