# We now live in an alternate reality (The weirdest Mandela effect yet) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [July 21, 2026, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829 "2026-07-21T15:57:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2026, 3:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/1 "2026-07-21T15:57:27Z")
There’s a scene in Moonraker where Jaws steps out of his escape pod after escaping from the shuttle and he meets a cute girl. I remember this girl wearing braces. This is apparently not true. This wouldn’t bother me so much but the scene doesn’t even make sense if she’s not wearing braces. So am I now living in an alternate reality or did I just misrember because her wearing braces makes the scene funnier? ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2026, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/2 "2026-07-21T16:01:50Z")
This has been mentioned extensively in several other threads on the Mandela effect. > [@What Mandela Effect example gets you the most?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-mandela-effect-example-gets-you-the-most/1029005/9): > > For me, as I noted in another thread, it’s the scene in Moonraker where Jaws has the meet cute with the tiny blonde with glasses and braces. Except she didn’t have braces. But I remember commenting in the theater that it was cute she did. So, unless we believe in parallel universes, it wasn’t a faulty memory as it was a wrong processing of the scene in real time. > [@The Mandela Effect is plaguing me again](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mandela-effect-is-plaguing-me-again/984338/33): > > I mean… it is named after a major historical event that people misremembered. A new one to me is from Moonraker. Jaws’ new girlfriend in the movie DOES NOT have braces… a lot of people remember the reveal of her having braces as being a big cute moment in the movie. I even did…but after having watched the scene again, I think people are experiencing a kind of “fill in the blank.” The scene would be so much better if she DID have braces. So peoples’ internal screenwriters corrected the actual m… ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2026, 4:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/3 "2026-07-21T16:02:24Z")
> [@What Mandela Effect example gets you the most?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-mandela-effect-example-gets-you-the-most/1029005/9): > > For me, as I noted in another thread, it’s the scene in Moonraker where Jaws has the meet cute with the tiny blonde with glasses and braces. Except she didn’t have braces. But I remember commenting in the theater that it was cute she did. So, unless we believe in parallel universes, it wasn’t a faulty memory as it was a wrong processing of the scene in real time. ninja’d! And with my own post, to boot! arrgh! ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2026, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/4 "2026-07-21T16:03:23Z")
It’s not just you > [@The Mandela Effect is plaguing me again](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-mandela-effect-is-plaguing-me-again/984338/151): > > Talking about Moonraker in the other thread got me to read the wikipedia article. This is fascinating: " Significant debate and discussion surrounds a scene in Moonraker, with some claiming it to potentially have been changed, subject to a supposed phenomenon called the [Mandela effect](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mandela_effect). In one comedic scene of the film, the villain Jaws encounters a short blonde geeky woman, Dolly (played by Blanche Ravalec), who becomes his girlfriend. … In the scene, Jaws smiles at Dolly with his metal teeth, … ---
**Author:** ![pjd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pjd/32/3009_2.png) [@pjd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pjd)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2026, 4:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/5 "2026-07-21T16:04:17Z")
Maybe it should be renamed the Moonraker effect. ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2026, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/6 "2026-07-21T16:06:03Z")
I think this is the first one that has got me. I too thought the blonde girl had braces. Maybe I’m conflating it with “Better of Dead”. In that movie the girl does have braces. Ricky Smith (played by Dan Schneider) walks off with her. As it was an homage to the Moonraker scene and I’ve seen “Better of Dead” dozens of times and Moonraker maybe twice. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [July 21, 2026, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/7 "2026-07-21T16:25:27Z")
> [@furryman](#): > > I remember this girl wearing braces. This is apparently not true. This wouldn’t bother me so much but **the scene doesn’t even make sense if she’s not wearing braces**. (Bolding mine) My take on it is that it was an ironic meta-joke, or an attempt at one, at least. The scene was setting up the ‘obvious’ joke that, after Jaws smiled and showed his grill, the girl would smile and show a full set of braces. The fact that she had a normal pearly-white smile subverted expectations. Set-up and misdirect. Yet the expectation of the ‘obvious’ joke was so strong that the ‘obvious’ joke is what got implanted in a lot of peoples’ minds. ETA (To the OP): Here, somebody fixed it for ya: [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/rCFLgDsqh6Q/maxresdefault.jpg "Moonraker Original Braces Smile Scene (Mandela FX)") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCFLgDsqh6Q) ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2026, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/8 "2026-07-22T14:48:19Z")
I’ve always felt like there’s an element to the Mandela Effect where your brain fills in the parts that it _feels like_ should be there, even if in reality, they’re not actually there. For example, in _Moonraker_, Dolly (Jaws’ girlfriend) has a very specific look- braids, round glasses, and a sort of nerdy look. Most of the time, it’s completed by braces, but in this time it’s not. So when we think back, our memories aren’t so exact, and we remember something along the lines of nerdy girl of Template A, and it turns out that Template A has braces. Or when we remember a line from a movie or book; we don’t necessarily remember the _actual_ line, but rather the meaning and then we fit the language around it in a lot of cases. So we get “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore”, instead of “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore” because we remember the message and a rough framework, but we then put the actual words that fit the message into our “memory” as we recall it. I have a feeling that if we figure it out, we’ll have a really good handle on how memories are stored and retrieved as well. ---
**Author:** ![Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ba9def/32.png) [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_Asking_Questions)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2026, 3:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/9 "2026-07-22T15:01:17Z")
> [@bump](#): > > So when we think back, our memories aren’t so exact, and we remember something along the lines of nerdy girl of Template A, and it turns out that Template A has braces. Except, (as I mentioned in the other Mandela threads) I “noticed” the braces the first time I watched the movie. I commented to myself how clever that was. It wasn’t a false memory, it was apparently a false present. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2026, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/10 "2026-07-22T15:10:35Z")
> [@Just\_Asking\_Questions](#): > > Except, (as I mentioned in the other Mandela threads) I “noticed” the braces the first time I watched the movie. I commented to myself how clever that was. It wasn’t a false memory, it was apparently a false present. That’s how false memories work. You “remember” yourself noticing that, because at the time that is what it seemed like _should_ happen. When you remember something you are actually just remembering the last time you remembered it, like a copy of a copy of a copy. ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [July 22, 2026, 3:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/11 "2026-07-22T15:33:46Z")
> [@bump](#): > > Or when we remember a line from a movie or book; we don’t necessarily remember the _actual_ line, but rather the meaning and then we fit the language around it in a lot of cases. So we get “Toto, I don’t think we’re in Kansas anymore”, instead of “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore” because we remember the message and a rough framework, but we then put the actual words that fit the message into our “memory” as we recall it. Yep, as with the misremembered line ‘Luke, I am your father’. The actual line is ‘No, I am your father’. But the first version describes or encapsulates the meaning of the moment better in one sentence. Same with ‘Elementary, my dear Watson’. Holmes never said that actual line, at least not in the books, but he said ‘it’s elementary’ and called Watson ‘my dear Watson’ plenty of times, so combining them together kind of puts the essence of Sherlock Holmes into one succinct phrase. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/12 "2026-07-23T00:18:59Z")
[Here is a 14-minute Kurzgesagt video](https://youtu.be/PqtggjVAi8M) on how your memory works. The big takeaway: Memory is plastic. It changes a bit each time you bring it up. ---
**Author:** ![Stephe96](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Stephe96](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stephe96)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 12:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/13 "2026-07-23T00:31:42Z")
This seems to be a recent example of a Mandela Effect. I clearly remember Samantha wiggling her nose on Bewitched. But apparently she never actually did! [![](https://img.youtube.com/vi/A5mX5kjv9IQ/maxresdefault.jpg "Bewitched Mandela Effect") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5mX5kjv9IQ) ---
**Author:** ![furryman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/furryman/32/99_2.png) [@furryman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/furryman)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/14 "2026-07-23T18:11:57Z")
The ironic part is that James Earl Jones misquotes himself. For all you know, you might be remembering The Simpsons [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc25oAJrKbM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gc25oAJrKbM) ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/15 "2026-07-23T18:20:08Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > That’s how false memories work. But posters here often deny that memories can be false. > [@DesertDog](#): > > [Here is a 14-minute Kurzgesagt video](https://youtu.be/PqtggjVAi8M) on how your memory works. The big takeaway: Memory is plastic. It changes a bit each time you bring it up. Good cite > [@solost](#): > > Same with ‘Elementary, my dear Watson’. Holmes never said that actual line, at least not in the books, But Basil Rathbone- as Holmes- said it several times. And those films were replayed a lot. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/16 "2026-07-23T19:17:02Z")
Plus, like _Lord of the Rings_ and _A Song of Fire and Ice_ it’s likely a lot more people have watched rather than read, and even if they are fewer, hearing a good line out loud is a lot more memorable than just the voice in your head when you do read. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [July 23, 2026, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/17 "2026-07-23T22:58:32Z")
> [@DesertDog](#): > > A Song of Fire and Ice That’s really weird; in the universe I previously lived in, it was called _A Song of Ice and Fire_. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [July 24, 2026, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/we-now-live-in-an-alternate-reality-the-weirdest-mandela-effect-yet/1031829/18 "2026-07-24T02:28:03Z")
The Mandela effect in action! Actually, the thought process was something like, “It’s Ice and Fire right?” Open up Wiki. “Yup. Ice and Fire.” Close Wiki. Open this tab, and type Fire and Ice. 🤪