Here's a fun topic: Have you ever remembered something, only to find out that you're wrong?
Like the spelling of 'Berenstain Bears', which I did a whole Angry Nerd episode about, but just to recap:
Many people remember the spelling as 'Berenstein' with an E,
only to find out later it's spelled 'Berenstain' with an A.
When I made the episode I was fooling around, I was making entertainment,
but I DO remember it spelled with an E.
I first noticed the correct spelling when I was reading one of the books to my daughter.
I thought it was strange, but I probably hadn't touched a Berenstain Bears book in over 20 years,
so after all that time I just figured my memory was faulty.
But then I heard the same thing from so many other people and learned that it was big on the Internet,
and lots of people remember the alternate spelling.
This is called the Mandela Effect, named after Nelson Mandela,
who people falsely believe died in prison in the 80s.
The term applies to all memories that turn out to be wrong.
The man from the Monopoly games, Rich Uncle Pennybags, had a monocle... right?
But no, actually he didn't!
Curious George was always getting into trouble, swinging around by his tail...
Oh wait, he didn't have a tail!
Come on, no tail? Really?!
There's many interesting theories, some of which suggest that false memories are proof of an alternate universe.
So if you remember Berenstain with an A, you're from this universe,
but all us who remember the E spelling, we crossed over from an alternate universe,
some time between our childhoods and now.
So if you have a friend with a conflicting memory, then your friend isn't actually the same friend!
The Mandela Effect has tons of examples in geography, food products, historical dates and events,
but I'm gonna focus on movies and TV.
There's a famous example that came up recently where tons of people remember a movie called Shazaam,
with a genie played by the comedian Sinbad.
Sinbad replied to all this and said there's no such movie, it never happened,
but then somebody found a picture of Sinbad in a genie costume
and it turned out he played a genie, but it was for a special TV broadcast
where he was hosting the Ray Harryhausen movie Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger, on TNT.
But anyway, this could have been the cause of some of the false memory,
but more likely it's because Shazaam sounds like Kazaam,
which WAS a real movie from '96 and had a genie.
But the genie was Shaq. Sinbad wasn't in it anywhere.
It seems obvious that everyone's remembering the movie Kazaam,
but they insist that it's two separate movies, even saying Kazaam was a rip-off of Shazaam.
Last minute update! I'm working on this video here and, uh, April Fool's Day happens,
and Sinbad actually makes Shazaam! At least a two-minute clip.
And I really commend him for that, for being in on the joke.
So now, Shazaam does exist. Partly.
I should also note that there was an unrelated TV series called Shazam,
and I just found out it's also the title of an upcoming movie based on Captain Marvel,
but it's one of TWO movies based on Captain Marvel that are both coming out in 2019!
I... am so fucking confused.
Anyway...
Well, all this time I thought we were talking about a completely different movie, Space Jam!
I confused two real movies, probably because they rhyme - Space Jam, Kazaam...
They both star basketball players - Michael Jordan, Shaq,
they both came out the same year, and both had flashy effects.
I've never seen either of them, so my brain combined them.
The movie I had in my head had a genie with Looney Tunes characters running around.
And... it was called Shazaam.
So I had it all messed up!
Speaking of Looney Tunes, you know it's spelled T-U-N-E-S? Like music tunes?
I always thought it was T-O-O-N-S like cartoons, doesn't that make more sense?
That's another one lots of people remember, and I agree, it's strange.
Here's some of my own: In National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation,
during the scene when Clark Griswold is trying to get his Christmas lights lit up,
he gets mad and beats up a Santa Claus lawn ornament.
In my memory he hits it several times before it flies off the sleigh and lands on the ground.
Then he gets on top of it and continues punching Santa in the face repeatedly,
as the family stands there watching him lose his mind.
The scene basically plays out the same, except he only gives Santa one punch and one kick,
and then after Santa flies off... he never touches it again.
So my version was even funnier, but it never happened that way.
So you never know, maybe there's a lost scene or a different version out there,
but most likely it's just bad memory.
In the '89 Batman movie, there's something I remember vividly.
When the Joker is throwing money out to the crowd and one of the dollars lands on his hat,
I remember getting a clear look at the face of the bill, and it's the Joker's face!
But whenever I pause that scene, I'm never able to make it out again, so was I wrong?
I never forgot earlier in the movie when he's pestering Vicki Vale, she asks him "What do you want?"
And he stops and thinks about it for a second in that awkward kind of beat that only Jack Nicholson could pull off,
and then he says: "My face on the one dollar bill."
I find that to be one of the funniest moments because the way he says it is sarcastic,
like he's trying to be a wiseass.
So when he throws the money, I thought it was a follow-up to that scene,
just a little in-joke or an easter egg, because you know the money had to be fake.
If movie studios print up money that looks realistic, that could be considered counterfeiting, which is a serious crime,
so it made sense to me that they would do something funny, like put his face on it.
Upon further research, I found that in the comic adaptation
the Joker actually counterfeits all that money, and it actually DOES have his face on it!
Plus, in the movie the crowd scene was cut shorter. Supposedly there's a deleted portion
where the crowd discovers the money is fake and has the Joker's face on them.
So maybe I'm remembering that, but I can't find this deleted portion,
nor can I get a good look at any of those dollars.
Maybe his face is there, maybe it isn't, but with all those dollars flying around it could be anywhere.
This kind of thing can happen often when you're doing movie reviews.
I first noticed my goof with the Joker dollar when I was doing a series of Batman reviews many years ago.
If it was a movie I was really familiar with, I'd skip watching it, I'd write the script first,
then I'd record my voice, and then I'd look for all the clips and add them all in,
so here I am talking about the Joker dollar, let me go grab that clip...
Oh wait, where is it? I can't find it. But I remember it?
Oh well, I'll just cut that part of the review.
It happened again with my recent King Kong videos.
I was talking about how Kong was originally meant to be in Godzilla vs. the Sea Monster,
and then Godzilla took Kong's place.
And I was pointing out how there's occasions where Godzilla sorta acts like Kong in that movie,
He picks up the girl, Dayo... but that's not what really happens,
he never picks her up, he just stares at her!
But I distinctly remember, he puts her in his hand and I even remember how the effect was done!
There were two shots, one was from Godzilla's perspective, looking down,
and she was blue-screened onto his palm.
It looked very poor, you could imagine,
and the other shot was looking at Godzilla with Dayo in the foreground,
so, this shot, she was actually holding on to these life-sized Godzilla claws.
Again, they were cheap and it was just the tips of his claws,
it wasn't the whole hand like in the original Kong.
And Godzilla's face was in the background, either with a rear-projection or a blue screen.
But I guess it never happened, I looked at the DVD, the old VHS tape,
and it's not in there, so... I must be wrong!
Also, I mentioned the scene in Peter Jackson's Kong, where there's skeletal remains of other Kongs.
I thought this was a nod to the original, because in the original Kong,
I remembered seeing a skeleton Kong in one of the backgrounds.
It was in the cave scene, and it was visible some time before Kong fights the plesiosaur.
It was tucked away in a dark corner, almost blending in with the rocks.
It wasn't very noticeable, but I thought I saw it.
All these years later... it's gone!
This is one of those instances where I wonder if I hallucinated it,
because back when I noticed it, I brought it up to a friend immediately, I said:
"Yo, I was watching Kong last night and I saw this skeleton!"
Memory can be faulty, but how did my memory screw up something that quickly,
unless my memory OF the memory is screwing it up, I don't know.
Have you ever had any moments like these?
Let me know if you happen to share any of these same memories,
and let me know your own examples of the Mandela Effect.