Life On Europa Leaked Documents / Europan Hookmouth Hoax

Submission 30,651

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About

The Life On Europa Leaked Documents Hoax and the Europan Hookmouth Hoax refer to a series of memes claiming that government documents were leaked supposedly revealing evidence of life in the subsurface ocean on Jupiter's moon Europa, specifically the existence of a fish or whale-like creature known as the Europan Hookmouth. In April 2023, an Oh That's Real Nice meme sharing the information and a broken link to archive.org purportedly leading to the documents started going viral on several subreddits, including /r/schizoposters, with some seemingly believing it and others making further memes referencing the documents. The documents and origin of the photo became the subject of conspiracy theories due to the link being inaccessible and several comments and posts about the image's origin purportedly being deleted. The image of the Europan Hookmouth appears to be a cropped image of a creature from the canceled video game Raw Concrete. Despite this, some people believe the leaked document still exists alongside other images of the rumored creature.

Origin

On April 22nd, 2023, Redditor hornmelon made a post to /r/LesbianInsectBrothel2^[1] sharing a "SpongeBob Fish Looking Into Toilet" meme claiming that there are leaked documents that share evidence of life on Jupiter's moon Europa. Specifically, the meme shows an image of what appears to be a whale-like creature. The bottom of the meme shares a link to archive.org^[2] which leads to a broken 404 page. The post gained over 700 upvotes in four days (shown below). It is unclear if this is the first time the meme was posted.

The image of the supposed creature appears to be a cropped piece of concept art from a canceled game titled Raw Concrete and was originally shared on Newgrounds^[9] by RAWconcrete2Dgame on April 8th, 2018 (shown below).

Spread

The meme was posted to several other subreddits over the following days. On April 22nd, 2023, it was crossposted to /r/schizoposters,^[3] gaining over 300 upvotes and /r/196^[4] by Acceptable_Bug_4366, garnering over 3,000 upvotes in four days. Several more posts about the documents were made to /r/196^[5] and /r/schizoposters^[6] between then and the 24th.

On April 23rd, an anonymous user of 4chan's^[18] /x/ board started a thread to discuss the creature and the alleged document. At the end of a thread, an anon posted what they claimed was an excerpt of the document, writing:

NASA JPL Release – Discovery of an Alien Fish on Europa

Pasadena, CA – NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has announced a groundbreaking discovery during its mission to study the icy moon Europa in the outer solar system. Using data collected by the Europa Clipper spacecraft, scientists have found evidence of a unique aquatic organism living in the subsurface ocean of Europa.

The organism, provisionally named "Europian piscis," is a fish-like creature measuring between 1 and 2 meters in length. Its elongated body is covered with iridescent scales, and it has two prominent fins that allow it to swim gracefully through the frigid waters of Europa's ocean.

The discovery of Europian piscis is a significant development in the search for life beyond Earth. Until now, scientists had only detected microbial life forms in the subsurface oceans of other worlds. The existence of a complex organism such as Europian piscis suggests that Europa's ocean may be capable of supporting a more diverse range of life forms.

Europian piscis appears to be adapted to the extreme conditions of Europa's ocean. Its streamlined shape and flexible fins allow it to move efficiently through the water.

On April 24th, Redditor twisted-inspiration, who is allegedly the one who posted the except, shared it to /r/schizoposters,^[19] garnering over 40 upvotes in two days and writing, "As soon as I posted some of the leaked documents on /x the whole thread got archived." It is unclear if this is true.

On April 24th, Redditor Kek_Mit_Uns_ posted a meme referencing the documents to /r/schizoposters,^[7] garnering over 570 upvotes in two days (shown below, left). On the same day, Redditor Plague_King_ made a post to /r/schizoposters^[8] titled, "you are being psyopped the alien isn’t real the government is trying to distract you from your real problems," sharing the same image from the Raw Concrete Newgrounds page that suggests the image of the whale is fake, garnering over 700 upvotes in two days. The poster also shared a previously posted meme falsely claiming that certain words relating to the leak were blacklisted from Google (shown below, right). The fish became colloquially known as the Europan Hookmouth on the /r/schizoposters^[14]^[15] subreddit, where memes about the creature became increasingly popular.

Later that day, Twitter^[10]^[11] user @ChillPsychopath started two threads about the image and memes, claiming that posts discussing the image's origins were being deleted and exploring the theories behind it being potentially real. One post claims that another image of the alleged creature was posted to /r/schizoposters, showing a more realistic-looking version of the creature (shown below). The image appears to be photoshopped.

On the same day, Twitter^[12] user @BradenIsBased shared the original meme, garnering over 17,300 likes in two days. Users of 4chan's^[13] /x/ paranormal board also discussed the alleged leak that day in a thread with over 126 comments, some pointing to evidence like the allegedly deleted comments and posts and the broken link as evidence that it is real. The thread ultimately lead to a doxxing attempt of an anonymous user allegedly named Jack who some users believe orchestrated the hoax.

On April 25th, Redditor Beebjank posted several memes referencing the documents to /r/okbuddyretard,^[16] garnering over 4,600 upvotes in a day. That day, Redditor inthefemurbreakeruwu posted a Live Tucker Reaction edit to /r/schizoposters,^[17] garnering over 1,200 upvotes in a day (shown below).