Conspiracy Theories That Started As Jokes
Here in the dumbest timeline, most conspiracy theories sound so stupid that you have to think they must be joking. It wouldn’t be at all surprising to learn, for example, that at least some of those responsible for propagating QAnon or the flat earth theory are doing it “for the lulz,” as they say, but until they own up to it, we can only speculate.
Some conspiracy theories, however, are definitively documented as jokes that simply got way out of hand. Such as…
The Illuminati
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While the Illuminati was a real and disappointingly powerless group hundreds of years ago, the modern conception of it began in the pages of Playboy, where a pair of writers published a bunch of fake letters railing against the organization. They went on to author a series of books positing high-profile Illuminati-related cover-ups and even an Illuminati RPG card game. Somehow, that didn’t give it away.
‘Avril Lavigne Is Dead’
The theory that Avril Lavigne died in 2003 and was replaced by a lookalike has always been full of holes. Like, plenty of better artists have passed away without replacement — why was Avril Lavigne declared the big draw? Indeed, the author of the Avril is Dead website admitted in 2015 that “this was an exercise to teach to become more skeptical cand not believe everything you see!” Which does sound like something someone forced at weapon-point would say. Blink twice if you need help, Avril is Dead.
‘Helen Keller Isn’t Real’
If you haven’t heard the conspiracy theory that Helen Keller never existed, you’re in for a treat. It’s mostly ableist effluvia that a person who was blind and deaf couldn’t possibly have accomplished what she did, but it started with a TikTok video making those claims as jokes. In case there were any questions about the user’s intent, at one point they said, “They would have believed she was real had she appeared on America’s Got Talent.”
Eli Copter
When a controversial politician dies in a mysterious accident — like Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, aka the Butcher of Tehran, in a 2024 helicopter crash — it’s natural to assume something fishy. Israeli Twitter went ahead and reeled themselves in, crediting “Mossad agent Eli Copter” with the attack, which was quickly spread by activists as a serious implication. To be fair, they have a history of this sort of thing, but still: “Eli Copter.”
The Moon Landing Hoax
The theory of a moon landing hoax was itself a hoax, tracing back to Bill Kaysing’s 1976 book We Never Went to the Moon, which was initially pitched as a work of fiction. It was supposed to be a satirical story of a faked moon landing, but Kaysing claimed that the more he looked into it, the more he came to believe his fictional tale happened to be true. Either that or he thought it would make him more money. And to be fair, have you seen Fly Me to the Moon’s numbers?
