How to with John Wilson (2020) s01e03 Episode Script

1
(CLASSICAL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JOHN WILSON: Hey, New York.
Life is filled
with precious moments.
Ones, uh, that we wish
we could hang on to forever.
But our ability
to recall everything,
no matter
how much it means to us,
gets worse and worse over time.
And if you don't have
an accurate record,
you may never be able to, uh,
trust your own version
of events.
And then you'll just end up
remembering things
the way that someone else
wants you to
but it doesn't have
to be this way.
So stick with me,
and I'll show you
how to turn every waking moment
into something
that's impossible to forget.
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
Now, a good memory is
one of the most attractive
qualities a person can have.
My memory's not very good,
and it's always
made me feel insecure.
This is kind of why I started
shooting so much video.
I've also been writing down
every single thing I do
every single day
for over a decade now.
Whenever I do something
or go somewhere,
I put it right here
in these books.
(CHEERFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
On January 10th, 2018,
I woke up at 8 a.m.
and ate four strips of bacon.
On August 22nd, 2014,
I got a haircut
at, uh, Home Run Barbershop.
And on March 12th
of the same year,
uh, I got a salad for lunch
and accidentally dropped it
all over 32nd Street.
It's kind of like time
traveling.
If I ever need
to remember something,
I can just go back to my book
and read about that day,
and I'm immediately transported.
But unfortunately,
this isn't memory,
because the second
I look away from these books,
everything just begins
to blur together
and I can barely remember
who I am or how I got there.
And if I'm not careful,
one day all these records
could just go up in smoke.
But New York
can be a painful place
to have a good memory
because the better
you remember it,
the less, uh,
you recognize over time.
There used to be a a bar
on 2nd Avenue, uh,
called Mars Bar
that I used to go to.
But now it's a TD Bank.
Um, thankfully, it looks like
some of the regulars, uh,
still hang out there, though.
They also recently demolished
one of my favorite, uh,
movie theaters.
There aren't many left
quite like it in New York City.
But at least it, um, looked like
they were having
a good time destroying it.
A friend told me recently about
someone who lives
in my neighborhood
who has such a good memory
that she actually competes
in memory competitions.
And she let me come over
to look at some of her awards.
JOHN: Let me see this
-YANJAA WINTERSOUL: Oops Yeah.
-JOHN: Oh my god, sorry.
Yes, this is yeah,
World Memory Championship 2017.
These are Singapore,
and then there are some from,
I guess, Sweden, Fra
not France, what is this?
JOHN: She seemed a little bored,
but maybe that's because
this was her third interview
in 24 hours.
Were there any methods of yours
that you used
to improve your memory?
Uh, most competitors
use a technique called
the memory palace technique.
For example, if you want to know
the periodic table
of elements in order,
then you can place them
in the memory palace
and go, like, "H, hydrogen,"
so maybe on your bed
you put like, lots of water.
Your bed is suddenly
just made of water,
and then your nightstand
might be made out of balloons
so then you remember
helium balloons.
I mean, you kind of just
move along in a logical pattern.
JOHN: The technique
she told me about
sounded like a good idea.
All you have to do
is close your eyes
and imagine you're walking
through a physical space
that you know really well
(MYSTERIOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
and mentally place the things
you want to remember,
uh, all along your path.
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
JOHN: So I tried to use it
to remember
my, uh, grocery store list.
And I'll use my commute to work
as, uh, the memory palace thing.
So, here's what it looks like
in my head.
(MYSTERIOUS MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I leave my apartment,
and I almost slip
on a banana peel.
(WHISTLES)
Then, on my way to the subway,
uh, I'm reminded that I need
to buy some broccoli.
I also need drumsticks
And some brea chicken breasts.
When I get on the subway,
I'm reminded of
the fresh baguette that I want
and the dandruff shampoo
that I also need.
A few stops later,
I remember to buy Fuji apples.
But when I get off the train,
I realize that I actually want,
uh, Granny Smith.
I also need a pack
of playing cards,
acne cream,
and also, some, uh, donuts.
A couple of hunks of cheese
wouldn't hurt, either.
I also needed uh
ah, grapes.
And a Snickers bar.
Nutella was on my list.
And a good old Zagnut.
-Perfect.
-(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
Now that I had
my list memorized,
I went to the supermarket
to buy everything.
But even though
I knew exactly what I wanted,
I had a really hard time
finding some things
in the store.
The only available employee
was a security robot.
The rest of the staff
was preoccupied
because someone had actually
just run out of the store
with a bunch of groceries
without paying,
and nobody knew what to do.
The robot looked trustworthy
and wise,
and I couldn't believe
that such a sophisticated piece
of technology
would allow a robbery
to take place in broad daylight.
But maybe that's not what
it was, uh, programmed to do.
So I got as much as I could
off the list
but, uh, I still couldn't find
any Zagnut bars.
Unfortunately,
this fucking machine
could not accept questions,
but I finally spotted
an employee
uh, who didn't seem too busy.
-CHRIS ANATRA: What's that?
-JOHN: A Zagnut bar?
No.
JOHN: Uh, it's like a candy bar.
Okay.
JOHN: It turned out, uh,
he didn't actually
work at Stop & Shop,
but he was the creator
of the inventory software
used to organize everything.
CHRIS: Pretty much,
from A to Z, all of their needs,
anything
that needs traceability,
is what our software
is really good at.
JOHN: I told him I was making
a student film about memory,
and he started sharing
some of the weird experiences
he's had in the world
of supermarket inventory.
I specifically remember
this being called
Stouffer's Stovetop Stuffing.
But it's always been, now,
Kraft Stovetop Stuffing.
And it's always been that way,
it wasn't
From the 1970s,
it's always been Kraft.
But I remember the commercials,
I remember everything
about being it
called Stouffer's
Stovetop Stuffing.
So, here's another one, too.
The Raisin Bran guy?
I know he always
used to have sunglasses,
but now, he's never
wore sunglasses, ever.
Febreze, I always remember
it being spelled
with two e's, "Febreeze."
Now it's "Feb-rez."
And it's always been this way.
Like, that's the point
that I want to make.
It's always spelled this way,
it's never been spelled
with the two e's.
JOHN: Not everything
he said resonated with me,
but I definitely thought, uh,
"Febreze" had more e's in it.
So, when he invited me
back to his, uh, office
to check out
his inventory software,
I said, uh, "Yes, sir."
There's no
there's no Stovetop Stuffing
-for Stouffer's in
-CHRIS: No stuffing.
However, I'm gonna bring one up
that myself and my dad
got into, like,
a little kerfuffle about.
Um, it was about
the JFK assassination.
Like, if you look at
the picture of the car here,
there's, like
all these extra people
in the car.
I I always remember
there distinctly being
four people in the car,
and then as I was searching
to try to find an answer,
because every video
was the same Zapruder film,
I saw, "JFK assassination
Mandela effect."
I'm like, "Mandela effect?
What the heck
is a Mandela effect?"
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
Some people
have a very distinct memory
that Nelson Mandela was killed
in prison in the late 1980s,
and then, I think around 2009,
were kind of shocked to find out
that Nelson Mandela
was still alive.
So that was the first recorded
group remembering of an event
that did not match
the historical record.
JOHN: Oh, okay.
So, is is there, like
What, uh
The more you look into it,
the more you see
these different things,
not just in food service,
but in geography of the planet.
For example,
I remember when South America
used to be under North America,
not pushed all the way out
towards Africa.
Or your heart used to be
offset to the left.
Now, it's just about
in the center of your chest.
From what I remember,
it used to be Sex in the City,
and now it's Sex and the City.
Is the word "a lot" one word,
a-l-o-t, or is it two words?
"Sometimes," is it s-o-m-e
Is it two different words, or
I actually called
the Scotchgard company,
and I'm like, "When did you guys
change your product name
from 'guard,' g-u-a-r-d,
to g-a-r-d?"
"Objects in mirror
are closer than they appear."
Is there a hidden meaning?
Are we being communicated with
somehow regarding
these Mandela effects?
Is it trying Are we trying
to be taught something
that we haven't quite
grasped yet?
So, myself and others are,
like, really looking into that,
and we're starting
to find patterns.
JOHN: I still didn't have
all my groceries,
but I was hypnotized
by his elaborate theories.
JOHN: Were you afraid of Y2K
when it was about to happen?
No, actually, I really wasn't.
JOHN: And I soon learned that
this was more
than just a hobby for him.
The first official
Mandela Effect Conference
is being organized,
so that people can feel
at ease about their memory,
in that, "Don't worry,
there's a lot of people
that have the same type
of memories that you have,
and they're
and they're shared."
So there's gonna be
a group of people
coming together
to talk about that.
I think it's gonna be
an an historic event.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC CONTINUES♪
JOHN: After I left,
I couldn't stop noticing, uh,
little inconsistencies, uh,
everywhere that I looked.
Is there always
a dash in the "Coca-Cola"?
TRUCK DRIVER: Huh?
JOHN: The "Coca-Cola,"
is there always a dash in there?
TRUCK DRIVER: Yeah.
JOHN: Oh, okay, but what about
on the back of your jacket?
There's no dash on there.
-TRUCK DRIVER: There's no dash?
-JOHN: Yeah.
I've never seen it
without the dash before.
Nah, it's 'cause I had it
I had it made up.
-JOHN: Oh, okay.
-I had it made up.
That's the only reason
it don't have the dash.
JOHN: Oh, okay.
I wasn't sure what was related
to the Mandela effect or not.
But there was definitely
something going on.
(MUSIC CONCLUDES) ♪
I walked outside
of my apartment recently,
and I noticed that the city
changed out all the garbage cans
to the older, uh,
"Oscar the Grouch" style,
uh, which I thought was weird.
As I kept walking, my neighbors
looked different, too.
I was
I was getting really confused,
but I soon realized
I had actually just stumbled
onto the set of a movie.
It was Stephen Spielberg's
remake of West Side Story.
And they were pretending
that Queens
was the Upper West Side
in the early '40s.
For the rest of the week,
it was hard to tell who was
a human and who was an actor.
And I kept getting in trouble
walking around
because I was
from the wrong era.
A week later,
I thought my neighborhood
was back to normal,
but it turned out they were, uh,
just shooting another movie.
After that, I had trouble
trusting anything I saw.
And I just started assuming
that everything was a movie.
This looks like a good one.
Excited for this one
to come out.
But the more I paid attention,
the more I wondered if some
of this confusion was by design.
(SUSPENSEFUL MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
I was walking
by the Thanksgiving Day parade,
and I saw that
there was a malfunction
with
the Ronald McDonald balloon,
and it had to be pulled
in the middle of the event.
But later, when I mentioned this
to a friend
who had watched
the parade on TV,
they had no idea
what I was talking about.
It turned out,
the live broadcast
had spliced in footage
from last year's float
to make it seem
to viewers at home
that everything was normal,
while in reality,
Ronald's deflating carcass
was being pulverized
in the middle of 42nd Street
while spectators
watched in horror.
This act of deception
created two groups of people
with completely different
memories of the same event,
and neither of them is wrong.
The conference that the guy
mentioned was happening soon.
And I was starting to feel
like I shouldn't miss it.
So I caught a cheap flight
to, uh, Ketchum, Idaho,
where the first-ever
Mandela Effect Conference
was being held
at a Best Western, uh, "Plus"
in the, uh, Pow Wow Room.
The conference organizers
were just getting set up.
But once they installed
their, uh, custom sign
that they had shipped in,
uh, the host took a moment
to chat with me.
So, in my head, it's always been
"Berenstein" Bears.
I learned to read
on those books.
I was as sure as my next breath
that it was an e.
Turns out
it's never been an e,
it's always been an a.
And that bothers me a lot.
That was my first one
I ever found.
And I couldn't let it go.
When you know what you know,
you can't deny your memory.
(UPBEAT MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
JOHN:
Everyone started to file in
and sample free veggies and dip.
The guy from the supermarket
showed up, too.
There was a lot
of literature there.
And, uh,
custom apparel and decals.
People were having
very animated discussions
about their different theories.
Like, I was just hearing that
-somebody remembered
having a dog
-Right.
and then their mother's like,
"No, we never had a dog,
-we were a cat family. Never."
-Right, right.
And she has all these memories
of this dog.
You know,
where did they come from?
-This happens a lot?
-Yeah.
JOHN:
All the presenters talked about
some of the most
well-known, uh, Mandela effects.
Minds were being
absolutely obliterated
with all of this
forbidden knowledge.
Now, when you look
at this picture,
do you see a Mandela effect?
-AUDIENCE MEMBER 1: Yes. Yes.
-AUDIENCE MEMBER 2:
Yeah. The stripes.
The stripes!
Those were never there before.
Not not that I remember.
JOHN: But the more
I talked with people,
uh, the more I realized that
they didn't think of this
as a memory problem at all.
What do I think
the Mandela effect is?
Um, I would say
it's a timeline shift,
you know, um,
proof of the multiverse
you know, different timelines.
It's like evidential existence
of parallel timelines.
JOHN: Everyone there,
no matter
their individual experience,
was on the same page about this.
So, the Mandela effect
is the consequence
of jumping timelines
while holding memories
of the previous timeline.
JOHN: In their minds,
their memories were perfect,
and they were the chosen few
who could remember details
from alternate dimensions
that they once inhabited.
PRESENTER:
And I remember Benicio del Toro,
he died around 2001.
I think both of them are
still alive right now, I hope,
and I'm not sure
what that's about,
but it is interesting.
JOHN: They were using
the most complicated
scientific theories possible
to explain what most people
would consider, uh,
everyday forgetfulness.
Personally, I think
I've I've done this.
Literally, I'll have a pen
that I'd like to write with.
I put it down, I stood up,
turned around,
and went, "Oh, I want the pen,"
and it was gone.
It was not there.
And I just
looked on the floor,
looked on the table, nothing.
Three days later,
I'm sitting at the computer
like this with the pen,
and I have no idea
where it came from.
Um no.
JOHN: I purchased his book
to learn more
about his, uh,
quantum timeline theory,
and I took it back to my room,
which was conveniently
on the other side of the wall
from the convention space.
There wasn't a lot of,
uh, science in there,
but in the first 30 pages,
the author claims
to have invented Pokémon
and met Mark Twain in a hot tub.
This didn't explain much,
and I was hoping to get
more of an explanation
when the Q&A began.
CHRIS: It's usually,
um, some kind of, like,
um, hard drive technologies.
CHRIS: What's that?
-AUDIENCE MEMBER 3: Silicon.
-CHRIS: Yeah, I think ultimate
yeah, ultimately silicon.
CHRIS: Yeah, yeah.
AUDIENCE MEMBER 3:
CHRIS: Okay.
JOHN: The conference
was almost over.
Uh, but before leaving,
I decided to spend some time
with the organizer, Jerry.
He wanted to show me the town's,
uh, other Best Western,
where he worked
as a night manager
and, uh, actually
lived there too.
According to science,
we're in the Orion Arm
of the Milky Way.
Generally speaking,
the dash was always
in the middle
on the Coca-Cola logo.
The company Costco
lost their t.
Another strange thing
about the flip-flops
is all evidence of the flip
disappears after the flop.
JOHN: So, are your coworkers
gonna be in there?
JERRY:
They will be. They will be.
And all of them
are affected, too.
They were actually affected
before I ever got here.
'Cause people asked them
the questions,
and they realized that things
aren't the way
they remember 'em either.
One of our amazing
front desk managers,
Miss Brooklyn.
JOHN: Uh, have
have you been, uh, affected?
Yeah, actually because of him,
I've realized that a lot,
I have, yeah.
-Absolutely.
-JOHN: Like what?
Well, like "Kit Kat."
"Febreze" blew my mind.
"Froot Loops." (CHUCKLES)
JOHN: Oh, so it's, like,
the spelling of things?
Yeah, just the spelling,
and the way I remember it.
JOHN: Do you think this
has a lot to do with memory,
or is it something different?
I personally think it's memory.
That's me.
But I know these guys think
a little bit differently,
but I think it's memory.
-No, please be honest,
whatever you think.
-No, yeah. (LAUGHS)
-(JERRY LAUGHS)
-We talk. (CHUCKLES)
-JERRY: Absolutely.
-JOHN: Yeah.
Yeah.
JERRY:
Not gonna lie, I'm a bachelor.
JOHN: Me, too.
-JERRY: Really? Very nice.
-JOHN: Yeah.
JERRY: It's the way to be, man.
Save a lot more money that way.
(GENTLE MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
So, let me turn the question
on you.
Are you affected?
JOHN: Yeah, I mean, I
Which ones just really
grabbed you and said,
"Oh my god, some
That's not right"?
JOHN: Uh, the rearview mirror.
Uh, "Objects in mirror may be
closer than they appear."
Right!
JOHN: It seemed like I had found
the one place
where the worse your memory was,
the more people liked you.
And they would go
to great lengths
to make you feel accepted.
JERRY: Here we go!
"Objects in mirror are closer
than they appear."
JOHN: 'Cause you remember
"may be," right?
JERRY: Yes, sir!
(BOTH LAUGHING)
JOHN: It felt kind of nice
to be validated so easily.
And I was almost sad that
it was time to go back home.
When I landed in New York,
I was hungry,
so I stopped for lunch
at an airport restaurant
called CBGB.
It seemed like it had a lot
of music-themed decor,
but I was here for the food.
I ended up getting their, uh,
signature hot dog
for twelve dollars,
and it wasn't half bad.
When I got home,
I tried to write everything
from that weekend
down in my calendar,
but I got distracted and started
looking at old entries.
And I eventually
read everything, uh,
from the beginning,
chronologically.
It was the first time
I had ever done that,
and it felt like I was reading
about a different person.
I remember being spontaneous
in my 20s,
but everything I read proved
that I was a slave to routine.
And I noticed
relationship patterns
that I had been
trying to ignore.
By the end of it,
I was in a terrible mood.
And I realized
that maybe it's unnatural
to try to preserve some things.
The way the past exists
in our head
is not always the way
that we experienced it.
And at the end of the day,
there will always be distortions
as long as humans
are responsible
for remembering everything.
So enjoy this fantasy
while you can,
because if you're having
a bad day today,
you can always remember it
being better tomorrow.
("OBJECTS IN
THE REAR VIEW MIRROR"
BY MEAT LOAF PLAYING) ♪
May appear closer
Than they are ♪
And objects
In the rear-view mirror ♪
May appear closer
Than they are ♪
And objects
In the rear-view mirror ♪
May appear closer
Than they are ♪
And objects
In the rear-view mirror ♪
May appear closer
Than they are ♪
They are ♪
(CHOIR VOCALIZING)
Objects in
The rear-view mirror ♪
May appear closer
Than they are ♪
-They are closer ♪
-And objects
In the rear-view mirror ♪
May appear closer
Than they are ♪
-They are closer ♪
-Objects in
The rear-view mirror ♪
May appear closer
Than they are ♪
-They are closer ♪
-And objects
In the rear-view mirror ♪
May appear closer
Than they are ♪
-They are closer ♪
-And objects
In the rear-view mirror ♪
May appear closer
Than they are ♪
(SONG CONCLUDES) ♪
JOHN: This is John Wilson.
Uh, thanks for watching.
(JAZZ MUSIC PLAYING) ♪
(FLITTERING MUSIC PLAYS) ♪
I sat here eating a tub
of coffee ice cream
and I I spilled it
(LAUGHS) on the furniture.
What about you?
What have you spilled here?
Oh, I have never
spilled anything.
-JOHN WILSON: Oh, really?
-Yeah.
-JOHN: Oh, wow.
-I'm very careful.