About

"I've Seen Some Shit" is a notable phrase commonly found as a caption on images of baffled subjects. These images can often be found as a reaction to images or videos that can have a significant impact on a person, in either a positive or negative way, similar to What Has Been Seen Cannot Be Unseen.

Origin

Though the phrase is relatively common, one of the earliest notable examples of its use appeared in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction. After Vincent (played by John Travolta) accidentally shoots their informant Marvin (played by Phil LaMarr) point blank in the face, his partner Jules (played by Samuel L. Jackson) comments that he had seen "some crazy ass shit in [his] time," but it did not compare to what had just happened.

Spread

Online, the phrase has been used since as early as 2001 to describe bizarre experiences, for example, a poster on the Bluelight.ru forums^[7] reported watching a man have a thirty-minute conversation with a shower curtain after taking ecstasy. By 2004, the phrase was found in a LiveJournal post^[8] in response to watching a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles slash fan video titled "The Real Secret of the Ooze."

In 2005, the phrase was used literally on PoopReport.com^[9] in describing the daily activities of an assistant plumber. Th same year, the phrase was found on the commentary of a SomethingPositive comic^[10] and in a thread on taxidermy on the Soulstrut forums.^[11] In 2009, "I've Seen Some Shit" was used on message boards in response to a number of different topics including a video of a man throwing a dog off of a bridge^[13] and experiencing supernatural phenomena.^[14] It was used on 4chan as early as June 2009^[15] on /a/ (Anime and Manga) in response to a photo of Lucky Star branded motor oil (shown below).

By March 2011, "I've Seen Some Shit" had become associated with a photo of Dead Space's Isaac Clarke looking stunned in a post on FunnyJunk.^[16] By the end of that year, the phrase expanded to other reaction images^[17] and began appearing in geek blog comments.^[18] "I've Seen Some Shit" can also be found as a tag on Tumblr^[1], for both image macros and text reaction posts. On Reddit, "I've Seen Some Shit" is commonly featured in the title of a post as form of reaction^[2], especially on the /r/WTF subreddit.^[12] The phrase can also be found as a tag on sites such as Funnyjunk^[3], 9gag^[4] and Troll.me^[5]

Notable Examples

Search Interest

External References