About

Ben Carson Wikipedia (hashtag: #BenCarsonWikipedia) is a series of satirical jokes poking fun at a speculative revisionist theory about the purpose of the Ancient Egyptian pyramids as put forth by Dr. Ben Carson, a retired American neurosurgeon and Republican primary candidate in the 2016 United States presidential election, during the graduation commencement speech he gave as the keynote speaker at Andrews University in 1998.

Origin

In May 1998, Ben Carson, then a renowned neurosurgeon and the Director of Pediatric Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital, made a public appearance as the keynote speaker for the graduation ceremony at Andrews University, the flagship university of the Seventh-day Adventist school system, in Berrien Springs, Michigan. During the commencement speech, Dr. Carson shared his "personal theory" about the nature of the Ancient Egyptian pyramids with the graduates in attendance, in which he asserted that the world-famous monolithic structures were built by the biblical figure Joseph to store grain, in contradiction to the leading theory that they were built as tombs for pharaohs as widely accepted by most archaeologists.

“My own personal theory is that Joseph built the pyramids in order to store grain. Now all the archaeologists think that they were made for the pharaoh’s graves, but you know it’d have to be something awfully big, if you stop and think about it, and I don’t think it would just disappear over the course of time to store that much grain, and when you look at the way the pyramids are made, with many chambers that are hermetically sealed, they would have to be that way for a reason. And, you know, various scientists have said ‘well, you know, there were alien beings that came down; they had special knowledge,’ and that’s how they were – you know, doesn’t require an alien being when God is with you.”

Spread

On November 4th, 2015, BuzzFeed ran an article titled "Ben Carson: Egyptian Pyramids Built For Grain Storage, Not By Aliens Or As Tombs" with a video clip of Carson discussing an alternate theory about the Egyptian pyramids during his 1998 commencement speech at Andrews University. Originally uploaded by YouTuber Charles Le Blanc on October 10th, 2012, the video clip garnered more than 165,000 views in less than a week. In the following days, BuzzFeed's unearthing of Carson's controversial remarks was picked up by major U.S. news outlets, including MSNBC, CBS, CNN, Washington Post and TIME, as well as online news sites and political blogs like Vox, Salon, Slate, Mediate, Talking Point Memo and Politico.

Ben Carson's Response

Shortly after the viral circulation of the video clip, CBS News contacted Carson for his comments. In response, the Republican presidential candidate defended his assertion by saying "it's still my belief, yes."

Examples

As the video clip of Carson discussing his theory about the pyramids continued to make headlines in the news media, many Twitter users following the story began mocking Dr. Ben Carson's creationist beliefs with a series of factually inaccurate and satirical history factoids in the style of #AccordingToPalin, including a few spinoff jokes with references to the Ancient Aliens meme.

Search Interest

External References