A sepia-tinted photograph of a besotted young couple found in the car park of a supermarket in the town of Qormi went viral on Facebook on Thursday 20th July, with thousands of people earnestly sharing the picture in an attempt to find the photo’s owner.
But the picture is of none other than George McFly and Lorraine Baines-McFly, two characters from the iconic 1985 film Back to the Future.
The post said that the photo was found in the car park of a Lidl supermarket in the dense urban town of Qormi with the words “Mum and Dad 1955” scribbled on the back.
The post went on to ask readers to share the photo “to find whose it is”.`
Over 1,700 people duly obliged, completely oblivious to the prank.
Several others saw the funny side, with some wondering out loud how people failed to recognise such iconic characters.
The photo captures the characters, played by actors Crispin Glover and Lea Thompson, dressed up to the nines for the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance, a high-school dance in which they first fall in love in the classic 1985 film.
The two characters are the parents of the film’s protagonist Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox.
A prank travelling around the world
In the absence of the film’s famous converted DeLorean, the prank hasn’t quite managed to travel across time, but it has certainly made its way across the globe.
Pranksters around the world have played the same trick in their respective countries, often substituting the name of the supermarket in question for a popular chain in their country.
In America, Walmart takes the place of Lidl, while Italian versions of the prank claim that the photo was found at their local Conad outlet.
Similar versions of the prank have made their way across the globe. Bizarrely, the photo has also been claimed to portray popular local radio theatre performers in Uruguay.
Verdict
The photo does not really show a local couple in 1955. It is a photo taken from the classic 1985 film Back to the Future. Similar pranks using the same photo pop up from time to time in different places around the world.
This claim is therefore false, as the evidence clearly refutes the claim.
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The photo was shared over 1,700 times. Photo: Universal Pictures
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Originally published here.
