Beam Me Up Scotty / Western Animation

• Adventures of Sonic the Hedgehog: "Pingas" is often associated with this face, despite the fact that Robotnik 1) has a completely different face and 2) is looking straight ahead when he says that line. In the frame associated with the meme, he is actually saying "It's an all-nuclear-forged steel building", a considerably less silly-sounding sentence.
• Animaniacs:
  • Yakko Warner never said "Naughty Mozart, potty-mouth!" while washing Beethoven's mouth out with soap. He says nothing when washing his mouth, but he does address Beethoven as "Mr. Potty Mouth" a couple of times. There's also a semi-example of people quoting Yakko's most famous line ("Goodnight, everybody!") correctly, but getting the pacing and the emphasis wrong. Only once did Yakko actually say it as "Good night, everybody!": in the skit for "The Planets", after Wakko points out to him that "You forgot Uranus." In all other cases, Yakko would break the fourth wall, blow an audible kiss ("Mmmwah!") to the audience, and smarmily state "Goodnight, everybody!"
  • Wakko also never said "Where's the potty? I'm gonna be sick..." in "Potty Emergency", although many people think he did. He did ask to go "to the potty" and follow it up with "I'm gonna be carsick!" in "The Carpool," though, which probably led to people conflating the two in their memories. Also, some people misquote his "I have to potty!" line from the same episode as "I still have to potty!", when the line in question actually comes from a Cartoon Network promo.
• Archer: The memetic line "Do you want ants? Because that's how you get ants," was used in the first episode. However, the meme uses Sterling Archer's face, when that exact wording was used by Mallory Archer as a Call-Back to Sterling's earlier line ("Oh, is that what you want? Because that's how you get ants!")
• Avatar: The Last Airbender:
  • In the fandom, Avatar Roku is often quoted as saying, "The Avatar always gets the girl" when Aang observes that he married the "girl who didn't even know [he was] alive." What Roku actually says is "When love is real, it finds a way. And being the Avatar doesn't hurt your chances with the ladies, either."
  • The phrase "There is no war in Ba Sing Se" is often associated with a certain screenshot of Joo Dee. However, it's never said by Joo Dee and is actually said by a Dai Li agent while brainwashing Jet.
• Pablo never says "Why aren't we alive?" in The Backyardigans episode "It's Great To Be A Ghost". The image associated with the quote is actually of him saying "Let's see what kind of spooky stuff is inside the haunted house!". In a variation of this case, in Latin America, due to a misinterpretation of the "Pablo" at the beginning of the text, this quote is associated with Tyrone as "Pablo, why aren't we alive?".
• Beast Wars: While Waspinator does say his infamous "Why universe hate Waspinator?" line, he only does so once in the entire series and it's definitely not his Character Catchphrase, as many people seem to believe. Similarly, he's only said his other "catchphrase" ("Waspinator has plans") a grand total of twice in the whole canon, with the second time being a Call-Back to the first.
• Chip 'n Dale: Rescue Rangers: "Should work with no problems" is a quote fans often attribute to Gadget. In actuality, this is an amalgam of two different quotes: "Should work", indicating that the inventress was not sure if her latest gizmo would work, and "No problems". More often than not, after the utterance of one of those the invention in question would spectacularly fall apart right after activation, which was a Running Gag in the series.
• Dora the Explorer: Many parodies have Dora begin each show with "Hola! Soy Dora!". While she has said it in a few later episodes, she usually doesn't say it most of the time. She usually just says "Hola".
• Doug: A common Internet joke is the phrase "Very expensive, Douglas!". In actuality, Mr. Dink didn't say "Very expensive, Douglas", just "Very expensive" by itself. The "Douglas" was added to make it more clear that it's a Doug reference.
• While Rolf in Ed, Edd n Eddy does indeed say "life has many doors, Ed Boy" he does not actually say this line in the one scene when he peers from beyond the 4th wall, which is usually what the quote is paired with. He says the line earlier in the episode, and only references it in the 4th wall scene, where he says "Hello Ed Boys. Many doors, yes?"
• The Fairly OddParents!: Timmy Turner is known for saying "What Could Possibly Go Wrong?" before any disaster happens, but he actually says this only in one episode, where he becomes the star of a Sitcom and the Network Executive wants him to have a Character Catchphrase.
• Family Guy:
  • Two episodes spoof Apache Chief from the Super Friends shouting "Apache Chief! Ee! Nay! Chuck!" to activate his powers. The phrase he actually used to activate his powers is "Inukshuk" (ee-nook-shook), an Inuit phrase that as an adjective means "in man shape", and as a noun refers to a stone structure in roughly human form used as a sort of northern Kilroy Was Here (also indicating a relatively safe harbour). He doesn't pause as distinctly between the first two syllables of his phrase as Family Guy suggests, and never says his own name before doing it.
  • Whenever people parody the cutaways, they often include the lead-in "You think that's bad," even though the line was never used in the show to launch a cutaway.^note The actual lead-in is usually along the lines of "This is worse than/just like the time that..." The misattributed lead-in actually originated in the South Park parody.
  • Many people believe Peter's catchphrase is "Holy crap, Lois!". This is actually a conflation of two catchphrases: "Holy crap!" and "Hey Lois, remember that time we...?"; only two episodes combine them like this, Season 3's "From Method to Madness" (where it was said by Stewie, mimicking his father), and Season 12's "Finders Keepers", where Peter does actually say it.
  • Merchandise says that "Woah, ass ahoy!" is Brian's catchphrase when he only says it in the first episode.
• The Flintstones: In Italy, many remember Fred Flintstone having as his own catchphrase "Wilma! Dammi la clava!"^note "Wilma! Give me the club!" He never said that in the show itself, but only in a series of bug repellent commercials made in Italy. The line was anyway used in the Italian dub of the first live-action movie as Fred's first reaction when Wilma's mother comes to visit.
• Futurama:
  • Although he's commonly associated with the meme, Fry never actually said "I see what you did there" or "Not sure if X or Y". He was actually silent when he made the expression used in the meme. However, the subtitle for the opening of "The Bots and the Bees" was a picture of the "Not sure if X or Y" meme.
  • Zoidberg has never said "Why not Zoidberg?" in the series. He did, however, say it in an advert for the Futurama DVD box set ("If you're going to spend your cash on something, why not Zoidberg?"). During one convention where the script for The Lord of the Rings was read by the voice cast, as they were discussing who should play Gollum, Billy West suggested in Zoidberg's voice "Why not Zoidberg?". He does say "why not?" frequently, as well as his own name, but not one after the other.
• Garfield and Friends: Contrary to the Memetic Mutation, Garfield never actually says "Huh. I wonder who that's for" when confronted by a sign prohibiting his entry into a store. Ironically, his line in that scene indicates that he knows exactly who that sign's for.
  Garfield: Hmm...I'm gonna need one of my brilliant disguises if I'm gonna get in there this time.
• Go Jetters: Most people often think the Aircraft Xuil pilots is called the "Broomster", so people think that Xuli says "To the Broomster!" but it's actually called the "Vroomster", therefore, the actual line is "To the Vroomster!". this is probably due to Xuli's accent.
• Goof Troop never had Goofy say "She's up there in the stars" about Max's Missing Mom, despite urban legend claiming he once said it. Max's mom has never been mentioned in any official media.
• It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown: Charlie Brown's famous "I Got a Rock" line has often been misquoted as "All I got was a rock."
• Invincible:
  • This show has an odd one. In the original comic, Omni-Man tells the titular hero "Think, Mark! Think!" after delivering a brutal Curb-Stomp Battle and trying to get him to understand he shouldn't care for humanity. In the cartoon, he just says "Think, Mark!", but many people tend to fall back to the former, either as they knew of the comic or accidental misquotes.
  • Omni-Man says "That's the neat thing, you don't" in response to Mark asking him how to breathe in space. It's often misqouted as "That's the neat part, you don't."
• In The Jetsons: George Jetson never actually says, "Jane, how do you stop this crazy thing?!," but it is an amalgam of two different similar quotes: "Jane, stop this crazy thing!" and "How do you stop this thing?"
• KaBlam!: The show has been associated with a certain quote. It starts with Henry going, "June, will you help me?", and June replying, "And I would do that why!?". It was never used in the show, though it was used in a few advertisements.
• Kim Possible: Wade never claimed that one day everybody would be working from their own bedrooms, no matter what Kim's voice actor, Christy Carlson Romano retweets. It was a meme created during the pandemic to make it seem that way.
• Looney Tunes: And Call Him "George" wasn't actually said word-for-word the first time Hugo the Abominable Snowman appears in the short "The Abominable Snow Rabbit". In fact, it was one of the first things Hugo said when he started squeezing Bugs and Daffy, because the original joke was how long it went on for:
  Hugo: (Picks up and starts squeezing Daffy) Just what I always wanted, my own little bunny rabbit! I will name him George, and I will hug him and pet him and squeeze him...
  Daffy: (Complete deadpan even though he should have trouble breathing) I'm not a bunny rabbit.
  Hugo: ...and pat him and pet him and...
  Daffy: (Still deadpan) You're hurting me. Put me down, please.
  Hugo: (Squeezing Daffy into a ball) ...and rub him and caress him and—
  Daffy: (At the top of his lungs) I AIN'T NO BUNNY RABBIT!!
  • There has been articles about how Bugs Bunny called Elmer Fudd a "nimrod", making it seem like he used it all the time, but Bugs only used it once and it was in reference to Yosemite Sam in the end of "Rabbit Every Monday", where Bugs said "I couldn't do that to the little nimrod." However, there was an earlier cartoon where Elmer was called a "nimrod"...by Daffy Duck, in "What Makes Daffy Duck".
  • The Road Runner's "Beep-Beep" is just as often quoted as "Meep-Meep" due to how it sounds phonetically.
  • In The Dover Boys Dan Backslide does say "Confound those Dover Boys!" and "They drive me to drink!", but not one after the other.
• The Loud House: Some people think that Fenton the singing toy fox from "The Crying Dame" sings, "Come on, baby, don't you cry". It's actually "Cheer up, baby, don't you cry."
• Magic Adventures of Mumfie:
  • Many people think that Mumfie the elephant said "Occupation: Elephant!" when he didn't know what "occupation" meant. They are half correct-the Secretary of Night said "Occupation?" and Mumfie said "Elephant!", not both words at the same time.
  • A Kids First! review of the "A Fishy Tale" VHS tape BMG put out of the show thought that the bird who lives in the woods near Mumfie's house asked Mumfie and Scarecrow "Why is the cloud sad?" in the episode "The Lonely Cloud". The actual question the bird asked them was "Why is your friend sad?".
• Masters of the Universe: The villainous Skeletor is attributed to making a "Nyeah!" sound. While his voice is indeed oddly nasally, he never utters such a sound in the original series. The "Nyeah!" instead comes from the famous singing He-Man video.
• My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic:
  • The background pony dubbed "Derpy Hooves" is famously associated with muffins. However, her "line" is questionable, as she is only one figure in a background crowd when the line is said and two other ponies have the same mouth flap at the same time. Additionally, she never delivered any mail in the show despite her being popularly considered a mailwoman in the fandom, likely due to a scene in "Feeling Pinkie Keen" in which Derpy assists in unloading a flying delivery cart with disastrous results. This was eventually reconciled when "Slice of Life" showed her as a mailmare with a thing for muffins.
  • Many believe that "20% cooler" and "ten seconds flat" are Rainbow Dash's catchphrases, but she only said each phrase once all the way back in the first season (she said "ten seconds flat" in the very first episode, and she said "20% cooler" in "Suited for Success"). Later episodes and merchandise occasionally alluded to the phrases, but this was long after people assumed they were her catchphrases and was more due to fandom popularity.
  • A review of Friendship is Magic claimed that Applejack said "How do you like them apples?" in "The Best Night Ever", when it was actually in "Applebuck Season".
  • Minor compared to the other examples, but Tirek's line "Is this meant to be humorous?" in "Twilight's Kingdom – Part 2" is commonly quoted as "Is this supposed to be humorous?"
  • The phrase "love and tolerate" was never once uttered on the show. That was just a joke passed around forums and the like. However, it was used in the song "My Little Pony Friends", which had originally been written as the end title for the first Equestria Girls movie ("A Friend For Life" would ultimately be used instead) and was eventually released on Hasbro's YouTube page in August 2014.
• Nina Needs to Go!: People think Nina says, "Can't wait, can't wait, can't wait!" when she has to pee. She only says "Can't wait!" one time in the mall episode, not three consecutive times.
• Phineas and Ferb: Doofenshmirtz's full If I Had a Nickel... quote in Phineas and Ferb The Movie: Across the 2nd Dimension is "If I had a nickel for every time I was doomed by a puppet, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice, right?" The meme version of the phrase typically omits the last word.
• The Powerpuff Girls: People often associate the Powerpuff Girls with the phrase "Girl Power!" when in actuality they never say this. This is lampshaded in an episode where Professor Utonium's roommate clones them. One of them says "Girl Power!" on TV, and the Professor says, "Since when do you ever say girl power?" Buttercup replies nervously with "Uh, yeah we say it all the time". However, there has been a Rowdyruff Boys vs. Powerpuff Girls game on the Cartoon Network website for some time, which uses the phrase "Girl Power!" whenever the girls have the upper hand.
• Rugrats: Due to a certain image◊ circulating the Internet, many fans believe that there's a scene in "Grandpa's Bad Bug" where Grandpa talks about playing Russian Roulette. The actual dialogue was just Grandpa telling Stu and Didi that he was sick, Didi offers to take him to the doctor but he tells her he just wants to sleep it off. The dialogue in the aforementioned image is lifted from an episode of King of the Hill.
• Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!:
  • No villain ever said, "And I would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for those meddling kids." This is a pastiche of various quotes (most called them "meddlers", not "meddling kids"), and many villains said nothing as they were carried off. However, they do say this in some future series. Additionally, while the Scooby Doo gang (usually Velma or Fred) did do a lot of mask-removing, this was almost never referred to as "unmasking" on the series. Likely, an advertiser used it because of the wordplay and people thought it was an actual term used on the show.
  • "Old Man Jenkins" has become the name to refer to the common villain under the mask. While the original series had an old man named Mr. Jenkins, he wasn't a mask-wearing villain, he was an amusement park caretaker who built Charlie the Robot as an assistant, but a programming glitch caused the robot to go haywire.
• The Simpsons:
  • In "Radioactive Man", during the acid flood segment, a line given by Rainier Wolfcastle is often falsely quoted as "The goggles, they do nothing!", when the actual line is "My eyes! The Goggles Do Nothing!"
  • "Can't sleep, clown'll eat me" is misquoted in many ways, such as "Can't sleep, the clowns will eat me", which makes no sense given that Bart is referring to a specific clown — i.e., the one Homer shaped Bart's bed into. This is probably due to an Alice Cooper song by that name: "Can't Sleep, Clowns Will Eat Me".
  • Bart only said "Cowabunga!" four times in the series. Once in "Bart Gets an F", the Season 11 episode "Behind the Laughter", which is a parody episode where during the rehearsal (the premise being the Simpsons are real people, acting out the show we usually see; though upon cutting, Bart states he has never said those words in his life, which even at the time was untrue), the ending in "The Great Money Caper" and the first segment of "Treehouse of Horror XVI".^note Though the line also appears in the game Bart's Nightmare. "Cowabunga!" originated on Howdy Doody in the 1950s and its common usage was popularized by 1960s surfer culture. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the characters you were most likely to hear use the phrase were actually the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, but some media still thinks "Cowabunga!" is Bart's catchphrase.
  • A lot of merchandise from the early '90s had a tendency to elevate random quotes into catchphrases. "Eat my shorts!" was nigh-on ubiquitous in Bart-focused merch despite Bart saying it a grand total of two times in the first five seasons.
  • The "You don't win friends with salad" chant is commonly changed to "You can't make friends with salad'.
  • Homer is often quoted as having said "But Marge, what if we chose the wrong religion? in "Homer the Heretic". He asked "What if we picked the wrong religion?", no "But Marge".
  • Jasper Beardly has been given the catchphrase "That's a paddlin'" despite only saying it in one episode.
  • Poochie is often quoting as having said "I must go. My planet needs me." in "The Itchy and Scratchy and Poochie Show". He actually says, "I have to go now." Some people also misquote the line as "I have to go now. My people need me."
  • In the same episode, the nitpicking fan's comment "Boy, I really hope somebody got fired for that blunder," is often misquoted as "Boy, I sure hope somebody got fired for that blunder."
  • In Season 2's "Dead Putting Society", Lisa tells Bart to "embrace nothingness", which somehow wound up being her profile quote in the arcade game.
  • The memetic phrase "gosh diddly darn it" is sometimes falsely attributed to Ned Flanders. Ned has said gosh, diddly, and darn it many times, but never all three words in a row. The closest he ever got was "I just can't dang-darn-diddly-darn-dang-ding-dong-diddly-darned do it".
  • Bart's "You can actually pinpoint the second his heart rips in half" is sometimes misquoted as "You can actually pinpoint the exact moment his heart breaks in half".
  • "Won't somebody please think of the children?" is seen as Helen Lovejoy's catchphrase, but she only says the line in two different episodes. In one Season 9 episode, Moe subverts expectations by saying the line instead of Helen, who is right next to him. It isn't referenced again until Season 24, where Helen herself subverts the line by saying, "Won't somebody please blame the children?" in "Pulpit Friction".
  • Due to a popular meme, Principal Skinner is quoted as saying "Am I out of touch? No, it's the children who are wrong". The line is mostly accurate but it's missing a word; the line is "Am I so out of touch?".
  • The image of Skinner describing things as "pathetic" is taken from the Season 1 episode "Bart the Genius". However, he doesn't say this during this particular scene. In fact, he doesn't say anything at all in that shot. The "pathetic" is a reference to a scene from End of Evangelion, where Asuka says the line while holding a similar pose◊.
  • The line "Stop, stop! He's already dead!" is sometimes mistakenly attributed to Ralph. In the actual scene (from "Homie the Clown"), it's delivered by an unnamed kid in the audience who is utterly horrified at Homer (as Krusty) attacking the Krusty Burglar. However, the kid does sound exactly like Ralph, being voiced by Nancy Cartwright in an identical manner.
  • In the Season 8 episode "In Marge We Trust" there's a scene where Marge tells the Sea Captain that he has to accept that his Game Boy is gone, as it's at the bottom of the ocean. The Sea Captain doesn't say "Yarrr. I'll miss my Squirtle." The episode first aired in April 1997, and Pokémon Red and Blue wouldn't be released in the United States until September 1998. Instead, he merely says "Aye, aye... aye".
• South Park:
  • Cartman's line "No, Kitty! That's a bad Kitty!" is widely thought to have originated in the premiere episode "Cartman Gets an Anal Probe". He actually says this in the Season 1 finale "Cartman's Mom is a Dirty Slut" twice. His lines to Kitty in the premiere, aside from telling Kitty to get away from his food, are "No, Kitty! You bad Kitty!" and "No, Kitty, this is my pot pie! Bad Kitty!"
  • The Underpants Gnomes' plan is often given as "Stage 1 [xxx], Stage 2 ?????, Stage 3 Profit!" Their actual outline was:
    Phase 1 - Collect underpants [the word "Phase", not "Stage"]
    Phase 2 - ? [only one question mark]
    Phase 3 - Profit [no exclamation mark]
  • An Apples to Apples box set once listed Stan and Kyle's catchphrase as, "Oh my God! We killed Kenny!" instead of, "Oh my God, they killed Kenny!" Although, to be fair, they did say that on two occasions when they themselves killed Kenny ("Yep, we're bastards").
• SpongeBob SquarePants:
  • In the episode "As Seen on TV", many sources claim that when SpongeBob sticks his nose out of the ground, Mr. Krabs replies with "Please tell me that is your nose." While SpongeBob was no stranger to jokes like this, in actuality, he simply asks "What are you doing, lad?"
  • Some people have quoted a conversation between SpongeBob and Patrick where SpongeBob exclaims "Patrick, you're a genius" and Patrick remarks that he gets called that a lot (called "Patrick", not "a genius"). While SpongeBob has exclaimed "Patrick, you're a genius" in "Missing Identity", "Squidtastic Voyage" and "Fungus Among Us", plus saying "Patrick, your genius is showing" in "Texas", Patrick never responds with "Yeah, I get called that a lot" in the show (in fact, he doesn't reply with anything in those three episodes). A similar joke does appear in "Porous Pockets".
    SpongeBob: Good idea coming here, Patrick.
    Patrick: That's my specialty.
    SpongeBob: Having good ideas?
    Patrick: No, being called Patrick.
  • A supposedly inspirational quote about SpongeBob and Patrick's friendship also circulated online, but they never said anything remotely similar in the actual show. To the point of being used ironically.
    SpongeBob: What if I break your trust someday?
    Patrick: Trusting you is my decision, proving me wrong is your choice.
  • Squidward's line "How do we tell him?" (referring to SpongeBob) from "Dying for Pie" is associated by memes with the image of Mr. Krabs pointing at SpongeBob instead of the frame where Squidward says it several seconds prior, resulting in people misattributing the line to Mr. Krabs.
• Thomas & Friends:
  • One line of the limerick in "The Sad Story of Henry" is often misquoted as "He went into a tunnel, squeaked through his funnel, and wouldn't come out again". The actual line uses "it" instead of "he".
  • The infamous "Shut up! It's not funny!" line from "Break Van" is paraphrased. The full line is "'Shut up!' said James, 'It's not funny!'".
  • Thomas, or any other character for that matter, never said "I'm a really useful engine!", other characters just called him that. James often called himself "a really splendid engine", though.
  • In "Thomas and the Rumours," the line is not "The Fat Controller laughed. 'You are wrong.'" The actual quote is, "The Fat Controller laughed. "'Well, the engines are wrong and you shouldn't listen to rumours, Thomas.'"
  • Similarly, in "Lady Hatt's Birthday Party," the line "Thomas had never seen The Fat Controller in such a mess," is often shortened to "Thomas had never seen such a mess."
• The Three Little Pigs: The song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?" doesn't end with the words "not three little pigs," or "Tra la la la la." The last line is just straight instrumental, played on Fiddler Pig and Fifer Pig's namesake instruments. In later cartoons, the pigs did elaborate the lyrics a bit, once ending with a humorously drawn-out "He's a great big sissy!"
• The Total Drama meme in which Chris says "Alright campers, I heard from an anonymous source that SOMEone is [doing blank]. Not. Cool. Dudes." is not an actual line of dialogue in the show. The screencap commonly used alongside the quote is from the World Tour episode "Broadway, Baby!" when Chris yells at Sierra to "zip it" about his embarrassing past. This makes the quote even less accurate in spirit, since the contestants are not called "campers" in World Tour.

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