For those unaware of what I’m talking about, I’ll explain this to the best of my abilities.
A lot of people are familiar with the phrase “Lucy, you got some ‘splaining to do.” It’s a phrase uttered by Ricky Ricardo in the show “I Love Lucy.” The odd thing? He never actually said it. So why do so many people remember him saying this line?
And just recently, somebody pointed out something similar with the Berenstain Bears. It should be noted that I never read those books, nor was I even aware of these Bears, until I saw one of James Rolfe’s videos, so I only have Rolfe’s words to go by. A lot of people have grown up calling the characters the Berenstein Bears, except that their actual name is Berenstain Bears.
Bottom line, how can so many people have the same false memories? Answer: the Mandela effect.
The Mandela effect is an extension of the multiverse theory. That besides our own universe, there are other universes. In these other universes, either the laws of physics are different, or history is different. As such, there might be a universe where (say) Kennedy never got assassinated, or one where 9/11 never happened (or at least not on september the 11th). In keeping with the examples I brought up, it is possible that there is one universe where Ricky Ricardo did say “Lucy, you got some ‘splaining to do,” or one where those bears were called the Berenstein Bears. So everyone who has these false memories don’t really have false memories, it’s just that they at some point in their lives, unbeknown to them, they traveled from their own universe into our universe. Perhaps even multiple times.
An interesting theory. But this didn’t take one thing into account: human stupidity.
To make my point clear, let me use an example of something similar happening to me. In the movie “The Lost World Jurassic Park,” there is a scene where the Tyrannosaurus is in San Francisco, chasing a group of Asian people. An obvious reference to the “Gojira” movies. But on many websites (including TV Tropes), I have encountered people who claim that there’s an a guy among that group of Asians, who says “I left Tokyo to get away from this!” As soon as I read that, I was confused. I do remember that line, except it wasn’t from “The Lost World Jurassic Park.” It’s from “Inspector Gadget.” I even re-watched “The Lost World Jurassic Park” to be sure, and I was right. At no point does anyone say that. A rather odd example, where they got the right line, but the wrong movie. Still, this means that two movies make reference to the same Japanese monster, so it makes sense if one person remembers the line, but got the movie wrong. He/She writes about it on the internet, and other people who have seen both “The Lost World Jurassic Park” and “Inspector Gadget” will remember the line, as well as the scene with the Tyrannosaurus, but not remember that each is from a different movie, so if somebody on the internet says they were both in the same movie, it just must be true.
A different example: in “The Matrix,” Neo is given two options. By the way, people who have not seen the movie might want to skip this paragraph. Anyway, if Neo takes the blue pill, nothing will happen, he’ll just wake up in the morning and the world will be the same as it was yesterday. But if he takes the red pill, he’ll find out that the world as we know it was never real. Neo of course takes the red pill. I remember seeing this movie in the theatres, I have seen the movie several more times after buying the DVD. This is exactly what happened. And yet, I have encountered many people who have this confused. So many people believe it’s the blue pill that helps him find out that the world we know isn’t real, not the red pill, so Neo had to take the blue pill in order to advance the plot. Why? I can imagine one or two of them getting this wrong, but almost everyone I know? There’s even a line later in the movie, when somebody regrets taking the red pill, and asks himself “Why oh why didn’t I take the blue pill?” This should remind us that the characters who made it into the real world took the red pill, so why do so many people still remember it wrong? If the Mandela effect is real, this would mean that everyone traveled into an alternate universe, but I, for some reason, was left out (story of my life, but that’s besides the point). Then again, one of these people who seemed to remember it wrong was a TV comedian, who may have done this for laughs. In other cases, maybe it was just a miscommunication. That is, maybe they remember it correctly, but they conveyed it so poorly that I misunderstood them. And the rest… well, since there are only two options, it’s an easily made mistake.
How does any of this tie in with the examples I made earlier? I haven’t seen all the episodes of “I Love Lucy” so what I’m about to say is mere speculation on my part. Maybe Ricardo did say to Lucy that she’s got some “’splaining” to do, but the line was more along the lines of “Lucy, I think you got some ‘splaining to do.” Or even “Lucy, before I kill you, I believe you got some ‘splaining to do.” I might not be too far off, as I actually do remember hearing Ricardo say “Lucy, before I kill you,” but not so much what he said after that. But even if he never said said the word “’splaining” in any line of dialog, given his hispanic origins, it’s very easy to imagine him mispronouncing the word. Also, given the poor quality of recording and broadcasting shows, maybe he did say “explaining,” but part of the audio had cut away, making it sound like he said “’splaining.” In short, in this case it’s possible the memory isn’t faulty, but the technology was. Or even if it’s a faulty memory, at least it does show that “I Love Lucy” has a very imaginative audience. Or incredibly racist. Hm….
The same can go with the Berenstain Bears. It may be because people have grown up with Frankenstein, they instinctively would see an “e” where there’s really an “a.” That, plus the fact that the “ai” in Berenstain is close in pronunciation as “ei” might have confused some people, particularly when they were younger. Which I personally find a bit odd. Why do they pronounce the “ei” in Frankenstein as the Germans do (or close enough to it), but pronounce it as “ee” in any other name? Even the movie “Young Frankenstein” made fun of this, but nobody’s learned from it for some reason.
Or how about the name of this effect? It’s in reference to the fact that people remember Nelson Mandela having died at some point in the 80s or 90s, when in reality he died in 2013. Something similar happened when Shirley Temple died, back in 2014. Whenever I received the news, I was surprised to hear she was still alive by that point. I even joked about it by saying “surely you’re not serious” (I hope enough people have seen “Airplane!” to get this joke). And I wasn’t alone. Everyone, including the guy who told me the news, didn’t know she was still alive. But if you look at Temple’s IMDB page, her last on-screen appearance was in an episode of “The Red Skelton Show”, which was broadcast in 1963. She hasn’t been in a show or movie since, so people eventually just assumed she had died. In case of Mandela, maybe people hadn’t heard from him in a long time, so naturally they assumed he died as well. But that’s just my guess.
For those wondering about the page on TV Tropes I mentioned before, I’m leaving the link here.
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/TheLostWorldJurassicPark
As of my writing this, it’s still there, but if by the time you read this it has changed… that does not invalidate anything I said here. I’m not remembering it wrong, TV Tropes is just a wiki, where any user can change the contents. Maybe somebody will correct the mistake inbetween my posting this and you reading this.
Now, do not misunderstand me on one part. I do commend the people who came up with the Mandela effect. That is to say, it’s a very creative idea, and something to think about, maybe even write stories about. And personally, I would like it if there was some truth to it. However, I do not think that this was meant to be taken as seriously as so many people seem to be taking it.
Desmond Scheerlinck writes... 