I finally learned that a couple of my posts are linked here, in a reference guide for misinformation that went viral on Tumblr. So now I know why those two posts have been getting so much attention since March.
The first one is from 2019, which is just me belatedly reblogging a 2015 article about the whole “Berenstain vs. Berenstein” nonsense. The second, from 2020, is my own deeper dive into the Mandela Effect, which has been cited in attempts to explain the Berenstain Bears thing. Both posts are about belief in these silly ideas across the internet in general.
Unfortunately, neither post is particularly useful for examining the spread of these ideas specifically on Tumblr. If the Berenstain Bears thing or the Mandela Effect had a wacky Tumblr thread similar to the “infinite chocolate” post, I don’t remember ever seeing it.
Assuming such a thread exists, I somehow feel motivated to search for it. I mean, it’s not every day I get appointed as the guardian of knowledge of the multiverse. I take that sort of thing pretty seriously, apparently.
I found a tanuki statue in Yo-kai Watch! There’s no tanuki yo-kai I can befriend though. I have to wonder if that was a conversation they had at Level-5 early in the game’s development. I imagine the idea of a tanuki yo-kai was thrown around a bit until someone brought up the American reaction to Pom Poko. In any case, they probably concluded that a tanuki yo-kai wouldn’t go over well with an international audience… For reasons that should be obvious if you know anything about tanuki. #yokaiwatch #whisper #videogames #yokai #japanesefolklore #japanesemonster #tanuki #tanukistatue #katie #henge
Well this post didn’t age that well.
Not only did the Japanese developers put a tanuki in the game and put huge bell were his dingle berries would be just to draw your attention to it, the American localization team were the ones to give him a testicle based pun name.
*looks closer at the word “testicle”*
*Looks closer at Teastoyer’s name*
…
DANG IT!! DID I SLIP OUT OF THE BEARENSTEIN UNIVERSE AGAIN??
ALT
