http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/BeamMeUpScotty

This entry is trivia, which is cool and all, but not a trope. On a work, it goes on the Trivia tab.

General Donald Doyle, Red vs. Blue "I'd like to quote the great William Shakespeare, but to tell you the truth, I don't actually think he said it."

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Lines that people associate with something or someone by way of Pop-Cultural Osmosis, despite having never been uttered by them, or only rarely. Usually a misquotation or a slight paraphrase of something that actually was said or done, or a combination of several common or famous lines. The misquote provides context necessary to recognize or appreciate the reference, as in "Luke, I Am Your Father", or fills in parts of the sentence that are orphaned from the interesting bit, as in "Hell [has no] fury like a woman scorned" . Sometimes the trailer shortened the quote to save time, and its version became better known. This is all well and good, but we here at TV Tropes think people should at least know what the line they're paraphrasing is meant to be.

Sometimes it's not even more than a word or two off, so pointing it out may come across as nitpicking. Other times, the record really has to be set straight because the line got really corrupted over time like a bad game of telephone.

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The Trope Namer, "Beam me up, Scotty", was never actually uttered in Star Trek: The Original Series. One of the films got pretty close, but even then, it was phrased: "Scotty, beam me up." Contrary to popular belief, it is not even said in Star Trek: The Animated Series - though that's where they come closest: "Beam us up, Scotty". The actual phrase comes from a famous Star Trek bumper sticker - "Beam me up, Scotty, there's no intelligent life on this planet." It finally made an appearance in the franchise when William Shatner himself said it in the audiobook version of his 1995 novel The Ashes of Eden. It was later used in Star Trek (2009).* Another example from Shatner is in his autobiography Up Till Now, which comes in audiobook form. More often, Kirk said "Four to beam up," and he was talking to whomever happened to be at the Transporter console. Very rarely was this Scotty himself, who was the chief engineer, meaning no version of the command was said to him with any regularity.

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Subtrope of Common Knowledge. See also Dead Unicorn Trope, Cowboy BeBop at His Computer, Mondegreen, God Never Said That. If the misassociated line is eventually co-opted into the source as a sort of Shout-Out to the confusion, it becomes an Ascended Meme. If the line is correct but lack of context changes the meaning, or if the line is chopped up to change its meaning, it is a Quote Mine. If the quote and the misquote both occur in the same medium, there is an Unreliable Narrator or possibly a Flip-Flop of God. If the quote becomes the only thing associated with a person it's a case of Never Live It Down (if an Audience Reaction) or Once Done, Never Forgotten (if In-Universe). This can be extended to Iconic Items the character never actually had, such as Holmes' deerstalker. For tropes actually about beaming characters up, see Teleportation.

Examples with their own pages:

Other examples:

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Advertising

While it's certainly the message he wanted to convey, Yul Brynner did not say the exact phrase "I'm dead. Don't smoke," in his posthumous anti-smoking ad.

Meta-example: an ad for a cable company shows a movie-loving family communicating entirely in movie quotes. They must be phonies or trying to avoid copyright issues, though, because most of the quotes are Beam Me Up Scotties.

It's a crude example, but the commercial never said, "I'm Mr. Bucket. Put your balls in my mouth." It did come very close a few times, though. What it actually says in this commercial is 'Put your balls in my top, I'm Mr Bucket, out of my mouth they will pop'.

is 'Put your balls in my top, I'm Mr Bucket, out of my mouth they will pop'. The infamous ads for Evony do not include the phrase "Play now, my lord!" It's actually "Start your journey now, my lord" or "Come play, my lord".

Mikey, the kid from the Life cereal commercials in the 1970s and '80s, will not "eat anything" despite the phrase being remembered as "Let's give it to Mikey, he'll eat anything!" In the commercial, the two boys opt to give their Life cereal (which must taste awful, seeing as their parents say it's "good for them") to their little brother Mikey. One of the brothers disagrees, saying, "He won't eat it. He hates everything." But, surprise: "He likes it! Hey, Mikey!" When you think about it, giving the kid who would "eat anything" their cereal would prove nothing about whether the cereal tastes good.

Averted in a 2008 commercial for the jewelry store Jared. A man's car navigation system starts acting like HAL, but gets the famous quote right. "I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."

The famous 1987 anti-drug PSA never actually said, "This is your brain... this is your brain on drugs." There were two versions, long and short. The long version started with the camera on John Roselius saying "Is there anyone out there who still isn't clear about what doing drugs does? OK, last time." Picks up an egg, "this is your brain", points to the skillet, "this is drugs," cracks egg and holds up skillet, "this is your brain on drugs. Any questions?" The short version was a hot skillet sizzling with oil, waiting on the stove accompanied by psychedelic sound effect — while a voiceover said, "OK, last time. This is drugs," indicating the skillet, not the egg. Then an egg broke open into the skillet and immediately began frying. Cue the voiceover, "This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?" note An even shorter version skipped the "OK, last time" part.

started with the camera on John Roselius saying "Is there anyone out there who still isn't clear about what doing drugs does? OK, last time." Picks up an egg, "this is your brain", points to the skillet, "this is drugs," cracks egg and holds up skillet, "this is your brain on drugs. Any questions?" The short version was a hot skillet sizzling with oil, waiting on the stove accompanied by psychedelic sound effect — while a voiceover said, "OK, last time. This is drugs," indicating the skillet, not the egg. Then an egg broke open into the skillet and immediately began frying. Cue the voiceover, "This is your brain on drugs. Any questions?" There have been many spoofs of Ed McMahon telling people that they've won the Publisher's Clearing House sweepstakes. Ed actually advertised for short-lived rival American Family Publishers.

The famous Digital Piracy Is Evil PSA does not state "You Wouldn't Download a Car". It instead tells the viewer that "You Wouldn't Steal a Car", probably because people absolutely would download a car.

Many people think of McDonald's signs that boast X billion hamburgers sold. While some of the oldest signs did say that, the signs installed after about 1970 actually read "Over X Billion Served". Not only does this allow them to include complimentary burgers, "served" just sounds friendlier than "sold". By the mid-80s, new signs switched to the generic "Billions and Billions", then did away with the count at some point in the '90s.

Brooke Shields never said, "Nothing comes between me and my Calvins." She actually said, "Do you want to know what comes between me and my Calvins? Nothing."

Frank Gari-penned jingle "Turn to 3", written for Clevelands TV station WKYC, is often misquoted as "Turn to a friend, turn to 3," but the jingles closing lyrics are actually "Youve got a friend, turn to 3." WKYCs slogan prior to "Turn to 3" was "At Channel 3, Youve Got a Friend," also by Gari.

British Airways' slogan used by the airline between 1974 and 1983 was "We'll take more care of you," not "We'll take good care of you."

Anime & Manga

Comic Books

Spider-Man: The oft-quoted line "With great power comes great responsibility" is commonly attributed to Uncle Ben. However, the first appearance of the line was in fact just in a closing caption to the first story in Amazing Fantasy #15, not said by any actual character. And even then, it was actually phrased "...with great power there must also come — great responsibility!". In later retcons of Spider-Man's origin, and in retellings such as that of Sam Raimi's first movie, the line is shortened and attributed to Uncle Ben, so while that is what is now in-continuity, the line was not originally his.

Watchmen: One of Rorschach's most popular and repeated lines "Possible homosexual? Must investigate further.", in reference to Adrian Veidt, actually reads as "Possibly homosexual? Must remember to investigate further." This is likely because the former seems to fit in more with his Beige Prose speaking pattern. In-universe example: Dr. Milton Glass, a scientist who was present when Dr. Manhattan gained his powers, is quoted by the media as saying "The superman exists, and he's American". Dr. Glass' actual statement was "God exists, and he's American", and the sentiment behind it was more along the lines of awe and terror than the celebratory tone in which it is usually (mis)quoted. It is implied that the statement was deliberately misquoted to make it less alarming/potentially offensive.

The Flash: Eobard Thawne is popularly associated with the line "It was me, Barry!", used to memetically illustrate his sheer levels of pettiness. However, Thawne has never actually said the line verbatim - it's a paraphrase of a longer monologue.

Comic Strips

Calvin and Hobbes never had Calvin say "God put me on this earth to accomplish a certain number of things. Right now I am so far behind that I will never die." There's also a bootleg T-shirt of Calvin scowling and saying: "Every day, I'm forced to add another name to the list of people who piss me off." Obviously, this quote has never appeared in the strip.

Garfield: Many of the cat's most famous quips (such as "Big, fat, hairy deal!" or "I'm not overweight; I'm undertall") were either never said by him in the comic strip or were said once and then forgotten. Garfield fans remember them to this day only because the strip was aggressively licensed and merchandised almost from the beginning, and the quotes (or supposed quotes) were used repeatedly for greeting cards, joke books, etc. Likewise, "We're bachelors , baby" has been used fewer than 10 times in the course of six years.

, baby" has been used fewer than 10 times in the course of six years. One Pearls Before Swine strip had an in-universe version where the punchline was based on the iconic final line from Gone with the Wind. In addition to the Feghoot itself, Rat was aggravated with Stephen over misquoting it. Rat: First off, it's "Frankly, my dear", not "Frankly, Scarlett".

Stephen: Shhh...no one wil notice. First off, it's "Frankly, my dear", not "Frankly, Scarlett".Shhh...no one wil notice.

Fan Works

In The Cadanceverse, the oft-misquoted line from Congreve's The Mourning Bride is referenced. Vinyl Scratch, Element of Magic, mentions that "music soothes the savage beast." Octavia Philharmonica, Element of Honesty (and the most culturally-aware pony there) points out that the last word should be "breast". The Manehattanverse used to reference the same line, but it was removed in an update.

Films — Animation

Music

Pro Wrestling

"The Nature Boy" Buddy Rogers is credited with popularizing the Catch Phrase "It couldn't have happened to a nicer guy!" back in the 1940s. Problem was, what he actually said was: "To a nicer guy, it couldn't happen." The Yiddish sentence structure isn't a show business gag: Rogers really was Jewish.

One of the most famous lines in wrestling is Michael Buffer's "Lllllet's get ready to rumblllllllle!" While he has said that, and many times, he doesn't always say it that way. Occasionally, for example, it will be the far less famous "We are...ready to rumblllllllle!" note Which is the exact wording Buffer used in the 2000 David Arquette movie Ready to Rumble. Most quotesters and parodists also don't cite the entire line, which has a lot more impact: Buffer: Madison Square Garden...New York City...U.S.A.... Madison Square Garden...New York City...U.S.A.... Are...you...ready? ...Then for the thousands in attendance...for the millions watching at home...lllllet's", etc. [In recent years, he has begun substituting "for the millions watching around the world".]

Most quotesters and parodists also don't cite the entire line, which has a lot more impact: Damien Sandow has only used the phrase "Thank you for your irrelevant opinion" once in his career, but it seems the phrase has taken a life of its own among his fans.

Shawn Michaels didn't lose his smile, but was rather "looking for the smile that [I] lost."

Vince McMahon's reveal as the Higher Power of the Corporate Ministry is often quoted simply as "IT'S ME, AUSTIN! IT WAS ME ALL ALONG!" The more accurate quote is "IT'S ME, AUSTIN! IT'S ME, AUSTIN! IT WAS ME ALL ALONG, AUSTIN!"

Invoked word for word by Leva Bates during her match with Miss Natural at SHIMMER Volume 56, since Bates was Cosplaying as Spock, and the match was filled with Star Trek references.

with Miss Natural at SHIMMER Volume 56, since Bates was Cosplaying as Spock, and the match was filled with Star Trek references. Vince Russo didn't exactly say "If you want Lucha Libre note essentially Mexican style of professional wrestling , go to Japan!" during his infamous NWA:TNA interview with Mike Tenay. The full quote would be: "You want Lucha Libres (sic!), whatever you called them, go to...go to Japan, go to Mexico, you get all the Lucha Libres you want". However, putting the whole interview in perspective, one could argue the whole thing was Russo's brand "worked shoot", familiar to everyone who ever watched WCW, where he was supposed to play the bad guy for wrestling nerds. Is there a better way to make a nerd's blood boil than implying "lucha libres" originated from Japan? Also, as the leader of wrestling faction standing against wrestling tradition, it seems logical for an evil guy to insult Lucha Libre as part of the tradition. Naturally Russo succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, and the quote, usually incomplete with exclamation mark after Japan and without context, is guaranteed to pop up every time the word "Russo" is ushered near "smart" wrestling audience as proof of his total incompetence. Granted, it wasn't Russo's only controversy in wrestling world...

Radio

The popular phrase referring to a need for a speedy escape is "Time to get the hell out of Dodge!" - a reference to the long-running radio (and later TV) series Gunsmoke, which took place in Dodge City. Trouble is no one ever actually says those words over the course of the series. Occasionally, Marshal Dillon would instruct some bad guys to "get out of Dodge", but the phrase is never used as a suggestion among said bad guys themselves.

An Iconic Item for an entire genre: There was no such thing as a secret decoder ring premium for cereal boxes, old-time radio shows or anything else. The idea is a mashup of secret decoder badges (which weren't rings because it's hard to fit the alphabet on a ring) and secret compartment rings. note Rings with various functions were offered as premiums perhaps more than any other item. The Lone Ranger alone had several dozen rings, including an "atomic bomb ring"! did offer such rings as a form of nostalgia, including Ovaltine in 2000. This is partly just a matter of a misnomer, since a popular style of decoder was the cypher disk , consisting of one or more circular plates with letters printed around the circumference. These plates are occasionally described as rings. Here are pictures of the Ovaltine ◊ and Orphan Annie ◊ decoder rings.

did offer such rings as a form of nostalgia, including Ovaltine in 2000. One of the most quoted lines from the Dead Alewives D&D skit is "I cast magic missile at the darkness." Problem is, that's not actually the line; it's: DM: Why are you casting magic missile? There's nothing to attack here. Galstaf: I'm attacking the darkness!

Former cricket commentator Brian "Jonners" Johnson, of the BBC's Test Match Special, has never said "the bowler's Holding, the batsman's Willey"

Sports

Former NHL coach Jim Schoenfeld is often quoted as saying in a confrontation with referee Don Koharski, "Have another doughnut, you fat pig!" The actual quote is "Good, because you fell, you fat pig! Have another doughnut! Have another doughnut!", as Koharski had slipped on the floor during the confrontation but believed Schoenfeld had pushed him (he hadn't, hence the quote).

The definitive rallying cry among African Americans during The Vietnam War protesting the draft was "No VC [Viet Cong] ever called me "nigger"!" made famous by Muhammad Ali. He did not say that exact phrase. Here is the quote : My conscience wont let me go shoot my brother or some darker people, some poor, hungry people in the mud, for big, powerful America. And shoot them for what? They never called me nigger. They never lynched me. They didnt put no dogs on me. They didnt rob me of my nationality and rape and kill my mother and father. Why would I want toshoot them for what? I got to go shoot them, those little poor little black people, little babies and children, women. How can I shoot them poor people? Just take me to jail.

: Eric Cantona's post-kung fu kick statement was "When the seagulls follow trawler [sic], it's because they think sardines will be thrown into the sea. Thank you very much." Very often misquoted with "fish" in place of "sardines"

"Football isn't a matter of life or death, it's much more important than that." wasn't said by Bill Shankly, although the actual quote isn't too far off: "Some people believe football is a matter of life and death, I am very disappointed with that attitude. I can assure you it is much, much more important than that."

Howard Cosell is often quoted as saying "Ladies and gentlemen, the Bronx is burning" in reaction to an aerial shot of a five alarm fire in the Bronx during Game 2 of the 1977 World Series. The supposed quote was further popularized by its use as the title of a book and subsequent ESPN miniseries. However, while Cosell did comment on the fire during ABC's telecast of the game, saying that no one was injured as a result, he never actually said "The Bronx is burning".

Green Bay Packers coach Vince Lombardi never said, "Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing". The quote was actually from UCLA Bruins football coach Red Sanders. What Lombardi actually said was "Winning isn't everything. The will to win is the only thing." He often claimed he was misquoted.

The phrase "The frozen tundra of Lambeau Field" was never spoken by NFL Films narrator John Facenda; it comes from ESPN commentator Chris Berman's imitation of him.

Football announcer Andrés Cantor is mostly associated with his "GOOOOOOOOOALLL!" shout, but it actually originated from Ángel Fernández and Cantor just imitates it.

Though he's forever remembered for the quote "nice guys finish last" (even using it as the title of his autobiography), Leo Durocher apparently didn't use those exact words during the incident where it reputedly originated. As manager of the Brooklyn Dodgers he commented to reporters in 1946 that the archrival New York Giants were "the nicest guys in the world! And where are they? In seventh place!" (which was actually second-to-last in the league that year). Later reports changed this to the punchier "nice guys don't win pennants", which then evolved into the familiar form. A later book about misquotes was called Nice Guys Finish Seventh. note Incidentally, the Giants did in fact finish the 1946 season in last place.

that the archrival New York Giants were "the nicest guys in the world! And where are they? In seventh place!" (which was actually second-to-last in the league that year). Later reports changed this to the punchier "nice guys don't win pennants", which then evolved into the familiar form. A later book about misquotes was called Nice Guys Finish Seventh. "Say It Ain't So, Joe": Baseball legend Shoeless Joe Jackson denied that anyone said this to him during or after the Black Sox Scandal. note Baseball essayist Roger Angell called this an "engraved Insta-Sob punchline" in his review of Eight Men Out

The classic quote "Things look dark on Cameroon's bench", allegedly said by Swedish commentator Arne Hegerfors during the quarterfinals of the FIFA World Cup 1990, is most certainly made up. A lot of effort has been put into finding this quote by users on the Flashback forums, but nothing have come of it so far. It was likely made up by a journalist in 1995.

Tabletop Games

In Star Trek: The Game, one of the trivia questions is to name an episode in which Kirk said the exact phrase "Beam me up, Scotty." It is a trick question and if the player names an episode, the player's ship loses an engine.

The classic Dungeons & Dragons complainy forum post is "My hate of d02 know no limit" . Not "my hat of d02 know no limit".

. Not "my hat of d02 know no limit". The cry/chant of the Khorne worshipping Chaos Marines in Warhammer 40,000 is not "Kill! Maim! Burn!" Only Kharn (who, by the by, is crazy even by their standards, and will readily murder his allies) says it. The rest prefer "Blood for the Blood God!" Further muddied by the Chaos Marine squad in Dawn Of War having "Maim! Kill! Burn!" as one of their quotes.

The Yu-Gi-Oh! card game enforces this with a card called Question. The opponent is asked name the monster at the bottom of your graveyard. If they do not state the exact name written on the card, it is special-summoned.

Theater

Toys

Teen Talk Barbie (released 1992) was preloaded with 4 of 270 possible phrases, one of which was "Math class is tough!", not "Math is hard" or "Math is too hard, let's go shopping!" Only 1.5% of the dolls even said the phrase.

Video Games

Web Animation

Homestar Runner: Strong Sad never said "I don't like food anymore" or "Some animal died" either, despite their being two of his more quoted lines. The first one was in Strong Bad's imagination, and the second was an impression of him courtesy of Homestar respectively, though the second quote did become a Quote of the Week spoken by Strong Sad later on. Also, the real Strong Sad never said "I'm sad that I'm flying." That was The Cheat doing a bad impression of him. However, Strong Sad DID say "I'm sad that HE'S flying," referring to The Cheat on helium. One of the many recurring themes within the HSR fanbase is 1-up's pudding obsession when the only time he ever mentioned pudding was in the April Fools 'toon Under Construction. Not to mention Strong Bad "DELETING!" emails asking how he types with boxing gloves on; not only does he do that once (in an episode where that question isn't even the main focus), but in the one episode where it is the main focus, none of the multiple emails asking that question are deleted. The website BMUSed itself with the Peasant's Quest movie trailer. In the trailer, the blue knight says "You don't dress like a peasant... you don't smell like a peasant... and you're certainly not on fire like a peasant!" In the game, however, he says that Rather Dashing doesn't STINK like a peasant. Rather Dashing is also shown eating the meatball sub in the trailer, which isn't actually possible in the game. The Drive-Thru whale is sometimes quoted as saying "Sever your leg please, sir. It's the greatest day". It said "Sever your leg please, sir" and "Sever your leg, please. It's the greatest day", but not both sentences with the word "sir". Homsar has never said "I was raised by a cup of coffee". That was Strong Bad, doing an impression of Homsar. It doesn't help that one of the official Homsar tshirts did bear the slogan "Raised By A Cup Of Coffee". Homsar did however finally say the phrase in the 2017 Halloween Toon "Haunted Photo Booth", in a manner similar to backwards speech. It was later revealed, however, to be a [[Twin Peaks]] reference and not him actually saying it.

Though known as the Pungeon Master in fan works and even in the gag series RWBY Chibi and two games, Yang Xiao Long from RWBY has made a grand total of two puns (both in volume 2). The series is now up to volume 7.

A dialogue by Doc\O'Malley in Red vs. Blue regarding his gender being "Evil" never happened on the show. It cribbed from a meme and became memetic itself, to the point of being banned by the RVB subreddit.

Webcomics

Web Original

Western Animation