go ahead, say "Same as it ever was."
And realize that whenever someone says this line it is appropriate to use one hand to "chop along" the forearm of the other arm. Well, maybe not appropriate, but sorta expected if you watched enough MTV throughout the 80's and 90's.
Origin of this movement is the music video for Once in a Lifetime by the Talking Heads, in it David Byrne and his big suit are bluescreened in front of various locations around the world, all featuring people in some ritualistic action. There is a woman behind him who begins to do the arm-chop first, and he begins to mimick her while singing. This is also noded as 'This is not my Beautiful Wife!' but I find that saying "Same as it ever was" ellicits more arm-chopping.
At first I just thought it was me and my sister who did this, but slowly I realized that almost everyone that frequented MTV during the years it showed videos has seen this video multiple times and are programmed to respond in a similar choppy manner.