This Film Is Dedicated to the Brave Mujahideen Fighters of Afghanistan
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About
This Film Is Dedicated To The Brave Mujahideen Fighters Of Afghanistan is a catchphrase and hoax that claims the ending credits of the 1988 Hollywood film Rambo III were changed from being dedicated to the "brave Mujahideen fighters of Afghanistan" to being dedicated to the "gallant people of Afghanistan" after the September 11th, 2001, terrorist attacks. The urban legend began circulating sometime after the year 2010 before being debunked. The dedication has since been turned into a phrasal template and image macro meme used in other movie screenshots or media.
Origin
The film Rambo III directed by Peter Macdonald and starring Sylvester Stallone was released on May 25th, 1988. Sometime in the early-2010s, an urban legend about the ending title credits of the film began to circulate on the internet. The hoax claims that the ending credits of the film were changed from "This film is dedicated to the brave Mujahideen fighters of Afghanistan" to "This film is dedicated to the gallant people of Afghanistan" after the 9/11 terrorist attacks on the U.S.
While the exact origins of this myth are presently unknown, a December 21st, 2011, thread on the forum NeoGAF discusses the "The credits change to Rambo III post 9/11" (seen below).[6]
A reference to the phrase "This film is dedicated to the brave Mujahideen fighters of Afghanistan" can be traced to a film review from September 19th, 2013,[1] a tweet from August 14th, 2013,[4] and another from February 20, 2014.[7] Other early mentions of the myth can be found in Reddit threads from January 2015 and July 2015.[2][3] The earliest known viral tweet to reference the hoax was posted on July 9th, 2015, by Twitter[5] user @FGunay1 (seen below).
However, the claim that the credits were changed post-9/11 has been debunked with the help of pre-9/11 movie reviews that specifically mention the dedication to the "gallant people of Afghanistan."[8][9][10]
Debunking Attempts
On October 17th, 2019, YouTube[11] user AngelDust posted a video investigating the claim of the end credits change and found that the line was never used at the end of the film at all.
Spread
On December 26th, 2019, the Instagram[12] page @dankest_memes_m8 posted a meme using the quote and a still from the 2019 film Cats, gathering over 1,000 likes in four years (seen below, top). On March 7th, 2023, the Instagram[13] page @cloakermccloakerson posted a Spongebob meme using the quote, gathering over 1,000 likes in five months (seen below, bottom).
On May 4th, 2023, the Instagram[14] page @thedixiemauser_mk2 posted an edit of the hoax credit to read, "This bong rip is dedicated to the brave mujahideen fighters of Afghanistan." The post gathered over 15,000 likes in three months (seen below, left). On May 20th, Twitter[15] user @LumpyTheCook posted a meme using the phrase as well, gathering over 25,000 likes in two months (seen below, right).
Search Interest
External References
[1] Tierra Freak – Rambo La Saga
[2] Reddit – /r/nottheonion
[4] Twitter – JonathanTondu
[5] Internet Archive – Twitter
[6] NeoGAF – Credit Change Rambo
[8] Washington Post – Rambo iii
[9] New York Times – Stallon's Rambo III
[10] The Civil War In Popular Culture – Ramo III Credit
[11] YouTube – Angel Dust
[12] Instagram – @dankest_memes_m8
[13] Instagram – @cloakermccloakerson
[14] Instagram – @thedixiemauser_mk2
[15] Twitter – LumpyTheCook
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