It’s funny how when you are a kid you are exposed to new things in books, TV and movies before you have the skills to understand fact from fiction. There was a time when Santa Claus, dragons and unicorns were just as real to me as whales, dinosaurs and the Space Shuttle. The truth is revealed gradually and not in any organized way. For a long time I thought woolly mammoths were just what elephants looked like in the winter. What misconceptions did you have that lasted longer than it probably should have?
Find another one and you can make a double-headed snowman!
Biff…how could you.
@Space Butler: How could he not?
actually, Poul Anderson – and possibly others – speculated that if you have elephants who can survive winter weather, they _will_ grow much thicker fur.
Lol, Biff has a mean side!? YES! Haha, this one is gold.
I think the idea was that he found the horn–not the unicorn. Like how deer shed their antlers and leave them around periodically.
I would expect him to use twigs for the eyebrows…long twigs.
I had the misconception that *all* liquids where water with more or less solids dissolved in it. An exception being gasoline, of course.
is this…no…it cant be…IS THIS A CHARLIE THE UNICORN REFRENCE?!? You are now my favorite comic ever! come to the future charlie! the fuuuuture!!!
My family is bhuddist and on top of it, we’re still not really religious, so the term “Bless you” wasn’t used a lot in our house. Still, when you sneezed, there was almost always someone there to say “Bless you”. I heard it as “Bleshoo” and to this day, I still say bleshoo when someone sneezes.
Maybe not quite the same as what we’re supposed to answer, but it’s sorta close.
Haha, I, too, thought of Charlie the Unicorn.
“Aah! Hey, where’s my horn… AAAH! What purpose did that serve?”
Hah, Biff! Instant classic!
>Everyone knows trolls don’t exist… >Oh yeah, then how do you explain the dead unicorns?
@Riftsong – Yep!
@Boo – Nice Metalocalypse reference!
I used to think that hippos were fine, as long as you stayed out of their water. Now I come to find out that not only can they run faster than humans, they will actively chase and kill people on land. This has become reason number one for me never to visit ‘the Motherland’ ever.
What did I believe in? A very long and depressing list.
Did you know graveyards are actually big chessboards and the pieces move around at night? Me and my brother did.
I used to think liver was some kind of vegetable. It always got listed alongside other things that are good for you but taste bad, like spinach and brussel sprouts, so I mistakenly assumed that it belonged in the same food category. Since we never ate it at our house, it wasn’t until high school that I became aware of my error.
i remember those days… i lived in perpetual fear of snowmen, because any one of them could be a Deranged Killer Mutant Snow Goon and kill me. also, all lizards were really baby dinosaurs and the moon was the Death Star in disguise
I used to think that the island off the coast of NY (Long Island) was Cuba. I have no idea why.
@emo bob
Your parents liked to pull yer leg alot didnt they?
Dogs are all boys. Cats are all girls dontcha know.
I was about 6 when I realized Sunday wasn’t always going to be sunny.
I used to call rabbits “bock-bocks” because of the Cadbury commercials around Easter. For years I thought that was the sound rabbits made.
Santa, the Easter Bunny, and the like were ripped from me very young by a girl who was even younger than myself. she was 5 and never taught to believe because her only sibling was a teen and her parents didn’t want to deal with all that stuff any more; however, monsters under the bed, in my closet, wantering around my room, and lurking in the toilet to bite my butt when i flushed stayed with me untill i was 14. yeah, i was scared a lot when i was little.
@Wannabeelf – Butt biting is a hard fear to get over!
I would *not* trust that snowman
I never had any of those problems, in kindergarden I was the smartass kid telling people “Santa Claus was invented by parents and Wal-Mart” or “BUNNIES DO NOT LAY EGGS YOU DUMB FAT HIPPO!” Also I’m in college and I’m still required to see the psychologist once a week…
Something I started on Facebook: What are 10 things you used to believe that may not have been entirely correct. Make your own list and share:
1. All newly poured concrete was extremely deep and could swallow up a person like quicksand, never to be heard from again. And wet cement was indeed as fast acting as shown in cartoons.
2. At any moment the USSR would launch a world-ending nuclear war and my family’s only hope was to get to Nellis Air Force Base as fast as possible because it would surely be a prime target and then we would at least die instantly and not have to live through the subsequent nuclear apocalypse.
3. If I ran over the vacuum power cord with the vacuum it would get cut and I would get electrocuted.
4. My Grandma didn’t smoke (I’ve never had a sense of smell and I never saw her smoking so I didn’t know she smoked until several years after she died).
5. My teachers and classmates absolutely needed to be corrected every time they said something I knew to be incorrect.
6. Slot machines in grocery stores (and virtually everywhere else) wasn’t odd
7. The best way to get out of a nightmare was to wet the bed
8. The Count on Sesame Street was really spooky and had hypnotic powers (here’s why: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LH62UQ8pSR4 ).
9. Growing up in the ’70’s everything seemed old, even when it was brand new. Clothes, cars, electronics, and pretty much everything seemed old. I somehow managed to alter my memory such that I thought Star Wars came out in the ‘80’s. Even though it had a dominating impact on my childhood, I thought nothing that awesome could have belonged in the ’70’s. I was actually surprised, I think in college, when I realized that Star Wars came out in 1977.
10. One night, late at night, I saw a glow-in-the-dark Spiderman-type person walk through the front door of our house (without opening the door) and walk half-way down the hall, wave at me, and slip into my older sister’s bedroom. Actually I’m not entirely sure that didn’t happen.
I just saw the Biff: Sword Swallowers ad, perfect timing on the scroll up, I’m still laughing!
I used to believe that somewhere in woods around Brno city (where I live) is a bottomless hole (nobody knows accurate where it is) and many children fell into it.
Spagette was made of worms. ._. That was my brothers favorite cruel joke towards me… That, and that there were monsters in the drain that would come out and eat me when i washed up for dinner…
I used to use Monster Repellent, which of course came in an invisible bottle and I made the noise that it was spraying. worked though.
@ Cucui “Count Sheep, who is that?” HA!
“What misconceptions did you have that lasted longer than it probably should have?”
That the Law was about Justice, Fairness and preserving our liberties and freedom and that no man was above it, and that the Constitution could withstand pretty much any attack. 8 years of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney cured me of that. (Hey, you asked…)
I was certain that dinosaurs were the fictional ones and dragons were real until I turned ten. What happened when I turned ten? I bought the book ‘ Dragonology ‘ or whatever and it confirmed to me that everyone else was right ; dragons were not real. Dinosaurs were.
I also believed that during the night, little pixies danced around my room.
No monsters for me, other than the usual toilet flushing fear and drain.
Do you know a quite archaic type of elevator called Pater Noster? I used to have strong respect for it. Many children believe the cage will turn you upside down or crush you when you forget to get off in the last storey. Trying if it is true was a test of courage.
I believe Blue from Blue’s Clues was a girl. For the longest time ever.
What?
Saw. That she was a boy*
This reminds me of the third Charlie the Unicorn video.
For the longest time I would have sworn George Washington’s name was Warshington. For that matter, washing machines were warshing machines. I blame my mother with her south and central american roots.
Yeah, and I thought Hitler’s first name was Heil.
i was convinced that the little balls in tapioca pudding was fish eyes by my little brother. I still can’t eat it
When my brother was little I told him that if he ate too much ketchup, he would turn pink. Even after I told him I was joking, he never ate the same amount of ketchup again.
biff did NOT make that snowman>.>
My dad told me that in the old days, the world was black and white. That’s why there is no color in old photographs.
I still believe Santa exists, but he’s smarter than to do all the work himself. a large fat man in a red suit entering every house without detection is far fetched, that is why it makes sense that Santa would employ a worldwide organization of christmas Ninjas.
It’s a shame he used the unicorn horn like that, he could have used it the OTHER WAY, then he could be proud to call it a snow MAN, if you get my meaning. *wink wink*
I’d love it if Biff picked up on Calvin and Hobbes’ penchant for demonic-esque snowmen….
@ Micah
You mean like this: http://www.thebookofbiff.com/2006/12/29/157-snowman/?
He still did the mouth.