Historical Events  Movies
ET

Alternate:
ET phone home

Current:
ET home phone

When ET first learns to speak: Swapped the famous line around?

Is the Mass Memory Discrepancy Effect at work in the famous Spielberg movie ET?

Some are saying when our little green friend first learned to speak, he actually said "ET home phone" and not the line everyone knows, "ET phone home".

However, of all the MMDE's being reported, this has probably the clearest explanation yet.

The line is swapped round once, in the movie, the first time he says it. From then on, the order is correct and the way everyone remembers it. Furthermore, it is only said the correct ("phone home") way in the trailers, which will also play a large part in what people remember about the movie.

The Misrepresented Mandela Effect

There are many people who are dismissing this Mandela effect because they think it is just saying that ET never says "phone home" at all. That's not correct. The ME is that the first time ET learns to speak he says "phone home". and does not swap it round just the once, that time, in the entire movie, wheras now it is seen that he does swap the words round.

This isn't the only ME related to ET. Another is the confusion regarding the end scene, when ET is leaving and tells Elliot he'll be "right here", but causes confusion when some people remember it being his head and other remember it being his heart.

"ET Phone Home" has become a famous cliche in the years since the movie, and referred to in popular culture and parodies many times. It's easy to see how someone might miss the line being swapped round once in the actual movie, especially when that variant is never repeated anything like as often as the main one.