Murdoch

"Titanic was Fake" - "Just the nobodys" viral Tiktok video debunked

Tikok is a social media platform used to make a variety of short-form videos -most commonly dance or comedy related - that are 15 seconds to three minutes in length. Some of these videos go "viral" - i.e. quickly become popular and widely spread.

Ryan and Daniel Omoto aka "Just the nobodys"
who are promoting the debunked 'switch' theory
on YouTube and TikTok.

One example of this is a TikTok video by @justthenobodys -aka Ryan and Daniel Omoto - who run a "podcast where you get to pick what we do" on Youtube mainly centred around movies and other trivia. On Youtube they have 20.5K subscribers but it is on TikTok where they have gone "viral" with 3.5 million followers (as of July 2021).

One of their most popular TikTok videos is a 56-second excerpt from the first episode of their YouTube podcast which promotes the Titanic switch theory. The original Youtube video is entitled "DARK SECRET OF TACO BELL, TITANIC WAS FAKE, DASANI WATER THEORY! JUST THE NOBODYS PODCAST EPISODE #1". Although the original video has only 38,000 views, as of July 2021 the TikTok 56-second excerpt about the 'switch' theory has a whopping 74.9 million views, 12.6 million likes and been forwarded 590,000 times - after only a month! Versions of the video have appeared on other TikTok channels trying to cash in on its popularity. While the video is tongue-in-cheek, it has caused a sudden increase of interest in the 'switch' despite the illogical theory having been debunked years ago.

The original excerpt about the theory on their YouTube podcast appears between 2:27 - 5:30 and claims that because there are a lot of books written on the conspiracy theory there must be something in it (however, one of the books they show in the video is "Conspiracies At Sea" by J Kent Layton that actually debunks the theory! ) They also claim that because James Cameron's 1997 film cost a lot to make it was probably funded by J.P. Morgan as a coverup to distract people from the truth. Neither of these claims is logical or credible evidence and readers of this website will already know the 'switch' theory is quite frankly a hoax that has been debunked, as there is overwhelming evidence it was the Titanic that sank - most notably the wreck is proof it is indeed the Titanic.

"Just the Nobodys" Switch Claims Fact Checked:

Let us examine the five basic claims made in the 56-second viral TikTok video:

1. Insurance Money

CLAIM: "J.P.Morgan sank the boat on purpose because he knew he would get a lot of money… He did it for the insurance money."

The White Star Line partly self-insured their ships so there was no money to be made in a so-called insurance scam. Titanic was actually under-insured by $2.5million which is nearly $70 million in today's (2021) money. Additionally the White Star Line was running at a healthy profit so there would be no financial incentive. So this claim is false.

More information here.

Page 4 of the 16th of April 1912 edition of The Washington Times
(Click to enlarge)

2. Swap Names

CLAIM: "Scratch out the paint and swap out the names and sink the Olympic instead… just painted the name Titanic over Olympic."

Firstly the names were not just painted - the outlines were engraved into metal and then painted within the lines. The names were cut into the plates in letters four feet high and one-half inch deep.
Secondly, although the Olympic and Titanic were twin-sisters they were not identical twins. In fact, there were numerous differences, many structural, that meant any switch would have been a huge, extensive, time-consuming and not to mention very expensive undertaking.

Here is a list of 30 key differences.

Also this does not take into consideration the fact that a 'switch' does not just involve making the Olympic look like Titanic, but also doing the opposite to the Olympic - making her look like a ship still in construction despite having been in service for a year.

3. J.P.Morgan's Competitors

CLAIM: "All of J.P.Morgan's business competitors… and not one of them made it out."

Of course not "all of J.P. Morgan's business competitors were aboard" - that would simply be impossible. However this claim pinpoints three men who were first class passengers aboard the Titanic - millionaires John Jacob Astor, Isidor Straus and Benjamin Guggenheim and alleges they were all opposed .to the Federal Reserve and hence "competitors."

The only problem is that actually Isidor Straus supported the Federal Reserve and Astor and Guggenheim were not opposed.

More information here.

4. J.P.Morgan Cancelled

CLAIM: "J.P. Morgan... cancelled minutes before it left... because he knew it was going to sink."

This is an urban myth. Actually J.P. Morgan had no intention of sailing aboard Titanic - he was due in Venice only a few days later - and additionally it was not his custom to ever return from Europe as early as April - he almost always returned in August.

More information here.

5. James Fenton

CLAIM: "There was a guy named James Fenton who survived and worked on the boat and on his deathbed his last words were "The Titanic never sank. It was the Olympic." And he said if he said anything something bad would happen to him." ."

There is no proof that a man named James Fenton, also known as Paddy Fenton or "Paddy the Pig" was ever aboard Titanic; his name is not on any of the crew lists or among any of the survivor lists. Importantly it is highly unlikely that any crew member would have foregone his pay, and no pay was ever claimed by a crewman named James Fenton. Even the man who released this story, Dennis Fench, casts doubt on the third-hand story he relayed.

More information here.