# I can see my house from here! **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 2, 2009, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617 "2009-09-02T07:46:01Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 19\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 7:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/1 "2009-09-02T07:46:01Z")
Origin? ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 8:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/2 "2009-09-02T08:37:54Z")
It depends. Where are you from? Are you asking about the original joke or the Tina Fey quote(esque) of Palin? ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 9:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/3 "2009-09-02T09:17:42Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Are you asking about the original joke or the Tina Fey quote(esque) of Palin? That’s Russia. I mean the meme that any time someone gets shot up in the air real high in a movie, TV show, or cartoon, they say, “I can see my house from here!” ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 9:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/4 "2009-09-02T09:56:11Z")
Name a few TV shows, cartoons, and movies in which someone has uttered this line. ---
**Author:** ![Rhythmdvl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/85f322/32.png) [@Rhythmdvl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhythmdvl)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 10:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/5 "2009-09-02T10:10:13Z")
Wasn’t there a long thread on humor in the bible? I believe that line was in one of the apocryphal texts. ---
**Author:** ![Sage\_Rat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sage_rat/32/399_2.png) [@Sage\_Rat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sage_Rat)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 10:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/6 "2009-09-02T10:23:56Z")
> [@Wendell\_Wagner](#): > > Name a few TV shows, cartoons, and movies in which someone has uttered this line. It was just on Warehouse 13 last night (the character is perched in the rafters of the warehouse, and most certainly her house isn’t in view). [Here’s some others.](http://www.imdb.com/Find?select=Quotes&for=i%20can%20see%20my%20house%20from%20here) I have a feeling like it was used by the Loony Toons, but I couldn’t swear by it. ETA: And yet more [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main.ICanSeeMyHouseFromHere](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main.ICanSeeMyHouseFromHere) ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 10:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/7 "2009-09-02T10:47:27Z")
O.K., it seems to be common by the 2000’s, but there’s not much before then. Notice that some of the movies quoted in the link that Sage Rat gives are irrelevant, since they are quotes that contain each of the individual words but not the sentence at all. It looks like the earliest movie that the IMDb lists that contains a quote that includes this sentence is the Veggie Tales episode, but nothing in the plot summary makes it sound like it has anything to do with someone being high in the air and looking down, so I suspect that it’s just a random use of the sentence in some other context having nothing to do with what Sage Rat is asking. But in any case, I found this page in TV Tropes which gives a lot more instances of this quote: > **[I Can See My House from Here - TV Tropes](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main.ICanSeeMyHouseFromHere)** > > A Stock Phrase used by a character when they are extremely high up. Hardly ever played straight anymore. For added humor, the character may have been launched into the air, and some variation of this phrase will come drifting back to those left … ---
**Author:** ![Wendell\_Wagner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/8491ac/32.png) [@Wendell\_Wagner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wendell_Wagner)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 10:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/8 "2009-09-02T10:48:55Z")
And here it is in the Urban Dictionary: > **[Urban Dictionary: I can see my house from here](https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=I%20can%20see%20my%20house%20from%20here)** > > A hyperbolic joke made by people who are rather high up in the air, but not high (or close) enough to actually see their houses. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 12:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/9 "2009-09-02T12:19:14Z")
I believe it’s also the punchline of a joke. A guy is about to be executed by hanging. He climbs up the gallows, they put the noose around his neck, and ask if he has any last words. And he says… ---
**Author:** ![DrCube](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a3d4f5/32.png) [@DrCube](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrCube)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/10 "2009-09-02T12:51:57Z")
Didn’t Charlie say it in the Gene Wilder version of “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”? That’s a lot earlier than the 2000s. ETA: In the great glass elevator, at the end. I’m going by memory, though, can someone back me up? ETAagain: Jesus, it’s the first example in WW’s tvtropes link. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![tim-n-va](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tim-n-va/32/3001_2.png) [@tim-n-va](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tim-n-va)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 1:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/11 "2009-09-02T13:36:22Z")
I heard as the punch line of a joke about Jesus on the cross. I first encountered it in the late 70s. ---
**Author:** ![elbows](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/b3f665/32.png) [@elbows](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elbows)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 1:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/12 "2009-09-02T13:38:51Z")
I’m with **Tim-n-va** , it’s the punch line to an old joke about Jesus on the cross. I can’t remember the set up now, he calls his disciples, who crowd round to hear his last words of wisdom, and he says, “I can see my house from here.” ---
**Author:** ![Bootis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e8c25b/32.png) [@Bootis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bootis)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 2:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/13 "2009-09-02T14:19:39Z")
> [@tim-n-va](#): > > I heard as the punch line of a joke about Jesus on the cross. I first encountered it in the late 70s. George Carlin, in 1981 according to the internet ---
**Author:** ![Shoeless](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/shoeless/32/7099_2.png) [@Shoeless](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shoeless)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 2:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/14 "2009-09-02T14:35:06Z")
> [@elbows](#): > > I’m with **Tim-n-va** , it’s the punch line to an old joke about Jesus on the cross. > > I can’t remember the set up now, he calls his disciples, who crowd round to hear his last words of wisdom, and he says, “I can see my house from here.” [Obligatory link to Camel album cover](http://www.amazon.com/Can-See-Your-House-Here/dp/B000006XDQ/ref=sr_1_17?ie=UTF8&s=music&qid=1251901996&sr=1-17) ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 2:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/15 "2009-09-02T14:44:50Z")
I don’t know that it’s a joke – the original statement is something a kid says when he gets to a significant height (maybe for the first time) and can see his house from an unfamiliar location. I remember kids saying this when I was a kid (in the 1960s) and the climbed the hills behind our house. From up there, you could see a lot of the town laid out, with tall buildings like the churches prominent. The joke aspect comes from an adult in a serious situation (the hanging, or crucifiction cited above) making the same irrelevant, kid-like response of wonder. But kids were saying this by the 1960s at least. I’m sure it must be much, much older than that. ---
**Author:** ![unclelem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ac91a4/32.png) [@unclelem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/unclelem)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 3:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/16 "2009-09-02T15:07:17Z")
> [@Rhythmdvl](#): > > Wasn’t there a long thread on humor in the bible? I believe that line was in one of the apocryphal texts. Perhaps it was Gilgamesh? ---
**Author:** ![bibliophage](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bibliophage/32/7615_2.png) [@bibliophage](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bibliophage)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/17 "2009-09-02T16:07:32Z")
> [@tim-n-va](#): > > I heard as the punch line of a joke about Jesus on the cross. I first encountered it in the late 70s. Ditto, ca. 1979, except the punchline was "Peter, I can see _your_ house from up here (emphasis added). ---
**Author:** ![garygnu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/garygnu/32/2924_2.png) [@garygnu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/garygnu)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 4:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/18 "2009-09-02T16:15:57Z")
It was first uttered by Joseph-Michel Montgolfier in 1783. ---
**Author:** ![BobArrgh](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobarrgh/32/2881_2.png) [@BobArrgh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobArrgh)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2009, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-can-see-my-house-from-here/508617/19 "2009-09-02T16:18:10Z")
I think there was a spoof of this line in the 1993 movie, “Homeward Bound” (2 dogs and a cat trying to get home). In one scene, they get to the top of the mountain expecting to see their home, and the dog, Chance (voiced by Michael J. Fox), says, “You can see everything from up here … except the house. Where’s the house, Shadow?”