• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Merged The MANDELA Effect.

Thermal said:
No, the effect is about one movie that did not exist. There is an attempted retrofit explanation for the misremembering, one that I think makes little to no sense.

"Shazam" has no other well known meaning that I recall, except as the cartoon. It would be intensely strange for millions to misremember a title as a word they had not really heard before.
Click to expand...

It's weird, in that I grew up in the 70's, and 'shazam' was a well known comic book phrase, where I can't say I have any recollection of 'kazaam' being used at all- in fact I thought it was people spelling shazam incorrectly in this thread!!!

Or one of those weird 'yank things' like saying 'sodder' for solder or 'I could give a damn' instead of 'I couldn't give a damn' lol (that, to me, seems like you are saying you DO care about something, rather than not caring about it at all...)
 
Last edited:
Dabop said:
It's weird, in that I grew up in the 70's, and 'shazam' was a well known comic book phrase, where I can't say I have any recollection of 'kazaam' being used at all- in fact I thought it was people spelling shazam incorrectly in this thread!!!

Or one of those weird 'yank things' like saying 'sodder' for solder or 'I could give a damn' instead of 'I couldn't give a damn' lol (that, to me, seems like you are saying you DO care about something, rather than not caring about it at all...)
Click to expand...

I recall a bunch of times seeing a magician saying "A LA KAZAAM" when doing a trick, but I don't recall Shazam as anything except obscure cartoons, although in fairness comics weren't much of a thing where I grew up.

Eta: we pronounce solder with a silent L in the same way its silent in could and would. You guys dont?
 
Last edited:
Thermal said:
No, the effect is about one movie that did not exist. There is an attempted retrofit explanation for the misremembering, one that I think makes little to no sense.

"Shazam" has no other well known meaning that I recall, except as the cartoon. It would be intensely strange for millions to misremember a title as a word they had not really heard before.
Click to expand...

You don't think the "genie" connection is more significant?

On the other hand, maybe we're arguing two different things at each other, which is usually the case when a conversation goes in circles.

Forget anything I said. What do you think is the actual situation here?
 
Thermal said:
I recall a bunch of times seeing a magician saying "A LA KAZAAM" when doing a trick, but I don't recall Shazam as anything except obscure cartoons, although in fairness comics weren't much of a thing where I grew up.

Eta: we pronounce solder with a silent L in the same way its silent in could and would. You guys dont?
Click to expand...

'Sodder' is a predominately US way of pronouncing it (unfortunately starting to spread outside the US... mostly thanks to the utube university)

The L is pronounced same as a 'foLder of papers', not a 'fodder of papers', or a 'soLdier carries a rifle', not a 'sodier carries a rifle'...

This shows the difference (click on the speaker icons)
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/solder
 
I'm sure Gomer Pyle used the word "Shazam" quite a bit, like every other paragraph.
 
Dabop said:
'Sodder' is a predominately US way of pronouncing it (unfortunately starting to spread outside the US... mostly thanks to the utube university)

The L is pronounced same as a 'foLder of papers', not a 'fodder of papers', or a 'soLdier carries a rifle', not a 'sodier carries a rifle'...

This shows the difference (click on the speaker icons)
https://dictionary.cambridge.org/us/pronunciation/english/solder
Click to expand...

Didn't know that one. Then again. I speak New Jersean and pronounce "water" as "wooder" and "sugar" as "shooga", and most words starting with "th/r" are pronounced as "chr" (a tree and the number 3 are "chree", etc)
 
gnome said:
You don't think the "genie" connection is more significant?

On the other hand, maybe we're arguing two different things at each other, which is usually the case when a conversation goes in circles.

Forget anything I said. What do you think is the actual situation here?
Click to expand...

Beats me. That's why I think it's interesting. I can spit out names of movies 20 years older, including ones I haven't even seen, and get the name and star right on. Seems unusual that I not only got both wrong here, but in exactly the same way that millions of others did, and there are no.other known similar screw ups.
 
Thermal said:
I'm inclined to think Sinbad got conflated in there because the movie theme was a genie, and well Sinbad was a figure from the Arabian Nights. Maybe Shazam was a lot more popular than I recall, for it to be in the minds of millions,but it's hardly a red herring when it's literally half the effect.
Click to expand...

I don't think these connections and mistakes actually did exist in the minds of millions. I think only a small handful of people ever actually formed them organically, and they never existed at all in the minds of the alleged "millions" until the moment someone who's trying to tell them about the Mandela effect asks them, "do you remember a movie called Shazam with Sinbad playing a genie", and it's only at that very moment that they both visualize the movie being described and spontaneously develop the impression that they have always remembered it.

Consider for instance, with the "Shazam" movie specifically, the only "memory" that anyone claims to have of the movie is the simple fact that it existed and that Sinbad was in it because "he was on the cover". And all of the discussion focuses on this cover, and how people assert they very specifically remember details like the way Sinbad was posed, and the costume he was wearing. What I've never seen from anyone who claims they remember this film's existence, is any description of an actual scene from it, in any kind of detail. Or literally any of the other characters or actors that were in it. You'll never see an exchange between two people who "clearly remember" this movie take the form of "Remember that one scene where X did Y to Z?" "Yeah! That was my favorite part, I've used that line all the time ever since!", because nobody has a "favorite scene" because there are no scenes.

Likewise, there is a general consensus that, being a children's movie, the other main character was a kid, but there is no consensus or even discussion about what this kid specifically looked like for instance. That's because the prompt is always "do you remember this movie, it had Sinbad on the cover posed like this", and there's no information about the plot or other characters for the induced confabulation to build into itself.
 
Last edited:
Checkmite said:
I don't think these connections and mistakes actually did exist in the minds of millions. I think only a small handful of people ever actually formed them organically, and they never existed at all in the minds of the alleged "millions" until the moment someone who's trying to tell them about the Mandela effect asks them, "do you remember a movie called Shazam with Sinbad playing a genie", and it's only at that very moment that they both visualize the movie being described and spontaneously develop the impression that they have always remembered it.
Click to expand...

If it were simply the power of suggestion writ large, we would have hundreds of similar cinematic misrememberings. But there's pretty much only the one, and it's widespread. Don't know about your experience, but mine is actually the opposite- people say "remember that Clint Eastwood movie where seven cowboys get hired as mercenaries, called True Grit?" and I reply, "no, that's the plot of the Magnificent Seven, and John Wayne was in True Grit, not Eastwood". "Oh, yeah, you're right".

How many widespread misrememberings of Jim Carrey movies where he plays a cross dresser called Mrs Crossfire are you aware of? When the list of popular Mandela Effects are rolled out, most did not apply for me, just a few. Jif peanut butter, Loony Tunes and all that, I remembered correctly. Why didn't the power of suggestion work for them, but did for the genie movie?

Consider for instance, with the "Shazam" movie specifically, the only "memory" that anyone claims to have of the movie is the simple fact that it existed and that Sinbad was in it because "he was on the cover". And all of the discussion focuses on this cover, and how people assert they very specifically remember details like the way Sinbad was posed, and the costume he was wearing. What I've never seen from anyone who claims they remember this film's existence, is any description of an actual scene from it, in any kind of detail. Or literally any of the other characters or actors that were in it. You'll never see an exchange between two people who "clearly remember" this movie take the form of "Remember that one scene where X did Y to Z?" "Yeah! That was my favorite part, I've used that line all the time ever since!", because nobody has a "favorite scene" because there are no scenes.

Likewise, there is a general consensus that, being a children's movie, the other main character was a kid, but there is no consensus or even discussion about what this kid specifically looked like for instance. That's because the prompt is always "do you remember this movie, it had Sinbad on the cover posed like this", and there's no information about the plot or other characters for the induced confabulation to build into itself.
Click to expand...

But that's what makes it work. Kid movies are throwaways, not classics, and the actors and plots and scenes instantly forgotten. It's been posed that people are conflating the memory of Shaq's Kazaam, but I couldn't tell you who else was in that or scenes either. Take True Grit, just mentioned. I might know the lead actor, title, and general plot, but that's about it. I don't think I've ever actually seen the movie. Doubly so for a 90's kid movie; I didn't have kids then, and was too old for kid flicks myself.
 
arthwollipot said:
Wasn't "Shazam" a TV show in the 70s?
Click to expand...

Yes, based on the comics.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shazam!_(TV_series)

ETA, got to love that 3 members of the main cast start the wiki with "Best known for their role in this ****** saturday morning TV show."
End ETA.


Regarding Sinbad and Shazam. To the extent that it is an example of the Mandela effect, I think it mostly because nobody saw the actual movie and frankly, it just makes more sense that it would star a somewhat famous comedian than a very successful basketball player. Shazam is a well know nonsense word where Kazaam sound like it but isn't quite.

But I kind of agree with checkmite, I doubt its a common example and I bet its mostly in the context of, "Hey do your remember?" Because nobody would actually remember the real movie except in the context of "hey remember....."
 
Last edited:
On /r/MandelaEffect they have attempted to find common threads among people that do remember the movie. I don't recall them all just now but a bunch of people that claim to have seen the movie are pretty sure it involves a brother-sister pair that are upset their parents are separating. Apparently there was also a pool party near the end.

Trouble is, this is how urban legends form. The more people talk about it, the more the suggestions of other people influence them, until certain elements show up in almost all tellings.

Thermal, for the record, deciding you don't know is fine. I can't say I know for sure either. I'm fascinated with whether it's possible to know, and a part of me still says maybe. If a movie is found that is similar in theme to the "missing" film, that may account for so many people's memories.
 
Last edited:
I had an order for a quantity of 4 pieces, i printed out the text ordering 4 pieces, I ordered four pieces, I shipped four pieces, and when they came to pick them up they said it was for five pieces. I looked back, and it clearly shows 5 pieces.

This is the mandela effect. Someone went in and changed the original text that I printed out from 4 to 5 pieces.

I told my customer it was the Mandela Effect and they stopped buying from me.
 
Thermal said:
I When the list of popular Mandela Effects are rolled out, most did not apply for me, just a few. Jif peanut butter, Loony Tunes and all that, I remembered correctly. Why didn't the power of suggestion work for them, but did for the genie movie?
Click to expand...
Yet millions of us think it's spelled Looney Tunes.
 
I've looked online at people talking about the Shazam movie and they describe the plot:

A boy and a girl, whose parents are getting divorced, are in an attic searching through stuff and find a weird bottle.

A genie appears.

The children persuade the genie to make their father fall in love with their mother again.

The movie ends with the parents reunited.

(Brutal synopsis on my part).

Is the mandela effect just the actor who played the role of the genie or the whole thing?
 
I'm wondering if there wasn't possibly a movie with that theme (possibly not with the actors described) that was released somewhere else ie not the USA
It was quite common for movies to have different names in different countries (the two that immediately spring to my mind are 'Flying High' (Australia), called Airport in the US, and Mad Max (the original, not that god awful remake) ie The Road Warrior in the US (complete with US voice actors doing overdubs ugh) but there was an actual movie industry outside the US that often made movies, many of which are not even known to the internet and only ever released 'locally' in decades past...
 
Dabop said:
I'm wondering if there wasn't possibly a movie with that theme (possibly not with the actors described) that was released somewhere else ie not the USA
It was quite common for movies to have different names in different countries (the two that immediately spring to my mind are 'Flying High' (Australia), called Airport in the US, and Mad Max (the original, not that god awful remake) ie The Road Warrior in the US (complete with US voice actors doing overdubs ugh) but there was an actual movie industry outside the US that often made movies, many of which are not even known to the internet and only ever released 'locally' in decades past...
Click to expand...

Yep. And I have personal experience to back it up.

Somewhere between 1985 - 1989, I was a paid extra in a movie, that was made in Sydney.
(As was my girlfriend at the time).

I have searched high and low, and can find no evidence of that movie existing.

Nor can I find anything about a movie being started and not completed at that time.

Of course, now, I can't even remember the working title.

Recently, carefully watched the movie 'The Delinquents' because the plot sounded familiar, but have ruled it out because it was set in the fifties, and everyone was in costume.

So who knows? Maybe it was a movie made for TV and no one remembers it. Maybe it never saw the light of day.

More recently, I've come to the opinion that people remember different things about movies because different versions/edits were made, for different markets, with the same actors etc, but that doesn't explain the current 'Mandela Effect' re the genie movie.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom