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# Is this the Mandela effect already, or just universal forgetfulness?
- URL: https://theparnassian.com/en/eto-uzhe-effekt-mandely-ili-prosto-vseobshchaia-zabyvchivost/
- Published: 2025-11-19T19:24:26.000Z
- Updated: 2026-10-01T05:27:59.000Z
- Author: Alexandr Radayev
- Tags: Books, Observations, Society, Pop Culture, Humour

Is this the Mandela effect already, or just universal forgetfulness? How is one to explain why everyone is discussing Cheburashka's Jewish nationality, and, above all, discussing it as the original invention of a State Duma deputy?

Yet the man merely voiced an old joke from LiveJournal that everyone forgot a good ten years ago. We all know the sort of uncle who can trot out hoary old anecdotes without the slightest embarrassment and still draw sincere laughter. Later, the fact of Cheburashka's Jewish origin was examined in a book by the Israeli-American art history lecturer Maya Balakirskaya, and in 2018 the magazine Sobaka ran a long [piece](https://www.sobaka.ru/city/society/73279?ref=theparnassian.com) on the subject. In his day, Uspensky himself, it seems, joked about it.

Fair enough for us, the TikTok generation, but have grown-ups too come to have a two-second memory? Or is our parliament really proposing so few matters of importance for discussion that preference is given to such blatantly clickbait news?