What is a creepypasta? Types, characteristics and examples

The Internet has made things much easier, for better and for worse. In the same way that we can get useful information on how to prepare a recipe or watch videos of cute kittens, we can also shudder with scary stories: creepypastas.

Creepypastas are stories that have become popular in recent years, becoming a highly internalized element in adolescent culture, especially that of geeks, otakus and emos. Let's see what exactly they are and some examples.

• Related article: "The 16 types of fear and their characteristics"

What is a creepypasta?

The word "creepypasta" is a portmanteau of "creepy" (creepy, terrifying in English) and "copy-paste" (copy and paste), referring to the fact that they are comics that are shared on the networks with a simple click. They are horror stories in most of short occasions, although sometimes even books have been made of them, which are shared virally through web pages, emails, messages in messaging applications snapshot...

They are not always written or in the form of a narration, since some creepypastas are presented in the form of images, videos or video games

they are supposedly cursed. There are also creepypastas about supposed final chapters of series that were never released, or lost chapters of children's series that, due to how shady they were, were jealously hidden by their creators to avoid controversies.

Where do they come from?

There are hundreds of creepypastas, so the origins of each of them are very varied. What they do have in common is the origin of the genre. Although the act of telling horror stories is something that is part of human nature, in the form of mythology or in the form of stories to teach children, the creepypasta genre, began to take shape in the late 90s and it was during the 2000s. in which the name was given. The term was coined on the popular website 4chan around 2006.

The first creepypastas were written anonymously, and they were texts that were either routinely published on different web pages or shared by email. Many of the first creepypastas consisted of rituals, personal anecdotes, and legends surrounding video games, television series, or cursed images. The first creepypastas had to have credibility and realism as essential elements, although, of course, incorporating something supernatural or gloomy.

After the term appeared on 4chan, during the late 2000s and in the following decade the genre took a more defined form, gaining enormous popularity and even influencing beyond the Internet. In 2008 Creepypasta.com was created, the great reference web of the genre, where not only the most famous creepypastas were shared, but also users could share their own anecdotes, serving as a kind of creepy mega-forum. Two years later, Creepypasta Wiki, the Wikipedia of the genre, and r/NoSleep, the reference Reddit forum, would take shape.

types of creepypasta

Although there is no systematic classification of creepypastas, it is possible to include the comics in different types, according to what is the main element or the context that causes fear.

1. Urban legends

The narrator tells a scary legend, a story about a strange event. It can be something that happened to the narrator himself or something that happened to a friend of a friend of a friend, following the formula of many creepypastas.

2. diaries

The story is told as if it were the pages of a personal diary, following a chronological order or not. This adds more realism and makes the reader put himself in the shoes of someone who has experienced the supposed events.

3. rituals

the rituals They usually come in the form of instructions, either by email or in an image shared on networks such as Facebook and Twitter. They usually indicate that specific actions must be taken to avoid a mysterious evil and, as a rule, In general, they indicate something like "share it with 10 acquaintances or tonight the man from the coat".

4. lost episodes

Lost episodes are quite recurring and, in fact, almost no series is spared from having an alleged episode that never saw the light of day. These are chapters that, due to how shady they were, the creators decided not to broadcast, especially if the series is for children.

The curious thing about this type of creepypasta is that they are actually the most credible. There are many series that were attributed lost episodes that were creepypastas that actually existed and, over time, came to light.

We have some examples of this in series such as: The Rugrats, Dexter's Laboratory, Pokémon and other series that are yet to be confirmed such as SpongeBob, The Simpsons, Catdog...

5. hidden videos

Similar to the previous case, only that the hidden videos refer to videos posted on platforms like Youtube or Dailymotion that were censored because they were gory or because something very disturbing was being done.

6. cursed games

Stories based on a famous video game that is said to have been modified by someone to be truly disturbing, which would be a long way from being included in an official game of the same saga.

It is surprising how many creepypastas about Pokémon games have been modified to be cursed: Pokémon Lost Silver, Pokémon Beta Zombie, and the story of the 151 cursed Pokémon cartridges are examples.

There are also other popular video games, being the case of Sonic with Sonic.exe or Tails Doll.

• You may be interested in: "The 5 differences between myth and legend"

Some examples

Next we will see the summary of six famous creepypastas.

1. Slenderman, the most famous creepypasta

Anyone who is involved in the world of creepypastas cannot be considered an expert on the subject without meet THE creepypasta, who is considered one of the initiators of the genre: Slenderman, the man slim. This story originally appeared on the Something Awful forums.

Slenderman is an abnormally tall and thin man, with a ghostly appearance, without a nose, mouth, or eyes.. He has gloomy elongated arms that are used to kidnap children, although he is also used to kill adults and drive their victims crazy.

Creepypasta evolved to the point where the character had tentacles and the ability to make himself invisible, although you could see if he was focused with some recording device, such as cameras or phones mobile. The popularity of this cartoon is such that it has left the world of Internet forums to come to life in video games and on the big screen., starring in a low-budget Sony movie.

But sadly, it didn't just become something out of science fiction. In 2014, two 12-year-old Wisconsin girls, believers in Slenderman, wanting to be her acolytes, stabbed a classmate up to 19 times. Although the girl was saved and the perpetrators of the crime were sentenced to 65 years in prison, the story makes us think about the influence of comics taken from fear forums.

2. Squidward's Suicide

In 2010, creepypasta became popular about the existence of a SpongeBob episode in which it was made sure that Squidward (Squidward), Bob's curmudgeon partner in the Krusty Krab, committed suicide. The supposed lost episode also had a sinister atmosphere. A background of disturbing and unhinging noises accompanied the story, along with images of dead children.

The popularity of creepypasta was such that many parents became concerned, thinking that the series of the cheerful yellow and square sponge hid something much more sinister. The writer of the series, Casey Alexander, had to go out and deny this creepypasta to prevent the cartoon from being boycotted by hundreds of parents fearful of what could happen.

The funny thing is that the creators of the series knew how to take advantage of this creepypasta as a mockery. The original creepypasta was accompanied by the image of Squidward as possessed, with really sinister eyes. In one of the episodes of the series, belonging to season 12, Squidward opens a series of doors consecutively, which lead him to alternate versions of himself, one of which is somewhat resembling the image from creepypasta.

3. polybius

Every video game player should know the grim story of the Polybius arcade. It is a video game released in 1981 in arcades, in which the player had to direct a kind of ship through a world full of colors and shapes. These psychedelic colors caused players to have nightmares, feel stressed, lose mental stability, and even commit suicide.

The story is nourished by conspiracy elements, assuring that it was the CIA or the FBI who created this arcade to experiment with the population. Shortly after coming out, the game would be totally eliminated.

Polybius has made cameo appearances in real life. It appears in a chapter of the Simpsons, in which Bart is in an arcade. In addition, fans have designed their own version of the game, ensuring that it has been made in the image and likeness of the original. There is even a Polybius for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation VR.

4. The melody of Lavender Town

Every self-respecting Pokémon fan knows the history of the music of Lavender Town. The story goes that in the original versions of the first two games in the saga, Green and Red, released in Japan in 1996, Lavender Town's background music seemed to have notes that affected the minds of the smallest players.

Lavender Town is, within the Kanto region, a town with a tower where hundreds of Pokémon are buried. The music of the town is sinister, it accompanies the solemnity of the place, but, apparently, according to this cartoon, in the original version something went wrong in the programming of the music that led to the suicide of hundreds of children.

The melody had notes at frequencies that only the smallest could hear, affecting them, making them having nightmares, nose bleeds, headaches, irritability and, a classic, trends suicidal. The symptoms caused by the song's high-pitched binaural beats were dubbed as "Lavender Town Syndrome.".

The original story emerged on 4chan and went viral from there. Actually, there is no evidence that this actually happened. In fact, the music from the beta of the first generation of Pokémon can be heard on YouTube and, although it honestly hurts the ears, it is difficult to think that it could induce suicide. Also, considering that it supposedly happened in the very first Pokémon games It is hard to think that the saga would have become so popular over time, having such a bad start..

What is true and is considered a lost episode is the English dubbing of the chapter "Dennō Senshi Porygon" from the Pokémon anime series. In 1997, the broadcast of this chapter on Japanese television meant the admission of about 700 children due to epileptic seizures. The reason for this was that in the chapter there were rapid red-blue flashes.

The incident was so serious that the series was canceled for four months, and the appearance of Porygon, the main character of the episode, was prohibited. It should be said that, ironically, the culprit behind the epileptic seizures was actually the franchise mascot, Pikachu.

5. The Ayuwoki

The Ayuwoki is surely the most famous recent creepypasta, emerging in 2019 and having its origin in Spanish-speaking countries. It is a video in which an automaton with the face of Michael Jackson appears, uploaded to YouTube in 2009. The peculiarity of the video is that this mechanical Michael Jackson has a very distorted mask, and taking into account account that the late singer's face was not exactly inspiring confidence, his animatronic version much less.

Netizens referred to it more with a mocking air than a scary one, like the Ayuwoki, being a Properly Spanish transcription of the phrase 'Annie are you okay?', lyrics of the song “Smooth Criminal”. The image became a meme, even being the subject of a video by the famous Venezuelan youtuber Drossrotzank.

6. The Russian sleep experiment

Another of the most famous creepypastas is that of the Russian dream experiment. It ensures that during the 40s the Soviet authorities kept five people locked up and awake for two weeks. They prevented them from sleeping by introducing a stimulant in the form of a gas into the room, but without depriving them of entertainment or food. They just didn't let them sleep.

At the beginning of the experiment everything was fine, but later they began to behave wildly, asking that they not stop supplying them with gas and tearing their guts out.

Bibliographic references:

• Nadel, d. (2016). A Brief History of Creepypasta. TurboFuture. Consulted on March 27, 2020.
• Roy, J. (2014). "Behind Creepypasta, the Internet Community That Allegedly Spread a Killer Meme". Time. Consulted on March 27, 2020.