“Been there, done that” is an idiom indicating experience with a topic, often used to denote boredom. It has been expanded to include “got the shirt/cup/magnet”. Originally referring to tourist destinations, it is now used in various contexts. The phrase originated in Australia but was popularized in the US by a Mountain Dew commercial in the 1990s. Some consider it a cliché, and alternatives include “seen, heard” and “ennui”.
“Been there, done that” is an idiom used to indicate that the speaker has experienced the topic under discussion. It typically indicates boredom with the subject, although occasionally the phrase is used to show experience and resulting authority on the subject. Many people have expanded upon this idiom in many ways since it was popularized across America in the 1990s.
The most common expansion of this idiom is “been there, done that, got the shirt”. T-shirts are popular souvenirs in hundreds of tourist destinations around the world. The sentence indicates that the speaker has a complete experience of the topic, even to have a memory of it. Other versions include “got the cup” or “got the magnet.”
Places such as amusement parks and tourist destinations, as well as vacation activities such as scuba diving or mountain climbing were probably the original topics referred to by “been there, done that”. Many books have been published with this phrase in the title, including novels, memoirs, and self-help books. Topics include romance, education, business, and investing. Instead of using the phrase to denote boredom, these authors use it to further their authority on the subject.
This phrase is generally considered an American idiom, although it can be heard around the world. The earliest known instance of the phrase in print occurred in a New York newspaper in February 1982, but that newspaper says the phrase originated in Australia. This runs counter to Australian media history, as the sentences did not appear in print until 1983.
Regardless of where the phrase originated, it was popularized in the United States during the 1990s by a television commercial. In a PepsiCo commercial, four adventurous young men talk about how bored they are with the world, having already “been there, done it” for almost everything. Then, they drink Mountain Dew and discover new things to do, including racing a cheetah to save a soda bottle from it. This commercial made the phrase common across the United States
Although “been there, done this” became very popular in the 1990s, some people say it’s already a cliché. The phrase “seen, heard” basically has the same meaning, although it has the idea of a concert or movie, as opposed to a tourist destination. “Ennui” is a similar older word, derived from French, meaning boredom and exhaustion. A person is said to be bored when he has many ways to amuse himself but he is bored with all of them.
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