This Game I Found, My Uncle Works at Nintendo, and Other Immersive Urban Legends
I have included here a bibliography of sources/recommended reading as a supplement to my article in the November/December 2023 issue of ARG Digest. I thought it would be useful to track my sources as I wrote. But because the publication is originally a magazine, I didn't consider that a useful way to spend a printed page. That is why it's here and not in the magazine itself.
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"Okay, so does everyone remember the Meta Crystal stage from Super Smash Bros?"
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[1] Meta Crystal stage from the original "Super Smash Bros" for Nintendo 64, 1999
https://www.ssbwiki.com/Meta_Crystal
"I told my uncle about it (he works at Nintendo) and he told me one or two of the software engineers put those extra stages in there."
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This references the popular "my uncle works at Nintendo" gaming meme.
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[2] E3: Interview With A Guy Whose Uncle Works For Nintendo
https://www.somethingawful.com/news/e3-uncle-nintendo/
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[3] For the younger crowd, what was the "my uncle works at Nintendo" of your time? | ResetEra
https://www.resetera.com/threads/for-the-younger-crowd-what-was-the-%E2%80%9Cmy-uncle-works-at-nintendo%E2%80%9D-of-your-time.171814/
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"So why do urban legends take this form, of 'this game I found'?"
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[4] A trend of stories about fictional games, named and made infamous as part of the first lines of the first Petscop video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6e6RK8o1fcs
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"There is no shortage of supposed hidden levels, secret glitches, and accidental patterns found in video games."
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For example:
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[5] Super Mario World 100% Walkthrough - Star World (All Secret Exits)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Du15B0KQom4&t=1s
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[6] How Barrier Skip Changes Wind Waker Speedrunning
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPOV68kUs7Q&t=0s
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[7] 10 Ways Link can make it up to that Divine Beast on his own.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UYhcn85S3MY
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[8] Twilight Princess' Longest Speedrun Got 10 Hours Shorter
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=viw8kDwr-i4
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"Players really can impact their experiences through manipulations of the game or console’s hardware, and often the console can detect those manipulations."
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[9] This is a common trope in "This Game I Found" stories. The most common real-life example of this is anti-piracy detection screens.
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Anti-Piracy Screens Are Unnerving. But, why?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dL9gUli_7L0
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"Movies for kids sometimes include out-of-context jokes that are only funny to adults, like the infamous 'Pink Elephants on Parade' sequence from Disney’s 'Dumbo' (1941) or basically any of Robin Williams’ lines from 'Aladdin'."
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[10] Dumbo Pink Elephants on Parade HD - infamous because of its surreal visuals even by cartoon standards, and because of its reference to the main character's intoxication
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcZUPDMXzJ8
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[11] When Disney got trippy
https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20151112-when-disney-got-adult-and-trippy
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[12] 'Aladdin' Director Remembers How Robin Williams Changed Feature Animation - discusses the quick pop culture-focused comedy of Robin Williams
https://variety.com/2021/film/spotlight/aladdin-robin-williams-1234893550/#!
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"The idea in the US that children are not just small adults but are their own unique classification, doted over - and not sent to work as soon as possible - comes from labor reforms in the 1930s."
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[13] History of child labor in the United States-part 2: the reform movement
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"The neat tidiness, the friendly faces, the bright color palate of a cartoon is not the reality you live in."
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[14] A good example of this is "Mickey Never Came Back", a gritty Vietnam War spy drama with Mickey Mouse and friends in the cast.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qhQDX21YCZ0
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[15] Another good dissonant tone example is Bray Wyatt's "Firefly Fun House" promos and match in WWE.
What the Firefly Fun House is really all about
https://fansided.com/2019/08/19/bray-wyatt-what-the-firefly-fun-house-really-is-all-about-wwe/
[16] Revisiting the Firefly Funhouse Match
https://wrestleinn.com/2021/03/10/revisiting-the-firefly-funhouse-match/
[17] Remembering Bray Wyatt: The Man Who Brought True Horror To The WWE
https://www.dreadcentral.com/editorials/461417/remembering-bray-wyatt-the-man-who-brought-true-horror-to-the-wwe/
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"We’re surrounded by creepypasta. We get to constantly reinvent stories, like I have mentioned before regarding Slenderman webseries."
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[18] See "The Monster is The Camera", my previous ARG Digest article about Slenderman in Issue 4
https://www.argdigest.com/previous-issues
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"Stories that follow a dramatic trajectory of “your favorite video game, but it’s evil” (Ben Drowned), or “your favorite TV show, but it’s evil” (think Candle Cove or the Rugrats theory), or “for legal reasons, not Chuck E. Cheese, but it’s evil” (think Five Nights at Freddy’s) are not new."
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[19] Specifically, the Haunted Cartridge arc of the Ben Drowned creepypasta-turned-ARG
https://jadusable.withinhubris.com/The_Haunted_Cartridge_(arc)
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[20] The Candle Cove creepypasta
http://ichorfalls.chainsawsuit.com/
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[21] Here's The Real Deal On The 'Rugrats' Theory That All The Babies Are Dead
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/rugrats-fan-theory_n_5797ac23e4b01180b53071ef
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[22] ‘NOT YOUR NORMAL KIDS SHOW’ IS TIKTOK’S NEW FAVORITE CREEPYPASTA SERIES
https://www.intheknow.com/post/not-your-normal-kids-show-tiktok-beeveekee/
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[23] Why Five Nights At Freddy’s Is So Popular
https://www.kotaku.com.au/2015/02/why-five-nights-at-freddys-is-so-popular-explained/
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[24] See also Sagan Hawkes's video "Mascot Horror's Past, Present, and Uncertain Future" for an in-depth discussion of this trend
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yT8SKxnqwRU
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"Some of these are done really well, like the Mandela Catalogue’s religious horror themes."
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[25] The first video on the Mandela Catalogue YouTube channel, "Overthrone", is a potent (if goofy) example.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q0EpOiu8YkI
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"This inspires the stories they tell, in turn."
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[26] Jennifer Kent interview: directing The Babadook
https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/jennifer-kent-interview-directing-the-babadook/
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[27] One example of a comedic "dark subversion deconstruction" take is the Paint "After Ever After" Disney song parodies.
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLNg-igiqcG3Q5gGYfmQGy-QmJEiCaH7-Q&si=iU58O2aaQWoplVZu
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"Kids, just like adults, use horror to make sense of what they experience."
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[28] Kids Draw Weird Shit, but It Doesn't Make Them Murderers
https://www.vice.com/en/article/3b7y7v/kids-spooky-drawing-in-horror-movies-212
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"Scary instead of cute isn’t enough for a deconstruction, and “Don’t Hug Me, I’m Scared” knows it."
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Becky Sloan and Joe Pelling make a noticeable effort to not support any one fan interpretation over any other, in a sense rejecting the ethos of the teacher characters.
[29] Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared press pack interview with Becky Sloan, Joe Pelling and Baker Terry
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[30] The creators of Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared offer us a glimpse behind the puppets
https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/channel4-dont-hug-me-im-scared-film-200922
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[31] Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared: Interview with creators Becky & Joe
Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared: Interview with creators Becky & Joe | Metro News
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[32] The decade-long journey to bring ‘Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared’ to television
The decade-long journey to bring ‘Don’t Hug Me I’m Scared’ to television - Rolling Stone UK
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"Unfiction analyst Nick Nocturne from the Night Mind YouTube channel notes that the teacher figures in the show don’t just fail to teach coherent lessons to the main characters."
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[33] Don't Hug Me I'm Scared: Explained [Full Series]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=At6aUZGWZXg&pp=ygUXZG9uJ3QgaHVnIG1lIGknbSBzY2FyZWQ%3D
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This is a common thread in other popular videos analyzing the series:
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[34] "The Sinister Dystopia of DON'T HUG ME I'M SCARED" places the ironic horror tone of DHMIS in an educational British cultural context.
The Sinister Dystopia of DON’T HUG ME I’M SCARED - YouTube
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[35] "Film Theory: Don't Hug Me I'm Scared DECODED" suggests that the series depicts characters on a TV show, and this in-universe TV show is an anti-art brainwashing program.
Film Theory: Don't Hug Me I'm Scared DECODED! - YouTube
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[36] "So what's up with Don't Hug Me? I'm Scared | An Analysis" emphasizes the cultish aesthetics and educational tone of the series.
So, what's up with Don't Hug Me, I'm Scared? | An Analysis - YouTube
"[The teacher figures] are more willing to use terror and violence than to teach."
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[37] See also Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish for an extended philosophical argument about how this violence works to reinforce cultural ideas
https://bpb-us-e1.wpmucdn.com/sites.psu.edu/dist/d/37602/files/2016/01/Discipline-and-Punish.pdf
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[38] This thread is also explored in terms of childhood development with autism, for example.
The Autistic Horror of Don't Hug Me I'm Scared (season 1)
https://youtu.be/EZ7cStxqgFE?t=782
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"And there are many other projects with just as much love behind their creation."
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[39] For example, the Welcome Home ARG
https://www.clownillustration.com/welcomehomeyou
[40] See also Becky and Joe's guest-directed episode of the cartoon "The Amazing World of Gumball"
The Puppets by Becky & Joe - Blinkink
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[41] See also the work of the Blinkink animation studio in general, which includes Becky and Joe
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