History Main / InTheOriginalKlingon

* There are a number of examples from ''Franchise/StarTrek'':
** Chekov, who insists variously that Scotch whisky, the Cheshire Cat, Cinderella, and the Garden of Eden are all Russian. According to Creator/DianeDuane's novels, he's joking, as when people don't believe his claim that the roller coaster was invented in Russia (true, for a change) he pleads that "this time" it's the truth.
** In the [[Recap/StarTrekStrangeNewWorldsS1E01StrangeNewWorlds pilot episode]] of ''Series/StarTrekStrangeNewWorlds'' Spock tells Captain Pike that the Vulcans invented first contact, to which Pike responds the Vulcans never fail to remind them of that fact.
** ''Series/StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'':
*** In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E03TheHouseOfQuark The House of Quark]]", Quark claims that "[[Theatre/HenryIV Discretion is the better part of valor]]" is an old Ferengi saying. To be fair, the 125th Rule of Acquisition is "You can't make a deal if you're dead." Also of note, Ferengi are quick to integrate parts of alien culture that fit well with their desire for profit. To whit, Earth's Wall Street is venerated as some kind of holy site, and certain human idioms such as "EveryManHasHisPrice" and "No good deed goes unpunished" are codified in the Rules of Acquisition (#98 and #285, respectively).
*** In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS03E22Explorers Explorers]]", O'Brien claims that Romulans are particularly prone to doing this, though he doesn't give any specific examples. Considering the fact that they call themselves Romulans, and their core planets are called Romulus and Remus, not to mention the whole Romulan Senate being styled after a certain Earth-based senate from [[AncientRome the past]]... Well, O'Brien was stating the obvious.
*** In the episode "[[Recap/StarTrekDeepSpaceNineS07E22TackingIntoTheWind Tacking into the Wind]]", Worf quotes, "Great men do not seek power; they have power thrust upon them." -- which sounds like a reference to ''Theatre/TwelfthNight'', but is actually attributed to the Klingon mytho-historical emperor Kahless, predating the Bard by some 700 years.

** To expand on this, the Wright Brother's achieved: "the first sustained flight by a manned, heavier-than-air, powered, and controlled aircraft". Every single one of those qualifications is required for them to be first (and for planes to be useful), leaving much leeway to propose other "firsts", leaving out some of those qualifiers.

* Inverted in the third episode "Open Wide, O Earth" of ''Series/{{Chernobyl}}'': Deputy KGB Chairman Charkov repeats the old Russian proverb, "trust but verify", then remarks on the irony that the Americans believe UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan thought it up. In fact, it ''is'' a traditional Russian saying, that Reagan adopted as a CatchPhrase in nuclear disarmament talks with the Soviet Union, after an American academic repeated it to him.

** Chancellor Gorkon states that Shakespeare is [[KlingonsLoveShakespeare best appreciated in the original Klingon]]. Of course, thanks to the fan group [[http://www.kli.org The Klingon Language Institute,]] there now ''is'' a book of Hamlet in Klingon, as seen in the trope image. Ironically, the inflection and circumstances in the scene make it clear that Gorkon was both making a joke and signalling his enjoyment of Earth culture at a diplomatically sensitive juncture.

* ''VideoGame/StarTrekOnline'' has an interesting variation; the end of the Civil War arc was given a [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oOirKrzSVgI&list=PLAa39Of6_Fv3hxpvXql8WluQTH_d-KldJ&index=7 heavy metal rock song called "Steel and Flame"]] out-of-universe, primarily performed by Creator/MaryChieffo. The kicker is that it's sung ''entirely'' in [[JustForPun the original Klingon]].

** There are some protestants who claim that the King James Bible is the only authorized and accurate English ''translation'' of the Bible, but even they are well aware that the Bible was not ''originally'' written in English.

* Allegedly some monolingual people with no contact with other cultures or languages, and who spend their whole lives reading the Bible, forget that the Bible was not ''originally'' written in their own language. There are various jokes and anecdotes about Americans suffering under this delusion (such as one story that when it was suggested that a language other than English be taught in American schools, an American supposedly responded, "If English is good enough for the Lord, it's good enough for me!") However, these are mostly, if not entirely, digs at rural Americans' supposed provincialism and ignorance, and it's doubtful whether any of the anecdotes actually occurred.

* Allegedly some monolingual people with no contact with other cultures or languages, and who spend their whole lives reading the Bible, forget that the Bible was not ''originally'' written in their own language. There are various jokes and anecdotes about Americans suffering under this delusion (one such story goes that when it was suggested that a language other than English be taught in American schools, an American supposedly responded, "If English is good enough for the Lord, it's good enough for me!") However, these are mostly, if not entirely, digs at rural Americans' supposed provincialism and ignorance, and it's doubtful whether any of the anecdotes actually occurred.

* Allegedly some monolingual people with no contact with other cultures or languages, and who spend their whole lives reading the Bible, forget that the Bible was not ''originally'' written in their own language. There are various jokes and anecdotes about Americans suffering under this delusion (such as the story about it once being suggested that a language other than English be taught in schools, and the American supposedly responding, "If English is good enough for the Lord, it's good enough for me!") However, these are mostly (if not entirely) digs at rural Americans' supposed provincialism and ignorance, and it's doubtful whether any of the anecdotes actually occurred.

* Allegedly some monolingual people with no contact with other cultures or languages, and who spend their whole lives reading the Bible in English, forget that the Bible was not ''originally'' written in English. There are various jokes and anecdotes about Americans suffering under this delusion (such as the story about it once being suggested that a language other than English be taught in schools, and the American supposedly responding, "If English is good enough for the Lord, it's good enough for me!") However, these are mostly (if not entirely) digs at rural Americans' supposed provincialism and ignorance, and it's doubtful whether any of the anecdotes actually occurred.

* To this day, many Brazilians consider [[UpperClassTwit Alberto Santos-Dumont]] the Father of Flight. Their claims are primarily rooted in the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale's own awarding of said title to Dumont, an action largely rooted in the fact that Dumont performed ''his'' first flight in France, whereas the Wright Brothers had, 3 years previous, performed the ''actual'' first powered, controlled flight in America. The Wright's 1908 tour across Europe however, combined with the acclaim it won them, made it impossible for the FAI to keep up its lies, although that has not convinced Brazil. [[http://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Wing/History_of_the_Airplane/Who_Was_First/Santos_Dumont/Santos_Dumont.htm Explained and debunked here.]]

* To this day, many Brazilians consider [[UpperClassTwit Alberto Santos-Dumont]] the Father of Flight. Their claims are primarily rooted in the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale's own awarding of said title to Dumont, an action largely rooted in the fact that Dumont performed his "first" flight in France, whereas the Wright Brothers had, 3 years ago, performed the ''actual'' first powered, controlled flight in America. The Wright's 1908 tour across Europe however, combined with the acclaim it won them, made it impossible for the FAI to keep up its lies, although that has not convinced Brazil. [[http://www.wright-brothers.org/History_Wing/History_of_the_Airplane/Who_Was_First/Santos_Dumont/Santos_Dumont.htm Explained and debunked here.]]

* Allegedly some monolingual people with no contact with other cultures or languages, and who spend their whole lives reading the Bible in English, forget that the Bible was not ''originally'' written in English. There are various jokes and anecdotes about Americans suffering under this delusion (such as the story about it being suggested that a language other than English be taught in schools, and the American supposedly responding, "If English is good enough for the Lord, it's good enough for me!") However, these are mostly (if not entirely) digs at rural Americans' supposed provincialism and ignorance, and it's doubtful whether any of the anecdotes actually occurred.

* Allegedly some monolingual people with no contact with other cultures or languages, and who spend their whole lives reading the Bible in English, forget that the Bible was not ''originally'' written in English. There are various jokes and anecdotes about Americans suffering under this delusion (such as the story about it being suggested that a language other than English be taught in schools, and the American supposedly responding, "If English is good enough for the Lord, it's good enough for me!") However, these are mostly (if not entirely) digs at rural Americans supposed provincialism and ignorance, and it's doubtful whether any of the anecdotes actually occurred.

* Allegedly some monolingual people with no contact with other cultures or languages, who spend their whole lives reading the Bible in English, forget that the Bible was not ''originally'' written in English. There are various jokes and anecdotes about Americans suffering under this delusion (such as the story about it being suggested that a language other than English be taught in schools, and the American supposedly responding, "If English is good enough for the Lord, it's good enough for me!") However, these are mostly (if not entirely) digs at rural Americans supposed provincialism and ignorance, and it's doubtful whether any of the anecdotes actually occurred.

* Muammar Ghaddafi once pronounced that [[http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1300&dat=19890811&id=qMlUAAAAIBAJ&sjid=epEDAAAAIBAJ&pg=5892,125103 Shakespeare (sorry, "Sheikh Zubair") was an Arab.]]

* More TruthInTelevision: There are people, mostly (especially) in the USA, who claim that God wrote the Bible in English, and that the "original" Greek and Hebrew texts were corruptions -- ''only'' the King James Version is the 100% accurate, divinely-inspired Word of God (despite it being translated from the Greek, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Latin and actually containing a number of glaring mistranslations, which presumably were really mistranslated the other way). This one is ''very'' SeriousBusiness in certain parts of the U.S.. To a large chunk of Americans, using or suggesting a biblical translation ''other'' than the KJV is [[SeriousBusiness actual bonafide heresy]] and can lead to very unpleasant consequences.
** Fun fact: Back in the early 20th century, ''allegedly'' a Texas governor was once said to remark, upon a suggestion that the state start also publishing things in Spanish, "If English was good enough for Jesus Christ, it's good enough for Texas." (considering the state's titanic demographic shift since then, this statement is incredibly ironic.). ''Website/{{Wikipedia}}'' states that [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miriam_A._Ferguson Ms Ferguson]], aforementioned governor, most likely never said this verbatim, if at all.
** [[ComicBook/ChickTracts Jack Chick]] is a big believer in this. He doesn't really think the Bible was written in English, but he insists on no translation but the KJV anyway. [[https://web.archive.org/web/20181216074122/https://www.chick.com/products/tract?stk=0031 See here.]]
*** In October of 2009, a small organization held a Halloween BookBurning in North Carolina, which included several translations of the Bible. The kicker? It was held by a ''baptist church'', whose pastor commented that the KJV was the inerrant word of God, and all other translations to be literally "heretical." It can be assumed that the irony of the situation was completely lost on them.
** The phenomenon goes beyond KJV and the US Protestants. There is at least one American Catholic priest who said, "As Jesus originally said in Latin."[[note]][[JustForPun Sicut ab initio Jesus dixit]].[[/note]] Jesus' mother tongue, as well as the language his sayings were in, actually was ''Aramaic''.
** Not that America has always had a monopoly on this. A bit before UsefulNotes/WorldWarI, a Hungarian woman in the Austrian-law part of Austria-Hungary was on trial for [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotHeinous teaching her kids Hungarian]] (German was the official in the Austrian-law parts and Hungarian in the Hungarian-law parts, with other languages being frowned-upon in both). The German judges at one point asked her what language she thought Jesus spoke in, clearly expecting 'German' as the answer. The woman naturally said Hungarian.

** Soviet claims became a subject of jokes in Poland, with some clever use of ambiguities of Polish grammar. For example, soup was said to be inwented by a Russian scientist called Pomidorov, because ''zupa pomidorowa'' (tomato soup in Polish) sounds like ''zupa Pomidorowa'' (i.e. Pomidorov's soup). Other examples include a locomotive, invented by Parov (''lokomotywa parowa'' - steam locomotive), a bomb, invented by Atomov (''bomba atomowa'' - atom bomb) and even an ass, invented by Volov (''dupa wołowa'' - literally "an ox's ass"; an idiom used to describe a clumsy, meek or shiftless person).

* Invoked in ''Literature/StarshipTroopers,'' when a South American soldier jokes that UsefulNotes/SimonBolivar built the pyramids, licked the armada, and made the first trip to the moon." He and the main character, a Filipino, discuss that every country has its own version of history.