Conspiracy Kitchen Sink: Difference between revisions

{{quote|'''Green Arrow:''' Does ''everything'' have a sinister motive in your world?<br />

'''The Question:''' Yours too; you just don't know it.|''[[Justice League]]'', "Fearful Symmetry"}}

Yes, that's right: In this setting, every [[Useful Notes/Conspiracy Theories|conspiracy theory]] you've ever heard of is true. And some you haven't. A closely related subtrope to [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink]], but conspiracy-minded, rather than fantastic; like its parent, there is a certain tendency towards self-contradiction, but given the source of the trope (paranoid conspiracy theories), not that surprising.

Following things are a must-have for any [['''Conspiracy Kitchen Sink]]''' worth its salt (for required ''tropes'', see [[The Index Is Watching You]]):

* A [[Secret War]] between [[The Illuminati]], [[The Knights Templar]], [[The Hashshashin]], the [[Our Vampires Are Different|Vampire]] [[Deadly Decadent Court|Courts]], [[The Fair Folk]], Freemasons, Opus Dei, [[The Mafia]], [[CIA Evil, FBI Good|CIA]] and [[KGB]], [[AIA.I. Is a Crapshoot|Rogue AIs]], [[Cosmic Horror Story|Lovecraftian]] and [[Hollywood Satanism|Satanic]] [[Cult|cultscult]]s, [[The Pentagon]], Bilderberg Group, Majestic-12, [[The Greys]], and [[The Reptilians]]. Yes, all at once in one merry free-for-all that no [[Gullible Lemmings]] ever notices.

* Nonchalant [[The Reveal|revelations]] of the ''real'' allegiances and agendas of [[Jesus Christ|Jesus]], [[Leonardo Dada Vinci]], [[Jack the Ripper]], [[Nikola Tesla]], [[Grigori Rasputin the Mad Monk|Rasputin]], [[Adolf Hitler]], and [[Elvis Presley]].

* The sinister purpose of [[Ley Line|Ley Lines]]s, [[The Pyramids]], the [[Holy Grail]], the [[Philosopher's Stone]], [[What the Heck Is An Aglet?|aglets]], and any number of other [[Public Domain Artifact|Public Domain Artifacts]]s.

* The Truth behind the [[Phlebotinum Killed the Dinosaurs|K–T extinction]], [[Ancient Astronauts]], [[The Tunguska Event]], [[Roswell Incident]], [[Spontaneous Human Combustion]], Operation Paperclip, Project MKULTRA, Monarch [[Mind Control]] program, [[Who Shot JFK?|Kennedy]] and Palme assassinations, the Moon landings, the [[Subliminal Seduction|25th frame]], the Watergate scandal, the first [[Gulf War]] (well, the ''real'' truth, anyway), [[The End of the World Asas We Know It]] as predicted by the Mayans/Nostradamus/John of Patmos, and any number of other [[Stock Unsolved Mysteries]] you can think of.

Occasionally leads to a [[Gambit Pileup]], but not nearly as often as it should. Naturally, in all of these conspiracies there are [[No Delays for Thethe Wicked]].

This trope covers [[Settings]] and entire series/works. For the characters who ''believe'' they live in a [['''Conspiracy Kitchen Sink]]''', see [[Conspiracy Theorist]].

{{examples|Examples:}}

{{quote| '''Oracle:''' The ones doing their job, doing what they were meant to do, are invisible. You'd never even know they were here. But the other ones, well, we hear about them all the time.<br />

'''Neo:''' I've never heard of them.<br />

* The ''[[Men in Black (Filmfilm)|Men in Black]]'' movies seems to represent a peculiar version of this -- everythis—every conspiracy theory you've ever heard is on to something big, but the truth behind all of them is the same, in this case aliens.

** Elvis' death? He was an alien who just went home. Or so K ''claims'', anyway; [[Alternate Character Interpretation|maybe he was just messing with J's head?]]

{{quote| '''J:''' Cab drivers...<br />

* In the early-'90s ''[[Captain America (comics)]]'' movie, the [[Big Bad|Red Skull]], who went underground after [[World War II]], is revealed to now be the head of a [[Nebulous Evil Organization]] which basically secretly runs the world, and was responsible for the assassinations of both the Kennedys and Martin Luther King, among other dastardly acts.

{{quote| '''Undercover Brother:''' And O.J. ''really didn't do it.''<br />

''[[Beat|*awkward silence*]]''<br />

* ''1963'' had [[Who Shot JFK?|several conflicting theories on the JFK murder]], involving everything from aliens to the Illuminati to mind-controlling government officials.

* Umberto Eco's ''[[FoucaultsFoucault's Pendulum]]'' has the main characters invent their own synarchic plot (for fun) to explain all of the various conspiracy theories in the world. You can guess what happens [[It Got Worse|next]].

* Pretty much everything written by [[Thomas Pynchon]] ''runs'' on this trope, ''especially'' ''[[Gravitys Rainbow|Gravity's Rainbow]]''.

* ''[[I, Claudius]]'' is a hodgepodge of pretty much every half baked conspiracy theory about the time of the Judeo-Claudian emperors, both then and since.

* The world of ''[[Good Omens (Literature)|Good Omens]]'' ends up turning into something like this. Thanks to Adam Young's growing [[Reality Warper]] powers, all the crackpot theories he reads about in Anathema's New Age magazines (like Tibetan tunnels, alien visitations, Atlantis, and the hollow Earth) start becoming true.

* ''[[The Chronicle (TV)|The Chronicle]]'': Everything they write about in tabloids is true.

* The ''[[Men in Black (Animationanimation)|Men in Black]]'' TV series.

* ''[[The X -Files]]'' and its [[Spin -Off]], ''[[The Lone Gunmen]]''.

* ''[[Delta Green]]'' is a modern-time setting for the ''[[Call of Cthulhu (tabletop game)]]'' RPG. Not only is every possible conspiracy staged by either Nyarlatotep, Mi-Go, or some other [[Eldritch Abomination]], but the playable organization, [[Delta Green]], is an illegal conspiracy. Why? Because official paranormal investigators are controlled by aliens, of course.

** ''GURPS Warehouse 23'' (inspired by [http://www.bahneman.com/liem/x-files/warehouse.html playful Internet speculation] on what else might be found in the government storage facility seen at the end of ''[[Raiders of the Lost Ark (Film)|Raiders of the Lost Ark]]'').

** Depending on how you look at it, ''[[In Nomine (Tabletop Game)|In Nomine]]'' (and its offshoot, ''GURPS In Nomine'') also qualifies.

** Also ''GURPS IOU''. The "I" does stand for "Illuminati" after all. (The "U" stands for "University", and [[The Un -Reveal|the "O" stands for]] {{spoiler|YOU'RE NOT CLEARED FOR THAT INFORMATION! ...seriously speaking, it's never explained.}})

* The [[Old World of Darkness]]. Everything is being manipulated by and has always been manipulated by the [[Vampire: The Masquerade (Tabletop Game)|Vampire Elders]], the [[Mage: The Ascension (Tabletop Game)|Technocracy]], [[Werewolf: The Apocalypse (Tabletop Game)|Pentex]], and [[Wraith: The Oblivion|various]] [[Changeling: The Dreaming|evil]] [[Demon: The Fallen (Tabletop Game)|spirits]]. At the same time. With the organizations never interacting, conflicting, or sometimes even being aware of each other.

** The [[New World of Darkness]] is getting there, too, except none of the conspiracies control ''everything'', just a specialized area. The Seers of the Throne make sure that magic stays out of the Fallen World so they get it all to themselves. They have their own phony Men in Black, Division Six... and we say "phony" because the ''real'' Men in Black, Task Force: VALKYRIE, operate out of the US Treasury. Then you have the medical corporation that performs experiments on supernatural creatures to find out how useful their parts are, the Catholic Church's crack monster-hunting squad, and the FBI bureau staffed with psychics who hunt down [[Slasher MoviesMovie|supernatural serial killers]] and stick them in a Midwestern Guantanamo. And so on. (It's worth noting that all of the listed examples, excluding the Seers of the Throne but including Division Six, come from ''[[Hunter: The Vigil (Tabletop Game)|Hunter: The Vigil]]''.)

*** And in the Fanmade Gameline ''[[Genius: The Transgression (Tabletop Game)|Genius: The Transgression]]'', Lemuria used to be in charge of this, but now only ''thinks'' they're in charge of it. (Bizarrely, the Lemurians and the Seers of the Throne are ''unable to detect'' each other, and no-one knows why.)

* The following example has been deemed classification level Viridian Gamma by [[Warhammer 4000040,000|The Holy Inquisition of the Imperium of Man]]: {{spoiler|You know too much. *BLAM*}}

* ''[[Deus Ex (Video Game)|Deus Ex]]''.

{{quote| '''Anna:''' Are you ''sure'' you pressed the right button?<br />

'''Gunther:''' I do not make mistakes of that kind! <br />

'''Anna:''' Your hand might have slipped.<br />

'''Gunther:''' No, I wanted orange. It gave me lemon-lime.<br />

'''Anna:''' The machine would not make a mistake.<br />

'''Gunther:''' It's the maintenance man. He ''knows'' I like orange!<br />

'''Anna:''' So you think the ''staff'' has some kind of ''plot''?<br />

{{quote| '''Bum:''' Someone here must have really liked lemon-lime soda.}}

* ''Metal Gear Solid 2'' parodied itself at one point by having one of the on-disc [[All There in the Manual|supplementary story recaps]] being a book written by the [[Unreliable Narrator|most hilariously deranged conspiracy theorist]] you could possibly imagine. (To give you an idea; we don't get to read it, but the title of his previous book was ''Rays From The Loch Ness Monster -- The True Power Source Of UFOs''.) To his credit, he was extremely good at ''identifying'' conspiracies -- unfortunatelyconspiracies—unfortunately, he never blamed the events on the ''right'' conspiracies, attributing [[The Omniscient Council of Vagueness]]-caused disaster of the previous game to the island it was on being "an Ellis Island for the Greys". The whole farce ends with him being rescued by an invisible man whom he proudly, loudly declares is a noble [[Sufficiently Advanced Alien]] who had taken pity on him, when it's clear to the reader that it's Solid Snake in [[Invisibility Cloak|active camo]].

** Gets especially crazy and paranoia-inducing in ''[[Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood (Video Game)|Assassin's Creed Brotherhood]]''. Alan Turing? Murdered to prevent him from inventing too powerful computers. Cable TV? A method for transmitting brainwave altering signals and monitoring citizens. Cell tower surveillance? Tracking all communication.

* ''[[The Secret World (Video Game)|The Secret World]]'' positions its setting as a world where "[[Arc Words|Everything is true]]"... which includes both every conspiracy theory ''and'' [[Fantasy Kitchen Sink|every fairy tale]]. [[Suspiciously Specific Denial|Except aliens.]]

* The [[SCP Foundation (Wiki)|SCP Foundation]] is basically a collection of inexplicable objects and phenomena, and is essentially all the conspiracies no one has thought of rolled into one.

{{quote| This isMeet David Icke. He is a fucking loon.}}