Blame Someone Else Day falls on the first Friday the 13th of every year, and this year, that happens to be this Friday, January 13th. Incidentally, no one has taken credit for creating Blame Someone Else Day. In fact, anyone you ask will probably tell you someone else did it.

Just to make sure we all keep our stories straight, traditionally the blame for this random day is placed on Anne Moeller. Our collective story goes that in 1982, the Clio, MI woman’s alarm clock did not wake her up, so she was late to all of her meetings for the entire day. In order to deflect the responsibility for her day of tardiness, Ms. Moeller needed a scapegoat. So, she invented “Blame Someone Else Day” to give herself the chance to avoid taking the blame for being late. That’s the story and we’re sticking to it.

Other people have been historically good at passing the buck, finding scapegoats, playing the blame game and throwing others under the bus. Take a look at some of the most memorable examples below.

The Citizens of ‘South Park,’ ‘Blame Canada’

Blame Canada song from South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut
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Remember the catchy ‘Blame Canada’ ditty from the ‘South Park’ movie? Not only was this a good example of foisting your screw-ups on someone else, it’s also the only example of buck-passing that scored an Oscar nomination for Best Song.

‘The Family Circus’ Kids

Family Circus kids blaming Not Me, Ida Know and Nobody
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Bil Keane

Another classic cartoon example of passing the buck are those creative kids from ‘Family Circus.’ These poor wretches were constantly getting in trouble for the actions of a small ghost named “Not Me” who was later joined by other ghostly family members “Ida Know” and “Nobody.” Clearly the ‘Family Circus’ home was haunted by the most annoying ghosts of all time.

Shaggy, ‘It Wasn’t Me’

Lovable hiphop and reggae fusion master Shaggy, who helped RikRok deflect blame in his 2000 hit ‘It Wasn’t Me’ about a guy who gets caught cheating on his girlfriend and can think of no better way of getting out of it than to say that it wasn’t him she saw. Except that it was clearly him. He straight up confesses to getting caught fornicating on the bathroom floor with another woman. Not a lot of ambiguity there.

This Dog, Pepsi Ad

Let’s not forget the very clever dog in this Pepsi spot who ate his owner’s sandwich and drank his Pepsi and then made sure the cat got blamed for it. Good boy!

Richard Heene

Balloon Hoax
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A real life case of scapegoating a loved one actually included parents throwing their kid in a balloon. In 2009, Richard Heene attempted to get media attention by telling authorities that his son had broken house rules and climbed into a homemade weather balloon and then made it take flight. Rescue crews worked to bring the child down from the dangerous heights while the world watched in fear, only to find out later the whole thing was a hoax set up by Heene and the kid was sleeping in the attic the entire time. Heene was also named “Father of the Year” that year. (No he wasn’t.)

The Smartphone App Parents

Smartphone App Parents
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In the most recent and shameful episode of throwing someone under a bus, these parents blamed their 20-month-old daughter for purchasing expensive smart phone apps and racking up $200 in charges. It was the perfect move in the blame game. It’s cute when kids do crazy things like purchase $100 phone apps, the little girl can’t defend herself and she’s too young to remember her parents used her to get their bill reduced.

Milli Vanilli, ‘Blame it on the Rain’

Poor rain. What did it ever do to Milli and/or Vanilli?

Of course, while you’re joining the rest of the crowd and celebrating this special day by throwing anyone and everyone under the bus, it’s just as likely the same is being done to you, so watch out for pointed fingers, delusional cartoon activists, “not me” ghosts, Shaggy, clever dogs and parents who want attention or can’t pay their bills.

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