The Mandela Effect has gone mainstream. Now that the internet is buzzing with wild theories and new examples every day, it's time to go over where the ideas originated, and consider in detail what exactly might be causing it.
- Carter Tweed 0 Comments
Grumpy cat died again?
MMDE: Grumpy cat died before 2019
Current: Grumpy cat died in 2019
Many people were surprised to hear Grumpy Cat died in 2019 because they were sure she'd died already. There's confusion over when, with some reporting 2016, some 2018, and some even remembering both.
Her real name was Tardar Sauce, and she was born on April 4, 2012. She had the unfortunate condition of feline dwarfism, but it's likely she experienced no real difference in her life compared to other cats as a result, apart from her stellar internet fame because of it, of course.
It all began with a posting to the Reddit news site of her photograph when she was only 6 months old in 2012. She caused an immediate internet sensation, and many memes and photoshopped parodies sprang up giving her worldwide fame.
- Ian Scott 0 Comments
World's first science fiction story?
MMDE: 1818
Current: 2AD
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein might seem like a stereotype to some today, with it's monster and mad scientist ideas having been done to death many times since it first appeared in 1818. This is misleading, however, because at that time the concepts were truly original and shocking; so much so that the first notion of science being at the heart of fiction in a story created an entirely new genre - science fiction.
Brian Aldiss claims Frankenstein represents "the first seminal work to which the label SF can be logically attached".
The Frankenstein story contributes to the widely popular narrative of science fiction originating in the victorian era, with further works from Jules Verne and HG Wells etc reinforcing this. This means the idea that the true origins turn out to be a couple of thousand years earlier is quite a shock to them.
- Carter Tweed 0 Comments
How many books were lost when it was destroyed?
MMDE: Thousands
Current: None
It was a noble goal - to house a copy of every book in the world in one place. That was the vision of the rulers of Alexandria 2,300 years ago. They built a library with huge storage areas to house the scrolls, and it attracted scholars the world over to study and contribute.
However, in the year 5 BC it was said to be destroyed in a catastrophic fire. The legend is this was a disaster for all mankind, and the loss of such irretrievable knowledge "set mankind back 1000 years". Many people have been led to believe this, and it comes as such a shock to them to hear no books or scrolls were lost, that it's being pointed to as a Mandela Effect.
- Carter Tweed 0 Comments
Who started the Olympic flame relay?
MMDE: Ancient Greeks
Current: Nazi Germany
We're all familiar with the origin of the Olympic games.
Starting in ancient Greece from the 8th century BC, in the city which bears it's name, Olympia, they ran until the 4th century AD before being started again in the modern era with the first being held in Athens in 1896. Of great significance is the opening ceremony, for which in turn the famous Olympic Torch plays a huge role.
Just as well known is the relay the torch is carried through, traditionally starting from Olympia, before lighting the cauldron during the opening ceremony and finally being extinguished at the closing ceremony. What surprises many people is that this relay only began with the Nazis introducing it for propaganda purposes when Germany hosted the Olympics in 1936, since they were sure it had been a feature of the Olympics all along.
- Ray Wu 0 Comments
I was a teenage Gary
MMDE: Contains Squidward snail morph scene
Current: Does not contain Squidward snail morph scene
There's an episode from the early days of SpongeBob SquarePants which has been hotly discussed amongst it's fans for years. The title of the episode is "I was a teenage Gary". It's interesting because it fits the exact pattern of a Mandela Effect without them realising that's what it is, because it concerns a scene many of them remember but can't find any references to today apart from those memories.
The scene is where Squidward gets accidentaly injected with a medicine not meant for him, and he turns into a snail. The actual transformation is missing today, but there are many who remember seeing it and instantly wondered, when watching re-runs, why it had been deleted.
- Ian Scott 0 Comments
The whites of their eyes
MMDE: 'The Birds' from 1963 was filmed in black and white
Current: 'The Birds' from 1963 was filmed in color
Here's another Mandela Effect, like The Fly, which is concerned with whether a movie was originally filmed in color or black and white. This time it's Hitchcock's 1963 thriller "The Birds".
Based on the 1952 Daphne Due Marier story of the same name, the movie shows a series of unexplained attacks by birds on a small, ordinary American town over a few days.
Many of the special effects were actually firsts, including a precursor to the green-screen technique used throughout the video and movie industries today.
- Ian Scott 0 Comments
Say his name how many times?
MMDE: Say 'Candyman' 3 times
Current: Say 'Candyman' 5 times
Candyman was the 1992 movie in which all who saw him were certainly not about to receive a sweet treat.
Written by Clive Barker, from Hellraiser fame, it focuses on an urban legend which describes the summoning of an entity by saying his name a certain number of times in front of a mirror. The Mandela Effect here is that number, because whilst today it shows it was 5, many people are saying they remember it being 3.
Even weirder is that this is shown in the movie to be able to change, because at the end one character says "Helen" 4 times to summon a spirit.
