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Culture August 1, 2017
Get ready.
“What if I told you everything you know is a lie?” … including the fact that Morpheus never actually said that line in the “Matrix” movie.
You’ve just experienced the Mandela Effect. But what is that?
ENTITY did some research about the conspiracy taking the internet by storm and found 50 mind blowing (and infuriating) examples.
The Mandela Effect is a phenomenon where a large number of people have a false memory about an event or fact. Nelson Mandela’s death in 2013 was the initial event to spark the conspiracy because multiple people remembered him dying while in prison in the 1980s.
People claimed they recalled news clips and TV coverage of Nelson’s funeral. But that’s not what happened.
After being released from prison, the activist was the president of South Africa and he lived for the next three decades.
But, Nelson Mandela’s death was only the beginning. Since then, people online have found multiple instances of the Mandela Effect.
People have tried to debunk the phenomenon by saying the Mandela Effect is a simple case of misremembering events or facts. However, others chalk it up to explanations as wild as parallel universes and merging with other dimensions.
Either way, we promise these will leave you scratching your head and questioning what you actually know about reality.
After Nelson Mandela’s death, the “Berenstain Bears” debacle is one of the most popular Mandela Effects. Numerous people distinctly remember the children’s book spelled “Berenstein,” with an e. However, the series has always been named the “Berenstain Bears.”
Adding to the eeriness of the debate, a user on Reddit found an old VHS tape with the “e” spelling. So what actually is the truth? We don’t know anymore.
One of the most iconic lines of the Star Wars franchise is when Darth Vader says, “Luke I am your father.” But what if we told you he never actually said it?
We swear we’re not making this up. Play the clip and you’ll hear he actually says, “No, I am your father.”
Don’t feel bad if you’re totally questioning your existence right now because even James Earl Jones, the voice of Darth Vader, remembers the line with Luke’s name.
When you think of C3PO, the first thing to come to mind is his shiny gold body. However, to many “Star Wars” fans’ confusion, his right leg is actually silver.
Online Mandela Effect debunkers say his right leg was always silver. They argue his original leg got damaged, but there was no longer gold material around to create a new one.
While Carrie, Charlotte, Samantha and Miranda had a lot of sex in the city on their six-season show, the show itself is actually called “Sex and the City.”
Old memorabilia also supports the Mandela Effect notion, with pictures surfacing of a perfume set that clearly says “Sex in the City.”
Like the Luke line in Star Wars, many “Forrest Gump” fans love quoting the line he says at the bus stop. Mama always told him, “Life is like a box of chocolates,” right?
Nope. Mama always told him, “Life was like a box of chocolates.” The past tense version doesn’t make grammatical sense to us either, but if you play the clip, you’ll clearly hear him say “was.”
Everyone can probably remember singing the Oscar Mayer jingle in their childhood. We all can agree our bologna has a first name and it’s O-S-C-A-R. But when it comes to our bologna’s second name, there is a huge debate going on.
Many people remember the last name of the popular hotdog brand as “Meyer.” In reality, it’s Oscar Mayer.
Most everyone remembers playing Monopoly as a child. While you may not know the Monopoly Man’s name is Rich Uncle Pennybags, you probably remember him for his monocle.
The only thing is, he never wore one.
The popular retail store has always been JCPenney. However, many still vividly remember the store being called JCPenny.
This one may just be a case of misspelling, but the next one will have you seriously questioning your memory.
There’s no time for losers because we are the champions. That’s it. That’s where it ends because Freddy Mercury never says “of the world” at the end of the song.
Don’t believe us? Hit that play button.
They do say “of the world” earlier in the song, but the iconic crescendoing finish seems empty without its final expression. The song builds up to the end and then trails off after he says “we are the champions.”
In 1985, when Sally Field was accepting her Oscar for “Best Actress” in “Places in the Heart,” she gave a memorable speech. But do you remember it correctly? You may be thinking she said, “You like me, you really like me.”
She really said, “You like me, right now, you like me.”
Another theory among commenters in Mandela Effect forums is that her name was Sally Fields – with the s – in the alternate universe where she said, “You like me, you really like me.”
For many “I Love Lucy” fans, quoting Ricky saying, “Lucy, you’ve got some ‘splaining to do” is one of their favorite things about the show.
You guessed it. Ricky never said that.
He told Lucy to “splain” and even to “start ‘splaining” multiple times on the show but he never said the full phrase in all of its 181 episodes.
It seems with age comes happiness, at least when it comes to the Mona Lisa. For this Mandela Effect, people believe the popular painting once contained a woman whose smile was hardly detectable.
They remember the woman being heavily debated for her downturned mouth that still appeared to be smiling. However, it no longer seems like that’s the case for Da Vinci’s masterpiece.
Now, it seems her smile is a pretty obvious smirk.
As a child, it was always exciting getting drawn into Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. Singing the opening song along with the lovable grandpa figure was one of the best parts.
However, there’s a new twist to the song we all thought we remembered so well. He doesn’t sing, “It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.” Instead he says, “It’s a beautiful day in this neighborhood.”
We guess it’s not a beautiful day in any other neighborhood.
We know, it doesn’t even look right. If you haven’t picked up one of these chocolate bars in ages, you may not have noticed.
We don’t get this one either, but the KitKat logo no longer has the hyphen. So did we all make up the Kit-Kat wrapper in our heads?
“Interview with the Vampire” is a popular horror film based on the 1976 Anne Rice novel. However, people remember it with a slightly different title, “Interview with a Vampire.”
The latter movie title is so popular that when searched on Google, it comes up as the suggested term instead of the actual title.
At least it’s still true that they put pickles on their chicken sandwiches and they aren’t open on Sundays. The popular fast food restaurant isn’t how you remember it in a pretty notable way. It’s called Chick-fil-A.
No, you read that right. It’s not Chik-fil-A or Chic-fil-A. It’s Chick-fil-A, despite people distinctly remembering the brand’s strange spelling.
When John F. Kennedy was shot, his motorcade had six people in the car, not four. This is going to be pretty hard to explain to the people who clearly remember the two people in the very front of the car as being nonexistent.
The angle of the footage can probably account for the missing people in the limousine, but this will still be weird for the people who don’t remember ever seeing them before.
In another famously misquoted movie line, Hannibal Lecter never greets Clarice Starling by saying, “Hello, Clarice” in “Silence of the Lambs.”
But even without the line, the cannibal killer is still really creepy.
It may seem counterintuitive to imagine a monkey without its tail. However, “Curious George” has always featured such an animal.
While many remember George with a long, curving tail, he doesn’t actually have one. Tell that to the dozens of people who dress up like the lovable monkey for Halloween, tail and all.
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?” Well, it’s not likely he’s going to tell you when you address him wrong.
Snow White’s evil stepmother actually says, “Magic mirror on the wall.” We didn’t believe it either.
If you’re not even halfway through the list and suffering a Mandela Effect meltdown, add this one to your list. Many believe the comedian Sinbad was in a 1990s movie called “Shazaam,” where he played a genie.
Sinbad himself said he never played the character. The movie also never existed.
Mandela Effect debunkers think he’s being confused with Shaq, who played a genie in the movie “Kazaam” in 1996. However, some online forum commenters hold true to their memory and say the Shaq movie was intended to be a parody of the original Sinbad flick.
If you were with the Pokémon GO crowd of the last year, you probably became pretty reminiscent of your childhood watching Pikachu and Jiggly Puff battle Pokémon on screen.
However, you also may have realized Pikachu’s tail looks a little different. Many Pokemon fans say they remember his tail having a black stripe. It didn’t.
That’s not how fruit is spelled.
Well, that didn’t stop Kellogg from naming their cereal brand “Froot Loops.” While it makes creative sense that the double o’s would mimic the word “loops,” people still believe the cereal once had the correct spelling.
The cereal doesn’t contain real fruit, so maybe it’s a good thing the title isn’t misleading.
Jif peanut butter is likely in most everyone’s pantry right now. But this debate isn’t over whether it’s creamy or crunchy.
Mandela Effect believers remember the jelly-counterpart brand as Jiffy. However, no such brand exists in this universe.
It seems pretty ironic that a brand advertising to fix your mistakes has a clear misspelling in its title. That’s right, White Out is actually Wite Out.
Hopefully the product works better than its name.
Mickey Mouse’s high-waisted shorts are totally in style. But, we hope they’re pretty tight so they don’t fall down because Disney’s most famous character doesn’t have his iconic suspenders.
While the official cartoons don’t show Mickey with shoulder straps, people say they had toys and stuffed animals when they were younger that had the mouse in his “full” outfit.
This may be another case of people commonly misspelling a difficult name, but people swear they remember Mahatma, the Indian civil rights leader’s, last name as Ghandi.
In reality, it’s Gandhi.
The lovable forest animal who tells kids they can prevent forest fires is named Smokey Bear not Smokey the Bear like We. All. Remember.
What you may not know is Smokey Bear was an actual bear cub who escaped a New Mexico wildfire in the Spring of 1950.
One explanation for this Mandela Effect is the bear’s actual name differs from the 1952 Steve Nelson and Jack Rollins’ song, which calls him “Smokey the Bear.”
While discussing history with her husband, one woman discovered she believed the tank ran over the protestor who blocked its path in Tiananmen Square in 1989. Her husband remembered it going around him.
In reality, the tank goes around him.
So why did they have different memories? It’s possible the woman was merging the massacre, which occurred in Tiananmen Square, with what happened the day before, when Chinese officials killed hundreds to thousands of students protesting their regime.
In yet another misquoted movie line, the movie “Field of Dreams” has the line, “If you build it, he will come.” Most people think the line is, “If you build it, they will come,” which makes sense, considering the main character Ray builds a baseball diamond and baseball players show up.
However, the actual line almost feels like the movie should have a biblical context.
No, it’s not, “I’m a barbie girl, in a barbie world.” Aqua is referring to a very specific barbie world, “the” barbie world to be exact.
Don’t worry, we’re singing it wrong in our heads right now, too.
The tool most of us used for every book report ever written is called CliffsNotes not CliffNotes. This makes sense considering its creator’s name was Clifton, but we can’t help but think it just sounds wrong.
We’re not the only ones. Even Wikipedia addresses the common misconception that the study guides are called CliffNotes.
Daylight isn’t the only thing being saved. The term Daylight Saving Time is also saving the use of the second “s.” That’s right, it was never Daylight Savings Time.
The actual version sounds more grammatically correct, but that doesn’t explain why so many people remember it incorrectly.
They’re cartoon characters. They don’t sing or have special musical abilities. So we’re just as baffled when it comes to “Looney Toons” actually being called “Looney Tunes.”
Apparently Walt Disney based “Looney Tunes” off the musical series “Silly Simphonies” – in this universe, at least.
Apparently Roy was planning on flying or teleporting out of the situation.
When Jaws shows up for the first time in this iconic scene, he says, “You’re gonna need a bigger boat” instead of “We’re gonna need a bigger boat.”
It’s odd that he wouldn’t include himself in the danger, but nevertheless, he deems the massive man-eater lurking in the waters below as someone else’s problem.
People remember Pixy Stix spelled like a fairy’s sugary treat. However, Pixie Stix never existed.
Those following the Mandela Effect aren’t the only ones getting this wrong. Popular retailers Dollar Tree and Kmart advertise the product as Pixie Stix, despite the picture clearly spelling Pixy with a “y.”
If you think chartreuse is a pinkish purple shade, sorry to tell you, but you’re wrong again. The actual color is a yellowish green.
The color is clearly seen on Chartreuse liquor, which has been around since the late 1700s. But, it’s weird to think we’ve been mistaking the color for so long.
The air freshener brand is intended to bring a fresh breeze to your house, but its actual name is Febreze. It just doesn’t look right for the single “e” to make the double “ee” sound.
However, maybe the squiggly line on top is supposed to indicate it’s a long “e.”
We’re thinking this one sounds pretty sketchy because Skechers no longer has the “t” many remember. The popular shoe brand has always been “Skechers.”
Don’t believe us? Type it into Google and you will see no shoes or brand logos contain the “t.”
Like the original Mandela Effect, many think Gene Wilder is yet another example of Nelson Mandela’s multiple deaths.
Online Redditors remember Wilder dying a few years back, with “Willy Wonka” played on TV in memory of him. He actually died in Aug. 2016.
The popular chip is known for its circular shape and onion flavor, but there seems to be one distinct change to how people remember its packaging.
While that circular shape and play on the word onion was also once emphasized in the title “Funyons,” it now no longer exists. In this timeline, it’s always been “Funyuns.”
In April 2012, Mike and Ike made headlines because its ad campaign featured the popular duo “breaking-up.” But, the little joke about the candy isn’t the only thing catching people’s eye.
Many remember the brand being called Mike ‘n Ike and can clearly picture it on the box. But, if you look now, the “‘N” is clearly “and.”
Think back to your high school history class for this one. People claim that when learning about Henry VIII, the detail that stood out – along with his obsession with having multiple wives – was an iconic portrait.
In this painting, they claim he was holding a turkey’s leg. We’re calling foul on this one because turkey wasn’t brought to his country during his time period. However, it’s possible people are remembering the leg right and just getting the animal wrong.
Either way, the painting now doesn’t show him holding a bird leg of any sort.
As a child, the toy that stumped a lot of kids was the Rubix cube. It didn’t matter which way you turned and twisted, the correct color pattern seemed impossible to achieve.
It also seems impossible that the toy’s actual name is Rubik’s cube.
Going to the popular arcade to eat pizza and jump in the ball pit was a favorite past time of many ’90s kids. However, the popular birthday arena was never called Chuck E. Cheese.
It’s always been Chuck E. Cheese’s. We’re still refusing to believe this is true, but if it is, our brains definitely automatically corrected an awkward title.
Every college student’s go-to dinner seems to have a new name. While we once remembered our microwavable noodle brand as Cup ‘O Noodles, it’s actually just Cup Noodles.
Say it out loud. It sounds so uncomfortable!
The spelling on this will make you cringe. Double Stuffed Oreos aren’t stuffed or even Double Stuff, they’re Double Stuf Oreos.
This may be another case of purposely misspelling a title to garner a trademark. But, it’s so weird to look at. It also may be to save the brand from getting sued since these Oreos don’t actually contain double the creme stuffing.
Staying home sick from school was worth it if you could flip on “Judge Judy” and see her berate the defendants. Many remember her maintaining order in the court by swinging her gavel against the podium.
However, not once in its 21 seasons will you see the popular judge with a gavel.
Well, now it’s time for a major binge sesh.
“Alice in Wonderland” produced many memorable characters. From Alice in her iconic blue dress to the Cheshire Cat, the characters have been reproduced in tons of memorabilia and even tattoos on people’s skin.
This includes Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.
However, there’s one detail many are getting wrong. The twins never had propellers on the top of their hats. In reality, they had green flags.
If you’ve been to a Halloween party in the past 10 years, you’ve likely seen someone dressed in a white men’s dress shirt and sunglasses. They’re Tom Cruise from the iconic “Risky Business” dance scene, of course.
Only, that’s not what he was wearing in the movie.
As you can see from watching the scene, he is wearing a pink pinstriped shirt and no shades, although he does wear sunglasses throughout the rest of the movie.
If you’re currently having an existential crisis, don’t worry, we totally are, too.
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