Void: Removed:
- The phrase "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow" , despite being seen as a Techno Babble Catch Phrase of the Third Doctor in Doctor Who, was only used once in his era of the show (although he reversed the polarity of other things quite a bit, and once "fused the controls to the neutron flow"). He repeated it when he reappeared in the 20th anniversary special. Ironically, the line was used by the Fifth Doctor more than the Third Doctor, and has been used a number of times by other Doctors, because it was seen as a Catch Phrase.
- More recently, the Tenth has lamented the fact that he's losing his touch at reversing polarities.
- Tegan's fake swear word "Rabbits!" is a similar case. She only said it twice in the 19 serials featuring her as a companion, yet it's remembered by viewers as her Catch Phrase and included in nearly every novel and short story she appears in (all written over a decade after the left the show).
...The description of the Trope clearly says it is about things which were NEVER said, not rarely said.
Danel: No, I think it counts, though it needs clarification - it's phrased later as an order: "Reverse the polarity of the neutron flow!". The one actual time he says something close to it, it's "I reversed the polarity of the neutron flow," to explain to the Master that things are about to get messy.
Ununnilium: Took out:
- The Biblical verse "The truth will set you free" is often used in interrogation settings or preceding a Sarcastic Confession, even though the "truth" referred to here is not the opposite of falsehood, but Jesus Christ, as in "The Way, the Truth, and the Life."
...because it's not a mis-quote, it was what was actually said, even if the way is used is different from its actual meaning. (And the latter is debatable; certainly, the common idiomatic use of it in English uses that meaning.)
Lale: Isn't that the same as the "Romeo and Juliet" and Robert Frost examples?
Ununnilium: That's true! Pulling those out, too:
Meanwhile, Richard III's "Now is the winter of our discontent" is in fact technically accurate, but is actually only half the quote; the line really says "Now is the winter of our discontent made glorious summer...", thus giving the line the
exact opposite meaning to what it is usually ascribed.
- Likewise, Robert Frost is often quoted as saying, "Good fences make good neighbors," in defense of physical or political barriers, overlooking the fact that the entire point of the poem that quote begins is to denounce that sentiment. This was mentioned in an episode of The West Wing; when the President's challenger in the election, a Republican Florida governor who isn't at all based on anyone, we swear (Television Without Pity renamed him from "Ritchie" to "Writchie"), has been taking advice from a "self-help guru," Donna goes to a session, brings back his book, and finds this quotation—used to encourage the importance of personal barriers.
- In the famous balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet, expect the writers to not realize that "Romeo, Romeo! wherefore art thou Romeo?" means "Why are you Romeo?" and not "Where are you, Romeo?".
EcliptorCalrissian
I think the entries involving slight misquotes of things that were actually said should be separated from things that were said once and somehow became seen as something said repeatedly.
Sniffnoy: Removed
because it's not an example.
Entity325:
- Vageta's popular line "IT'S OVER NINETHOUSAND!" In the origanal Japanese, it was eight-thousand.
Is this really applicable? The dub mistranslated it as Nine-Thousand, meaning the quote is accurate to something, just not the original Japanese.
Now that I look through it, I think this entry is rife with poor examples. I don't think most of the providers understood the definition of the entry.
Lale: Did the the
Star Trek Borg ever say, "Resistance is futile. You will be assimilated."? One of my dad's favorites, but I can't find it phrased that way (both phrases together) anywhere on the Internet.
HeartBurn Kid: I can remember them saying both those sentences, but I'm unsure if it ever appeared in one line like that.
Tyrfing I hope no one minds but I added a quote from Hamlet. It is misquote far more often than the example that was already given at least in my experience.
Big T: What about "Elementary, my dear Watson"? Does Holmes ever say this in the canonical works (by AC Doyle)?
- "A house divided against itself cannot stand." While Abraham Lincoln did say this as the opening line of his second most known speech, very few realize that he was quoting The Bible.
Ophicius: If he actually said it, it's not an example of this trope. It would fit in
Older Than They Think though.
Prfnoff: Oops. There is more than one film version of
Tarzan, the Ape Man; more than
two, in fact. Edited to clarify.
Prfnoff: Removed "all that glitters is not gold" (not really an example of this) to
Older Than They Think.
Prfnoff: Removed (again). Are these really quoted as from Shakespeare?
- The original line from The Merchant of Venice is "All that glisters is not gold".
- "Gild[ing] the lily": the quote is “To gild refined gold, to paint the lily”. (King John)
GAC:
Vincent van Gogh did not cut off his entire ear, only his earlobe.
This troper is confused as to what part of the ear can be cut
off (rather than
out) is
not the "lobe". (I had been under the impression until now that it referred to the entire outer ear.)
- One of TV's most famous quotes — "We were on a break!" from Friends — is sort of a misquote as in the breakup scene the words "on a break" do not appear. They appear a lot afterwards.
...er, so? They said it theirselves, "they appear a lot afterwards," and that's what people are quoting. What kind of idiot would think they were saying "we were on a break" before they started the break? That seems to be what it's implying. Mental.
I love TV Tropes. This however is possibly
the one page here that just bugs me. That's because it strays too far off of the point, esp. the "In Real Life" section. Too many mistakes where they bother the most.
My point: Why not agree to reduce internet information clutter, basically drop the section, and let e.g.
The Other Wiki,
WikiQuote
and
Snopes do their job, not trying to duplicate it and oftentimes fail?
Basic justification: TV / Media quotes are relatively easier to verify, given the source. In Real Life quotes, being harder to
actually verify, have a tendency to instead slip into repeating hearsay and widespread internet errors. No offence to the contributors of this section intended, that's just the nature of the problem.
Opinions?
Susan Davis: Took out
- Edmund Hillary's quote, "Because it was there," about climbing Mount Everest, was probably invented by a journalist.
...which was famously said by
George Mallory instead, in the 1920s, and he is well documented as having said it.
BritBllt: Removing this bit, hopefully once and for all...
- For the record, six times nine is actually fifty-four, not forty-two.
- Except in base 13, where 6 * 9 = 42
That whole base 13 thing was utterly
Jossed by Douglas Adams as some fans reading
way too much into the joke, and that he chose the number simply because he thought it sounded good: as he said in a BBC interview, "I may be a pretty sad case, but I don't write jokes in base 13". The popular idea that he actually suggested the base 13
Fan Wank is, in itself, a sort of
Beam Me Up Scotty. As for the line above it,
that's the joke.
