Reddit is the online forum where diehard fans of everything from "Goodfellas"to Katy Perry's dancing Super Bowl sharks congregate.
So it makes sense that one of the most popular Ask Reddit threads this week had users divulging their favorite unauthorized and unofficial conspiracy theories behind popular TV shows, movies and books.
"What 'fan theories' have blown your mind with their devastating logic?"user Exdee1 asked. Redditors were happy to deliver their answers — a special kind of fanfic lite where back stories are invented by avid readers and watchers of franchises like "Star Wars,""Harry Potter," and even "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air."
Fan theories are part of a larger trend on Reddit; there's one whole section of the site called /r/fantheories, and the fan theory question has been posed on Ask Reddit before.
Twenty-four hours in, this most recent thread had accumulated 10,000 comments and counting. Here are some of the best theories we found. (Just keep in mind — these are unofficial and all in good fun. What they show more than anything is just how obsessive certain online fan groups can be.)
"Scooby Doo" is more political than you thought
"The original Scooby Doo series is set after a horrible economic depression,"user King_of_Swag postulates. "Everything is abandoned and falling apart, and all of the villains are people who would normally be really respected (professors, museum curators, celebrities) who have fallen into hard times just like everyone else. How many times have the gang helped someone NOT go out of business?"
"I'm personally partial to the theory that they're draft dodgers during the Vietnam War,"says liljakeyplzandthnx, while linking to another subreddit that enumerates that particular theory. "The show takes place in 1969, a big year for protesters. Fred's a draft-dodger on the run, Daphne's his fiancée, Shaggy's a nomadic hippy, and Velma's a campus activist."
There's a reason "Inspector Gadget" has a soft spot for Penny
"Inspector Gadget is actually an android who's been programmed to believe he's really Penny's uncle,"yakusokuN8 writes. "Her real uncle was in a terrible accident, and left horribly disfigured, so that his voice is raspy, and his face is terribly mangled and never wants anyone to see it. That man is actually... Dr. Claw. Dr. Claw has been driven mad having lost everything and vows to destroy Inspector Gadget at every turn. This explains why Dr. Claw never hurts Penny, why a bumbling fool barely manages to function like a human adult, and why Dr. Claw is so hellbent on exacting revenge every episode."
"Aladdin" wasn't really set in the past
One redditor posted this meme, which postulates that the Genie in "Aladdin" was actually trapped in his lamp for 10,000 years, and that the world of "Aladdin" is actually post-apocalyptic. "How else could the genie do impressions of long-dead celebrities like Groucho Marx, Jack Nicholson, etc.?" it reads.
"The Magic School Bus" has a touch of "Doctor Who"
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