Was Sinbad in a 1990’s genie movie called Shazaam? Fact Check

A phenomenon known as “collective false memory” has been confusing Internet users for years that they once saw a 1990s genie movie named “Shazaam” (or “Shazam“) starring comedian Sinbad.

It’s a false memory that has been confusing people for years. Remember that kid’s comedy movie, Shazaam, where Sinbad played a genie, making children’s wishes come true, sometime in the 1990s? Thousands of people – albeit very vaguely – certainly did remember it.

The problem, of course, is there is not a shred of evidence that the movie ever existed. No IMDB or Rotten Tomatoes entry (and they list practically every movie ever made!) no video recordings, no merchandise, and even Sinbad himself is telling you the movie never existed.

And even this photo, below, which has been trying to fool Internet users, isn’t real. It’s just Sinbad’s head digitally added onto the body of a pro-wrestler. Nice try.

It’s a phenomenon called collective false memory, which is similar to the Mandela Effect, which refers to the popular false belief in the 1980s that Nelson Mandela had died when he was at the time very much alive (he later passed in 2013.)

Other examples of these collective false memories include the mistaken belief that the Monopoly man wears a monocle, and the mistaken belief that Morpheus from The Matrix movies utters the iconic line “What if I told you…“.

Sponsored Content. Continued below...

Collective false memories have a number of potential explanations, ranging from the supernatural to more benign, natural causes. In the case of the 1990’s Shazaam movie that never existed, it is likely that so many have this false memory because of a number of variables that have, over a period of time, become merged together in a very similar way across multiple individuals.

Such variables in this case most likely consist of a similarly titled movie called Kazaam starring Shaquille O’Neal who played a genie and was released in the 1990s, and memories of the actor Sinbad dressed up like a genie when presenting an afternoon of Sinbad the Sailor movies (which often featured a genie) back in the 1990s.

These memories, possibly reinforced with others, have amalgamated in such a way in many different people as to allow them to believe that the movie Shazaam existed when presented with such a claim.

But to be clear, unless you count a 2 minute clip from College Humour for April Fool’s Day 2017, the movie Shazaam never existed.