In the history of all horrifying creatures, Slender Man is without a doubt the scariest
ever to exist.
Except this isn't true: he's actually just an internet meme.
Y'know, like Grumpy Cat.
Yet despite this fact, there are forums dedicated to studying him, terrified people fretting
over whether or not he's coming for them, and some people even committing atrocious
crimes to curry his favor.
Here's a look at some bizarre things about Slender Man that don't make any sense.
Slender Man belongs to everyone
Maybe the weirdest thing about Slender Man is the fact that lots of people believe him
to be real, and are legitimately terrified of him — despite the fact that a 10-second
Google search will tell you that he's an internet meme created less than a decade ago.
It's true!
Back on June 10, 2009, Eric Knudsen, under the fake name Victor Surge, created Slender
Man in a SomethingAwful thread called "Create Paranormal Images."
Handy with the Photoshop, Surge uploaded two photos that feature a tall, faceless man in
the distance.
On June 11, he added another photo and an imaginary doctor's report.
And that was that.
Other posters ran with it, creating new photos along with Slender fanfiction and YouTube
videos.
The next thing you know, a new urban legend had been crowdsourced online.
Strangely enough, anybody can do anything they want with Slender Man, because thanks
to some weird loopholes in internet copyright laws, Knudsen doesn't actually own the rights.
Which… is probably fine with him.
True fear
Despite his completely transparent origins as a viral meme, which Knudsen said was inspired
by the bad guy from the movie Phantasm, folks are somehow legitimately afraid of Slender
Man.
People frantically post in forums online for help dealing with their Slender Phobia.
On the surface, it doesn't seem to make any sense that the public would be afraid of what
is essentially their own creation.
But that's exactly why he's so frightening: as a blank slate, he allows each person to
project their own most terrible fears onto him, making him a perfect mirror for all of
modern society's terrors.
Since you create him, he's naturally going to be whatever you're most afraid of.
Skinny, but powerful
Since Slender Man's mythos is crowdsourced, encompassing anything and everything people
are afraid of, he's become the most powerful imaginary force in existence.
Depending on who you talk to, Slender Man has everything from tentacles coming out of
his back to the ability to teleport and cause you to vomit blood on command.
Plus he's a shapeshifter, is made of magic, and for all we know can probably even rap
in German or something.
(rapping in German)
As a viral trend, Slender Man's characteristics are constantly shifting, despite some efforts
to codify exactly who or what he is.
Besides the hit video game, several films are in various stages of development.
But so far, the only official version of Slender Man is the one you have inside your own head.
The real-life stabbing
Some people are weird, and then there are people who are legitimately ill.
One of those people was a 12-year-old girl who believed she had made a pact with Slender
Man to live with him in his Slendermansion, all in exchange for murdering her friend.
Later diagnosed with schizophrenia, the would-be killer and her psychopathic accomplice ended
up stabbing another 12-year-old girl 19 times.
Luckily, the victim survived, while the perps are still awaiting trial in Wisconsin as of
the making of this video.
Slender sightings
Even though Slender Man is very clearly not real, people still report actually seeing
him.
Even crazier, many people claim to have seen him years before he was created in 2009, posting
stories online about how he stalked them as a child, or appeared in their nightmares.
Hey, if he can invade Minecraft, he can probably change the past too.
So why does Slender Man really have such a strong hold on our imagination?
One Reddit philosopher says that Slender Man is
"like a disease.
The more you see, the more you believe and the more you fear it.
The more you fear it, the more you get paranoid about seeing him.
Then you make yourself believe you see him, because you think you will.
Then you become even more scared, until it engulfs you.
That is how Slenderman is real.
He is real in the same way fear is real."
Pleasant dreams!
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