It’s in there in your head somewhere. It’s a shadow—a saturated snapshot drowning in static from the old TV, a smell, a feeling you get when you’re sitting in the back seat of the car on a summer night and the window is open, but it is certainly there.

Alright, enough sappy poetry. It’s time for a point: there were a lot of bizarre happenings in the '90s and early '2000s. What was real and what was the totally bogus product of one too many cosmic brownies eaten before hunkering down on your Pokémon bed sheets, King Furby resting sweetly in your arms?

WARNING: The views expressed in this article represent the research and memories of one H. Donnell and do not necessarily reflect those of the Odyssey Online. The Odyssey Online is not responsible for any improperly checked facts, half-truths, or instances of sarcasm that, if spoken, would clearly be sarcasm but are difficult to read and interpret in text.

1. Can Furbys Can Work Without Batteries?

Just seeing a Furbys’ eyes pop open after popping in those sweet AAs was creepy enough, but we knew that was only the tip of the Furb-berg. Those things were alive! They had to be—how else could they learn new words, wiggle their ears, and coo just loudly for us to hear them under everything we tried to bury them under in the closet? Every time one of those plastic-fluff minions of Satan shouted “ME HUNGRY,” an unspoken “FOR SOULS” followed that statement.

But could they really work without batteries?

This convincing video has us...convinced.

TRUTH STATUS: Indeterminate.

There are plenty of videos claiming to have caught Furbys in the act of talking without batteries, but that can be faked fairly easy due to something called video editing.

We have all collected stories from friends and may even had our own Furby experiences. Since the first pages of Google Searches for “can furbys work without batteries?” leads to a web of creepy furby story threads and videos, the truth may never be revealed.

2. Did every movie made in the '90s and early '00s contain either All-Star by Smash Mouth or Kids in America?

TRUTH STATUS: Yes. These two songs were embraced by all kids who realized that they were losers but experienced complete and total freedom in those “NA NA NA NA NA NA”s and knew that “only shooting stars break the mold.” Film companies, knowing that they could manipulate the impressionable youth into thinking they liked a movie because a catchy pop song was in it, refused to release any film before one of the two songs was included.

In fact, Digimon: The Movie included both, transcending the limitations of what could be achieved in film at the time. That pinnacle of quality dubbing, splicing together three or more separate shorts, and music rights buying, the film remains a favorite among critics and pretty much any person who existed in the '90s at all.

3. There were "Rugrats Go Wild” scratch and sniff cards?

TRUTH STATUS: Real. Kids and parents roped into seeing the inexplicable crossover of “Rugrats” and “The Wild Thornberrys” received a scratch and sniff card so that they could experience the film in “Smell-O-Vision.”

The cards were a cross promotion with Burger King. Unfortunately, things didn’t go right in the Smell Factory and, when scratched, the delicious Whopper(™) smelled distinctly of butts.

4. Did anime dubs actually include characters eating Japanese food that was constantly referred to incorrectly as popular American snacks? That’s an exaggeration, right? That didn’t actually happen, right?

TRUTH STATUS:

This damning pieces of video evidence should put this argument to rest.

5. Was everything better in the '90s?

TRUTH STATUS: Absolutely not. The 1990s and early 2000s were rife with political conflict and wars and all that real world junk. Also, there were plenty of bad cartoons that everybody forgets were bad because they haven’t seen them in ten years.

“Doug” is bad. Stop pretending you liked “Doug.”

Kid brains are pretty awesome—they see the good in ugly cartoons with bad perspective and terrible color palettes and the world in general. When people remember things with their kid brains, they remember that everything was a wonderful, simple whirl of Go-Gurt, those giant pixie sticks from ice cream trucks, and poorly copied anime eyes. It’s hard to tell between legend and reality when reflecting on the neon-colored carpets that defined our childhoods.