The Black Eye Club

2017conspiracy theorysemi-active

The Black Eye Club is an internet conspiracy theory that claims politicians, celebrities, and world leaders photographed with a bruised eye (usually the left) were marked during a secret Illuminati initiation. The idea started on YouTube in August 2017 and spread through fringe blogs, Twitter and TikTok over the following years.

conspiracy memeshoax memesmisinformation memescelebrity scandal memes2017 memes

Overview

The Black Eye Club is an online conspiracy theory built around one simple pattern: powerful people keep showing up in photographs with a bruised left eye. Believers argue the mark is not a kitchen accident or a stray elbow, but visible proof of an initiation ritual carried out by a shadowy elite, most often described as the Illuminati1. The list of alleged members includes Pope Francis, George W. Bush, Kanye West, Prince Andrew, Mitt Romney, Madonna and Justin Bieber3.

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Adherents cluster around a handful of overlapping explanations. Some claim the bruising is part of a secret society's internal checks-and-balances system, delivered as either punishment or rite of passage1. Others say the black eye is a side effect of an adrenochrome injection, a substance conspiracy circles wrongly credit with anti-aging powers6. The strangest version, popularized by the late radio host Sherry Shriner, is 'soul scalping,' in which a reptilian entity supposedly replaces a target's soul via the eye socket3.

The theory keeps returning because it is easy to demonstrate visually. Any compilation of famous faces sporting shiners doubles as its own evidence, which is why the meme travels as image grids and TikTok slideshows more than as long-form writing8.

How It Spread

The theory jumped from small YouTube uploads to a full write-up on May 9th, 2018, when the fringe site The Phoenix Enigma published a long article dividing alleged members into 'government/politics' and 'entertainment/Hollywood' camps and laying out the initiation, punishment and soul-scalping theories side by side1. That piece kept expanding into 2021 as new famous faces were added to the roster1. On July 20th, 2018, the Daily Mail gave the idea mainstream tabloid coverage, listing Elizabeth Hurley, Boy George, Prince Philip and Robert Downey Jr. as photo-op suspects3. A viral Facebook post from user Tao Te Ching six days later compiled the same faces into a single 'Who is punching them?' image macro6.

TikTok is what pushed the meme past conspiracy Twitter into the general feed. On September 3rd, 2021, the account @quicknoteconspiracies uploaded a summary explainer that pulled in more than 419,000 views, and the #blackeyeclub hashtag climbed past four million views by early November 20226. Twitter piled on with posts framing Mitt Romney's October 2021 shiner and even Dr. Phil as fresh inductees6.

The theory hit its highest visibility in late 2022. On October 2nd, Doja Cat arrived at the Balenciaga show during Paris Fashion Week wearing painted-on bruising, a split nose and a bloody lip, a look she told Vogue was inspired by how exhausting Fashion Week had been4. Conspiracy TikTok read the makeup as a signed contract with the Illuminati, a reading her earlier masquerade-and-Illuminati themed 27th birthday cake did nothing to cool down5. Weeks later, when Paul Pelosi was attacked with a hammer in his San Francisco home on October 28th, 2022, altered images of him with a black eye circulated as supposed proof of a forced initiation, a claim Reuters debunked6. The meme resurfaced again on August 31st, 2023, when X user @JackStr42679640 posted a clip of Roseanne Barr talking openly about the 'Black Eye Club,' which she called the 'Satan club'6.

How to Use This Meme

In practice the meme travels as a photo grid or slideshow. Posters typically stitch together five to fifteen headshots of famous people whose left eye looks bruised, add a caption like 'Who is punching them?' and let the visual pattern do the argument for them6. On TikTok the common format is a slow zoom on each face with ominous music and a voiceover naming the person and the official excuse (bike fall, cabinet door, gym accident) before the creator implies a hidden reason8. Skeptics use the same template ironically, adding obviously innocent bruises to the grid to point out that any long enough photo archive of any public figure will contain a shiner or two8.

Frequently Asked Questions

The Black Eye Club

2017conspiracy theorysemi-active

The Black Eye Club is an internet conspiracy theory that claims politicians, celebrities, and world leaders photographed with a bruised eye (usually the left) were marked during a secret Illuminati initiation. The idea started on YouTube in August 2017 and spread through fringe blogs, Twitter and TikTok over the following years.

conspiracy memes hoax memes misinformation memes celebrity scandal memes 2017 memes

Overview

The Black Eye Club is an online conspiracy theory built around one simple pattern: powerful people keep showing up in photographs with a bruised left eye. Believers argue the mark is not a kitchen accident or a stray elbow, but visible proof of an initiation ritual carried out by a shadowy elite, most often described as the Illuminati1. The list of alleged members includes Pope Francis, George W. Bush, Kanye West, Prince Andrew, Mitt Romney, Madonna and Justin Bieber3.

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Adherents cluster around a handful of overlapping explanations. Some claim the bruising is part of a secret society's internal checks-and-balances system, delivered as either punishment or rite of passage1. Others say the black eye is a side effect of an adrenochrome injection, a substance conspiracy circles wrongly credit with anti-aging powers6. The strangest version, popularized by the late radio host Sherry Shriner, is 'soul scalping,' in which a reptilian entity supposedly replaces a target's soul via the eye socket3.

The theory keeps returning because it is easy to demonstrate visually. Any compilation of famous faces sporting shiners doubles as its own evidence, which is why the meme travels as image grids and TikTok slideshows more than as long-form writing8.

How It Spread

The theory jumped from small YouTube uploads to a full write-up on May 9th, 2018, when the fringe site The Phoenix Enigma published a long article dividing alleged members into 'government/politics' and 'entertainment/Hollywood' camps and laying out the initiation, punishment and soul-scalping theories side by side1. That piece kept expanding into 2021 as new famous faces were added to the roster1. On July 20th, 2018, the Daily Mail gave the idea mainstream tabloid coverage, listing Elizabeth Hurley, Boy George, Prince Philip and Robert Downey Jr. as photo-op suspects3. A viral Facebook post from user Tao Te Ching six days later compiled the same faces into a single 'Who is punching them?' image macro6.

TikTok is what pushed the meme past conspiracy Twitter into the general feed. On September 3rd, 2021, the account @quicknoteconspiracies uploaded a summary explainer that pulled in more than 419,000 views, and the #blackeyeclub hashtag climbed past four million views by early November 20226. Twitter piled on with posts framing Mitt Romney's October 2021 shiner and even Dr. Phil as fresh inductees6.

The theory hit its highest visibility in late 2022. On October 2nd, Doja Cat arrived at the Balenciaga show during Paris Fashion Week wearing painted-on bruising, a split nose and a bloody lip, a look she told Vogue was inspired by how exhausting Fashion Week had been4. Conspiracy TikTok read the makeup as a signed contract with the Illuminati, a reading her earlier masquerade-and-Illuminati themed 27th birthday cake did nothing to cool down5. Weeks later, when Paul Pelosi was attacked with a hammer in his San Francisco home on October 28th, 2022, altered images of him with a black eye circulated as supposed proof of a forced initiation, a claim Reuters debunked6. The meme resurfaced again on August 31st, 2023, when X user @JackStr42679640 posted a clip of Roseanne Barr talking openly about the 'Black Eye Club,' which she called the 'Satan club'6.

How to Use This Meme

In practice the meme travels as a photo grid or slideshow. Posters typically stitch together five to fifteen headshots of famous people whose left eye looks bruised, add a caption like 'Who is punching them?' and let the visual pattern do the argument for them6. On TikTok the common format is a slow zoom on each face with ominous music and a voiceover naming the person and the official excuse (bike fall, cabinet door, gym accident) before the creator implies a hidden reason8. Skeptics use the same template ironically, adding obviously innocent bruises to the grid to point out that any long enough photo archive of any public figure will contain a shiner or two8.

Frequently Asked Questions