Yahoo News 7 of the craziest real-life TV conspiracy theories
We've made it known how much we love TV fan theories, from kids' shows to soaps to just about any other genre, but sometimes the tinfoil-hat brigade go even further out-there and enter the real world.
These are the weird internet theories that'll make you ponder so hard that you end up questioning life itself.
1. The "Catch the Pigeon" theory
Before we get into this, we first have to talk about the 'Mandela Effect'. This is an unexplained phenomenon (which curiously seems to have become a thing after the creation of the internet, hmm) where large numbers of people remember the same thing wrongly.
The name comes from many people having a clear memory of Nelson Mandela dying while still in prison in the '80s, and even remembering the same elements of his funeral. These collective false memories have made some wonder if they've actually been to a parallel universe, or if time-travellers have fiddled with the fabric of reality.
Among many different examples of this is a theory regarding the famous theme song from Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines. You may remember this song as 'Catch the Pigeon', but nope. It's actually 'Stop the Pigeon' and always has been. But there are probably many of you reading this thinking that not only was it the former, but that it was the name of the show, too.
This Reddit post explains it in full, but basically we feel like something fishy is going on every time we hear it. Even though it's right. But it's wrong, dammit!
2. The US Government axed Firefly
As it made zero sense for Fox to mess about with and then axe Joss Whedon's popular and critically acclaimed space western sci-fi Firefly after just one season, surely there had to be something sinister behind the decision. Right? Right?
Some fans have speculated that it wasn't axed because of the standard cost-vs-ratings concerns, but rather because of government interference. Why, you ask? The show follows a group of rebels fighting for civil rights, who wanted to launch a free-trade economy based on a bartering system, and go down the Robin Hood route by stealing from the rich and giving to the poor.
As this was all rather anti-government, perhaps the Bush administration didn't want such thoughts getting into the mainstream while trying to convince the country that they should definitely go to war with Iraq. Three months after it was cancelled, the US did indeed invade Iraq. Coincidence?
Of course it was, you numpties.
3. The Simpsons and The X-Files predicted 9/11
Or rather the whole Fox network did. Some conspiracy theorists have noted how the US network had various shows alluding to 9/11 before it happened.
The biggest of which was X-Files spinoff The Lone Gunmen, which had a pilot episode featuring a plot to hijack a 747 plane and fly it into the World Trade Center.
Then, in a Simpsons episode, Homer goes to retrieve his car from the Twin Towers. Fair enough, but then Bart is seen with a magazine that looks like this:
9/11! Crazy huh? Ergo, proof that Fox and founder Rupert Murdoch were in on it. We'll just forget that the same idea had been used in Tom Clancy's Debt of Honor and Stephen King's The Running Man.
4. Tom and Jerry is Nazi propaganda
Surely the adventures of a cat and mouse duo who hate each other can't contain coded messages about the Third Reich?
Well, there are their names for a start. "Tommies" was slang for British soldiers and "Jerries" were the Germans. And in the cartoon, Tom is clearly the bad guy, and every time he tries to kill Jerry he is foiled, leaving Jerry the winner. Triumphantly so, like we're meant to be on his side (even though he's clearly a smug dick).
The first Tom and Jerry cartoon aired in 1940, the year of the Battle of Britain. And so this has led to a certain pocket of people thinking that Jerry's victories are all down to a secret message about German superiority.
Which, we imagine, is pretty offensive to the family of co-creator Joseph Barbera, whose brothers both fought in the US military.
5. Karl Pilkington is a fictional character
When Karl began hitting the mainstream in the mid-2000s thanks to the Ricky Gervais Show podcasts and then later shows like An Idiot Abroad and The Moaning of Life, some fans thought that there was no way someone with Karl's hilariously deadpan thoughts and comments could be real. Especially with a head shaped "like a f**king orange".
This caused some people to theorise that Ricky and Steve pulled a fast one on us all by creating "Karl" as a character in their XFM radio show days, and scripting pretty much everything he ever said. Now, as much as Ricky probably loves his own gags, we doubt he'd laugh THAT much at things he wrote. Well, maybe not, but still.
People even thought his real name was Graham, but Ricky and Steve had to repeatedly deny that Karl's persona was their creation. Steve said that he would be "ashamed" if their XFM show was scripted, adding: "I would not have squandered a character that good on this poxy radio station."
6. Saved by the Bell was used by the Illuminati
If you search for "Illuminati" and add any other word, you're bound to find some kind of conspiracy nut claiming the secret society is involved in some way or another. But this one made us laugh.
This website goes to great lengths to explain just how everyone's favourite '90s teen comedy Saved by the Bell was full of hidden messages approving of Satan, and everyone was in on it. There's even a hidden message in the theme tune when played backwards.
Something tells us that if the Illuminati had the ability to control anything they wanted, they'd at least start with Friends.
7. Honey G is actually David Cameron
Okay, this was very quickly proved false - not to say ridiculous - when the X Factor rapper finally took off her sunglasses. But this was just one of various theories surrounding 35-year-old Anna Gilford. We don't blame people - there had to be some reason why the hell she stayed in the show for so long.
Firstly, Anna actually has a masters degree in management and has run her own recruitment company. Even when the show went back to her hometown, she had the poshest mum and a huge posh house. Not exactly growing up in the Bronx, is it?
The two biggest theories (beyond the Cameron one, obvs) were that either she was hired by Simon Cowell and ITV to boost ratings, and kept in on the show for as long as possible. (In particular, removing the app-based "flash vote" just when it looked like she might be in trouble.)
The other one was that Anna was actually catfishing Simon and that at some point she was going to reveal that the whole thing was a joke and that she wanted to tear down The X Factor from the inside like a rubbish version of The Departed. But nope, looks like Anna just wanted to reboot herself as a mediocre novelty rapper.
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