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What are the earliest reference quotes, using the cool modern senses below, for each phrase?

”You got this":
Motivational encouragement to instill confidence to overcome some problem/foe. (quoting "You've got this" or "I got this" or "I've got this" also counts)

"Wait for it":
Command to create suspense in anticipation of some beneficial/exciting occurrence which the speaker is sure will occur within the next few seconds.

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    This should be two different questions.
    – Laurel ♦
    Mar 30, 2020 at 11:32
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    Yeah, I know...I've heard them both in How I Met Your Mother, but couldn't find any earlier reference for either, so just kept them together.
    – bobuhito
    Mar 30, 2020 at 12:14
  • The "cool modern senses" may possibly have evolved on another sitcom and become 'stock phrases'. AFAIK, they are not actual idiomatic expressions. Googlebooks has exactly one hit for "Wait for it", and it redirects to the show you mentioned. "You got this" is no-hit.//Even TV tropes has nothing. That should be a clue.
    – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_
    Mar 30, 2020 at 13:33
  • I can't believe this question got closed without further comment than the generic bot "This question needs to be more focused" explanation. There's clearly a lot of interest in this question and what I'm asking for is clear (the focus is fine IMHO). I think I'm done with English Stack Exchange.
    – bobuhito
    May 9, 2022 at 3:12

3 Answers 3

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OED has 1930 for "Wait for it":

Wait for it

said (often parenthetically) to create an interval of suspense before imparting something remarkable or amusing, in order to heighten its effect. Also ironically. colloquial.

1930 M. Allingham Myst. Mile xviii. 170 ‘Wait a minute,’ said Mr. Knapp. ‘Wait for it... That is just exactly wot I do know.’
1966 ‘H. Calvin’ Italian Gadget ii. 21 We can have a shower and..wait for it, dinner at the Palazzo Capucci.

OED doesn't have the exclamatory encouraging usage of "got this" at all, although it might be derived from

10. a. transitive. To win (a victory), to gain the favourable issue of (a battle, a field of combat, a match, etc.).

c1330 Horn Child l. 462 in J. Hall King Horn (1901) 184 At iustes & at turnament..euer þai gat þe gre.

[Get is so old and the OED entry is so correspondingly long that I may have missed a more appropriate instance, though.]

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I believe that "Wait for it" started with Radar O'Reilly on M A S H in the 1970s. He certainly used the phrase in the show.

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    Using a phrase isn't the same as originating the phrase. Do you have anything to support this assertion?
    – KillingTime
    May 2, 2021 at 6:46
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"You Got This!" - Movie 8 Mile with Eminem, friend encouraging Rabbit to Battle at the Shelter RAP Contest.

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