Throughout the years, many people worldwide have shared a collective memory, most notably on Reddit, of a nineties film called “Shazaam”. According to hundreds, if not thousands, of people, the light-hearted comedy stars American stand-up comedian Sinbad, whose real name is David Adkins, as a genie in a Disney-like, feel-good romp.
It turns out that said film doesn’t exist. What’s more, it has never existed, except in people’s memory, a memory which is seemingly shared, and continues to be, among filmgoers all over the world.
(David Adkins, AKA Sinbad)
So what is the explanation? Many have posited that it is the result of a phenomenon called the Mandela Effect, a name given to the collective misremembering of specific events or facts. The term was coined by a paranormal enthusiast who believed that Nelson Mandela had died in prison in the 1980s, and then discovered that many more people shared the same (false) memory.
Furthermore, there are those who believe that “Shazaam”, unequivocally, existed but that it was pulled from the shelves of video stores due to embarrassment surrounding the film’s poor reception or because of a lawsuit filed by DC Comics in relation to their similarly named TV show Shazam!
Whether the explanation is supernatural or simply that of a perfectly executed, albeit improbable, plan to recall every last copy of the mysterious film, one thing is certain: there are a growing number of people who have vivid, detailed memories of such a film’s existence and its plot and are scratching their heads in disbelief — a memory of theirs has been taken away inexplicably.
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