Mandela effect was named after Nelson Mandela, a South-African leader. Apparently, a number of people remember clearly his death and funeral in the 1980s.
Mandela died in prison. One of those people was Fiona Broome, who created the phrase Mandela effect in 2010. One of her followers described his memories like this on her site: “My experience was that on a regular day, my mom and I were doing separate things with the TV on in the background.
I think I was on my laptop and my mom may have also been on hers or reading a book. I believe CNN was the channel the TV was on.
Nelson Mandela was mentioned as doing something, which caught both of our ears, I guess because we both looked up and Nelson Mandela was there… walking around, the present day. My mom and I both looked at each other, wide-eyed and pale. I was like, “Isn’t he dead?
I remember him dying….” And she said YES, and we were both discussing how on earth he was alive and no one else was shocked. We BOTH remembered the Oprah show, we BOTH remembered a specific concert that was life and shown on multiple channels… we both remembered that he died years ago in prison.”
Soon, people started remembering all sorts of things. Whether the fragile human memory was in question or we are living in a simulation run by aliens and it occasionally glitches is hard to say.
Below, we have listed 10 lesser-known Mandela effects. If you are interested more about this topic, check this site merchdope.com.
10Sinbad is Shazaam
This is a fairly recent occurrence of the Mandela effect. It started on Reddit when a bunch of users started remembering that they saw a 1990s version of Shazaam, starring Sinbad the Entertainer.
No evidence of such a film could be found anywhere, yet the memory persisted. It is important to note that at the roughly same time, a movie called Kazam was released, with Shaquille O’Neal as the main character, so that may have contributed to the confusion.
9Star Wars Confusion
Darth Vader famously reveals his family connection to young Luke Skywalker in The Empire Strikes Back with a line “Luke, I’m your father.”
We have all saw or heard that sentence many times over the years and we know it by heart. Except Vader never says it.
The correct line is “No, I’m your father”. Was the sentence deliberately changed to be easier to understand and Luke’s name added to represent a clear reference to Star Wars? Or is it just another Mandela effect? You be the judge.
8Mona Lisa’s ‘Smile’
Many people swear that they had seen a famous painting of Mona Lisa without her iconic smile in their childhood.
The serious version is allegedly the original and the smile was later added. Why would anyone bother adding a smile to a 450-years old painting isn’t clear. Not to mention why would anyone risk destroying a priceless piece of art. Then again, many Mandela effects aren’t really logical.
Although this one may have an actual scientific explanation. The Mona Lisa painting is a sort of optical illusion and depending on your angle of view, it can look differently.
7Lucy, you got some ‘splainin’ to do!
This is one of the most quoted lines in TV history. Everybody knows it from the iconic I Love Lucy TV show.
Except for the small fact that the line was never said on the show. The line, supposedly said by Ricky, was never in the script. It can’t be found on YouTube. It simply doesn’t exist. Yet, so many people remember it, making it a classic Mandela effect.
6Chartreuse
Chartreuse is the name of a bright yellow/green color, named after a French liquor. Many people claim that it wasn’t always so and that at one point, chartreuse was a reddish color similar to maroon. They can’t explain how or when the change happened, which is characteristic of the Mandela effect.
It is also hard to imagine why would anyone, least of all our alien overlords, bother with changing such a tiny detail. Unless it is a part of some bigger plan we aren’t able to comprehend. Yet.
5Hello, Clarice
In the Silence of the Lambs, the first sentence Hannibal Lecter says to Clarice Starling, an FBI agent who came to see his help, was “Hello, Clarice.” We all could swear on it.
Yet, when you watch the movie again, you see that he actually says “Good evening.” Mandela effect? Or just a case of bad memory? Anyway, the sentence was so popular that the authors decided to include it in the sequel. Hannibal actually says “Hello, Clarice” in The Silence of the Lambs 2.
4Pikachu’s Tail
Pikachu’s tail used to end with a black patch on top of it. Did we really saw that or it was just our imagination? Perhaps it is our mind playing tricks on us, because his ears have black points, so our brain concluded logically that his tails should look similar. Yet, Pikachu’s tail is just yellow all the way.
3Run, You Fools!
In the depths of Moria, deep beneath the ground, lies the bridge of Khazad-dûm. Upon it, the Fellowship of the Ring encountered the ancient terror, called Balrog of Morgoth, as they sought passage through Misty Mountains.
Gandalf tried to stop it, but as the monster plummeted to the depths beneath the bridge, it managed to snag the wizard and pull him down as well. As Gandalf disappears over the edge, he manages to say one more thing to his companions: “Run, you Fools!”. But are those his words?
In fact, Gandalf says “Fly, you fools!” before disappearing into the darkness of Moria. It seems that even Lord of The Rings isn’t safe from the Mandela effect.
2Leo’s Oscar
When Leonardo DiCaprio won an Oscar for the best actor in 2016, many of us were surprised. Not because Leo won it, obviously he deserved it, but by the fact that it was his first one.
Apparently, many people believed that he had one at least one earlier in his career. Unfortunately for Leo, that wasn’t true. Perhaps the confusion arose from the fact that Leo was nominated five times before actually winning an Oscar. Or perhaps something more sinister is at work here.
1Looney Tunes
We all assumed that the name was short for Looney Cartoons, hence Looney Toons, but we were wrong. It was always Looney Tunes because it was inspired by Walt Disney’s musical series Silly Symphonies. I mean, nobody would dare mess with such a dear part of our childhood, right? Right, guys?
