How Long Has Billy Joe Cobra Been A Ghost?
Billy has said he's been a ghost for at least a year, however no definitive answer has ever been given for exactly how long that timespan has been. While rewatching the episodes recently, however, I noticed that something was very off.
In Ponzi's Got Talent, Billy was a judge for the talent show Ponzi ribbon danced on as a teenager. Billy appeared to only be a little younger than Ponzi at this time.
I wondered if I could use this information to give a semi-definitive answer for how long Billy's been dead, and I've figured out the fallowing:
Billy was canonically at least 19 before his death (The source of this being the Spanish page for the show), however he appears to be closer to 20-22. I decided to go with 20. Ponzi's age was never stated or revealed, however his wiki page states he's probably in his late 40's. I've decided to place his exact age at around 48-49 for this.
In PGT, Ponzi seems to be in his mid to late teens, and I guesstimated it to be 15 (based on the immaturity of his voice sounding younger, yet his proportions and presence of hair on his arms/legs suggesting an older age.) Billy, however, seems to be 12. He's short, with a high pitched voice and majorly childish behavior. I'd say he's pushing 13, but honestly? It just doesn't feel like it?
As such, with Ponzi being (approx) 15, and Billy being 12, there's a three year age gap between the two.
So at age 48-49, Billy would have been 45-46.
With Billy dying at 20, that means he's been dead for approximately 25 years.
This also brings to light the fact that Billy died 11 years before Spencer was even born.
Holy. Crap.
Personally, I dislike this. A lot. It's too long a time span, and doesn't make sense.
Spencer and his family just moved in recently before the first episode as they inherited the mansion. This would imply that Billy died recently, or at least in the span of two years since legal crap can take a while but definitely not 25 fuckin years. So if the above timeline, even when squishing the numbers to their extremes (the youngest I can believe Ponzi is is 45 which still puts the death gap at 20-22 when you figure Billy's age, even if you do some serious stretching and suspension of disbelief with the numbers.) why would it have taken that long to find a relative of Billy's to will the mansion to? It would have been auctioned off long before that. Even if the theory of Billy dying of metal poisoning is correct and it was suspected he was murdered and the investigation took a long time, that doesn't have any bearing on his estate. Murder investigation or no, it would have still be passed down to his next of kin. I tried to figure out if a house is kept as a crime scene for as long as the investigation is ongoing, like if Billy was discovered dead in his own mansion and that's why it might take 20-some years to will away, but I couldn't find anything that said one way or the other. Going off of logic alone, I can't see that being the case.
Nothing I can think of makes any sense for the mansion being held, vacant, for 20 years after Billy's death.
I dislike another theory this timeline could also be suggesting, which is that Billy could have died older than what his ghost's age seems to be. This would make the timeline make a little bit more sense, but in terms of everything (well, almost everything. Only thing it helps to explain is Wendy growing up) not-timeline related....it just doesn't make sense. Why would Billy revert to a younger age when manifesting as a ghost? Personal preference? Returning to the prime of his life? Its weak. Common sense implies that if someone dies and becomes a ghost, they'd be identical to what they were when they died.
Add in the fact that Billy's music is still widely popular and fairly modern and people still gather in mass at his house in his memory, and the timeline continues to increase in not-making-any-fucking-sense-ness. Music fades over time, even from famous musicians. This is because new ones pop up to take people's attention. People will still like a musicians music, but they will eventually move on and stop obsessing over it. This hasn't happened with Billy, because hundreds of fans still flock to his house. He still has a lot of obsessively adoring fans, the prime example of which is Madame X. And again, his music is too modern to have been from 20-25 years ago. Hell, even his behavior is too modern to be that old!
The longest I can believably see the death gap being is 5 years at the most. Maybe six, but thats seriously pushing it.
So in other words, fuck Ponzi's Got Talent, it makes no damn sense and makes everything else not make sense. I'm labeling it the Phantom Planet of DTMG. Ignore it exists. Ponzi in that purple whateverthefuckhe'swearing should be against the law to exist.
