The Hippo Conspiracy
Last weekend, elora_c was putting together a CD of Christmas songs for kids, for Sparky's use, and she was using this site for ideas. I glanced over her shoulder at that long list of songs, and burst out laughing at "I Want a Hippopotamus for Christmas." We listened to it for a few seconds, concluded that we'd never heard it before, and there was probably a good reason for that, and promptly forgot about it. Later that day, we each heard it on the radio, on the all-Christmas station, which was pretty odd. Later still, at the family gathering that I skipped, my sister's fiancé mentioned that it was one of his favorite Christmas songs, and related the story about how it was a fund-raiser for some zoo back in the 1950s.
I've since then heard it three more times on the radio this week, and I'm starting to think this is some kind of hoax. The wiki entry for the song clarifies the whole fund-raiser thing, and confirms that the song is from the 50s, but that entry was only created last year. Snopes has nothing on this, but rather than believe I've gone my whole life without ever hearing this song before, and now it's suddenly everywhere, I'd prefer to think this is an elaborate joke that was invented last year.
I've since then heard it three more times on the radio this week, and I'm starting to think this is some kind of hoax. The wiki entry for the song clarifies the whole fund-raiser thing, and confirms that the song is from the 50s, but that entry was only created last year. Snopes has nothing on this, but rather than believe I've gone my whole life without ever hearing this song before, and now it's suddenly everywhere, I'd prefer to think this is an elaborate joke that was invented last year.