On July 12, 2022, a meme was shared on Facebook that claimed U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., once said, "You know nothing is built in America these days. I just bought a TV that said, 'Built in Antenna.' I don't even know where that is." This was not an actual quote by Greene.
We found no record of her ever confusing the phrase "built-in antenna" to mean that a TV was supposedly made in a country with that name. Previously, the same meme was shared on Twitter:
In reality, this alleged quote was nothing more than an old joke. In the past, internet users attributed it to other people, including U.S. Reps. Lauren Boebert, R-Co., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-NY. Like Greene, they, too, never said the words about a built-in antenna.
In 2018, a Twitter user posted the same "built in Antenna" joke to supposedly make it seem like someone said it at a rally for then-U.S. President Donald Trump.
A version of the joke also appeared in the 2008 book titled, "Greatest Jokes of the Century: Book 20." That book made the reference in this passage:
A man was buying a new television and asked the young pretty blonde salesperson its country of origin. She disappeared into the stockroom to look on the box.
On her return she announced that the television in question was, 'Built in Antenna.'
It was unknown who attached the alleged quote to Greene, creating the above-displayed meme, and what motivated the creation. However, Greene's history of real eyebrow-raising comments may have made some people think it was true. For example, while doing an interview with One America News Network (OANN) in 2022, she apparently meant to say "Gestapo" in reference to a secret-police organization in Nazi Germany, but, instead, she said "gazpacho," which is soup.