Boing Boing

Boing Boing

Strange 1996 "Markovian Parallax Denigrate" Usenet posts remain a mystery

Ellsworth Toohey
Dec 12, 2024
∙ Paid

A Markovian Parallax Denigrate message posted to the board

In August 1996, hundreds of puzzling messages flooded Usenet newsgroups, each bearing the cryptic subject line "Markovian Parallax Denigrate." The posts contained seemingly random strings of English words, and to this day no one has figured out what they mean.

These messages appeared across variou…

User's avatar

Continue reading this post for free, courtesy of Boing Boing.

Or purchase a paid subscription.
Ellsworth Toohey's avatar
A guest post by
Ellsworth Toohey
Contributor to Boing Boing
Subscribe to Ellsworth
© 2026 Happy Mutants LLC · Privacy ∙ Terms ∙ Collection notice
Start your SubstackGet the app
Substack is the home for great culture