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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Showing 1-25 of 133 comments

E_net4
Aug 29, 2010 at 10:55PM UTC , E_net4 wrote:

If you play Alien Swarm backwards, it’s a strategy game, where you create a new planet to hold an alien lifeform. The squad then spends the rest of the time placing biomass and eggs for their survival.

PieOnEar
Aug 29, 2010 at 11:17AM UTC , PieOnEar wrote:

If you play TF2 backwards, its about Medics and Dispensers that steal health & ammo and has a magical knife that can revive dead people in 1 hit
Its also about a game that gets more optimized and gets less shit piled into it

Rebirth
Aug 28, 2010 at 11:39PM UTC , Rebirth wrote:

If you watch Death Note backwards, It’s about a college student who brings criminals back to life.

Herlgar
Aug 28, 2010 at 01:13AM UTC , Herlgar wrote:

If you watch Benjamin Button backwards, its about a guy that lives in a world were everyone except him are born old and get young over time.

DoctorZigzag
Aug 28, 2010 at 12:36AM UTC , DoctorZigzag wrote:

If you watch Unbreakable backwards it’s about a guy who makes friends with a terrorist and slowly becomes a normal person.

DoctorZigzag
Aug 28, 2010 at 12:32AM UTC , DoctorZigzag wrote:

If you watch Avatar backwards it’s about a group of environmentalists who help revive an alien society and transform some of the aliens into humans.

Pedobear
Aug 23, 2010 at 11:41PM UTC , Pedobear wrote:

if i watch the world backwards i could have a better chance of taking it .

Tyler びてる
Aug 23, 2010 at 07:35PM UTC , Tyler びてる wrote:

If you watch fred backwards, he’s still as annoying as hell.

Lieutenant Dan
Aug 23, 2010 at 07:06PM UTC , Lieutenant Dan wrote:

If you watch Forrest Gump backwards it’s about a man’s friend who grows back his legs.

krawky398
Aug 21, 2010 at 11:19AM UTC , krawky398 wrote:

If you watch Neon Genesis Evangelion backwards, it’s about a boy that slowly goes insane, then becomes his own therapist while inexplicably getting teleported into a giant medic robot and tries to get out before with the series ending with him going home.

Well, it makes more sense than the original series.

Pumpkinbot
Aug 21, 2010 at 08:10AM UTC , Pumpkinbot wrote:

If you play Sonic Adventure 2 backwards, Rouge and Knuckles hide shards of the Master Emerald around the world for Eggman to find so he can bring it back to Angel Island.

If you play Portal backwards, it’s about a girl running away from a robot so it will become friendlier so she can finally take a nap.

Vlad
Aug 16, 2010 at 07:17PM UTC , Vlad wrote:

If you watch people on Know Your Meme backwards, they gradually pick up more social skills.

TheAlbinoPrimid
Aug 15, 2010 at 04:24PM UTC , TheAlbinoPrimid wrote:

If you watch Twilight backwards, Bella chooses to live a life free of Bestiality or Necrophilia. Good for her!

Hunter Spalenka
Aug 15, 2010 at 04:41AM UTC , Hunter Spalenka wrote:

If you watch Forrest Gump backwards its about a guy who revives his wife only to divorce her, give her their son, tell people his life story until they all leave, and steals chocolate from them

HeavyWeaponsGuy
Aug 11, 2010 at 01:59PM UTC , HeavyWeaponsGuy wrote:

If you watch meet the spy backwards its about how the red spy slowly leaves the room because heavy and soldier found a magical headless corpse that comes back to life then reassembles its own head, uses a magical folder to pick up the pictures of scouts mom and then picks up snipers corpse and backs away out of the room

SzFeri
Aug 10, 2010 at 01:46PM UTC , SzFeri wrote:

If you play Max Payne backwards, it’s about a guy who gets cured from his depression, gets a wife and a baby daughter and becomes a happy policeman.

jason24589
Aug 10, 2010 at 08:21AM UTC , jason24589 wrote:

If you watch Garbage Day! He vacuums that guy and the trash can and he said “Get the bra!”

jason24589
Aug 10, 2010 at 08:17AM UTC , jason24589 wrote:

If you watched Moonwalk backwards, Michael Jackson is sliding walking! xD

Emergency Panda
Aug 09, 2010 at 05:47PM UTC , Emergency Panda wrote:

If you read the bible backward its about people returning to the garden of eden.

voracious32
Aug 06, 2010 at 06:21PM UTC , voracious32 wrote:

If you watch Fight Club backwards, it’s about a guy who recovers from his split personality disorder, dumps his dysfunctional girlfriend, and becomes a productive member of society.

If you play Half-Life 2 backwards, it’s about Gordon Freeman making his way into the city to catch a train.

If you play World of Warcraft backwards, you gradually pick up more and more social skills.

robinlh
Aug 05, 2010 at 05:51AM UTC , robinlh wrote:

Spoiler Alert!**************

if you watch Inception backwards, its still all a dream

nowusee
Aug 04, 2010 at 09:39PM UTC , nowusee wrote:

If you watch The Warriors backwards its about a gang leaving their hideout and being chased down for it, then going to a meeting and returning home. Basically the same thing.

wongchong
Aug 04, 2010 at 03:45AM UTC , wongchong wrote:

If you watch Schindler’s List backwards, you know what, im gonna stop there

Emergency Panda
Aug 03, 2010 at 11:31PM UTC , Emergency Panda wrote:

If you play Assassin Creed backwards it about a guy heals people by a magical hidden blade.

u2dvdbono
Aug 03, 2010 at 11:15PM UTC , u2dvdbono wrote:

If you play TF2 backwards, it is a Heavy Weapons Guy reviving a Heavy Weapons Guy with his sasha.

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