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Mr. Monopoly wearing a monocle. Roy Scheider saying “We’re going to need a bigger boat” in Jaws. The existence of a 1990s kids movie titled Shazaam starring comedian Sinbad as a genie. These are examples of the popular Mandela Effect.
“The Mandela Effect” is the name given to the phenomenon that occurs when a large group of people all share the same false memory. The term was coined by paranormal researcher Fiona Broome after she discovered hundreds of people who had memories of Nelson Mandela dying in prison in the 1980s despite actually living to 2013.
In addition to the above examples, other common instances of the Mandela Effect are people believing the Berenstain Bears children’s books were spelt “Berenstein,” Darth Vader saying “Luke, I am your father” (he actually says ‘No, I am your father’), and the logo of clothing company Fruit of the Loom featuring a cornucopia.
Now, courtesy of a viral TikTok, a new entry into Mandela Effect lore has been added, and it has to do with the 1994 Best Picture-winning film Forrest Gump.
In a TikTok posted by the account MorganAndZach, presumably Zach details watching Forrest Gump the night before and noticing a change in the dialogue during the Black Panther party scene. While Zach — and myself, and perhaps you — remember Forrest saying “Sorry I ruined your Black Panther party,” it turns out he doesn’t say that at all, instead apologizing for “having a fight in the middle of your Black Panther party.”
@morganandzach Which way do yall remember it?…You’re gonna wanna watch this one all the way through 😂 #dadsoftiktok #husbandandwife #lawntok #forrestgump #mandelaeffect
I personally tested this Mandela Effect in my own life, asking my boss and my mother what they remember the line as, and *both* of them said “Sorry for ruining your Black Panther party.”
Furthermore, this YouTube video, uploaded on October 16, 2017, is even titled what we all think it is but then Gump says something different in the actual clip. If you scroll through the 114 comments (at the time of this writing), you’ll find many discussing the Mandela Effect of the situation.
“This freaks me out so bad 😳 I’ve seen this movie a thousand times he never said all that…” one viewer wrote five years ago.
“The Mandela Effect is so real. I’m watching the movie as I type. The MOMENT I thought I heard ‘sorry I RUINED…’, I came here and realize he didn’t say that at all,” added another.
One commenter, however, appears to believe they cracked the code, suggesting that movie fans are conflating two seperate lines that Gump says in the film:
“Forrest says ‘Sorry I ruined your New Years Eve Party Lt Dan’ so people are misremembering and combining the two. I’m guilty of this too.”
The Black Panther line apparently isn’t the only widely-misquoted line from the film, as the line “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get,” is actually “Mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.”