Historical Events  Movies
Independence Day: Welcome to Earf

Alternate:
Welcome to Earf

Current:
Welcome to Earth

Internet Meme

In the movie Independence Day, many people remember Will Smith saying "Welcome To Earf". It was a very badass oneliner. Now he just says "Welcome to Earth" unambiguously. Some articles suspect racism but they can't explain why so many people who aren't racist remember it that way.

It's a really popular internet meme now, and is so well known you even see it on T-Shirts etc.

This brings up a question. If he never said it, why do so many people have this false memory of him doing so?

Origin

GQ did ain interesting piece covering the origins and motivations of the meme. Its seems to all begin with a post made on August 3rd, 2005 titled WELCOME TA EARF which bore the line "welcome ta earf mudda trucka".

GQ are remarkably well on the ball when it comes to Mandela Effects of the movie misquote variety:

Suddenly, a dumb misspelling of a dumb line from a dumb movie is being treated as fact by those who haven't actually seen it since 1996. And once a misquotation gets lodged into peoples' heads, it can be remarkably persistent; just ask the writers behind movies like Casablanca, The Empire Strikes Back, and Silence of the Lambs, which don't include the lines "Play it again, Sam," "Luke, I am your father," and "Hello, Clarice."

-- Scott Meslow, GQ

Alien diplomacy

According to Urban Dictionary, "Welcome to Earf" is "the proper way to welcome alien visitors to our planet as described by the great diplomat Will Smith in Independence Day."

So who are we to argue? Especially when a Google images search for "Welcome to Earf" shows it to be so widespread.

Here's a video edited so emphasise that he really, truly, honestly says "Earth" and not "Earf":