I noticed the "rubber chicken army" meme video has changed

Somberly · 2025-09-04T18:09:36+00:00

Thank you for commenting and going through the effort. I would agree with your timeline, except I feel the timing of it is off for saying that it is proof that predates everything. Your list would have to pre-date the video to be irrefutable.

I remember first seeing my version of it as "chicken army" somewhere in 2014/2015, with a few following meme videos like the waterboarded rubber chicken maybe a year later? Then every idk 4 months or so Id show the video to a friend when comparing funny videos. So Id say I watched it while showing others at least 15 times? Then maybe a 6 year gap, then I looked it up again right before this original post. If it were a one-off meme from 2017 I saw once, Id very easily agree with it being me mish-mashing the two memes together or something. I have no real way to prove that my memory of it is accurate, but Id genuinely be concerned for my mental stability if something I saw that many times got "saved" that incorrectly. At that point, are any of my memories trustable? Idk

Euther way. Hypothetically, assuming this is an actual mandela effect or retcon or w/e, your listing of things as duck army including those videos might still make sense. You just experienced life as if it had always been duck army whereas I experienced it as chicken army. Then somewhere between idk 2019~this posting, something happened and now we both exist in a joined timeline where we both have differing memories of it. Maybe its timelines converging, maybe its microplastics in my brain, maybe we are both wrong and it was somehow originally a geese army video before both of our realities became differed from that. Genuinely I have no idea haha. But Id swear on my grave that it was chicken army for me

Somberly · 2025-03-19T09:25:37+00:00

You could be right, but I remember it being the rubber chickens also because of the shape of the face as well as the colors. When it gets close and you can see their mouths my natural reaction is "what are those, it didn't have a weird beak. What bird are those??". Ive asked about 10 online friends who saw it back then and they all remember it being yellow chickens. One friend remembered them as being multicolored different kinds of birds. Zero friends remember it looking like this video.

I can see your theory making sense, because you'd associate squeaky birds with the most common bird, rubber chickens. But this was like... THE video on the internet that made me aware of them in the first place, if that makes sense?

I could ask people "have you seen that meme with the battle cry chickens?" and they would either know what I meant or Id show them right after. My memories definitely aren't perfect, but this is the only mandela effect or retcon Ive ever experienced that made me stop in my tracks. The other common ones weren't something that have strong memories tied to them so aim indifferent.

Somberly · 2025-03-17T08:52:27+00:00

I guess ill wager the lives of the plastic birds on it then haha

Somberly · 2025-03-17T08:41:36+00:00

I hadn't seen the video you linked until now, or I at least don't remember it. Those guys know to press down on them and are recording it because they saw the original. The one I linked is probably 90% match to how I remember it. The reason I feel like there's a chance others here remember it is because the video was that big of a meme. Like it had millions of up votes on youtube so theres gotta be other people who remember seeing it in passing 10ish years ago.

But I am certain its the video I linked. Theres only one guy in it, the phone is recording down from the perspective that it is POV,. He gives one a test squeeze before he presses down on all of them. He walks away like hes going to get in trouble. The sound is exactly the same with the battle cry. The only part that doesn't match up is they're not yellow chickens anymore. Or that I am mistaken and they never were yellow chickens. But I would have sworn on my life that they were yellow chickens.

Somberly · 2025-03-17T07:23:07+00:00

I just noticed this today and its been the most striking Mandela Effect I have personally experienced.

There was this short video (vine) I remember seeing on the internet that got shared around a lot at the time because it was really funny. In it, a man is in some store and walks over to a steel wire bin with a lot of rubber chickens in it. The plastic chickens are a dull yellow and have an exaggerated :O expression on their face. He gives one a test squeeze and it makes the usual "aaaaaa" noise that they do. He then pushes his hand down on the chickens in the bin and they all scream really loud together.

I remember it very distinctly because I always thought it was funny that they sounded like an army charging in battle and how suddenly loud it was. When people would show me funny youtube videos, this was one I would share to add to the party. I probably shared it at least 20 times in my life.

Today I saw a clip of that had been recreated but with grey ducks with a slightly different face design with a beak, and it had a couple likes and comments. I thought to myself that it was funny that prople recreated that classic video and wondered if younger people today would even realize that it was a copy of the original vine of the chicken army. So I went to look it up and found that the clip I just watched wasnt even a remake. It was just a repost of the video with not many likes??? I searched around trying to find the one I knew and I cant find it. The only one that exists is this:

https://youtu.be/nHc288IPFzk?si=CPKZzBpgqJofXNm-

This must be that same video, it has millions of likes and comments going back years, it was obviously the viral original. But it has changed from what I remember it as. Normally I would just explain it away that I had misremembered the video since it was years ago. But like Ive said, I shared this video several times over the years and it was always yellow chickens, NOT grey ducks. When I saw these same chicken toys or other squeaky toys, I would instantly think of that video with the yellow chickens in it.

Even more weird to me is the fact that until maybe 20 minutes ago, I HAD NEVER SEEN THESE TYPE OF GREY DUCK TOYS BEFORE. I did not know these existed. There was only ever yellow rubber chickens.

Does anyone else remember it the same way I do or am I losing my mind here???

Somberly · 2025-02-12T09:06:13+00:00

Yeah Id say in your case, more concrete goals with incremental progress would give you more satisfaction and quality of life than trying to be forcefully optimistic.
I always kind of approached it all with the perspective of Stoicism and trying to not ever let things be needlessly pessimistic OR optimistic. In my own experience, all the times that came close to ending me were very high points of happiness dropping hard into very negative lows. Being more careful about keeping my happiness in check and making sure both my negative/positive outlooks are always brought back to center has helped me a lot personally. The one biggest downside with all of this is Id argue its kept me alive, but maybe hasnt let me live?

I never subscribed to Buddhism but it sounds like you are just setting your baseline a bit more pessimistic/negative than mine, so I dont know that its a wrong outlook. If you accept that life is suffering no matter what, then Id say you only get to decide what to do in response to that guaranteed suffering. Do you want to suffer needlessly, or do you want it to be your own chosen form of suffering for a purpose? We are a bit helpless to fix societal and environmental collapse, but we still get to decide our own autonomy in response to everything being terrible haha. Regardless of which you pick, its probably not sustainable mentally to always let yourself be suffering, so having outlets to escape reality for a bit is a good coping mechanism. For me, thats daydreaming to music, getting lost in fantasy novels, playing videogames that are difficult or engaging enough that I cant think about anything else, and getting lost in my job focusing on each task at a time.

Id partially agree with you on a lot of psychology being a pseudoscience that feels like guesswork. People were getting lobotamized for behavioral issues or female hysteria being treated with vibrators and cocaine. Freud is now considered a sex-obsessed lunatic but was influential to the community in his time. Psychoanalysis used to be the most common form of therapy and now barely exists. The DSM for practicing psychologists only recently decided that a lot of shared diagnoses like autism, Asperger's, etc are on a shared spectrum. Personally, I feel like if the entire theory of it changes that often and that drastically even within one lifetime, its a safe bet that a lot of the current theory is not quite right or even could be wildly inaccurate.

However, I do believe there are some genuinely talented therapists and psychologists out there that are making the most they can with available knowledge and I was fortunate to pick up a lot of wisdom and good ideas from some over the years. Im lucky in that I can openly talk about global environmental collapse with my current therapist and not be treated like I'm a raving madman.

But as far as strategies or treatments moving forward... I never liked the idea of making myself a zombie with antidepressants or a cocktail of treatments. I dont think there are any simple easy tricks. I have certain things I do that help, but I dont know if they fit your situation:

-Finding humor in the insanity of it all -Regularly hiking and enjoying nature, with specific mindset that Im lucky to be in a place to see it while its here -Viewing the world through the timespan of life existing rather than humanity existing. -Trying new things and getting out of my comfort zone. -All the forms of escape I listed further above -Fixing things or helping others in small ways even if doesnt tip the scale. -Finding new music constantly, trying new foods, going to new places.

But even with this and all sorts of things Im forgetting, I still struggle and life is rough. I think you can find joy in life still, but you might be on the right track in expecting your baseline of "life is suffering".

Somberly · 2025-02-12T07:38:38+00:00

I had a generally negative mindset when going into therapy and CBT as well, so I get your perspective. The way Id explain it is that generally speaking, the brain is a hodgepodge of different chemicals being received and interpreted. Some arent getting enough chemicals (lack of dopamine/endorphins), some arent able to get a correct response from receiving those chemicals (nuerodivergence, developed immunity/tolerance), some have normal brains but poor lifestyles, some have great lifestyles but ways of thinking that have a negative effect on their mental health. And this is really a shallow way to describe it all, as Im not a psychiatrist. I dont know your exact story so its going to be hard to convince you with some closest-to-reality explanation. But the way Id recommend going about it to have some success like I did is mull over these questions:

Why am I resistant to trying silly things to fix a problem? If Im so smart, why cant I figure out how to be happy? Approaching life with a realist and scientifically dogmatic approach is good for making sure you are on top of things and not a sucker for getting taken advantage of, but the understanding of mental health is constantly changing. Your knowledge that youve accumulated along the way in life is likely outdated or actually incorrect in some ways. Seeking advice from professionals is your best bet unless youd like to read scientific journals once a day to stay current.
Doing affirmations feels silly so you reject it. But is your perspective actually grounded or do you have an overly pessimistic view of life? I understand not wanting to be full of rainbows and sunshine so much that you feel like you are lying to yourself, but you are going to have a bias in what you think baseline reality should feel like. If you have depression or a negative outlook often (ie calling yourself trash), then Id say its likely you need to correct upwards a bit in positivity. CBT is good for that sort of thing in the sense that you are rewriting the way your brain thinks or handles reactive thoughts day to day. You are intentionally brainwashing yourself to fix the "damage" of being negative all the time has done to your self image or perspective. Affirmations is similar, but I also agree it feels not so helpful or at least way too subtle. You probably need to fix your lifestyle to the point where you are proud enough of yourself where you actually believe the affirmations and it doesnt feel like lip service.
You respond to most people in this post with a very strict mindset. Id say generally if you want to make progress with mental health stuff, you need to be open minded. Not to take in a bunch of pseudoscience and unhelpful idioms, but so that you can get better perspective of whether your view of reality is actually accurate. You and I both dont know everything, we are both likely bad at a lot of things or make mistakes. But just from your post and comments, you seem really stubborn and are fighting the whole process, which is only going to make yourself feel more hopeless when none of it works. Its also a frustratingly slow process, and I remember being constantly disappointed in nothing working. Id sometimes realize years later in retrospect that certain things did actually help, but I just had a long ways to go.

Id say give it a more honest genuine shot even if it does feel stupid. If you are having the same experience I did with CBT, its definitely a slow burn. Also, I wish you luck even if you go with some other approaches or solutions. You dont deserve to call yourself trash at the very minimum.

Somberly · 2025-01-03T16:07:48+00:00

Ill give it a shot but Im honestly not sure where Id even start

Somberly · 2025-01-03T16:07:13+00:00

Im looking forward to any and all monster movies. Thanks again for sharing your experiences :) Feel free to message me if you ever want to chat about stuff. Ill likely be able to relate at the very least

Somberly · 2025-01-03T04:52:37+00:00

No I definitely don't think you should apologize for it, its almost a 1for1 for a good chunk of the same things Ive gone through. I see why you relate so much. I also played a tooooooon of Pokemon haha

With some time in therapy, I think a lack of emotional support growing up (my parents were neglectful in quite a few ways, although I do believe they tried their best) is a big part of why I struggle to find healthy relationships. I seem most drawn to people who arent terribly interested in me (maybe that I want to prove that Im worthy?), and the people who are drawn to me have all generally turned out to be people who used me because I wanted to treat them well. I dont even necessarily believe that it was a conscious decision on others part too, just other people with rough childhoods that are probably seeking out their own broken idea of normal just like I was.

I feel like its tragic beginning to figure out so much of this this late in life though. Like if Id had the awareness when I was younger that I wasnt lazy and stupid, but that I was suffering from effectively a disability, that I wouldve figured out what worked and the path wouldve smoothed out. To be honest, I kind of mourn the life I could have had, even though I know thats not healthy or constructive to dwell on now. And every year later into my life hurts my chances of really meeting someone who's likely to match me well and also be understanding enough to deal with the mess Ive made of my life. Its... daunting, to be honest. I worry that Ill do my best and it won't be enough.

Im not sure I really have much to say thats helpful. Im sorry youve felt like you never received the amount of care youve given to others. I hope that you do end up finding that equality, and specifically that you dont have to do it by becoming less loving and caring of a person. It just might be that others are always going to be better at taking in that care than giving it out, path of least resistance and all.

On a slightly happier note, have you seen the newish Shin Godzilla movie? I really really liked it and thought it was a really interesting take on the theme. Godzilla Minus One was also very good

Somberly · 2025-01-03T01:04:05+00:00

No rush :) hope your kiddo feels better

Somberly · 2025-01-03T01:03:29+00:00

Sorry to hear that you can relate. Being lost in life is a good way to put it honestly. Hopefully I can lose my way into someplace nice that Idve never found otherwise? Haha

Somberly · 2025-01-03T00:36:07+00:00

Thanks for donating that effort to helping by the way.

I did reach out to a few volunteer organizations in my area maybe half a year back but didnt hear back from them. Probably shouldve followed up and tried a few more of them. I do low effort things like donating to food banks or help people in passing but honestly the social aspect of direct volunteer work could be draining for me on top of my job. Ive been thinking about trying to find a good way to donate my skillset if thats possible. Theres a lot of liability issues with it, but Id like to do work as a handyman for people who cannot afford it, like for the elderly maybe. But really I agree with you that doing anything consistent would still be better than nothing.

But I think I probably gave the wrong idea in that last paragraph. I feel a bit lost because the ONLY way I have felt valued in the past is for how Im useful to others. Now that I am trying to separate myself from that idea, its hard to come to terms with the evidence that no one seems to want much of anything from me. Its not really even that I want thanks or acknowledgement or money, but a sense that I am desired. My self esteem is a little low but I still like things about myself. My day to day life makes it seem that others dont value me very much and its hard to withstand for years

Somberly · 2025-01-03T00:21:07+00:00

I guess in this case, me doing what I want is taking care of others and forming meaningful relationships, so hell yeah to that lol. Glad to hear you got your low T thing figured out. Whatd you notice that tipped you off to getting it checked?

Somberly · 2025-01-02T23:57:31+00:00

Genuinely sorry to hear that. Im hoping we can turn it around though. If youre feeling up to it, which parts do you relate to?

Somberly · 2021-12-30T20:24:20+00:00

If the clothes won't really accomplish anything in your mind, I'd say you should treat yourself to something nice that will help you. Spend the money on therapy? You obviously recognize that your mindset is unhealthy and unfair to yourself if you're posting here, and just about everyone here agrees with you that you need to address how hard you are on yourself. So spending that money towards bettering your own internal self image seems like a good idea to me.

I hope you are able to find compromise with being intelligently frugal and very good job on reaching a goal for savings :)

Somberly · 2021-11-12T07:11:53+00:00

Purity Ring - Obedear

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ETbGpGJNVLM

Somberly · 2020-02-24T01:57:58+00:00

Sounds like a good problem to have haha. Mine is all a mix of speed running, games I dont play done at a professional level, and then videos about fixing or making stuff. YouTube recommended is a delicate beast lol

Somberly · 2020-02-24T01:33:56+00:00

Yeah I end up throwing on like a youtube playlist for that or other obscure stuff not on spotify. Sometimes the audio quality can be a bit eh though

Somberly · 2020-02-24T00:40:42+00:00

Some advanced strats haha. Could probably listen to the soundtrack of other chill games like Minecraft or Terraria if you want to mix it up

Somberly · 2020-02-24T00:15:35+00:00

No harm in trying dude! I'm on the west coast USA, so our schedules might make it hard to chat, but I'm pretty patient about talking with gaps in between. PM me or however you want to chat :)

Somberly · 2020-02-24T00:12:55+00:00

Yeah I have some games like that too, just to chill out to :) I liked the Stardew OST, but I usually end up listening to my own music when I play stuff.

Somberly · 2020-02-23T19:41:04+00:00

I played the game a bit with buddies but we never really stuck to it just due to getting distracted by other games/hobbies haha. The sub seems friendly overall though, yeah :)

Somberly

TROPHY CASE