For the past couple of months a phenomenon
known as the Mandela Effect has taken the internet by storm. To put it briefly, the Mandela Effect refers
to a conflict between the past and people's memory of the past. The term was coined by self described
paranormal consultant Fiona Broome in late 2009 and refers to a widespread misconception that
former South African President Nelson Mandela died in the 1980s while he was incarcerated. In reality Mandela was liberated in 1990,
very much alive, and eventually passed away in 2013. Many thousands now firmly insist on remembering
Mandela's death in prison complete with news coverage of his funeral and a heartfelt speech
by his widow. The term has since expanded to include many
hundreds of similar collective fallacies and theories as to their nature and cause are
quite imaginative. Fiona Broome and many others are of the belief
that these misconceptions are the result of "alternate realities". In other words, they are memories from parallel
universes in which history transpired exactly as you remember it but at some point between
then and now you allegedly drifted into a parallel universe with an alternate history
and thus some of your memories misaligns with the reality you currently inhabit. Naturally, many dismiss the Mandela Effect
as mere misremembrance and point towards the mountains of research on the unreliability
and limits of human memory. For example, the misinformation effect is
when a preexisting memory is retroactively replaced or corrupted by misinformation. Inaccurate eye witness accounts are prime
examples of this. In short, opponents of the Mandela Effect
posits that the human brain is capable of falsifying memories so convincingly that you
may come to believe them to be true while proponents argue that the memories are true
and that it is reality itself that has been altered. Their main argument is that false memories
alone cannot account for the sheer number of unrelated people misaccounting the same
event or fact. How is it that thousands of individuals who's
never met, spoken, or even known of each others existence came to develop the
exact same anomalous memory? In the 1979 James Bond film Moonraker there's
a short sequence in which the villain named Jaws and his love interest Dolly have a heartfelt
moment. The character Jaws is known as such as his
teeth are made out of metal and as they both smile upon one another, many viewers recall
how Dolly wore braces as if to complement his metal teeth. In reality Dolly is totally
braceless throughout the film. Proponents claim this is a clear example of
how history has been altered, either through paranormal means or by retroactive tampering
of the movie. Many have since tracked down various articles,
comments, videos, etc. that do in fact describe Dolly as having braces which they claim to be residue
from this alternate reality that they remember. For example, a Finish commercial from 2006
is alluding to this scene and the actress portraying Dolly is indeed wearing braces. Another example is a website from 2004 that
describes Dolly as: "A short blond girl with pigtails, glasses, and braces." On the other hand, this could merely be examples
of the misconception's extensiveness. After all, this delusion has likely been around
for decades and the author of a Usenet post from 1999 expressed the exact same confusion. I did some digging of my own and it didn't
take long until I found this. It's a review of Moonraker, published on the
day of the film's theatrical release in the US and in reference to Jaws' and Dolly's relationship,
the author writes: "It would be a relationship made in heaven
if only she wore braces." So on the day of the movie's release someone
already thought braces would have been idiosyncratic
of this character. Is it not more likely that because it would
have been fitting for her to wear braces many came to believe and, by extension,
misremember that she actually did. One of the most frequent examples of the Mandela
Effect is the The Berenstain Bears. It's a children's book- and animated TV series
popular in the US and features a family of anthropomorphic bears. However, many remember the name as Berenstein
and not Berenstain. I also find it to be the most simple to explein. First of all; I actually had to rerecord this segment
multiple times as I found myself pronouncing it Berenstein even when I should be saying
Berenstain and I've never even heard of the franchise before making this video. Secondly; in their autobiography, one of the
creators of The Berenstain Bears mention how an elementary teacher did not believe Berenstain
was a real surname and instead called him Bernstein. Thirdly; the son of the creators has said
that barely anyone pronounced it correctly when he was growing up and that he was most
frequently called Berensteen or Bernstein. Fourthly; the cartoons use an
ambiguous pronunciation at best. Fifthly; surnames with the suffix -stein are
far more common than -stain. Mirror mirror on the wall is a quote commonly
associated with the 1937 animated film Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. Except, that is not the correct quote. This would be strange if it wasn't for the fact that this is
an adaptation and the original source material reads: "Mirror mirror on the wall." Nearly everyone seems to have favored the
original version so naturally that is what most will adapt and remember. Even official Disney material has opted to
use the original version. Perhaps for the sake of familiarity and preference
or, you know, alternate realities. Besides magic mirror was in turn taken from
another cartoon. Many are surprised to learn that C-3PO from
Star Wars has one of his legs painted silver. Exactly how much of his leg is painted silver
depends on the movie. Knee and lower leg. Shin. Knee and shin. Naked. Metallic. And all gold. The thing is, his silver leg is never really
in focus. It's often just off-screen, in the background,
too far away, or seen for a split second. When it is in view the color variance is often
barely noticeable. I skimmed through the movies and in the vast
majority of scenes featuring C-3PO he truly is all gold as the silver leg can't be seen. When asked about the silver leg the actor
had this to say: ANTHONY DANIELS:
He always had silver. ANTHONY DANIELS:
And even the stills photographer John Jay came up to me one day and said: ANTHONY DANIELS:
"Why are you wearing a silver leg today?" ANTHONY DANIELS:
Now, he was the stills photographer. ANTHONY DANIELS:
*Clickety* *Clack* ANTHONY DANIELS:
All the time and he hadn't noticed so... So if a photographer literally taking photos
of the C-3PO suit can miss it I find it difficult to argue that audiences can not. Especially when you factor in the supreme
quality of VHS tapes. And this confusion is likely as old as the
movies themselves. Here's a Usenet post from 1993 wherein the
author tiredly explains that, yes, one of C-3PO's legs is indeed silver. Indicating that it is frequently overlooked. Then again, I honestly don't remember a silver
leg and it does seem a out of place. I guess I'm just dumb enough to place empirical
evidence above the fallibility of my own memory. A lot of people remember the logo of the company
Ford as looking like this. In reality, it looks like this. Proponents of the Mandela Effect claim the
loop on the F did not exist in the previous reality. To support this claim we have spooky photographs
like this one. It was taken around 1918 and the logo on the
far left is mysteriously loopless while the logo near the center ain't afraid to show
them curves. But again, isn't this merely evidence of how
common this misconception truly is? The painter of this billboard
may have possessed the exact same false memory
and thus mispainted the logo. This confusion may stem from the fact that
Henry Ford's signature does not contain a loop. The mascot of the popular board game Monopoly
is named Mr. Monopoly and he looks like this. Except he does not wear a
monocle and never has. A traumatizing realization, no doubt. But I feel like I've seen this outfit before. I mean, tuxedo, monocle, and top hat is undeniably
an original attire but I can't escape the feeling that once upon a time, people actually
dressed like this only for an endless series of fictional characters to celebrate and reference
this time period. But that's probably just a memory from an
alternate reality. This movie does not exist, yet many claim
to have seen this nonexistent movie. It is supposedly titled Shazaam, stars stand-up
comedian Sinbad who plays a genie, and it was released in the 1990s. But no trace of this movie has been uncovered
and Sinbad himself has repeatedly stated he never played a genie in a movie. He did however host a movie marathon on the
TV channel TNT in 1994, in which he dressed up as a pirate that could be easily confused
for that of a genie. Another potential source of this misconception
is the 1996 movie Kazaam starring Shaquille O'Neal as a genie. In 1997 both O'Neal and Sinbad starred in
the movie Good Burger which could have aided in this a potential mix-up. Furthermore, the VHS tape for Kazaam features
a preview of the Sinbad movie First Kid much like the VHS tape for First Kid
features a preview of Kazaam. So there where plenty of opportunities to
conflate the two. Though many still claim to remember both Kazaam
and Shazaam as being separate movies. Then there's the fact that Sinbad has starred
in a bunch of movies and TV shows in which he wears clothes that could be confused for
that of a genie. Between 1993-1994 He had a short-lived series
called The Sinbad Show where he dressed in a range of genie-esque outfits and in 1996 he
guest-starred on a show called All That looking like this. Then there's the animated show Shazzan that's
also about a magical genie. Not to mention that the name Sinbad is strongly
associated with genies thanks to the story of Sinbad the Sailor and its numerous adaptations. Lastly, and perhaps most importantly,
people have misread the title of the movie Kazaam as Shazaam
from the moment of its release. The fact that groups of people develop the
same or similar false memories really shouldn't be cause for confusion. We live in a highly interconnected world where
two wholly unrelated individuals may have the exact same experience even though they
lack any knowledge of one another. And unless you presume human memory to be
infallible, some of these experiences will inevitably result in the development of false
memories. From this we can conclude that groups of people
will occasionally develop the same or similar false memories as they share the same or similar
experiences. And it doesn't necessarily have to be one
singular event. A memory could become corrupted over the course
of many months, years, or decades. Which makes it all the more difficult to pinpoint exactly
how, when, and by what your memory was influenced. Take the namesake of this phenomenon, the
death of Nelson Mandela, as an example. Throughout the 1980s news of Mandela's situation
in prison and his worsening health headlined newspapers across the globe. He suffered from tuberculosis and he himself
feared he would die in prison like so many others before him. One American newspaper wrote: "Some have raised the possibility that he
might die in jail." "It is not clear how ill Mandela is at this
point, but the idea that he could die is not farfetched." The funerals of many other South Africans
fighting for the same cause as Mandela was frequently broadcasted across the globe. A movement known as Free Mandela grew in popularity
and held various demonstrations that received international news coverage. His wife, Winnie Mandela, often appeared on
the news as well. Meanwhile, commemoration pieces like these
where published and could easily be misconstrued for his death. Various conferences and events could also
be misperceived. But then there's a South African book from
1991 containing this enigmatic passage: "The chaos that erupted in the ranks of the
ANC when Nelson Mandela died on the 23rd of July, 1991, brought the January 29th, 1991,
Inkatha-ANC peace accord to nothing." So, is this undeniable proof of a
parallel universe? Not really. The book is merely a collection of poetry
and fictional stories written by high-school students as part of various assignments. Not exactly an historical account. Then again, if we're shifting between alternate
realities anything's possible, right? I think a paper titled False Memories and
Confabulation put it very succinctly. "The feeling of remembering is important to our
well-being, but so is the feeling of not remembering that accompanies vague, inconsistent,
or implausible recollections." "Accurate memory is knowing when we do not remember as well as knowing when we do."
Am I weird for getting excited about an upload from you?
I like how he is constantly roasting the Mandela effect by providing the most plausible explenation and immediately following it up with "or it could be a parallel universe, of course".
Didn't you already make a video on this?
First time that I watch one of your videos in 60 fps, this is very satisfying for my little brain that don't always remember things.
I like it, you have an open mind on the subject and even though personally I think it's a pretty silly concept I was very interested by your take on it.
I liked it but I wish that you mentioned that guy who stood in front of the tank cuz a lot of people told me that he got crushed by the tank but that is not the case.
Dota 2 TI and a video from you? Pretty great day!