Conspiracy stories have been around since the Big Bang Theory (and we’re not talking about the CBS comedy). John F. Kennedy’s death was a conspiracy involving the CIA, the KGB, mobsters or a second shooter on the grassy knoll. Beatles fans know that Paul McCartney actually died in 1966 and all of his music since has been the work of an imposter.

But Katy Perry and Ted Cruz?

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Two particularly crazy stories making the rounds recently bubbled up to reach new heights (No. 1 Trending on Facebook) in web conspiracy theories.

Pop star Perry was discovered to be JonBenet Ramsey, all grown up.

Wait, what?

Child beauty pageant queen Ramsey, 6, was mysteriously murdered inside her Colorado home in 1996. Police found the little girl’s body in the basement of the family. A killer was never found.

But none of that matters now because conspiracy theorist Dave Johnson says that Katy Perry is actually Ramsey.

His contention, posted in a YouTube video, is that Ramsey’s death was faked by her parents for a big payoff: “That sacrifice was in name only, and that sacrifice was to get something, and that something was to become a star.”

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Ramsey “became” Katy Perry, says Jones in the video. “That’s a fact.” He goes into a long explanation about how Perry’s parents are the Ramseys. And he doesn’t let any details — such as the fact that Patsy Ramsey died from ovarian cancer in 2006 — get in the way. More than 1.8 million people have viewed his video.

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Three months ago, Johnson said Joe Biden actually is Donald Trump. He had no explanation for that one, just a video montage of Biden’s face fading into Trump’s.

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He also believes Wayne Gretzsky is Rand Paul. You have to admit that they do kind of look alike.

And in another recent viral tale, Ted Cruz was being called the Zodiac Killer, a serial murderer who was responsible for the deaths of five people in California’s Bay Area in 1968 and 1969. Ted Cruz was born in 1970.

Some say the Cruz story stems back to a speech he gave in 2013 at the Conservative Political Action Conference titled “This is the Zodiac Speaking.”

But the reason the theory popped up again recently is because some comedians were determined to make it trend during a recent GOP presidential debate on CBS, reports NPR.

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Nathan LaMagna, one person who helped make that happen, told NPR, “I noticed … the Google Trends ticker along the bottom of the screen, kind of a way to make things more interactive. What are people Googling about the candidates? It was stuff like ‘How tall is Jeb Bush?’ Stuff like that.”

So LaMagna, a Bernie Sanders supporter, put out the call on social media. “I just tweeted out: ‘Hey everybody should Google ‘Is Ted Cruz the Zodiac killer?’ and see if we can hit the ticker on there.'”

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University of Miami political scientist Joseph E. Uscinski, co-author of the 2014 book “American Conspiracy Theories,” told LifeZette that there is no real reason for why these two would have popped up now. 

“Some people see conspiracies everywhere, controlling everything, and on the other end, some people see conspiracies controlling very little. Most people are somewhere in the middle, and have a dalliance with the occasional conspiracy theory.”

Or, like Donald Trump, they want to be part of the conversation. Trump didn’t shy away from conspiracy theories swirling around the recent death of Justice Antonin Scalia. He wasn’t hesitant to tell radio host Michael Savage in South Carolina, “They say they found a pillow on his face, which is a pretty unusual place to find a pillow.”

He saw no problem is perpetuating the theory. Trump’s campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, told the New York Times his candidate likes to start conversations. “Mr. Trump is willing to have conversations and discuss issues that other candidates aren’t willing to discuss because they’re so politically correct.”

After the Ted Cruz-Zodiac topic started trending and hitting mainstream media, Public Policy Polling decided to throw in a question on its latest survey.

According to a press release, the PPP found that 38 percent of Florida voters think it’s possible Ted Cruz is the Zodiac Killer. So, that’s settled.