Origin of "I can see my house from here"

Factual Questions
1

I am curious about the origin of the phrase, “I can see my house from here!” It’s often used as a one-liner, and I feel sure that it refers to some widely-known joke of yore, but I have been unable to find out where it came from. If anyone would know, it would be people here. Anyone? Anyone?

2

I know it as the punchline of a long drawn out joke (similar to the “clown joke” about Jesus on the cross calling to Peter to come stand by his side.

I have heard from somone else that they heard it in “Hot Shots!” the movie with people being shot from a cannon (?), but the joke I mentioned predates that by a good 10 years.

3

My WAG is that it comes from this situation: A person is taken to a place on the recommendation of another person; probably a high place. The first person marvels at the view and, spying his or her house, exclaims, “I can see my house from here!”

So my guess is that it’s an exclamation by someone who sees his or her house from an unexpected vista for the first time.

So why the joke? Another WAG: In the early part of the last Century people began to fly in aircraft. It could be that the exclamation was very common at the time and made its way to Vaudeville, radio, cinema, etc.

4

Around 1980, my brother told me the joke Iteki mentions. I distinctly remember the punchline was “I can see your house from up here”, not “my house.”

The joke, such as it is, is repeated here: http://www.fedu.uec.ac.jp/~tt-nam/english/JOKES/HTML/Jesus_On_The_Cross_Calling_To_Peter.html

5

bibliophage: I think the expression comes from much earlier though. Otherwise the joke wouldn’t have been particularly funny. (Or, if you don’t think it’s funny then it would be less so.) And I seem to remember hearing the expression used seriously on a TV show or something when I was a kid.

6

“I can see your house from here” is used in an Andrew Bird’s Bowl of Fire song (“The Confession,” from the album Oh, the Grandeur!) and Andrew has been known to use older themes, poetry and style in his music. Later in the song he says “I can see your ship from here.”

here’s a link to the lyrics (sorry they’re not text, they’re graphics) if anyone wants to analyze them.