Charlie Chaplin And The Case of The Time Traveling Man-In-Drag

On the off chance you have not already seen this..

I think the film-maker is missing an important point: if the woman is talking on a cell phone, then there has to be more than one time traveler.

As you can imagine, this video has generated many responses. My favorite has to be this:

A Northern Irish film-maker has insisted that a scene from the 1928 Charlie Chaplin film The Circus is proof positive of time travel, because nobody ever touched their face in the 1920s.

George Clarke from east Belfast has been puzzled for more than a year by a scene in the film which appears to show a woman walking along whilst touching her face with her left hand.

The unusual thing is that the movie was made by Charlie Chaplin in 1928 – long before the concept of touching your face whilst walking along was even invented.

Mr Clarke told us, “As I sat back to watch it I realised in the first 30 seconds there’s a lady strolling by with her hand up to her face, something which you see regularly today.”

“But everyone knows that face touching didn’t appear until the 1980s, and even then it was big bulky exaggerated touching, not the small discreet touching that you see today, and in that Chaplin film.”

“This type of face-touching can mean only one thing – that woman is from the future.”

Poorly-qualified historians and YouTube viewing morons have backed Mr Clarke’s theory, suggesting that time travelers could already be among us today.

YouTube commenter Simpleton247 wrote on the site, “I read that in the 1920s if someone had a massive facial boil, or some sort of hideous disfigurement, they would walk along and brazen it out, letting everyone see it.”

“It’s only in the last thirty years that people have thought about covering up embarrassing facial features when in public by using their hand.”

“So how would this woman have known to try and cover something like that up with her hand is she wasn’t from the future, eh?”

Mr Clarke had the last word, concluding, “The evidence is pretty compelling, but bottom line, I don’t think we’ll ever know for sure if she was from the future.”

17 thoughts on “Charlie Chaplin And The Case of The Time Traveling Man-In-Drag”

  1. Michael Zvi Krumbein

    That is cute! I think she's holding her hat on her head, though.

    Reminds me of the original StarTrek from the 60's, where everyone IS using cell phones (not necessarily a co-incidence; it might have inspired the design), and Uhura has a bluetooth! When I was it decades ago, the bluetooth made no sense to me, and it turned out to be one of those rare correct technological predictions.

    (Reminds me also of 2001, where the only thing that seemed unrealistic to me was the flat screen telephones, and that was the only thing that actually came true – except that they were in Black and White.)

    1. Another option is a stranded time traveler who wants to be rescued, but not contaminate the timeline. So he does something which would be meaningless to a contemporary, but which would jump out at someone from the future. In one such classic story, the protagonist is stranded in the 1930s. He runs an ad in a newspaper with a mushroom cloud, and the caption "All the Talk of Our Market," ATOM. In the future, they know approximately when he is, check the records, and find this anomaly.

      1. Michael Zvi Krumbein

        The interesting thing is that almost nobody got computers right. Asimov gets close in the beginning of Foundation, but nowhere else. The person I saw who did was writing one those old, cheap sci-fi stories. Ironically, he got a great deal correct, both technologically and socially, in a cheap, silly series. No idea of the title or author, although it was likely before I was born or shortly afterwards.

  2. People can convince themselves of anything. Epilepsy was seen as demon possession at one time. The sun was thought to revolve around the Earth. People thought Ace Ventura movies were funny. It's probably in our DNA and the advancement of our species through evolution will not correct this in us. And with Halloween fast approaching I have to tell you that I do believe in spooks, I do.

    1. Michael Zvi Krumbein

      Why was geocentrism nonsesical? It fit the evidence of people's eyes. (Maimonides, BTW, had mathematical issues with Ptolmey's theory.) It the Bible had said the Earth went around the Sun, no one would believe it. It's amazing the Copernicus came up with the correct thoery (assuming Occam's razor, although given relativity, you could use either model).

      There is no such thing as settled science, never was, and never will be. As my father pointed out to me when I was young, the Church's mistake with Gallileo was not that they rejected science, but that they accepted it, and incorporated it into the thoelogy. Then when the facts overturned "settled science", they could not adjust.

      We Jews owe that, at least, to Maimionides' opponents, that they kept us from falling into the trap.

  3. Michael Zvi Krumbein

    I would like to correct a political misstatement I made here several times. Since I was of the impression that Likud formed the government before accepting Labor, I assumed they didn't need them for a majority. I was wrong about that, although even if Labor pulled out, it wouldn't necessarily topple the government, since it is unlikely Ichud HaL'umi would vote agaisnt them.

    But the current government policy baffles me. We tell the world there is no freeze, so the Arabs pull out of the talks, then we refuse to actually issue building permits, so there is a freeze in fact. Basically Netanyahu is acting the exact opposite of what Jim accused him of doing. (If the stakes weren't so high, one would almost wish for Livni or Mofaz, since at least their policy would be coherent, even if suicidal (there's the rub!)).

    Can anyone tell me why?

    1. Michael Zvi Krumbein

      BTW, I can explain Tsippy Livni's core beliefs. She wants to be Prime Minister. End of story. I have no idea what Barak is trying to do, unless he wants to make peole so frustrated as get them to vote for Labor again.

      1. Michael Zvi Krumbein

        It's interesting that he is doing the exact opposite of what you accused him of, though.

        I tihnk, though, he has some core beliefs and is interested in something else besides power, unlike Livni. The whole thing seems to be a bit of a game, in which everybody loses. Is Barak (Labor) THAT interested in NOT building, against the entire raison d'etre of his movement? Since the Arabs won't talk to us anyway, why?

        1. If I've learned anything from reading IsraellyCool, I've learned that nothing is as it seems in the Middle East, especially politics. Why do Palestinian leaders threaten to break off peace negotiations at every turn when their people have the most to gain if a settlement with Israel is reached? Why do some in the Israeli far right ruling coallition try to torpedo an American-brokered peace agreement when the vast majority of Israelis want peace with the Palestinians? Internal politics, my confused friend. The other thing I've learned from reading IsraellyCool is that "You Don't Mess With the Zohan."

          1. Firstly I wouldn't characterize the coalition as 'far-right'- it simply isn't a true depiction of the vast amount of positions held by those politicians.
            Secondly; you are mistaking Israeli's wanting peace with wanting peace at any cost.

          2. Michael Zvi Krumbein

            1. Who says they care about what's good for thier people? When's the late time they held an election? Are your really that naive?

            2. Exactly what did they do to torpedo it? Insist on some good faith from the other side to make sure they are sincere?

  4. this was a sheer entertaining read. i enjoyed it unequivocally much!|Thanks on this article! To whatever manner, I had a emotionally upset viewing this article in Safari 5. Upright wanted to bring that to your attention! Thanks.

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