Sort of. My reading is that they’re claiming the joke probably already existed, but it was made popular by a 1989 American film. But the key is that it existed before that. Presumably it was in America by 1988, but that says nothing of where it originated.
![Me trying to figure out the memes my niblings were using over the holidays [Rule]](https://i.imgflip.com/agijr0.jpg){kind=link}
Sort of. My reading is that they’re claiming the joke probably already existed, but it was made popular by a 1989 American film. But the key is that it existed before that. Presumably it was in America by 1988, but that says nothing of where it originated.