This week’s blog challenge prompt is “Write a funny conspiracy theory behind an important event or people.”

I’m not really big on conspiracy theories. I tend to view them as being the result of paranoia, ignorance, or drugs. There’s only 2 conspiracy theories that have ever piqued my interest:

1. Princess Anastasia Romanov survived the assassination of her family. In 1918, Tsar Nicholas Romanov, his wife Tsarina Alexandra, son Alexei, and daughters Olga, Tatiana, Maria, and Anastasia were herded into a room and executed by a firing squad. According to the conspiracy theory, Anastasia and possibly her brother Alexei survived. A number of women came forward and claimed to be Princess Anastasia, most notably a woman named Anna Anderson. DNA proved that Anna was not Anastasia. When the family’s grave was excavated in 1991, 2 bodies were missing; however, in 2007, another gravesite found the 2 lost bodies and DNA proved that the entire Romanov family did perish in 1918.
2. Kaspar Hauser was from the Royal House of Baden. In 1828, a teen boy was found wandering the streets in Europe. He claimed to have been kept locked away since childhood, and seemed a bit dim mentally. Many thought that he was a descendant of the House of Baden, so several people over the years became his benefactors and supported his cause to reclaim his birthright. Unfortunately, at the age of 21, he stumbled home with a knife wound to the chest and died from his injuries. DNA analysis was done in 1996 and 2002 that showed he did not belong to the House of Baden; however, there was a problem due to the fact that the 1996 and 2003 samples also didn’t match. During Kaspar’s lifetime, quite a few came to view him as a con artist and dismissed his claims.

Do I have a funny conspiracy theory? Well, it’s not my theory, but my children do have a funny little theory they enjoy tossing about. We have an elderly acquaintance who has 2 cats as companions. According to my children, our friend and the 2 cats secretly rule the world. All events that play out on the world’s stage, be it political or financial or completely mundane, are all plotted out and set in motion from the comfort of our friend’s home with hefty contributions from the felines. If the cats don’t agree to the downfall of a regime or the rise in stocks on Wall St, it doesn’t happen and they go back to the drawing board. So yeah, cats rule.