September 07, 2015

Denver's 'Pot Palladium' Is A Hoax

Dear readers,

I have bad news. There is no Pot Palladium. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, let me explain:

There’s been an exciting story floating around the digital newsreels of the interwebs as of late, one that had movie-going pot aficionados (or pot-smoking film aficionados?), including myself, going apeshit with fantastical musings over the merging of our two favorite pastimes. Supposedly, Denver was going to be opening the first ever pot-friendly movie theater. The mere concept of the story had me so elated that I planned to make it the subject of my daily news post on this beautiful Labor Day afternoon. Alas, it turns out I was duped by yet another trove of satirical websites that get their kicks from preying on the most gullible among us. I’m passing this along so you, dear reader, will not be yet another unwitting victim of the pervaded misinformation. The following words are the ones I prepared before I realized my error:

This November, Denver’s Zebulon Pike 16 Movie Complex plans to dedicate one of their 16 theaters to the pot-smoking crowd and their tolerant friends. Dubbed the “Pot Palladium,” the theater will feature only R-rated and adult themed films and serve as the catalyst for the complex’s addition of pizza and twinkies to their concession menu. Management says their decision is a direct response to customer demand as they have received more than 8,000 requests for the concept.

The story, as far as I can tell, can be traced back to a post that showed up on the satirical news website, thespoof.com, back in January of 2014. At the time, it was clearly labeled as fictitious. Since then, though, it has been picked up, redressed and recirculated on multiple websites, often mistakenly touted as a real story. If you’ve yet to see this one show up in your newsfeed, you no doubt will in the near future, as it’s been reused, recycled and re-purposed more than the printed pages of USA Today’s daily publication at this point. Just remember who warned you of its fictitious nature ahead of time.