20 Years Later, This Grand Theft Auto Quote Remains Undefeated in Gaming History
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Published Sep 3, 2026, 7:00 PM EDT
The quote that shows up again, and again...
Picture this: The year is 2004, and you are settling down for your first-ever playthrough of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas on the PlayStation 2. Grand Theft Auto as a whole blew up in popularity that year, elevating the franchise into a cultural phenomenon, with San Andreas selling more than 27 million copies to date. Still, those who played San Andreas for the first time in 2004 likely couldn't have foreseen that a quote from the game's opening sequence would go on to become an internet meme sensation more than two decades later.
The opening cutscene of San Andreas introduces players to gangster Carl "CJ" Johnson, who has just returned to Los Santos after five years on the East Coast. His return home is immediately interrupted by corrupt police officers, who arrest him and drop him off in rival gang territory.
To that, Johnson has one thing to say before the game begins: "Ah shit, here we go again."
How a Grand Theft Auto quote showed up again after 11 years
It was more than a decade after the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that the seemingly throwaway line found new life. In 2015, YouTube user ZMOONCHILD posted a three-second video of the infamous quote. That video quickly gained traction, with more than 80,000 likes and over 4,000 comments. Commenters began turning the clip into a meme, posting jokes such as "me every Monday at school" and "When Luigi enters the mansion for the 3rd time."
Commenters began turning the clip into a meme, posting jokes such as "me every Monday at school" and "When Luigi enters the mansion for the 3rd time."
Later in 2015, a user named Sentinel Driver posted a screenshot from that video in a thread on the GTA Forums — the first reported use of the screenshot as a reaction image. Over the next few years, the image would show up time and time again on both Reddit and Instagram, with people adding their own captions to it. "Ah shit, here we go again" became a common way for people to express their annoyance and frustration with having to face a familiar or repeating situation — from real-life scenarios to difficult bosses in video games.
In 2019, the meme potential of the quote was fully realized.
Becoming a viral internet meme
On April 3, 2019, X (formerly Twitter) user @ChaoticGeekCG posted a green-screen edit of the San Andreas opening sequence, complete with CJ's iconic quote. Because it was a green-screen edit, people could get creative and place the clip of CJ over other photos or videos. The post gained more than 1,700 retweets and 5,200 likes in one week, according to the website Know Your Meme. Similar versions of the green screen were shared on TikTok, where one such template has been used in videos more than 10,000 times.
The meme's popularity made its way back to the Grand Theft Auto community, where on Reddit, it became a common way to express frustration about the multiple delays to Grand Theft Auto 6. In March 2026, it even caught the attention of the Trump administration when White House officials used the line from San Andreas in a video posted to X. The video, which spliced video game clips with footage of the war in Iran in a post titled "OPERATION EPIC FURY," received widespread criticism both on and off social media.