April 7, 2025 • 40 mins
We explore the fascinating world of internet horror stories known as creepypastas, examining how these digital folktales have evolved from online forum posts into cultural phenomena with real-world impact.
• Slenderman's origin as a 2009 Photoshop contest entry by Eric Knudsen that evolved into a widespread internet phenomenon
• The disturbing Russian Sleep Experiment story about Soviet prisoners subjected to sleep deprivation with horrifying results
• The Backrooms phenomenon - a contemporary creepypasta about endless liminal spaces that can trap people who "noclip" through reality
• Discussion of how these internet stories function as modern folklore, similar to traditional myths and urban legends
• Philosophical exploration of whether collective belief in fictional entities might give them a form of existence
• The blurring lines between fiction and reality when internet stories inspire real-world actions and beliefs
• Personal experiences with insomnia and lucid dreaming that connect to these digital horror narratives
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:21):
Before we begin today's episode of the Black
Curtain Club podcast, we wouldlike to share a quick disclaimer
.
The views, opinions andstatements expressed by the
hosts and guests on this podcastare their own personal views
and are provided in their ownpersonal capacity.
All content is editorial,opinion-based and intended for
(00:41):
entertainment purposes only.
Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hey, Angie, do you feel like recording an episode?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
I do.
Okay, I mean I'm here, whatelse am I going to do?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
All right.
Hello everybody, Thank you forjoining us for another episode
of the Black Curtain Clubpodcast.
This one is definitely going tokeep you up at night.
We are sharing our favoritechunk of internet pop culture,
with a deep dive into some ofthe most notorious creepypastas
the forums have to offer.
My name is Becca and I'm joinedby my co-host, Angie.
(01:24):
How are you doing'm?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
good, happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Can't wait to listen to your stories do you have a
base of knowledge forcreepypastas?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
yeah, I mean other than they're just these scary
fictional stories on theinternet.
But some people think that theymay not be fictional, that
there's some truth running tothem.
That's basically all I know.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
That's pretty much everybody's base level.
I feel like anyone who spentany time on the internet
remembers the time their friendtraumatized them with some
snippet of cyber folklore passeddown.
So sites like 4chan and Wattpad, I feel like, were the most
prevalent, and in this episodeI'm going to be sharing a few of
my personal favorites and a fewof the newer ones that have
(02:13):
come out recently.
So, to get us started, we'regoing to talk about Slenderman.
Do you know who Slenderman is?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Oh my god.
Yes, I love the Slenderman.
What do you?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
know about him.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
That he's a man and he's very slender Okay perfect.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So I have here, basically, his birth certificate
.
What so?
In 2009, on a website known asSomething Awful, a weekly
Photoshop contest hosted everyFriday received a submission by
a longtime user named VictorSurge, whose real name would
(02:54):
later be revealed as EricKnudsen, and his submission to
the Paranormal Images contestconsisted of two black and white
pictures depicting the Slenderman surrounded by children and
supposed testimonies fromwitnesses.
Slender man was posted on pagethree of the Something Awful
forums on June 10th in 2009.
(03:14):
So this is how long he's beenaround.
This is literally where hestarted.
It was a Photoshop contest, wow, and this person won.
Yeah, and it was literally.
It's the two pictures you'veseen.
It's literally just children ona playground, slender man in
the background, another onewhere it's just Slender man by
some trees, or Slender man inthe woods right, it's just
Photoshop, but it became thislike phenomenon overnight and it
(03:38):
kind of helps give birth tocreepypastas as a whole.
So he's described as a tall,slim figner Figner Figure.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
No, no, no, no.
I want to go back.
It's figner From here on out.
It's figner.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, tall, slim figner, no discernible facial
features.
His face is literally blank, sohis little arms and legs are
long and gangly.
He's usually said to be wearinga tailored black suit, and most
pictures you can find of thecreature highlight the naturally
, or the unnaturally, rathertall frame and eerie appearance
(04:15):
of him.
It's a very uncanny valley,right.
It's supposed to be unsettlingmore than it is like outwardly
scary.
Hmm, more than it is likeoutwardly scary.
So nearly all of the storiesabout Slenderman involve
kidnapping, stalking,brainwashing of both adults and
children, but most of thestories involve kids.
So where it gets crazy is theabilities he's supposed to have.
(04:40):
So I want to remind everybodythat this is somebody that was.
This is a creature invented fora Photoshop contest.
This is not a real being.
Slender man does not exist.
If you believe in Slender manand think he is coming for you,
you need to reflect a little bit, because this is a fake entity
that was literally posted onlinein 2009.
He's not some eldritch being.
(05:01):
So the abilities he is supposedto have?
He has a debilitating effectthat causes delirium and
hysteria with his victims.
He is known not only to prolongdeath, but to resurrect the
deceased.
He's considered aninterdimensional being granting
(05:32):
him the ability to manipulatespace and time, create custom
worlds and even causedimensional bleeding, which I
had to Google.
That this basically means hecan control the fabric of the
universe, bending reality to hiswill, but he also might have
tentacles.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Sorry, but what Right ?
I'm sorry you got me with thetentacles, I wasn't.
I'm like trying to get a mentalpicture of this thing and I'm
thinking well, like in aedversion of indrid cold and like
(06:05):
the men in black, but then youhit me with tentacles and I'm
just like I fell apart I feellike indrid cold and men in
black were definitelyinspirations behind tim, even if
nobody is going to come rightout and say it.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, I'm glad you did so.
With slenderman, there are whatwe consider the big three and
these are the major online videoseries that capture kind of
what the story of this cybercryptid is.
That leads into the creepypasta, and essentially they do it in
either online video series orthey do it in game formats and
(06:41):
the way he's been portrayed.
So he's been in various webseries and video projects.
One was called marble hornets.
Um everyman hybrid did one andtribe 12.
Tribe 12 did one and it used afound footage like blair witch
style augmented reality game toget like the forums involved.
(07:02):
So instead of it just beinglike oh, supposedly, it
supposedly da-da-da-da, it wasliterally this game that the
people set up that got thecomment sections involved in
solving a story together acrossthe country and even the world.
They would find clues andletters and there were little
signs to look for out in theworld.
(07:23):
There would be coordinateswhere people could find
information.
It became this.
It was like Pokemon Go.
Before Pokemon Go was a thing,slenderman had a Pokemon
Go-esque clout, right.
That's fascinating, and to saythat it had a cult following is
really an understatement.
So since its conception, it'sbeen tied to some scandals,
(07:48):
murder and cults.
There are two cases of innocentparties being attacked with
bladed weapons, with theperpetrators claiming the fake
internet monster told them to doit.
I don't like to go into thesestories.
When I talk about Slender manonly because I don't think that
they deserve notoriety for whatthey've done.
(08:08):
I think that it's kind of it'salmost like shameful to bring
them up and to like glorify whatthey've done for the sake of
telling this story.
So I'll just say like yeah,people have been attacked.
People believe in this thing.
They think it's an actualentity because it was something
that was created on the internet.
And that's what leads me intothe whole folklore behind it.
This is modern day folklore, doyou think so?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Yeah, I mean it definitely has all the hallmarks
of folklore, but maybe I'mgetting too philosophical here,
but it seems like a lot oflegends in the past were also
folklore, but it's almost likethe folklore itself breathe.
It breathe an entity into being.
And I'm just wondering, like,is this a phenomenon where this,
(08:54):
this modern day folklore hasbreathed this entity into being?
I don't know, maybe I'm too,and that's where no, it's the
ether with this, and that'swhere no, it's absolutely true.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
It reminds me of Men in Black and Injured Cold
Mothman, like you said, likethey are very similar if you
look at their base descriptionsand the things that they're
supposed to do.
They're these like harbingersor catalysts, and it's
interesting that it's taken thisnew form in like a cyber way.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Mm-hmm.
New form in like a cyber way.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
All right, so that is basically Blender man.
It's just a bunch of videogames, a couple of online
stories and people believingthat it's true.
The Russian sleep experiment iswhere I want to go next.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Oh, I love it.
I, Becca, I did not know youwere going to be talking about
this and I absolutely love thisstory so much.
So go ahead.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
I'm like so excited it online when creepypastas were
at their biggest.
It is a story that allegedlycomes from a top secret
Soviet-era military experiment.
It supposedly involved fiveRussian political prisoners
(10:16):
being placed in a sleepdeprivation chamber as part of
an experiment to test the limitsof human endurance.
The participants were isolated,given no sleep and continuously
exposed to gas while beingmonitored by scientists.
So this stretched on for a longperiod of time and as the days
(10:37):
go by, they start to see thetest subjects descend into
madness.
And it starts with talking tothemselves.
They would not really be ableto understand what they were
saying, and it starts withtalking to themselves.
They would not really be ableto understand what they were
saying, but it was disturbingwhisperings and they couldn't
figure out who they were talkingto and they weren't talking to
each other.
As the days go by, the descentinto madness really amps up.
(10:59):
It gets to the point where theyare taking extreme measures to
stay awake.
They've become fearful of sleepitself because of the gas it's
induced like this paranoia.
They don't trust each other.
They don't trust the scientists.
They are actively blocking thepeepholes that the scientists
have into the chamber.
They're trying to block up theintercom where the scientists
(11:20):
can talk to them.
They are smearing feces allover the windows so that they
can't see in, right?
Oh my god, oh my god.
A couple more days go by andthings get quiet and it's very
disturbing.
They can't see in, they don'tknow what's going on, they're
(11:42):
not even whispering tothemselves anymore, it's just
quiet.
They can read their vital signsand they can see that they are
still alive, they're stillrespirating normally, and it's
just quiet.
So they just let it go.
And then another day goes byand screaming starts, and this
is obviously concerning.
(12:02):
They can't see what's going on,so they decide a look inside is
the best thing to do, and whenthey open the door, what they
see is haunting.
Essentially, the subjects hadstarted to tear themselves to
pieces.
To stay awake, like once thetire became too much to bear,
(12:28):
they were literally harmingthemselves, eating themselves.
The floor there was likestanding water, blood, urine,
feces, like they were not ingood shape.
They all had this like glassyexpression.
They were all still alive andbreathing as if they weren't in
pain.
Nobody was screaming anymore,nobody was whispering, they were
(12:49):
just happily awake.
Oh, so at some point they decideto turn the gas off and the
people don't want this to happen.
They are urging the scientiststo leave the gas on.
They don't want to go to sleep.
They try to treat these peopleand they won't let the people
touch them.
So it becomes this thing wherethey have to just stop the
(13:11):
experiment, get everybody out.
They're gonna patch everybodyup and see what they can do.
A couple of them died in thisprocess and one that they were
able to operate on, according tothe story, begged them not to
put it under Like it was rippedopen still very much alive and
(13:31):
begging them to perform while itwas still awake so it wouldn't
sleep.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
And so they do what they could and eventually it
just gets to the point where thepatient's heart gives out and
it goes to sleep and that's itit died, it died.
It's a very disturbing story.
It is blurring the linesbetween fact and fiction,
(13:58):
obviously, and it I think it'svery metaphorical.
I definitely don't believe thisis true.
A lot of people do believe thisis true.
What do you think about thisstory?
Speaker 3 (14:17):
I mean, I don't know.
I think that this could have aribbon of truth, because we know
governments do all kinds ofexperiments, you know, and some
of them have been horrific.
So is it within the realm ofpossibility that you know this,
(14:37):
a government would do somethinglike this?
Do like a sleep experiment toyou maybe, but it's, I think
it's.
If it did really happen.
I think this is just one ofthose things where, like you
said, the lines blur betweenfact and fiction, and could
(14:58):
there be a truth and thensomebody just ran with it and
made you know another story.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
You can find this story online and there are a few
things that the supposedpatients say while they're in
this state about why they'rescared of falling asleep and how
humans have forgotten to fearthe things in the night because
they're sleeping through thenight.
But when you have thisawareness all the time, you
start to hear it.
(15:25):
It's a very scary story.
It's a very scary story.
It's a very scary story Iwanted to bring up as an
insomniac.
This story, I think, hit medifferently because I am
somebody who can stay awake fordays at a time and no matter how
tired I get.
It's like, unless my body isready to shut down and go to
(15:47):
sleep, I'm not going to be goingto sleep.
So it's definitely interestingto read something like this.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Well, yeah, and you know that, you know I've had my
bounce with insomnia too andyeah, like day three, day four
of no sleeping, like you do feellike you're unraveling a little
bit, you know it's, it'sdefinitely, it's definitely not
(16:13):
a pleasant experience to not beable to sleep and the human
brain is a very fragile thing.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
like the human mind, soundness can be dipped one way
or the other by lack of sleep soquickly, and there is like a
point where it almost feels likeyou don't exist in your own
body, like you're separate fromthe whole world going on around
you and times moving differently.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I can see where a story like this has legs.
I can absolutely see Russiaback in the Soviet era pulling
some stuff like this, yeah, andbeing too scared to tell
everybody until now when nobodywould believe it.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
And it's interesting because I feel like there are
different iterations of thestory, because I've seen this
story where the patients turninto like they have these
disfigurations and they turninto like these monstrous beings
, almost they, you know.
(17:09):
So I I think yeah it's, it'slike another one of these modern
folklore kind of stories.
But again, you know, you alwayshave to question like where's
the thread of truth?
I mean, they always say, whatis it like?
Um, what's the saying?
(17:32):
Uh, truth is greater thanfiction, or something like that
or the truth is stranger thanfiction truth is stranger than
fiction, right?
so I don't know, right, it'sinteresting.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
The next one I want to go into is one of the newest.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
And this is.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
The Backrooms.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Oh yeah, oh my God, the Backrooms, it's so popular.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, I didn't know much about this.
I still find it it's very vagueand it's very up to
interpretation what theBackrooms are and what it means
for different people Essentially, interpretation what the
backrooms are and what it meansfor different people.
Essentially, as a lot of thingsdo.
It began as a meme originatingon 4chan in 2019.
(18:18):
And when I was researching this, I realized that in 2019, 4chan
still existed, so that was newto me.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Yeah, I thought that went away a long time ago, but
yay, it's still around.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
What the hell do I know?
So the idea is that if younoclip or glitch through reality
in the wrong place, you mightend up in a seemingly endless
maze of dilapidated rooms with aconstant hum.
The rooms are sterile,unwelcoming and disorienting.
(18:53):
The goal is to escape withoutsuccumbing to exhaustion or
something far worse.
There are various levels andit's very Labyrinthian in nature
, right?
It reminds me a lot of Greekmythology, where they're going
through all of these trials andtribulations in the Labyrinth,
trying to get out or ascend towhatever level they're trying to
(19:14):
get to.
And these back rooms do havevarious levels and they have
their own set of terrifyingrules.
And it very much reminds me of adreamscape where it'll seem
like reality.
There's something uncanny valleyabout it, where there's just
the sense of wrongness or thisisn't right.
It feels like you're in somekind of like parallel,
perpendicular dimension whereeverything's just kind of off
(19:35):
and you have to figure out whatit's trying to tell you to get
through it.
So from bland monotony it getsincreasingly hostile and
elements get a lot morehorrifying the further down, and
the lore around these spacescontinues to evolve, and the
underlying themes are isolationand the overwhelming theory that
(19:59):
you're not alone or theoverwhelming feeling you're not
alone.
They've recently taken on kindof a life of their own.
A lot of people were writingand creating and expanding on
the lore, taking out creepyscenarios and creating virtual
experiences based on the concept.
So, with virtual reality gamingand being able to design your
own games on websites like Steam, everybody has kind of taken
(20:22):
this and ran with it and it'sbecome kind of like a playground
in a sandbox that everybody hastheir hands in.
And it's this constantlyevolving lore of liminal spaces
and I know that you and Irecently have dipped our toe
into liminal spaces and I justfound this very fascinating.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yes, yes, we yes, liminal space.
As soon as you said liminalspaces, I was like, well, yeah,
here we go.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
What do you think about it so far?
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Well, I mean, I think it's interesting.
I think there definitely is acreepy factor here.
I know that there are likevideo games and all kinds of
things that are devoted tobackrooms.
People make videos like you cansee them on tiktok, you can see
(21:12):
them on all over social mediaabout like in it.
In it it's like real, likepeople, yeah, and I think
there's like this subsect ofpeople that believe that back
rooms really do exist.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
It lends to the theory that we're living in a
simulation, doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yes, and I find that it also kind of ties into lucid
dreaming.
So, as far as the simulationgoes, the thing I always think
about when people bring upsimulations is the way.
Grand Theft Auto 5 is a perfectsimulation of a simulation.
What exists in the frame foryou is all that exists.
(22:00):
To load a whole new chunk ofthe world with endless
possibilities and randompatterns that will throw random
things at you.
With the NPCs or emissions, youcan do the cars that are loading
, and there is a theory outthere that our lives are a lot
like that, with our perspectivebeing the only chunk that's
(22:22):
loaded at the time and as we'removing forward, it all kind of
blends into this pattern aroundyou and it's a very personalized
experience if people don'trealize it.
And the other thing that itmakes me think of is lucid
dreaming, and this is the theorythat people can take control
over their own dreams and thiscan lead to things like astral
(22:45):
projection.
These are all theories.
They are things that are veryhard to prove, but they're very
fun to talk about and I wantedto know if you've ever had a
lucid dream.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
I have had a lucid dream before and I can tell you
that, waking up from that luciddream, like I can think about it
right now and it felt soincredibly real To me.
There was no difference in thatdream and me sitting here with
headphones on and recording this.
(23:18):
I can touch things, I can smell.
All your senses are alive.
They were just as real andalive in that lucid dream.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
And it really bent your brain.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
It really does.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, I've had a few and I've also had dreams where
it almost feels like I'm in aliminal space.
So that's why the back roomsjumped out at me, because it was
like a sensation I didn't havea word for until I started
looking into the back rooms andI found out what a liminal space
was and learning lessons to allthe way here in the future,
(24:11):
where, instead of like thenatural environment around us,
providing these moral lessons,we're learning about beings like
Slenderman and the Rake, andwe're learning about the Russian
sleep experiment and the backrooms, and it's become its own
new living breathing folklore.
And, honestly, that's all Ihave for that.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Well, it's definitely an interesting topic to discuss
, right, and you and I know that.
You know we've been kind ofdoing our own little experiments
with some things that we can'texplain, right, right, you know
(24:53):
it.
Just, I think there are thingsin this universe that can't be
weighed or measured, and peoplehave experiences.
And how do you prove ordisprove somebody had disprove,
somebody had an experience andit's not real?
(25:13):
You know, like, how do youprove?
And it's the same thing with,like, ghost hunting, right,
we've spent some time talkingabout that.
You know, somebody says thatthey had this experience where
they felt something touch them.
You know, yank, yank their hair, they could smell things, they
(25:36):
could hear disembodied voices,and how do you prove that that
didn't happen?
And how do you prove that itdid happen?
You know you have nothing to goon, but the real, lived
experience of that person that'stelling you.
I know that this happened to me.
Now, there are times, yes, youknow, people have been able to
(25:57):
catch things on camera and photoevidence, but there are still
these experiences that humanbeings have and you can't
quantify it, you can't wrap itup into a pretty little box and
say, aha, this is exactly whatthis is because everyone's going
(26:20):
to have a theory right.
People are going to look atthings from a very scientific
point of view and then otherpeople are going to say that you
know, we can't rely on science,we have to go on like tangible
evidence yeah, and, and, and soto ground this also in reality.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Think of, like anytime there's ever been an
incident with witnesses, policeare going getting everybody's
point of view and perspective.
They interview 20 people.
They could all have a differentstory about what happened.
Are any of them lying or isthat what they saw?
Is that their reality, whatactually happened?
And even the court caseafterward, like even the jury
(27:08):
process, like we can try toprove what happened.
But really court case afterward, like even the jury process,
like we can try to prove whathappened, but really it's.
He said.
She said it's definitelyinteresting and it's interesting
that people can read somethinglike this on the internet, like
Slender man and something likeyou know, an attempted murder
can happen.
It makes it very real, it makesit tangible.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Right, and, and you know, to kind of go back to what
we were talking about with,with Slenderman, is it?
Is it?
Is it a shared psychosis?
Because I mean you still?
Is it a shared psychosisBecause I mean you still?
There are people who firmlybelieve that that is real, that
(27:57):
they've seen it, that they'vehad encounters.
And is it enough for acollective, for a mind
collective, to bring somethingto life, into the universe, into
reality?
I mean, reality is a ficklething, right, I mean one
(28:19):
person's reality is yeah, I mean, is it?
is it a shared psychosis?
Is it something that's reallyhappening?
You know, is it schizophrenia,Like what is it?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Well, you have to wonder if something like
psychosis or schizophrenia caninvalidate an experience Like
they believe this to be true.
To them, this is very real.
Does that make it real?
Speaker 3 (28:46):
I don't know.
I mean, I think that's a lot ofthe questions that we're
grappling with in theexperiments and the things that
we've been kind of delving into.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Another creepypasta I didn't go into was the rake,
and that's because we kind oftouched on it in the Windigo
episode Right another being thatwas created.
It was like a forum where theywere trying to invent a new
monster.
And they created this thingwith like big, gaping eyes, like
(29:18):
a weird disformed naked baldbody and it was like a harbinger
of doom, much like mothman andinjured cold, the men in black
slenderman, and it's somethingthat kind of took on a folklore
of its own where people wouldsee it and it would be like a
premonition of something badthat was going to happen or like
(29:39):
a death was about to occur andpeople would be visited by this
thing in the night and it wouldwhisper them things.
And there are plenty of peoplewho have recorded and actually
gotten whispers and say is therake?
It's visited me and it lendsinto that as well.
Like can something that youinvent online with a bunch of
your idiot friends become anactual entity that chases you
(30:01):
down?
Speaker 3 (30:06):
it's an interesting question.
I mean, I hope some of thethings that you know people and
their idiot friends talk aboutdo not come to fruition.
But I don't know.
It's just that question Ifenough people believe, does it
make it true?
You know?
Speaker 2 (30:27):
If there was a creepypasta about the Black
Curtain Club, what do you thinkthe Black Curtain Club
creepypasta would be?
Because I'm immediatelythinking it's some kind of
secret society.
But what does the secretsociety do?
I feel like they do shoddydetective work and instead of
(30:48):
going with our gut, we're goingwith our hearts and evidence and
facts there, like a loose linebetween them and like things
that we're just making upbecause they make sense to us.
We're going off of vibes alone.
We're like connoisseurs ofvibes.
It's a very selective society.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
It's really a cult right.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah, it's a cult, a commune.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
I mean, we already have a secret yurt, right.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Yeah, a secret yurt, mystical friends Right.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
We have our own lore.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
With.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Becca being a Wendigo .
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Yeah, becca, coming on to a weird history episode
and dropping some disturbingfacts you are a wendigo, yeah I,
I I'm just trying to think of,like what, what are I mean we
already have so much lore, Imean just in the conversations
(31:51):
that we have.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Um are we our own women in black?
Are we like showing up to thescene where mystical, weird, odd
shit has happened and we'relike flashing a badge that
doesn't really mean anything?
Speaker 3 (32:03):
yes, yes, from here, boys.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Yes, get the.
Get the paddy wagon out of here.
We have no use for you.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Where you got ghosts and shit.
The one that breaks the caseevery time is ChatGPT.
Yeah, we're just chasing eachother around in circles.
Ai is our voice of reason.
It's like Charlie withCharlie's Angels.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
I mean, there's three of us, so I'm asking questions
like what quantifies a murder?
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
If you were a rake, where would you be hiding right
now?
Where can we find you?
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Under what log?
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Do you?
Speaker 3 (33:09):
think that the rake and Slenderman are new cryptids.
I, I do.
I think they are the new, thenew cryptids, and it's
interesting because I find that,like it's, it's a weird thing
because the rake is very muchbeing associated with Appalachia
(33:29):
and I don't know, like where.
I need to do a deep dive on therake because I, honestly, I
know a little bit about this.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
So it started in the northeast, like from Maine all
the way down New England.
It's been seen aroundAppalachia, but it's also been
seen like in the Midwest, likeit's one of those things where,
once it came out, people werebringing out accounts that
existed before the rake was athing.
So it's hard to get like whatis the facts and what is the
(34:05):
evidence?
Like is this just somethingthat has been around for a very
long time and we accidentallyinvented something that was
already a thing?
It happens all the time, right?
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Right, and like a lot of the other cryptids, are they
just born of the same thing,but just in a different time.
You know, like let's talk aboutthe squonk.
I mean, I don't believe thesquonk exists.
That's blasphemy I, I know, asmuch as I shut your mouth, as
(34:37):
much as I dearly love the poorlittle squonk, but that's,
that's a that comes from afolklore, you know, but it's
kind of been breathed intoreality.
There are people who thinkthat's real.
We have squonk festivals, youknow.
So is it the same in 100 yearsfrom now?
(35:01):
People are going to trulybelieve in the rake, truly
believe in the Slenderman, andthey're doing their own
investigations, like right youknow?
Speaker 2 (35:16):
imagine archaeologists digging up
creepypastas in like 300 yearsright, you know it's.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
It's like you know, we dig up, you know the, the
book of the dead, or you knowsome kind of artifact from
ancient egypt, and we're like,oh, this is what this means and
this is this, this is what thesepeople believed.
Oh my God, they're 300 yearsfrom now.
(35:42):
They're just saying, like thesepeople believe.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Oh my God.
So I was looking at likeEgyptian artifacts, with Anubis
and the bird guy, the bird guy,yeah, the bird guy.
We could easily look at thatand think, well, these people
thought this thing actuallyexisted, which I mean they did.
That was their deity, right,but is personifying the elements
(36:08):
into a deity different thanpersonifying horror elements
into a rake and unleashing thaton the world, like once you've
given something a name, thatkind of makes it real right?
Speaker 3 (36:22):
You're asking the wrong person that because I'm in
my own, you know, hole of hell.
Yeah, I don't know.
It's all fascinating and it's alot to think about.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
And to the same things like the fear of
isolation, confusion, losingyour grip on reality, time
seeming to like turn against you, and something as natural as
sleep like becoming this wholething, like this own
psychological torture.
It's very interesting.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
I mean I will say not sleeping for like four or five
days.
That is psychological torture.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
The longest I've ever been awake is a week, and I
cannot express to you howinhuman I felt.
From like day four on.
I felt like a half being, likeI was still aware of everything
going on around me, but it waslike I was forced into this
autopilot right.
I'm just like doing and saying,but there's no real thought
behind it and I'm just existinguntil I crash out.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Right, right, that is all and I'm just existing until
I crash out.
Right, that is all.
That is all I hear.
Your overlord is calling forsustenance.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
I mean this was a short one, but I feel like it
was still a good job.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Yeah, no, yeah, it was good Good.
So, I'll close this out.
Yeah, I'll mute myself, so thekid doesn't, and I'll come back
for the bye, okay?
Well, there you have it, folks.
Uh, I hope you enjoyed thisepisode where Becca unloaded a
(38:11):
lot of interesting thoughts intothe ether.
Please be sure that, oh God,I'm so bad at this.
Hang on, just fucking stand by.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
I'm fucking a rookie over here.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
I know I'm so bad at the intros and outros.
I'm just not good at podcasting.
Fuck it.
No, you are so good atpodcasting, angie, I need to
quit?
Speaker 2 (38:39):
No, don't quit podcasting, okay.
If you think that Angie shouldkeep podcasting for the rest of
her life with her best buddiesBecca and Brooke, go ahead and
comment down below.
Make sure you rate andsubscribe wherever you listen to
podcasts and remember thatevery single Monday, against our
(39:00):
better judgment, we'rereleasing a new episode, whether
you like it or not, and wedon't even care if you listen to
it.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Yeah, we've sailed.
We've sailed right past evengiving any kind of flying fucks,
whether you listen to us or not.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Share this with a friend or fucking don't.
I don't give a shit, but I'mgoing to keep making it until my
body is dead.
This has been the Creepypastaepisode of the Black Cartoon
Club podcast.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
You all have a wonderful day and we're out.
Bye, bye.
Oh my god, stop this fuckingthing.
I'm out.
Before we begin today's episode of the Black
Curtain Club podcast, we wouldlike to share a quick disclaimer
.
The views, opinions andstatements expressed by the
hosts and guests on this podcastare their own personal views
and are provided in their ownpersonal capacity.
All content is editorial,opinion-based and intended for
(00:41):
entertainment purposes only.
Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hey, Angie, do you feel like recording an episode?
Speaker 3 (00:52):
I do.
Okay, I mean I'm here, whatelse am I going to do?
Speaker 2 (01:02):
All right.
Hello everybody, Thank you forjoining us for another episode
of the Black Curtain Clubpodcast.
This one is definitely going tokeep you up at night.
We are sharing our favoritechunk of internet pop culture,
with a deep dive into some ofthe most notorious creepypastas
the forums have to offer.
My name is Becca and I'm joinedby my co-host, Angie.
(01:24):
How are you doing'm?
Speaker 3 (01:26):
good, happy to be here.
Speaker 2 (01:28):
Can't wait to listen to your stories do you have a
base of knowledge forcreepypastas?
Speaker 3 (01:36):
yeah, I mean other than they're just these scary
fictional stories on theinternet.
But some people think that theymay not be fictional, that
there's some truth running tothem.
That's basically all I know.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
That's pretty much everybody's base level.
I feel like anyone who spentany time on the internet
remembers the time their friendtraumatized them with some
snippet of cyber folklore passeddown.
So sites like 4chan and Wattpad, I feel like, were the most
prevalent, and in this episodeI'm going to be sharing a few of
my personal favorites and a fewof the newer ones that have
(02:13):
come out recently.
So, to get us started, we'regoing to talk about Slenderman.
Do you know who Slenderman is?
Speaker 3 (02:21):
Oh my god.
Yes, I love the Slenderman.
What do you?
Speaker 2 (02:25):
know about him.
Speaker 3 (02:28):
That he's a man and he's very slender Okay perfect.
Speaker 2 (02:33):
So I have here, basically, his birth certificate
.
What so?
In 2009, on a website known asSomething Awful, a weekly
Photoshop contest hosted everyFriday received a submission by
a longtime user named VictorSurge, whose real name would
(02:54):
later be revealed as EricKnudsen, and his submission to
the Paranormal Images contestconsisted of two black and white
pictures depicting the Slenderman surrounded by children and
supposed testimonies fromwitnesses.
Slender man was posted on pagethree of the Something Awful
forums on June 10th in 2009.
(03:14):
So this is how long he's beenaround.
This is literally where hestarted.
It was a Photoshop contest, wow, and this person won.
Yeah, and it was literally.
It's the two pictures you'veseen.
It's literally just children ona playground, slender man in
the background, another onewhere it's just Slender man by
some trees, or Slender man inthe woods right, it's just
Photoshop, but it became thislike phenomenon overnight and it
(03:38):
kind of helps give birth tocreepypastas as a whole.
So he's described as a tall,slim figner Figner Figure.
Speaker 3 (03:48):
No, no, no, no.
I want to go back.
It's figner From here on out.
It's figner.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
Yeah, tall, slim figner, no discernible facial
features.
His face is literally blank, sohis little arms and legs are
long and gangly.
He's usually said to be wearinga tailored black suit, and most
pictures you can find of thecreature highlight the naturally
, or the unnaturally, rathertall frame and eerie appearance
(04:15):
of him.
It's a very uncanny valley,right.
It's supposed to be unsettlingmore than it is like outwardly
scary.
Hmm, more than it is likeoutwardly scary.
So nearly all of the storiesabout Slenderman involve
kidnapping, stalking,brainwashing of both adults and
children, but most of thestories involve kids.
So where it gets crazy is theabilities he's supposed to have.
(04:40):
So I want to remind everybodythat this is somebody that was.
This is a creature invented fora Photoshop contest.
This is not a real being.
Slender man does not exist.
If you believe in Slender manand think he is coming for you,
you need to reflect a little bit, because this is a fake entity
that was literally posted onlinein 2009.
He's not some eldritch being.
(05:01):
So the abilities he is supposedto have?
He has a debilitating effectthat causes delirium and
hysteria with his victims.
He is known not only to prolongdeath, but to resurrect the
deceased.
He's considered aninterdimensional being granting
(05:32):
him the ability to manipulatespace and time, create custom
worlds and even causedimensional bleeding, which I
had to Google.
That this basically means hecan control the fabric of the
universe, bending reality to hiswill, but he also might have
tentacles.
Speaker 3 (05:45):
Sorry, but what Right ?
I'm sorry you got me with thetentacles, I wasn't.
I'm like trying to get a mentalpicture of this thing and I'm
thinking well, like in aedversion of indrid cold and like
(06:05):
the men in black, but then youhit me with tentacles and I'm
just like I fell apart I feellike indrid cold and men in
black were definitelyinspirations behind tim, even if
nobody is going to come rightout and say it.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
Yeah, I'm glad you did so.
With slenderman, there are whatwe consider the big three and
these are the major online videoseries that capture kind of
what the story of this cybercryptid is.
That leads into the creepypasta, and essentially they do it in
either online video series orthey do it in game formats and
(06:41):
the way he's been portrayed.
So he's been in various webseries and video projects.
One was called marble hornets.
Um everyman hybrid did one andtribe 12.
Tribe 12 did one and it used afound footage like blair witch
style augmented reality game toget like the forums involved.
(07:02):
So instead of it just beinglike oh, supposedly, it
supposedly da-da-da-da, it wasliterally this game that the
people set up that got thecomment sections involved in
solving a story together acrossthe country and even the world.
They would find clues andletters and there were little
signs to look for out in theworld.
(07:23):
There would be coordinateswhere people could find
information.
It became this.
It was like Pokemon Go.
Before Pokemon Go was a thing,slenderman had a Pokemon
Go-esque clout, right.
That's fascinating, and to saythat it had a cult following is
really an understatement.
So since its conception, it'sbeen tied to some scandals,
(07:48):
murder and cults.
There are two cases of innocentparties being attacked with
bladed weapons, with theperpetrators claiming the fake
internet monster told them to doit.
I don't like to go into thesestories.
When I talk about Slender manonly because I don't think that
they deserve notoriety for whatthey've done.
(08:08):
I think that it's kind of it'salmost like shameful to bring
them up and to like glorify whatthey've done for the sake of
telling this story.
So I'll just say like yeah,people have been attacked.
People believe in this thing.
They think it's an actualentity because it was something
that was created on the internet.
And that's what leads me intothe whole folklore behind it.
This is modern day folklore, doyou think so?
Speaker 3 (08:32):
Yeah, I mean it definitely has all the hallmarks
of folklore, but maybe I'mgetting too philosophical here,
but it seems like a lot oflegends in the past were also
folklore, but it's almost likethe folklore itself breathe.
It breathe an entity into being.
And I'm just wondering, like,is this a phenomenon where this,
(08:54):
this modern day folklore hasbreathed this entity into being?
I don't know, maybe I'm too,and that's where no, it's the
ether with this, and that'swhere no, it's absolutely true.
Speaker 2 (09:05):
It reminds me of Men in Black and Injured Cold
Mothman, like you said, likethey are very similar if you
look at their base descriptionsand the things that they're
supposed to do.
They're these like harbingersor catalysts, and it's
interesting that it's taken thisnew form in like a cyber way.
Speaker 1 (09:24):
Mm-hmm.
New form in like a cyber way.
Speaker 2 (09:26):
All right, so that is basically Blender man.
It's just a bunch of videogames, a couple of online
stories and people believingthat it's true.
The Russian sleep experiment iswhere I want to go next.
Speaker 3 (09:40):
Oh, I love it.
I, Becca, I did not know youwere going to be talking about
this and I absolutely love thisstory so much.
So go ahead.
Speaker 2 (09:52):
I'm like so excited it online when creepypastas were
at their biggest.
It is a story that allegedlycomes from a top secret
Soviet-era military experiment.
It supposedly involved fiveRussian political prisoners
(10:16):
being placed in a sleepdeprivation chamber as part of
an experiment to test the limitsof human endurance.
The participants were isolated,given no sleep and continuously
exposed to gas while beingmonitored by scientists.
So this stretched on for a longperiod of time and as the days
(10:37):
go by, they start to see thetest subjects descend into
madness.
And it starts with talking tothemselves.
They would not really be ableto understand what they were
saying, and it starts withtalking to themselves.
They would not really be ableto understand what they were
saying, but it was disturbingwhisperings and they couldn't
figure out who they were talkingto and they weren't talking to
each other.
As the days go by, the descentinto madness really amps up.
(10:59):
It gets to the point where theyare taking extreme measures to
stay awake.
They've become fearful of sleepitself because of the gas it's
induced like this paranoia.
They don't trust each other.
They don't trust the scientists.
They are actively blocking thepeepholes that the scientists
have into the chamber.
They're trying to block up theintercom where the scientists
(11:20):
can talk to them.
They are smearing feces allover the windows so that they
can't see in, right?
Oh my god, oh my god.
A couple more days go by andthings get quiet and it's very
disturbing.
They can't see in, they don'tknow what's going on, they're
(11:42):
not even whispering tothemselves anymore, it's just
quiet.
They can read their vital signsand they can see that they are
still alive, they're stillrespirating normally, and it's
just quiet.
So they just let it go.
And then another day goes byand screaming starts, and this
is obviously concerning.
(12:02):
They can't see what's going on,so they decide a look inside is
the best thing to do, and whenthey open the door, what they
see is haunting.
Essentially, the subjects hadstarted to tear themselves to
pieces.
To stay awake, like once thetire became too much to bear,
(12:28):
they were literally harmingthemselves, eating themselves.
The floor there was likestanding water, blood, urine,
feces, like they were not ingood shape.
They all had this like glassyexpression.
They were all still alive andbreathing as if they weren't in
pain.
Nobody was screaming anymore,nobody was whispering, they were
(12:49):
just happily awake.
Oh, so at some point they decideto turn the gas off and the
people don't want this to happen.
They are urging the scientiststo leave the gas on.
They don't want to go to sleep.
They try to treat these peopleand they won't let the people
touch them.
So it becomes this thing wherethey have to just stop the
(13:11):
experiment, get everybody out.
They're gonna patch everybodyup and see what they can do.
A couple of them died in thisprocess and one that they were
able to operate on, according tothe story, begged them not to
put it under Like it was rippedopen still very much alive and
(13:31):
begging them to perform while itwas still awake so it wouldn't
sleep.
Speaker 3 (13:35):
Oh no.
Speaker 2 (13:36):
And so they do what they could and eventually it
just gets to the point where thepatient's heart gives out and
it goes to sleep and that's itit died, it died.
It's a very disturbing story.
It is blurring the linesbetween fact and fiction,
(13:58):
obviously, and it I think it'svery metaphorical.
I definitely don't believe thisis true.
A lot of people do believe thisis true.
What do you think about thisstory?
Speaker 3 (14:17):
I mean, I don't know.
I think that this could have aribbon of truth, because we know
governments do all kinds ofexperiments, you know, and some
of them have been horrific.
So is it within the realm ofpossibility that you know this,
(14:37):
a government would do somethinglike this?
Do like a sleep experiment toyou maybe, but it's, I think
it's.
If it did really happen.
I think this is just one ofthose things where, like you
said, the lines blur betweenfact and fiction, and could
(14:58):
there be a truth and thensomebody just ran with it and
made you know another story.
Speaker 2 (15:04):
You can find this story online and there are a few
things that the supposedpatients say while they're in
this state about why they'rescared of falling asleep and how
humans have forgotten to fearthe things in the night because
they're sleeping through thenight.
But when you have thisawareness all the time, you
start to hear it.
(15:25):
It's a very scary story.
It's a very scary story.
It's a very scary story Iwanted to bring up as an
insomniac.
This story, I think, hit medifferently because I am
somebody who can stay awake fordays at a time and no matter how
tired I get.
It's like, unless my body isready to shut down and go to
(15:47):
sleep, I'm not going to be goingto sleep.
So it's definitely interestingto read something like this.
Speaker 3 (15:53):
Well, yeah, and you know that, you know I've had my
bounce with insomnia too andyeah, like day three, day four
of no sleeping, like you do feellike you're unraveling a little
bit, you know it's, it'sdefinitely, it's definitely not
(16:13):
a pleasant experience to not beable to sleep and the human
brain is a very fragile thing.
Speaker 2 (16:20):
like the human mind, soundness can be dipped one way
or the other by lack of sleep soquickly, and there is like a
point where it almost feels likeyou don't exist in your own
body, like you're separate fromthe whole world going on around
you and times moving differently.
Speaker 3 (16:35):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (16:35):
I can see where a story like this has legs.
I can absolutely see Russiaback in the Soviet era pulling
some stuff like this, yeah, andbeing too scared to tell
everybody until now when nobodywould believe it.
Speaker 3 (16:49):
And it's interesting because I feel like there are
different iterations of thestory, because I've seen this
story where the patients turninto like they have these
disfigurations and they turninto like these monstrous beings
, almost they, you know.
(17:09):
So I I think yeah it's, it'slike another one of these modern
folklore kind of stories.
But again, you know, you alwayshave to question like where's
the thread of truth?
I mean, they always say, whatis it like?
Um, what's the saying?
(17:32):
Uh, truth is greater thanfiction, or something like that
or the truth is stranger thanfiction truth is stranger than
fiction, right?
so I don't know, right, it'sinteresting.
Speaker 2 (17:47):
The next one I want to go into is one of the newest.
Speaker 3 (17:51):
And this is.
Speaker 2 (17:52):
The Backrooms.
Speaker 3 (17:53):
Oh yeah, oh my God, the Backrooms, it's so popular.
Speaker 2 (17:57):
Yeah, I didn't know much about this.
I still find it it's very vagueand it's very up to
interpretation what theBackrooms are and what it means
for different people Essentially, interpretation what the
backrooms are and what it meansfor different people.
Essentially, as a lot of thingsdo.
It began as a meme originatingon 4chan in 2019.
(18:18):
And when I was researching this, I realized that in 2019, 4chan
still existed, so that was newto me.
Speaker 3 (18:24):
Yeah, I thought that went away a long time ago, but
yay, it's still around.
Speaker 2 (18:30):
What the hell do I know?
So the idea is that if younoclip or glitch through reality
in the wrong place, you mightend up in a seemingly endless
maze of dilapidated rooms with aconstant hum.
The rooms are sterile,unwelcoming and disorienting.
(18:53):
The goal is to escape withoutsuccumbing to exhaustion or
something far worse.
There are various levels andit's very Labyrinthian in nature
, right?
It reminds me a lot of Greekmythology, where they're going
through all of these trials andtribulations in the Labyrinth,
trying to get out or ascend towhatever level they're trying to
(19:14):
get to.
And these back rooms do havevarious levels and they have
their own set of terrifyingrules.
And it very much reminds me of adreamscape where it'll seem
like reality.
There's something uncanny valleyabout it, where there's just
the sense of wrongness or thisisn't right.
It feels like you're in somekind of like parallel,
perpendicular dimension whereeverything's just kind of off
(19:35):
and you have to figure out whatit's trying to tell you to get
through it.
So from bland monotony it getsincreasingly hostile and
elements get a lot morehorrifying the further down, and
the lore around these spacescontinues to evolve, and the
underlying themes are isolationand the overwhelming theory that
(19:59):
you're not alone or theoverwhelming feeling you're not
alone.
They've recently taken on kindof a life of their own.
A lot of people were writingand creating and expanding on
the lore, taking out creepyscenarios and creating virtual
experiences based on the concept.
So, with virtual reality gamingand being able to design your
own games on websites like Steam, everybody has kind of taken
(20:22):
this and ran with it and it'sbecome kind of like a playground
in a sandbox that everybody hastheir hands in.
And it's this constantlyevolving lore of liminal spaces
and I know that you and Irecently have dipped our toe
into liminal spaces and I justfound this very fascinating.
Speaker 3 (20:41):
Yes, yes, we yes, liminal space.
As soon as you said liminalspaces, I was like, well, yeah,
here we go.
Speaker 2 (20:49):
What do you think about it so far?
Speaker 3 (20:51):
Well, I mean, I think it's interesting.
I think there definitely is acreepy factor here.
I know that there are likevideo games and all kinds of
things that are devoted tobackrooms.
People make videos like you cansee them on tiktok, you can see
(21:12):
them on all over social mediaabout like in it.
In it it's like real, likepeople, yeah, and I think
there's like this subsect ofpeople that believe that back
rooms really do exist.
Speaker 2 (21:31):
It lends to the theory that we're living in a
simulation, doesn't it?
Speaker 3 (21:38):
Yes.
Speaker 2 (21:40):
Yes, and I find that it also kind of ties into lucid
dreaming.
So, as far as the simulationgoes, the thing I always think
about when people bring upsimulations is the way.
Grand Theft Auto 5 is a perfectsimulation of a simulation.
What exists in the frame foryou is all that exists.
(22:00):
To load a whole new chunk ofthe world with endless
possibilities and randompatterns that will throw random
things at you.
With the NPCs or emissions, youcan do the cars that are loading
, and there is a theory outthere that our lives are a lot
like that, with our perspectivebeing the only chunk that's
(22:22):
loaded at the time and as we'removing forward, it all kind of
blends into this pattern aroundyou and it's a very personalized
experience if people don'trealize it.
And the other thing that itmakes me think of is lucid
dreaming, and this is the theorythat people can take control
over their own dreams and thiscan lead to things like astral
(22:45):
projection.
These are all theories.
They are things that are veryhard to prove, but they're very
fun to talk about and I wantedto know if you've ever had a
lucid dream.
Speaker 3 (22:56):
I have had a lucid dream before and I can tell you
that, waking up from that luciddream, like I can think about it
right now and it felt soincredibly real To me.
There was no difference in thatdream and me sitting here with
headphones on and recording this.
(23:18):
I can touch things, I can smell.
All your senses are alive.
They were just as real andalive in that lucid dream.
Speaker 2 (23:31):
And it really bent your brain.
Speaker 3 (23:34):
It really does.
Speaker 2 (23:35):
Yeah, I've had a few and I've also had dreams where
it almost feels like I'm in aliminal space.
So that's why the back roomsjumped out at me, because it was
like a sensation I didn't havea word for until I started
looking into the back rooms andI found out what a liminal space
was and learning lessons to allthe way here in the future,
(24:11):
where, instead of like thenatural environment around us,
providing these moral lessons,we're learning about beings like
Slenderman and the Rake, andwe're learning about the Russian
sleep experiment and the backrooms, and it's become its own
new living breathing folklore.
And, honestly, that's all Ihave for that.
Speaker 3 (24:31):
Well, it's definitely an interesting topic to discuss
, right, and you and I know that.
You know we've been kind ofdoing our own little experiments
with some things that we can'texplain, right, right, you know
(24:53):
it.
Just, I think there are thingsin this universe that can't be
weighed or measured, and peoplehave experiences.
And how do you prove ordisprove somebody had disprove,
somebody had an experience andit's not real?
(25:13):
You know, like, how do youprove?
And it's the same thing with,like, ghost hunting, right,
we've spent some time talkingabout that.
You know, somebody says thatthey had this experience where
they felt something touch them.
You know, yank, yank their hair, they could smell things, they
(25:36):
could hear disembodied voices,and how do you prove that that
didn't happen?
And how do you prove that itdid happen?
You know you have nothing to goon, but the real, lived
experience of that person that'stelling you.
I know that this happened to me.
Now, there are times, yes, youknow, people have been able to
(25:57):
catch things on camera and photoevidence, but there are still
these experiences that humanbeings have and you can't
quantify it, you can't wrap itup into a pretty little box and
say, aha, this is exactly whatthis is because everyone's going
(26:20):
to have a theory right.
People are going to look atthings from a very scientific
point of view and then otherpeople are going to say that you
know, we can't rely on science,we have to go on like tangible
evidence yeah, and, and, and soto ground this also in reality.
Speaker 2 (26:46):
Think of, like anytime there's ever been an
incident with witnesses, policeare going getting everybody's
point of view and perspective.
They interview 20 people.
They could all have a differentstory about what happened.
Are any of them lying or isthat what they saw?
Is that their reality, whatactually happened?
And even the court caseafterward, like even the jury
(27:08):
process, like we can try toprove what happened.
But really court case afterward, like even the jury process,
like we can try to prove whathappened, but really it's.
He said.
She said it's definitelyinteresting and it's interesting
that people can read somethinglike this on the internet, like
Slender man and something likeyou know, an attempted murder
can happen.
It makes it very real, it makesit tangible.
Speaker 3 (27:34):
Right, and, and you know, to kind of go back to what
we were talking about with,with Slenderman, is it?
Is it?
Is it a shared psychosis?
Because I mean you still?
Is it a shared psychosisBecause I mean you still?
There are people who firmlybelieve that that is real, that
(27:57):
they've seen it, that they'vehad encounters.
And is it enough for acollective, for a mind
collective, to bring somethingto life, into the universe, into
reality?
I mean, reality is a ficklething, right, I mean one
(28:19):
person's reality is yeah, I mean, is it?
is it a shared psychosis?
Is it something that's reallyhappening?
You know, is it schizophrenia,Like what is it?
Speaker 2 (28:33):
Well, you have to wonder if something like
psychosis or schizophrenia caninvalidate an experience Like
they believe this to be true.
To them, this is very real.
Does that make it real?
Speaker 3 (28:46):
I don't know.
I mean, I think that's a lot ofthe questions that we're
grappling with in theexperiments and the things that
we've been kind of delving into.
Speaker 2 (28:58):
Another creepypasta I didn't go into was the rake,
and that's because we kind oftouched on it in the Windigo
episode Right another being thatwas created.
It was like a forum where theywere trying to invent a new
monster.
And they created this thingwith like big, gaping eyes, like
(29:18):
a weird disformed naked baldbody and it was like a harbinger
of doom, much like mothman andinjured cold, the men in black
slenderman, and it's somethingthat kind of took on a folklore
of its own where people wouldsee it and it would be like a
premonition of something badthat was going to happen or like
(29:39):
a death was about to occur andpeople would be visited by this
thing in the night and it wouldwhisper them things.
And there are plenty of peoplewho have recorded and actually
gotten whispers and say is therake?
It's visited me and it lendsinto that as well.
Like can something that youinvent online with a bunch of
your idiot friends become anactual entity that chases you
(30:01):
down?
Speaker 3 (30:06):
it's an interesting question.
I mean, I hope some of thethings that you know people and
their idiot friends talk aboutdo not come to fruition.
But I don't know.
It's just that question Ifenough people believe, does it
make it true?
You know?
Speaker 2 (30:27):
If there was a creepypasta about the Black
Curtain Club, what do you thinkthe Black Curtain Club
creepypasta would be?
Because I'm immediatelythinking it's some kind of
secret society.
But what does the secretsociety do?
I feel like they do shoddydetective work and instead of
(30:48):
going with our gut, we're goingwith our hearts and evidence and
facts there, like a loose linebetween them and like things
that we're just making upbecause they make sense to us.
We're going off of vibes alone.
We're like connoisseurs ofvibes.
It's a very selective society.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
It's really a cult right.
Speaker 2 (31:09):
Yeah, it's a cult, a commune.
Speaker 3 (31:12):
I mean, we already have a secret yurt, right.
Speaker 2 (31:17):
Yeah, a secret yurt, mystical friends Right.
Speaker 3 (31:23):
We have our own lore.
Speaker 2 (31:24):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (31:24):
With.
Speaker 2 (31:25):
Becca being a Wendigo .
Speaker 3 (31:26):
Yeah, becca, coming on to a weird history episode
and dropping some disturbingfacts you are a wendigo, yeah I,
I I'm just trying to think of,like what, what are I mean we
already have so much lore, Imean just in the conversations
(31:51):
that we have.
Speaker 2 (31:52):
Um are we our own women in black?
Are we like showing up to thescene where mystical, weird, odd
shit has happened and we'relike flashing a badge that
doesn't really mean anything?
Speaker 3 (32:03):
yes, yes, from here, boys.
Speaker 2 (32:06):
Yes, get the.
Get the paddy wagon out of here.
We have no use for you.
Speaker 3 (32:20):
Where you got ghosts and shit.
The one that breaks the caseevery time is ChatGPT.
Yeah, we're just chasing eachother around in circles.
Ai is our voice of reason.
It's like Charlie withCharlie's Angels.
Speaker 2 (32:44):
I mean, there's three of us, so I'm asking questions
like what quantifies a murder?
Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 3 (32:56):
If you were a rake, where would you be hiding right
now?
Where can we find you?
Speaker 1 (33:01):
Under what log?
Speaker 2 (33:09):
Do you?
Speaker 3 (33:09):
think that the rake and Slenderman are new cryptids.
I, I do.
I think they are the new, thenew cryptids, and it's
interesting because I find that,like it's, it's a weird thing
because the rake is very muchbeing associated with Appalachia
(33:29):
and I don't know, like where.
I need to do a deep dive on therake because I, honestly, I
know a little bit about this.
Speaker 2 (33:42):
So it started in the northeast, like from Maine all
the way down New England.
It's been seen aroundAppalachia, but it's also been
seen like in the Midwest, likeit's one of those things where,
once it came out, people werebringing out accounts that
existed before the rake was athing.
So it's hard to get like whatis the facts and what is the
(34:05):
evidence?
Like is this just somethingthat has been around for a very
long time and we accidentallyinvented something that was
already a thing?
It happens all the time, right?
Speaker 3 (34:15):
Right, and like a lot of the other cryptids, are they
just born of the same thing,but just in a different time.
You know, like let's talk aboutthe squonk.
I mean, I don't believe thesquonk exists.
That's blasphemy I, I know, asmuch as I shut your mouth, as
(34:37):
much as I dearly love the poorlittle squonk, but that's,
that's a that comes from afolklore, you know, but it's
kind of been breathed intoreality.
There are people who thinkthat's real.
We have squonk festivals, youknow.
So is it the same in 100 yearsfrom now?
(35:01):
People are going to trulybelieve in the rake, truly
believe in the Slenderman, andthey're doing their own
investigations, like right youknow?
Speaker 2 (35:16):
imagine archaeologists digging up
creepypastas in like 300 yearsright, you know it's.
Speaker 3 (35:21):
It's like you know, we dig up, you know the, the
book of the dead, or you knowsome kind of artifact from
ancient egypt, and we're like,oh, this is what this means and
this is this, this is what thesepeople believed.
Oh my God, they're 300 yearsfrom now.
(35:42):
They're just saying, like thesepeople believe.
Speaker 2 (35:44):
Oh my God.
So I was looking at likeEgyptian artifacts, with Anubis
and the bird guy, the bird guy,yeah, the bird guy.
We could easily look at thatand think, well, these people
thought this thing actuallyexisted, which I mean they did.
That was their deity, right,but is personifying the elements
(36:08):
into a deity different thanpersonifying horror elements
into a rake and unleashing thaton the world, like once you've
given something a name, thatkind of makes it real right?
Speaker 3 (36:22):
You're asking the wrong person that because I'm in
my own, you know, hole of hell.
Yeah, I don't know.
It's all fascinating and it's alot to think about.
Speaker 2 (36:39):
And to the same things like the fear of
isolation, confusion, losingyour grip on reality, time
seeming to like turn against you, and something as natural as
sleep like becoming this wholething, like this own
psychological torture.
It's very interesting.
Speaker 3 (37:00):
I mean I will say not sleeping for like four or five
days.
That is psychological torture.
Speaker 2 (37:06):
The longest I've ever been awake is a week, and I
cannot express to you howinhuman I felt.
From like day four on.
I felt like a half being, likeI was still aware of everything
going on around me, but it waslike I was forced into this
autopilot right.
I'm just like doing and saying,but there's no real thought
behind it and I'm just existinguntil I crash out.
Speaker 3 (37:28):
Right, right, that is all and I'm just existing until
I crash out.
Right, that is all.
That is all I hear.
Your overlord is calling forsustenance.
Speaker 2 (37:44):
I mean this was a short one, but I feel like it
was still a good job.
Speaker 3 (37:48):
Yeah, no, yeah, it was good Good.
So, I'll close this out.
Yeah, I'll mute myself, so thekid doesn't, and I'll come back
for the bye, okay?
Well, there you have it, folks.
Uh, I hope you enjoyed thisepisode where Becca unloaded a
(38:11):
lot of interesting thoughts intothe ether.
Please be sure that, oh God,I'm so bad at this.
Hang on, just fucking stand by.
Speaker 2 (38:25):
I'm fucking a rookie over here.
Speaker 3 (38:27):
I know I'm so bad at the intros and outros.
I'm just not good at podcasting.
Fuck it.
No, you are so good atpodcasting, angie, I need to
quit?
Speaker 2 (38:39):
No, don't quit podcasting, okay.
If you think that Angie shouldkeep podcasting for the rest of
her life with her best buddiesBecca and Brooke, go ahead and
comment down below.
Make sure you rate andsubscribe wherever you listen to
podcasts and remember thatevery single Monday, against our
(39:00):
better judgment, we'rereleasing a new episode, whether
you like it or not, and wedon't even care if you listen to
it.
Speaker 3 (39:07):
Yeah, we've sailed.
We've sailed right past evengiving any kind of flying fucks,
whether you listen to us or not.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
Share this with a friend or fucking don't.
I don't give a shit, but I'mgoing to keep making it until my
body is dead.
This has been the Creepypastaepisode of the Black Cartoon
Club podcast.
Speaker 3 (39:31):
You all have a wonderful day and we're out.
Bye, bye.
Oh my god, stop this fuckingthing.
I'm out.
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