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"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 they are 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 subversion is "We're so high up they look like ants!" "They are ants, you idiot!"


Examples

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    Anime & 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.
  • In Is This A Zombie?, Orito shouts this when Chris launches him into the sky.
  • Nanoha points out where her house is when she sees the view from Fate's new apartment in Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha A's.
  • Subverted in Beyblade when Max looks out the window of the hotel the Bladebreakers are staying in and claims everyone looks like ants, only for Kenny to reply that they are ants as Max is looking at the floor of the balcony.
  • In episode 21a of Tamagotchi, the Tamagotchi girls are looking out a balcony in the Gotchi King's castle. Memetchi says a variation of this phrase.
    Memetchi: Oh! I can see my house over there!
    Makiko: And that big one towering over yours must be my house!
    Memetchi: That's a rude way to say that...
  • Pretty Cure:
  • Yamada-kun and the Seven Witches: Ryu utters this when looking out of the window on his first ever flight. Miyamura points out that it's unlikely.

    Comic Books 
  • The Clone Saga: Uttered by the Jackal when Spider-Man saves him from the Punisher during "Maximum Clonage".
  • The Simpsons Futurama Crossover Crisis: When the Simpsons, Fry, Leela, Bender, and Nibbler need to go to the Nuclear Power Plant, Fry gives some anti-gravity gum to Homer so his car can fly and thus avoid the traffic jam. While in the air, Marge comments that she can see the Lovejoys' backyard and that she feels like such a voyeur.

    Fan Works 

    Films — Animation 
  • Brave: When the triplets lure the men hunting the bear in the castle to the top of a tower, someone in the group says this Stock Phrase.
  • A Bug's Life has the inversion. Funny because they actually are ants, and the person saying it is a butterfly. Who is being carried by the ants.
  • 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.
  • Cinderella II: Dreams Come True, during the second segment "Tall Tail" the King is riding on the back of an elephant which goes into rampage at a funfair. Jaq the mouse frightens it which causes it to stop so abruptly that it throws the King from it's back onto a carriage of a nearby ferris wheel, the King isn't mad because he declares he can see his castle from it.
  • 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!"

    Films — Live Action 
  • Willy Wonka & 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.note 
  • Inspector Gadget (1999) portrays 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.
  • The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey: In the final scene, the group is looking far away at the Lonely Mountain, which is quite literally the dwarves' home.
  • Ferris Bueller's Day Off. (variation) Ferris, Sloane, and Cameron are at the top of the Sears Tower. Cameron says: "I can see my Dad."
  • At the very end of Close Encounters of the Third Kind as Barry reunites with his mother, he says "I went up in the air, and I saw our house!" Gillian says "I saw you going up in the air! Did you see me running after you?"

    Jokes 
  • In his last moments on the cross Jesus cries out: "Peter, Peter!". Peter, who was in shame and back behind the crowd of onlookers, starts pushing through and yelling: "I'm coming, Jesus!", thinking Jesus has one last important message for him. The crowd starts hitting him. Jesus cries out again: "Peter, Peter!". Peter pushes even harder. Now the crowd got mad and began punching him and ripping off his clothes. Jesus cries out again: "Peter, Peter!". Peter somehow gets to the first row but Roman guards hit him with their spears and swords. He manages to get to the foot of the cross all bloody and torn: "I'm here, Jesus!". Jesus cries out one more time: "Peter!". "Yes, Jesus?!". "I can see your house from up here!".

    Literature 
  • Discworld:
    • Psycho for Hire Carcer from Night Watch taunts Vimes by saying, "I can see your house from up here." — i.e., "I know where you (and your family) lives."
    • The series' version of the giant statue of Ozymandias has the inscription "I can see your house from up here", rather than "Look on My Works, Ye Mighty, and Despair". Vimes is initially incredulous at the choice of inscription, but his Klatchian counterpart 71-Hour Ahmed notes that it's still an effective invocation of power and a threat, along the lines of "lord of all he surveys" and "I know where you live".
    • In The Last Hero, during the Silver Horde's climb to the home of the gods, which is seated on the Discworld's tallest mountain...
      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).
  • Near the end of The Divine Comedy, after Dante has traveled through most of the Heavenly Spheres, he looks down and sees all the layers of Paradise he's already visited, with the tiny, unhappy Earth far below them all.
  • Toward the end of the Hyperion Cantos, Martin Silenus says this while impaled on the thorns of the Shrike's tree.
  • In the Rivers of London novella The October Man, one of the characters was attacked by a family friend while they were walking on a hillside overlooking the town. Recounting the incident to the police, she says that he seemed normal and in a good mood before the attack, and gives as an example the fact that he looked down at the town and said he could see his house from up here. (When the police later establish the culprit's address, Detective Superintendant Sommer notes that it really can be seen from the hillside.)

    Live-Action TV 
  • Star Trek: Enterprise.
    Klingon Captain Volok: (observing a holographic simulation of Kronos, the Klingon capital city) Hey, I can see my house from here!
  • Forever Knight. In "Dying to Know You", a woman is shot and Nick Knight is using his vampire powers to fly her to the hospital. She briefly revives in his arms and is awed at the view, saying, "Where's my house?"
  • 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!
  • A frequent variation used in Mystery Science Theater 3000:
    "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."
  • In the Doctor Who episode "Dark Water", someone who's been hit by a car wakes up in what seems to be a rather Mundane Afterlife, greeted by a friendly office drone. Then he pulls back the curtains, and sees a sci-fi city built on the inside of a giant sphere.
    Seb: Oh, look at that. You can see my house from here. (gets a look) Yeah, sorry, probably not helping.
  • 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 Tipton invokes this trope on The Suite Life on Deck when she is blasted off into space.
    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. See Real Life below.
  • 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.
    • From the same country, Stanislaw Ponte Preta had the inversion with a chronicle on an overtly naive plane passenger.
  • Played with in Weeds when the characters flee into nearby hills to avoid a fire: because all the houses look so similar, the protagonist points out several different houses that she thinks might be hers, before giving up.
  • An episode of WKRP in Cincinnati had Les being talked down from jumping off a ledge on the building, over an insult from a ballplayer. The player calls him and they have a conversation, but we only hear Les's side. And he confirms, 'Yes, they do look like little ants.' While looking down on the street. And the idea is so contagious that Mr Carlson and Andy Travis, holding the phone for Les to talk, and worried sick over his suicide attempt, LOOK DOWN at the street too.
  • Mythbusters: Said by Grant while on a scissor lift. He immediately follows with, "Whose car is that in the driveway?"
  • A character in The Last Train says this after he's been crucified. It's probably a reference to the old joke about Christ on the cross.

    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.
  • Goofy declares this at the end of a performance by him and Mickey Mouse of Mary Poppins's "Let's Go Fly a Kite" on the album Disney Music Block Party.
  • "Weird Al" Yankovic used this line a different way in his song "Traffic Jam".
    I left home five hours ago,
    and I can still see my house from here.
  • In Tom T. Hall's "I Flew Over Our House Last Night", it gets Played for Drama. The narrator is separated from his wife and notices his old house while he's flying over his hometown.

    Newspaper Comics 

    Pinball 
  • Judge Dredd: The Sniper when he's falling to his death, other than his fall being a long way down. Said word for word.

    Theme Parks 

    Video Games 
  • Borderlands: "Fremington's Edge" Legendary Weapon sniper rifles have the text "I can see my house from here!", indirectly indicating its enhanced zoom. How enhanced? Most sniper rifles have a zoom of between 4x and 6x. The Fremington's Edge has 11x.
  • Crackdown
    Agency: (upon reaching a great height) I can see my house from here!
  • Eastward: Sam exclaims that she can see Greenberg from their new home.
  • Ed, Edd n Eddy: The Mis-Edventures: In the last level, after the Eds send Jonny flying, he shouts to Plank that he can see their house.
  • Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
    Police Helicopter Pilot 1: Hey, I can see my house from here!
  • Warcraft:
    • From Warcraft III, the wind rider says, "Whoa, I can see my house from here," and the Pyromaniac batrider 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 IV while in an elevator — on an alien planet.
  • Brütal 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 Plus, 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.
  • This phrase appears in Highborn Spoken by Archie when the heroes first arrive on the moon.
  • Call of Duty: Black Ops: Played with in the last Nazi Zombie map, "Moon". Richtofen says, "Dempsey, I can see your house form here. It's on fire!"
  • Guybrush Threepwood will say this if you look out the mouth of Skull Island in The Curse of Monkey Island. Of course, Guybrush doesn't really HAVE a house...
  • In Under a Killing Moon when you're on the Moon Child on Day 6 if you click on the Earth out the window, Tex will say "Hey! I think I see my office from up here!."
  • Assassin's Creed:
    • Assassin's Creed II: This is the trophy/achievement for discovering the Assassin Tomb of Torre Grossa.
    • Assassin's Creed Origins: This is the actual name of the achievement earned for climbing to the top of the game world's highest peak in the heart of the Black Desert.
  • Played for Laughs in The Chinese Room:
    You stand on the chair. You can see your house from here! Well, you can't really, but you can reach the hatch.
  • Guild Wars 2: One Heart of Thorns achievement involves going to a specific place in the final map that's high enough a character can see the city of Rata Sum in the distance. The flavor text for that achievement is "I can see my college from here!"

    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 of Nodwick:
    Nodwick: Hey, I can see your tomb from here.
    Lich-Lord Malignix: I might be able to say the same about you...
  • 8-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.
    • After being blown away by Lich, one of the Lawninja comments that he can see his "law-dojo" from here.
  • In this Penny Arcade comic. Gabe makes this comment as a joke about a trend chart.

    Web Original 
  • Played with here.
    "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.
  • In the premier episode of Mass Effect 3 on Video Games Awesome!, Fraser, Becky, and Ben got very excited when they noticed that the view outside the windows at the Alliance Navy HQ is actually Vancouver. Three minutes later the Reapers arrive and destroy everything.
    Fraser: "Based on where they are right now, he's pretty much stepping on our house right now."
    Becky: "That's our house..."
  • Played surprisingly straight in Sword Art Online Abridged, when Asuna and Kirito are overlooking the crumbling world of Aincrad.
    Asuna: Oh hey, you can see our house from here.
    [Shot of the cabin where they held their honeymoon being destroyed]
    Kirito: Well, that's disappointing.
  • RWBY:
    • When Ruby and Yang leave home to attend the prestigious Beacon Academy, Ruby really isn't looking forward to being the youngest student in a strange boarding school, having been pushed two years ahead of her age group. As the airship they're travelling on approaches Beacon Academy, giving the new student intake their first view of the school, Ruby spots the distant sight of her old school which was very near her home, a small island just off the coast. She concludes, with some comfort, that home isn't as far away from Beacon as she thought. Her older sister points out that Beacon is their home now.
    Ruby: Look! You can see Signal from up here! I guess home isn't so far, after all.
    Yang: Beacon is our home now.
    • When Blake and Sun travel to Menagerie, Sun - who has never been to the Faunus-only island before - is overwhelmed by how many Faunus are living in one place. Blake is underwhelmed, explaining to him that the Faunus are living on top of each other, as the habitable part of the island is overcrowded. When they reach the highest point of the region they're in, Sun pauses and asks Blake if she can see her house from this vantage point. She points out her house, which is visible... the huge stately mansion in the middle of the town.

    Western Animation 
  • American Dragon: Jake Long: In "Keeping Shop", Spud utters this as he and Trixie are first learning how to fly in the dragon suit.
  • Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends: At the begining of "Dinner is Swerved", Mac and Bloo head up to the roof to verify that Mac's apartment can be seen from the top of Foster's. Later becomes a Brick Joke when Wilt, Eduardo, and CoCo attempt the same at the end of the episode.
  • Steven Universe: In "Space Race", Steven says that he can see the temple after the rocket blasts off.
  • The Powerpuff Girls (1998)
    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...
  • The Simpsons
    • Used in the episode "Margical History Tour" where Homer, as King Henry VIII, shoots Ned Flanders (Sir Thomas Moore) 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!
    • While not the exact phrase, Cletus has a similar line when on top of a telephone pole.
      Cletus: Hey you know what? I could call my ma while I'm up here. Hey ma! Get off the dang roof!
    • In the episode "Homer's Night Out," when Marge sees the photo of Homer dancing with Princess Kashmir, she kicks him out of the house, and Barney invites him to crash at his place. When they get in, Homer sadly remarks that he can see a row of lights, and he can tell which of those lights is his house: it's the one in the middle of that row.
    • In the episode "Marge on the Lam" Ruth remarks from the top of the mountain they can see their houses, to which Marge notices a large plume of black smoke from the chimney.
    • In "Marge Gamer", while Marge is starting to get used to the Internet, she uses a Google Earth analog to find the Simpsons' house. When she does, she also catches a glimpse of Homer sleeping naked on the hammock in the backyard.
  • In The Movie 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!
  • 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."
  • Kipper: In one story, Kipper and Tiger decide to make their own nest in a tree and Tiger points out "I can see my house!"
  • In The Avengers: Earth's 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 & 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!
  • Family Guy
    • The above-mentioned inversion is used almost verbatim by Michael Eisner and Bill Gates in the episode "Screwed the Pooch."
    • Invoked in a Christmas Episode; as Lois climbs the town's large Christmas tree to destroy the star on top, Peter calls out to her.
      Peter: Hi, Lois! Do we look like ants down here?
      Lois: Bite me! [throws an ornament near him]
    • Also used by Ollie Williams in his trademark style when he announces the news from a helicopter in "The Courtship of Stewie's Father":
      Ollie: EVERYBODY LOOKS LIKE ANTS!
  • 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: The Series, when Abis Mal becomes Large and in Charge, he says "I can see our hideout from here."
  • In an episode of Ozzy & Drix when unnatural growth spurts happen throughout the city at one point Drix says "I can see our office from here."
  • Sofia the First: In "Four's a Crowd", Ruby makes this comment during a flying carriage parade.
  • In an episode of Cartoon Planet, Space Ghost does this in song while pointing at a star-map:
    Oh, for the life of a superhero
    It's so much fun to disappear!
    Look at the funny bug person, hey Zorak!
    I can see my house from here!
  • Chungu in an episode of The Lion Guard said this phrase when an antelope kicks him into the air.
  • Pippi Longstocking: When Pippi climbs a tree to save kids from a falling building in "Pippi Saves the Old Folks Home", she says she can see Villa Villekulla from there and the camera is in an angle that confirms it to the viewers.
  • VeggieTales: In "Daniel and the Lion's Den", Daniel says this just before the Wise Men pronounce sentence on him and throw him into the lion's den.
  • In The Flintstones episode "Nuthin' but the Tooth", when Barney, full of gas, causes Fred's car to float into the air, the pair pass over their neighborhood, with Barney saying he could see his house down there,
    Fred: Well, take a good look. You might never see it again.

    Real Life 
  • Reid Wiseman, astronaut, complete with photograph from the International Space Station.
  • Google Earth. It's essentially a globe that you can see your house on, assuming your house antedates the (sometimes several years old) satellite imagery on which Google Earth relies.
  • Technically true if you live in the vicinity of the highest point of the local topography, whether that be a natural hill or mountain or a man-made building, assuming the sight-lines are clear and unobstructed.
  • Of course, there's the Sarah Palin "I can see Russia from my house" inversion. Which was actually said by Tina Fey. What Palin really said was that you can see Russia from Alaska, which you can. But it isn't exactly much foreign policy experience, which is what Palin was implying, that as governor (of less than two years) of Alaska, she had to deal with Russia next door; the parts of Alaska and Russia that are next to each other are really remote, and virtually nothing happens on the border except some fishing. Palin might've had a better shot at pushing her experience with the Canadians instead (Canada is a major economic partner for Alaska), but somehow dealing with Canada doesn't "count" as foreign policy.

 
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Bloo can see Mac's Apartment

Bloo takes Mac to a balcony where he claims they can see Mac's apartment, with the latter being rather unimpressed.

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