Is There Really a Mandela Effect?

[Fat Dave]

I keep hearing about this Mandela Effect phenomenon, named after a mistaken memory of Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the ‘80’s. Is it any coincidence that the biopic of Stephen Biko, the South African anti-apartheid activist who died from injuries in police custody, premiered in 1987? Could a widely-acclaimed apartheid protest film starring Denzel Washington have fogged the memory of a generation, such as mine, who watched Cry Freedom in our social studies and history classes? Just some food for thought.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

There is, of course, the false memory that the girlfriend of Jaws, the character from two James Bond films , "The Spy Who Loved Me" and "Moonraker," also had steel-capped teeth. She didn't.

Human memories are very imperfect, and cultural memes can create false impressions of what's really going on. This is what has made finding the truth behind such classic UFO cases as Roswell quite difficult. People who were never in Roswell in 1947 somehow imagine they were there at the time, even if they weren't, or they were actually there at a later time.

But there is the romantic ideal of accidentally splitting from parallel realities as an explanation for variations in our memories. In a recent newsletter, I wrote about a time when my own memories failed me on the sequence of a couple of notable encounters with people.

Or maybe I'm in the wrong reality?

 

[Fat Dave]

I guess I should narrow my point. I don’t mean that the phenomenon doesn’t happen, but my point is the supposed occurrence for which it is named is a confusion of fact, even if other manifestations of said phenomenon are real.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

That's pop culture for ya.

 

[Fat Dave]

I would also suggest that the trope of Jaws’ girlfriend having braces comes from the Mad Magazine spoof of Moonraker, BTW.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

It would have been a logical plot point.

In passing, actor Richard Kiel brought unexpected humanity to the role of Jaws, and, in "Moonraker," he actually became a hero who helped Bond defeat the enemy. Kiel also became a fan favorite. In watching an interview or two of him over the years, he seemed a genuinely nice guy, and the audiences sensed that.

 

[Fat Dave]

No doubt Richard Kiel was one of the great character actors of our lifetime and a fine gentleman, Gene.

 

[henris42]

He really was a favourite, great films! IMHO the Roger Moore Bonds are the best ones. They are mad and absurd enough.

But the Mandela effect means, that Dolly really had the braces in 1979, and in our universe she didn't. I was also 100% sure she had the braces. So maybe she did, and we are now in alternate reality? How can you tell?

 

[Gene Steinberg]

But Connery was closer to the original Ian Fleming concept, though in his own way, Daniel Craig was also.

 

[BombPopCaper]

Goodness. I remember Jaws' girlfriend wearing braces, too!

I'm more likely to believe in the fallibility of our memory being the most likely explanation, but I am not super familiar with the details of the theory.

I think Connery and Craig are my two favorite Bonds, but I enjoy almost every movie in the series.

 

[Gene Steinberg]

In all fairness, I thought Moore's persona as Bond was just a revisit of his role as the Saint, too light-hearted. Bond is very much a brute, and there has to be grit in the portrayal. Timothy Dalton was also quite good as Bond; again with the proper level of menace.

 

[henris42]

Well Sean Connery though he was too old, so time for even older Moore.

But that is true - Moore's Bond was not a brute. Dalton's was very much.

For the Mandela theory, we can probably never prove it. I am worried though that are we seeing a "woke" time travel with Dolly?
That idea will keep me awake for a long time.