To see something funny on the internet, immediately think of a friend who would love it, and then send it to said person is one of the nicest little things we have going in this troubling world. It’s beautiful to be on either end of that interaction. To send is to know that you’re brightening someone’s day. To receive is to know that someone out there is thinking of you, anticipating your smile.
But this lovely interaction can be easily derailed by a poorly-chosen reply. These might be the four worst words you can ever say to a person: I already saw this. Should someone who responds with this go straight to jail? Even if they did see the thing you sent them—which, let’s be honest, is a fairly common occurrence, especially now that Twitter’s “For You” tab is just a roundup of the day’s viral tweets—they shouldn’t yuck your yum! Your intentions were pure, and that reply is basically the other person sneering that they’re more online than you—and is that something they should be boasting about, anyway?
There are ways of saying I already saw this without actually saying it. There’s the simple, yet lackluster “LOL.” Slightly better is the emoji react with no note. While it’s a dead giveaway that the person encountered the meme days ago, it is more polite, and if the recipient gets creative with the emojis, that requires some much-appreciated effort.
Of course, sometimes you will be the person who already saw the post. What to do then? Everyone knows that “lmaooo” and “hahaha” express real, appreciative laughter. The more o’s or ha’s, the more genuine. Or consider some community-building alternatives. You could reply in a way that opens up a dialogue, building a riff or adding a relevant joke of your own. I always like when memes beget more memes—when you can respond to something by saying, “That reminded me of this.” Now you're communicating!
You can also always rely on the age-old dating app strategy of ending any response with a question, creating a natural and open pathway for your counterpart to keep the conversation going. For instance, if you’ve just been sent the video of that guy trying to ride the bus in a hammock like some sort of human caterpillar, in lieu of telling your uncle that you’d already consumed this within 20 minutes of it being posted, you could try “How do you think he got up there?” or even the less fun “Do you think this was staged?”
Reddit users have tackled this issue in a subReddit called LifeProTips. They agree that “I already saw this” is a huge letdown, but that you shouldn’t have to lie or force a reaction when you’ve already gotten your yuks in. One of the most upvoted comments comes from user Chop1n, who wrote, “I'm not gonna pretend I haven't seen it, that'd be ridiculous and silly. I'll usually say something like ‘I love this one!’ if it's something I actually find funny. Yeah, obviously you should never be like ‘I've already seen this before (and therefore it is no longer amusing and you're wasting my time).’" A comment right underneath that—perfectly displaying the utility of a good riff—reads, “You don't say ‘Oh yeah, that meme is old’. You say "Oh that's a CLASSIC.’"
Next time you’re scrolling, send the funniest, most golden nuggets to anyone and everyone who you think could use a laugh. And remember, when the tables are turned, it’s better to keep things moving than it is to inflict the unspeakable psychic damage of “I already saw this.”