Charlie Chaplin’s Time Traveler

A Belfast-based filmmaker named George Clarke uploaded a video to YouTube in 2010 that immediately went viral and had millions of views in a matter of days. It originated from Charlie Chaplin's 1928 film The Circus, or more specifically, the bonus material that was included with the DVD version of the film. It depicts an elderly person chatting on the phone while donning an overcoat and acting in a way that was unheard of in 1928.

Because the first commercial mobile phones weren't developed until the early 1980s, despite the short duration of the footage, it has become the focal point of numerous "time travel" conspiracy theories since Clarke released his video. Some people contend that the phone is actually more akin to a hearing aid than a phone at all.

That might be the case, yet the person in the video appears to be laughing and smiling; they even pause to finish their sentence before the camera switches to another scene. Some claim that the clip is phony and was later added by a cunning trickster to the DVD's extras section. Though it would necessitate replacing every DVD of the film currently in circulation, it is doable.

• Year: 1928