World Emoji Day: Robber emoji to hiking emoji, Mandela Effect and the curious case of ‘missing emojis’

For context, a sizeable crevice of the internet is absolutely convinced about having seen and used a robber emoji at some point of time. The emoji however, is nowhere to be found in the emoticon section of any keyboard. Did Apple discontinue it? Is it just an Android thing? The answer is no. Did these people then, collectively dream it up? As whacky as it sounds, this one’s a yes. Say hello to The Mandela Effect.

What is The Mandela Effect?

As per a Medical News Today report, “The Mandela Effect is a group of people misremembering a historical event or person”. So very simply put, its a fancy term for false memories. While misremembering things is not really all that eerie, the USP if you will, of The Mandela Effect is the fact that the same exact misremembered version of events is upheld by a group of people. The story of how researcher Fiona Broome ended up coining the term, is also an interesting one. Fiona, in tow with several others, clearly remember news coverage from the time of world-renowned activist Nelson Mandela’s death in the 1980s. The major bump in this recollection however, is that Mandela was very much alive during the 80s. He died in 2013 after serving as the president of South Africa between 1994 to 1999.

Now take this experience and apply it to emojis and you’ve cracked what we’re getting at.

While the real robber emoji, if there ever was one, cannot be found, unrelated people on the internet, haven’t hesitated in coming up with strikingly similar depictions of what it allegedly looks like. The belief in the legend of the robber emoji is so strong that variations of the same emoji also keep repeatedly cropping up.

If this in itself was not mind boggling enough, there are a multitude of alleged emojis that people swear exist. Some recurring examples include the hiker emoji, a pair of apparent flip flops, 2-peas-in-a-pod (NOT the average peas emoji) and a swordfish emoji.

Sorry to burst your bubble!

Not just emojis, The Mandela Effect is as legit as it gets, owing to the fact the world of cinephiles has its own set of lores to narrate. If you’re a Star Wars fan, you surely remember Darth Vader saying “Luke, I am your father” in Star Wars: Episode V — The Empire Strikes Back (1980)? Sorry to burst your bubble, but he never said that. The actual line on record is, “No, I am your father” even though people swear he says ‘Luke’.

1942 classic Casablanca also has a similar legend surrounding it. While many remember Humphrey Bogart’s Rick saying “Play it again, Sam”, it was actually Ingrid Berman’s Ilsa who said, “Play it, Sam”.

Do you too remember ‘using’ any of these missing emojis?