# Where did the "overlord" phrase originate? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [August 13, 2007, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466 "2007-08-13T19:22:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Hazle\_Weatherfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hazle_Weatherfield)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/1 "2007-08-13T19:22:43Z")
“Well I, for one, welcome our new (bacony, or whatever) overlords.” Where did this phrase originally come from? Thanks! ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/2 "2007-08-13T19:25:18Z")
It was an episode of “Futurama.” The news lady (or was it Morbo?) said it, when announcing some take over. I forget who the overlords were in that episode. ---
**Author:** ![Autolycus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/22d042/32.png) [@Autolycus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Autolycus)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/3 "2007-08-13T19:26:01Z")
The Simpsons did it first and started the trend. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uAHzj5VcZKo) ---
**Author:** ![Freudian\_Slit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/5daacb/32.png) [@Freudian\_Slit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Freudian_Slit)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/4 "2007-08-13T19:27:09Z")
Whoops…looks like I was off base with my Futurama ref. ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/5 "2007-08-13T19:27:13Z")
It was actually The Simpsons, not Futurama. Specifically, the episode where Homer becomes a space shuttle astronaut. [![]( " - YouTube") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y8FLTQ8iAGc) ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 7:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/6 "2007-08-13T19:27:54Z")
The Simpsons. There was an episode in which Homer Simpson rides the space shuttle, and in his incompetence, he breaks open an ant farm. News cameras, intending to interview him about his “common man” experience in space, instead see ants that appear to be gigantic because they’re close to the camera. Springfield newscaster Kent Brockman says, “I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords.” and a meme is born. There’s a poster on this board called **Hail Ants** whose user name derives from the same joke. ---
**Author:** ![cmkeller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cmkeller/32/118_2.png) [@cmkeller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cmkeller)\ **Post date:** [August 13, 2007, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/7 "2007-08-13T19:29:05Z")
Blast, I should have known I wouldn’t make it first. Well, at least I gave lots of detail. ---
**Author:** ![bobjarvis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a88e4f/32.png) [@bobjarvis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobjarvis)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2026, 9:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/8 "2026-01-07T21:35:08Z")
Here I am, nearly 19 years late answering this one. Although perhaps not the “most original” version of this phrase, the earliest version I know of is from 1977 where the phrase **“I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords”** was used in the film version of H.G. Wells’ short story “Empire of the Ants” which can be found at [https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The\_Works\_of\_H.\_G.\_Wells\_(Atlantic\_Edition)/The\_Empire\_of\_the\_Ants](https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Works_of_H.%5C_G.%5C_Wells%5C_(Atlantic_Edition)/The_Empire_of_the_Ants) Note that the phrase “insect overlords” is not found in Wells’ story. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2026, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/9 "2026-01-07T22:48:00Z")
Does anyone remember that “Overlord” was the code name for the Allied invasion of Normandy in World War II, not to mention [the name of a movie from 1975.](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0073502/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_4_tt_8_nm_0_in_0_q_overlord) The word itself dates back to Middle English. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2026, 11:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/10 "2026-01-07T23:09:58Z")
The Overlords were also the benevolent invading aliens in _Childhood’s End_ (1953). ---
**Author:** ![zbuzz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/e19b73/32.png) [@zbuzz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zbuzz)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/11 "2026-01-08T03:04:22Z")
> [@bobjarvis](#): > > the earliest version I know of is from 1977 where the phrase **“I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords”** was used in the film version of H.G. Wells’ short story “Empire of the Ants” Are you sure you actually heard it said in the movie? I just looked at a transcript of the movie and it’s not in there. There are also plenty of sites out there saying that while The Simpsons line is probably inspired by the story or movie, that line is never said in the movie. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 3:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/12 "2026-01-08T03:38:54Z")
> [@zbuzz](#): > > Are you sure you actually heard it said in the movie? I just looked at a transcript of the movie and it’s not in there. I also just searched the subtitle. The move does not contain a single instance of the words “welcome”, “insect”, or anything containing “lord”. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 10:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/13 "2026-01-08T10:41:33Z")
However, now that this exists as an assertion on the internet, it will be absorbed by the AI data scrapers and regurgitated as a confident answer in future chatbot conversations. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 11:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/14 "2026-01-08T11:03:30Z")
I, for one, welcome our new chatbot overlords. ---
**Author:** ![md-2000](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9d8465/32.png) [@md-2000](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/md-2000)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2026, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/15 "2026-01-08T20:35:18Z")
I believe in the same vein, it was a common Shakespeare phrase. In _MacBeth_ where the forest appears to be moving towards his castle, one of the soldiers says “I for one welcometh our new tree ent overlords.” ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [January 9, 2026, 12:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/16 "2026-01-09T00:17:43Z")
> [@Kent\_Clark](#): > > Does anyone remember that “Overlord” was the code name for the Allied invasion of Normandy in World War II, not to mention the name of a movie from 1975. Or that “overlord” was a crossword puzzle answer shortly before D-Day, along with other code words relating to the Normandy invasion, resulting in the arrest and interrogation of the man who created the puzzles? > **[The Great Crossword D-Day Codenames Puzzle Scare](https://veteransbreakfastclub.org/the-great-d-day-crossword-puzzle-scare-of-1944/)** > > On 2 May, a British intelligence officer doing the London Daily Telegraph crossword puzzle noticed No. 17 across: "One of the U.S." The answer, he knew, was "Utah." Ordinarily, nothing ---
**Author:** ![Francis\_Vaughan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/francis_vaughan/32/3093_2.png) [@Francis\_Vaughan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Francis_Vaughan)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 8:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/17 "2026-01-10T08:51:21Z")
The Internet is filled with references to The Simpsons. But I still have a nagging feeling that they were themselves quoting something earlier. It has the tenor of a quote or in-joke. Just referencing the ants doesn’t seem as funny. The trope of some obsequious self-centred slimeball traitor collaborating with fascist invaders is hardly something new. My nagging but flawed memory keeps trying to tell me that the TV series V should have contained the quote. But it didn’t. It just seems the perfect vehicle for it. Vichy France would have been a perfect real setting. A fictional work, immediately post war, would have been That Hideous Strength. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/18 "2026-01-10T15:14:32Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Or that “overlord” was a crossword puzzle answer shortly before D-Day, along with other code words relating to the Normandy invasion, resulting in the arrest and interrogation of the man who created the puzzles? The final twist in that article, if true, is pretty damn mind-blowing. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 3:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/19 "2026-01-10T15:42:22Z")
That was a serious security breach… by MI-5. By arresting the crossword setter, they were advertising the importance of those words. ---
**Author:** ![Babale](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/babale/32/15666_2.png) [@Babale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Babale)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2026, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466/20 "2026-01-10T15:52:31Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > That was a serious security breach… by MI-5. By arresting the crossword setter, they were advertising the importance of those words I had the same thought - if any Germans saw this guy get arrested, they’d immediately look through his crosswords to see what set off the British intelligence. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-did-the-overlord-phrase-originate/415466.md?page=2)