The exhibit
Mumfry the Mummy Butler appears inside Jumbo Dumbsludge / NEVER FORGET as the subject of an early-animation exhibition. The museum card supplies an improbably rich history: Art Deco backgrounds, Egyptian Revival architecture, influence, toys and catastrophe. X and Z—both exactly the sort of people who believe they should recognize such an object—recognize nothing.
The evidence multiplies
The museum is not the end of Mumfry. At J*PRESS Book & Tape in Little Tokyo, Z finds マムフリ 3000 B.C., presented as a 1971 anime adaptation. The archive has started growing sideways across countries, formats and decades. Each new artifact makes the absence from memory less comfortable.
Not just “fake history”
Mumfry works because the story places the character beside real but obscure figures such as King Baggot and Tom Magee. The reader cannot use unfamiliarity alone as a truth test. The fiction exploits exactly the same sensation it gives its characters.
See Baggot Brain, Synthetic Reception / Cultural Residue and Memory & Forgetting.