Michael Jackson Alive? No, but I’m not too surprised..
March 15th, 2010
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It happened with Elvis and now it’s happening with Michael Jackson. Some insist that he’s not dead, that it’s all a big conspiracy and that Jacko is actually hiding out somewhere, finally away from the media and those who vexed him and free to enjoy all the little boys a life without the persecution he faced.
To be honest, the idea that Michael Jackson would try to fake his own death does not seem entirely implausible to me. He was definitely a freaky enough dude to do something as whacked out as that. However, I still don’t think he did, in part, because while Jackson may have been freaky enough to do that, I don’t think he would have been able to get away with it for long and I certainly don’t think that the LA County Medical Examiner, the state and local police, the DA’s office, all the media and promoters and all the others required would have been so easy to convince to go along with it.
In any case, here’s some of the “proof” that has been offered to show he’s really alive:
You have to fast forward to about 2:17 on this video to show the individual some claim is Michael Jackson on the Larry King Show.
Admittedly, they both have somewhat similar high pitched voices, but that’s not Michael Jackson, that’s a known individual who currently goes by the name “Dave Dave.” Dave Dave was born David Rothemberg. He changed his name, because he did not want to carry the last name he received from his father. His father was a very disturbed man who, in a notoriously cruel incident (which later became the basis for a made-for-tv movie) set a fire that caused severe burns to his six year old son. This was triggered by a nasty divorce and custody battle with David’s mother in 1983.
Dave Dave has been known since that time and his struggle with the disfiguring burns and skin grafts has been documented for many years. Today he lives in Utah. Dave Dave does not actually look all that much like Jackson, his eyes are a different color, for one thing, and while it is possible to achieve a different eye color using contact lenses, achieving a realistic looking eye color as light as Dave Dave’s is all but impossible for someone with eyes as dark as Michael Jackson’s.
David has only appeared publicly a few times since the incident, but he spoke about Michael Jackson because Jackson had helped pay for some of his medical expenses and befriended David and his family shortly after the incident. While some of Jackson’s relations with young children may have stirred some suspicion, it seems that in this case, the star was genuinely offering compassion and financial help to someone who is almost impossible not to feel sympathy for.
Conclusion: Dave Dave is not Michael Jackson
Example number 2 of “proof” that Michael Jackson is alive:
Well, I admit that I don’t know who that woman is, but sorry, what I see is a slightly blurry individual who doesn’t actually look like Michael Jackson at all. Then again, maybe Michael Jackson is this guy.
Example number 3 of the “proof”:
Okay, I admit that it does kind of look like the sheet-covered body did move, although it’s very hard to tell given the orientation and motion of the helicopter. If it did move (which it may or may not have) then what does this mean? Well, it could mean it’s alive or it could mean that the helicopter banked slightly or that someone tightened one of the straps, thus shifting the body a little bit.
Sorry, I don’t see anything there to prove anything significant happened.
Then we have the “hidden messages.”
In the spirit of “Paul is Dead” you can hear almost anything you want. Apparently Jackson planned on faking his own death years ago, back long before he was prosecuted for child molestation, years before his financial problems and years before he even turned white. In that case, one might ask why he waited so long, but then again, these things generally don’t make sense to begin with.
Finally the Pièce de résistance:
Wow. That sure looks like it could be Jackson. That sure looks like the van that was transporting his body. Wow. Even the license plate is the same! Well it should look good, because the German television station that made this video put in a fair amount of effort to create this hoax video as a publicity stunt!
Conclusion: Sorry, Michael Jackson is dead. There’s really no reason to think otherwise, and while I would not past Michael Jackson to try that kind of stunt, getting away with it is another thing.
Despite this several websites have cropped, a couple noteworthy ones are
Michael Jackson Death Hoax Investigation Forum
Michael Jackson Sightings
On this topic, a few examples of those who many claimed had faked their death or were not dead:
Lee Harvey Oswald – A wacky conspiracy theory claimed that the “Oswald” that the world knew and who was shot by Jack Ruby was actually a Soviet double. They even managed to exhume his body in 1980, and dental records and other examination conclusively proved that yes, it was Lee Harvey Oswald. Some continued to claim that it was really an imposer and that the Soviets somehow managed to replace the double’s body with the real Oswald body in the cemetery. They cited the fact that the burial vault was damaged, although this was likely caused by the weight of the soil and the age of the vault.
Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov – After the execution of the Russian royal family, rumors surfaced that one or more had survived. Anastasia was the most common family member cited as being alive. A woman in Germany woman by the name of Anna Anderson claimed to be Anastasia for her entire life and managed to acquire some followers. Scholars pointed out that Anderson’s use of the Russian language and accent indicated it was not her primary language and that she could not provide details that Anastasia would have known. Many continued to insist Anderson was indeed Anastasia until several years after her death when DNA analysis conclusively proved she was not. The Romanov graves were discovered in 1991, but it was not until 2007 that analysis of the graves as well as partially cremated remains found nearby conclusively proved all family members were executed.
Billy the Kid – Billy the Kid (Henry McCarty) was shot dead in 1881, but later at least two men would claim to be Billy the Kid, saying the death was faked. Attempts to confirm the identity of the body buried as Billy the Kid have been held up in the courts, but analysis of photographs and historical accounts has lead most researchers to dismiss both claims as bogus.
Jesse James – Since the death of Jesse James in 1882, many have claimed to be James. In 1995, mitochondrial DNA recovered from the body of Jesse James proved to be consistent with the body indeed being Jesse James, but some continue to insist that it was not him, citing the possibility that the body was another individual who was closely maternally related to James.
Amelia Earhart – Irene Craigmile Bolam was an American bank executive who also happened to be a private pilot. She also bared a resemblance, although not a very strong one, to Amelia Earhart. In 1970 a book was published aledging that Bolam was, in fact, Amelia Earhart, who had lived under the false identity since her disappearance in 1937. Bolam was not happy about this and sued, receiving a 1.5 million dollar settlement. Unfortunately for those who believe that Bolam was Earhart, the life and family history of Irene Bolam is well documented and photometric comparisons have been fairly conclusive in showing that the two individuals are not the same.
This entry was posted on Monday, March 15th, 2010 at 9:19 pm and is filed under Bad Science, Conspiracy Theories, Culture, Just LAME, Not Even Wrong. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
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March 15th, 2010 at 10:42 pm
Well, Michael did marry Elvis’s daughter, so I’m not surprised either.
I guess he asked for this type of treatment after death. Note the connection to Paul “is dead” McCartney as well.
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March 15th, 2010 at 10:45 pm
I think that this phenomenon of believing dead famous persons are still living when they are certainly dead says more about the institution of celebrity than it does about the person themselves. I wonder if this is at the root of the resurrection myths we find in various religion’s theologies.
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March 15th, 2010 at 10:58 pm
DV82XL – Good point, but we have to consider all of the possibilities.
Is Michael alive, dead, or undead. You’ve seen Thriller, haven’t you?
I think that my new theory might go a long way to explain these recent sightings.
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March 16th, 2010 at 12:06 am
DV82XL said:
Perhaps, although now that I’ve thought about it, many of the reported alive celebrities I mentioned (who turned out to be dead) had a lot more to do with making money. Claiming to be a dead celebrity ended up getting some people some notoriety or money. One of the guys who claimed to be Billy the Kid at 100 years old (he was actually an 80 year old guy who had no relationship) ran a museum for many years.
With Amelia Earhart and Lee Harvey Oswald it was a wacky theory that was supposed to sell books or tv movie rights or whatever.
That being said, well known persons faking their own death is not entirely without precedent. Usually it’s either successful for a relatively short time or totally unsuccessful (although I suppose if it were successful, we would not know)
A number of the Nazis who fled to Argentina or other areas took steps to create the impression that they had been killed. This was fairly easy because at the end of the war it was a plausible story that the body had been blown to bits by a bombing raid or that it was in a mass grave of casualties somewhere.
It’s been done by some fugitives, such as Samuel Israel, to escape prosecution – he did so unsuccessfully, of course.
There have been attempts to use a faked death to escape debts or collect life insurance. The later being difficult because normally it won’t pay without a body.
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March 16th, 2010 at 3:24 am
DV82XL said:
That might be reading a little too much into it. I think that there are several things at play here. The most obvious is denial. Nobody wants to have their favorite entertainer die. Another big factor is the whole “Amateur sleuth” kind of thing that seems to go on on the web especially. It feeds conspiracy theories – people love to think that they can figure out something by using photoshop and being an armchair detective. Usually they are just spinning bull****.
Another might be feeling close to the celebrity – A lot of people get obsessed with these people and start to think they have a personal relationship with them or somehow know them well. Believing that you know their secret of being not really dead makes you part of the inner circle, one of the few who has this information.
I bet some of them have the ultimate fantasy: being called by Michael Jackson at home and told “Okay look, you know the truth, but only a few people know. You were clever enough to figure it out, so you have to be quiet and not blow my cover.”
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March 16th, 2010 at 3:43 am
Well I agree on one thing: While I am sure Michael Jackson is dead and I don’t think he could ever get that many groups and people to cooperate with a staged death in the manner that is proposed, he is one of the very few who was so strange, nothing would have surprised me, including him attempting to fake his death.
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March 16th, 2010 at 8:27 am
In the case of Jesse James, the same techniques featured in the Michael Jackson Still ALIVE! video above were applied to Jesse James, starting in 1882 and continuing to present day. Faux historians and con artists have used these techniques to obfuscate factual history. The use of disguise, physical disfigurement, forced forensic presentations, and the use of the subject’s own words to forecast an afterlife, all were as common in 1882 with Jesse James as they are today. They are the tools of con men.
ERIC JAMES
The James Preservation Trust
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March 16th, 2010 at 8:35 am
Apparently while Jackson is physically dead, he is corporately very much alive:
Nine months after Michael Jackson’s death, his estate has signed one of the biggest recording contracts in history, giving Sony, Mr. Jackson’s longtime label, the rights to sell his back catalog and draw on a large vault of unheard recordings. The deal, for about 10 recordings through 2017, will guarantee the Jackson estate up to $250 million in advances and other payments and offer an especially high royalty rate for sales both inside and outside the United States, according to people with knowledge of the contract who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to speak about it publicly. It also allows Sony and the estate to collaborate on a wide range of lucrative licensing arrangements, like the use of Jackson music for films, television and stage shows and lines of memorabilia that will be limited only by the imagination of the estate and the demand of a hungry worldwide market.
Immortality of a kind, I suppose.
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March 16th, 2010 at 12:01 pm
Eric James said:
Mr James – Thanks for stopping in. I’m always honored to have someone with such insight and unique perspective stop in to provide some discussion. From what I understand, I don’t think there was ever really any doubt that Bob Ford shot Jesse James. The events were well documented, the body was examined and even photographed. There was never really any doubt.
I’ve seen some of the supposed photometric comparisons used in the case of Jesse James and also with Amelia Earhart. They’re very easy to screw up if you don’t know what you’re doing. While facial comparison is a legitimate technique (although it really can’t generally positively ID someone, it can certainly rule someone out), it has to be done properly. If the image is scaled or distorted, you can make any face fit on another by just playing with it a little.
For those who don’t know: the height of the Jesse James claims as well as the ones made by others of being Billy the Kid or Butch Cassedy or something like that came at a time when when such bogus claims could be especially lucrative. The early 20th century was when fascination in the rapidly vanishing Wild West was very high. This was the Era of Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Extravaganza.
Thus, a time when a con man could stand to make some good money with a fake Jesse James and a fictitious back story.
Anyway, an important lesson: Human nature really does not change and hence history tends to repeat itself, or at least repeat similar kinds of things.
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March 16th, 2010 at 12:10 pm
Q said:
I think the armchair detective mentality and the fact that people love to think they discovered something and everything is a huge factor in a lot of conspiracy theories.
Hope it’s not too off topic: I always have been amazed by how many complex conspiracy theories came from the JFK assassination, but I had no idea that Oswald was actually dug up over someone’s idea that he was really a soviet spy the whole time. That’s purely amazing in how far these can end up going!
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March 16th, 2010 at 12:39 pm
AliceInBlunderland said:
Yes, I remembered it vaguely but reading this made me hit up Google to look up some info on the event. It’s amazing, isn’t it, that something so crazy could go so far as to get an exhumation permit and have money spent on another autopsy?
These lies do hurt, however, and you have to keep that in mind. In the case of Oswald, his brother Robert Oswald (who last I remember was still alive) fought hard to try to stop the exhumation. His brother is absolutely convinced Lee Harvey acted alone and killed the president, and so obviously he has to live with that now, the memory of his brother being that and his family name tarnished etc. For someone like him, it’s a painful thing to have it all dug up, both physically and metaphorically.
I’m not a religious person, but I can respect how someone who believes in letting the dead “rest in peace.” could be traumatized. Even for me, I really don’t think I would be okay with my father’s body being dug up and taken to a laboratory – it would just stir up all the sadness of his death again.
The commenter “Eric James” is another example. He’s trying to preserve history and specifically the history of his heritage and there are revisionists who are trying to chip away at it and distort the facts.
I’m sure this is the case with Michael Jackson as well. Dave Dave clearly has gone through a lot in life that nobody should and if he came on television to say some things in memory of a man who helped pay for medical expenses and took some compassion on his family, then it’s sickening that people would come out and start saying he’s really Michael Jackson and his disfigurement is makeup.
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March 16th, 2010 at 4:41 pm
Nice to finally see someone that can do a proper blogpost without spelling errors or lousy grammar.
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March 16th, 2010 at 5:37 pm
Pete Larsson said:
Alright, assuming you’re being sarcastic, which I think is probably the case, would you care to point out those spelling errors??
And by the way, I am sick and tired of hearing that I have “bad spelling and grammar” or “lousy grammar.”
While I will be the first to admit my spelling is sub-par, my grammar is as close to perfect as nearly anyone you will meet. I even know how when to use the word “whom,” and I never misuse the words “lay” versus “lie” nor do I use terms like “him and I” when it should be “him and me” or vice-versa.
Furthermore, I’m completely aware of all the major instances of unusual and special applications of grammar, such as the fact that a person who has been lynched at the gallows has been “hanged” and not “hung” and that the plural of attorney general is attorneys general. (a very unusual exception which is derived from the French term going back to Norman England.)
I bet you didn’t know that, did you?
And did you know that it is actually acceptable to start a sentence with a conjunction?
I bet you did not know this either: the proper way to address a person of unknown gender or a miscellaneous individual of a mixed gender collective by pronoun is “he.” It is not “they.” However, I admit I violate this one frequently because it has become so widely believed that the alternate is true that people will get all hot and bothered if one uses the proper term.
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March 17th, 2010 at 1:48 am
DV82XL said:
Hardly unusual. It’s actually common for the rights to the recordings or songs of dead people to make a lot of money for their estate or the owners.
On a related note: There really should be some kind of limit to this. There are many pieces of intellectual property that are very old and have become a piece of our culture or collective history to the point that they transcend the original and which the original owner has not been alive for decades or centuries.
It bothers me that many can still be in the grip of others who bought and traded them through intermediaries.
The classic example is that the song “Happy Birthday to You” despite being one of the best known songs as well as about as short and simple as a song can be is under copyright. You have to pay thousands of dollars to sing it on television or the radio. Ridiculous, isn’t it?
The fact that most masterpieces of art and music are not copyrighted is due to their predating the modern code. Otherwise reprinting the Mona Lisa could be illegal!
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March 17th, 2010 at 1:11 pm
Is there even one known case of a well known person who was supposedly dead and only years later did DNA tests or some other conclusive evidence prove that they had successfully faked their death and really were either still alive or died many years later?
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March 17th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
Engineering Edgar said:
None that I can think of. The closest examples that come to mind are Josef Mengele and Adolf Eichmann. Both managed to escape from being captured after World War II and their families insisted they were dead. No bodies were produced and hence, they were never regarded as being definitely dead – at best, the authorities believed that they may or may not be dead.
Both were tracked to Argentina in the early 1950’s. Adolf Eichmann was captured by the Israeli intelligence agency in 1959 after managing to evade being located for several years (they knew he was alive but he moved around lot and kept a low profile). Mengele was located but fled to Paraguay and went into hiding. He died there in 1977 and his remains were confirmed by DNA testing in 1992.
I don’t know if that really counts as “faking one’s death” because it was only for a short time that it was even considered plausible that they may be dead.
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March 19th, 2010 at 12:54 am
[...] Depleted Cranium » Blog Archive » Michael Jackson Alive? No, but I … [...]
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March 21st, 2010 at 2:05 pm
Such a shame hes passed away, he was a great man that helped break down barriers. I can understand why people wished he was still alive.
So much of the hate of him goes back in my opinion to race, Jesse Jackson and a number of prominent people have spoken on this topic.
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March 30th, 2010 at 12:26 pm
I bet the Doctor who is being charged with MJ’s death is relieved to hear he is alive and well. That should take care of his manslaughter charges…..
Seriously, MJ was vocally at his best (IMHO) when he was younger, singing with the Jackson 5. What an awesome voice!
As he grew up, the burden of fame and the psychological fallout of his abuse suffered in his childhood turned out to be insurmountable.
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May 3rd, 2010 at 9:02 am
there is no doubt that Michael Jackson is the best ever pop music artist of the Centruy,:`
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June 5th, 2010 at 6:31 am
It was the hospital that Michael Jackson was taken to, that caused me to suspect ? It was the televised death passage from hospital to mortuary that looked staged! Ground breaking medical history has been made at this hospital… Bringing the dead back to life after two hours of being totally flatlined! The goverment will hide it though, it will cause uproar to the health service otherwise…
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June 5th, 2010 at 10:42 am
Deborah Bain said:
He was taken to Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, which was only a few miles away from where he was and was the nearest large emergency receiving hospital to him. The hospital receives hundreds to thousands of patients daily. It was not unusual for him to be taken there. It was the most logical place to take someone who was in such a condition.
Deborah Bain said:
It is a teaching hospital with significant research activities. Many hospitals are as well. Many hospitals can claim to have helped develop new treatments and procedures. It’s not that unusual for a major metropolitan university hospital to have a few breakthroughs in its history.
Deborah Bain said:
No.. Once a person stops breathing and can no longer provide oxygen to their cells, they begin to die and break down. It’s possible a person could be revived after flat-lining for a couple of minutes, but much past that and the damage to the cells in the brain is complete and irreversible. Some tissues will recover if they are given oxygen again, but not the brain.
It’s a complex biochemical process. Cell membranes break down, toxic chemicals are produced in the cells. Electrical activity stops.
There is only one narrow exception to this: in some cases, a person in a state of extreme hypothermia may have the process slowed down enough to survive well beyond the few minutes that is normal the limit, but that’s a rare and special circumstance.
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June 5th, 2010 at 4:18 pm
Deborah Bain said:
Yeah, the governments of the world are all involved in the conspiracy to fake the death of a pop singer.
Seriously, take a step back and another look at reality. Things don’t work that way. There’s no masterful conspiracy of governments and hospitals to resurrect and then spirit away someone like Michael Jackson.
If the forces that be in the establishment and the state/local/national government actually did like Jackson enough to pull off such a thing why would they have also tried to convict him for child molestation? I mean, come on. Think for a second.
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June 20th, 2010 at 1:05 pm
Omg.. i just love Michael Jackson.. I’m still sad he died..
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September 13th, 2010 at 1:04 pm
I know for a fact that Michael Jackson is really alive because I really think that he really is alive. I want to meet him in person. Have a great birthday Michael!! Thank you for supporting us and showing us that you are alive. Happy Birthday Michael Jackson. Heal The World and make it a better place for all of your fan’s and me to.
Deborah
Higdon
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September 13th, 2010 at 1:24 pm
Deborah Higdon said:
In all the excitement don’t forget to take your meds today Debbie
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September 24th, 2010 at 2:07 am
Fans of pop legend Michael Jackson will soon be able to step into his shoes (and sequined socks) and hit the virtual dancefloor with the release of ‘Michael Jackson: The Experience,’ a new videogame from Ubisoft. It’ll be lively.
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September 30th, 2010 at 4:53 am
I for one think that Michael Jackson is alive myself. I have been following his so called death since June 25th of last year and nothing adds up.
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September 8th, 2011 at 4:38 pm
With the help of Obama he most certainly could do anything . I believe he is alive and well .
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September 8th, 2011 at 11:03 pm
surprise said:
I suppose faking his death and spiriting him away would probably be possible with the vast resources and money of the federal government. I mean, they could do it for a bit, although I’d be surprised if it a lid could actually be kept on such a sensational project for more than a few weeks at the most.
A lot of people to keep hushed. Possibly paying them off? Or maybe by intimidation? Lets see. The EMT’s who responded. The Jackson family. The doctors and nurses and orderlies who tried to save him. The chopper pilot, the medical examiner, the assistant medical examiner, the funeral home and all its staff members. The cemetery. Of course, the press, who would likely be snooping around.
Apparently your hypothesis is that with the current defect, the constant political bickering in Washington, the war in Afghanistan, the war in Iraq, North Korean aggression, fears of the nuclear program in Iran, huge jobless numbers, the fight over healthcare, the ongoing popular revolts in the MiddleEast….. that President Obama decided that the priority of the US government was mounting a highly classified covert mission to fake the death of Michael Jackson?
And what is his motive for this? Is it just the fact that Obama is black and Jackson also is… or… was at one time?
surprise said:
I see.
And you believe this why?
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September 8th, 2011 at 11:33 pm
surprise said:
You are getting very close to the truth, my friend. However, you are missing the most obvious.
Have you ever seen Barack Obama and Michael Jackson in the same place at the same time? Why not? Clearly they are the same person!
Obama is Bruce Wayne and Michael Jackson is The Batman!
Or maybe the other way around. Or maybe Michael Jackson is Clark Kent or Peter Parker. I’m not sure, but isn’t it all starting to make sense now? Michael Jackson is Barack Obama because he was bitten by a radioactive spider, or maybe a radioactive llama or something. (Didn’t MJ keep llamas?)
This all makes perfect sense.
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