“You might think Berenstain is misspelled,” John Oliver said at the beginning of the “Libraries” episode of Last Week Tonight. “You might remember it as S-T-E-I-N, but that’s wrong. It’s a weird Mandela effect thing that a lot of people misremember.”
The Berenstain Bears Mandela effect was the last thing I expected to see during an episode of Last Week Tonight with John Oliver. Then again, while he always pushes boundaries, he’s definitely diving into some “out there” topics this season. He did a whole episode on UFOs the week before “Libraries.”
Has Oliver addressed Mandela effects in past episodes? (Which encompass a whole lot of other things besides just The Berenstain Bears.) Maybe. I don’t recall. If so, they didn’t stick because none tickled me as much as what he did with The Berenstain Bears. In fact, the fun started seconds after he’d talked about people misremembering the spelling.
“But it’s always been The Berenstain Beavers,” he jested.
Funny. I would’ve thought that was clever enough, but nope. He employed the first of three more callbacks about a minute and a half later. (Or at the 01:59 mark specifically.)
Beyond the Berenstain Bears Mandela Effect
“The point is, at some libraries, you can now borrow pretty much anything, from a fishing pole to a leaf blower, to seeds, to a copy of a Berenstein Badgers book. Again, your memory is wrong. Berenstein Badgers was always spelled B-A-R. There was never an E in there.”
That joke didn’t elicit as much of a laugh from the audience as the first two, but I thought it was clever. Everybody always argues about the “-stein” part of the spelling, which the Beavers version had. But Oliver emphasized how the first half of the name was spelled. “Bar” instead of “Ber.” Maybe they didn’t quite appreciate what he was doing?
I don’t know. But he wasn’t done yet.
“It’s not like teen books with explicit content are shelved right next to The Berensteen Bees book.” (You can find it at the 11:56 mark.)
It got a little bigger of a laugh than the Badgers version. Was that it, or would there be one more?
It took a while, but one more came at the end of the show. (27:10)
“All of which is just basically a long way of saying libraries badly need our support right now. So that they continue to serve the diverse needs of their community while also, of course, lending out air fryers, seeds, and copies of The Berensteam Cheetahs. We all loved those books as kids.”
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Are you a victim of the Berenstain Bears Mandela effect?
Courtney Mroch is a globe-trotting restless spirit who’s both possessed by wanderlust and the spirit of adventure, and obsessed with true crime, horror, the paranormal, and weird days. Perhaps it has something to do with her genes? She is related to occult royalty, after all. Marie Laveau, the famous Voodoo practitioner of New Orleans, is one of her ancestors. (Yes, really! As explained here.) That could also explain her infatuation with skeletons.
Speaking of mystical, to learn how Courtney channeled her battle with cancer to conjure up this site, check out HJ’s Origin Story.
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I am definitely a victim of the Berenstain Bears Mandela effect. And the Jiffy peanut butter Mandela effect. And the Mandela effect itself!
John Oliver is so great. He provides much-needed perspective and always makes me laugh
Oooo! I forgot about the peanut butter one! Mandela effects are so interesting. I would’ve sworn it was Jiffy too…and I would’ve sworn to remember a lot of the other ones as the Mandela effect version too. (I don’t know how many there are, but I know when I’ve looked in the past I had misremembered most of them. lol)
He’s amazing. He’s always educating me about things I had no idea about, and simultaneously making me outraged/sad/perplexed and laugh. And then there’s the Puteketeke…that’s just fun to say BUT what he did with that vote was crazy hilarious! SO cool to know you watch him too!