Where does "I saw what you did there" come from?

pseudotriton_ruber_ruber · February 21, 2009, 3:09pm

Someone’s standup bit? A movie I haven’t seen? Some internet shtik? The SD itself?–though I don’t think so.

I could also ask where “I don’t think so” (as a way of saying “No, dumbass”) but that’s a whole 'nother GQ. (And where did “a whole 'nother” start, anyway?)

Northern_Piper · February 21, 2009, 3:47pm

“I don’t think so, Tim” was Al’s tagline in Home Improvement when Tim Allen was suggesting doing something particularly stupid. Don’t know if that was where it originated.

beowulff · February 21, 2009, 3:51pm

I believe that this a 4chan meme.

pseudotriton_ruber_ruber · February 21, 2009, 3:57pm

Thanks. “The police have nothing to go on” totally cracked me up.

squeegee · February 21, 2009, 4:32pm

Thanks for starting this thread; I’d also wondered what this phrase was referencing.

AskNott · February 21, 2009, 9:51pm

(Nott smacks himself for considering a lame Freud joke…)

samclem · February 21, 2009, 11:47pm

Found as early as 1996 on Usenet.
http://groups.google.com/group/alt.fan.tom-robbins/browse_thread/thread/112b5253fbd6dcb2?hl=en&q="saw+what+you+did+there"

GIGObuster · February 22, 2009, 12:04am

As a related followup, I see this usually on FARK with an image of Fry from Futurama:

http://dennisjudd.com/gallery/view_photo.php?set_albumName=funpics&id=fry

“Oh! I see what you did there!”

I have to say that it confuses me, (the handles in the panels over his head make a funny shape?) Is that from an actual episode and referring to what?

Andy_L · February 22, 2009, 12:41am

I’m pretty sure I picked it up from reading rec.arts.sf.written on Usenet (I used the phrase in Cafe Society just yesterday to acknowledge a pun)

GuanoLad · February 22, 2009, 12:53am

The first time I saw “See What I Did There?” was at Hissyfit, around the year 1999, and that seemed to be a reference even then.

Freudian_Slit · February 22, 2009, 12:55am

I thought “See what I did there?” was a different meme. “See what I did there?” always makes me think of House, though it obviously predates that.

hammos1 · February 22, 2009, 1:18am

Billy Crystal’s character in Mr. Saturday Night (1992) often used the phrase “Did you see what I did?” following his gags, and David Paymer (playing his long-suffering brother) nods and says “I saw” at least once. No doubt Crystal and the other co-writers of the film were referencing some well-known bit of comic schtick.