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Viral image
stated on February 17, 2022 in a Facebook post:

Says Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said, “If it weren’t for electricity, we’d all be watching TV by candlelight.”

False

Quote about watching TV by candlelight originated with a comedian, not Marjorie Taylor Greene

If your time is short

  • This quote is attributed to comedian George Gobel in 1954 — not U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene.
 
See the sources for this fact-check

An image being shared on social media ridicules U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., for saying something that doesn’t make sense. 

“If it weren’t for electricity, we’d all be watching TV by candlelight,” the statement attributed to her says. 

“Great moments in stupidity with Marjorie Taylor Greene,” reads text appearing alongside an image of the representative that’s been altered to look like she’s wearing a tinfoil hat. 

This post was flagged as part of Facebook’s efforts to combat false news and misinformation on its News Feed. (Read more about our partnership with Facebook.)

We looked online and found no evidence that Greene said this. It didn’t appear on her @RepMTG Twitter account, in credible blogs or news reports. We didn’t find it attributed to her in articles and news broadcast transcripts collected in the Nexis news archive. 

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But we did find it in a 1991 Los Angeles Times obituary for comedian George Gobel.

“Producer David O. Selznick chose him as the only live comic for TV’s two-hour salue to Thomas A. Edison on the 75th anniversary of the inventor’s invention of the incandescent lamp,” the obit says. “Gobel’s remark from the late 1954 special — ‘If it weren’t for electricity we’d all be watching television by candlelight’ — remains one of the classic one-liners of American comedy.”

We rate claims Greene said this False. 

 
Our Sources

Facebook post, Feb. 17, 2022

Marjorie Taylor Greene Twitter account, visited Feb. 18, 2022

Los Angeles Times, TV COMEDIAN GEORGE GOBEL DIES AT 71, Feb. 25, 1991

Quote about watching TV by candlelight originated with a comedian, not Marjorie Taylor Greene

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