most examples are pointless: Beam Me Up Scotty

This trope seems to be made up of a few type of examples. A few are misattributed quotes, or quotes where where new meaning is introduced in the quote, but have none-the-less become memes. A good example would be, "Elementary my dear Watson."

The other ones, are where a few people take a quote that might be a shortened version of what a character says, possibly from a trailer. What the hell is the difference between "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!" and "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore." People recall thing from memory by piecing different bits of information together. People also sit in chairs.

I think it should also be either YMMV or Trivia.

Yeah, it definitly belongs in the trivia section. But trivia shouldn't mean that anything goes. Most of the examples are beyond trivia. Does anyone care if someone talks about "fine leather" when the person originally said "soft leather"?

So this page boils down to "People sometimes misremember lines from a work". Seriously, how is that a trope?

The thing is, sometimes misrememebered lines have become so frequently misquoted in a certain way that the misquote is more widely associated with the original work than the correct quote. So, while it may not be a writing device, it is something of an Audience Reaction.

I agree with it being Trivia or maybe YMMV, but the basic phenomena it describes is more than just "one person one time misquoting something".

What the hell is the difference between "I don't think we're in Kansas anymore!" and "Toto, I've a feeling we're not in Kansas anymore."

Actually this one is one the same level of memetic misquoting as the "Elementary my dear Watson" because a whole lot of works (not just the fandom of the movie) pay homage to that line by using the prior form instead of the way it was actually phrased.

Both quotes obviously convey disorientation, and reveal that she's in an unfamiliar place. The language also isn't that different. And where is this incorrect quote used?

The other example, is from a line that bears little resemblance to anything written by Doyle. I'm not saying that this is a bad article, I'm saying that a lot of the examples need to go.

What about playing with this trope? Like a fictional character being overly pedantic about anothers misquotes?

That would be a lampshade. Playing with would be correctly quoting another work's misquote of the original.

I'm in favor of cutting most (but not all) of the examples.

I added it to trivia.

As far as I understand it, the trope is for misquotes that become so ingrained into the public conciousness that upon hearing them they instantly think of that show, even though that specific line was never once uttered in said serious. Hence the trope name; people who hear it will instantly think of Star Trek even though the line is never said in the entire series.

Correct. Which is trivia, because there's no narrative purpose.

It's actually an audience reaction, not trivia.

Thank you.

I just thought that because if $quote != $original then it's a case of Beam Me Up, Scotty!, elseif $quote == $original then it definitely doesn't belong there. Where's the mileage to be varied?

My guess: Not every person will get all these quotes/lines of dialogue/etc. incorrect (or incorrectly attribute quotes to the sources named), just like how not every person will confuse Captain Marvel for Shazam.

Since most people don't know that the line was even an example of the trope, I suggest a rename.

We should probably get a multipart crowner here. I've seen people promote trivia, not trivia, audience reaction, cutlist, examplectomy, rename, and other things. We appear to be agreed that there's something wrong here, but we're not agreed on what.

I Never Said That could work as a name.

So are we going to do anything here?

No, because that name doesn't convey what the trope is about. Hell that name itself is worse than the current one because it's vague enough to be describing a dozen different tropes or so.

I still say stick with this example because the line has bled over into public conciousness so even someone who has never seen Star Trek instantly regonises it, which is the point of the page.

The line has bled into public consciousness so much that most people don't even know it's an example of the trope.

As a sidenote, is it even an example anymore? The line was used as a deliberate Fandom Nod, apparently making it not an example, so a generic name would prevent this from happening again. I Never Said That is not a very good generic name.

I'm not aware of this.

And I can't find any reference anywhere on the wiki where Fandom Nod and the phrase "Beam me up, Scotty" are mentioned in the same breath, which could lend this any support. They're certainly not mentioned together on any pages related to Star Trek.

As far as I remember, the closest any Star Trek work with the original cast/characters came to using that phrase was "Scotty, beam us up", from Star Trek IV The Voyage Home.

edited 7th Apr '12 11:10:17 AM by SeanMurrayI

"I Never Said That" is a horrible name because it resembles a line of dialogue without context; it could be associated with Exact Words, I Lied, etc....

Memetic Misquote?