Mandela effects and personal Mandela effects thread - Bernstein/Bernstain, Pikachu Tail, Mandela, now we got those out of the way.

[skykiii]

So another one popped up just now.

I was chatting with a friend. We got to discussing the concept of "White Privilege" and I made a joke that if White is so privileged, how come Black gets to move first in both Go and Chess?

To which my friend responded "... White moves first in Chess."

So I had to look into it and... it's true, white moves first.

But wait, no. I swear it's always been that Black moves first. Though I do recall games with my grandpa where we would flip a coin, though that could have been a house rule. Under normal circumstances though, I remember black going first.

Does anyone else remember it that way?

 

[Otterly]

The statue by Rodin, the thinker. I always picture it with his fist in his forehead but I saw an article of it the other day and it’s not. It’s under his chin.
And the WOW signal, I swear I remember that was said to have been beamed out from the direction of Orion.
And I would swear that walkers used to have cheese and onion crisps in green and salt and vinegar in blue but I’m told that is how it’s always been and only golden wonder did that …

 

[CWCvilleTourist420]

The only case that comes to my mind was at the beginning of last year. I wanted to visit a museum that was directly near the bus I take to and from work. I thought it was in a cul-de-sac at the right side of the road where Line A goes through Town II, but turns out it was Line B. But at first, I was totally sure it was A, we even spend like 20 min searching. I even had clear mental images that it was where I thought. This confusion happened even though I rode that bus hundreds of times.

EDIT: Related, I had a weird synchronicity today. Yesterday I talked to somebody, we came to how society goes down the drain and the internet is full of stupid people, and I mentioned a girl who didn't know what a planet was and that Earth is a planet. I ran into her next town today, I was walking down the street and she saw and recognised me from her car. I wonder what the hidden meaning of this was.

 

[skykiii]

EDIT: Related, I had a weird synchronicity today. Yesterday I talked to somebody, we came to how society goes down the drain and the internet is full of stupid people, and I mentioned a girl who didn't know what a planet was and that Earth is a planet. I ran into her next town today, I was walking down the street and she saw and recognised me from her car. I wonder what the hidden meaning of this was.

Maybe its her fate to be in your... orbit.

 

[Private Tag Reporter]

I swear it's always been that Black moves first.

You might be misremembering it if you learned checkers first, and later learned chess. In checkers, black always moves first.

No clue about Go though.

 

[Dysnomia]

Ver archivo adjunto 4941562

I thought she just said: I'm ready for my closeup, DeMille.

I think we can thank many a cartoon parody for this one. I'm pretty sure I heard the incorrect line on Tiny Toon Adventures or Animaniacs. Maybe both. And it goes back further than that. Plenty of cartoons and TV shows would use the incorrect line.

He set himself on fire trying to freebase cocaine in 1980. Crack was a later improvement of the same idea as freebasing (the underlying chemical is the same). He did talk about his fire accident in his stand up (in particular how much it hurt when the burns were healing). But it didn't coincide with him leaving public life, he appeared in Superman III after the fire incident. The thing that happened in 1986 was that he was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which is what eventually killed him. When I first heard of him in the 90s, I just assumed he was dead, and was surprised to hear later that he approved of Dave Chappelle, so must still be alive.

Richard Pryor's last film was Lost Highway. He plays Pete's boss at the autobody shop. He was pretty badly disabled from MS at that point.

It's also Robert Blake's last film. He's really creepy in it.

Am I the only one that remembers the fact Jackie Kennedy died with her husband by the same ricochet bullet that killed John at the Dallas motorcade? But now she died just over 30 years later.

It wasn't until the past couple of years that I saw all these JFK Mandelas pop up. Probably because I don't seek them out as I suffer from severe JFK fatigue at this point. Another one I heard is that Jackie secretly shot JFK from a gun hidden in her bouquet. That one just sounds outlandish to me.

 

[skykiii]

You might be misremembering it if you learned checkers first, and later learned chess. In checkers, black always moves first.

No clue about Go though.

in Go, black definitely moves first. In fact they had to institute a rule called "komi" (white gets free points) because black going first is considered a huge advantage.

Go is a game I play a lot and am basically obsessed with, so if I wake up tomorrow and someone is telling me white moves first, that would be like telling me He-Man never had an enemy named Skeletor.

Another one I heard is that Jackie secretly shot JFK from a gun hidden in her bouquet. That one just sounds outlandish to me.

Yeah, a gun fired close to the victim would be obvious. Also the bullet ricocheted and hit other people in the car, which can't happen from a handgun at close range like that. It happening with a rifle makes far more sense.

 

[Dysnomia]

What about the spelling of "dilemma"? I remember being really young and my mom telling me it was spelled "dilemna" and the "n" was silent. She was born in 1956 and likely heard this in school so it's been around for awhile. So the origin is not recent. Dilemma is not a word that most people are going to be spelling on a daily basis. It's understandable that some people might misspell it from time to time. But that would be more like "delemma" or "dillemma" or whatever. Certainly not "dilemna". Where on Earth did this come from? And Why did I believe it for so long? It's a more common mistake than I realised.

Which brings me to that word. "realised". I swear I, A US born American, grew up spelling it with an "s" and not a "z". But the "z" is the American spelling? It looks so wrong. Realize? Really? It's not that I don't know they are the same word It's that I do not recall it ever using a "z" to begin with. It's like that spelling suddenly appeared out of thin air. This could just be my own personal retardation though. I'm open to interpretations.

A few other American spellings look wrong to me too. I'm not sure why though. This is something that I experienced pre-internet so I can't blame the "World Wide" in World Wide Web for all of it.

I wanted to address the Berenstain/Berenstein Mandela Effect with a quote I found from Stan and Jan's son Mike, which proves this is an issue that has been around for nearly a century and actually predates the books themselves. It really helps explain what the problem actually is. If you are going for realism and not diverging timelines or universes.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berenstain_Bears#Name_Discrepancy

Many people incorrectly remember the name of the series as the "Berenstein Bears". This confusion has generated multiple explanations of the memories, including an unannounced name change, time travel, or parallel universes, and has been described as an instance of the Mandela effect. According to Mike Berenstain, confusion over the name has existed since his father's childhood, when a teacher told him there was no such name as "Berenstain" and the correct spelling was "Bernstein". A few examples of the "Berenstein" spelling have been found in references to and knockoffs of official merchandise and publications, and cartoons for the series used an ambiguous pronunciation which may contribute to the false memory.

Even Stan's teacher told him his own name was wrong. Bernstein is pretty close to Berenstein and it's what people are defaulting to because Berenstain is such an unusual name and the age group the books are aimed at are still learning how to spell. But it's legitimately the authors' surname and always was. To say that the books are wrong is to say that Stan and Jan "Berenstein" have also Mandela Effected themselves somehow, the entire family is wrong about their name and Stan's teacher may not have bothered to correct "Berenstein" as it looked more plausible than "Berenstain". That teacher, nearly 100 years ago, (Stan was born in 1923) would be the first person affected by the Berenstain Mandela Effect. And the teacher thought it was "Bernstein". Now doesn't that start running mighty deep?

We're gonna need a bigger shovel.

 

[TenMilesWide]

like telling me He-Man never had an enemy named Skeletor.

This would be the part where I tell you He-Man's enemy is named Mumm-Ra, and he only fought Skeletor in the 2016 Thundercats crossover comic. Of course, that would be a lie. But it'd be funny.

 

[Dysnomia]

I just went to look up something about Berenstain Bears and found that I typed Berenstein instead. See how easy it is even when you know the correct name?

So this might be a stupid question to ask but I don't think anyone has thought to point it out yet. When people read "Berenstein Bears" in the title do they also see Stan and Jan Berenstein at the bottom? No one ever brings this up or even addresses the authors names unless they are correcting people to "Berenstain". Just the name of the books. It's like people never bothered to check who created them. I understand kids ignoring the author credits. But adults should know better. It's right there.



Also, Curious George never had a tail. I remember being a bit confused that he was called a monkey when he had no tail and therefore looked more like a chimp to me. And I think this is why the Mandela Effect exists. Kids read "monkey" and expect a tail. Childhood memories get muddled, they pick up a book or see the cartoon as an adult and go "Where's the tail? He had a tail! He's a monkey."

 

[skykiii]

I just went to look up something about Berenstain Bears and found that I typed Berenstein instead. See how easy it is even when you know the correct name?

So, personally I was never affected by the "Berenstein/stain" thing because as a kid I had seen some of the cartoons. I remember at least one of them (or maybe an advert for them) actually read out the name, and those said "stain."

I do recall getting into arguments with kids at school who insisted it was "Berenstein" tho.

Which makes me wonder if the mandela is more common with people who had the books but never saw the cartoons.

Also, Curious George never had a tail. I remember being a bit confused that he was called a monkey when he had no tail and therefore looked more like a chimp to me.

One thing that used to annoy me with this is when people would bring this up, then show the modern design for Curry Greg* which to me is a problem because it leaves open the possibility that he doesn't have a tail now but may have in the past. Similar to any other time they show the modern version of something.

*This nickname comes from the Beavis and Butthead En-Suck-Lopedia

Another one that always bugged me when people would bring it up is the whole "Mirror Mirror" thing with Snow White. Because a lot of people would overlook the obvious explanation: that they had seen other versions of Snow White and just assumed the phrase was still in Disney's. But still its like, "oh, Disney didn't say it, therefore it didn't exist!"

People tend to forget that the phenomenon of Disney's version being the dominant cultural understanding of a thing is relatively recent, and in all honesty kind of astroturfed by the internet.

 

[Dysnomia]

So, personally I was never affected by the "Berenstein/stain" thing because as a kid I had seen some of the cartoons. I remember at least one of them (or maybe an advert for them) actually read out the name, and those said "stain."

I do recall getting into arguments with kids at school who insisted it was "Berenstein" tho.

Which makes me wonder if the mandela is more common with people who had the books but never saw the cartoons.


One thing that used to annoy me with this is when people would bring this up, then show the modern design for Curry Greg* which to me is a problem because it leaves open the possibility that he doesn't have a tail now but may have in the past. Similar to any other time they show the modern version of something.

*This nickname comes from the Beavis and Butthead En-Suck-Lopedia

Another one that always bugged me when people would bring it up is the whole "Mirror Mirror" thing with Snow White. Because a lot of people would overlook the obvious explanation: that they had seen other versions of Snow White and just assumed the phrase was still in Disney's. But still its like, "oh, Disney didn't say it, therefore it didn't exist!"

People tend to forget that the phenomenon of Disney's version being the dominant cultural understanding of a thing is relatively recent, and in all honesty kind of astroturfed by the internet.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cecily_G._and_the_Nine_Monkeys
I looked up the origin of Curious George. And he first appears in the H.A. Rey book "Cecily G. And The Nine Monkeys". H.A. Rey is the creator of Curious George. The Cecily G book was first published in France in 1939, where H.A. Rey was living at the time. Cecily was called Rafi in the French version.

This is the original illustration. As you can see, the monkeys are black. And they have no tails. H.A. Rey was both writer and illustrator. But he collaborated with his wife Margret for the Curious George series.



This is the cover of the first Curious George book. It was published in 1941.



In the earliest examples George does not have a tail. However, back then the term monkey was often used even for apes. You'll see it in old TV shows, movies and cartoons. I really think that's all there is to it. Maybe H.A. Rey thought the monkeys looked cuter without tails or were easier to draw. Maybe he used a chimp as a reference image. But in all official materials George is tailless. There are a number of monkey species without tails though, such as the macaque. In fact, the Barbary macaque is sometimes called the Barbary ape. Maybe George is supposed to be a macaque.

But I think in the end we can just chalk this up to H.A. Rey being a children's author and not a zoologist. Maybe he had a tail in some alternate timeline where Nic Cage played Superman and OJ Simpson played The Terminator. Or maybe people just automatically think of a tailed animal when they hear the word "monkey". I'll go for the latter. But I would love to see that Superman movie that never was.

Disney dominates fairy tales that they didn't even write. Magic Mirror is in the Disney film. But some non-Disney versions and even some Disney merchandise use "Mirror Mirror". There's also a horror movie with Karen Black called Mirror Mirror. Essentially, outcast goth girl movies into a house with a cursed mirror that allows her to kill her bullies in horrible ways. It was shown a lot on USA Up All Night. Which I know I watched as a kid. Maybe some other kids up past their bedtimes watching Troma films and horror schlock also saw it and it further muddled the line.

 

[skykiii]

There's also a horror movie with Karen Black called Mirror Mirror. Essentially, outcast goth girl movies into a house with a cursed mirror that allows her to kill her bullies in horrible ways. It was shown a lot on USA Up All Night. Which I know I watched as a kid. Maybe some other kids up past their bedtimes watching Troma films and horror schlock also saw it and it further muddled the line.

For me, my familiarity with the Snow White fairy tale comes from two sources.

One was an anime called Tales of Magic. I had a tape that had a bunch of episodes, among them Snow White.

There was also a different anime called Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics which used to air on Nickelodeon all the time, but I don't remember its version of Snow White particularly.

Another was this weird live-action film which I think was either German or Russian in origin. The VHS I had inserted a wraparound with some dude talking adding some info, but that's absent from this Youtube version here.

Both of these use "Mirror Mirror."

I also had a fairy tale book as a kid which, actually, was one of the first books I read.

Addendum

So, this isn't a personal one, but from one of my childhood friends.

When the AVGN first came out with his review of the Ghostbusters II NES game, and he said there was no final boss fight--Vigo is killed in a cutscene--my friend actually had to check that. Turned out, AVGN is right. But my friend swears up and down that he remembers actually having to fight Vigo. And this is in a copy of the game he owned as a kid (and no, he didn't somehow play the European Ghostbusters II by accident--we were kids in the eighties, we didn't have imports).

This same friend also said he remembers several cartoons (most notably G1 Transformers) having way more episodes than it actually did. In this case though he thinks that his uncle may have somehow had access to the dubs of the TF anime that aired in the Philippines.

(That said, said uncle also showed him a lot of computer stuff including Commodore 64 stuff, so this may be where his memory of actually fighting Vigo in Ghostbusters II comes from).

 

[Dysnomia]

When the AVGN first came out with his review of the Ghostbusters II NES game, and he said there was no final boss fight--Vigo is killed in a cutscene--my friend actually had to check that. Turned out, AVGN is right. But my friend swears up and down that he remembers actually having to fight Vigo. And this is in a copy of the game he owned as a kid (and no, he didn't somehow play the European Ghostbusters II by accident--we were kids in the eighties, we didn't have imports).

This same friend also said he remembers several cartoons (most notably G1 Transformers) having way more episodes than it actually did. In this case though he thinks that his uncle may have somehow had access to the dubs of the TF anime that aired in the Philippines.

(That said, said uncle also showed him a lot of computer stuff including Commodore 64 stuff, so this may be where his memory of actually fighting Vigo in Ghostbusters II comes from).

I did check to see what was cut from Ghostbusters II for NES. Because sometimes it's possible to glitch into unused or blocked off areas. While there are several unused levels for this version of the game none of them seem to be for fighting Vigo. Your friend may indeed be thinking of the Commodore 64 version.

Season 5 of G1 transformers isn't a proper season. Maybe that caused the confusion. Thinking he may have missed out on a whole season because it's really just a frankenseason of old episodes and the movie broken up into parts: https://tfwiki.net/wiki/The_Transformers_(cartoon)#Season_5

Speaking of TV in general, my uncle remembers The Hogan Family getting cancelled very quickly after it had to change from Valerie's Family due to Valerie Harper's huge salary disagreement. They fired her and killed off her character. She was the mom. That's cold.

No matter how many times I tell him he's wrong he doesn't believe me. The Hogan Family lasted more than one season. Likely due to Jason Bateman's popularity and Sandy Duncan's charm. There were 6 seasons. The show had multiple title changes. First called Valerie for two seasons (although I think they changed that in syndication) . Then, I guess to mark it as a transition point since Valerie was killed off offscreen in the first episode of season 3, Valerie's Family: The Hogan Family. Then for the last three seasons it was just The Hogan Family. I watched it every week and I know it went on for four seasons after they yeeted Valerie Harper. It did hop from NBC to CBS in the final season. Maybe that's what he's misremembering. But if he didn't watch the show after Valerie Harper was gone he may not have even noticed it was still on.

 

[Clovis]

The statue by Rodin, the thinker. I always picture it with his fist in his forehead but I saw an article of it the other day and it’s not. It’s under his chin.

Perhaps you're mashing it up with the old body builder strongman pose of the fist to the forehead. Here's Charles Atlas:-

Spoiler: Spoilered for beefcake bum

Re crisps: blue is *obviously* salt and vinegar, i feel that at a primal evolutionary level, and it always annoyed me that Walkers got it wrong.

 

[The Lawgiver]

back then the term monkey was often used even for apes.

That's even a thing to this day last I checked.

This same friend also said he remembers several cartoons (most notably G1 Transformers) having way more episodes than it actually did. In this case though he thinks that his uncle may have somehow had access to the dubs of the TF anime that aired in the Philippines.

The JP exclusive seasons still count as episodes of g1 as infamously insane as the hilariously shitty english dub for them that came out years later was. The airing of transformers in general is notoriously a clusterfuck, they got season 3 before the movie, and outside of g1 you have weird shit like beast wars being a parody dub that you'd need to have seen the english beast wars script to get some of the jokes of. There's even more weird shit going past then but the big thing to take away from this is Japan got like 3 more seasons or so of g1 we never saw even though they got the movie that described what led to season 3 later than everywhere else in the world which likely led to a shitload of kids being confused.

This reminds me though, I recently was talking with a friend about how old kids stuff had a lot more adulot jokes despite censoring violence for some reason and he told me that they cut out or skipped over the more blatant jokes in dragonball's TV airings like the "bulma your balls are gone!" one. I was confused byt his because I explicitly remember seeing that shit air on tv as a kid. I do not have any VHS tapes of OG dragonball as far as I'm aware so it'd have to had aired on TV for me to have remembered that shit for so long.

 

[Dysnomia]

I Mandela'd myself last night. I couldn't believe it. But I did. I was looking at more Transformers G1 stuff and landed on a page for Marissa Faireborn. So then I looked at Lady Jaye's page and was baffled for a second. "Where's her beret?".

It took me a few seconds to remember that Flint wears a beret and not Lady Jaye. I felt infinitely retarded.

Again, see how easy it is to be mistaken? Just like when I accidentally typed "Berenstein" instead of "Berenstain". Anyone can do it multiple times without realising at first that they are wrong. It doesn't mean I've shifted from the Berenstein/Lady Jaye's beret universe.

This reminds me though, I recently was talking with a friend about how old kids stuff had a lot more adulot jokes despite censoring violence for some reason and he told me that they cut out or skipped over the more blatant jokes in dragonball's TV airings like the "bulma your balls are gone!" one. I was confused byt his because I explicitly remember seeing that shit air on tv as a kid. I do not have any VHS tapes of OG dragonball as far as I'm aware so it'd have to had aired on TV for me to have remembered that shit for so long.

You may have saw an alternate dub. There are a few different ones. One of which is lost: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragon_Ball_(TV_series)#English_localization_and_broadcasting

All the dubs had varying degrees of censorship. But sometimes stuff slips by.

 

[Smar Mijou]

Am I the only one that remembers the fact Jackie Kennedy died with her husband by the same ricochet bullet that killed John at the Dallas motorcade? But now she died just over 30 years later.

This is definitely not a Mandela Effect. I distinctly remember her in her later years as Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

And I would swear that walkers used to have cheese and onion crisps in green and salt and vinegar in blue but I’m told that is how it’s always been and only golden wonder did that …

Most regional brands follow the normal color scheme. Sour cream and onion is green, S&V blue, BBQ orange, etc. Snyder's, UTZ, Conn's, Grippo's, Mister Bees, etc all use that scheme.

 

[Dysnomia]

The map related ME's really baffle me. Do these people not realise that not all maps are created equal? If they were than Hawaii and Alaska would be in a little box in the corner irl. New Zealand did not mysteriously move south because the map you saw in third grade is different from Google Earth. The non-existent north pole ice cap did not disappear because the world ended in 2012 and we're all dead or whatever. You are thinking of Greenland or some Santa Claus cartoon you saw when you were 5.

None of these yahoos even bother to research what's actually going on because they are compelled to post "OMG U gA1Z! New Zealand isn't north of Australia anymore and I'm losing my mind!".

 

[Rootless Cosmopolitan]

Re crisps: blue is *obviously* salt and vinegar, i feel that at a primal evolutionary level, and it always annoyed me that Walkers got it wrong.

There exist in this world, literally on the planet with us now, whole countries that think cream soda is green. It’s shocking.