We live in a wonderful world, a world that allows us to voice our concerns and petition against wrongdoing or for the things we believe in. Well, in this scenario, people came together for some of the weirdest petitions found online.
1. Petition to build the Death Star
To be more precise, the petition asked “to secure funding and resources, and begin construction on a Death Star by 2016”. Created on 14 November 2012, it quickly gathered around 34,400 signatures. The US administration has to have an official answer for any petition that reaches the 25k landmark in less than 30 days and this one exceeded it. The answer was the expected one: “administration does not support blowing up planets.”
2. Merge South and North Dakota into MegaKota
This one is self-explanatory and it got quite the traction; since 2019 it managed to get 25,689 signatures and counting. That’s 25,689 people who think MegaKota is the perfect name for a state. And if that’s not up your alley how about some weird North Dakota laws?
3. Ban di-hydrogen monoxide
Plot twist: di-hydrogen monoxide is a chemical term for water which, granted, is not that widely used.
There are several petitions that aimed to ban this “dangerous” substance, listing various risks associated with it (like causing drowning). The petition was a satire to illustrate how easily people could be misled by scientific-sounding names.
In 1997, 14-year-old Nathan Zohner convinced 43 out of 50 classmates to vote to ban “Dihydrogen Monoxide”, all part of his science fair project, highlighting how true facts can mislead the uninformed. He won first prize for his project.
4. Rename fire ants to spicy boys
This is real and there are some people out there who actually signed on it. 163,547 signatures, to be more precise. The petition argued that “’spicy boys’ was a more fitting and fun name for these insects. Their reasoning is quite simple “It’s 2016, there are 36 genders, bayblade might be a new olympic sport, why aren’t we calling fire ants ‘spicy boys’?”
5. Don’t let grown ups play Minecraft!
Their reasoning is simple: “Minecraft is a kids game, adults should not be playing this.” Unfortunately, this didn’t reach the wide audience they expected, it only had 92 supporters and was soon closed. Stats show that around 15% of Minecraft players fit in the 30- 65 years old age group, so quite a good chunk of income for Mojang.
6. Remove Ben Affleck as Batman/Bruce Wayne in the Superman/Batman movie
This is why you shouldn’t mess around with Batman fans: 96,882 people signed the petition that called for executives to remove Affleck from the Batman production. The petition was clear, they didn’t believe Affleck’s acting skills or demeanor are enough for Batman’s legacy. The box office and critics reviews kinda proved them right, the movie “Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice” receiving mixed reviews and underperformed at the box office.
7. Jack Frost from Rise of the Guardians and Elsa from Frozen should be in a movie together, as love interests
This is pretty much self explanatory. What’s amazing about this is the fact that it got more than 10k signatures. A spin-off series with the two would be a nice pitch if you plan to approach the guys from Disney.
8. Weird Al Yankovic performs the Super Bowl Halftime Show
24k people signed this one. And not only that, but reddit, social media, and a lot of other blogs/forums seem to tackle this idea, having Weird Al craft the halftime show. It would be epic, unexpected, and apparently, people want him there.
9. Deport Piers Morgan
Things went serious fast with this petition. As we all know, Americans are very fond of their guns so when Morgan shared his rather tough views on gun control, things went south fast. The petitions reached 25k signatures fast, so everyone was waiting for an official response from the White House, which didn’t take long. To sum it up, it stated that while it’s your right to have a gun, it’s also Morgan’s right, according to the First Amendment, to express his views without fear of repercussions. Case closed, but the petition still managed to get over 100k signatures.
10. Demand Head & Shoulders create a body wash called Knees & Toes
Ok, this is obviously a giant pun, even more so if you take in account their need to also get an “Eyes & Ears & Mouth & Nose face wash”. Activists all around the world gathered to help this petition reach an insane 300 signatures. Fun idea, not enough supporters.
That’s all, folks! Do you know of other weird petitions? Share them in the comments.
