What Happened to ‘The Man in the High Castle’ Swastika Props?
Rumor has it that as the fourth and final season of the alternate-reality Amazon series aired, the production’s remaining swastikas and Nazi iconography met an unusual fate.
Entertainment
Did Robin Williams Cheer Up a Paralyzed Christopher Reeve by Pretending to be a Proctologist?
A viral Facebook post tells a heartwarming story about the bond of friendship between the two actors.
Was Kevin Hart ‘Paralyzed’ in a Car Crash?
A dubious ‘entertainment’ site attempted to mine the comedian’s real-life accident for readership.
The Chernobyl ‘Bridge of Death’
In May 2019, the release of HBO’s show Chernobyl caused a spike of interest in all aspects of the nuclear disaster — including the revival of some long-forgotten rumors. A postscript relating to a scene in Pripyat brought back one suck story: that most or all residents gathered on what was later dubbed the “Bridge of Death” …
Trump Rally vs. Live Aid
In May 2019, a suspicious looking meme began to make the usual rounds on social media. It shows a huge crowd of people packing a venue raptly gazing at a stage bearing “Trump 2020” signs on either side, with a third Trump banner over the audience: The text over the photograph said: No, this is …
Jordan Peele, Tim Burton, Woody Allen, Ridley Scott, and Racism in Casting
On March 31 2019, a Facebook user shared a screenshot (archived here) of a different Facebook post which dissected the purported race-related casting decisions made by Jordan Peele, Tim Burton, Woody Allen, and Ridley Scott: The original post seen in the screenshot accrued 19,000 shares as of April 10 2019; the screenshot 36,000: It read: …
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Did Rod Serling’s ‘Twilight Zone’ Use Sci-Fi to Push Politics Past Network Censors?
The beginning of April 2019 also marked the premiere of the third television iteration of The Twilight Zone. This time, Rod Serling’s mid-century television classic series was rebooted with producer Jordan Peele at the helm. On the day the first two episodes were released — “Nightmare at 30,000 Feet,” a remake of the classic William Shatner episode, …
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Did Dave Chappelle Say ‘If You Stopped Listening to Michael Jackson … I Have Some Bad News About the Catholic Church’?
The March 2019 wide release of documentary Leaving Neverland prompted a flurry of social media activity, among the posts was a meme purportedly quoting comedian Dave Chappelle about reaction to the documentary, Michael Jackson, and the Catholic Church: Originally published via Facebook by “The Mind Unleashed” on March 11 2019 (archived here), the meme’s text was …
Was Mr. Rogers Bisexual?
On March 5 2019, an unexpected rumor that Fred Rogers (the creator and star of the beloved American children’s television show Mister Rogers’ Neighborhood) was bisexual began spreading on LGBTQ news sites and social media in general. Several concurrently circulating tweets formed a basis for the rumor about Rogers’ sexuality. An especially popular stated: Anyway, wildest thing …
Was Samuel L. Jackson an ‘Unknown Heroin Addict’ Before ‘Pulp Fiction’?
In February 2019, a Facebook page shared the following biographical meme about Samuel L. Jackson, detailing a purported drug addiction that defined his life before he got clean, which was around the time he appeared in Pulp Fiction. Alongside the meme, the page wrote: “Because he did not allow his situation to become his coffin.” The …
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