The Kids Horror Spiral

[@TheTaleFoundry]

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[@NoraYui-Music]

cool, I might actually give it a try :)

[@missmozzarella5487]

Mr.talefoundry you looked at the wrong things this what you showed was no brain rott

[@ZayZay017]

Wall it is brain rot, it’s not good example of it. Good work on the child lore stuff I’ve bin doing it for years without noticing

[@MoondustManwise]

ngl I wouldn't consider the infection mlp aus as childlore, since most of the people participating in it aren't children at all, but adults who were in the fandom as kids.

[@Hexagonal865]

Wanted to watch this but it’s night Damn it

[@poweroffriendship2.0]

The idea of Horror Mascots being profitable enough to get its own merch towards younger demographic (like Huggy Wuggy from Poppy's Playtine) has the same energy as how R-Rated films like _Robocop,_ _Toxic Avengers,_ _Terminator_ and _Rambo_ are marketable to sell toys to kids.

[@Dragowolf_Rising]

Don't forget Alien and Aliens. I had xonomorph toys.

[@Stephen-Fox]

Some of them also got children's cartoon adaptations - For example I remember watching cartoons based on both Robocop and _checks notes_ Attack of the Killer Tomatoes as a kid... (no, seriously, why did a fairly niche 1978 comedy-horror musical become a franchise in the late 80s and early 90s with both sequels and an animated children's series?)

[@Dragowolf_Rising]

@@Stephen-Fox Attaaaaaaack of the killer tomatoooees!

[@adrianakanska1295]

Why are you everywhere

[@staticaleel5068]

Honestly given that historical context, I’m completely fine with kids latching onto popular horror just as they did with violent action movies in the 80’s. Sure it’s way more cringe than it was in the 80’s, but nothing against it personally. God knows I definitely did the same. However, the whole brain rot epidemic on the internet is horrid, like it doesn’t feel like a normal enjoyment of media anymore, it’s legit making them stupid.

[@DropsOfMars]

In FNAF 1's defense, it didn't TRY to cater to kids intentionally. ADULTS knew animatronic animals were creepy, establishments like Chuck E Cheese had long fallen out of favor. Then it was a surprise hit with kids and what do you know, it was colorful mascots that did the trick.

[@dionettaeon]

There's also the fact that Scott Cawthon originally made FNAF in response to criticism that one of his previous game's mascots gave off the vibes of a creepy animatronic. And he made those previous games _intending_ for them to be child friendly.

[@gscsilvavaladares7065]

Yeah , the creator only created the game because of some comments telling that the models that he made for his past games looked scary so he did his shot at it , and ohhhh boy he had no half of an ideia how far this would go.

[@Chronuz]

And the fact that it didn't have gratuitous realistic gore like most horror media had, made it safe atleast visually, to kids.

[@TheMightyO999]

My issue is when people lump poppy playtime in with something like skibidi toilet or garten of banban, at the end of the day Poppy playtime is still a very gory game with some dark themes, just look at chapter 3 and some of the things in it. It's not made for kids, and I'm annoyed that Tale Foundry (who I respect and enjoy a lot) is lumping the game where kids are drugged and surgically transferred into monstrous forms with SKIBIDI TOILET.

[@King63Kobra]

I think people also under sell how much children are obsessed with the macabre. Children are infatuated with death and fear because those are two things they don't really understand. Not only do adults understand that old animatronixs like chucky cheese are uncanny, so do the kids. Freddy Fazbear appeals to them too because it's massively relatable. The same reason why kids were into movies like Chucky. Yeah, of course kids are gonna be enthralled by a film about a killer doll coming to life and attacking a kid! It's practically *about* their feelings

[@Volcano22207]

Part of the root problem is that companies are trying to be an “everything site” without separating kids and adults Combined with no places for kids in person (at least in the US) outside of schools and it leads to them being rampant everywhere

[@musicsbricabrac7195]

Yep, I find it quite easy, even cowardly, to summarize the situation "well in fact the children have always done it like that" or the opposite "the children were better before". If we have created child protection laws over the decades and changes in perspectives, it's not for shit

[@Volcano22207]

@@musicsbricabrac7195 to some extent is it’s just kids being kids , but ya the real issue is when it’s capitalized on for gain (Elsa gate and cheap slop content) But also parents need to parent and it’s gotten harder since they both need to work in this economy

[@j.2512]

there should be no separation, kids should not be online , period.

[@simonsnowlock5937]

the true horror is kids no longer having a safe place online, designated for them. and children wanting to ve influencers/ being concerned with how they appear online is sad, concerning, and dangerous.

[@fjordivae3007]

even in real life, we're starting to have a lack of þird places. it sucks because it's eiþer home or school and if you live in some suburban hellscape or an insanely rural area then you kinda have nowhere to go. where do we go to play and hang out? malls are dying god dammit

[@Cubeytheawesome]

Yeah, on Bluesky, someone was talking about what the Darkness from that rejected show Pibby, and one person mentioned that the darkness was likely meant to represent the loss of childhood

[@DarthBiomech]

The true horror is that kids _can't_ have such a safe space. Eventually but inevitably, it gets accounts that _aren't_ kids...

[@kqlolll2618]

Kids shouldnt even be online anyway, but if your dumb enough to let a child have internet access then your probably a bad parent, anyone with a mind seeing a person shove a tablet in front of their kids face instead of teaching them knows they are a bad parent, since they only care for themselves not being bothered and not about the child itself, and that also shows they shouldn't have had kids in the first place.

[@lubue5795]

@@kqlolll2618 I don't agree. It's the reality now that being online is important and expected. Companies hire via websites, school sometimes send material that way etc. And it will only become more and more important. There's no denying that. Keeping children fully way from the online world to protect them seems to me similar like not teaching them about death, smoking and other "grown up" topics. Instead of banning it, you should teach your child about it, let it gather experiences in a protected and safe environment where you can also control what they sees and explain to them what it is. Because you won't be able to keep it away from them forever. They will hear about it at school or from friends. At some points, they'll find a way to get access to it, be that at a public library, a friend's place or in some other way. We should know that much from alcohol, drugs, pornography, etc.Trying to keep your child away from something will only make that something more interesting, while at the same time does not help them to understand what's dangerous about it.

[@elescurridizo4066]

I have one problem with stuff like Poppy Playtime or Skibbidy Toilet, but it's not really with the thing itself existing or the kids interacting with it. I still remember playing hide and seek with my friends and the one searching for the others acting as Slenderman, me drawing Herobrine, and other dumb stuff like that, so I don't care about kids doing similar things with the current trends. The problem I have is the way these things form/spread. A lot of people say Skibbidy Toilet is just Gmod animations all over again, but the thing is, even if they are equally silly and dumb, the Gmod animations were just made by random people because they thought it was fun and wanted to share it with more people, meanwhile, Skibbidy Toilet is made by one person, releasing more episodes only because of how successful they are. Even if it may have changed later, at the start Fnaf was made just because Scoot wanted to, not caring about how popular it could be, while Poppy Playtime is made by a company trying to follow a formula to be as successful as possible. It just gives me this "corporate" or "manufactured" feeling, you know?

[@staticaleel5068]

I’d even argue an over saturated vibe to it too. Because on KZbin, the whole brain rot epidemic is being caused by masses of content farms releasing disgusting amounts of slop content on a daily, no, bi-daily basis. It’s just releasing content for contents sake, no heart or soul or thought. Just a money making machine that no one is regulating.

[@royalknightsleipmon2345]

I thought Skibidi Toilet was harmless nonsense until the first time I walked into a toy shop and saw skibidi toilet collectible mystery figure boxes, the type where you're supposed to keep buying them until you've collected all 12-ish of them. The fact that popular internet memes are considered marketable now and have mainstream merchandise so quickly after they become popular is kind of nauseating.

[@Waspinmymind]

If those gmod videos existed today they’d be merch of it. In fact I think a few of them did eventually get merch. Like I don’t know how to tell you this. But everything is like this today. You’re not going to find stuff that isn’t like this. And either you grow up or end up that weird adult shouting at children.

[@mosshivenetwork117]

Yea anything that gets popular these days has to be shoved everywhere and has to be corporate.

[@KingOpenReview]

That's part of a broader thing about how corporate interests effect everything else.

[@NoraYui-Music]

"kids these days, back in my day; kids smoked and went to war"

[@SugarF-AJ]

Fr though 💀

[@TomTriyingtothink]

Nope back then people were skinny and weak unlike 50 years earlier.

[@kaekaesam6240]

Jeez ok great great great grand parent , 0-0

[@angryrabidfoxes7380]

You know there’s something to be said about neither era being problem free

[@TomTriyingtothink]

@@angryrabidfoxes7380 True life has always been hard and always will be in one way or another. Its hard to properly evaluate the problems of today without hindsight.

[@marvibun]

I always enjoy artistic breakdowns of those kinds of games, because usually, the discussion is never about the games at the end of the day. It always boils down to artistic integrity, the lack thereof, and how much we just need media for children that has more complex nuances.

[@Cubeytheawesome]

I agree, because I think the reason society isn’t doing well these days is because children aren’t doing fine. Their entertainment now is lackluster, there aren’t any spaces for them, parents are concerned about what schools are teaching them, and Their getting reheated leftovers on TV rather than fresh and original content. With the rise of indie content, it’s important to have some stuff made for kids. It may be risky, but it’s really important.

[@gremlin8604]

4:00 Wait, so, can "Ring around the Rosie" be considered 19-century brainrot because kids use a sinister song allegedly describing a girl that dies of Great Plague and is cremated as a game?

[@alephorsmth9140]

oh my god imagine 200 years into the future people start singing the huggy wuggy song not knowing what it meant

[@russianvalkyrie2358]

Thats not true its a myth. Its not actually about the plague at all.

[@Phantomcrustacean]

Research has shown that there isn’t any connection to the black plague, no one’s really sure where exactly it came from

[@ATHFNoobie]

There is no evidence to support it being about that. That interpretation only started in the 1950s. Also English version is roses not Rosie. Suggesting more it's not about a person

[@gemstone108]

@@ATHFNoobiethere’s lots of other children’s nursery rhymes that are likely about much darker topics. The podcast Twenty Thousand Hertz did an episode on nursery rhymes that goes into them more in depth!

[@beckstheimpatient4135]

Kids have always been creepy little sh**s - always. Especially smaller children who still have that selfish streak in them. It's not a bad thing, it's part of their core development. But they ARE into scary things and always have been. It's a necessary developmental step.

[@leperface]

As a kid I spent all my free time in the library. When I wasn't learning how to get free unsupervised access to the internet, I was checking out scary books especially about old folk lore and mythology. That ended REAL QUICK when I started telling my parents about drawing a ring to summon the devil.

[@Speederzzz]

Kids are creepy shits, once I was doing a birthday party and one randomly approached me, told me "my mom was in a car crash with her friend" and left me alone.

[@slitheen3]

Kids have always play-pretended to kill each other, or violent play with their toys. I remember orchestrating civil wars or apocalyptic scenarios with my littlest pet shops & hot wheels, or copying crash bandicoot games to act out irl with my sibling and correcting him when he didn’t "die correctly". I was also one of those kids who liked learning & was particularly drawn to the darker aspects of history like weapons and torture Some kids are DEFINITELY into darker, morbid subjects than others. I was one of those. Some kids aren't interested in it at all and become distressed when other kids try to talk to them about it. Some kids DEFINITELY go too far, and dig too far into the dark corners of tje internet... or accidentally stumble into them. And im not sire its necessarily.. easier to do nowadays than it used to be, but there's more kids with unrestricted access and are more likely to come across it. Not quite sure what my point is here, except I guess that that its normal and even important kids explore and play around with dark subjects, but they need their own space to do that in and be protected from things that could actually scar them. Or at least, it needs to be a drip feed/gradual process so they arent completely overwhelmed by it and learn how to deal with it

[@zelinknalu6912]

According to my mom, when I was a kid I'd often stand silently in the dark at night (I still kinda do that sometimes). This always freaked her out.

[@kaekaesam6240]

Woooo that’s a crazy take! xD and I wouldn’t say all kids, like seriously I couldn’t handle horror/creepy genre stuff till I was in my early to mid teens!

[@unluckyp]

You were right about horror being a petri dish for this kind of stuff. I still remember being a 10-11 year old tasked with writing a horror story and mine was just a Slenderman fan fiction which ended with the protagonist's younger brother dying.

[@crest2x4]

How fitting this comes out when Piglet's Big Game has become "Baby's first Silent Hill."

[@andrewthomasprism9388]

I've already gotten two separate news articles about it...

[@lincolnmiller4757]

Me too

[@GallowglassVT]

I think it's important to remember that sometimes, parents, teachers and any other concerned adults can often project their own idea of childhood onto kids as a matter of expectation, even in the unfortunate event that said kids have been witness to stuff that child should see. In this case, engaging in morbid or just childishly grim stuff can also be a means of reclaiming control in the face an unkind world, or even just as an act of rebellion.

[@sophiatalksmusic3588]

true! in childlore studies, they call that the “utopian ideal” of children- the parents’ expectations of childhood as perfect and innocent. children push back on this through something called antithetical play, which is what you’re describing here. they create folklore in order to define their own collective identities and to push back against adult interference.

[@GallowglassVT]

@sophiatalksmusic3588 I had no idea it had its own set of terms. That's so cool!

[@hauntedwafflecake]

It's amazing how many adults simply do not seem to remember ever being kids themselves, or are unable to look back at their own childhoods in a more objective manner when comparing themselves or people their own age to "kids these days". I can think of equivalents in my own childhood for everything that is popular with kids now, and I can also see myself being into a lot of those things if I was their age.

[@kqlolll2618]

Also most adults simply dont view children as human beings, and that can get worse into child abuse. My parents have been horrible and they havent treated me as anything but a human being, they want me to be a perfect doll of unrealistic standards, they want to project their childhoods on me when those cant even work anymore. But a child is a human being, and none of us fit in a box anyways, we are all different, and none of us are truly normal. My stories, and stories in general are shaped from our experiences, and even our characters carry the traits we have since.. we made them. All my characters have been people treated horribly, but i give them someone who eventually loves them and takes care of them, something i still feel as though i really dont have.

[@j.2512]

"just let people groom your kids reeeeee"

[@illogicalconsistency]

At 6:25, something legit clicked inside me when you said Folklore That makes, like so much sense. It’s always been like this, always iterative

[@CrazyMama75]

As the parent of kids who've got autism and one of which will seek out horror stories, the scarier the better. I tried encouraging what I saw as "safer" kids horror like goosebumps but the more I tried to avoid fnaf and poppy playtime and skibidi (my youngest doesn't like most horror but loves skibidi). But eventually I realised that some kids feel real horror everyday. Like the trauma that comes from trying to live in a world that you don't feel safe in, or feel like you don't fit in, or where you never know which of the adults around you will be safe and supportive or authoritarian and cruel, intentionally or not. So I realised, my kid (the one who loves horror) has so many traumas that I need to support her through each day, so having some content that can help her process those fears and feelings can have value, even if I don't grasp it. I've never enjoyed horror as a genre but I can understand that if other adults enjoy certain genres more than others, why can't kids. Plus, even with content control and constant surveillance from me when my kids were online, I couldn't protect them from the stories because they'd hear everything on the playground anyway. We've never watched squid games, yet my kids knew everything about it, more than me (I had to watch several discussion KZbin videos on the show to understand what they were talking about). And places like kids KZbin are actually so full of trolls making deliberately gross and problematic videos, that it's like there is no way to fully protect our kids online. So I decided to change my approach. Instead of fighting to protect them, I decided to support them through these contents and learn to think critically about what they're consuming. I set all the family devices to the same KZbin adult channel, that I could keep on top of on my phone without them feeling like I don't trust them, and I took more time from my day to watch content with them and have conversations about what we're watching, what it means, how it makes us feel, etc. Which also means I've had to face my own fears, cos I hate horror, especially the gross bloody stuff (due to my own childhood trauma), so I can best support my children with these interests. Instead of fighting the new cultural norms for kids thesedays, I meet them on their level and then we can work together through the content and help them better process and understand the meanings and lore and morals, etc. And my kids have been thrilled to show me these interests, I've noticed they've become less obsessive about it all now they're not having to be sneaky to keep up with their friends. They still enjoy the horror, especially the lore and layers and story telling, but in a healthier sense (I hope). I personally can't stand FNAF or skibidi, it seems so pointless to me, but then so was lonnytunes and other stuff I watched as a kid. Like one of my fav cartoons as a kid was one where Penelope Pitstop was being constantly kidnapped by dastardly so-in-so and recused by a cartoon network version of snow whites dwarfs. Like alot of playtime when I was little was of friends tying each other up with skipping ropes and scarfs on the playground and being kidnapped or rescued over n over again. If my kids played a game like that I'd be horrified lol. Better we adapt with the times through conversations, sharing knowledge and teaching our kids to think critically rather than blindly consume content. Or that's what I believe anyway, others will have their own parenting approaches that work for their families.

[@dogdemon1522]

"gone are the ways of neopets--" me, an adult, with neopets in a separate tab pulled up as we're about to celebrate the 25th anniversary tomorrow: *HEAVY SWEATING*

[@omgtatercat]

In short, kids have always been weird, and adults are worried about what they consume. It's like the Pokemon craze back in the 90s and parents thinking it was either stupid or dangerous. Or Satanic, if you were a religious nut. I'm over 30 years old and my dad still doesn't really understand my interests, and that's fine. I don't understand kids, but so long as what they're consuming isn't causing them to do bad things or say bad things, then you don't really have to get it. But yeah, supervision is the most important thing to do for them.

[@joaomigueltorresbueno4457]

I mean most people dont like it not because they think its bad for kids(not entirely because of that at least) but because they think its "ruining" the comunities they like which is bs but like i get the annoyence

[@JackWolf1]

Adults tend to forget that children aren’t stupid or ignorant, they just lack context. And there is honestly little difference between a child and adult, it’s just that children tend to put less restrictions on their imagination.

[@perfectallycromulent]

Kids are ignorant. That's why they lack that context. And why they need to go to school for a dozen years before they can become useful members of society.

[@althefunkman]

@@perfectallycromulent Calling them ignorant is a bit harsh. How can you expect someone to understand "context" if they've only been alive for a few years? It's a bit weird to call a child "ignorant" if they haven't lived long enough to experience the world and understand that context, you know? They're not willingly choosing not to understand or not seek out different experiences, they just simply haven't lived long enough to experience it. How can you expect a 5 year old or a 15 year old to understand how the world works on their own? That's why they go to school, so they can learn things about the world and gain critical thinking skills so that they can figure things out for themselves. It isn't ignorance it's just a lack of experience because again, they're children.

[@musicsbricabrac7195]

Yep Well, we are starting to see an increase in developmental delay in children, the development of fine motor skills and imagination, creativity. They are the direct consequences of our own education and our actions, turning a blind eye to certain factual concerns is just as unhealthy as saying "me at the time, we weren't shit". That's because they don't have contexte, that we need to stay with us on this type of content

[@musicsbricabrac7195]

@@althefunkman They're still ignorant and it's not bad in this CONTEXT, but that's a fact, and because that's it, that we need, as adult, to be with them :)

[@kqlolll2618]

Children are still basically babies, and havent been in the world for a very long time. Expecting things so harsh to them is ridiculous because,, you do know thats basically a baby right??

[@jesterful]

definitely didnt expect to see a tale foundry video with poppy playtime in the thumbnail in my notifs

[@tomasramirez2914]

Nor did I thought Brain Rot would be related to scary I guess it’s becoming its own horror genre

[@fjordivae3007]

honestly anyþing from Tale Foundry is pretty good so regardless of Poppy Playtime being on it... I had to click 🎉🎉

[@MiaGonzalez-dy8ne]

Same I didn’t expect that

[@catdownthestreet]

​@@fjordivae3007 þorn user spotted! neat.

[@mexicaniguana9126]

The effects that it’ll have on kids is terrifying

[@SayisSpeakin]

The goosebumps book series was really popular. Kids have always loved to get scared, it doesn’t mean they’re dumber or that they got brain rot. I also think those mascot horror games got some artistic integrity that’s worth looking at with sincerity. Kids are cool cause they don’t pass immediate judgement on the things and media that they engage with

[@musicsbricabrac7195]

That's the difference, it's a book and not a speam of shorts contents that influence even us, adults, when website like tiktok was create to make us stay longer, and consum again and again. Hype to be in some year with the next recommendation on kids

[@gemstone108]

@@musicsbricabrac7195 thankfully kids still read Goosebumps too. They made a graphic novel of The Haunted Mask!

[@Accidental.Creation]

My God, I love your little intro. The music, the smooth animation, absolutely beautiful. Also, hearing you say "Skibidi Toilet" is beyond hilarious to me, haha.

[@SGRS28]

How good is the intro music!! Reminds me of the movie coraline!

[@thefunniman3285]

Never expected a mascot horror episode from Tale Foundry but I ain't complainin

[@emmalyneedwards4433]

I believe they did make a mascot horror episode before

[@artofzetsu6130]

He did already. Nostalgia horror episode.

[@QualityCandor]

The brainrot issue is less to do with mascot horror and stuff like "Skibidi toilet" in and of itself, but the frenetic pace and sensory overwhelming nature of the content around them. Games are able to control pace through gameplay and the player, but video content in a nonstop stream thru sites like TikTok and KZbin Shorts, dumped into youngsters' eyes with no context, and often no adult supervision, is where a lot of the concern comes from. There are reports of markedly shortened attention spans, and concerns with cognitive development. I do agree that the story elements themselves are not necessarily the culprit (I myself was equal parts horrified and fascinated as a youngster by FNAF), but the concept of brainrot here is a bit misunderstood.

[@katarzynamedynska1682]

You're right

[@bia5141]

I teach English to kids in kindergarten in country where it's second language and I can confirm that 5-6 years olds do love horror cartoons at very least (my colleague played them some during Halloween). Kids just love to get scared

[@Lunarshade29]

Creepypasta has always been kids, some of the most famous are by tweens and teens which, sure are older but are still kids exploring storytelling. They’re subverting stuff. Im glad y’all were kind to the kids with this one

[@gpwdog]

Honestly I don't really think its bad at all. As long as it doesn't encourage them to genuinely hurt people. Also hate those channels that sexualize this content and purposely direct it towards kids and monetize it on something like KZbin kids...

[@0racle.sunrise3570]

Yh that's my main issue with Mascot Horror (& it's not even the game creator's fault!).

[@oceanb0rn05]

​@@0racle.sunrise3570 tbf it sorta is on poppy's playtime's behalf considering some of the stuff they upload in their channel.

[@Buffalo872]

Like the amazing digital circus it didn't deserve this treatment!

[@catempress5429]

@@0racle.sunrise3570 YES! SAME!

[@j.2512]

"but how does it affect you that the next generation is growing up on degenerate fetish porn" Muh let people enjoy things!!!!

[@momom6197]

Ngl, I thought this would be about AI slop generated for kids under 6, but instead it was nothing I'd ever heard about and extremely thought-provoking! thanks

[@IsabellaMathew]

Same. Though do think Ai slob is problem because kids deserve better.

[@Rapid26]

This video really has opened my eyes and gave me a different perspective on "brain rot". Never really thought of it just children being children and having fun with it. Thanks for the different pov Tale Foundry.

[@sadee4175]

I love that you are covering child lore. It's such an interesting phenomenon. My sister and I were recounting something that was passed around our elementary school. Some kid had seen the rug rats episode about the bully that comes to the playground when it's noon and your shadow disappears. That story got passed around the playground and shared. Most of us didn't have cable at the time so we ate it up.

[@roxywolfdragon]

I’m one of those Fnaf kids, as early as 8 years old I was enjoying the games and characters and talking about its lore on the playground. To this day, it is still one of my most passionate special interests and I’m about 6 months away from being an adult. I look back and just remember how much this series made me smile, I made so many friends and picked up awesome hobbies. I was initially scared of it as a kid but that only drew me in more, considering I have a really morbid sense of curiosity (I’ve always loved parasites, other infectious diseases and disaster documentaries from as early as I can remember). The takeaway is that content like this is positive and lets kids explore things like social interaction, connecting dots of storylines, creativity and just having fun! Now I’m sitting here with my collection of Funko and Hex Fnaf plushies and figures and thankful that I did interact with Fnaf like I did

[@happyclown4331]

This video is a lovely deep dive, in ways I did not expect. The both approaches, slow build up into that 'adults poaching kids content' I feel like hits an important internet and human core. Thank you for making this video and the way you speak life into this type of content, to flourish the points you bring home. Lotta town of salem vibes from this video (good ways).

[@lancerguy3667]

I do think there's a nature to kids that has always been around that parents are kind of just blind to for a while. I remember my nephews were talking about Among Us a few years back, and my mother made a crack about how kids are always pretending to fight and betray each other these days. I was, like, "'These days'!? Are you under the impression that little boys playing Cowboys and Indians in their back yards during the 1950's were pretending to make happy friends with each other?"

[@catdownthestreet]

That's really funny

[@Pumpkinheadedman]

You've managed to explain this in a way I haven't seen anyone else do, and it's opened my eyes a little. I guess we all learn something new everyday.

[@SpriteGuard]

Am I the only one who sees skibidi toilet and just sees the unbroken tradition of Badger Badger Badger, All Your Base, and Rejected?

[@sophiatalksmusic3588]

you get it! it only seems weird once you’re outside that cultural circle it was created in.

[@szabibekas]

I get a bit annoyed when people say "kids (or something else) ruined xyz media" because sure it gets grating when something you don't like is unavoidably everywhere, but you're supposed to be able to shape your online experience yourself. You can block topics, people. Just because the whole multi-level monster madness is trending with the backrooms, it doesn't mean the version you like isn't there.

[@Cubeytheawesome]

For a while, Friday Night Funkin was seen as a bad game because kids claimed that characters seen in mods like Hank from madness combat or Sonic were “from Fnf.” It also was hard because many of the popular mods were just EXE slop, and there was very little intel about the actual base game. Honestly, the Pico update has rekindled my love for Fnf, because since then, we’ve gotten more transparency with the devs, mods have been way cooler, and some songs don’t even sound like Fnf anymore, because they’re just so amazing. I predict a lot of big artists in the future will have some experience with FNF

[@catbatrat1760]

Yeah, I was gonna say, that comment was... uncharacteristically mean. Tale Foundry usually has such chill vibes. :/

[@DarthBiomech]

But kids did kind of ruined the internet. Not cuz of anything _they_ did, but because evil people are now able to point _to_ kids on the internet and say "See? We need to neuter _your_ freedom in order to protect _them!"_

[@voidsoul42]

@@Cubeytheawesome I agree, but why is people discovering X character from FNF considered bad? it's like discovering captain falcon or marth through smash

[@Emrirwastaken]

​@@voidsoul42Not "bad" persay, but really damn annoying. Like the classic example of your parent saying "that's zelda, right?" at a picture of Link. Misidentifying something that is so obvious to you is inherently irritating.

[@seanmcfadden3712]

I'm reminded of this quote from Terry Pratchett's Hogfather (a particular favourite of mine). "It was nice to hear the voices of little children at play, provided you took care to be far enough away not to hear what they were actually saying." Children have always been drawn to dark subject matter and played with it. Part of how they learn to process it and how to handle the less than pleasant parts of life as they get older. The internet has just broadened how much they can find. Something I find funny, in a dark humour way, is how many of the adults who are shocked that kids exploring and embracing the dark, violent, disturbing, gross, etc., are the exact same adults who will actively ignore censorship warnings and not pay attention to what the child in their care is doing, until it negatively impacts them (the adult). The same people who will dismissively let a preschooler play Grand Theft Auto "because games are (just) for kids", and then blame the developers for exposing their child to horrible things by making a, clearly marked, MA rated video game. I feel like these sorts of people have a clear image in their heads of what they think their child is like, but don't take the time to actually engage with and learn who their child is. I have talked with children who have been playing games that seemed disturbing and juvenile, only to have their explanations be surprisingly mature, deep, and responsible. They don't want to hurt their friends, but safe scares are fun. They don't want to get eaten by a wolf/snake/monster/creature, but they know things need to eat. It's interesting. Thanks to anyone who read all this. Lots of thoughts.

[@Inlelendri]

May I add something more to your quote? Because another passage from Hogfather seemed to fit rather well here: "When you were grown up you only feared, well, logical things. Poverty. Illness. Being found out. At least you weren't mad with terror because of something under the stairs. The world wasn't full of arbitrary light and shade. The wonderful world of childhood? Well, it wasn't a cut-down version of the adult one, that was certain. It was more like the adult one written in big heavy letters. Everything was... more. More everything." That whole book takes such a good look at our relationship with childhood and imagination and how we cope, including the dark bits. Thank you for sharing that

[@seeleunit2000]

I really would like an analysis on the need for adults to start a moral panic over Pop culture. It's been happening for decades upon decades and man it's weird.

[@fallentitan9286]

Yea I can say what I remember as a kid, I was one of those kids who got to watch more adult themed movies since in Kindergarten I remember we use to play Super hero and I always chose Hellboy since he was my favorite hero at that time, and I remember none of my class mates knew about him so I had to explain him and once in a while more and more kids knew who Hellboy was, the teachers hated it since kids where saying Hell so I changed my hero to Jason Vorhees....Looking back at it, it was weird that the Teachers hated Hellboy but didn't mind Jason Vorhees but as I grew older I did notice our lore changed from super heros to war when in the 2nd grade the huge talk was about Mortal Kombat Armageddon, Bionicle, Star Wars, Transformers, and Halo Even the songs we use to sing from Kindergarten to 3rd grade was Lemonade, the Duck Lemonade stand, Killing Barni, Elmo has a Gun, Gummy Bear Song, Nightmare on Elm street rhyme, Axel F,

[@stephenflint3640]

You bring up "Killing Barney" as part of Childlore, and it sent me down the mental trails of thoughts and memories. I remember as a child, now a man of almost 35, of once liking Barney well enough, it was childrens entertainment in a time when the only shows i could watch was whatever was on the TV at the time, but then through a combination of "maturity" and exposure to other children who felt they had grown past Barney and taught the songs of "I love you, You love me, i chased Barney up a tree..." or something similar to the cadence of the Barney song... Im digressing- my main point was that as children mature, we go from loving and advocating for a media, Barney in this example, to outgrowing it, disliking it, all the way to adulthood where a loathing for the simple, saccharine story on endless repetition makes for such a visceral reaction that, whether apocryphal or not, a story is made of a man who dug himself out of the depths of Lock-in Syndrome merely so he could tell someone to "Change the fucking channel" after weeks if not months of being stuck listening to Barney on endless repeat.

[@OpossumIRL]

As a folklorist myself, I appreciate how you talk about it here. Something I’m always having to convey to my students is that folklore is not a thing of the past- it’s created and recreated every day. I will say, although we were largely established by anthropologists, we are our own academic discipline now! There’s certainly still a lot of overlap, but we use different approaches/methods

[@emperorxenu519]

As an adult, skibidi toilet isn't confusing or surprising to me in the least. It's a pretty straightforward evolution of gmod skits and YTPs. It's not new at all.

[@100nodog]

You had me in the first half, not gonna lie. You played Devil's advocate quite well, and i was worried the heelturn would never come!

[@victoriajeanleslie3116]

As the parent of a kid who has just started to delve into this stuff, this video is greatly appreciated. It's given me some great context for its existence and why it's important for them. I mean I was an early internet culture kid and some of the stuff we watched and laughed at was bizarre too lol.

[@cdarklock]

Fifty years ago we were singing "great green gobs of greasy, grimy gopher guts" on the playground. It's fairly ridiculous to suggest that it is somehow more destructive to see a head singing in a toilet.

[@TheCoyoteOutlaw]

This reminds me of my own childhood (as it should). I had a wild imagination and was very keen on making fantasy worlds. I made up my own languages and codes/phrases, creatures, plants, cities, cultures...yeah, I poached a lot too. I read a lot. Like...a lot. I was reading four books at any given time. I took things I liked from everywhere and created whatever I wanted. It was for escapism which turned into maladaptive daydreaming, sure...but I learned through it. And that's the important part. Play is how children learn. And children pick up so much from their world. And that's why I push so very hard for children's media to have some effort and quality put into it.

[@phoenix_seven9531]

I'm an adult now, but when I was in middle school my friends and I made our own Creepypasta OCs. We did it because we thought it was fun and liked horror stories. It was never about actually hurting people. We just liked making stories.

[@TheRandomMan001]

This is probably the most mature take on this topic I’ve seen in a looooong time.

[@jfangm]

"They're pretending to kill each other on the playground." Me and my friends fighting a valiant last stand in the schoolyard: Yes. I honestly miss the days when the Internet wasn't just sitting in our pocket, waiting for us to become bored. Back when it took a conscious effort and a few minutes of robot screaming noises to access it.

[@alexcantrell700]

I had to ask myself a question after seeing this video. Come to think of it, I never experienced child lore other than believing in the boogeyman and other cryptic. I never spent time with other children to truly experience anything and in the end, I'd say I had a failed childhood. Although, weirdly, I have a massive obsession with death. Drawing it everywhere, studying it, thinking about it, but never in a serial killer mindset. I just want to be surrounded by it

[@xIstenbul]

Remind me to never let you be within a mile radius of my dad's gun cabinet.

[@alexcantrell700]

@xIstenbul lol. I'm a pacifist with the mind of the grim reaper. I won't cause any harm

[@LilPale]

It's understandable, the curiosity is there, maybe it's more sad or more optimistic, it can be for a lot of things.

[@Malikimusmaximus]

It's a very interesting tale in social media

[@theclockworkartist]

The fact people still remember Hello Puppets kind of surprises me. Also, I'll die on the hill that "My Friendly Neighborhood" is the best one.

[@StitchwraithStudios]

Honestly as an adult who likes FNAF and bendy and other mascot horror it kinda makes me hate myself and feel childish for liking these things when liking horror stuff is basically my entire personality

[@samueldevries4637]

I used to be the same way, but everyone has their own thing they enjoy that's different. Ours just happens to be weird horror.

[@StitchwraithStudios]

@ I guess but being a fan of “children’s horror” makes me feel lesser and like I can’t be taken seriously

[@lemonjuice2597]

If you like it, you like it. Nobody really cares enough to judge.

[@redpanda6497]

​@@StitchwraithStudios It's not children's horror. Just kids like it. But I understand how you feel.

[@Emrirwastaken]

​@@redpanda6497At a certain point in the trend pipeline, it does become tailormade to appeal to children (vibrant colours, easy names, general easy appeal). It's been 15 some years, game devs are learning what format has been popular are making copies of that for pure profit.

[@coreyinthedryer7368]

anyone else feels like there’s a weird paradox of an abundance to appeal towards kids to take their parents money and no place for them to actually enjoy their interests without people preying on them for any motives it’s like a weird landscape to be a kid on the internet i think how fnaf grew on the internet is a prime example because the story is interesting to a child, something you want to understand and your favorite youtubers are into but engaging in fnaf recently is very anti-kid bc ppl want this series to be so mature and avoid being called “childish”

[@StitchwraithStudios]

To be fair the main villain in FNAF is a serial killer who targets children so…

[@epic_ramen5157]

its so refreshing seeing a channel primarily about the deconstruction of media in an intelligent way, therefore to be an educational channel for writers and anyone else who like the content, to talk about children and "Brain Rot". definitely learned a lot of terms that help me put the whole parental fear into words, and i even remember being in those playgrounds just a decade ago, when FNAF came out and all of my friends and everyone else was absolutely loosing their mind. its like these people forgot about how insane troll face was back then, i remember trying to summon bloody marry and even some days running home from the buss because it was foggy out and i was scared of slender man because of what kids at school were saying. Things like what kids today are watching just happens, everywhere and endlessly, its not a problem, not the content really, but how its being consumed and distributed? maybe, but its culture, complicated answers is part of the topic in large. to look at "brain rot", you'd have to look a bit further up the age groups. Apathy being the subconscious goal for a lot of people, prejudice being rampant and accepted, and even rewarded. groups of people thinking its morally find to say "Your body, my choice." I would say cruelty and hatred is the "real brain rot" but it doesnt feel fitting to use such a modern term for an age old problem, even if the problem is ramped in today's culture

[@SteppefordWife]

I'm glad this wasn't just another "x is bad for kids" or "kids are stupid" video that tends to crop up in discussions of mascot horror. Never thought about it as folklore, but that fits so well!

[@Bardic_Knowledge]

My best friend and I in elementary school played at Sonic and a heroic Bowser fighting Ivo and evil Mario, which eventually developed into a crew of original creations of my own.

[@kungfuskull]

Mentioning crazy bones smacked me with nostalgia like a truck!

[@darkeye6464]

Very good video, many thanks to the author for creating it.

[@SnuSnuDungeon]

I will defend Choo Choo Charles because it was a genuinely fun "horror" game that didn't try to take itself seriously and pulled it off spectacularly

[@Otronator]

thinking about it when i was a kid in Australia in the 00s, me and my friends ran around pretending that our school was a cod map holding imaginary guns and pretending to shoot each other. kids will do what kids do

[@AbqDez]

I keep thinking .... We (parents) straight up tell are kids these songs are okay .. Rock a bye baby - about dead babies? London bridge - about executions? Ring around the Rosie - dying of the plague? In fact, very few nursery rhymes are Not horrifying....

[@mischake]

When I think about the dozens of bad taste parody songs I remember word for word from an early childhood I don't even remember that much from, it always baffles me how these rhymes stick around in a place where kids move on from yewr after year.

[@Kazuma11290]

All entertainment is a spiral. But it goes outward, not inward.

[@justcallmeleonardo]

I like the turn this video takes. I can say I was the same as today's kids when I was their age, and so was my dad honestly. The things kids like change, but not the kids.

[@CODDE117]

I'm very happy with the way this video went. This is exactly how it works.

[@MrBern-ex3wq]

Adults always forget the "brainrot" they engaged with as children, and they panic when they see what their kids are doing. Skibidi Toilet is just the latest incarnation of insane GMOD animation. We had our own with TF2 memes. TikTok is just Vine 2. No, there is no meaningful difference. And when those kids grow up they will either remember them fondly, forget them too, or cringe as they remember.

[@KattyKitten69]

Finally someone said it

[@Deceitful_Jester]

I feel as though the my little pony infection stuff didn't really belong on that list. From what I have witnessed, that's mostly adults whose childhoods included my little pony: friendship is magic and who were exposed to the time's my little pony creepypastas, largely shock pieces made by adult men that featured gore, slurs, and rape, and who decided to sort of reclaim the genre and make some fun, spooky art that was also kind of cathartic because we just had a pandemic. Comfort food art for creatives in their 20s, basically.

[@strangecolouredbird]

OK, ok, who gave Tale Foundry permission to be the voice of reason for a topic no one else has been reasonable about? This video is perfect. Just perfect. I cannot express that enough.

[@michaeldlevins6608]

I just submitted a final essay for uni on childhood folklore and how it transmits, and tied it back to Junji Ito. This video is a bit of a trip.

[@TheUniversalAxiom]

Great work as always! I could never thank you enough

[@ParadoxProblems]

If it isn't a difference in kind, I'd definitely say that it is a difference in magnitude. There is just SO MUCH of it. Kids absolutely need outlets for their creativity, places for their imaginations to run wild. It helps them learn how to make sense of and understand the world, but as any person training an AI knows "garbarge in, garbage out". At some point, either creators have to up the quality or kids have to be limited in their exposure. The world is becoming more and more online, and while that's not a bad thing in and of itself, the internet is fickle and plagued with corporations trying to milk consumers for their attention.

[@musicsbricabrac7195]

Working with kids with 10+ year, yep, that what we see. Not enough safe place, less creativity, imagination,manual manipulation. And before loopers, adult are influenced negativly by it too.

[@Scyclo]

FNAF was so defining when it originally released and was super unique with the whole surveillance survival style of game. Then after FNAF 3 kids happened...and the quality went down...then we get broken buggy messes like security breach in which the quality doesn't matter what matters is a new Freddy design kids will think is cool that they can sell as toys.

[@TBird136]

Well explained, this video is a fresh perspective that shows a more nuanced and reasonable take than this "the kids are dumb, my time was better" mantra that is really as old as civilization. To add: I believe the real problem isn't that kids do what they do, which is poaching this seemingly new, exciting and oh so spooky topics and ideas but adults actively looking to profit out of that. Creators specfically targeting such a impressionable and naive demographic for money is the real poison. Children have and always will inspire themselves from what they experience but I think it's more prominent nowadays that there are those that seek to use this as much as they can to their own advantage. This is why people say that horror games have declined in quality. Indie devs keep following that same formula in order to bank on both kids and popular content creators (also watched by kids of course). This is of course a very hyperbolic and simplified view on things and by no means realistic, there is still great and more mature content in those areas. This is why BATIM, early FNAF and the beginning of Hello Neighbour was good. It didn't have this idea in mind that children were supposed to boost the popularity of the franchise. This was an inevitable side effect. Which is where Poppy playtime and Garten of Banban lack this originality. Their purpose is as clear as a summer sky: Market towards kids, who can't hide from it due to there being no spaces specifically made for kids on the Internet. This blending of spaces where different demographics collide is what makes this topic so prominent today. Not only can the kids not hide but neither can the adults. Tl:DR Capitalism is at it again, god fucking damn it, also kids need their own spaces (not KZbin Kids, we all know how this went)

[@markjefferies2544]

So I Am wildly creeped out. I had this conversation yesterday with no idea this video was coming out.

[@torbjornlekberg7756]

I am reminded of something Terry Pratchett once wrote: "Imagination tends to upset those who dont have it."

[@rubenduenas5881]

At this point, mascot horror is so overused that it isn't even scary anymore ;(

[@jayl5032]

It never was scary lmao.

[@rubenduenas5881]

@jayl5032 Like, who's going to be scared of a creature called Huggy???

[@thetabo8648]

I still find Bendy enjoyable, because the creator is very passionate about his work and the improvement from BATIM (first game) to BATDR (2nd) is already phenomenal, they manage to tell a good story and still be scary, both in panic moments and occasionally being very uneasy

[@pteroid11]

@@rubenduenas5881 Who’s gonna be scared of a guy named Michael Myers? What’s he gonna do, bad movie me to death?

[@rubenduenas5881]

@@pteroid11 Touche

[@hellenrose9556]

And back in my days, kids didn't had access to internet, so we had a game called 'gallows'... That is a game played in group, in which one person imagines the word, and draws one gallows for each player, and others are guessing, and each time you guessed wrong, the pereson who is imagining the world draws one body part on your gallows. When you get whole body hanging, you are 'dead' and so you lose the game.

[@Stephen-Fox]

This isn't the first place I encountered the idea of childlore - It was probably a Tom Scott video which introduced me to the concept, though I forget if it was his one on Batman Smells or regional variances in the name of the game Tag. (I grew up with Mr Blobby doing a jolly on the M4 Motorway, incidentally) I think the idea of adults poaching childlore is what... Frustrates me... so much about the trend of "Let's take a beloved children's franchise and make adult horror out of subverting it" - Kids doing that - Including and especially teens - that's a natural part of growing up. Adults doing it is... At least a bit weird? And I'm not against adults taking children's properties and examining them closer, particularly in the form of deconstruction of properties they grew up with, it's the horror subversions that feels like "Aren't you a bit old for doing that? This feels more like something that's a bit... Adulescent? You've just made the equivalent of a Newgrounds 'assassinate Barney' game."

[@samlovebutter]

Quck! Cut out this part 2:24 and post wherever you can!

[@theequivalent3138]

As generations move on many people of the older generations are bound to be perplexed by the new stuff coning out. Hell that happened with my parents when I showed them that vid of the guy saying SpongeBob, SpongeBob, Patrick, Patrick, etc. I laughed my ass off but they just didn't understand it, now is it factually funny, of course, would everyone find it as funny as I did, no. What people like is always gonna be subjective but what they like itself is almost NOT ALWAYS but most of the time objective AKA what they like can be objectively bad. Good sound design, voice work, etc etc make an actual good experience no matter what. Even if people don't like it, it's factually good. Just cuz a bunch of goobers like something that's factually dumb doesn't mean much. There's also always been idiots who take things too far like Beavis And Butthead, back then some stupid kids did some stupid shit cuz of the show, the parents got mad, it got shut down. That's unfair of course, the show didn't tell em to do it, the parents should've ya know been parenting. Sure a lot of stuff nowadays isn't even like Beavis And Butthead AKA actually good but what are ya gonna do about it, bad shit always had and always will be made. Bad stuff will also be liked by a lot of idiots, nowadays its become the norm sadly but just enjoy the good shit, hate the bad shit, so that more good shit is made, and if ya a dumb kid and like bad shit, just don't do anything dumb. That's all I gotta say.

[@dr.loboto1171]

14:19 "I'm sure their game is great" I appreciate the optimism, but it most certainly is not

[@ethribin4188]

9:20 "wether that gets out of hand, is less a matter of the internet rotting children's brains, and more a matter of supervision." This! So much! Parebts need to take part in what their child consumes!

[@szabibekas]

"Remember what kids did to creepypasta?", spoken as if creepypasta ever had a standard. It was never supposed to have a standard, it's free-for-all format of writing a scary story and copypasting it wherever (hence the name) meant anyone could do it. Doesn't take a child to write 'bad' fiction, either!

[@benjaminstevens9376]

I wonder how Scott Cawthon himself feels about the influence that FNAF had on horror games as a whole… would he be one to say that his creation damaged the genre? I’m not really familiar with Five Nights At Freddy’s, but I do know a lot about how mascot horror rose to its current level of relevance and popularity. I miss classic Internet Creepypastas in particular, like Slender Man, Ben Drowned, and stuff like the Godzilla NES Creepypasta, which had its own unique and disturbing Kaiju monster sprites.

[@Cubeytheawesome]

Man NES Godzilla is GOATed.

[@KattyKitten69]

Fnaf didnt ruin the genre, it just popularized it.

[@derekarcher8495]

Hello, so glad I found your channel. I get a lot out of your videos. You help me to understand a lot of aspects of storytelling that I just took for granted or didn't recognise at all originally. I especially like how you are able to help me make sense of a whole lot of my childhood and to appreciate the legitimacy of kids culture. Adults often forget what being a kid was like.

[@darwinskeeper421]

Kids have been pretending to kill one another since before I was a kid. They'd play cops and robbers, soldiers, cowboys and indians, all of which involve pretending to being adults trying to kill each other. Huggy Wuggy may feel a lot creepier than these other games but is it really that much more different?

[@K98MauserBYF43]

If anything it takes the violent part of killing and put it on something that is not human, rather that thinking about humans killing humans

[@etri8846]

7:40 That's what we were waiting for! LETS GO

[@marcelostalker]

Oh no, kids pretending to kill each other in their games! Not like back in my day, we used to shoot each other playing cops and robbers, hit each other with rubber weapons playing power rangers, pretend to be pirates and knights and musketeers while we hit each other with long sticks we found around the ground. Man, way more safe and wholesome, right? xD

[@musicsbricabrac7195]

I'm more concerned about the progression of disorder and nightmare on kids because of what they see on the media, too often :)

[@ScrimmyBingus42]

I think the whole Skibidi toilet thing is interesting because, its really not very different from the other millions of gmod animation shitposts, whats so special about Skibidi toilet that made it blow up the way it did?

[@Nagadirchan]

I dunno, cool animations, crazy story, characters, mystery of WTF is going on?

[@parle5277]

Lol agree

[@Gnulcho]

Back in 2008 ~ 2011 there were countless such shitposts, some of which still get thousands of daily views up to this day. I still remember that one guy that lost his fight with cancer, but kept making stupid videos up to his last days.

[@seeleunit2000]

No clue. I'm not interested in it so I won't make a big deal out of it

[@spideygaming2001]

Cause it was just lucky/unfortunate enough to appear in the middle of two very (mentally) special eras of the internet, also it randomly locks tf in, its a amazing fucking series

[@hayleyphoenix93]

I wish I could love this video more!! I am very close with my Gen Alpha daughter and her friends. I know Poppy Playtime, FNAF, and the brain rot shorts very well. I make a point to be involved or at least be familiar with media they are exposed to. There's so much of it. And it is true, this is the first generation in which kid lore is so viewable by adults. But the kids are alright! They aren't doing anything we didn't do when we were younger. It just didn't make it on the TV where the whole family could see all the fan art and fanfics, the music and theories. Engage with it and you're engaging with your inner child. I highly recommend it. For me, nothing will ever replace the memories made watching youtube let's play with my girl and getting jumpscared together by Chica and Bonnie.

[@Teoriak]

I know that people think that children only cry skibidi and have to sleep with their mother until they are 11 years old, but no, children are really smart people if someone wants to raise them well. that's why most of Gen Z, including me, laughs at "Brain Rotu" when the kids don't even use it and don't understand it, we behave a bit like our parents who started talking in our shit using words "serve on the Internet, cringe" etc. horror movies and entities in them are interesting, they usually have strange but also interesting lore and they are not the same over and over again, that's why children like them, they don't know about quality, so they will like Jeff the Killer as much as like five nights at skibidi because they don't understand what quality is yet

[@akraftmann6667]

I was born 2005 and I completely understand growing up as, recently I was growing up the term 'brain rot' is over used and doesn't have meaning anymore just help kids grow up not complain how they are doing it

[@junhuilin2097]

This is why I love SCP still

[@emris2697]

I’m currently studying folklore and this got me so excited when you brought it up 6:34

[@phantomenderbp7488]

I'm glad he really focused on "Brainrot" instead of smashing Mascothorror to pieaces.

[@xIstenbul]

i feel like he wasn't harsh enough on Mascot horror. That subgenre died when Hello neighbor came out.

[@klaibefhuoaiuwehjklbdfsnxnik]

@@xIstenbulI mean… kinda? Hello neighbor was pretty terrible, but every genre has bad games. Im sure it probably hurt it a little though.

[@KattyKitten69]

@@xIstenbul it really didnt, it just got less popular, the same thing will probably happen in a few years anyway.

[@Khichira2012]

Excellent video, Tale Foundry. Now it's time to go spread the word through whispers....

[@dylangoodman1867]

Remember Hey Arnold? One of my favorite parts of the show was that there were tales passed down from “kid generation to kid generation”. Usually Gerald was the keeper of the tale and Cid would introduce him. I love child lore, just like the adult horror I enjoy now, the best part of it is that it’s not real but it’ll connect you with kids in a fun way. I hope it never ends!

[@TitusConstantine]

I always love seeing a deliciously sane video by Tale Foundry. One of my favorites on your channel was the video about "Why Kid's Stories Should Be Darker" or something, and this is just as good. Love to see your stuff Talebot!

[@thehydrationman5500]

Mascot horror is ever present, and absurdly easy to make viral, even in places you wouldn’t expect. For example, the music mixing game Incredibox in recent years has had a multitude of fan-made versions of it made, sort of like FNF, but much more niche. A few months ago, a 15 year old fan uploaded a simplistic mod of the game where all the characters are these cute and colorful little dudes, and halfway through the game it abruptly becomes graphic and disturbing looking. Despite the fact that this game (Sprunki) is just a fan-made mod made by a teenager and uploaded to a version of Scratch (yes, the kids coding website) it went MEGA viral, with legions of famous KZbinrs making content farms of it, and even animations that clickbait young kids with graphic images, with no profit going to the creator. All of this from an obscure game based on a niche community made by a teen. Mascot horror isn’t just a genre, it’s a fucking FORMULA to make something absurdly popular.

[@Nyperold018]

To come at it from a different direction, every bit of folklore was conceived and expressed for the first time, thus becoming new. Then it either becomes popular and spreads, or is mostly or entirely forgotten.