Gaming

Ah Shit, ‘Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas’ Is A Meme Again

by Amanda Yeo  21 April 2019
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas meme - Ah shit, here we go again.

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Gangster game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas may have come out over a decade ago, but nothing is ever truly gone if you remember it. Or turn it into a meme.

In the opening scenes of 2004 video game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, former gangster Carl “CJ” Johnson returns to his home city of Los Santos after learning that his mother has been killed.

Soon after leaving the airport he’s picked up a group of dirty cops, who are familiar with him from his time as a member of the Grove Street Families gang. CJ insists that he’s gone straight, but the police threaten to frame him for murder unless he works for them.

Laughing, the cops then throw him from their moving car, abandoning him in the territory of a hostile gang.

“Ah shit, here we go again,” CJ says as he walks down the alley. “Worst place in the world. Rollin Heights Balla country. I ain’t represented Grove Street in five years, but the Ballas won’t give a shit.”

Though San Andreas is almost old enough to drive legally, CJ’s casual, resigned contemplation of his misfortune has enjoyed a resurgence of relevance in recent times. Like that guy who made bread using ancient Egyptian yeast scrapings, the internet has extracted CJ from San Andreas, added some flour and water, and turned him into a fresh meme.

In this case, the flour and water was a green screen provided by ChaoticGeekCG on Twitter earlier this month.

CJ and his highly exploitable exclamation have been superimposed over various images and videos, creating the meme equivalent of declaring oneself to be “back on your bullshit”. This meme is a meme of our times despite its retro origin, used to illustrate someone helplessly re-entering an inescapable situation. An experience we can all relate to.

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The meme has also been applied to several songs and films with relevant titles, such as Paramore’s ‘Here We Go Again’, Demi Lovato’s ‘Here We Go Again’, and Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again.

The meme has gathered enough traction and become so prevalent that it is now an appropriate reaction to itself, a meme ouroboros.