Barack Obama "Whoomp! (There it is)" Conspiracy Theory Goes All The Way To The White House (Then Stops, Mercifully)

​To recap: over the weekend, Gawker harnessed the power of the internet and cobbled together the mother of all ridiculous conspiracy theories, alleging that a blurry video still constituted evidence that Barack Obama had been in an extra in the 1993 video for Tag Team's still-ubiquitous "Whoomp (There It Is)." On June 8th, Stephen Colbert initiated his own independent investigation. Hours later, Gawker finally tracked down the two Atlanta rappers who once called themselves Tag Team, DC The Brain Supreme and Steve Roll'N, and asked the duo outright:

"Nah, it's not the President of the United States," said DC; instead, his partner added, that grainy, goofy face belongs to L.A. Sno, a onetime affiliate of the crew who doesn't actually look anything like Obama. The group even addressed the icky, all-black-people-look-alike subtext of the meme: "He's way light-skinned," Steve said about Sno. DC: "That's why they call him 'Snow.'" That would seem to put the issue to bed, but of course once these things come to live, they never really die. So yesterday the White House went on the record for perhaps the first time ever about the glory of the song "Whoomp (There It Is)" and its alleged relationship to the president of the United States, after Politifact asked for an official denial. Said White House spokeswoman Kate Bedingfield? "It's not him."

But no, seriously, what if it was though?!

'Whoomp!' There He Ain't! President Obama NOT in Tag Team's 1993 (There It Is) music video [NYDN]