been there, done that, phr. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

been there, done that phr.

[the phr. was adopted in soft-drink advertising of the mid-1990s; the ref. to T-shirt underpins the marketing that accompanies any new cultural phenomenon, esp. mass popular films]

used to summarize the assumed youthful ennui of the 1990s; voiced when offered some new stimulus and often appended by the phr. got the T-shirt.

[1913		T.A. Dorgan in Zwilling TAD Lex. (1993) 124: I’m taking you to a swell racket and I don’t want you to pull any of that I seen and I done stuff].
1994		H.E. Young [bk title] Been There. Done That. Now What?: The Meaning of Life May Surprise You.
2000		P. Howard Miseducation of Ross O’Carroll-Kelly (2004) 24: Been there, done that ... worn the best friend.
2005		B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 100: Been there, seen it, done it, worn the T-shirt.
2013		T. Robinson Hard Bounce [ebook] ‘This whole Little Girl Lost in the Big City shit? Been there, done that’.