People are 'today years old' after discovering secret about Casper the Friendly Ghost

Everyone knows and loves Casper the Friendly Ghost.

The fictional character graced our childhoods after being developed by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo before making his first TV appearance in 1945. He was initially intended for a children's storybook but soon made it onto our telly screens.

So while Casper is known as the cute ghost-child with a New York accent who inhabits a haunted house, people are only just realising one extra detail about the lovable character. Since it was shared on X, formerly , everyone's completely shocked.

In a post on the Today Years Old account, which boasts 1.1million fans, it was revealed Casper the Friendly Ghost is more than a spirit. It wrote: "How old were you before you realised Casper the Friendly Ghost was just Richie Rich without hair and clothes?"

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The photo shows Casper identical to a cartoon of the "world's richest boy" Richie Rich, who lives in Chicago with his billionaire parents Richard Sr. and Regina. The character from the hit 1994 movie, played by Macaulay Culkin, enjoys a luxurious but lonely life with the care of his butler Herbert Cadbury.

Since it was shared, the post quickly racked up 172,000 views with 1,500 likes and dozens of comments. And it's safe to say many people believe their entire childhood was a lie, while others saw it coming after an episode from The Simpsons.

One wrote: "Learned one minute ago." While another X user said: "Today years old," a third posted: "Thanks for ruining my childhood." And a fourth chimed in: "Omg." Someone else pointed out: "True enough, they were never in the same place at the same time."

And another X, formerly Twitter, user claimed it was revealed in the second series of The Simpsons who "called it". Meanwhile theories online suggest there are facial similarities between the two characters, but there is no official link.

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