John Lennon Quote — “when I was 5 years…” FAKE ! HOAX!

ANOTHER FAKE FACEBOOK QUOTE:

It never ends.  Somebody saw a quote that was easily attributed to John Lennon simply because the words were pasted on top of the picture.

It’s a very corny and snarky quote and of course the misfits on Facebook fall for it because they want to believe that John Lennon actually said it — he did not.  In fact, he never really said much of anything worth quoting unless you count song lyrics.

The quote is anonymous and douche bags the world over on Facebook have decided that John Lennon must have said it because it’s so “cool” and so “edgy” and sooooo something John Lennon would have said:  It goes like this.

“When I was 5 years old, my mom always told me that happiness was the key to life. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy.” They told me I didn’t understand the assignment and I told them they didn’t understand life. ” <——- JOHN LENNON NEVER SAID THIS!!!!

The fake quotes just go on and on and on and on and on and on.  There are websites where people claim that their kid said it in school.  The quote has also been attributed to George Gershwin, Judy Garland, Cher and even Abraham Lincoln. etc. etc. etc.  In other words, the quote pre-dates John Lennon, so obviously he could not not have said it.

It’s a quote that somebody made up and now the mass belief is that John Lennon said it — HE DID NOT!  Nowhere in any John Lennon archive is this found on tape or in print.

Listen:  If you see a quote you like — FIND OUT WHO REALLY  SAID IT!  Don’t just assume that the morons-only ispirational picture that one of your retarded friends on Facebook shared with you is real — LEARN TO FUCKING THINK!

Here is the final word on this from an expert!

“There is a phenomenon in social circles – and Facebook is indeed a social circle – whereby  someone hears a quote and attributes it to someone else because the quote ‘sounds’ like something that person would say.  Some people call it a variation of ‘The Matthew Phenomenon’ which is a somewhat vague sociological term that refers to the rich getting richer as it applies to reading and scholarship.  In other words, a phrase is heard and attributed to a person who never said it simply because the quote sounds like that person said it.  With that in mind,  the famous person is made even more famous by the misattribution of a witty or thought provoking quote.” [Dean Traherne MD PhD. University of Barcelona School of Psychiatric Studies]

In spite of Dr. Traherne’s scientific explanation, I think that if John Lennon had really said anything– it would probably have been….

 “When I was 21 years old, my mom always told me to get the fuck outof the bloody house because I was a bleedin’ wanker. When I went to school, they asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “I want to marry an ugly and untalented Japanese woman.” They told me I didn’t understand the assignment and I told them they didn’t understand that I would one day be misquoted by assholes. ” [Damien]

125 thoughts on “John Lennon Quote — “when I was 5 years…” FAKE ! HOAX!

  1. DDM, you obviously didn’t research enough to see if Lennon did or did not say this. I have a DVD with tons of interviews with him on it and he FLAT OUT SAYS THAT QUOTE on TV. It is also quoted in many books on him.

    So before you go attacking everyone about their lack of research skills, try doing some better research yourself.

    Tootles!

  2. LIAR! LIAR! LIAR! Never said it in an interview — unless he is quoting someone else — which I doubt. There are no references to him coining this quote in any book, and if there are, they are trash books wherein the author perpetuates the myth that Lennon said this.

  3. I myself doubt John Lennon said it, not because it isn’t in a book (plenty of things aren’t in books, Damien, and you commit the “No true Scotsman” fallacy in your argument with Arwen – look it up) but because the “quote” uses the word ‘assignment’, which isn’t an English English word. It’s American. At least, no teacher in an English school would use the word ‘assignment’ in this context.

    But I’d be happy to be proved wrong. Can you post a bit of the DVD on YouTube or somewhere, Arwen?

  4. If I can figure out how to get the DVD piece burned to my computer I will, or I could just record with my camera I guess.

    The exact quote in my DVD is
    “When I was a child, my Mum would always tell me that happiness was the key to life, it was all you needed. Not riches, not fame, not a fancy auto.

    When I went on to school, my instructor handed a paper and asked me what I wanted to be when I grew up. I wrote down “happy”

    They told me I didn’t understand the question. I told them they didn’t understand life! *laughs*”

    So in a way YES you are correct that it is fake as someone altered the quote. BUT the quote IS his.

  5. Arwen could you please record that on your camera and post it onto YouTube. I’d like to see it. Please send us the link. Also which DVD is it from? Thanks

  6. I’m gonna Tattoo that quote because its simply a good quote.
    Even if everyone thinks and says its Lennon, I’m not gonna put his name on my body.
    Even if he said it, what I’m not quite sure of, I wouldn’t.

    But if you really got any DVD Material, just record and upload it, would you?

  7. DDM who cares who said it, clearly you could actually take something from the quote and stop being so angry

  8. It’s depicted as a quote — do you understand that? What if you were depicted as saying, “My name is Muzz and when I was a kid, we were so poor I had to eat my father’s poop to survive, but that taught me to appreciate food.” Would you like that — you frigging moron.

  9. “When I was a child, my Mum would always tell me that trolling was the key to life, it was all you needed.

    When I went on to basement, my Mum told me to never get out of there. I said “OK”.”
    -Arwen

  10. You know, Arwen, I don’t think you read very well. You missed the whole point –but that is as it should be. You’re a fucking Russian asshole — that’s your lot in life.

  11. oh guys.. if i had one wish i would fuck up DDM’s ass. who do u think u are little bastard?!?! arwen is right, i saw this interview as well. so shut up and stop your racist words. we won’t see each other in this life but god gonna judge u for these words ;)))

  12. I read the quote today for the first time and this is one of the places I landed in researching this. I just found it ridiculous that John would respond so at such a young age, although the quote does not say that John’s response was at age 5. This would seem highly unlikely. As written, it COULD be interpreted that John’s experience “When I was in school” was at a later stage, perhaps in high school?

    But it is clear that whomever invented this quote intended for it to sound as if John had this reaction at age 5, which raised my doubt and launched my search.

    It appears obvious that this is a made-up quote.

    But, why is the person responsible for this posting/site referring to John as “the Communist asshole John Lennon”?

    Nick In Detroit

  13. I agree with DDM 100%. Arwen goes into all this BS ‘detail’, when all he had to do was NAME THE DVD, NAME THE ‘TV SHOW’, or NAME JUST ONE OF THE MANY BOOKS he supposedly has. Same with Nico – very simple, kids: WHAT DVD? WHAT INTERVIEW? None and none. Christ! Aren’t there enough real quotes out there to ‘inspire’ people (which never really happens in the first place) without jerks having to make them up, and worse: bigger jerks who are compelled to LIE to defend a lie?? What is wrong with you people?

  14. Damien and Theresa appear to be the only honest people commenting here. It DOES matter when idiots make up lies and post them as facts, it DOES matter when tens of thousands of lazy sheep reverently regurgitate those lies all over the Internet, and Lennon WAS a hypocrite (But he did write some damn good songs…) Too bad if that’s just not warm and fuzzy enough for the glurge addicts, but that’s the reality kids… just deal with it; it’s not that difficult.

  15. Oh, and one more thing: even if Lennon HAD said that on some rare, SEVERELY limited-edition DVD, I STILL wouldn’t believe it. Being John Beatle Lennon doesn’t make him some kind of infallible saint. That quote was contrived, and very poorly so. It’s BS.

  16. John didn’t even known his mom till he was about 18. He only remembers his parents splitting up and the rest of his childhood was spent with his aunt. Then his mom was killed when he was like 19. She never could have said that. This is so annoying to see

  17. I would say fuck you but that would be a compliment. I would say go die but death is only for people who deserve it. I don’t like the way you think. I don’t judge by covers but you are a book thats so bad someone ripped the fucking over off so they wouldn’t have to see you. I will say you MOTHERFUCKING ASSHOLE I WILL FIND YOU AND FUCKING KILL YOU WHILST YOU SLEEP BITCH.

  18. COLIN — I GOT YOUR COMMENT — COLIN K. I happily pass it on to the proper people in Victoria, BC. I think there might be a scandal or something.

    Damien LeGallienne
    Liege, Belgium.

  19. You are a fucking choot. Now go and ask a more ecudated guy than you, what that means.

  20. I think this guy doesn’t like me very much — I could get him in trouble because I know who he is — I’m thinking about following through on my complaint to the authorities in Victoria, BC, but I’m in Belgium and do you know what a pain in the ass that would be?

  21. Damien:
    I found your research very interesting, but the way you express yourself make it look very poor and talks reaaly bad about you.
    i would like to know why do you need to be so rude and disrespectul in order to prove your point?

  22. I am rude and disrespectful because that’s how stupid people who spread mindless and stupid shit deserve to be treated. If I were nice about it, nobody would get the message. I’m working with chimps and gerbils here, MJ.

  23. that´s so sad. Hope someday you get the chance to work with well-educated people so you can express in a better way 🙂

  24. Yes, it is very sad. Someday, when I will be smart enough to speak with, and among, smart people instead of the morons who think it’s okay to misquote famous people — fucking idiot!

  25. Damien, you say you have to be rude and disrespectful or else people won’t get the message….but I don’t see you really converting anyone 😐

    I just think your approach could use some work. Yelling at people and insulting them is only effective at making them defensive.

  26. My approach is indeed working –in a sense — in that the point of a blog is to get people to come — and they come — and they get abused by me when and if I decide that their opinions are stupid or uninformed. This blog now has over 2,000,000 unique visits. That’s a lot of traffic for something to which I devote 10-minutes per day, but sadly so many people don’t comment. They prefer to send angry emails instead. I think that the blog itself makes it hard for people to comment and most people are inherently lazy. I could have a zillion visits if I took the time to comment on other blogs and got myself a little back-link action, but the whole email and conformation thing is annoying for me too and I understand why people just shrug off their opinions via invented email addresses. Kindly note that I no longer require email confirmation. I try to remember to put that at the end of each posting, but I forget. Thanks for your opinion — in the long run, you’re right, but I’m turning a few bucks off of being an a-hole. I am so not like that in real life.
    Damien

  27. Woah that was like, really civil. And respectable. Thanks for taking the time to type that out, I really appreciate it. Maybe you’re a cool dude after all 😛

  28. That’communist asshole John Lennon?’ Dude, really? Just because you don’t like someone doesn’t mean that they’re a communist asshole. You lost all credibility with me when you sunk to using petty name calling. Sorry man.

  29. And also, who cares that much whether or not the quote was said by John Lennon. I understand making it known if it’s widely believed to be something it’s not, but you took it was out of context. Just because people like to slap it on their facebook page because it has the name of a famous dude on it is their problem. Don’t act so high and mighty because you can point out flaws. you think your above all the fools who like something that is misguided. Who cares. Don’t you have anything better to do than spend your time fixing all the stupid in the world as you so probably think you are. Currently I have nothing better to do now as I’m in class with some extra free time and I unfortunately stumbled upon this site whilst looking for a particular John Lennon quote (not this quote). So don’t use the all too common ‘well don’t you have something better to do’ back at me. Nope, I don’t right now. Get off your high horse.

  30. Apparently you need to take a chill pill you don’t just go on a giant rage on the internet for no REAL reason so what if somebody just wanted to do this I bet that half the stuff on your page is fake would you like someone to go on the internet and post stuff about it and also YOU NEED TO GET A LIFE AND CALM DOWN.

  31. just the way you wrote this article makes me want to punch you in the face.

  32. Well of course you want to punch me in the face. You’re all peace and love and hope and change and strawberry fields forever typical of people who like to hit and punch and then cry “BULLY” –oh– and you can go fuck yourself.

  33. I wish you love man!! There’s better ways to use your energy than arguing in a hateful manner!! Raise your vibration!!

  34. “That’communist asshole John Lennon?’ Dude, really?”

    Personally, I’d go with woman-beating sanctimonious prat John Lennon. And anyone that believes for a second a five-year-old child has this sort of insight is the epitome of gullible. It’s like suggesting he was overhauling transmissions in daycare. He was a pop composer, not Isaac Newton.

  35. John Lennon thought he was better than Isaac Newton. I call him a Communist asshole because that is where I have filed him in my mind.

  36. John Fowker – you really have not heard much of kids talk, don’t you.
    DDM calling a person asshole, which has done more stuff in life than most of the rest of people will ever try.. doesn’t that makes them and you worthless little pieces of shit? (:

  37. If John Lennon didn’t say that, it is good to
    know.

    Of course, it is kind of a nice quote, but it is a
    pity that some people use the name of a famous
    person to get their message out there.

    They actually should put their own name on it. I think they feel that they won’t be taken seriously.

  38. Sorry for typing my comment too many time. It didn’t show on my SmartPhone. I realize now on my PC that it was posted.

    I apologize! Please delete the previous comments!

  39. Posts on TheDamienZone.com often take several hours to appear. The ease of commenting is nice but it comes with a price. That price is that one of the moderators must approve it. However, we NEVER censor or block any comments — we welcome them. Manually allowing comments takes up to 2 hours or more. Sometimes it takes a minute and other times it migh ttake a day, but you can trust that your comment will appear. We have to do it this way because it shows that we actually READ the stuff people send ( we often respond) and it keeps SPAM from filling the comment boards. thank you

  40. I’m sorry. for one, john lennon was a socialist, not a communist. he was also a peace advocate. do you have anything against peace or socialism? or are you just a war-loving capitalist who has something against proper music. I think that you should just shut up about the guy. he was a brilliant person and did a hell of a lot of good for the world- a hell of a lot more than you’ll ever do. and i am writing this comment listening to penny lane. so if for some reason you hate or dislike the beatles, you have lost my respect. not that you had ever gained it in the first place after some of the things you have said to people on this post.

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