The Wizard of Oz is a 1939 musical/fantasy/comedy film adapted from the 1900 novel, “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz” by L. Frank Baum and produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer.
It features a scene where the Scarecrow inexplicably has a revolver firearm. That isn’t it however; the Tinman has a wrench (along with his normal axe), the Lion has a bug catching net, and a two-handed pump sprayer with the words “WITCH REMOVAL” (or REMOVER), and the Scarecrow actually has another item that isn’t seen or heard from again after the scene; a walking staff/stick.
The items possessed by the other members are usually not even mentioned within the Mandela Effect community when reporting on it. It seems like the gun that the Scarecrow is holding is the most shocking to people. The Mandela Effect here is that people do not remember the gun and are convinced that either this scene never existed or he never had a gun.
Take a look at the following scene below:
My Experiences
I personally do not remember this scene, but I was just like the others in believing there’s no way the Scarecrow had a gun. It doesn’t make sense. Yet the scene is there. I wouldn’t say I’m a devoted fan or anything, but I’ve seen the movie a number of times.
As an experiment, I asked my friend to watch the scene without telling her anything. She has seen the film numerous times. I asked if she noticed anything out of ordinary. She didn’t notice anything. I showed it again, and yet again she couldn’t see anything weird. I think that’s at the heart of what we are dealing with here. It’s an obscure thing that has no right or context to being in the movie, and it’s hardly noticeable even when asked to be aware. It’s only when we point out these oddities, the viewers become aware of them. While my impromptu experiment doesn’t conclude anything, I feel it at least raises some points on how this could be missed or completely forgotten.
It was brought up again in popularity (and my mind) recently due to a Cinemassacre video on the subject.
Possible Explanations
Many long-time fans conclude that the scene exists as part of a larger deleted portion of the movie that explains all of these items. This has proven to be the case with “The Jitterbug”, a found piece of footage that shows a home video created featuring the music and some rehearsal production from the movie:
As the clip states:
“The Jitterbug” took five weeks to rehearse and film and was cut from the picture after the first preview. Here is the complete track of the number accompanied by more of Alren’s home movies made during a camera rehearsal of the song; a brief opening portio[sic] of the number is covered by stills of the stars. The jitterbug itself was a pink-and-blue-mosquito-like creature who – under direct orders from the Wicked Witch – stung the principal characters and sent them into a frenzied dance in the Haunted Forest.
While the video above doesn’t directly explain the items, it makes sense they were given them to fight the Jitterbug, especially the Lion’s bug catching net and pump-sprayer. It also matches up with the scene taking place in the Haunted Forest.
According to “ninaplays“, a Redditor, she or he also mentions that depending on the version or “print” you are watching, it’s possible that the Haunted Forest scene in question may have not even appeared. Additionally, a lot of the prints of the film are poorly restored, and in some cases, to make out the finer details of the gun, or any other items the cast members are holding is quite a hard task indeed. Thus leading to even further obscurity.
The post-production of the film is fraught with inconsistencies. Take a look at this poster/lobby card (which shows the gun and other items as well):
Notice anything weird there? Besides the whole scene being lit by daylight, Dorothy’s missing her ruby slippers, and appears in a red dress instead? The Scarecrow’s colors are also off (they used blue and purple instead of green and brown).
They even forgot to color the gun properly. Maybe the artists didn’t even see it and thought it was part of Scarecrow’s hand? That definitely crossed my mind watching the scene as well. It could have been mistakenly be seen as his finger or hand, especially if the print you were watching was dark or muddy.
As erik larson mentions in the comments, lobby cards were often produced by third parties and involved colorizing a black and white frame. It’s likely they guessed at the colors. It’s also weirder mistake given that this lobby card is for the 1949 re-release.
The production, restoration, and continuity of the film is a mess. The Movie Mistakes website entry for The Wizard of Oz has 22 pages of errors (which features this “Mandela Effect” funnily enough). This scene appearing in the movie with inexplicable items is not out of the realm of possibilities.
Additional Links/Sources
- Everybody Run, The Scarecrow Of Oz Has A Gun!!!
- Scarecrow in Wizard of Oz with a gun?
- The Wizard of Oz (Movie Mistakes)
- Wizard of Oz – Why does scarecrow have a gun? (Cinemassacre video)
A ME that made me laugh was the Loony Tunes one. That it was once spelled Loony Toons. They forget both Loony Tunes connection to Merry Melodies and confuse Tiny Toons with Loony Tunes. I also think movies like Roger Rabbit perpetuated the word toon in the household.
I remember watching looney tunes spelled that way because when tiney toon’s came on it was spelled “tiny toons” and i noticed the difference. What is it now? I’ll look it up but i don’t know how it is spelled now, If the Mandela effect has changed the way it was spelled.
It’s actually “Merrie Melodies,” not “Merry.”
I’ve not heard of this one until now. Will update BRAIN.
I do remember seeing this in the movie, because I thought it funny to give the one with no brain the gun This is ridiculous
I totally remember Scarecrow having a gun.
On the whole Looney Tunes/toons thing. I had a Space Jam ToonSquad basketball top I remember it clearly because I used to copy the writing of the top because I loved how the letters joined up. I remember the double O as it looped into the other! Now anything I find says Looney Tunes but I’m not misremembering, I copied it off the shirt everytime I wanted it perfect.
Sammi, please show a picture of your top, that would be awesome!
I’m really very sorry, but I have a difficult time trusting your memory on this one. You’re talking about movie merchandise from 1996. There are people reaching the legal drinking age who were born in that year. I myself have an excellent memory, but even I can’t recall fine details like this from my youth or adolescence.
People are constantly reaching legal drinking age.
I’m very happy for seeing this post and glad about this video.
Sammi: And yet every Google image of a TuneSquad shirt is spelled TuneSquad. You’re more inclined to believe your human memory, which science has shown us is extremely unreliable, over reality itself.
Regarding the Tunes vs Toons thing. I clearly remember toons. I do. In fact, I remember making that mistake when I was a kid, and being corrected by someone. It was toon, not tune. A short time later, Who Framed Roger Rabbit came out. Calling the characters toons there, made sense, given the context. I didn’t question it.
Scarecrow NEVER Had A Gun.. Its Just Like the New (an somehow Old?) ME. Loop/pigtail in The ‘Ford Logo’- EVERYONE I Ask or show it to DOESN’T RECALL EVER SEEING [The Gun]. Like 50+ year Old mechanics ALWAYS Pick the Org. Dimension Ford Logo. over the “supposedly current” Loop/pigtail logo…
Furthermore C-3P0 Never had A silver leg either! I GREW UP ON THE FIRST StarWars Movie. Even pausing the VCR to draw & color scenes from the movie (All Summer long).. The Org. 1977 film was the only one we had on Cassette. Bottom Line
_____________________
The Mandella affect/ ME. Is 1000% Real, wether it’s Scarecrow w/ A gun, A New Ford Logo (that never existed prior to 2007-2012), or the Star Wars Hallmark C-3P0 w/ A Silver Leg. There’s A Glitch in what we once new as reality…..
My Ford logo tattoo has the curl in it. Wierd.
I don’t particularly like the film Wizard of Oz, but I have seen it a few times, not that I remember any specifics. Like it was pointed out, this is most likely due to the fact that there were cuts, run time will be made to fit certain advertising schedules and therefore depending on the network may omit parts entirely.
But I always thought that Looney “Tunes” made complete sense as their work had few spoken parts (Tom’s screaming was always hilarious) and was like 98% orchestral, which I guess was so that it could be viewed worldwide without having to translate much and thought it was a pretty solid idea really. As for the Tunes vs Toons, people are most likely remembering Tiny Toons (baby versions of the original Loony Tunes characters) and blurring it with Looney Tunes. I even remember thinking “oh, so it’s toons now?” when I got a Tiny Toons Gameboy game. Looney and Toons both have an overlayed “oo” on their titles although slightly different of course, probably causing some blurred remembering. I highly doubt that, unless shown evidence, it was indeed ever Looney Toons. A video of the first episode was uploaded to Youtube 7 tears ago, with Looney Tunes in the opening.
Another one is also the line “if you build it, he/they will come”. He will come is the original, they will come was a funny throwback from the film 8 legged freaks, and strictly remember my dad laughing at the “if you build it, they will come” line as they were headed towards a mall, because there was also “it’s a spider, man!” line that killed my dad shortly afterwards. It was such a bad film that I don’t think I’ve ever heard anyone say “hey, do you remember that film, 8 legged freaks?”
It’s kinda funny how everyone is relying on memory with no proof. Please, someone give me proof.
Hmmmm…now when you say “Tom’s screaming was always hilarious”…WHOM are you speaking of? Tom the cat? as in “Tom and Jerry”?
Because…
NOT Looney Tunes. More Mandela…..(spooky ghost sounds….)
I haven’t checked out the Field of dreams again, but I remember ‘if you build it he will come’, referring to Kevin Costner’s father. But I thought that later in the movie they repeated the line but changed it to ‘they will come’ as James Earl Jones is talking about people just showing up late in the movie. But there are other ”glitches” that I feel absolutely sure about. Like Mr Rogers welcome song the Kit-Kat dash, and the VW logo.
“Field of Dreams” was based on the novel “Shoeless Joe. The “he” who will come is Shoeless Joe Jackson.
I remember first noticing the Scarecrow’s gun in the 90’s, after having seen the film countless times. This is also about the time the film was restored for the 50th anniversary in 1989. I do remember being amazed the first time I saw the restored version and how many things appeared more clear, like the cat on the old woman’s lap in the cyclone. Even the Tin Mans face surprised me, because of the metallic shine, it had always read as a blurry glow, and finally all the details of the rivets and the rust stains became clear. I’m going to chock up the gun to the fact that people have seen it so many times in a fuzzier version, where it blended in with the straw of the Scarecrow’s hand, and so it seems a surprise to notice it.
I also have to agree that when shown on network TV the film was often “nipped” here and there to shorten the run time. This is something I noticed even as a young boy. The actual run time is 102 minutes, which means with even five minutes of commercial time every fifteen to twenty minutes it would run over two hours. I can remember being totally pissed off once when I checked the run time on TV and it was cut down to 90 minutes total! Considering part of that time included commercials, half the film had been cut!. So it’s possible some of the haunted forest scene was consistently nipped but people didn’t realize until finally seeing a full version
This is so stupid – I remember seeing the gun as a kid – it’s so obviously there. Idiots talking about Looney TOONS are morons too – it was Merry MELODIES then Loony TUNES; get it? Stupid millennials and your short/fuzzy memories; smoke less weed.
What the hell is wrong with you? Get a life.
You should smoke a bowl and calm the eff down. Gen Xer here.
Actually, it’s “Merrie Melodies,” not “Merry.”
Guns have only been taboo in pop culture for a generation or so: there used to be a lot more guns as toys, guns in cowboy and Indian movies, etc. So it’s not really odd that he would have a gun in a kid’s movie in 1939. They’re walking through “someplace scary,” so of course, in Old Movie World, somebody needs to be pointing a gun right and left.
Could it be that people don’t remember it because when we saw the films as kids, the gun didn’t seem like a big deal?
In the movie or video it’s a kids pop-gun. In the picture on this site it’s photoshopped to appear as a real pistol.
The picture on this page is a still captured directly from the movie. You can see this from the video on this page as well which shows this scene.
The haunted forest scene was always cut when I watched it growing up, not clear on Toons or Tunes. But Moonrakers Dolly (Jaws girlfriend) having no braces is just freaky
Yeah, please do moonraker jaws/ dolly’ s braces, Vaughn.
And it’s tunes because it used to be Merry Melodies. Melodies-> Tunes
I find it funny that so many people are using the fact that you can’t find the “original” anywhere when you do a Google search. That’s one of the MAIN POINTS, you people criticize and you don’t even understand what the Mandela effect theory is. And there IS proof of the berenste/ain bears issue, there are multiple books that referenced one of the stories or authors and all spelled with an E. I suppose they’re just ALL typos. There’s also a nonfiction book that was published in 1991 that states Nelson Mandelas date of death prior to its publication. And I’ve not found a single person that remembers the Jfk car with another couple sitting in an extra seat in front of them. BUT.. one of the premises of the ME is that it doesn’t affect everyone in the same way, because at different times in history each of us may have been in different dimensions and remember different realities. If you can’t comprehend quantum physics, you really have no business being in this conversation. Especially calling people idiots that remember differently than you… That’s like, the hallmark idiot move on a page like this. It proves that you don’t have any grasp on the theory you’re trying to disprove.
Did you actually read this article or is this just a random rant spouted into the void? I’m not sure how any of that is your takeaway if you actually read this article, or the ME introduction on this very site: http://www.debunkingmandelaeffects.com/mandela-effect-introduction/
The “book” you are referencing (Western Cape Branch of the South African Council for English Education) part of “English Alive” is a fictional publication made from writings of high-school and secondary college students. All you need to do is Google this to get the actual facts. No need to resort to lying.
Can you prove that “quantum physics” (do you mean mechanics?) is related in any way to the Mandela Effect? Can you correlate the two with evidence? Can you also show me where I am calling anybody “idiots” or trying to disprove the Mandela Effect? Again, no idea how that is your takeaway if you genuinely read the information presented.
I doubt anyone who believes in the Mandela Effect actually comprehends quantum physics.
Leanne is one of ONLY A FEW.. Not the ONLY BUT OF A FEWWWWWW.. That actualy makes freaking sense here.. No SINGLE Mandela effect example proves it. Because it cannot be proved.
If your discussing the ME you have to understand it completely. Here is a great EXAMPLE SCENARIO .
1. For the moment let’s pretend the ME is 100% real and existing..
2. Lets say the scarecrow NEVER HAD A GUN BEFORE THE MANDELA EFFECT..
3. So you discover the ME and to prove it yourself you go to your grandmothers house and put her OLD SCHOOL “WIZARD OF OZ” VHS Tape into the VCR.
The same VHS TAPE that you’ve watched 40 times, the same very VHS TAPE that you are sure DID NOT SHOW HIM WITH A GUN, BECAUSE HE NEVER HAD ONE.. (Again PRETEND!!!!)
4. So you put the tape in the player and press play, you then fast forward. To your astonishment HE HAS A GUN!!! OMG!!! HOW IS THIS POSSIBLE..
** EXPLANATION – Because AGAIN IF THE ME IS REAL.. That tape has been altered/ replaced / changed WHATEVER you want to call it. When the Quantum change/adjustment happened if the tape was in your reality, *now the tape from the reality with the gun* is NOW THE TAPE YOU ARE PICKING UP..
Done..end of explantion.
Heres a little extra piece of ME wonders tour grandma might not even be your actual grandma anymore.. Hows that for a doozy?!?!? She couls have merged/replaced your real grandmother and you’d never know…
Can someone explain to why I remember different variations of the full color Tinker Bell intro on many Disney movies that suddenly doesn’t exist. The black and white version is no way close to the color intros that I vividly remember.
Please do not use this Lobby Card as evidence of anything. Lobby Cards were created by third party printing companies, and not by the studios. They are often times inaccurate in regards to color, especially during this period. They are essentially colorizing a black and white production still to create a piece of advertising using colors that will grab a viewer’s attention (if not outright guessing at the colors). A quick google image search of classic movie advertising art will provide sufficient evidence. You do not even mention that the printer has also colored the Scarecrow costume blue and purple, when it was green and brown. Also, Dorothy’s slippers were SILVER in the Oz books – the decision to make them “ruby slippers” was made by MGM. An argument could be made that the printer was familiar with the books and did not color the slippers, as they expected them to be silver in the film.
Thanks for the information on that, will update the post with your feedback. I don’t think I’m using it as evidence necessarily, rather, just using it as an example of more oddities surrounding the gun.
No one is stupid for remembering things differently from another person. It was all just an interesting thing to look up & see which way I remembered one thing or another. It didn’t fully hit me until I was holding my beloved childhood book from the basement of the house I grew up in that a chill came over my being. Berenstein had become stain. As the only child of older parents who were excited to have a child, I had hooked on phonics before it was known. I entered school early because I could read earlier than others, my family is German, & I did not forget how it was spelled. My heart was pounding with confusion. I showed my mom’s 80 yr old friend who said~wow, you must have a typo there, I’d keep that, it might be worth something. I found Sleeping Beauty~ countless times my friends & I repeated ~Mirror Mirror on the wall. My eyes followed those words on the page countless times. I cannot explain how strange it felt to see magic mirror. My memories are valid. I lived them. My father is a very scientific person. I do believe there is an explanation, which I will not go into here. It doesn’t help to project anger at anyone. Let’s be more respectful of the experiences each of us have lived.
I’d also like to point out that this lobby card is from a 1949 re-release of the film, which makes the inaccurate colors more amusing. However, as we all know, films were not readily available to audiences in this period, and their familiarity with them is no where near the heights that internet-fueled, obsessive fanboys have today. After a few weeks in the theater, movies were gone. Except for the occasional re-release for major titles (every ten years or so), some films were never seen again until the television period (Wizard of Oz was first broadcast on television in 1956), and later the home video period.
Every version of the movie I’ve seen over 40 years clearly shows the gun and other weapons.
Glad to see this one explained here. Can anyone rationally explain the Sally Field(s) Oscar acceptance speech change? That one is messing with my head.
I’m likely much older than all of you. I’ve enjoyed watching The Wizard of Oz my whole life. Until today I’d never noticed the scarecrow with a gun nor have I ever noticed the tin man with a pipe wernch. I can only rationalize that certain things go unnoticed as they have no infatic significance. Great movie though, right?
Forget about “memory” – though that’s all we have when we die – seek “residual proof” – there is so much out there. Or use deduction. Else, get an expert opinion. My friend is an expert early childhood development educator – and an expert on The Berenstein Bears…when I went to her library after the change (about 4 years ago?), and randomly pulled out one of her books, she said, “I got a misprint! Very coo!” Then I pulled out several books and laid them out…the silence that followed was scarier than any movie, and if validated the ME / Shift / Alt-universe for me. An example of deduction would be McDonalds. I remembered it as MacDonalds, not McDonalds…why is the Big Mac not called the Big Mc? Or residual proofs…I find those myself in movies, paintings, etc. A nice one is James Earl Jones in two different interviews quoting the movie line, “Luke, I am your father.”
I’m going on 60 years old, and I’ve ALWAYS known about the scarecrow’s gun, the lion’s net, the tin-man’s wrench, etc…and it always bothered the fuck out of me that the handgun alone could have drastically altered the story if they had only USED it. When the Cowardly Lion first attacks? POW, that motherfucker goes down. When the green dude tries to turn them away at the Emerald City? “Motherfucka, open that goddamn door fo’ I puts a cap in yo ass!” Et cetera. I mean, that six-gun would turn the whole story on its head if they just had the balls to use it.
Think that’s the lesson to be learned here friend. Scarecrow had no brains to figure out a plan, his friends had no courage to face the challenge, and they didn’t have the heart to kill a man.
I first came across those books when I was in grade 2 or 3, between 1968-1970, and I noticed that the name was definitely Berenstain. I first heard of McDonald’s in 1969, and it was Mc, not Mac.
As an added note, the wicked witch, when sending forth her winged monkeys, mentions that the targets will be no problem at all, and that she is sending a “little insect” on ahead to deal with them – this, surely, was the jitterbug, the scene of which was entirely deleted. Moreover, the tools that the four carry out of the Emerald City did not spontaneously appear, and were surely obtained there — quite possibly (if we were to extrapolate) given into their hands by the Guards to assist them in their Wizard-ordered foray against the Wicked Witch… in another deleted scene.
Well spoken. The anger and vitriol is that, they know something is really going on but, don’t see it. They are frustrated for, they are not participants, they are prisoners of their mundane routine. I know several rational, well educated, individuals that scoffed at this “very real phenomenon” until one day they notice something they are certain of has been altered. And, why post a snarky comment? If you don’t believe in the phenomenon, fine. There are numerous forums you are free to participate in therefore, move forward.
Car tunes started off in radio and not television. Kids back then enjoyed the silly voices of talking animals on the radio or car radio hence “car-tunes”, tunes later became known as toons because it simply looks more fun.. thus Roger Rabbit and Tiny Toons switched it up.. no Mandela effect here
Interesting theory, but that is definitely not the origin of the word “cartoon”. Unless of course…Mandela Effect! (Ha ha).
I watched The Wizard of Oz carefully when i was a kid, i always took note of their weapons, at no time did they have weapons like that ONLY the Tin Man have the Ax, not only did you not “debunk this” you proved your methods are sloppy and desperate to prove something that many people know, and this isn’t the last ones, something did happen and you just can’t accept it, THAT is whats going on here, denial!
There should be a ME movie. It’s a great sci-fi premise, and we could call it “The Mandala Effect” just to mess with the believers.
The Munchkins had a munitions factory. Obvious.
I’m 45 (in 2020) and remember the gun in Wizard of OZ and also Looney Tunes being Tunes not toons, indeed Tiny Toons became a thing I watched later in my childhood. Perhaps there is a generational thing with remembering tunes or toons. To echo comments about the lobby card, again this is just an artists interpretation. As time goes on some companies will change their logos or advertisements anyway so this will add to “confusion” eg it wasn’t that long ago that Snickers the peanut and choc bar were called Marathon in the UK and the cleaning product Cif was labelled as Jif, give it x number of years and people may think that never happened.
It’s just funny to me, because for the Mandela effect to happen, OF COURSE there are going to be people who remember this when they were young because for them nothing has changed. There’s literally no way to prove this, but I have owned this film, in various forms and watched it every year with my family and they have never, ever, noticed either the gun, or that giant wrench for that matter. Ever. This scene is in the film even, without either of these details. Some of the camera angles are different even… the coloring is slightly different for the scene. Though this could be a case of different prints. Still, I can get along with misremembering Berenstain and Berenstein. You could gaslight me with that if you wish, not with this. You’ll just have to give the benefit of the doubt that not all of us were in the same sync with you, and for some reason now we are. Peculiar as that may be. Interesting that the differences are so slight. There could be innumerable things that have altered but which effects are so small as to be unnoticed if not recorded in such a largely accessible medium. Still, it’s the truth… just have to figure out how to explain it, in a way that satisfied the pursuit of an answer.
It’s (or was) Looney Toones, sex in the city, interview with a vampire, Oscar Meyer, and dozens of other examples that for alot of people they were suddenly ripped from their reality and replaced by idiotic counterfeits. What marketing companies would think misspelling their products would be successful! Frabreze? KitKat? Sex and the city? What, like sex and the bed, or sex and the car? These “new changes” are ignorant without making good sense, but are considered normal by most because to them it’s always been that way. Interview with A vampire, now, it’s interview with THE vampire. uh,… What vampire? Which one? Aw you know, “THE” vampire! The grammar on many examples now is terrible, and on purpose! For what profit? Next time we’ll talk geography, etc. A children’s movie and it has a scarecrow with a gun, why? It doesn’t fit, belong, or make sense. Like all of the “changes” , and they scream “look! We don’t make sense anymore) but it’s cool with 90% of you because for you nothing ever changed, it’s always been senseless and misspelled. I can’t describe skydiving, you just have to feel it to know it. For ME victims it’s like that, we don’t expect you to believe us because you haven’t gone through it. But you mock us and offend us with ridiculous and ignorant “explanations” as if you all had a PhD. How can thousands screw up the exact same memory of hundreds of unrelated things, some on a global scale down to the smallest? Music never had anything to do with Looney Toones. It was a rip of cartoons, ie: silly, crazy, cartoons which they were. Why tunes? There wasn’t a steady diet of songs or music, it’s not known for that, it’s remembered for the whacky (Looney) cartoons. It’s been miserable, no answers, no one will admit what happened. The majority thinks you can’t remember things you lived with your whole life. You own a blue car for thirty years and tommorow you get up it’s red. Your told by everybody including Google that the car company never made blue cars, EVER. you pull out a old photo to prove your case but even in the old photo it’s now red as well. Your laughed at, they say your memory is bad. Then hundreds of other blue car owners have the same problem but nobody listens. I wouldn’t wish it on anybody
Exactly. Don’t forget CupO’Noodles is now CupNoodles. What the heck?! It doesn’t make grammical sense. CupO’Noodles does because the ‘ mark denotes the missing f, so it is really CupOfNoodles. That CupNoodles cup makes no sense at all.
“What are you eating?”
“Cup noodles.”
“Don’t you mean cup of noodles?”
“Nope.”
Wtf?
Or how about the Oreos with the extra cream filling? I remember them being called Double Stuff but now they are called Double Stuf?? That’s as bad as ‘Febreze’ having one e….and also makes as much sense.