He Said It!

About

"He Said It! He Said the Thing" is a memorable quote uttered by the character Peter Griffin in the American television animated series Family Guy. Online, people use a screenshot of Peter saying the quote as the reaction to a catchphrase.

Origin

On April 19th, 2009, the Family Guy episode "420" aired in the United States.^[1] In the episode, Peter (voiced by Seth MacFarlane) says, "Oh boy I usually only get this excited when they say the title of a movie in the movie." The episode then cuts a Peter in a movie theater watching the film Clear and Present Danger. A voice in the movie says, " I'm telling you, these drug dealers represent a Clear and Present Danger to the United States!" Peter responds, "Ah! He said it! He said it!"

About two weeks later, on May 4th, 2009, YouTuber edantos07 shared a clip of the scene. The post received more than 296,000 views in less than 11 years (shown below).

Spread

Over the next decade, the videos and images of Peter saying the line were used as reactions to various posts online, particularly ones involving a catchphrase or someone having the titular line in a film. On February 16th, 2015, Redditor ^[2] poppzzE shared a GIF of the scene in the /r/reactiongifs subreddit (shown below, left).

In 2020, the meme went viral on Reddit. On February 2nd, 2020, Redditor^[3] LonesomePancake shared a version captioned "When you watch something and see the origin of a meme." The post received more than 40,000 points (97% upvoted) and 165 comments in less than 24 hours (shown below, center).

That day, Redditor^[4] Random_Daydreamer shared a variation referencing the Bernie Sanders meme I Am Once Again Asking for Your Financial Support. The post received more than 61,000 points (96% upvoted) and 350 comments (shown below, right).

Various Examples

Search Interest

Not available.

External References