The Misquotes Episode

This is the first Five False Facts episode of Lemmings Don’t Leap. Each False Facts episode takes a quick look at five different but related facts. That’s facts with air quotes around it. 

For this episode, we’re going to look at historically famous misquotes, ranging from Marie Antoinette to Neil Armstrong, with a little Humphrey Bogart in the mix. 

Transcript

Welcome to the inaugural Five False Facts episode of Lemmings Don’t Leap, the podcast about things you probably know, but are likely wrong about.

I’m your host, Allan Britnell.

Each False Facts episode takes a quick look at five different but related facts. That’s facts with air quotes around it. 

For this episode, we’re going to look at famous misquotes, starting in late-1700s revolutionary France with Marie Antoinette. 

Most people know a few basic facts about Marie Antoinette, including that she was the Queen of France during the French Revolution, and that, as a result, she ultimately lost her head, literally, to a guillotine. 

But she’s probably best known for a cruel quote she once uttered. When she learned that many of her subjects had no bread to eat, she infamously said, “Let them eat cake.” That line has gone down in history as the epitome of aristocratic arrogance. 

Except, she never said it. For one, as the Queen of France, she would have said something like: 
“Qu’ils mangent de la brioche.” 

But that exact line had been around since at least 1765, when Jean-Jacques Rousseau attributed it to a “great princess” in his autobiographical Confessions series. Young Marie was only 9 at the time and still living in her native Austria. “Sollen sie halt Kuchen essen” anyone? That’s the most-common German variation on the cake line. 

She’s not the only person the quote has been attributed to, including her predecessor Marie-Theresa of Spain, wife of King Louis the 14th, a century earlier, and another variation attached to an unnamed 16th-century German noblewoman. 

Next, we’ll cast our eyes on the moon. The recent Artemis 2 expedition has fuelled renewed interest in earlier NASA missions to the moon, including the first time a human being, Neil Armstrong, stepped on the lunar surface on July 20, 1969.

[Audio clip from the moon landing.]

Truly poetic. Except, a glitch in the audio feed introduced a typo. Armstrong actually said, “That’s one small step for A man, one giant leap for mankind.” The “a man” being him as he stepped out onto the moon on behalf of all mankind. 

But by the time the news of the error made its way back to Earth, the line was already iconic. Fun fact: Some people think that, in the heat of the moment, Armstrong might have accidentally left the word “a” out of his prepared speech. Detailed analysis has failed to definitively prove it one way or another. A men. 

Long before the Americans sent humans to the moon, they were good at making out-of-this-world origin stories about the country and its iconic founders. 

Take President George Washington. While no audio exists from childhood, it’s a widely known fact that he uttered the line, “I can not tell a lie,” after he was caught chopping down a cherry tree. But, if you’re catching on to theme, he almost certainly didn’t say or do either.  

Let’s get Mr. Peabody’s sidekick Sherman to explain. 

[Audio clip from Mr. Peabody and Sherman.]

The cherry tree myth first appeared in the fifth edition of a biography by Mason Locke Weems called, The Life and Memorable Actions of George Washington, that landed on shelves in 1806.

Stepping away from the world of political propaganda, misquotes from famous works of fiction should be easy to debunk since you can look up the line – or its lack of existence – in the source material. 

[Audio clip from The Return of Sherlock Holmes.]

That’s probably the most famous quote attributed to the crime-solving sleuth Sherlock Holmes. 

But as numerous people have reported, Sherlock never says, “Elementary, my dear Watson” in any of the four novels or 56 short stories he appears in. 

It may have first appeared in a stage production of one of the stories, but the iconic line is probably best-known from the 1929 film, The Return of Sherlock Holmes. That was actor Clive Brook who uttered the line in the clip I just played. 

And now for my all-time favourite misquote: “Play it again Sam,” from the iconic film, Casablanca. 

The 1942 film Casablanca is regarded by many, including me, as one of the greatest movies ever made. It’s got it all: Humphry Bogart and Ingrid Bergman, events taking place in 1930s Paris and World War Two-era Morocco, Nazis, spies, and resistance fighters, a doomed romance, an unexpected friendship and timeless musical performances by Dooley Wilson.

But if Casablanca is remembered for anything, it’s the most famous line of dialogue from the script: 
“Play it again, Sam.” 

Except for the fact that no one in the movie ever says that line. 

The closest anyone comes is Ingrid Bergman’s character, Ilsa Lund, who utters: 

[Audio clip from Casablanca.]

Bogey, playing Rick Baine, owner of Rick’s Café Americain, comes close a couple of times: 

First, as he saunters into his namesake bar and he recognizes the song, then his former flame: 

[Audio clip from Casablanca.]

Later, after a few too many drinks, he storms back into Rick’s and says: 

[Audio clip from Casablanca.]

Somehow, this unsaid line got stuck in the collective consciousness. 

For example, Woody Allen used it as the title for his 1969 Broadway play, “Play it Again, Sam,” which was turned into the 1972 movie with the same name, about a film critic who was obsessed with the Bogey movie. 

There’s also a Belgian record label founded in the 1980s called PIAS Recordings, short for Play it Again Sam, and at least a couple of songs are titled after the unsaid line. 

To wrap up, and you can quote me on this: History is riddled with fake and falsely attributed quotes. 

Did you like this episode? If so, find others, along with transcripts and show notes, at Lemmings Don’t Leap dot Buzzsprout dot com, or wherever you get your podcasts. 

Share your comments, critiques and suggestions for future episodes at LemmingsDontLeapPodcast@gmail.com.

Show Notes

Marie Antoinette 

There are countless sources that squash the cake episode, including this Wikipedia article, the one in the encyclopedia Britannica, and another on History.com  

The Moon landing 

Without even stepping into “the moon landing was faked” territory, Wikipedia, Snopes, and 

NASA itself also address the missing letter A. Hear the audio for yourself here. 

George Washington 

Not willing to take Sherman’s word for it that Washington was incapable of lying? The website for his home, Mount Vernon, has a page on the “Cherry Tree Myth,” as does the U.S. National Parks Service, and our trusty encyclopedia Britannica.  

Sherlock Holmes 

By now, it should be fairly elementary that Holmes didn’t say his most famous line, in print anyway. But here are some more articles outlining the caper from Dictionary.com, Snopes and Ripley’s. And, if you’re interested, here’s the complete canon of Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. 

Casablanca 

Here’s the Wiki page about the movie Casablanca, and the IMDB page for Woody Allen’s Play it Again, Sam. You can watch the bits of dialogue in Casablanca that come close on this YouTube page. 

This Wiki page has the story of PIAS Recordings. 

The two musical performances I’ve found so far titled “Play it Again, Sam” are a 2005 song by Atlanta, Georgia-based indie rock band, Manchester Orchestra, Play it Again Sam! You Don’t have any feathers and this one from 1989 by a guy named Milton Babbit.