About
You had one job is an expression used to call attention to perceived blunders or fails. The phrase is used in a context critical of someone who has failed to perform the “one job” delegated to them.
Origin
The phrase originated with the 2001 film, Ocean’s Eleven, in which a well-planned and executed vault heist fails after a single step is missed:
[in a safe heist]
Basher: All right chaps. Hang on to your knickers.
[He triggers the bomb, and the safe door cracks open. Laughing, Basher dances into the vault – and the alarm goes off]
Basher: Oh leave it out! You tossers! You had one job to do!
On April 25, 2011, redditor nomdeweb submitted[1] a capture of a credit slide from the 1993 film Jurassic Park to the /r/funny subreddit, captioning the image “You had one job in Jurassic Park. ONEJOB.” The image implied that, because of his position as supervisor of the film’s animatronic dinosaurs, Phil Tippett was responsible for the control of the dinosaurs and safety and the people within the movie. The post acquired 8,189 upvotes and 1,734 points overall prior to being archived. On September 12, 2011, the image was reposted[2] by redditor tofupanzer, acquiring 21,948 upvotes and 2,239 points overall before the post was archived.
Spread
In April of 2012, 9gag user bcarring submitted an image of a sign promoting wildfire awareness with graffiti suggesting it was solely the responsibility of “Josh” to prevent such blazes, accompanied by an image of a forest fire with the caption, “Shit Josh! / You Had One Job!”
On April 15, 2012, FunnyJunk user pleasewelcomejc submitted[3] a rage comic entitled “You had one job brain, ONEJOB.” As of February 14, 2013, the image had received over 120,000 views and 7142 upvotes. Several Imgur albums[4][5] are also dedicated to serving as compilations. On October 1, 2012, a Facebook page[6] titled “You had one job memes” was created, and had accumulated 48,551 likes by February 14, 2013.
On January 14, 2013, single-serve website hadonejob.com[7] was registered, and hosts additional examples.
Notable Examples
Google Trends
External References
[1]reddit – You had one job in Jurassic Park. ONEJOB.
[2]reddit – ONEJOBPHIL. YOUHADONEJOB.
[3]FunnyJunk – You had one job brain, ONEJOB.
[4]Imgur – You had one job.
[5]Imgur – You Had One Job! compilation
[6]Facebook – One job memes
[7]hadonejob.com – http://hadonejob.com/