I Can See My House From Here

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.

I'm not afraid
 So much to fear

Hey, I can see my house from here...
—"High", Jeff MacDougall

A Stock Phrase used by a character when he is extremely high up. Hardly ever played straight anymore. For added humor, the character may have been launched into the air, and some variation of this phrase will come drifting back to those left below.

A common inversion is "We're so high up they look like ants!" "Those are ants, you idiot!"

Examples of I Can See My House From Here include:

Anime and Manga

  • The title character of Yotsuba&! claims she can do this from a hilltop shrine. Her father gently turns her 90 degrees to face the right direction.
  • In the Bakugan: New Vestroia dub, Dan claimed that he could see his house when he was flying on Drago. Except this would be impossible, as his house is on Earth and he was on New Vestroia.

Fan Works

Tristan: (hanging from the KaibaCorp blimp) I can see my house from here! Hi Mom! Hi Dad!
Tristan's Parents: (offscreen) Hi Tristan!

Film

  • Done in Up... while looking upwards.
    • To elaborate: When Carl is trying to figure out how to return Russell home, he has an Imagine Spot of lowering him on a rope onto the roof a skyscraper. As Russell is being lowered, he comments, "Hey, I can see your house from here!"
  • A Bugs Life has the inversion. Funny because they actually are ants, and the person saying it is a butterfly.
  • At the end of Mr. Bug Goes to Town, after Bugville has relocated to the top of a building, a bug looks down and says that the humans look like little bugs.
  • Willy Wonka And the Chocolate Factory. Willy Wonka takes Charlie Bucket and Grandpa Joe up in the Wonkavator (flying glass elevator).

Grandpa Joe: Look over here, Charlie! I think I see our house.

  • Head in the Clouds

John Thwaite: What's it like up in space?
Yuri Gagarin: Big. Cold. Beautiful.
John Thwaite: Can you see my house from up there?
Yuri Gagarin: Yes. All the houses. I see.

  • Used during the first test flight of the Thunder Road in Explorers.
  • Shanghai Knights uses a variation when Roy is stranded on the hands of Big Ben after being knocked through the clockface by Lord Rathbone.

Roy: Lord, help me. Just let me know you're there. Love me, hate me, but let me know you're up there. (pause) Hey, I can see our hotel from here. Wow.

  • Appears literally in Hot Shots when one of the bad guys tries to escape and is flung into the air via a net. On an aircraft carrier.[1]
  • Inspector Gadget portrayed the Inspector flying around using his Helicopter Hat, saying, "Hey, I can see my house from here!"
  • Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol has Zed say this when he, Mahoney, Tackleberry, Sweetchuck, and a female news reporter are flying after escaped prisoners in bi-planes.

Literature

Cohen: I can see everyone's house from here!

  • In one of George Carlin's books, there is a scene in which Jesus is being interviewed about his life. He comments that when he was crucified, he could see his house from atop the cross (he also said that one never wants to be crucified on an empty stomach, but... yeah).

Live-Action TV

Klingon Captain Volok: (observing a holographic simulation of Kronos, the Klingon capital city) Hey. I can see my house from here.

  • Inverted in the Stargate SG-1 episode "Fail Safe", to point out that the asteroid they're on is getting a little too low for comfort.

Jack O'Neill: Carter... I can see my house!

"I can see my house from up here! I can see everyone's house from up here!"

  • A date in an episode of Frasier wonders if she can see her apartment from his balcony; he then makes a sly comment that if she can he owns a telescope.
  • Seen in the episode "Stage Fright" of Dollhouse when Lubov comments on how high up they are on the penthouse balcony. He also uses several related phrases such as "the people look like ants."
  • Joe on Wings says this when trying to talk Lowell off the steeple.
  • The Friends episode TOW They're Up All Night has the following conversation:

Tag: I wonder if you can see my apartment from up here.
Rachel: No, no you can't.

London: Hey, I can see my house from here!
Guy she's in space with: No you ca- Oh, that's a big house...

  • Famously inverted by Tina Fey during the famous Saturday Night Live sketch where she portrayed Sarah Palin. You know the line. This quickly became a Beam Me Up, Scotty when applied to Palin herself.[2]
  • When the Bundy family of Married... with Children gets stuck in holiday traffic, Peg notices she can see their house from the freeway.
  • Two members of the Casseta & Planeta troupe invoked the common inversion when they were at a balloon. The second one not only pointed out the people who "look like ants" were ants but also that they had yet to leave the floor.

Music

  • The page quote is from Jeff MacDougall's song "High", a tribute to David Bowie's "Space Oddity".
  • Used to an extent in Jason Mraz's song "Plane". He sees her house.

I'm leaving your town again
 And I'm over the ground that you've been spinning
 And I'm up in the air, so baby hell yeah,
 Honey I can see your house from here.

  • In 1979, progressive rock band Camel made an album entitled I Can See Your House From Here. The cover art depicts an astronaut crucified on a perspex cross looking down on Earth from orbit.
  • Toy Box's "Super Duper Man" has this exact line in its lyrics.

Video Games

Agency: (upon reaching a great height) I can see my house from here!

Police Helicopter Pilot 1: Hey, I can see my house from here!

  • From Warcraft III, a griffon rider says, "Whoa, I can see my house from here," and one flying horde unit says, "I can see your house from here. Burning!"
    • Which refers back to Warcraft 2 where the goblin zeppelins would say "I can see my house!"
    • World of Warcraft has a goblin demonstrating a cannon proclaim "I can hit my house from here!"
  • In Team Fortress 2, the Scout will occasionally pop this line while double jumping.

Scout: Huh-hey! I can see my *base* from here!

  • In Spider-Man 2: Enter Electro, Spidey says this while fighting Hammerhead on a rooftop.
  • One character says "I think I can see my house from here" in Quake 4 while in an elevator—on an alien planet.
  • Brutal Legend has Eddie Riggs say this (almost) after he spouts wings: "I can see your house from here!"
  • In the Turkish museum heist level of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, Flynn will say something like "Yeah, yeah, you can see your house from here..." if Drake lingers too long on a certain platform on the roof.
  • In Final Fantasy XI, NPC passengers on airships usually just mention how crowded the flight is, but occasionally one will say "I wonder if I could see my house from up here...".
  • Disgaea has an example of this in the DS version - On New Game+, you can turn on Prinny commentary, which is basically an MST-type watcher on your top screen, commenting on what's going on. At a very crucial moment, when characters are discussing the balance that one character's very existence hinges on, the Prinny says this line, word for word.
  • In Command & Conquer: Red Alert 3, Kirov Airships will sometimes remark, "Oh look, is that your house?" when ordered to attack.
  • The player's campsite is apparently visible from several places in the Kingdom of Loathing.
  • Spoken by Archie when the heroes first arrive on the moon in the comedy, turn-based strategy game Highborn.
  • Played with in the last Nazi Zombie map ,"Moon". Richtofen says, "Dempsey, I can see your house form here. It's on fire!"

Web Comics

  • In A Modest Destiny, Maxim swims to the top of a giant slime that is consuming his hometown and the surrounding countryside. Looking around, he says, "I can see my house from here!... What's left of it, anyway."
  • Narbonic, during their steampunk side-story. After Helen, Mell and Dave's spaceship flies out from Helen's mansion, Dave says this, and then adds "I can see your house, too. It's the one with no roof."
  • In Dandy and Company, Dandy and Bernard go on a roller coaster in a Disney World-esque theme park that goes so high up, Dandy exclaims he can see their house from up there. And it's in Ohio.
  • This strip [dead link] of Nodwick:

Nodwick: Hey, I can see your tomb from here.
Lich-Lord Malignix: I might be able to say the same about you...

  • Eight Bit Theater: After Black Mage blows them all high into the air with a massive explosion spell:

Fighter and Red Mage: It was only a bee!
Black Mage: Not no mo' it ain't!
Thief: I can see my house from here.

Web Original

"I can see my house from here!"
"I can see Your Mom from here!"

  • When Linkara reviews Maximum Clonage he shows a panel where Spider-Man grabs the Jackal as they swing off a roof, where the villain comments "Man this is a hoot. I think I can see my house from here!" Linkara groans and notes the Mad Scientist trying to create a perfect genetic future has all the wit and personality of a nine year old.
  • A variation appears in V1E1 of RWBY: as the new students of Beacon Academy are being flown to the school, Yang notes that she can see Signal Academy (her old school) from the transport.

Western Animation

The Mayor: (while being held over Townsville Hall) Say! I can see my house from here!

  • Parodied in an episode of Phineas and Ferb. While parasailing, Phineas yells this. However, the beach is in their backyard, so yeah...
  • Used in The Simpsons episode "Margical History Tour" where Homer, as King Henry VIII, shoots Ned Flanders out of a cannon, causing him to yell as he soars through the air, "I can see my houuuuuuuuuuuuse!"
    • Also:

Ruth: I actually had some doubts about moving to Springfield, especially after that Time cover story, "America's Worst City".
Marge: You could see our house in that photo!

  • In an episode of The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, Billy goes to the underworld and climbs a huge mountain, and says he can see his grandma's house from there. Then it pans over to reveal said house floating in a flaming sea. Billy never understood why she moved there.
  • From an episode of Taz-Mania:

Digeri Dingo: (getting butted off a mountain by a goat) Gee, Taz! I can see your house from here!

  • In King of the Hill, Dale, after jumping from a tree and landing on his face, "Hank, I can see your house from up here".
    • A variant used by Hank upon skydiving, "Oh my God, I can see Strickland Propane from here. It's beautiful."
  • Ikura from Sushi Pack utters this phrase after being turned giant-sized in "A Very Big Deal."
  • In a story from Kipper, Kipper and Tiger decide to make their own nest in a tree and Tiger points out "I can see my house!"
  • In Avengers Earths Mightiest Heroes, Wasp looks over Manhattan from the Heli-Carrier and comments "I can see my penthouse from up here!"
  • Said in the The Ren and Stimpy Show episode "Black Hole".
  • Used in an episode of El Tigre as Frida and Manny dangle from the golden eagle twins blimp.

Frida: AHHHHHH! Hey, i can see my house from here. AHHHHHH!

  • The above-mentioned inversion is used almost verbatim by Michael Eisner and Bill Gates in Family Guy.
  • Eek! The Cat invoked the trope.
  • In My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic, during a play production of the founding of Equestria, Fluttershy says "I can see my future house from here!"
  • On an episode of Aladdin, when Abis Mal becomes Large and In Charge, he says "I can see our hideout from here."
  • In an episode of "Ozzy and Drix" when unatural growth spurts happen throughout the city at one piont Drix says "I can see our office from here."

Real Life

  • Google Earth. It's essentially a globe that you can see your house on.
    • If you live somewhere important enough that your house shows up...
    • ...And if the satellite photos are current enough for you to see your house instead of the vacant lot it will have been built on.
  • And so is all the other maps that has satellite imagery
  • Of course, there's the "Sarah Palin" Tina Fey inversion "I can see Russia from my house".
Hey! I Can See This Trope From Here!
  1. ↑ The net isn't the unusual part, as aircraft carriers really have those. It's the fact that he can see his house from the middle of the ocean.
  2. ↑ Her actual argument was that her being governor of the only state to share a border with Russia gave her a foreign policy perspective that other governors lacked.
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