History Main / DejaVu

->'''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle Orson:]]''' [[SelfDemonstratingArticle Roy, I have the strangest feeling that we've done this cartoon before.]]\\
'''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle Roy:]]''' [[SelfDemonstratingArticle Maybe it's a rerun?]]\\
'''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle Orson:]]''' [[SelfDemonstratingArticle No. When you get the feeling that you're doing things you've already done, do you know what that's called?]]\\
'''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle Roy:]]''' [[SelfDemonstratingArticle The writer running out of ideas?]]\\
'''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle Orson:]]''' [[SelfDemonstratingArticle No!]]\\
'''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle Roy:]]''' [[SelfDemonstratingArticle Because that happened halfway through the second season.]]\\
'''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle Orson:]]''' [[SelfDemonstratingArticle It's called déjà vu.]]
-->-- ''WesternAnimation/GarfieldAndFriends''[[SelfDemonstratingArticle , from the ]]''ComicStrip/USAcres'' [[SelfDemonstratingArticle segment "Déjà Vu"]]

[[SelfDemonstratingArticle Déjà Vu, literally "already seen" in French is a sensation of having already lived through what's currently happening. In real life, it's just a regular anomaly of memory recall. In fictionland, it's a sign that something isn't quite right.]]

[[SelfDemonstratingArticle Commonly experienced by characters who are starting to realize they are part of a]] GroundhogDayLoop[[SelfDemonstratingArticle . Occasionally appears in ]]TimeTravel [[SelfDemonstratingArticle plots. ]]TruthInTelevision [[SelfDemonstratingArticle and a source of ]]ParanoiaFuel [[SelfDemonstratingArticle in ]]RealLife[[SelfDemonstratingArticle . Related to ]]AGlitchInTheMatrix[[SelfDemonstratingArticle , Déjà Vu may be a symptom of encountering that trope. May be triggered by passing through a ]]DoorToBefore[[SelfDemonstratingArticle . Sometimes used for an ]]OhNoNotAgain [[SelfDemonstratingArticle gag.]]

[[SelfDemonstratingArticle If you are looking for the album,]] [[Music/DejaVu1970 go here]][[SelfDemonstratingArticle . If you are looking for the film, ]][[Film/DejaVu2006 go here]][[SelfDemonstratingArticle . If you are looking for the game, ]][[VideoGame/DejaVu1985 go here]][[SelfDemonstratingArticle .]]

[[LampshadeHanging Wait, have we already done this?]]

* ''VideoGame/BioShock'': One of Andrew Ryan's taunts over the radio hints at [[PlayerCharacter Jack]] experiencing this. [[spoiler:Rapture is oddly familiar to Jack because he's a LaserGuidedTykeBomb grown in the city and sent to the surface, programmed to return and kill Ryan.]]
-->"So far away from your family, from your friends, from everything you ever loved. But, for some reason you like it here. You feel something you can't quite put your finger on. Think about it for a second and maybe the word will come to you: nostalgia."
* In the ''VideoGame/{{Marathon}}'' Trilogy, in the first game's manual, as the our Hero escapes into the escape pod he ponders this: "''Oddly, this is familiar to you, as if it were from an old dream, but you can't exactly remember...''". Not much comes of it until the third game, where the plot is centered around saving the reality from getting eaten by a CosmicHorror, and it involves dream-themed dimension jumping/time-travelling trying to prevent the release of said Cosmic Horror.
* ''VideoGame/MaxPayne'': Max experiences this in the original game--while having a bad Valkyr trip. In his hallucinations, he enters a room with a ringing telephone. When he picks up, he hears only gibberish and puts it down. However, the next room he enters looks exactly the same, and the voice on the phone tries to tell him he has been drugged--to which he declares that he only hears gibberish and puts the phone down.

''VideoGame/ResidentEvilRevelations2'': Claire starts off the beginning of this game the same way she started ''VideoGame/ResidentEvilCodeVeronica''. Getting knocked unconscious, then thrown in a jail cell and having no weapons.

* ''WesternAnimation/TheBatman'': In the episode "Seconds," Batman faces off against Francis Grey, a recently paroled convict who can turn back time. Batman begins experiencing Déjà Vu every time Grey resets the timeline, which allows him to eventually predict what Grey will say and do.
* ''WesternAnimation/BrandyAndMrWhiskers'' discussed a situation that the rabbit had experienced before in a video game, but he is unable to know the term of it, much to the dog's annoyance.
* In ''WesternAnimation/DannyPhantom'', this occurs during Danny's fight with [[TimeMaster Clockwork.]]

* The ''WesternAnimation/TheGrimAdventuresOfBillyAndMandy'' episode "Test of Time" has Grim give Billy a remote control to travel back in time. Billy uses it on Mandy several times before the latter proclaims this trope.
* In an episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfJimmyNeutronBoyGenius'', after managing to get back from the dinosaur era, a baby t-rex that was brought back presses Jimmy's time remote that causes a ResetButton back to the start of the episode, ending with Jimmy saying déjà vu.
* ''WesternAnimation/MollyOfDenali'': Grandpa Nat experiences this in "Grandpa's Drum." When Molly and Tooey sing and drum together, [[spoiler:he starts seeing visions of himself and his old friend when they were younger, doing the exact same thing]].
* In ''WesternAnimation/StevenUniverse'', after Steven has another dream about Pink Diamond, Blue Diamond arrives and says the same words she said during the dream, making Steven mutter "déjà blue."

An inverse phemonomen, "Jamais Vu", meaning "never seen", also exists. It is the sensation of being in a situation that you logically know you should have experienced before, yet somehow seems unfamiliar and/or novel.