The earliest appearance Quote Investigator has found for the full wording is Clifford Terry’s Chicago Tribune review of the Dean Martin spy comedy “The Silencers,” 22 February 1966; a 1962 newspaper poem by Jim Prior had already used the shorter “It’s Deja Vu again.” Nothing links the line to Yogi Berra until 1984 — and Berra flatly denied saying it in 1987 and again in his 1989 autobiography before claiming it in 1998. Quote Investigator stops short of naming a coiner, and so does this page: what is documented is who printed it first, not who invented it.
“It's déjà vu all over again” Earliest documented use: Clifford Terry, review of "The Silencers," Chicago Tribune, February 22, 1966, p. B5. Widely credited to Yogi Berra, but no source has been found — Berra denied saying it in 1987 and in his 1989 autobiography, then claimed it in 1998. Chronology: Quote Investigator, October 8, 2013.
⚠ The slide-ready mistake: crediting this to Yogi Berra. Use the credit shown above instead.
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In context
Evoking the world of Clifford Terry. Theme: "It's déjà vu all over again". Atmospheric and restrained, cinematic directional light, a muted period-appropriate palette, fine grain and texture. Compose with generous empty space for the quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
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Minimalist editorial slide for the quote "It's déjà vu all over again". Clean background, a single muted accent color, generous negative space, subtle paper or linen texture, no literal illustration — let the words carry it. Reserve clear space for a serif quote and a small credit line. No lettering in the image itself.
Provenance
Earliest documented printing of the full wording
Publication
Chicago Tribune
Piece
Clifford Terry, review of the film “The Silencers”
Date
22 February 1966, p. B5
Earlier relative
“It’s Deja Vu again” — Jim Prior, poem “Thanks To You,” Evening Independent, 22 September 1962
It’s déjà vu all over again—the usual gaggle of gimmicks …
1966 · Chicago Tribune
Transcribed by Quote Investigator from the Chicago Tribune of 22 February 1966; the piece is a review of the Dean Martin spy comedy “The Silencers.” This is the earliest printing of the full wording that has been located — not proof of who coined it. Quote Investigator ↗
1962 — the closest early relative is a love poem, “Thanks To You” by Jim Prior, printed in the Evening Independent on 22 September 1962: “It’s Deja Vu again / Out of the blue again.” Quote Investigator ↗
1966 — the full comic wording appears in print: Chicago Tribune critic Clifford Terry, 22 February 1966, p. B5, on “The Silencers.” No mention of Yogi Berra. Quote Investigator ↗
1984 — the first known printing that connects the line to Berra: a Wall Street Journal story of 20 July 1984 carrying “As Yogi Berra would say, this is deja vu all over again.” Wikiquote gives the same 1984 threshold. Wikiquote ↗
1987, 1989, then 1998 — Berra denied it to William Safire and again in Yogi: It Ain’t Over (McGraw-Hill, 1989), then claimed it in The Yogi Book (Workman, 1998). Internet Archive ↗
Authorship of the phrase is unresolved, so no rights status can honestly be asserted for the line itself. Nothing in the paper trail is public domain either: the earliest documented printings — the 1962 newspaper poem and the Chicago Tribune of 22 February 1966 — both fall well after the 1931 US public-domain threshold, as do Berra’s own books of 1989, 1998 and 2003.
Rights status is our research, not legal advice — and copyright varies by country and edition. For commercial or published use, confirm with the rightsholder. See terms.
Fact-check
The credit, the denial, the reversal
This is one of the most-quoted “Yogi-isms” on earth. It is also the one Berra himself spent more than a decade insisting was not his.
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The creditYogi Berra Disputed
Wikiquote lists the line under Disputed, noting that it is found in a poem by Jim Prior published in a Florida newspaper in 1962, that Berra claimed to have made the remark around 1961, and that the earliest published evidence linking the saying to him does not appear until 1984. Wikiquote ↗
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The denialBerra himself, 1987 and 1989 On the record
Telephoned by New York Times language columnist William Safire in 1987, Berra answered “Nope, not true, I never said that,” and repeated it in print in his 1989 autobiography Yogi: It Ain’t Over: “I didn’t say, ‘It’s déjà vu all over again.’” Quote Investigator ↗
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The reversalBerra himself, 1998 Claimed later
In The Yogi Book (Workman, 1998) he embraced the line and gave it a setting — watching Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris hit back-to-back home runs, around 1961. Quote Investigator ↗ No contemporary record of that remark has been produced. Professor Buzzkill ↗
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The repetitionQuotation collections and anniversary listicles Repeated flat
Reference works and tribute round-ups still print it as a plain Berra quotation. CBS Sports, sorting the genuine Yogi-isms from the borrowed ones, noted that Berra “told the Times language columnist William Safire in 1987 that he never said it, but later in life was known to take credit for it.” CBS Sports ↗
✓The safest true sentence: no source has ever been produced for Yogi Berra saying it, the wording was already running in American newspapers by 1966, and the first person on record attaching it to Berra was NASD president Gordon S. Macklin, quoted in the Wall Street Journal of 20 July 1984. Quote Investigator ↗
Context
Why it stuck to him anyway
By the mid-1980s Yogi Berra had stopped being only a person and become a category of joke. Once a line had the right looping, self-cancelling shape, editors reached for his name to introduce it — and the first known printing that puts this line next to Berra, a Wall Street Journal story of 20 July 1984, does exactly that, safely hedged as “As Yogi Berra would say.” The hedge did not survive long: by 1985 papers were printing it as something Berra had simply said. Quote Investigator ↗
The strangest turn is Berra’s own. He said no for years, then said yes, and supplied a scene to go with it: Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris hitting back-to-back home runs, around 1961. No contemporary record of that remark has ever surfaced. Memory is a poor witness at that distance, particularly after a decade of being told by everyone around you that you said it. Professor Buzzkill ↗
“Nope, not true, I never said that.” — Berra to William Safire, 1987
The citation ladder, rung by rung
Between the 1966 Tribune review and the first Berra attribution, the joke circulated with no owner at all. Quote Investigator records it in Chicago Metro News in 1979 (“If we have another snow storm, it’ll be deja vu all over again”) and in the Washington Post in 1981, where Tish Baldrige used it about a White House redecoration. Quote Investigator ↗
The first printing that names Berra is the Wall Street Journal of 20 July 1984: “As Yogi Berra would say, this is deja vu all over again.” Within a year the qualifier was gone — the Dallas Morning News in 1985 had “Like Yogi Berra once said, it was deja vu all over again.” Quote Investigator ↗
Explore
Filed under
More provenance-checked quotes on the same theme, each with its reuse status.
1925–2015 · Yankees catcher, manager and accidental aphorist
Lawrence Peter “Yogi” Berra caught for the New York Yankees from 1946 to 1963, won ten World Series titles as a player — more than anyone in major-league history — made 18 All-Star teams, took three American League MVP awards, and later managed both the Yankees and the Mets. He became at least as famous for his looping, self-cancelling one-liners, and was unusually candid about how many of them were not his: he titled his 1998 collection The Yogi Book: I Really Didn’t Say Everything I Said!
For writers & researchers
Cite this
Earliest documented printing
Earliest documented in Clifford Terry, review of “The Silencers,” Chicago Tribune, February 22, 1966, p. B5. Citation chronology per Quote Investigator, “Quote Origin: It’s Déjà Vu All Over Again,” October 8, 2013. No primary source has been found for Yogi Berra saying it.
This verification page
Quotle.info. “Who really said ‘It's déjà vu all over again’?” Last verified 6 Aug 2026. https://quotle.info/who-said/its-deja-vu-all-over-again/