I Remember It Like It Was Yesterday

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

Professor Monkey-For-A-Head: I remember it as if it were yesterday... yesterday... yesterday...
Psy-Crow: It was yesterday.

Professor Monkey-For-A-Head: Shut up! I'm trying to start a flashback sequence! Yesterday... yesterday...
—Earthworm Jim

A Stock Phrase that at one point was the cue for wavy lines and harp music to ensue.

Now, it's just as inevitably a cue for the punchline, "It was yesterday." or in more extreme cases "It was today."

Several variations occur but they usually all go, "I remember it like it was-", "It was-".

Examples of I Remember It Like It Was Yesterday include:

Anime and Manga

Asuma: What happened back there?
Kakashi: It was horrible. I remember it like it was yesterday...
Kurenai: It was seven minutes ago.
Kakashi: Yep, Yesterday....

Film

  • Used for irony in Anastasia: a young woman claiming to be Anastasia uses the stock phrase before rattling off a list of facts about Anastasia's childhood in an effort to prove her identity to Dowager Empress Marie. The viewer of course already knows that she's lying, and furthermore that the real Anastasia doesn't remember anything about her childhood.
  • Back to The Future Part II, when Marty and Doc return to 1955:

Marty: It's like I was just here yesterday!
Doc: You were, Marty, you were! Amazing, isn't it?

  • Paraphrase of a Hitchhiker's Guide scene because I don't remember it exactly: Zaphod is confronted by invaders, and says "Pretend I have a Kill-o-Zap gun in my hand". The invaders reply "You do have a Kill-o-Zap gun in your hand". (Turns out he grabbed one from the wall by coincidence without realizing what it was.)
    • He knew he'd picked it up, and he HOPED it was a Kill-o-Zap blaster pistol, but was too scared that it might NOT be to actually look at it before the robots invading his ship confirmed that it was. (This probably sounds stupid. That's because it is. So is Zaphod.)

Literature

POOR OLE ME. I REMEMBER EVERYTHING. AS IF IT HAPPENED ONLY TOMORROW. EVERYTHING.

    • It's also a Shout-Out to two Meat Loaf songs: Paradise by the Dashboard Light and Wasted Youth, both of which play the trope straight.

Live-Action TV

"It was ten or fifteen seconds ago... I remember it like it happened yesterday."

  • Father Ted has done this with the, "it was yesterday" reply.
    • It was then followed by Dougal saying that that was the reason why he said the line.
  • From Arrested Development:

Lucille: I remember it like it was yesterday.
Michael: It was this morning.

  • Psych: Shawn uses the phrases when talking about the case that just happened to Jules.
  • Kenan and Kel, after foiling a robbery at Rigby's, Kenan, Kel, and Chris are asked by a police officer for their stories of how they brought the notorious robber to justice:

Chris: I remember it like it was yesterday.
Kel: (butts in) It just happened today.
Chris: Who's telling the story?!
Kel: (annoyed) You are.

Newspaper Comics

  • One Garfield cartoon has Jon reminiscing about the time that Garfield got stuck in the curtain, and Jon and Odie got stuck in the curtain as well trying to get him out as if it was yesterday. Not only had it been yesterday, they were still stuck in the curtain (This was the central point of a multi-week comic arc which this was the first Sunday strip of).

Video Games

  • The Phoenix Wright Musical Project has this in one of Larry's sung testimonies, with an exasperated Phoenix reminding him that the event occurred last Tuesday.
    • In the games themselves, actor Will Powers says this in reference to the murder of his co-star, then immediately corrects himself.
  • Sam and Max Hit the Road has a character doing it all alone:

It all started the day before today... I remember it like it was yesterday.

    • This gag was reprised in The Devil's Playhouse

It seems like it was just yesterday when Sam Jr hatched...which is weird, seeing as it was just a few hours ago.

Strong Bad: Come on, The Cheat. You KNOW the good times we've had. Remember back when we stapled that grilled cheese to Homestar's chin... this morning?
(Homestar walks past in the background with grilled cheese stapled to his chin even though he didn't five minutes ago.)

Web Comics

  • A variation occurs in Adventurers!; Karn mentions he has a feeling of deja vu, and Ardam insists it's not deja vu because the event that prompted it has actually happened before.
  • In the recently reinstated Wendy comic by Josh Lesnick the following exchange occurs between Wendy and Yumi:

Wendy: Do you remember that time when you said "let's have lunch! I made chicken salad sandwiches" and I said "cool let's eat!" Do you remember that?
Yumi: Uh huh, that was thirty minutes ago...
Wendy: But it seems like only yesterday!

Web Original

Strong Bad: Why, I remember the day you were born like it was about to happen in a wavy flashback.

    • Also seen in the song "The Cheat Is Not Dead".

Strong Bad: The Cheat, man... where did we go wrong? It seems like just yesterday we were setting fire to Strong Sad's underwears.
Strong Sad: That was yesterday!

Caboose: It's growing up so fast. Seems like just yesterday he was born.
Church: Well actually, that's because he was born today. Like, an hour ago.

Western Animation

Bubbles: I remember as if it happened yesterday.
Blossom: It happened today!

  • Occurs on The Simpsons with, "It was today." And Homer gives a completely inaccurate account of it because he's high on morphine.
  • Rugrats:

Chazz: I can't believe Didi's little brother is getting married. It seems like only yesterday, he was running around in short pants, screaming.
Dru: That was only yesterday, Chazz. Remember the bachelor party?

Harold: I remember it like it was something I'll never forget!

  • Done in at least two Looney Tunes the first being "The Old Grey Hare" in which an elderly Elmer Fudd shoots an elderly Bugs Bunny with a ray gun and Bugs reminisces about the first time they met as babies, and in "Feather Bluster" in which an elderly Foghorn Leghorn and Barnyard Dog tell their grandsons about what they did to each other when they were young.
  • Done in Angela Anaconda when Angela tries to get Gordie to confirm her story about inventing a swing technique that Nanette had taken credit for.
  • Parodied, of course, in Tiny Toon Adventures, with Bugs Bunny's line "I remember it just as if it was ... a flashback!"
  • A Capitol Critters episode featured cockroaches with a score to settle with a rat. When one of them claimed to remember it like it was yeaterday, it was pointed out it was yesterday.
  • Rather uniquely parodied in Mucha Lucha, where El Fundador remarks about a big wrestling match: "It was many years ago, though I remember it like it was many, many years ago.
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