Hey Ive Seen This One — Clean source scene from Back to the Future showing three main characters in their iconic pose and indoor setting without text.

Hey Ive Seen This One

2019Reaction image / image macroclassic

Published March 24, 2026

Also known as: "What Do You Mean You've Seen This? It's Brand New!" · Back to the Future Rerun Meme

"Hey, I've Seen This One!" is a reaction meme based on a scene from the 1985 film *Back to the Future*, where time-displaced teenager Marty McFly recognizes a TV rerun that hasn't aired yet in 1955. The format took off online in the late 2010s as a way to call out situations where history appears to repeat itself, particularly when companies or public figures copy ideas from competitors.

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Overview

The meme uses a screencap (or text rendition) of an exchange from *Back to the Future* between Marty McFly and one of Lorraine's younger brothers. While staying at the Baines household in 1955, Marty watches a television program and says "Hey, I've seen this one!" The family member responds, confused, "What do you mean you've seen this? It's brand new." The joke, of course, is that Marty comes from 1985 and knows the episode as a rerun2.

As a meme, the format gets slapped onto any scenario where something "new" looks suspiciously like something that already exists. The top portion shows the allegedly original situation side by side with its copycat, and the bottom portion features Marty's line as the punchline.

Origin & Background

Platform
Reddit, iFunny (viral spread)
Key People
Unknown
Date
2019

The source material is *Back to the Future*, the 1985 science fiction comedy directed by Robert Zemeckis and written by Zemeckis and Bob Gale2. The film stars Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly, a teenager accidentally sent back to 1955 in a time-traveling DeLorean built by eccentric scientist Doc Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd2. After arriving in the past, Marty ends up at the home of his future mother Lorraine, where the TV rerun exchange takes place.

The scene itself is a quick comedic beat: Marty's familiarity with decades-old television baffles the 1955 household, who see the program as a brand-new broadcast. The line sat relatively dormant as meme material for years, only gaining traction as an exploitable format around 2019 when image macro culture on Reddit and meme aggregators picked it up.

How It Spread

The meme gained significant traction in early 2019, coinciding with several high-profile instances of perceived corporate copying in the gaming industry. One prominent use appeared when Fortnite's leaked "Second Chance" respawn mechanic for Season 8 drew immediate comparisons to Apex Legends, which had launched just weeks earlier in February 20191. Users on iFunny and Reddit posted the Marty McFly screencap alongside the Fortnite leak, with the caption functioning as an accusation that Epic Games was lifting features from its competitor1.

The format proved flexible beyond gaming. Any time a product launch, policy announcement, or cultural trend echoed something that came before, the "Hey, I've seen this one!" reaction fit perfectly. The two-panel or three-panel structure (new thing on top, Marty's line on the bottom) became a staple on r/memes, r/dankmemes, and cross-platform meme pages throughout 2019 and into the early 2020s.

How to Use This Meme

The format typically works in two or three panels:

1

Top panel(s): Show the "new" thing alongside the older thing it resembles. This can be two screenshots, news headlines, product images, or any visual comparison that makes the repetition obvious.

2

Bottom panel: A screencap of Marty McFly with the caption "Hey, I've seen this one!" Sometimes the follow-up line "What do you mean you've seen this? It's brand new!" is included for added effect.

Cultural Impact

The meme taps into a broader internet tradition of using *Back to the Future* as cultural shorthand. The 1985 film earned $381.1 million worldwide, becoming the highest-grossing film of its year, and the Library of Congress selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry in 20072. That deep cultural familiarity means the Marty McFly screencap is instantly readable even to people who haven't watched the film recently.

The "Hey, I've Seen This One!" format also fed into a larger 2019 wave of memes dunking on perceived corporate laziness, particularly in the battle royale gaming space. The Fortnite vs. Apex Legends rivalry generated intense online debate, with this meme becoming one of the go-to reaction formats for fans accusing Fortnite of borrowing mechanics1.

Fun Facts

*Back to the Future* was rejected over forty times by various studios before Universal Pictures greenlit it following Zemeckis's success with *Romancing the Stone* in 19842.

Michael J. Fox was the first choice for Marty McFly but was initially unavailable. Eric Stoltz was cast and began filming before Zemeckis decided he wasn't right for the role, leading to expensive reshoots2.

The film's release date was moved earlier to July 3, 1985, after strong test screenings, resulting in a rushed post-production schedule with some incomplete special effects2.

The specific TV show Marty recognizes in the 1955 scene is *The Honeymooners*, a sitcom that was indeed airing new episodes in 1955.

Frequently Asked Questions