The 4th of July celebrates one of the greatest days in history, America’s Independence. However, when we look to the sky on July 4th and see fireworks, we assume they are celebrating us here at Mouse Trap News. July 4th, 2022, is the day “The Moused Trusted Name in Disney News” was born. Today, we not only celebrate America, but also Mouse Trap News, on our one year anniversary.
One day, we thought it would be fun to write satirical articles about Disney World. The name Mouse Trap News was the first name to come to mind as it just made sense. We secured the domain name, made a website, and were off and running with our first article ever. That story is titled New Features Released for MagicBand+, and you can read it here. We’ve come a long way since the turn of the century over twenty some odd years ago and so has our website and social media following. In fact, we have almost 150,000 followers on TikTok and nearly 50,000 on Instagram. However, our Facebook and Twitter are lacking, so be sure to follow us on those too! Regardless, we’re going to break down our top 10 highlights as Mouse Trap News Celebrates its one year anniversary.
Top 10 Mouse Trap News Stories
10. BREAKING: Hurricane Ian Destroys EPCOT Ball
This one is one of our favorite stories. Sure, it’s number 10 on our list, but it was a good one. We only were fact checked a few times on this article. One example here on hitc.com. However, our video on this got almost 7 million views on TikTok, which you can watch here. Many people worried that Spaceship Earth was actually destroyed. What fascinates us about this story is that the photoshop didn’t even look that convincing. It just goes to show that the internet will buy anything.
9. Spend a Night in the Tower of Terror
We published this story only two weeks into starting our website and it was our first viral video. In fact, this was only the third video we posted on TikTok here and we got nearly 2 million views on it with 15,000 shares. This was a really exciting moment for us to have our third post get over one million views. It was this moment that we realized we might be onto something and that the future could be bright for Mouse Trap News. Spoiler alert, the future was and still is bright.
8. Space Mountain Will Keep Lights on Permanently
Technically this ranking also includes Man Seriously Injured on Space Mountain at Disney World as well. These stories were fact checked many times by many different sources. Our favorite is of course ABC 10 News, which you can watch here. As the saying goes, if it bleeds, it leads. These stories are great because it’s so relatable. So many people are afraid of raising their hands on Space Mountain for this exact reason. In fact, the video here on TikTok has 9 million views, one of our most watched videos ever. Surprisingly though, the lights on video got more views than the video about the man being seriously injured here.
7. Disney Files Patent for Roller Coaster That Jumps Track
This story is so good, it actually gets two spots on the countdown. In this case, the TikTok video here has only 1.5 million views on TikTok and less than 1 million on Instagram here. However, this one “went off the rails” fast. Massive Instagram accounts with millions of followers started posting it as a true story. They ran with exactly what we said, with no research. It got so crazy, Barstool Sports posted a full article on it, which you can read here. This one was then fact checked by ABC 10 News, USA Today, and more. We will talk about this one again later on the list.
6. Walt Disney Taking Over The $100 Bill In 2023
We finally got a fact check by the Associated Press on this one. That was a big win for us. We especially liked the photoshop job we did here to make the bill look so realistic. This video here only has 1 million views on Instagram, but 100,000 shares. It wasn’t our most viral video, but it got a lot of attention. This one makes the list because of the AP News fact check here, which was an honor to see such a big source write about us. We also like it because ABC 10 News was on this story here as well and said “our old friend Mouse Trap News”, which shows how popular we are becoming.
5. National Guard Blocks All Entrances to Disney World
Our largest influx of traffic on one article so far is from this one. The videos on this didn’t do that well on Instagram and TikTok, but the traffic was crazy. It turns out we were being featured on Google Discover, which shot our traffic through the roof. However, sadly, Google Discover doesn’t promote satire, so we flew under the radar with this one, but we won’t see that happening again. The good news is, we still got fact checked by the Associated Press and USA Today again. Per usual, it was an honor.
4. BREAKING: Cinderella Castle at Magic Kingdom Will be Removed After 50th Anniversary
When we wrote this, we didn’t know how to make short titles apparently. Despite the long title, this article performed very well. The video here on TikTok has over 8 million views and 100,000 shares. What’s also cool is Dan Povenmire, the creator of Phineas and Ferb featured it in one of his videos here. Naturally, a video with this many views gets fact checked. We saw some new sources pop up in the fact checking here like Fatherly and Parents Magazine, which was cool. However, we are still looking for something to replace it. If you have thoughts, let us know in the comments below!
3. Drinking Age at Disney World May be Lowered to 18
We wrote this article a little differently. This was written more like a rumor than fact. Needless to say, it performed. We have nearly 3 million views on TikTok here. Per usual ABC 10 hopped on this story here. Why this one ranks so high is Poynter also fact checked this story here, but it gets better. PBS (yes, the real PBS) created an entire lesson plan focused on us called How to identify satire before sharing it as misinformation. You can see the lesson plan here. This is wild, but it gets even better. Central Washington University (CWU) also have an entire case study on this story as well, which you can see here.
2. BREAKING: Mickey Mouse Out as Official Disney Mascot
From a viral standpoint, this is our best video ever. It currently has over 12 million views on TikTok here and nearly 200,000 shares. As you might imagine, we were fact checked a few times. Here are some of the most famous fact checkers: Reuters, Verify This, Politifact, and of course, USA Today again. This was truly a great story and is going to be hard to beat, but we are looking forward to the challenge in year two of business. This was a great story and had so many people stunned by the news. As if Disney would actually replace Mickey Mouse with a silly Dragon.
1. Disney Files Patent for Roller Coaster That Jumps Track
As promised, this story would be on the list twice because it’s so deserving. Not only did the story blow up, but it made it into Jimmy Fallon’s opening monologue. This was crazy. Someone texted us earlier that day that Jimmy Fallon Tweeted about our story. Then that night on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon, he started talking about the roller coaster that jumps the track. Sadly, he didn’t directly say Mouse Trap News, however, we were credited as a source for a picture they used! It was a solid minute long bit about it. You can watch it at the 5:13 mark of this episode here, or watch our TikTok here for the entire video as well.
And so our journey comes to an end. Actually it doesn’t, this is just year one of breaking the internet with Disney news. We are so thankful for everyone who has visited our website so far, follows us on TikTok, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, and who has interacted with our content. We wouldn’t be this far without all of you! So please continue to like, comment, share, and follow us, so we can continue to write great articles. Lastly, please consider signing up for our email list at the bottom of the page, so you never miss a story!
What was your favorite Mouse Trap News story of the year? Let us know in the comments below, we want to hear from you!
Love all your articles! Happy anniversary l!
Thank you!