Transcript of Let’s Boogey: The Boogeyman Around the World (Vol. 1)

Hey, weirdos! I'm Ash.

And I'm Alayna.

And this is Morbid.

It's a bonus episode, everybody! Honey, happy August!

Here's your bonus episode!

Hey, it's almost September! I was going to sing something, but then I didn't know why you were pausing. I was like, close, right?

No, we're wicked close. I was going to sing something and then I didn't know what to sing.

That's okay.

It happens to the best of us.

It does happen. It's Friday.

It's Friday. It's Friday.

I love Friday. Uh, and today is a bonus episode, so it's a little loosey-goosey, a little different. You know, we've been doing the, the Twilight of it all. We've had some guests on, some book clubbies, and today we're gonna start like a new little series that might go through like spooky season. Yeah. Yeah, it might dribble them in there.

I like it.

We're gonna talk about boogeymen. We're gonna talk about boogeymen, the folklore involving them, the social attitudes around them, how they come to be, what they are.

Different places.

Yeah, different places that they come from. So today we're going to talk about like 3 different boogeymen, or boogey people, I should say.

Boogey people.

This is an inclusive show.

It is.

And, uh, we'll follow this up with 3 more, and we'll We'll keep sprinkling them in every once in a while because these bonus episodes are fun. They can kind of just be—

We should name them Let's Boogie.

Let's Boogie. That's the series.

Let's Boogie. There it is.

That was so clever.

How did I come up with that?

That was amazing.

It was tough.

So this first one, we're talking about boogeymen around the world, boogeymen and women around the world.

Okay.

So let's get right into it.

Tell me everything about these boogey humans.

So the boogeyman is kind of like this ambiguous figure. And in different cultures, like, there's tons of boogeymen all around the world.

Oh, yeah.

And cultures can kind of project their specific fears and anxieties onto their specific boogeymen.

Yeah.

You know, that's kind of where they come from. And according to historian Marina Warner, they belong neither in literary or visual manifestations of art, but in that indeterminate, elusive territory that has been called folklore. I love folklore.

I do, too.

They are a broad category of monster, supernatural being that circulates within a culture as a warning. It's— you— boogeymen are definitely warning signs, for sure. They're warnings to avoid certain places or to behave in certain ways.

Mm-hmm. Or people.

Yeah, that's how they come about. And as Warner points out, although they have shared and accepted descriptions and tend to appear in cultural texts and products, they are not themselves literary figures or characters. that exist for entertainment or any kind of amusement, usually. There are exceptions.

Mm-hmm.

But they exist as kind of like a societal way of control, or a way of encouraging or discouraging certain behaviors, especially with children.

Yeah, it makes sense.

Now, the primary defining characteristic of a boogeyman is, according to the Dictionary of English Folklore—

Tell me.

Any figure deliberately used to frighten others, almost always children, to control their behavior.

That's fucked up.

Yeah. For example, Krampus.

Ugh!

The horned half-demon helper of St. Nicholas. Krampus is a boogeyman because he exists to frighten children into good behavior.

Yeah.

But something like Bloody Mary, which could also, like, you know, it like teeters the line there. Bloody Mary really doesn't.

It doesn't fall into there, really.

Bloody Mary kind of exists outside of the boogeyman.

Yeah.

So a second and only slightly less significant characteristic is the boogeyman's kind of like Amorphousness, like shapelessness. It's this quality that allows them to exist in cultures literally all over the world without a precise or even remote physical description sometimes.

Yeah.

Societies, again, can project onto their boogeyman whatever they want or need to, you know, achieve that, like, social control aspect.

Do you know who my eternal boogeyman is? Because I saw The Blair Witch Project too young.

The Blair Witch. The Blair Witch. That's how we went in.

How did you figure it out? Yeah.

Yeah.

And you know what the lesson is? Stay out of the fucking woods.

Don't go camping. I mean, that's such a valid lesson, I think.

Yeah.

Yeah. I mean—

I'm so scared of the Blair Witch to this day.

I stand by the fact that the Blair Witch is a great fucking movie. It's a scary-ass movie.

It's scary. Yeah.

And it's scary without all the bells and whistles.

It is.

Okay? And I was there when the marketing campaign happened, and it was the best thing that has ever happened.

Jealousy.

It's so good. Now, the final primary characteristic of the boogeyman is that it is typically, though not universally, but like, this is just kind of like typically, typically they're like a lurker.

Yeah.

You know?

They be lurking under your bed usually.

They do be lurking. Like, the primary audience for the messages conveyed through the boogeyman lore Again, our children.

Mm-hmm.

Um, and it— so it kind of, like, naturally follows that he's probably gonna be found in dark and potentially dangerous places.

Yeah, under your bed, your closet.

Exactly.

You know, a dark corner of a room.

Yeah.

A sewer.

He's this amorphous creature just under your bed.

The woods.

Like, don't go under there. And this isn't because the space itself is inherently frightening. Like, under your bed is not supposed to be inherently frightening.

Honey, you don't know about under my bed.

But—

It is frightening.

It is— it's kind of put there to ensure that once they are put to bed for the night, they will stay there.

Yeah.

Because there's a fear of being grabbed by the creature if they get up.

That's also just fucking terrifying.

That is terrifying. That's fucked up.

So, Judy, are you like, stay in bed, or—

Or the boogeyman's gonna get— that's fucked up.

Maybe you should try that.

Oh my God, totally.

Your kids are always getting out of bed.

Honestly, if I haven't tried that yet, no one has an excuse to try that. It's crazy. Now, as children get older, though, the boogeyman starts to be in more public places that they end up going, like dense forests, the banks of rivers and lakes, or like a dimly lit city street at night. Places that they are now going to be entering that they might encounter real-world danger.

Yeah.

Now that boogeyman is being put out in the real world.

He's kind of elevated.

It's an elevated boogeyman.

He levels up.

He does. He absolutely— he evolves with the kid. Well, it's useful to know, like, the historical and social context and defining features of the boogeyman, obviously the best way to understand the figure and its very diverse applications everywhere all around the world is to see how it operates at various points of time. All right, so this one we are going to talk about first is La Llorona.

Oh! Not to be confused with my Sharona.

They are not the same.

Vastly different individuals. Yeah, they're very different.

Uh, this is also known as the Crying Woman.

Oh!

Now, ironically, as we've stated before, one of the most famous boogeymen of North America is not a man at all, but a woman.

A lady.

La Llorona. Again, sometimes called the Crying Woman or the Wailer.

The Wailer? I don't know if I love that.

Yeah. She's a figure in Latin American folklore who haunts the banks of lakes and rivers, mourning the drowning deaths of her small children.

Oh.

Those who encounter La Llorona— I keep wanting to say La La Rona because I'm very So American. American, unfortunately.

So unfortunately, deeply American.

I apologize. La Llorona can expect to suffer a similar fate as her children, unfortunately. Or at the very least, experience a very long run of extremely bad luck. Now, like any proper boogeyman, the point of origin for La Llorona is kind of difficult to identify. But by most accounts, the story seems to go back more than 500 years.

Damn!

In the most widely shared account, the story begins with Maria, A strikingly beautiful but extremely vain woman. Maria uses her beauty to win the affections of a wealthy rancher, and they go on to have 2 children. Good for her.

I see nothing wrong with this so far.

You will.

Okay.

Unfortunately, after just a few years, you know, the happy couple became not so happy. The rancher spends a lot of his time wandering the fields working, and when he's home, he kind of ignores Maria, but he heaps love and attention onto their children.

Okay.

Uh-oh. One day, while she's out walking near the river with her children, Maria spots her husband having a picnic with another woman from the village. What a dick. In a fit of irrationality, she turns her rage on that which her husband loves the most.

Oh.

And she throws both of her small children into the river.

It's not an appropriate reaction, Maria.

Very disproportionate response.

Period.

Uh, as soon as she does this, she immediately regains, like, her senses and realizes what she's done and is immediately stricken with terrible regret. But she can't swim. So Maria ran back and forth screaming out for her children, but it's too late. Inconsolable and unable to live with what she had done, she threw herself in the river and drowned as well. Now, soon after, she was found by the villagers and given a proper burial. But that night, villagers report seeing Maria wandering the banks of the river in a long white robe, crying out for her children.

Oh, that's really awful.

Yeah. Now, the thing is, so she was given a proper burial, all that, according to the legend. But because she has technically murdered her children and taken her own life, Maria is denied entrance to heaven or the afterlife and must wander the earth forever. Reliving the terrible moment. Over time, as the story evolved in tellings and retellings, Maria's spirit became a vengeful ghost who would steal any child who wandered too close to the water. Or a child who disobeyed their parents.

Oh, fuck.

Now, because it has existed in various cultures at various points in time, there are many variations of the story of La Llorona. In one version from Guatemala, the woman has an affair with a wealthy man and becomes pregnant.

Okay.

Because she's married and doesn't want anyone to find out, she gives birth, but then drowns the baby in a river.

Damn.

Uh, as a result of her actions, she's condemned to spend the afterlife wandering the banks of the river. looking for but never finding her lost child.

Oh my God.

It's really sad.

That is bleak.

It's really sad. Like, these are not, you know—

Boogeymen don't come from, like, happy origins.

Yeah, exactly. Now, in another version specific to Venezuela, the woman becomes pregnant as a result of an affair with a soldier.

Okay.

Who abandons her soon after.

Dick.

Unable to care for a child on her own and wanting to avoid the shame and stigma of being a single mother, She drowns the child in the river.

I feel like there are better options.

Absolutely.

Yeah.

Now, immediately, again, seized with regret, the woman begins crying out for her child, which draws the attention of her neighbors. And after seeing what she's done, the people of her village curse her and throw her out of the village, sending her fleeing into the mountains.

Wow.

From that point on, she takes on a spectral form and becomes a vengeful spirit, who claims any children who wander too close to the rivers or streams of Venezuela.

Okay.

That one's scary.

That's all pretty terrifying, to be frank.

Now, although most of the legends involve the death of children by drowning, yeah, some don't involve children at all.

I like those better, I feel.

Uh, in one of the earliest accounts from Mexico around 1550, the Weeping Woman is said to be the ghost of Dona Marina of Portugal. who had repented her conspiring with Cortés that led to the colonization of Mexico.

Oh.

And was now condemned to wander the streets weeping, quote, for her sin.

Okay.

So not for children, just weeping.

Just 'cause she fucked up.

Yeah. Other variations omit the murder part entirely, focusing instead on the death and grief part.

Okay.

In a variant from Arizona, La Llorona is a widow whose young son drowned while playing by a flooded river. Grief-stricken and changed by her, you know, profound sorrow because of this, the woman wanders the region near the river seeking to kidnap any small children she sees.

Not a valid response.

Not a valid response. According to the legend, quote, her fingerprints are found on windows or screens are torn where she tries to enter homes. Ew!

I thought she's supposed to be by the riverbank. That one gave me yuckus. Fuck that.

That one gave me lots of the yuckies.

Oh, don't tear my screen, ma'am.

Yeah, I didn't like that.

That's fucked up!

And fingerprints on windows?

Bleh! Oh, I hate that anyway. That shit pisses me off.

Ugh! Now, as these cultures evolved and societies evolved, the story of La Llorona also evolved.

Uh-huh.

Initially, to come into contact with her meant instant death.

Yeah.

But as more people, like, you know, especially because this started, like, way in, like, 1550 and all that, like, when people learned to swim, like, stronger swimmers, when societies and land became less threatening, because back then everything was threatening.

True.

Potential contact with La Llorona became less consequential.

Okay.

Now you would expect just, like, some bad luck if you catch a glimpse of her wandering the banks of the river, or maybe you'll suffer no consequences at all and you just have a cool story. Oh, wow.

That's really— that's quite the toss-up.

There's still some that, you know, will, will use the story as like, don't go near the river.

I'd stay away from the river if I lived in any of these regions.

I would.

Why did I just say regions?

Regions.

If I lived in any of these regions.

These regions. Hey, people in these regions, how you doing?

People in Arizona are like, Ash?

Oh, let's talk about Jenny Greenteeth.

What the fuck? What the fuck? You're just going to move on from La Llorona and bring me to a place of Jenny Greenteeth, question mark? Why did it also sound like you were, like, switching into an ad? All right, everybody, today let's talk about Jenny Greenteeth. With my code Morbid, you can get 20% off your green teeth remedy. The fuck? Oh, man. Tell me about Jenny. I'll tell you about Jenny. Why she got green teeth.

So obviously bodies of water like rivers and streams have always been a pretty common part of life, particularly for rural or, you know, like, places that we all have been around. Like, you're always around some kind of body of water somewhere.

Unless you're landlocked.

Unless you're— but like, little ponds, events, streams, like things that don't technically— a crick. Things that don't technically need the ocean to pour into them.

Fair.

It makes sense that a lot of cultures would create boogeymen to warn children away from the potential dangers of drowning.

Yeah.

In the English countryside, there have long existed various folktales, like, about goblins, fairies, sea hags, like—

Oh, I love a sea hag.

That are all said to reach out from the depths and grab small, unattended children, dragging them to a watery grave.

I always feel like when I'm, like, in a lake or something that, like, somebody's gonna pull me down.

Yeah, that's why I don't go in lakes.

I do it for the thrill.

You just love— I am risk averse.

Yes.

So that's what we figured out.

Yes.

Now, one such figure is Jenny Greenteeth. Is Jenny Greenteeth.

I need to know everything about this bitch.

Not to be confused with Jenny Garth, you know?

No.

Yeah. So also known as Wicked Jenny.

Wicked Jenny. Now she's from Boston.

Or simply Grinnteeth.

Grinnteeth. I was going to say, I feel like I've known a Wicked Jenny or two. You know what I mean?

I've known— You've definitely known a wicked Jenny or two. Wicked Jenny, are you listening? In fact, you've known 2 such wicked Jennys.

Yeah.

In recent years that we have come across.

Unfortunately.

Fucking grin teeth. This particular Jenny, Jenny Grin Teeth, she's a water hag.

Period.

Specific to the region in and around Lancashire, England.

Oh, that's fun to say. Lancashire.

Lancashire. According to folklorist Katherine Briggs, Jenny Greenteeth is a variation of the more widely spread stories of the Grindylow, a supernatural fish-like humanoid.

Stop it.

Like many water bogeys, Jenny was designed to keep children from rivers and ponds, and she is said to, quote, seize children in her long green fangs and drag them down into stagnant pools at the river's edge.

Damn, Jenny.

Which is going to give them brain amoebas. So that's fucked up, Jenny Greenteeth. Yeah.

If they don't drown first.

Yeah. Now, like all—

Why is her name Jenny?

That's the most—

it's not really a threatening name.

If you're you and me, it scares the fuck out of me. Her name is Jennifer Greenteeth. I just need that really—

Jennifer P. Greenteeth.

Jennifer Greenteeth. Now, like all good boogeymen, boogeypeople, Jenny Greenteeth, Jennifer Greenteeth if you're nasty— Jennifer P. Greenteeth. Has an ambiguous appearance. Aside from her green fucking teeth. Aside from From her dental hygiene issues.

Yeah.

Her appearance tends to change depending on the teller of the story and the time the story is being told.

Jenny's versatile.

According to one source, Jenny Jennifer had pale skin, pale green skin, green teeth, very long green locks of hair, long green fingers and fingernails.

Wow.

And she was very thin with a pointed chin and very big eyes, which is a wild visual when you put it all together.

It's a lot to take in all at once.

Like, that's a lot.

Yeah.

Now, the exact origins of Jennifer Greenteeth aren't clear, but she appears to date back to the mid to late 18th century as a so-called nursery bogey.

A nursery bogey?

Her story is intended for very young children.

That's not good or recommended.

It's a lot less detailed and complex than something like La Llorona.

Yeah.

It's also largely specific to the areas around northeast England and is related to a particular aspect of the landscape.

Okay.

Figures like La Llorona exist, at least in part, to warn young people away from moving bodies of water, like rivers and streams, where they can be pulled in and legitimately swept away.

Yeah.

However, in northeast England, a much greater danger to small children are the still pools of stagnant water. Like, that's the issue there, because according to folklorist Roy Vickery, quote, in summer, such pools are frequently covered by a dense mat composed of thousands of floating duckweed plants. so that their surfaces appear to be solid.

Oh!

These pools can be quite steep and really difficult to climb out of, so an unsuspecting child could accidentally fall in and have a really hard time getting out, or not even know that it's a pool at all and think it's a solid surface.

Yeah, that's terrifying. Yeah.

So because it's a story for small children, and again, the details are kind of scant and there aren't a lot of variations of Jenny Greenteeth, According to Vickery, one version of the story claims that, quote, Jenny had descended from the water spirits of Gothic mythology.

I'm obsessed with that.

Whose great seductive beauty was somewhat marred by their green teeth.

Just somewhat. Just a little bit. It was something you could get past.

She's a 10, but she's got green teeth. You know? Now, one resident from Liverpool recalled hearing the story as a child, and apparently Jenny would, quote, entice little children into the ponds by making them look like grass. and safe to walk on.

Damn.

As soon as the child stepped onto the green, it of course parted, and the child fell through into, uh, Jenny Greenteeth's clutches and was drowned. The green weed then closed over, hiding all traces that the child had ever been there.

That is so fucked up.

Which is really scary. According to author Simon Young, there's a variation of the story that appeared in the mid-19th century. Quote, nuts were plentiful in our forefathers' days. They were to be met with, um, in the hedges enclosing every field and lane. And especially in the clothes— clothes and near brooksides. To deter children from gathering the fruit before it was ripe, they terrified their young imaginations by awful accounts of a demoness, the guardian of young catkins, nuts, and nut trees. In conjunction with her were associated clapcans, who made a loud jarring noise by beating cans with sticks. To restrain their children from venturing too near the numerous pits and pools which were to be found in every fold and field, A demoness or guardian was stated to crouch at the bottom. She was known as Jenny Greenteeth and was reported to prey upon children who ventured too near her domain.

She really said, stay away from Dee's nuts.

Stay out of those nuts. What the fuck?

Where are we right now?

What is happening? Regardless of the version, the meaning of the Jenny Greenteeth legend is clear. There are many dangers in the natural world, and some can be quite deceiving.

Yeah, and Jenny will get you.

If you don't keep your wits about you, they might get you. You might, you might find yourself in serious trouble. Yeah, don't step on the pool. Now let's get a little more modern, shall we?

Yeah.

As early as the 1990s—

It was the '90s!

The internet allowed users from all over the world to connect with one another through chat programs and message boards.

It might have been the worst idea anyone's ever had.

In 2026, I believe We fucked up. Yeah.

We fucked up. We are too connected, bruh.

Here's the thing. I know the idea was awesome.

Yeah.

So awesome. And in the '90s, we were okay. Hell yeah.

Forget a pen pal.

We're not killing it this year. We're not.

We're not.

But you know what? Back then you could share stories, both fiction and nonfiction. And in the mid-2000s, a form of scary storytelling known as creepypasta became popular on the website Something Awful.

Creepypastas are really fun.

Creepypastas? I love creepypastas.

Yeah.

I wish this is what the internet was all about.

Just creepypastas.

Just creepypastas and adorable old people getting stuff. And little animals. And little animals.

Yep.

Yeah.

And recipes.

And recipes. There you go.

For real pastas.

Now, like the folklore and urban legends that came before them, creepypastas were short, generally vague, scary stories. that were shared around the internet.

Yeah.

While most were, like, just really cool horror stories, some took the form of an urban legend by purporting that they were true stories. They had actually happened. They weren't saying, this is a creepypasta I came up with. Here, read it and get scared.

They were like, no, this girl in my class, her cousin experienced this, and it is 100% true.

Which, when you really look at it, is back to the olden days of folklore saying, no, this happened once.

Yeah.

And it gets passed down and down and down. eventually you can't tell if it happened or not.

I honestly love an urban legend. Yeah.

Um, and again, they would— a lot of times these certain creepypastas would— they'd say they were true stories, they would locate it in a very specific place, and it would convey some kind of moral message sometimes, like an urban legend. In the summer of 2009, Something Awful forum user Eric Knudsen, I believe it is, writing under a pseudonym, by the way, posted a story about a supernatural boogeyman he called Slender Man. In the original post, he shared 2 photographs of people walking or playing in the foreground, like 2 young people, while in the background, an incredibly tall, thin humanoid man in a black suit can be seen just lurking.

Just watching. Those original pictures fuck me up.

Yeah.

They're so scary. They're scary.

It was a brilliant, brilliant idea.

Mm-hmm.

This story, I think it was such a good idea.

It got spooky.

Because also Slender Man, his face lacks any distinguishing features, which makes it even scarier.

Yeah, 100%.

And under the second photo, he added the caption, quote, one of 2 recovered photographs from the Sterling City Library blaze, notable for being taken the day which 14 children vanished and for what is referred to as the Slender Man. Which is scary. And again, really smart. It's a smart story to it. And you have a fire ring to it.

I mean, come on.

This is going back to Blair Witch.

Yup.

That's what Blair Witch marketed themselves as. This really happened. Here's the pictures. Here's the video. Here's the audio. You can see how these people came to disappear.

Yeah.

Which was one of the biggest parts of Blair Witch being what it was. That's what Slender Man was.

Yeah.

Nobody could tell. Some people knew it wasn't real, but some people didn't know it wasn't real. They were like, is this like for real? Like younger kids, they would have no idea. Like, Aidan's like, hi, I'm a gullible bitch. He was like, hi, me.

I just said I believe in Slenderman.

And it would be easy to because it's being told to you like, here's 2 fucking photographs.

Yeah. And it was in the early days of Photoshop and you couldn't really like fact check it. Yeah. Like there wasn't that many avenues to go down.

Exactly. Like the internet was just different.

It wasn't like 78 gajillion pages like it is now.

Exactly. Now, among other things, Slender Man is notable because he is a rare boogeyman whose origins are not only known, but were also created with the intention of hoaxing users of other message boards. The message board thread was created as an invite to users who wanted to contribute photoshopped images that they could pass off as authentic. Regardless of that origin, Slender Man took hold of people's imaginations in a way that few legends have in recent years.

Yeah.

And maybe it was, like, you know, the digital nature of the transmission. It's able to be shared quicker and easier.

Yep.

But it emerged also at a time when fears of children being preyed upon by adults online and scary Boogeymen online were at an all-time high.

You know what the, like, the precursor to that was? Do you remember those fucking chain text messages where it would be like, you have to forward this to like 16 people or this woman will be at the foot of your bed?

Yes. And it was like, and it would sometimes it would have a scary story to begin with, and it would be like, that's gonna happen to you if you don't forward this.

Yeah, I used to get so fucking pissed when I would—

Chain letters were fucking crazy.

Oh, they were awful. And you probably got them on email before text was even a thing.

Oh, I didn't even know you were talking about text. I thought you were talking about email.

I saw that on your face.

Yeah.

No, I was— I got the wrong— I didn't operate— like, me and my friends didn't really communicate via email. Yeah.

It was all email before.

Yeah. For us it was text.

It was always the, like, capital, not capital, capital, not capital writing with, like, the star— the asterisks and little, like, like, squiggly lines. Like, yeah. Yeah. Those were terrifying.

Ugh.

Now, in the years that followed, the legend of Slender Man evolved on message boards and websites.

all over the world.

Again, when it comes to Slender Man, there is endless lore.

I know, there really is. You could go on for days.

Yeah, and what's cool is it's like, it kept getting added to. Like, it was such a fun— it was almost— it was just like this big community-based, like, grand story that kept, like, just getting bigger and better and scarier and more complex. But to distill some of it into something, just 'cause there is so much to it and you don't wanna just, like, skim over it. Uh, and I heard this from Aiden, told us this whole lore because he was like part of this like whole community in the beginning, like loved this stuff when it came out. Like he was like the perfect age for this.

Yup.

Um, on June 20th, 2009, the first video of a YouTube web series came out. It was created by Troy Wagner, Joseph Delage, and Tim Sutton, and it came from the images on the Something Awful forum of Spider-Man.

Okay.

Now, this series kind of revolved around a film student named Jay who was investigating this unfinished film from his friend Alex. And he was doing this by reviewing various tapes from the project. And during the course of the film, he realizes why the project was canceled.

Ooh.

And it gives this really good early aughts, text on screen beginning, explaining to you that this was a film that was canceled, and it was, you know, he was reviewing the tapes. And, like, Alex was starting to become paranoid and, like, losing his grip.

Okay.

It kind of gives you— it gave me, uh, like, Hell House LLC vibes, especially because the main character's name is Alex, the one that was losing grip on reality.

Yup.

And in Hell House LLC, Alex is the one that's, like, pushing them further into the haunted house.

And it starts off with, like, those, like, Like investigators, like asking everybody questions. Yeah.

I was like, that's fun. Now, apparently the reason it was canceled was Alex had come in contact with an entity that was referred to as the Operator.

The Operator.

Which I do love that. Uh, this was a different name given to the Slender Man. Now, the series, it just like built more on that lore. Like I was saying, it like just added to it, and it also built off of the lore that was already there online about Slender Man. And one of the biggest parts of the lore that we had briefly mentioned when speaking about the Slender Man stabbing case was the idea of proxies.

Yeah.

Because when taken out of real-world horror and brought into, like, a more fictional horror world, the idea of a proxy with this kind of entity is really cool and, like, very interesting and, like, a fun addition to it. I hate that it was taken out into the real world and turned into something violent and awful.

Right.

But apparently proxies, the whole idea of it, actually was like a misinterpretation by fans, um, because like, because of how characters in the series were acting or behaving.

Okay.

Fans interpreted that they were acting brainwashed and as brainwashed servants of the Slender Man himself, like he was controlling them.

Oh.

Uh, so That would later lead to fanfictions online with fans writing about this kind of proxy situation going on, but then how they were being elected to become the next proxy for Slender Man.

Oh, that's like fun, but also so scary.

So scary, but so fun until it's taken out in the real world and damaging human beings. It's like, keep it where it belongs. Let fiction be fiction, everybody.

It's good writing.

Now, in 2012, and I remember this because Aidan actually showed me this game, and I remember vividly being like, this is so scary.

Oh, no.

It was in 2012, Slender: The Eight Pages came out. It was like a fan game where the player could collect 8 pages in this dark woods, like this dark, creepy forest. You had to go find the 8 pages without being caught by Slenderman.

Ugh.

It is so scary. And the pages in the game, were based on notes and scribbles left from characters in the Marble Hornets series, which is what that web series was.

So it came full circle.

Yeah. Like, so that original series that was the web series on YouTube, those pages are like from that. Oh, that's so awesome. So it kind of expanded on that.

Like an Easter egg kind of vibe?

Yeah. And it was genuinely terrifying.

Yeah.

Like, I remember Aidan showing me this and I was like, ah! Like, I was like, what the fuck? I don't know if I can do this. And with the gaming scene at that time really kind of exploding, it was, like, gaining a lot of popularity.

Mm-hmm.

And then Slender Man was kind of starting to, like, kind of figuratively reach his tentacles out into different forms all over the web, and, you know, becoming far less— more common to run across while you were on the internet. This game really relied on this anticipatory scare where You would be running around in this dark forest trying to find these pages and he's anywhere. And when he would find you, it was like the whole screen would go static and it was loud and jarring and he would like attack you. So it was just like, ah, I hate it. So, but that's like the perfect kind of game for like YouTubers to play and stream for like tons of views. Cause you're, you're anticipating it along with them, waiting for them to get caught. So it was that kind of beginning of that kind of thing. And this is where Slender Man went really mainstream at that point.

Okay.

Yeah. Now, unfortunately, this was all really fun. This is how humans should operate.

It was kind of not lighthearted, but in a way it was.

Lighthearted in the sense that this is horror.

Yes.

And it's supposed to scare you. And then you're supposed to move on. It's supposed to be something that you go, ooh, is this real? Is it not real? It's supposed to be something fun like that.

Right.

Unfortunately, the legend of Slender Man took a terrible and tragic turn in 2014 when 2 12-year-old Wisconsin girls, Morgan Geyser and Anissa Weier, used the legend as an excuse to stab their friend and try to kill their friend, um, quote, in order to please Slender Man.

Yeah.

According to the press, in May 2014, the 2, um, the 2 of them lured their friend, 12-year-old Payton Leutner, into the woods and stabbed her 19 times. I need you to remember these are 3 12-year-olds. Yeah, we covered this before.

Yeah.

And they left her for dead. Payton managed to crawl to the road where she was discovered by a bicycle— bicyclist who called 911. And when they were asked why they did it, they claimed, quote, they wanted to prove— wanted to prove themselves worthy of Slender Man. In their interview to police, they claimed that they believed Slender Man was real and they wanted to become quote-unquote proxies, thereby proving his existence to countless skeptics online.

Jesus.

They spent months talking about this plan, choosing a victim, and plotting every detail of their intended murder. Um, and again, that's very rare behavior for— that's very rare behavior for girls.

Yeah.

Especially young girls of their age. In 2017, Morgan Geyser agreed to plead guilty to attempted first-degree murder. And in doing that, she avoided jail time and was instead sentenced to 40 years in a psychiatric facility.

Mm-hmm.

Anissa Weier went to trial, and a jury determined that she was mentally ill at the time of the attack. She was sentenced to 25 years in a psychiatric facility. Now, Slender Man evolved from a traditional boogeyman to something entirely different. He was no longer a source of fear or social control, but was now a motivation for violent behavior.

Mm-hmm.

The exact opposite. of what a boogeyman is supposed to be.

Right.

The stabbing incident set off a short-lived moral panic in which parents became exceedingly worried about what their children were doing online. To which I say, you probably should have done that to begin with. Um, that's just me though. At the same time, the violence inspired by the character took away most of its power, and by the end of the decade, most of the online community that had given rise to Slender Man had kind of moved on from him. Which is so sad that it got—

Yeah.

One, that it's like it took away the fun of that whole lore and everything, and that these girls would take it to such a place to then destroy the life of Payton.

Yeah.

Who now, I'm sure you can come across Slender Man Any old place, you know, like on the internet. It's, it's in a lot of places still.

Or even like in like, um, like he's on like shirts and shit.

Yeah, like it's, it's a thing. So it's like, yeah, now Peyton has to sit there and live her entire life— she's a badass, by the way. Yeah, but she has to live her entire life worried about coming across an image of that. I can't imagine what that would do to you. Yeah, and it's just like, what the fuck? Now again, From the visceral fears of child death contained within the legends of La Llorona and Jenny Greenteeth, to the anxieties of modern dangers that are in the legend of Slender Man, the wiggly man has completely crossed cultures all over the world for centuries.

Mm-hmm.

But again, these are only a few of the endless list of bogeys that have haunted societies for as long as people could tell stories. I mean, there's some wild ones that we're going to talk about the next time.

I'm so excited.

There's one called the Sackman.

I think I've heard of Sackman.

Yep. There's, uh, Kate Crackernuts. Haven't heard of her.

English lore. Okay.

Um, Bloody Bones and Rawhead from the American South.

Bloody Bones? Rawhead sounds like, um, like that Rob Zombie film.

Yeah, it sure does.

Uh, 31, right?

Yeah, it does. Maybe he would be part of that.

Yeah.

Yeah, we're going to cover some of those.

Hell yeah. I like this. Let's boogie.

Let's boogie. We just dipped our toes in today. So hopefully you guys thought this was fun, especially for spooky season for some bonuses. This is really fun. Yeah. Yeah. Those are just some boogies. Period.

Let us know if you loved this and don't let us know if you didn't.

Only if you loved it. Yeah. Only if you loved it.

All right, guys. Well, happy bonus episode. We love you. We hope you keep listening.

And we hope you— Keep it—

Weird! But not so weird that you didn't want to boogie with us!

Let's boogie!

Let's boogie, baby!