A Famous Quote From Jim Carrey Is Completely Fake Despite Being Shared by Millions of People on Social Media
Known for outlandish comedy, Jim Carrey is a celebrity everyone is familiar with. His movies are some of the most iconic comedies of all time, but Carrey is also known for having a serious side. He is known for not shying away from his struggles with depression and his outside-the-box ideas, so it is not surprising fans quote him. There’s just one problem: A famous quote attributed to Jim Carrey is completely fake, even though millions have shared it via social media.
A famous — but fake — quote is born
It is easy to understand why Carrey would produce memorable quotes. In fact, there is one quote that fans claim Carrey tweeted that has circulated all forms of social media millions of times. The quote says, “The isolated family member is usually the one who becomes awake.”
It is easy to understand why fans could believe this is Carrey’s quote. He has talked about being the clown of his family. He has also talked about his empathetic nature, such as secretly crying over his parents smoking in the bathroom, afraid they would die. He also struggled with his family as they faced poverty and homelessness. Carrey grew up in a family with three siblings. His mother was a homemaker, and his father was a musician. Carrey’s father found himself out of work several times. The family struggled so severely that Carrey dropped out of school to help support them financially; at one point, his family found themselves living in a van.
It is difficult today to imagine Carrey as homeless, considering he’s now worth over $150 million. Yet, it is his outside “black sheep” mentality that has helped him amass his wealth. One huge risk he took was negotiating to take a percentage of Yes Man earnings rather than taking a paycheck. At the time, the movie was not expected to succeed, but it did. Carrey ended up taking home $35 million for the film.
Was the quote his?
On the internet, misinformation flows freely. Quotes are no exception. Although it seemed probable that Carrey could have referenced himself as the family’s black sheep, there is no proof he ever did. According to the fact-checking website Snopes, Carrey never tweeted or deleted this quote. The earliest citing of the misquote is traced back to a conspiracy-prone website, TheFreeThoughtProject.com.
In addition to no trace of Carrey ever having said the quote, evidence points to the fact he would probably not have said it in the first place. His father is known to be a massive supporter of his comedian son. Carrey even attributed his success to his dad by saying, “It really was an imitation of my father who was this insanely joyful, incredibly funny animated character that just didn’t tell a story,” Carrey said on the WTF with Marc Maron podcast. “He became the characters. Everything I’ve done in my comedy career can be traced back to that origin. I love that guy so much.”
Jim Carrey isn’t the only celeb who has experienced misattributed quotes
Carrey is not the only celebrity that has had quotes attached to them erroneously. Billie Eilish was quoted as saying, “When I got rich, I started balling my eyes out, I wanted to be poor so I can relate to most of my fans … I still want to be broke and poor, it looks really fun and cute.” The quote was originally posted on a parody account but circulated as truth. Eilish’s brother took to social media to defend the artist against the slanderous quote.
Marilyn Monroe’s quotes are also shared regularly on social media, but like Eilish and Carrey, many of the quotes are not hers. Elle compiled a few of her misquotes. One quote, “Well behaved women seldom make history.” was, in fact, a quote, but not hers. Laurel Thatcher Ulrich initially used this quote to describe Puritan funeral practices.
