# The cultural Glitch in the Matrix moment you're most convinced did exist.

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942>\
**Category:** Cafe Society\
**Created:** [March 21, 2018, 3:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942 "2018-03-21T03:24:10Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 17\
**Page:** 7

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**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 12:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/121 "2018-03-29T00:28:48Z")

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> [@minor7flat5](#):
>
> Both make sense–“give it to him because he hates everything, so if it’s good enough for him to actually like it then we will love it” and “give it to him because he will eat anything without putting up a fuss, then we can ask how it tastes”
> 
> I can’t dispute that he really did say “he hates everything” but it is sure amazing how many people from the Seventies remember the wrong phrase just like me.
> 
> As an aside, the other day I caught my daughter saying we ought to buy some Jiffy peanut butter–there is no such thing, but just like the Mikey thing there is a huge segment of the American population who believe Jiffy exists (Jif and Skippy do, but not Jiffy).

Probably confused it with Jiffy Pop stovetop popcorn.

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**Author:** ![Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/59ef9b/32.png) [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 12:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/122 "2018-03-29T00:30:02Z")

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> [@GESancMan](#):
>
> That’s your Quantum Leap moment.

Oh boy…

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**Author:** ![John\_DiFool](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_difool/32/19543_2.png) [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/123 "2018-03-29T01:01:27Z")

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Musical ones, anyone?

Because I’ve got one.

My 10th grade lit teacher was doing Poe one week, so he brought in the Alan Parsons Project’s debut album, natch, Tales of Mystery and Imagination (note I quickly went out and bought the album myself, and must have played it half to death for a couple of years after). I very clearly recall, even to this day, the opening instrumental track, “A Dream Within a Dream”, a pretty uptempo number with a synth line which I can still recall even now:

_Daadaadaadaa, daaaa daaaa daaaa; daadaadaadaa, daaaa daaaa daaaa…_

Welp when the 80’s came I got into different musical artists, and sold all of my LP’s when CD’s 1st became common, and pretty much forgot all about ol’ Alan Parsons…

When YT became big, I decided to revisit the album one day, loaded her up, waited for Orson Welles to shut up…and discovered to my utter shock a _completely_ different instrumental-much more languid and downtempo, that synth line completely missing. Played the entire album straight through, never heard the cut I heard.

I then listened to their next album, I Robot, thinking I had conflated a cut off of that, but, nope. No luck with their other albums, either. It’s like that cut never existed.

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**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 1:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/124 "2018-03-29T01:38:25Z")

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I will go to my grave believing that the first time I saw Star Wars - I was 10 - the opening card said, “Once Upon A Time in A Far Distant Galaxy”.

I swear, I can see it in my mind right now. But it makes no sense at all.

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**Author:** ![minor7flat5](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/minor7flat5/32/258_2.png) [@minor7flat5](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/minor7flat5)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 1:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/125 "2018-03-29T01:56:20Z")

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> [@John\_DiFool](#):
>
> Musical ones, anyone?
> 
> Because I’ve got one.

Sure!

When I was a child my mom bought this neat children’s album called [“Free To Be… You And Me”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCUGMMEF2Zk&list=PLM1cmjIaB8Qjewtp_byIUM0rBLK6acA7p)  
It was a fun album, with positive short stories intermingled with songs, all with a decidedly 1970’s feminist spin (which describes my mom well).

Decades passed, and one of my co-workers mentioned that she had bought the “Free To Be… You And Me” CD for her daughter, and I asked if I could borrow it.  
I was amazed at the quality of the songs and the big name actors from the era who did the songs and stories. How cool is it to have pro football player Rosey Grier telling you that it’s OK to cry, or Marlo Thomas and Mel Brooks playing the roles of a girl baby and boy baby talking about sexual roles in society (in 1972!).

Anyway, I was absolutely convinced that my mom had bought a no-name knockoff of the album because I couldn’t remember ever hearing these well-known people—I certainly would have remembered Hawkeye from M.A.S.H. narrating a story. I asked her about it and she explained that it was from a show and she remembered those same people when she bought it. That’s totally not what I remember.

Occam’s Razor tells me that I didn’t know who they were at 5, so the voices didn’t register as memorable.

And that week I was the coolest cat at the gym, doing my weightlifting sets while secretly listening to “Free To Me… You And Me” on my headphones 🆒

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**Author:** ![KatTP](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/9dc877/32.png) [@KatTP](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KatTP)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 8:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/126 "2018-03-29T08:05:52Z")

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> [@minor7flat5](#):
>
> Sure!
> 
> When I was a child my mom bought this neat children’s album called [“Free To Be… You And Me”](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nCUGMMEF2Zk&list=PLM1cmjIaB8Qjewtp_byIUM0rBLK6acA7p)  
> It was a fun album, with positive short stories intermingled with songs, all with a decidedly 1970’s feminist spin (which describes my mom well).
> 
> Decades passed, and one of my co-workers mentioned that she had bought the “Free To Be… You And Me” CD for her daughter, and I asked if I could borrow it.  
> I was amazed at the quality of the songs and the big name actors from the era who did the songs and stories. How cool is it to have pro football player Rosey Grier telling you that it’s OK to cry, or Marlo Thomas and Mel Brooks playing the roles of a girl baby and boy baby talking about sexual roles in society (in 1972!).
> 
> Anyway, I was absolutely convinced that my mom had bought a no-name knockoff of the album because I couldn’t remember ever hearing these well-known people—I certainly would have remembered Hawkeye from M.A.S.H. narrating a story. I asked her about it and she explained that it was from a show and she remembered those same people when she bought it. That’s totally not what I remember.
> 
> Occam’s Razor tells me that I didn’t know who they were at 5, so the voices didn’t register as memorable.
> 
> And that week I was the coolest cat at the gym, doing my weightlifting sets while secretly listening to “Free To Me… You And Me” on my headphones 🆒

My mother bought me that album as well. I loved loved loved it!

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**Author:** ![Asuka](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@Asuka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Asuka)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 10:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/127 "2018-03-29T10:26:28Z")

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> [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](#):
>
> Of course, I now wonder what my countrymen and I all think we remember which would bewilder other nations…

There’s a complete bizarre belief amongst pretty much all Canadians (at least the ones who post online) that they were the ones who burned down the White House during the War of 1812 and they often use it as an insult against Americans.

The problem being it never happened, the people who burned down the White House were all regular Army soldiers from various English and Scottish regiments and they embarked from Great Britain. At no point does Canada even enter the equation unless you mean in the loosest sense since Canada was a colony of the British Empire at the time and they were fighting the Americans on their border. But if you go that route then you can suddenly claim the East India Company also burnt down the White House.

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**Author:** ![Atomic\_Alex](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/atomic_alex/32/175_2.png) [@Atomic\_Alex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Alex)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 11:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/128 "2018-03-29T11:53:06Z")

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I had one of these moments just last night. I was watching ‘X-Men Apocalypse’ and during the scene where they are about to land in Cairo and Mystique is leaning over the shoulders of Moira McTaggart and Hank McCoy she say’s something about “my father”, which made my ears perk up as I was wondering who she meant. I rewatched the scene a couple of times and while I could distinctly hear her mention her father I couldn’t quite catch what she meant, but when she said it McTaggart and McCoy gave each other a significant look and the others in the back of the jet are shown looking confused.

So I looked up the script online and…there is no mention of that line or that scene, I checked several scripts just in case but nada. I then rewatched the scene on the DVD except…its not there either!

Now its quite possible I misheard her line but I distinctly remember the reaction of the other characters to her delivering it and that isn’t in there either. A very odd experience.

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**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/129 "2018-03-29T12:46:23Z")

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> [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](#):
>
> A weirdly compounded glitch in The Matrix: in the final episode of seminal 90s British 20-something drama This Life, Warren walks in to the wedding reception, sees the fight in progress, raises a glass and says “Outstanding.” Brilliantly judged comic nonchalance. “Outstanding,” thus delivered, became my little catchphrase. Still is.
> 
> I watched it again, years later, and was horrified to realise he actually said “Tremendous”. It was so jarring…it was like hearing “To go or not to go” or “Jeff, Jeff, wherefore art thou Jeff?” How could this be?! I remember being stunned by it. Being disappointed. “Tremendous” started to worm its way in where I used to say “outstanding”.
> 
> YouTubed it a few minutes back: he says “Outstanding.” Where the hell did I get “tremendous”?!

Oh, sorry, did no one throw you a “Welcome back to our timeline!” party?

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**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/130 "2018-03-29T13:57:49Z")

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I expect that a lot of us Dopers had hippie moms who got us “Free to be You and Me”.

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**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/131 "2018-03-29T14:45:25Z")

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Toss me into that mix. I had the LP on endless repeat in the 1970s.

Another one. I have met endless people who seem to be convinced that Queen’s ‘Crazy Little Thing Called Love’ is in fact a cover of an Elvis song. Included in this list of people are my father, who grew up worshiping Elvis and all for which he stood.

I get it, I suppose. The band was going for that. But Elvis never wrote nor recorded it. He was dead a few years before Freddie Mercury wrote it - reportedly in a bathtub in Montreux.

Yes these people canNOT be moved off their position.

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**Author:** ![E-DUB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/e-dub/32/403_2.png) [@E-DUB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/E-DUB)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/132 "2018-03-29T17:43:41Z")

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Mine revolves around the actor William Schallert. I would have sworn that his character on “Dobie Gillis” was named “Pomeroy”, yet, when he passed away, it looked back on IMDB and it seems that it was “Pomfritt”.

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**Author:** ![buddha\_david](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/ee7513/32.png) [@buddha\_david](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/buddha_david)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/133 "2018-03-29T18:55:22Z")

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> [@John\_DiFool](#):
>
> My 10th grade lit teacher was doing Poe one week, so he brought in the Alan Parsons Project’s debut album, natch, Tales of Mystery and Imagination (note I quickly went out and bought the album myself, and must have played it half to death for a couple of years after). I very clearly recall, even to this day, the opening instrumental track, “A Dream Within a Dream”, a pretty uptempo number with a synth line which I can still recall even now:
> 
> _Daadaadaadaa, daaaa daaaa daaaa; daadaadaadaa, daaaa daaaa daaaa…_
> 
> Welp when the 80’s came I got into different musical artists, and sold all of my LP’s when CD’s 1st became common, and pretty much forgot all about ol’ Alan Parsons…
> 
> When YT became big, I decided to revisit the album one day, loaded her up, waited for Orson Welles to shut up…and discovered to my utter shock a _completely_ different instrumental-much more languid and downtempo, that synth line completely missing. Played the entire album straight through, never heard the cut I heard.

_Tales of Mystery and Imagination_ was heavily remixed in 1987. You probably remembered the original mix whereas YouTube has the modern remix.

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**Author:** ![Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/59ef9b/32.png) [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yorkshire_Pudding)\
**Post date:** [March 29, 2018, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/134 "2018-03-29T19:54:33Z")

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> [@digs](#):
>
> Oh, sorry, did no one throw you a “Welcome back to our timeline!” party?

No, dammit! Bouncing between realities doesn’t half play havoc with my quoting of increasingly obscure pop-culture references.

Next you’ll be telling me Eric Stoltz _wasn’t_ Marty McFly…

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**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/135 "2018-03-30T00:03:10Z")

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> [@Yorkshire\_Pudding](#):
>
> No, dammit! Bouncing between realities doesn’t half play havoc with my quoting of increasingly obscure pop-culture references.
> 
> Next you’ll be telling me Eric Stoltz _wasn’t_ Marty McFly…

No, but Alex J. Keaton playing Marty P. Fox but mistakenly called Calvin J. Klein was in _Mask_ (at least where _I’m_ from…).

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**Author:** ![Dale\_Sams](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/779978/32.png) [@Dale\_Sams](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dale_Sams)\
**Post date:** [March 30, 2018, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/136 "2018-03-30T19:15:43Z")

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Related: The other morning when i stumbled out of bed, eyes puffy and shut, barely able to see a thing…my phone wasnt under the IPad where I left it. So i looked around some and of course went back to look again where I knew i had left it…and there it was. Right beside the IPad where the IPad had been.

So of course this means when you wake up and everything is spinning and out of focus…it’s not you. ITS THE WORLD.

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**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\
**Post date:** [April 6, 2018, 4:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-cultural-glitch-in-the-matrix-moment-youre-most-convinced-did-exist/810942/137 "2018-04-06T04:30:06Z")

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> [@digs](#):
>
> No, but Alex J. Keaton playing Marty P. Fox but mistakenly called Calvin J. Klein was in _Mask_ (at least where _I’m_ from…).

Is that the universe where Dustin Hoffman was in Star Wars? 😃

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