History Main / MayanDoomsday

* The ''TabletopGame/{{Shadowrun}}'' universe backstory has the fifth (our) world end on December 24th, 2011 according to the Mayan calendar, and the sixth world begins, bringing with it magic, dragons, new types of humans that resemble the legendary dwarves, orks, elves and trolls, among others. The (former) prequel ''TabletopGame/{{Earthdawn}}'' is set during the late fourth world (before 3114 BC) but in a subversion the [[AfterTheEnd middle of the fourth world]] was the real doomsday, with peak mana levels attracting an extraplanar invasion of {{Eldritch Abomination}}s.

* The less than stellar {{UsefulNotes/Steam}} videogame ''VideoGame/Revelations2012'' had its plot revolve around this. Supposedly, on the fated day, a [[SealedEvilInACan sealed demon would come out of his can]] and wreak havoc on the world. Four chosen people had to make sure this didn't happen.

** '''Fact''': In 1966, an anthropologist named Michael D. Coe pulled a mathematically significant date from the Maya Long Count calendar and concluded (incorrectly) that they believed that this date marked the end of the world. Notably, the date that Coe selected was originally December 24, ''2011'', later revised to January 11, 2013. The 2012 date was first put forward by Robert J. Sharer in 1983. Later research in the '90s suggested that the Maya ''didn't'' see 2012 as the end of the world, but rather, as a cause for partying like it's 1999--that is, it was simply the end of that calendar and the beginning of a new age. The end of the 13th b'ak'tun (Long Count calendar cycle) simply resulted in the beginning of the 14th b'ak'tun. The ends of the 1st through 12th b'ak'tuns hadn't coincided with any epic disasters, nor had the 1st day of the 1st b'ak'tun. And the fact that only 13 b'ak'tuns are known from the Maya codices is almost certainly because the majority of those scrolls were burned by some overzealous Catholic priests after the [[UsefulNotes/SpanishConquestOfTheMaya Spanish conquest]]. The idea of the Maya apocalypse prophecy was then discredited in scholarly circles. By then, however, New Agers and {{conspiracy theorist}}s had latched onto Sharer's revised date, and the rest is (embarrassing) history. Also, whenever the "Mayan" calendar is shown, expect it to [[{{Mayincatec}} actually be the more visually appealing Aztec calendar]].

* In WebVideo/ToddInTheShadows' review of "Scream and Shout," we see a list of Todd's [[FailedFutureForecast failed predictions for 2013]], and one of them was the Mayan apocalypse happening three months late.

* In the 2012 ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'' episode "A Farewell to Arms," a ''Martian'' calendar predicts a sunflare that will destroy the planet in [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything 3012]]. Later it is revealed that the planet in question ''is'' Mars, and that the calendar was sent to Earth as a warning to not visit Mars, [[EpicFail but by then the Earth's people had already relocated there]].
* In a mid-season ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'' short (released in 2013) Dipper asks a magic mailbox that gives answers to all questions when the world will end. It gives the answer of '''3'''012, to Dipper's mild surprise.

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' which started in 2011, played with this, indirectly, with the BigBad being released during a planetary alignment known as Nibiru.
* Spoofed in the opening of the 2012 "Treehouse of Horror" episode of ''WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons''.
** Also, in the chalkboard gag for preceding "Once Upon a Time in Springfield", Bart writes, "The world may end in 2012, but this show won't."

* Polar shift: Supposedly, the magnetic poles were going to reverse in 2012. Didn't happen, and wouldn't have caused disaster if it had. The idea that that this would be disastrous seems to have originated from misunderstanding of what the "polar shift" means. The magnetic poles reverse themselves relatively frequently, averaging once every 2 million years or so. But this doesn't have any significant impact on life; whenever the next geomagnetic reversal happens, the only thing that humans are likely to notice is that compasses will start pointing south instead of north. But the believers of the "polar shift" theory conflated the magnetic poles with the actual ''physical'' poles, at the axis of Earth's rotation. They believed that in 2012, the entire planet would flip 180 degrees on its axis, which would indeed have caused cataclysmic damage. Fortunately, it's also physically impossible for such a thing to just spontaneously happen. It would require an external force, such as [[ColonyDrop another planet colliding with Earth]] at just the right angle[[note]]It's speculated that such an event might be why UsefulNotes/{{Venus}} rotates "backwards".[[/note]]...at which point a polar shift would be the least of our problems.

* ''WesternAnimation/ScoobyDooMysteryIncorporated'' which started in 2011, played with this, indirectly, with Nibiru being the BigBad.

* The Creator/RolandEmmerich film ''[[Film/TwoThousandTwelve 2012]]'', of course. [[note]] Though the movie got the date wrong. The event happens in the summer, not the winter.[[/note]]

Once upon a time, people thought December 21, 2012 was TheEndOfTheWorldAsWeKnowIt. Silly, right? Well, a surprising number of people took this seriously. Where did this date come from, you ask? Well, let's sort out fact and fiction: