What phrase does the Wicked Witch write in the sky with her broom?

The phrase the Wicked Witch writes in the sky with her broom is “Surrender Dorothy.”

In the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz, the Wicked Witch of the West appears above the Emerald City after Dorothy and her companions arrive. Riding her broomstick, she creates the threatening message in the sky, frightening the citizens and warning them that Dorothy must be handed over.

The moment is a famous piece of movie special effects. The words were produced by spreading black ink through tinted water in a glass tank, creating the appearance of skywriting. The phrase does not appear in L. Frank Baum’s 1900 novel; it was created for the film adaptation.

A common mix-up is remembering the message as “Surrender, Dorothy” with punctuation. The film displays the words in capital letters without a comma: “SURRENDER DOROTHY.”