14 craziest pop culture conspiracy theories of all time

On July 20, 1969, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon.

Since then, the United States has put men on the moon six more times.

Yet conspiracy theorists insist none of this ever happened, believing instead that the lunar landings were nothing more than an expensive plot involving elaborate film sets executed under the creative direction of filmmaker Stanley Kubrick.

A full 11 percent of Americans either have their doubts the lunar landings actually happened, according to a 1999 Gallup poll, as reported by Time.

Forget the moon, if you believe the news, a human mission to Mars is no longer a sci-fi fantasy. But what problems would we need to overcome? And should we even try?

On August 31, 1997, Diana, Princess of Wales was killed in a high-speed car chase in a Paris tunnel.

Her driver, who was drunk, was reportedly trying to elude the paparazzi – the makings of a tragedy.

That hasn’t stopped the conspiracy theorists.

Since even Diana herself believed she was being targeted for murder, it’s easy to understand why people continue to doubt the accident was actually an accident.

Certain “Princess Diana facts” when examined more closely simply are not “facts” at all – take a look at 12 of them!.

The horrible death of JonBenet Ramsey – strangled to death at the age of six in her own basement – is a murder that will likely never be solved.

Perhaps it helps some people deal with this sad news by choosing to believe that she was never killed.

Conspiracy theorists believe not only is JonBenet alive, but that she’s living as the pop star Katy Perry.

If you’re on the fence about this one, consider that Katy Perry herself has denied it.

They say the truth is stranger than fiction. Take a look at these 12 crazy conspiracy theories that actually turned out to be true.

Consider the premise of Lewis Carroll’s Alice in Wonderland: A young, unsupervised child disappears down a rabbit hole, consumes edibles, and has hallucinations.

Is it really that far-fetched to believe Carroll tricked us into reading a bedtime story to our children based on a drug trip?

While conspiracy theorists are quick to point that out and to support it with such pop culture references as rock band Jefferson Airplane’s acid-trip anthem, Go Ask Alice, the truth is that Lewis Carroll was simply a quiet genius with a gift for entertaining children.

That truth sits comfortably wth us. Unfortunately these falsehoods also sat well with many people.

Take a look at these 11 lies that made history.

Wow, Lewis Carroll can’t seem to catch a break, right? If he wasn’t tripping on acid, he must have been murdering women in Whitechapel, London, right?

Since the murderer known as “Jack the Ripper” was active around the same time Lewis Carroll was teaching nearby, and since Lewis Carroll was merely a pseudonym (real name: Charles Dodgson), some got it in their heads that the guy who wrote Alice in Wonderland was also a vicious serial killer (and one of the most notorious psychopaths in history).

In the mid-1990s, this conspiracy theory reared its head again with a book by Richard Wallace called Jack the Ripper: Light-hearted Friend.

Wherever there seems to be an unsolved mystery, conspiracy theories abound. Especially surrounding these unsolved mysteries.

Too many conspiracy theories claim this or that famous deceased person is still alive and in hiding.

The most popular conspiracy theories of this sort involve:

• Jim Morrison
• Elvis Presley
• John Lennon
• Andy Kaufman
• Tupac Shakur
• Biggie Smalls
• Michael Jackson
• John F. Kennedy, Jr.

Chances are if they were dead, someone would be selling their stuff as celebrity items can fetch top dollar at auction.

Back in 1966, conspiracy theorists claimed – and continue to claim to this day – that Paul McCartney passed away.

Those same theorists also believe that the Beatles felt so terrible about covering up Paul’s untimely demise that they took to dropping hints in their music that Paul is, in fact, dead.

Best way to solve this one? Ask the very much alive Sir Paul himself.

If he wasn’t alive, he probably wouldn’t be continuing to cash the royalty cheques from one of the most collectable records of all time.

While dead celebrities can’t stay dead, living ones are actually ghosts, dontcha know. Rumours of all these celebrity deaths were greatly exaggerated, albeit not to the level of, nor as persistently as, that of Paul McCartney:

• Hillary Clinton
• Margaret Thatcher
• Barack Obama
• Britney Spears
• Justin Timberlake
• Sean Connery
• Eddie Murphy
• Morgan Freeman
• Will Ferrell
• Alice Cooper
• Avril Lavigne
• Nick Jonas
• Taylor Swift
• Russell Crowe
• Jackie Chan
• Lindsay Lohan
• George Soros
• Celine Dion
• Axl Rose
• Chevy Chase
• Sean Penn
• Jack Black
• Nicolas Cage

Like Alice in Wonderland, Winnie the Pooh is so brilliant and imaginative, there are those who can’t imagine the author (A.A. Milne) didn’t have an agenda.

Conspiracy theorists will tell you that every Pooh character represents a diagnosable mental illness. For example:

• Pooh: Eating disorder
• Piglet: Anxiety disorder
• Rabbit: Narcissistic personality disorder
• Eeyore: Depression

It’s tempting to buy into this one, but Snopes tells us not to.

“It was all just a dream” is a familiar storytelling prop whose popularity came to a crashing halt in 1986, when the answer to one of pop culture’s most vexing questions—who killed Bobby Ewing?—turned out to be “Sorry guys, the last season of Dallas was all just a dream.”

Ever since, conspiracy theorists have been messing with our favourite works of art and literature, insisting they too were just dreams… of characters within the story.

Examples include the theory that the Harry Potter adventures were all just a dream in a sad orphan’s mind and television’s Saved By the Bell was nothing but a dream in the mind of one Zach Morris.