What are some of the mandela effects that really confused you? I’ll go first!
- Monopoly man Monocle
- berenstein bears
TBH what really confused me is what this well-known-and-studied psychological phenomenon has to do with Mandela [yes, I know what it says about that on Wikipedia, but I do not recall any mention of Fiona Broome in serious works— I admit I an far from an expert on the field, however] and why people continue to popularize that name.
Slightly, yes.
“Fly, my pretties, fly!” from Wizard of Oz.
But I am not really concerned with minor spelling differences.
The “alternate ending” of BIg never go to me, but it was a huge thread here.
Because they confused him with Stephen Biko, simple as that.
It’s all absolute BS. The idea that anyone could think lapses in your personal memory are the result of inter dimensional travel is insane ..
Wait! Ralph Wiggum never said “I’m in danger” in any canonical classic Simpsons episode!?! Only in a Family Guy/Simpsons crossover!!
Nahhh that’s not a thing. Clearly reality is leaking from other dimensions 
The lack of a cornucopia on Fruit of the Loom underwear.
“They” is one person… the real effect is that her little anecdote subsequently had others “remember” confusing Mandela with Stephen Biko (or whomever). But that is merely an instance of an effect, not a namer.
Popstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. I just know it used to be called Popstar: Never Stop Popping.
The Monopoly monocle and Fruit of the Loom cornucopia are great. I can’t think of any myself.
I remember watching “The African Queen” as a kid with my mom. I have a very strong memory of how that movie ended. Like…. I could describe shot compositions.
Then a few years ago (so well over 30 years later) I went to a revival with my wife and at the end of the movie she saw I was…”distressed”…and asked me what was wrong “That’s not how it it ends.”
My memory was that when they get captured and sentenced to death, they get taken off the German boat. On the shore they actually are executed but after they are dead the boat does explode by hitting the torpedo and the last shot is their bodies holding hands.
So…. my imagination made a much darker ending as like an 8 year old? Wild.
The theme song of the cartoon show with Dick Dastardly and Muttley was ‘Catch the Pigeon’.
‘Stop the pigeon’ is just a weird thing to say. Why would they say ‘stop’ the pigeon when the whole show was about trying to catch the pigeon?
Mandela never made sense to me. In those pre-Internet days, the only way I’d even heard of him was about him being released from prison after so many years and then later being elected President. Oh, and his wife divorcing him only a few years after his release despite the years she stayed married while he was in prison. I have no idea how people got the impression he had died in prison.
Ultimately, it’s about people not paying attention and then stubbornly clinging to it. For decades, I remember people misspelling Christopher Reeve with an s, like George Reeves. Now, people swear up and down it got changed. I was even kicked out of a Mandela Facebook group for merely mentioning that.
Well, it is certainly a situation bound to cause confusion when two actors played Superman, one named Reeve and one named Reeves. I still often have to pause and concentrate to remember which name goes with which actor.
Exactly. Not paying attention. Not to mention both had tragic endings.
I have no problem with it. The alternate universe explanation is obviously bunkum, but that’s just people having fun. The interesting part is seeing how multiple people can misremember things in the same way, and exploring how that happens. It happens on its own, and also through the particular false memory spreading.
I find it fun to try and find out why a particular one occurred. What common experience did these people have? Like say, the alternate ending of Big bedding because there is another similar movie with that ending.
That is what I propose is the Mandela Effect. The collective false memory, which can give insight to our psychology.
I may have imagined the Monopoly Man as having a monocle at a certain point, I don’t remember.
I do believe I imagined the Fruit of the Loom logo as having a cornucopia, and not just fruit.
As a kid, I thought it was the BERN-steen bears, and only learned it was the BEAREN-stain bears from how the voiceover said it on the animated cartoon.
Other than that, I can’t specifically remember an example, though there must have been others.
I think much has been made of this Mandela Effect, but on the whole, it fails to wow me. The thing is, most cases seem to have a simple explanation: the things that tend to fall prey to the Mandela Effect tend to be similar to other things that contain the element that people think they remember and that isn’t there, and so many people associate that same thing with the element lacking in it that occurs in the similar thing, creating collective false memories.
Let’s take the above examples and analyze them. The Monopoly Man lacks a monocle (in MOST versions). But at least two other top hat-wearing mascots have one: Mr. Turtle from Turtles candy and Mr. Peanut from Planters peanuts. Its it surprising that people would apply it in their heads to the Monopoly Man as well?
The Fruit of the Loom logo is done in this style that looks like a colorized Victorian-era woodcut. I believe I may have seen a logo on a fruit market’s sign in a similar style that did include a cornucopia. And in general, given the association of fruit with plenty, it’s not surprising that people would associate a cornucopia - a symbol of plenty - with the fruit that actually is in the logo.
And “Bernstein” is a common form of the name (as in, for example, Leonard Bernstein). Is it surprising that people don’t notice that there’s an “A” in “Berenstain Bears?” It’s not much different than if, for example, someone is called Carole, but people tend to spell her name as “Carol”. Not rocket science.
Another example that is often mentioned is Pikachu, who is drawn with an all-yellow tail, but apparently many people think there is a black tip to it. Again, I think the explanation is simple. Pikachu is a fictional creature, but he does look like some real-world animals, and some of these have a black tip to their tail. Pikachu reminds me of a Jerboa rat, and these can have dark tail tips.
Me being me, I wonder about our collective delusions that have much bigger and more sinister implications. What do we all think we know about history, politics, religion etc that never happened? How do these false memories shape our worldview?
Oh, and to answer the OP: I found a list and looked, and most didn’t occur to me.
Indo vaguely remember a possible cornacopia and don’t remember Mickey Mouse’s tail. And I did spell the Barenstain Bears wrong. The problem is my brain updates with the correct information easily, so I have a hard time remembering the things I remembered incorrectly.
It’s maybe not exactly the same thing, but my entire life, I’ve been regularly called by the wrong name. The same wrong name. The other name my parents shortlisted when I was born. It begins with the same letter as my actual name, both names have a meaning, which are vaguely related, but otherwise they really don’t sound similar, not are they spelled similarly.
I’ve been called it by teachers, family friends, university lecturers, workmates, in emails… It seemed bizarre that so many people made exactly the same mistake. For a bit of my childhood I wondered if my parents made a mistake and maybe I should have been called the other name.
My actual name’s fairly rare, but there’s someone else in my office at the moment who shares it; exactly the same thing’s happened to her. Turns out most people just don’t pay a lot of attention to detail and the other name’s a little commoner.
I may be an atheist, but there are still passages of the Bible I like. One was where Jesus was invited to dinner by a Philistine who didn’t provide him with a napkin, then scolded him for not wiping his face. Jesus read him the riot act for favoring form over substance.
It didn’t happen. I’ve done searches and nothing resembling this story exists. Why did I think it did?