Kanye West Swept Up in Truly Bizarre DC Pizza Joint Rumor

WASHINGTON, DC — By now, most people have heard Kanye West's bizarre rant at a concert in Sacramento that led to his hospitalization. But now West has become embroiled in PizzaGate: a reference to a pizza joint in Washington, D.C. that has been the subject of a rather insane rumor involving Hillary Clinton and an alleged child trafficking ring.

What is #PizzaGate? It's a conspiracy theory that centers around Comet Ping Pong, a restaurant located in the Northwest Chevy Chase neighborhood that serves up pizza and wings and offers patrons games like ping pong -- think Chuck E. Cheese's for adults. A few weeks ago, supporters of Donald Trump began spreading a rumor that has become so widespread that popular debunking site Snopes weighed in on the subject two days ago, calling the rumor false. Now PizzaGate proponents are flooding social media, claiming that West was trying to bring attention to the controversy and had been silenced by mysterious forces, even though there doesn't appear to be any reference to it in his rant.

The theory goes like this: the emails of John Podesta of Hillary Clinton's campaign that were leaked earlier this year reveal the existence of a secret society of pedophiles operating through Comet Ping Pong via code words. This is almost entirely based upon conjecture and the restaurant owner's former relationship to Clinton associate David Brock.

It's led to some very real problems for the restaurant itself. Thousands upon thousands of people -- mostly Trump supporters who hate Hillary Clinton -- have bought into the rumor and many of them have taken to harassing the owner James Alefantis, and even threatening him and his employees, according to a New York Times report.

The fact that believers in the rumor have suddenly roped in West without his actual comment shows just how agile these rumors can be. Without doing anything, Alefantis and West have become heavily involved in a controversy involving Hillary Clinton that has put thousands of Trump supporters on the warpath, demanding FBI investigations and jail time.

Confronted over why no reference to PizzaGate can be found in West's rant on video, conspiracists have a simple explanation: shadowy forces somehow edited it out of every YouTube video.

For those who believe the MSM LIE that #PizzaGate is fake news: ask yourself why did they haul Kanye off in restraints after exposing it?
— kellyH (@rosamystica11) November 22, 2016

People be crazy. It's sad it has impacted good people / The Consequences of 'Pizza Gate' are Real at Comet Ping Pong https://t.co/kKUk01AeaH
— Brenden Chaney (@brendenchaney) November 15, 2016

Images via D Sharon Pruitt and David Shankbone