A lengthy joke in which a character describes some new idea, invention, story or script -- but is informed that somebody already got there before him, and that all the tropes he thinks are new are Older Than They Think. The punchline is usually a ridiculously mundane or roundabout name for the proposed "new" work, and for added humour value, the story that the character has unknowingly plagiarized is usually something mind-bogglingly well known. There are many other ways of phrasing this, including: Not to be confused with the Barenaked Ladies' song about serial reincarnation.
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| - A lengthy joke in which a character describes some new idea, invention, story or script -- but is informed that somebody already got there before him, and that all the tropes he thinks are new are Older Than They Think. The punchline is usually a ridiculously mundane or roundabout name for the proposed "new" work, and for added humour value, the story that the character has unknowingly plagiarized is usually something mind-bogglingly well known. There are many other ways of phrasing this, including: Not to be confused with the Barenaked Ladies' song about serial reincarnation.
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| - A lengthy joke in which a character describes some new idea, invention, story or script -- but is informed that somebody already got there before him, and that all the tropes he thinks are new are Older Than They Think. The punchline is usually a ridiculously mundane or roundabout name for the proposed "new" work, and for added humour value, the story that the character has unknowingly plagiarized is usually something mind-bogglingly well known. It's based on the well-known phenomenon that there are so many things out there it's incredibly hard to come up with something new, especially since Seinfeld Is Unfunny and oftentimes, people get the idea inspired by something. (Even the great JRR Tolkien's stories were inspired by pulp fantasy writers in the 1930s and borrow heavily from Germanic myths about a ring of massive power to who wears it... sound familiar?) There are many other ways of phrasing this, including:
* From a 19th Century BCE Egyptian poem: "What has been said has been said."
* From The Bible (Ecclesiasties 1:9): "It has all been done before; there is nothing new under the sun." The surest way to avert this trope is to put enough old things together that the ensuing Combinatorial Explosion results in something new or unexpected. Compare It Will Never Catch On and We Have Those, Too. The Zeroth Law of Trope Examples explains how Shakespeare did it before. For how the hearts of budding artists may be quickly crushed, see Tropes Will Ruin Your Life. Not to be confused with the Barenaked Ladies' song about serial reincarnation. Examples of It's Been Done include:
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