you might remember the 90s hit Nickelodeon cartoon hey Arnold from your
childhood with the typical capers you expect from a 90s kids show and some
crazy character design choices it's certainly memorable but what if we were
to tell you that there was a darker side to hey Arnold that you probably don't
remember I'm Teresa with a wicked binge and these are creepy Hey Arnold theories
that will freak you out let's get started Phil and Gertie
are Arnold's parents for those who know the story
Arnold lives in a boarding house with his paternal grandparents Phil and
Gertrude a rather eccentric duo the two are said to have met in early childhood
when they had a relationship similar to the one Arnold and Helga have Gertrude
was known for having put tacks on Phil's chair and for having dipped her own
pigtail into ink before blaming him for it however from all of this blossomed a
relationship between the two that is still going strong well into their
golden years however what if all is not what it seems with these two there was a
popular theory that Phil and Gerty we're in fact Arnold's biological parents and
that they claimed to be his grandparents due to the stigma surrounding their ages
this theory is already freaky enough but it gets worse it also states that the
real reason for Arnold's weirdly shaped head is a birth defect due to the age of
his parents well yes but that's not important right now
this defect is actually known as Arnold Kairi syndrome we're not making this up
and it actually does cause deformation of the skull and would explain Arnold's
name and head shape this theory has however since been disproven as in the
2017 film hey Arnold the jungle movie Arnold is reunited with his actual
biological parents unless Phil and Gertrude hired some very convincing
actors in an even bigger conspiracy it's safe to say this creepy theory is just
still the coincidental name is too much not to mention this theory
Arnold's parents are dead keeping with the same theme of Arnold's
curious lineage here's the theory originating from reddit user stay blazed
soon after the release of the previously mentioned Hey Arnold movie the
appearance of Arnold's parents in the movie clearly didn't sit well with some
fans and neither did the eerie ending of the film if you remember spoiler alert
the movie ends with Arnold and his parents walking to school after the
summer holidays are finished he tells them they have to wait outside and his
mother says they'll be waiting right there will have to stay outside when he
looks back upon reaching the school doors he seems to be surprised
before smiling the very final shot of the movie and possibly of the whole
series is Arnold's parents sitting on the steps as the school doors closed
their clothes are lightly colored and the light goes bright white behind them
as the school doors close the spooky interpretation of this is that this
symbolizes the death of Arnold's parents the beginning of the movie is the start
of summer and once summer ends and he heads back to school
Arnold finally becomes accepting of his parents deaths closing the doors on them
before fading to white is a symbolic visualization of him finding closure in
their deaths him asking them to wait outside shows that he has to move on
with his life and leave them behind and his mother saying she'll be waiting
shows that they'll always be with him regardless we'll be waiting right here
if this theory is to be believed it's truly poignant into the series and
show serious growth in Arnold as a character even if it is still a little
creepy pigeon man committed suicide in front of Arnold ha pigeon man one of the
most dark and depressing storylines within a show that's already filled with
a surprising amount of mature subject matter in the pigeon-man episode of hey
Arnold Arnold brings his pigeon to the enigmatic pigeon man who miraculously
cures it of an injury thanks for cheering him to show his gratitude
Arnold convinces him to come on a walk of the neighborhood with him at the end
of the episode Vincent the pigeon man decides to leave the city and flies off
into the sky with his pigeons holding him up it's a rather comical ending
but what if there's something darker underneath it all a Reddit user a
peppermint butthole suggested that perhaps Vincent doesn't fly off at all
instead he jumps off the roof committing suicide in front of Arnold and
traumatizing him after all the pigeon man is distraught that his coop has been
destroyed by vandals and he feels that he has no place in society perhaps he
feels he has nothing to live for people Arnold however wouldn't be able to cope
with such a traumatic memory as a child and perhaps represses it and tells
himself that he simply flew away in order to process it it's downright
dismal this theory however was seemingly debunked later when in the Hey Arnold
movie Arnold gets a video message from everyone he's ever helped before this
includes a video from the pigeon man himself who seems to be happily living
in Paris all is saved right maybe not reddit user Sheldon Lee Cooper still
isn't convinced by it and thinks that Arnold imagined that video too after all
take a listen to what pigeon man had to say to him thank you for all you've done
to help me but some people just are not meant to be with other people and some
are some people are meant to be with people that sounds fairly ominous
doesn't it maybe the theory that he killed himself
still holds some weight after all and the video is just another means for
Arnold to cope speaking of weight there's no way that a full grown man
could be lifted up and flown away by pigeons and given that we never see any
sort of physics defying actions elsewhere within the show it doesn't
really fit after all the show is very grounded in reality and never shied away
from mature themes hey Arnold is actually a show about Helga this theory
is a little more lighthearted to give us a break from the heavily ominous
theories that most people seem to have about this show
this theory originating from reddit user I smoke the excess says that Hey Arnold
may not be a show about Arnold at all it's actually about Helga Helga is
definitely one of the more memory characters from the show playing the
role of love interest / Puli / friend depending on the episode she outwardly
pretends to hate Arnold while secretly harboring an intense
crush on him Arnold seems to tolerate her though he's clearly put off by her
bullying him so what makes Helga the main character well she's the only
character in the show ever shown to monologue
she has intense a little queasy when no one else is around as if she's talking
to the audience herself this is a trait that is typically saved for the
protagonist unless it's a reoccurring theme for all characters torture
creature Helga is clearly an anomaly here she's
also the character with the most intense personal struggles as she comes into
conflict with herself and her own coming-of-age story her intense romantic
feelings for Arnold coupled with her pretense at hatred for him are one
aspect of this it's hard to express how you feel when you're a teenager and only
coming into yourself and beginning to understand your feelings the
juxtaposition between her mean tomboyish antics and her pink girlish clothing are
another complication in her struggle with her identity as she comes into
adolescence this kind of struggle makes her a more three-dimensional character
than the majority of the rest of the cast
Arnold included her depth makes her more suited to a protagonists role the title
of the show and opening sequence lines all come from Helga - making her
importance to the show a concrete fact the monologues in theory make this show
come from her perspective but that's hard to fully conceive when the entire
show seems to be about Arnold however as a young girl presumably dealing with her
first crush everything is about Arnold to her even if this is supposedly the
story of her own life if Helga is truly the main character of Hey Arnold it
makes the show much deeper almost metatextual renditions of the teen girl
experience which is a little weird but fascinating all the same they never
listened to me the Creator stole the idea for Hey Arnold from a real child
right on cue we're back to the dark and creepy for our final theory this theory
was something of an urban legend for years and tells the story of how Hey
Arnold supposedly came about it says that the creator of the show once got
lost in New York City and stumbled into a hotel looking for somewhere to spend
the night there he met a nine-year-old boy who was the child of two very old
parents a shout-out to our first theory of the video the creator saw that the
boy was disfigured troubled with a tendency to believe whatever he was told
he had a host of imaginary friends but nobody real to talk to he asked the boy
if he could tell a story and promised to make sure the boy got a better life in
the future however he never kept his promise and instead made a successful
television series about this sad eccentric boy got obscenely rich from it
I never thought about the poor boy that inspired him ever again
sick right well this theory may remain just an urban legend the real story of
hey Arnold's allegedly mysterious creator is that he's simply a guy named
Craig Bartlett an animator who left cartoons and always wanted to make his
own he based the show on what life was like for him as a child he was always a
daydreamer with a vivid imagination when he got a job working for Nickelodeon on
the Rugrats he saw his opportunity and they let him
make a cartoon about a football-headed kid and his wacky adventures Hey Arnold
so you'll be glad to know that Hey Arnold wasn't created by some horrible
man who took advantage of a child as the legend said it was just made by guy who
based Arnold on himself but know before you ask he doesn't have a football head
but what do you think do you have any creepy theories about hey Arnold let us
know in the comment section below don't forget to like this video subscribe and
hit that notification bell but most importantly stay wicked
you