Dolphin Conspiracy Theories

Submission 26,203

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About

The Dolphin Conspiracy Theories refer to various beliefs that the Cetacean mammals are plotting a scheme against the mankind. Like many other absurd conspiracy theories that have gone viral, it gained popularity as a satire of self-convicted conspiracy theorists.

Origin

While the precise origin of this belief remains unclear, the assertion that the dolphins may pose an existential threat against humans most likely stems from the scientific research of Cetacean intelligence^[1], which has been known be exceptional within the animal kingdom. In popular culture, the earliest known fictionalization of the dolphins as a deceptive, though not necessarily evil, species can be attributed to So Long, and Thanks for All the Fish^[2], the fourth book in Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series released in 1984.

In 2000, Danny Lewis and Michael Bailey launched a tongue-in-cheek website at Anti-Dolphin.org^[3] to supposedly raise awareness of the threats against humanity posed by the dolphins.

Spread

On November 1st, 2000, FOX aired a Halloween special episode of The Simpsons featuring a parody of the 1973 American science-fiction thriller film The Day of the Dolphin wherein the dolphins wage a war against humans after Lisa decides to set free Snorky, the king of the dolphins who had been held captive at Springfield's Marine World, into the open ocean.

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On May 13th, 2005, Slate^[6] ran an article titled "The Dark Secrets That Dolphins Don't Want You to Know" with a list of lesser known trivia about the Cetacean mammals' predatory behaviors, such as their tendencies to engage in coercive mating with female dolphins, prey on baby porpoises and commit infanticides. On September 28th, 2005, Museum of Hoaxes^[7] ran an article titled "Killer Dolphins Set Loose by Katrina," which reported on an alleged rumor that 36 dolphins trained by the U.S. military and equipped with lethal weapons had been swept out of their tanks by Hurricane Katrina into the Gulf of Mexico. The article characterized the rumor as "highly doubtful."

On March 1st, 2012, Disclose.TV forum^[14] member Harbin started a discussion thread on the subject with an excerpt from the Slate article. On April 30th, GameFAQs^[9] forum member Burns112233 started a discussion thread titled "Dolphins are taking over the world" with a link to the Anti-Dolphin website. On December 5th, 2013, YouTuber I Hate Everything uploaded a video titled "I Hate Dolphins," in which he facetiously accuses dolphins of running an "underwater crime syndicate" that is supposedly capable of drug smuggling, illegal trafficking of seals and covering up assasinations of fishermen.

/r/DolphinConspiracy

In December 2014, the far-fetched conspiracy theory began to gain traction on Reddit after the subreddit /r/dolphinconspiracy^[2] was launched by Redditors FatMofoingBagel, Smiffy01564 and TreacherousTurtle. According to Redditor FatMofoingBagel, the subreddit was originally created as an extension of an in-joke started by his friend who jokingly insisted that dolphins never actually existed.^[4] While the community's interest in the subreddit quickly waned after reaching 100 subscribers in January 2015, /r/dolphinconspiracy saw an exponential growth of subscribers in June 2016 after running ad campaigns on the site.^[5] By the end of June, the subreddit had drawn between 2,500 to 3,000 new subscribers. On June 16th, 2016, YouTuber FsuAtl posted a video featuring /r/dolphinconspiracy, which subsequently became a recurring joke within his channel.

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