Creepypasta Unveiled | The Horror and Mystery of the Lost Episode "Red Mist"

[00:00:00] I see you. Avatar Fire and Ash is now streaming on Disney+. It's the film critics are calling the best Avatar yet. Go, go, go, go! A true epic and completely jaw-dropping. This is the only purest thing in this world. Return to Pandora on Disney+. It will be an adventure for the whole family. And watch the Oscar-winning phenomenon at home. This is sick! Avatar Fire and Ash, now streaming on Disney+. Rated PG-13.

[00:00:30] At ZocDoc, we know you care about your health. You wouldn't do that early morning cardio if you didn't. So the fact that your annual physical is overdue just shows how hard it can be to get seen by a doctor. Sorry, that doctor's not in network. Press 1 for more options. You've reached us outside normal business hours. The next availability is in 3 months. But ZocDoc makes finding the right doctor easy. Download the app and search by specialty, insurance, and availability. Read real patient reviews. Then book instantly. ZocDoc. Ready to be seen?

[00:00:59] Hello, hello everybody. And welcome to ClancyPasta. You are tuning in to the debut episode of a new show. A new podcast, really. What the show is, is going to be us taking a look at and reading through a story of classic, ancient, dug up from the earth, kind of an old classic creepypasta. And we're going to take a look at it. We're going to explore it. We're going to talk about it.

[00:01:30] And we'll go over some history about it too. It's basically going to be a commentary podcast. I don't know if critique or review is the right way of wording it because that's not quite my, well, I guess it is my goal, but I don't want to be harsh. I don't want to be mean. I guess that's a way of putting it.

[00:01:51] I intend to not be, you know, annoyingly kind of schizophrenically critical about the stories I read because I really am a believer in, and this is kind of also part of why I want to go back and read these old creepypasta stories and talk about them with you and explore them and, you know,

[00:02:14] try to figure some stuff out about them is because I really believe that the, especially the old creepypastas, a lot of them, probably not all of them, but that a lot of them are very special. I think even the ones that are very considered cheesy or considered bad, there's something about them.

[00:02:37] There's something in them that is, at least for some people, and this was certainly the case for me with many stories, essentially magical. Something that speaks to, actually in a funny way, it's kind of funny to word it this way, but that speaks to real life experience that especially people have when they're children,

[00:03:02] when they're growing up, and that tends to fade with time, although if you're lucky, you'll be able to find it again when you, you know, reach through the end of adolescence. And what the show is all about is essentially a book study and commentary. This is a commentary show.

[00:03:23] We're going to be looking at it and exploring it and dissecting these stories to the extent that it occurs to me in the moment. And, you know, adding on to what I was saying a moment ago about how I really believe that these old stories are special and they really have something unique and important in them.

[00:03:48] Tying in with that is the other reason that, once again, is very related that I wanted to do this, which is that the creepypastas really, funnily enough, massively impacted my life when I was about 12 years old.

[00:04:10] And from 12 years old on, really, creepypastas really, really, really, really were very special to me and impacted my life in a lot of different ways. Thinking about all of that really made me want to explore and go into kind of the chronology of my own creepypasta history,

[00:04:37] but that what essentially just mirrors a lot of the classic creepypasta history and chronology itself. And when I thought about doing that, I thought, well, if I'm going to do that, I should probably go ahead and just make it a show and do it publicly and let you guys in on it. And you guys can communicate with me on it.

[00:05:02] Let me know your thoughts and how these stories affected you and what you guys think of them and all of that good stuff. And so with that in mind, when I think about my own life and I think about the, the, the, my, if I want to use the term, my creepypasta history, if I want to think about my creepypasta history, it all began, it all began,

[00:05:29] um, with a little story called Squidward's Suicide. Now, that story, along with Red Mist, I came across and I read and I found out about around the same time. And we're going to be looking at both of those stories tonight. So stay tuned. I remember it was sometime in, uh, 2010.

[00:05:56] I was online and, uh, it was actually, I think I was, I was homesick from school and I would have been about 12 at this time. And, uh, it was a, it was a dreary fall season. It was raining out. And I was spending a lot of time indoors playing video games, specifically, uh, playing Halo 3, uh, anxiously awaiting the countdown of Halo Reach. I might have already been playing Halo Reach, actually,

[00:06:26] if it was already out. In fact, it might have come out pretty recently around that time. Uh, I remember I was home and I was either getting sick, I was either already homesick, or it was like the night before I convinced my parents to let me stay homesick because I thought I had like a flu or wasn't feeling the best. And I was online and I was on YouTube

[00:06:50] and I found a video talking about this lost episode of Spongebob. And, uh, you know, being 12 years old in about 2010, I, I was the quintessential age, uh, to be a Spongebob kid. And I was, uh, I mean, as a kid, I was absolutely obsessed. I'm sure a lot of you were too. And so the idea of a creepy Spongebob episode

[00:07:19] immediately just grabbed my, my interest by the throat because some of the best old Spongebob episodes to begin with were quite eerie. Um, quite strange, really. Like that episode, uh, where SpongeBob is supposed to write an essay for boating school and he's putting it off. I think the episode's called Procrastination. And he's putting it off and putting it off and he ends up having this nightmare.

[00:07:49] And the whole episode really is, is very eerie and has an eerie vibe to it. Kind of a creepy mishmash of things. Um, and there are some other episodes like that that are very eerie, but in a, in a, in a special way. Because, you know, actually, now that I'm saying that out loud and thinking about it, um, there were many later episodes of Spongebob from, I don't know, let's say season 5, season 6, season 7.

[00:08:19] Long after Steven Hillenburg had left the show and the quality had noticeably, depending on how you want to look at it, either the quality dipped or the vibe of the show really changed. There were many episodes that I remember watching when they were coming out that were actually genuinely disturbing. Like, like they had actual horrifying moments in them. Very, very, very disturbing, uh, images in them.

[00:08:48] Uh, in that were just downright creepy. But it, it oddly never, um, it never was, was pleasant to me in the way that the kind of classic Spongebob creepy episodes could be. I mean, even the, the Halloween special of early Spongebob was very, very, there was just a fun, eerie vibe to it.

[00:09:14] And seeing Spongebob at the end, uh, in his state, uh, was, as a, as a child, as like a 4 or 5 year old child or younger, genuinely very creepy in a very fun way, though, to me. And even watching that episode now, uh, there's just something very pleasant and fun about it. Uh, there's, there's a magic in it. A magic that a lot of the later Spongebob episodes

[00:09:44] did not seem to capture. Because it was like it was trying too hard. And it was, uh, and you know, actually what I just said, it was trying too hard. That was a very stupid thing of me to say. You hear people say that a lot, and I don't even know what that means. Uh, when you think about it, that really doesn't mean anything. It, it's more like just the style changed and the, the style of creepiness that they were trying to inject was more like, um,

[00:10:15] kind of like modern horror movie scary stuff of like, uh, something loud and very, uh, gross and creepy looking just like shoots out onto the screen. And it just didn't feel the same. So as a, you know, being me as a 12 year old kid, sitting at home, rainy day, not feeling the best, feeling like I'm coming down with something. And I, I'm reading about,

[00:10:44] or I'm, I forget if I was reading about it or if I found, or if I found a YouTube video talking about it. But this idea of this lost episode that most people were already kind of calling both the Red Mist and Squidward Suicide kind of interchangeably. But as we'll get into in this episode, uh, there are two stories. Red Mist is, is based off of Squidward Suicide, but Squidward Suicide was first and Red Mist came second.

[00:11:13] And the more I read about this episode, and particularly when I eventually stopped, uh, just finding other people talking about it and read the story myself, it was just, I mean, it sent chill upon chill up my spine. And the big thing was that at that time, which is to say like the fall of 2010, about around that time,

[00:11:42] the information online, as far as, uh, anything debunking related was concerned. As far as anything related to, oh, this isn't real. This is, here's proof that it's not real. There was like none of that. I mean, there were people saying it's obviously fake. There were people who would say, oh, that's ridiculous. Look, there's this little thing here. But there was, there was not an overwhelming, um, majority of people who said, oh yeah, well, we all know

[00:12:12] that that's fake. At the time, at least at the time that I was looking at this stuff. And I was going onto forums. I was scouring the comments of, uh, the, the, the, the wikia entries and the different discussions people were having about this supposed lost episode of SpongeBob. And it was very strange because everyone was, well, it was a genuine debate. There were people who said

[00:12:41] that this isn't real, but then there were a lot of people who said, no, no, no, no, this is real. And here's why. And, you know, of course, there are people claiming that they saw a version of it. And, you know, of course, there are people claiming that they know someone at Nickelodeon who, yes, verified to them that this was real. Or the opposite. People saying that, well, actually, no, they know someone at Nickelodeon who told them that actually, no, this is total bullcrap.

[00:13:10] And on and on, the discussion goes, on and on, the mystery goes. So, you know, as, as a 12-year-old kid who, who loved SpongeBob, reading this story that we're about to read right now, it really, it's, it's funny looking back, it kind of marked a moment in my life where I became aware once again. And that's really a good way of putting it. I became aware once again

[00:13:39] of strangeness in the world and the magic in the world and the things that are not easily explained on the surface in the world. And that's a good qualification there, on the surface. Although, that being said, in the case of this story, it is quite dark and, and quite disturbing and very creepy. I see you. Avatar Fire and Ash

[00:14:09] is now streaming on Disney+. It's the film critics are calling the best Avatar yet. Go, go, go, go! A true epic and completely jaw-dropping. This is the only purest thing in this world. Return to Pandora on Disney+. It will be an adventure for the whole family. And watch the Oscar-winning phenomenon at home. This is sick! Avatar Fire and Ash now streaming on Disney+. Rated PG-13. At ZocDoc, we know you care about your health.

[00:14:39] You wouldn't do that early morning cardio if you didn't. So the fact that your annual physical is overdue just shows how hard it can be to get seen by a doctor. Sorry, that doctor's not in network. Press 1 for more options. You've reached us outside normal business hours. The next availability is in three months. But ZocDoc makes finding the right doctor easy. Download the app and search by specialty, insurance, and availability. Read real patient reviews, then book instantly. ZocDoc, ready to be seen?

[00:15:07] Now, how this is going to work, how the podcast is going to flow, is I'm going to read, I'm going to start reading the story, and I'm going to pause very regularly, and I'm going to take breaks, and I'm going to talk about what we just read. And eventually, we'll work our way through the story with my commentary, and then at the end, we'll talk about it some more. Before we get into that, I want to go ahead and give you some information

[00:15:35] that I have found. And by information, I mean one tiny little piece of information, which is that, as far as anyone can figure out, this story, Squidward Suicide, was posted to Seven Chan's X board anonymously, on April 6th, 2010.

[00:16:03] Now, there are some weird dates there. Some listings have it as April 8th, 2010, or sometimes they'll even go to August 8th, 2010, or something like that. But that seems to be the date that this story was reposted to some other places on the internet. But it seems like the original story was just appeared anonymously one day,

[00:16:31] April 6th, 2010. And you know, that piece of information is very interesting to me because that means that I was reading this story very early after it appeared. And another piece of information that I personally found interesting, especially in hindsight, was that I, throughout my entire stint of kind of being obsessed with this

[00:17:00] concept of Squidward Suicide or Red Mist or this creepy lost Spongebob episode the entire time, I was not aware of the term creepypasta. And that might sound weird, but I, I, I genuinely, I don't ever recall hearing that term creepypasta. I don't remember ever hearing that Squidward Suicide was a creepypasta.

[00:17:30] Which is again part of why in the early days when I was looking at this stuff online, it seemed so legitimate. And it really genuinely was a real urban legend because nowadays the term creepypasta is at least as far as the term is considered is synonymous with fiction. It's synonymous with a scary story someone wrote and tried to spread around online.

[00:18:01] And certainly colloquially that that is what it means as far as what people how people use it today. But at the beginning these things that were called creepypastas they were not made as creepypastas they were made as genuine real urban legends and they were circulated as genuine real urban legends. And that

[00:18:30] I think is where you get some of the magic especially the magic that I experienced at that time. Okay well without further ado let's get started on exploring this story together and we'll take a little pause break and I'll give you some of my thoughts and we'll just see what happens. I'm really I'm kind of this is all a big experiment but an exciting experiment because I really believe there's

[00:19:00] something that can be learned by studying these old creepypastas. So without further ado thank you for listening to this debut episode of this new ClancyPasta podcast and let's get in to Squidward Suicide. I just want to start off by saying that if you want an

[00:19:30] answer at the end prepare to be disappointed there isn't one. I was an intern at Nickelodeon Studios for a year in 2005 for my degree in animation. It wasn't paid of course most internships aren't but it did have a perk beyond education. To adults it might not seem like a big one but most kids at the time would go crazy over it. Since I worked directly

[00:20:00] with the editors and animators I got to view new episodes days before they aired. Okay I'm going to go ahead and pause here for a moment just to comment on the really brilliant and beautiful setup of this story. From the very get-go we have what went on to be considered an intensely generic

[00:20:28] and cliche detail of creepypastas which is that a lot of them are mysteries wrapped in an enigma to use kind of you know it's a mystery that never really has a full cap on it. In fact that's a complaint of you'll very often hear readers or even watchers of like shows or movies complain about that of like oh they didn't explain this why didn't they explain

[00:20:58] that this doesn't make this never had a resolution blah blah blah blah but you know it's a very funny thing because in my experience and in my opinion a lot of the greatest art is entirely mysterious there is no hand-holding there is no full resolution and you know it reminds me of something that David Lynch said the writer and director and you know

[00:21:28] David Lynch I think is a very good example of some of his films in you know Twin Peaks the show in particular I think are absolute masterpieces and they're beautiful and especially that show Twin Peaks really touched me very deeply but David Lynch said in an interview once that he loves mysteries he loves thrillers he loves mysteries but he doesn't like

[00:21:57] when there's a resolution to them which is funny because you know to the average reader as far as looking at comments or a lot of reviews of art and media it will be the exact opposite people are desperately salivating for a final conclusion to the entire thing but Lynch said he doesn't like when there's a resolution to the mystery that just caps

[00:22:27] everything off because it gives the viewer or in this case the reader the ability and the opportunity to completely forget and stop thinking about it and when I heard him say that in an interview it just clicked of like oh my goodness that is that is extremely true because a lot of stories that I've read that do have that

[00:22:56] what is typically considered a satisfying conclusion I don't remember them honestly if I'm just being honest I don't really I mean I have a vague memory of it but it's kind of in one ear out the other but the stories that are a good they have to be good of course but then leave you with essentially your own piece of the pie it didn't

[00:23:26] you know give everything to you or take everything from you it leaves you with a piece of the mystery a piece of the art still floating in the air and you take that with you after you're done reading the story or watching the movie or whatever the media is and you meditate on it you think about it you chew on it and it means something and you can get more from it so I love I really a lot of people would criticize

[00:23:55] that opening line right there I think it's absolutely brilliant and then even the next line and the next point him saying that he was an intern in Nickelodeon Studios for a year in 2005 for his degree in animation that that is extremely believable and it sets up the rest of the story as an urban legend as something that is claimed

[00:24:25] to be true and very well may be and you know the detail too I find pretty funny that he says he wasn't paid of course most a lot of internships aren't but he got to see episodes early and yeah I mean oh my goodness I would you know it's funny because obviously you know getting paid is probably especially if you're if it's an actual job like you're showing up to a building you want to get paid

[00:24:55] but man I mean if I was young if I was like 18 or something and I had an opportunity to work at Nickelodeon Studios at that time and get to see new episodes even if I wasn't getting paid yeah I could see myself taking that offer like very easily would you guys take that offer I'm genuinely curious because yeah

[00:25:24] I wonder if if me and the author are of a like mind or if this is just a very they had very recently made the Spongebob movie the entire staff

[00:25:54] was somewhat sapped of creativity so it took them longer to start up the season but the delay lasted longer for more upsetting reasons there was a problem with the series 4 premiere that set everyone and everything back several months me and two other interns were in the editing room along with the lead animators and sound editors for the final cut of an

[00:26:24] episode he received the copy that was supposed to be fear of a krabby patty and gathered around the screen to watch now given that the final cut isn't final yet animators often put up a mock title card at the beginning it's sort of an inside joke for us with phony often times lewd titles being used such as how sex doesn't work instead of rockabye bivalve

[00:26:53] in which spongebob and patrick adopt a sea scallop nothing particularly funny but just work related chuckles so when we saw the title card squidward suicide we didn't think it more than a morbid joke one of the other interns did a small throat laugh at it the episode started with the happy go lucky music playing as normal

[00:27:23] the story began with squidward practicing his clarinet hitting a few sour notes like normal we hear spongebob laughing outside squidward stops yelling at him to keep it down as he has a concert that night and needs to practice spongebob says okay and goes to see sandy with patrick okay it's time to pause again because this is another

[00:27:52] just beautiful beautiful beautiful continuation of the story and it it's continuing in that same genuine spirit because you see it's it says that the episode starts with squidward practicing his clarinet does that sound familiar to you i bet it does because that's the way many episodes of spongebob start in fact the entire opening of the episode is pretty similar to

[00:28:21] just an average spongebob episode and another comment you know i want to make is it's it's very when they saw the title card when the writers and the people working on the show and the intern main character of this story saw the title card of squidward suicide they they thought it was just a morbid joke because they're

[00:28:51] used to other fake title cards now to me when i when i read this story and heard about this episode as a 12 year old kid this was extremely convincing to me this was extremely like oh man i mean i didn't even know about that how in the world would this person know this this kind of inside baseball these trade kind of secret well not a trade secret but these

[00:29:21] things that you wouldn't know unless you were in it into that world and a part of that scene so it was very cool and very convincing to me and let's continue with the story so we can get on to the real creepiness the bubble splash screen comes up and we see the ending of Squidward's concert

[00:29:51] this is when things began to seem off while playing a few frames repeat themselves but the sound doesn't it's supposed to be synced with the animation so yes that's not common but when Squidward stops playing the sound finishes as if the skip never happened there is slight murmuring in the crowd before they begin to boo him not the normal

[00:30:21] cartoon booing that's common in the show mind you you could very clearly hear malice in it Squidward's in full frame and looks visibly afraid the shot goes to the crowd with Spongebob in center frame he too is booing which is very much unlike him that isn't the oddest thing though what's odd is that everyone has hyper

[00:30:51] realistic eyes all very detailed clearly not shots of real people's eyes but something a bit more real than CGI the pupils were red some of us looked at each other obviously confused but since we weren't the question its appeal to children yet okay

[00:31:25] back to the commentary for a moment it's very interesting you know the detail of the footage kind of glitching because it adds to the creepiness in a way that it doesn't it's not shoving it down your throat you know in a modern like video or something it would have like ultra creepy glitching and it would look like really screwed up and look like demonic and whatever but but having it

[00:31:55] just be having the episode start exceedingly normal and then go into this also somewhat normal scene at first but but there's a problem that the footage is glitching something isn't quite right something isn't quite right and then you see the crowd there's a murmuring in the crowd and then they begin to boo him and it sounds harsh the story says

[00:32:25] he's in full frame he looks visibly afraid and even spongebob booing him and not only that but everyone has hyper realistic red eyes well this is interesting on a few levels one question is does this still fit in the vibe and the feeling and the energy of the show and the answer is absolutely at

[00:32:55] least as far as the general scene which is to say Squidward is on stage and then he begins to be booed uh Squidward in the show he's painted as a very self conscious person a very bitter person he gets jealous easily he has an extremely inflated ego he seems to think of himself as a genius an artistic genius but he is

[00:33:25] incredibly fragile and very very self conscious and so to have him you know the beginning of the episode we see him practicing his clarinet and then he's here performing it but there's a glitch in the footage which is an interesting detail because it's not like he screws up himself while playing the clarinet in front of these people but the actual animator slash the animation itself kind of almost

[00:33:54] reach down into that world and seem to corrupt it alter it in a way that the crowd then reacts to very negatively the will become more important once we read more of the story because as the writer of the story says that is very unlike Spongebob Spongebob is

[00:34:25] always kind always generous he's a friend to everyone who wants to be his friend usually seemingly so for him to be joined with the crowd and booing him really is it's it's like a signification of the absolute nightmare of Squidward's life and Squidward's existence he in an odd way could always rely on even though he hated

[00:34:55] Spongebob he absolutely in the show he hates Spongebob but yet he could always rely on Spongebob he could always know that at the very least Spongebob is never going to say that his art sucks Spongebob is never going to be harsh you know there are in the writing some funny lines at times where Spongebob says something that kind of maybe implies that something about

[00:35:24] negative about Squidward's clarinet playing or something like that but generally speaking and even then Spongebob is just the picture perfect example of a kind and loving person so to have Spongebob here in center frame booing Squidward I mean imagine if you were Squidward you would be crushed

[00:35:54] that would be crushing that is literally what would be crushing because you know he probably gets booed by a lot of people a lot of times but Spongebob would never boo him except here he has and then there's that detail about the hyper-realistic red eyes which is funny if you don't think about it for a moment it's funny if you have so

[00:36:24] internalized the cultural conception of that as a cliche that before you even soak in the actual narrative or what's happening your subconscious is already latched on to oh hyper-realistic eye funny oh red eyes goofy oh realer than CGI haha funny funny fake but this was not cliche

[00:36:53] when this was written this was not something that you would hear a lot when this was written this is where that very common cliche of the hyper-realistic red eyes comes from and I remember what it was like as a 12 year old boy sitting at my computer late at night raining outside in the fall in the fall of 2010 reading this story and reading

[00:37:23] this detail because it really the vivid images that it painted in my mind were so terrifying that's probably the best word to use really they were so terrifying that it just made me practically press my face against the computer monitor I mean I was being drawn into this tale because it seemed real and it's presenting

[00:37:52] itself as real and the images are absolutely unnerving now let's continue with the story and let's see where all of this goes the shot goes to Squidward sitting on the edge of his bed looking very forlorn the view out of this

[00:38:22] porthole window is of a night sky so it isn't very long after the concert the unsettling part is that at this point there's no sound literally zero sound not even the feedback from the speakers in the room it's as if the speakers were turned off though their statuses showed them working perfectly Squidward just sits there in this silence blinking for about thirty

[00:38:52] seconds then starts to sob softly he puts his hands or tentacles over his eyes and cries quietly for a full minute more all the while a sound in the background is very gradually growing from nothing to barely audible it sounds like a slight breeze through a forest the

[00:39:23] screen slowly begins to zoom in on his face by slowly I mean that it's only noticeable if you look at shots ten seconds apart side by side his sobbing gets louder and more full of hurt and anger the screen then twitches a bit as if it twists in on itself for a split second before going back to normal the wind through the trees sound gets

[00:39:52] louder and more severe as if a storm is brewing somewhere the eerie part is that this sound and Squidward sobbing sounded real it was like it wasn't coming from the speakers but that the speakers themselves were holes that the sound was traveling through from the other side as good a sound as the studio likes to have they don't have the

[00:40:22] equipment to be able to produce audio of that quality now back to the commentary this section is very it's a it's a it's a clear and in character natural consequence for what we've seen and heard so far you know Squidward is a very very self conscious in his head kind of a person he has a massive ego and

[00:40:52] after experiencing the absolute rejection by everyone which he's probably pretty used to but specifically seeing Spongebob there in the center of the crowd booing booing booing booing when we see him or you know hear of him when we see him sitting on his bed alone in pure silence no sound at all I think that's illustrative of him just being totally lost in thought

[00:41:22] but us being on the outside so to us it's pure silence to him it something sounding like a breeze through a forest which then grows and grows and grows to wind pouring through trees getting more and more severe and then a storm brewing

[00:41:51] and I take that as illustrative of the storm and the chaos and the pain the inner turmoil that Squidward is experiencing having been rejected and humiliated and you know essentially spat upon by the community he was trying to entertain and share his art with and

[00:42:21] worst of all Spongebob and you know it's extremely out of character for Spongebob to do such a thing and so this is where Squidward has arrived this is what Squidward has become he has no one anymore even even the one person who is always gentle and generous to Squidward

[00:42:51] always willing to forgive Squidward for all of the you know not good not nice things that Squidward is guilty of which as we see in the show is a lot Spongebob has officially turned on Squidward and not just generally but he specifically booed Squidward's art and anyone who makes art and anyone who puts themselves into

[00:43:20] creative endeavors they know that you know particularly when someone is vicious and extremely critical it is painful I don't care who you are I don't care how long you've been doing it or making it or what your situation is in life I don't care how thick you think your skin is it is unpleasant it hurts when people do that even to the best

[00:43:50] of people and that's something that I'm definitely acutely aware of and has informed how I view other people's art and how I deal with other people's art I'm very very very reticent to scoff at other people's creations and what they have put their energy into creatively because it is an expression of them and

[00:44:20] I don't care what your gut reaction or opinion is to the specific art but laughing or booing or saying this is crap or saying any number of negative things is very well it's easy to do it's too easy to do and that's one of the problems and I think why a lot of people go that route because it's kind of the route of least resistance when you don't

[00:44:50] understand something it's extremely easy to assume that you do understand it and that it is just bad and so anyway I'm not saying that Squidward is necessarily an artistic genius although honestly I was thinking this the last time that I was watching through some classic Spongebob episodes I was noticing some of the paintings and some of the art that Squidward made on the walls and

[00:45:20] whatnot and I was thinking you know it actually looks kind of interesting and I I really it would be it would be interesting if if like Nickelodeon or somebody put out a book you know a book that's called something like the art of Squidward tentacles and it's put out as if it is an actual genuine bonafide art book of of Squidward's creations and if it were to treat

[00:45:49] Squidward as though he were like an artist putting his work out in the form of a book I think that would be very it would be it could be a great opportunity for comedy and humor but it could also just be very interesting and you could even get into the character of Squidward more if you wanted to I see you Avatar Fire and Ash is now streaming on Disney Plus it's the film critics are calling the best Avatar yet a true epic

[00:46:18] and completely jaw-dropping return to Pandora on Disney Plus and watch the Oscar winning phenomenon at home Avatar Fire and Ash now streaming on Disney Plus rated PG-13 at ZocDoc we know you care about your health you wouldn't do that early morning cardio if you didn't so the fact that your annual physical is overdue just shows how hard it can be to get seen by

[00:46:48] a doctor sorry that doctor's not in network press 1 for more options you've reached us outside normal business hours the next availability is in three months but ZocDoc makes finding the right doctor easy download the app and search by specialty insurance and availability read real patient reviews then book instantly ZocDoc ready to be seen but anyway back to the story at hand I'll continue reading here and I will say that things

[00:47:18] are about to get pretty dark so hold on to your seats people now let's continue below the sound of the wind and sobbing very faintly audible something sounded like laughing it came at odd intervals and never lasted more than a second so you had a hard time pinning

[00:47:48] it we watched this episode twice so pardon me if things sound too specific but I've had time to think about them after thirty seconds of twitched violently and something flashed over it as if a single frame was replaced the lead animation editor paused and rewound frame by frame

[00:48:18] what we saw was horrible it was a still photo of a dead child the most upsetting part was that there was a shadow of the photographer but no crime tape evidence tags or markers and the angle was completely off for a shot designed to be evidence it would seem they were the person responsible

[00:48:48] for the child's death we were of course mortified but pressed on hoping that this was just a sick joke wow okay well let's pause here and just sit on what we just read there for a moment I remember reading this for the

[00:49:18] first time and just feeling absolutely freaked out before this in the story the story was very creepy it was very dark it was very unnerving it was it had an energy to it that was very wispy foggy misty hard to to really see through really understand fully but when we

[00:49:47] got to that detail of the inserted really disturbing and very screwed up imagery that as a 12 year old reading this especially that pushed me over the edge that was I mean I went from being curiously and excitedly creeped out to being genuinely like oh my goodness please

[00:50:33] that was supposedly stitched into this episode is really you know I mean there's no other word for it it's it's horrible it's really disturbing after we're done reading this story there's going to be some information some kind of behind the scenes you could say information that I think you're going to find interesting but let's listen people we started

[00:51:03] this story we got to finish it so let's go ahead and press through and keep reading and flipped back to Squidward still sobbing louder than before half of his body in the frame there was now what appeared to be blood

[00:51:32] running down his face from his eyes the blood was also done in a hyper realistic style looking as if you'd get it on your fingers if you touch the screen the wind sounded now as if it were that of a gale blowing through the forest there were even snapping sounds like of branches the laughing a deep baritone lasted

[00:52:02] for longer intervals and came more frequently after about 20 seconds the screen again twisted and showed a single frame photo the editor was reluctant to go back we all were but he knew he had to this time the photo appeared to be of a little girl

[00:52:31] no older than the first child i had to choke back vomit in one intern the only female in the room ran out the show resumed about about five seconds after this second photo played squidward went silent all sound cut out like it did when the scene started he put his tentacles down and

[00:53:01] his eyes were now done in hyper realism like the others were at the beginning of the episode they were bleeding bloodshot and pulsating he just stared at the screen as if watching the viewer after about ten seconds he started sobbing this time not covering his eyes the sound was

[00:53:31] piercing and loud the most fear inducing thing of all was that his sobbing was mixed with screams tears and blood were dripping down his face at a heavy rate the wind sound came back and so did the deep voiced laughing this time with a still photo that lasted for a good five

[00:54:00] frames the animator was scene was different okay well commentary time here so we have some

[00:54:30] more examples of these highly horrible nightmare inducing supposed images that were inserted into this lost episode Squidward suicide I don't think there's really much for me to say about that because it's all very similar to basically what I have already said it's disturbing it's very unnerving and we'll get back to that a little bit after

[00:55:00] the story is done but what is interesting aside from that is the detail that Squidward his eyes became hyper realistic in bloodshot just like the people in the crowd at his concert I think you could take that to be expressive that the evil if you want to

[00:55:30] go that far of the crowd that booed him including Spongebob that all had these red big hyper realistic eyes you could take Squidward receiving the same thing as almost like he became corrupted as well now he is like them they were filled with disdain they hated him and his art and the

[00:56:00] sharing of his art and now Squidward has internalized it and has been deeply deeply affected by it and incorporated it into his understanding of life and in fact you know I think the disturbing photographs that are described could actually be illustrative of that very same thing obviously

[00:56:31] there's an implied within the story itself of like okay clearly whoever put together this horrible episode must have have something to do with these photos he must be a murderer and a serial killer and that is fair and that is true from looking at it very literally and taking it as a pure urban legend and reading it from that perspective and on that on the surface of

[00:57:01] things I think that's obviously very true but looking at this as a piece of fiction itself looking at it as a story that has a message has a theme has concepts that it's trying to communicate I think you could see the disturbing images flashing on the screen as kind of really disturbing

[00:57:30] ways of visualizing the trauma and the pain and the horror that Squidward is himself experiencing and feeling sitting there on that bed as he's crying and in fact you know the crowd they simply had bloodshot eyes but Squidward his bloodshot eyes are actually pouring blood which I think

[00:58:00] is a sign that he's not only been affected by them but he's now worse than them even which very often I think happens you know trauma begets more trauma pain inflicted on one person unfortunately very often leads them to inflict pain on another and very often in a more intense manner or in a stranger manner and you know thinking about it all in this context it really

[00:58:29] paints Squidward out for all of his flaws for all of his you know like we were saying earlier he's a jealous guy he's kind of a bitter guy he's full of himself he's very egotistical he's probably you could apply the term narcissist to him but ultimately below that and quite frankly this is I think often the case in real life below all that he is extremely extremely sensitive

[00:58:58] and extremely extremely really just kind of a he has an open heart underneath it all that he tries to hide constantly but it's there it's really a it's a it's a sad thing and it's an interesting way of of looking at at the character and also just this story and what it's it's trying to illustrate well we're we're getting very near the end of this tale

[00:59:27] so why don't we continue along the lead sound editor told us to stop he had to call in the creator to see this mr hillenberg arrived within about 15 minutes he was confused as to why he had been calmed down so the editor just continued the episode once the

[00:59:57] next few frames were shown all screaming and sound again stopped squidward was just staring at the viewer his face taking up the full frame head and we saw a shotgun in squidward's hands he immediately puts

[01:00:27] the gun in his mouth and pulls the trigger realistic blood and brain matter splatters the wall behind him and his bed and he flies back with force the last five seconds of the episode show his body on the bed on its side one eye dangling from what's left of his head above the floor staring blankly at it

[01:00:56] then the episode ends okay i gotta i gotta pause here to to talk about how that shot i forgot about that i forgot that when squidward fulfills the title of this lost episode squidward suicide that the form his body then takes mirrors

[01:01:26] what's described in the photographs and again obviously if you're looking at this from a surface level literal narrative point of view then clearly the evil serial killer maniac who put this lost episode together was mirror was making the episode mirror his vile disgusting crimes but from an allegorical perspective or from just

[01:01:56] a storytelling narrative fiction perspective a literature perspective you could see it the exact opposite way that the images actually come out of the state we see squidward in at the end it's very interesting very interesting now this is the thrilling conclusion to squidward suicide

[01:02:26] mr hillenberg was obviously angry at this he demanded to know what the hell was going on most people left the room at this point so there were just a handful of us left to watch it again viewing the episode twice only served to imprint the others

[01:02:57] i am so sorry i stay the only theory we could think of was that the file had been edited by someone in the chain from the drawing studio to here the cto was called in to find out when it happened analysis of the file did show it

[01:03:28] seconds before we began viewing it all equipment involved was examined for foreign software and hardware as well as glitches such as if the timestamp was showing us the wrong time but everything checked out fine we didn't know what had happened and to this day nobody does there was an

[01:03:58] investigation due to the nature of the photographs but nothing came of it no child seen was identified and no clues were gathered from the data involved nor physical clues from the photos I never believed an unexplainable phenomenon before but now that I've had something happen to me and can't prove anything about it beyond

[01:04:28] anecdotal evidence I is that is the thrilling conclusion of Squidward suicide a lot of interesting details there at the end the idea

[01:04:57] of Steven Hillenburg being involved adds another layer to the realism and just the mental image the mental picture the mental movie the it adds a very strong layer to it and oh my goodness I mean the story itself guys imagine watching

[01:05:27] this episode in the context that the writer describes it you're an intern at the studio you're an employee at Nickelodeon you're expecting just to watch a normal show they pop it in brand new episode no one seen it yet and that's what you see I mean that would be the most terrible and then watching it again watching it from the top again now the very end

[01:05:57] is where the only massive what you could call supernatural element comes into play which is the fact that when the file was examined the digital file was examined it was found that it had been edited only 24 seconds before they pressed play well you know here I think is where this story actually really leans more

[01:06:26] or rather at least this detail could be seen as the story leaning into what I was talking about earlier that maybe we shouldn't see this episode as or this story about this episode as a kind of mundane description of a lost episode of a television show but maybe we should see it more as a commentary on

[01:06:56] the show itself in a way but specifically Squidward and the nature of his character and the disturbing nature of it because obviously or the very complicated nature of Squidward's character because if the episode was altered only 24 seconds before they pressed play I mean what is the idea that this murderer who killed these people and then

[01:07:25] altered the spongebob episode in order to stitch it together is the idea that he is also some kind of like that he's a hacker of some kind and able to you know I don't think so I don't think that's the idea and you know ultimately where does the story leave us the story leaves us with exactly what it gave us the story it says this is what I witnessed

[01:07:55] this is what I experienced and and that's all I know I think what is so gripping about that and what was so gripping about this story reading it when I was just a 12 year old boy home from school on a rainy day was that that that is very relatable and

[01:08:28] a some kind of answer to get the answers to them but there's no guide on how to do that. Every single instance in life is unique and individual. And that's part of what

[01:08:54] makes them so impactful, actually, is the fact that it is possible to have an experience of something that is so visceral and affects you so deeply, whether it be good or bad. But then you don't, you don't have, you don't understand it. And so you're, you're forced to keep trying to

[01:09:18] understand it. And it really, it forces you into an engagement with the mystery, whether that be a very good mystery in the case of, you know, oftentimes, I think in the best of cases, a religious life is a relationship with the prime mystery, whether it be something good like that,

[01:09:42] or if it'd be in a very kind of the opposite of that, in a negative light, something very negative happens, something nightmarish is, is witnessed. I think whether good or bad, this stuff is inherently gripping to people who have a curious bone in their body, let's say. And that is Squidward

[01:10:09] Suicide, everybody. But we're not done yet. We have a whole other side of, of this legend to explore. There's something very, very interesting about this creepypasta, which is kind of unique, you could say, for the old classic creepypastas. And that is that possibly, and I'm inserting the word possibly,

[01:10:38] because a lot of people just take this at face value. But the author of the story is possibly known, because some person on Reddit made an account called Suicide Squidward, and made a post claiming that they are the original author of Squidward Suicide. Now, of course, that story was posted

[01:11:04] anonymously. There's really no way of verifying this. I don't particularly hold an opinion one way or another on if this person was the original author. But what he what he has to say is certainly interesting. And I don't see anything in what he wrote that would make me think that he's not the author, I guess. So like I can word it that way. He said that he came up with the idea for a creepy,

[01:11:33] terrifying lost episode of SpongeBob, after reading suicidemouse.avi. Of course, another very early classic lost episode creepypasta and dead Bart, which is another really fun. I personally love dead Bart. It's a classic Simpsons lost episode creepypasta. And they said that they they didn't

[01:12:00] really expect it to go anywhere or to last. They thought it would probably just be a one off post. In fact, they later joked in the Reddit thread that they wrote it very quickly that it maybe took like an hour or something. And they didn't really think it was necessarily completely finished even necessarily. It was it was basically just a almost like a first draft kind of thing. And you know,

[01:12:27] he says something about the the the murder material, though, the really disturbing images. That supposedly were stitched into this lost episode. And he says that he put that into the story specifically and entirely for shock value, which is like, okay, well, that's not the most surprising thing in the world now, is it? Because it really does, you know, taking my commentary on how

[01:12:55] it could be seen as a reflection of Squidward's mental state aside, it definitely was pretty shocking, pretty intense in not altogether the most necessary thing in the world, probably. Or at least you could have gotten away with describing it in a less horrific manner.

[01:13:19] Another interesting thing that this possible author mentioned of the story is that the paranormal element at the end of the story having been or sorry, of the video file having been edited only 24 seconds before they started watching it. He said that he put that in there specifically because he was posting it to the ex-paranormal board on 7chan, which is really funny, because I mean, you could easily imagine,

[01:13:48] therefore, a version of the story that didn't end with that. Although quite frankly, it's actually also harder to imagine the story without that 24 second change detail in there, because that detail is so, well, it's like a final twist, a final digging in of the knife of the mystery.

[01:14:14] And I think it's really, it's the cherry on top. It solidifies it as not just a mystery, but a mystery beyond mysteries that certainly cannot have a simple explanation. Another important thing to mention that the author mentioned is that he had nothing to do with

[01:14:39] anything aside from the original Squidward suicide story. So he said, you know, that very famous image, and I think there's a couple, probably a few variants of it, but that famous image of Squidward with the red eyes, he said he had nothing to do with, and nor any of the supposed recreations of the show that

[01:15:03] appeared. Now, if you are familiar with this classic creepypasta, Squidward suicide, and if you spent a good amount of time looking into it, trying to find information about it, reading it, you might have wondered, when I got to the end of the story in my commentary on it, where was that red mist thing?

[01:15:30] You know, what about the red mist is coming? What about, what about the Scottish guy that showed, well, okay, hold your horses there. Interestingly, none of that stuff was in the original Squidward suicide story. All of that was added in a pseudo-sequel slash different story that essentially built upon

[01:15:56] Squidward suicide that is called Red Mist. Now, the original Squidward suicide, like I talked about at the beginning, was uploaded to 7chan in April of 2010, April 6th of 2010. And Red Mist, as far as people can figure out, was traced to a SpongeFan wiki post on August 9th, 2010. Also, another interesting detail is that

[01:16:25] since this was posted there, there's technically a name or rather a username associated to where this post comes from, and it comes from a user on that wiki called Chagnew. And, you know, interestingly, in a lot of ways, a lot of details from the original, what people think of when they think of Squidward suicide. A good chunk of those details actually come from this story. So, instead of just talking

[01:16:54] about it and talking about it, and you guys are going to be struggling to understand what I'm even commenting on or talking about, let's take a look at the Red Mist story, and let's work through it together just like we did with the original Squidward suicide. I think then we'll be able to really understand the initial trajectory and how the lore and the mystique and the world and the mystery of

[01:17:24] this Lost Episode really was both created, but then settled in to public consciousness and creepypasta lore, and really cemented, I think, the Lost Episode genre as, in a sense, like the prime creepypasta influence. Well, without further ado, here is Red Mist.

[01:17:59] Red Mist is a Lost Season 4 SpongeBob episode and the third tape Andrew Skinner made. It was created with some help from Philip Stincheski. It was viewed by Chaz Agnew and few others. The tape itself was sent to the Canadian branch of Nickelodeon Studios, located in Ontario, as the Season 4 premiere,

[01:18:25] Fear the Krabby Patty. It was also theorized to be an updated version of Squidward Suicide, but that was later debunked. Okay, commentary time. So right off the bat, the setup of Red Mist

[01:18:46] is, while similar, very different from Squidward Suicide. Squidward Suicide had a very literary quality to it. It felt personal. It felt like a confession. Red Mist is right out of the gate. Well, it's funny. It feels like a wiki entry. So the fact that this did literally appear

[01:19:12] as a wiki entry, it makes sense. And it's funny because it really reads like it. It also is giving you some massive, massive details that make Red Mist distinct from Squidward Suicide immediately. It's actually kind of shocking in retrospect reading this because right off the bat, it said,

[01:19:37] I'll just read the first line again because it says it all there. Red Mist is a lost Season 4 SpongeBob episode and the third tape Andrew Skinner made. Okay, so right off the bat, we apparently know who made this. In Squidward Suicide, that was one of the main mysteries, is who made this

[01:20:02] nightmare of a SpongeBob episode? But in Red Mist, line one, I guess we already know, Andrew Skinner. But who is Andrew Skinner? And for that matter, who in the world is Philip Stancheski? Who is, I mean, it's implied that he helped Andrew Skinner. So these two are culpable potentially for the Squidward

[01:20:32] suicide tape, which that's another really confusing detail because the last line of the paragraph I just read says that, and I'll just read it verbatim again. It was also theorized to be an updated version of Squidward Suicide, but that was later debunked. Now, I really do not know what that means

[01:20:56] because in the original Squidward Suicide story, it says that this was the episode that came in that was supposed to be the Season 4 premiere Fear of a Krabby Patty. And in this very beginning paragraph of Red Mist, it says that Red Mist came in as what was supposed to be the Season 4 premiere Fear of a Krabby Patty.

[01:21:24] So, given that fact, and given the fact that, as you will see, this is clearly a version of Squidward's Suicide. I genuinely don't know what that sentence means. I'll also just make a comment here that, very funnily, there's a lot of grammatical errors and different things that you could definitely call

[01:21:54] linguistic or writing or grammar mistakes that pop up here and there throughout Red Mist that you don't see in the original Squidward Suicide, which is funny. The original Squidward Suicide actually was very literary in nature, while this, again, what I kind of started with saying, reads and feels very much like a wiki entry, which is kind of interesting actually. It gives you

[01:22:22] another angle on the whole mystery. Now, let's continue. Red Mist begins with Squidward preparing to practice his clarinet in his room as SpongeBob and Patrick play merrily outside. Squidward wraps his mouth around the clarinet and is only able to play one note before being interrupted by someone

[01:22:49] knocking on the door. He walks down and opens the door and discovers that a traveling salesman is at his door. The salesman, a Scottish fish, asks if he could have a moment of Squidward's time. Squidward tells him that he isn't interested and slams the door in the man's face, walking back to his room. The salesman begins knocking again and Squidward opens the door angrily.

[01:23:19] The salesman, looking very upset, tells Squidward that, the Red Mist is coming, and proceeds to walk off, confusing Squidward. Squidward walks back to his room and finally begins playing the clarinet. After performing several off-key notes, SpongeBob and Patrick begin laughing outside, interrupting Squidward yet again.

[01:23:49] Squidward walks over to the window and shouts at the two, telling them he needs to practice for a concert he will be performing at. SpongeBob and Patrick both apologize tearfully and walk back to their respective houses. Squidward, unsure of himself, walks back and begins playing his clarinet again, this time uninterrupted. The scene then fades to red over the course of twelve

[01:24:19] seconds and, perhaps by glitch, the same scene is repeated once more, which is somewhat common in rough cuts of animation. However, this time, Squidward's eyes have been replaced with new and more realistic eyes with red pupils. Clearly, not real, but more realistic than CGI, TV or animated.

[01:24:46] The audio is also completely absent from this scene, save for occasional clicks. Wow. Okay. A lot to say about what we just read here. Clearly, as I was saying before we read this part,

[01:25:09] this is clearly a version of Squidward's suicide. The differences are interesting because they're slight, but they are serious and they do kind of change the vibe. Because, you know, in the original Squidward's suicide, the scene begins. Squidward's playing the clarinet. He gets annoyed by SpongeBob

[01:25:36] and Patrick. He tells him to get out of here or whatever, and they go off to Sandy's, it says. And then he goes back to playing his clarinet. End of scene. And the brilliance of that was the simplicity of it and the realism of it. The realisticness. You start with something that, although it's a rough cut

[01:26:00] and the title card said Squidward's suicide, which is quite, you know, something quite creepy in a sense. And this version of the story, this red mist version of Squidward's suicide, it doesn't do that at all. It starts out extremely, extremely weird. I mean, just the Scottish fish knocking at the door. I mean, that's

[01:26:28] normal enough, but when he says the red mist is coming, yeah, what in the world does that mean? A lot of people would look at this red mist variant, especially of this Squidward's suicide story. And this is where I think a lot of scoffing would come in of like, oh, this is so ridiculous. This is so goofy. Even the way it's written, look at it. It's so silly. But here's the thing.

[01:26:57] You have to look at this for what it is, which is to say, this is a story. So take it seriously. And by take it seriously, all you have to do is just not put yourself in a predisposition of trying to

[01:27:20] attack it or expecting it to impress you or give you anything specifically, have no expectations and just experience the story as it unfolds. Because if I think back, especially to when I was younger

[01:27:41] and when I was reading these classic creepypastas, including this one, when I was home alone that day, it might've been a couple of days. And I remember just spending like hours upon hours upon hours obsessively researching Squidward's suicide in red mist. And I didn't care about the technical

[01:28:08] amateurish nature, if you wanted to use that language of how red mist was written. I didn't care about this problem or that problem. It did not matter to me at all. And the reason is because it was genuinely intriguing to contemplate. The story was genuinely intriguing to contemplate,

[01:28:34] even as it is now, of course, reading this now and comparing red mist to Squidward's suicide and comparing them as distinct stories. You can point out, uh, you know, which one you prefer things you like about one things you don't like about the other, but it's, it's funny because as a, as a, when I was first reading this stuff as a 12 year old, I did not notice any differences. Uh,

[01:29:03] uh, red mist, Squidward's suicide. These, this was the exact same thing to me. And so I think when reading this stuff, you have to appreciate it for what it is and not try to just say like, Oh, this sucks because fill in the blank. This sucks because of a cliche. This sucks because it's not written right. This sucks because of this. Give it grace. Let the story unfold. Let the story be told.

[01:29:33] And see if you can find something to appreciate in it. I think that's, that's what we have to do. But anyway, another difference in this part of the story between red mist and Squidward's suicide that is kind of interesting is that in Squidward's suicide, when Squidward tells SpongeBob and Patrick off,

[01:29:56] they go running off to Sandy's, it says, but in this version, SpongeBob and Patrick, uh, apologize tearfully, it says, and then they go back to their own houses. Now that's interesting. And then that's followed up with another instance of the, the horror has already begun. Uh, once again,

[01:30:20] in Squidward's suicide, the entire opening scene is basically chill, but in this one, not only do we get the Scottish fish saying the red mist is coming, we then get the scene playing itself over again, but in a glitchy manner and with those red eyes that in the original Squidward's suicide story, isn't brought into

[01:30:47] the picture until the next scene that we're going to see happen, the concert hall scene. So it's, it's very, it's just a very interesting choice. It's very interesting how when the red mist author went to write his version, he decided to just go straight into it. He basically took Squidward's suicide,

[01:31:09] the, the kind of beats of it that were terrifying. And he stitched them into the very first scene from the very beginning. It's a very interesting choice. And I, you know, there's merits of it. I think, um, I remember as a kid, I think I probably actually liked this story better because it had more details to it.

[01:31:34] You know, it had more like weird glitchy creepiness that I could play through in my head and imagine and go, oh, isn't that so creepy? Oh man, I, I wonder, is it real? Oh man. You know, that kind of a thing. I see you. Avatar Fire and Ash is now streaming on Disney+. It's the film critics are calling the best Avatar yet. A true epic and completely jaw-dropping. This is the only purest thing in this world.

[01:32:04] Return to Pandora on Disney+. It will be an adventure for the whole family. And watch the Oscar-winning phenomenon at home. This is sick! Avatar Fire and Ash, now streaming on Disney+, rated PG-13. At ZocDoc, we know you care about your health. You wouldn't do that early morning cardio if you didn't. So the fact that your annual physical is overdue just shows how hard it can be to get seen by a doctor. Sorry, that doctor's not in network. Press one for more options. You've

[01:32:33] reached us outside normal business hours. The next availability is in three months. But ZocDoc makes finding the right doctor easy. Download the app and search by specialty, insurance, and availability. Read real patient reviews, then book instantly. ZocDoc, ready to be seen? Well, anyway, we're about to get into the concert hall performance scene, which I'm pretty excited about. I'm very curious to see what's the same and what's different in the Red Mist version versus

[01:33:03] the Squidward Suicide version. So let's get into it. After the repeat of the previous scene, a new scene begins with the same red eyes, but at the theater where Squidward is playing his clarinet. The frames in the animation skip every four seconds, but the sound remains synced. After an unruly

[01:33:33] performance of a song he dubbed Red Mist, SpongeBob and Patrick are seen in the crowd booing Squidward, very uncommon for them. The scene pans to reveal the same Scottish salesman sitting next to them, also booing, as Squidward walks back to his home with his head in his tentacles. What's odd is that

[01:33:59] the scene actually shows him walking to his house, with nothing happening in the background for three minutes and fifty seconds, before abruptly cutting to red for another twenty seconds, just as he arrives

[01:34:14] at his house. Okay, well, I mean, whoa, a lot of details to cover there. In the original Squidward's suicide story, the concert hall scene actually starts very normal. You know, Squidward is playing,

[01:34:37] uh, and then the crowd starts to boo and all that, but in this story, Squidward just like, you know, adding on with and continuing with the, one of the red mist differences from Squidward's suicide with the red eyes in the very first scene, now at the very beginning of this scene, Squidward has red eyes. Whereas in the original Squidward's suicide story, Squidward doesn't get the red eyes until like the

[01:35:05] last scene, basically, when he's sitting in his room. So that's an, that's a very interesting detail, and it says that he dubbed it red mist. So that kind of implies, are we to imagine that when the scene began, Squidward was actually not already playing his clarinet, and he's, and he actually told the crowd, now this is my new song, red mist. You know, imagine that in Squidward's voice

[01:35:35] for me if you can. Or maybe he introduced the song afterwards. Either way, it's a very interesting detail. It's a very interesting detail because that's the entire name of the episode is red mist. And that's what the Scottish salesman told him is coming. And so for Squidward to now call his song red mist, you know, in many ways, just kind of thinking out loud about this right now,

[01:36:05] red mist, as it is described, is actually much more dreamlike than Squidward's suicide. There are things that are happening that are very slippery and strange, but connected, but in ways that are not necessarily linear or rationally or logically connected. But in yet,

[01:36:33] it's connected and there's a flow there between them. It's very interesting. We'll have to see where this goes. Another difference that is very interesting right off the bat is that in the original Squidward's suicide story, the entire crowd is booing him very, very, very viciously. And SpongeBob is then revealed to be booing him as well. And that's when they say that he has those red eyes.

[01:37:03] In this story, it doesn't say that the crowd wasn't booing him, but it only specifically says that SpongeBob and Patrick in the crowd were booing Squidward. And then it says that the Scottish salesman was sitting next to them, also booing Squidward. So in the original Squidward's suicide, it is just SpongeBob sitting there booing Squidward. In red mist, it is SpongeBob booing Squidward

[01:37:31] with Patrick and with a Scottish salesman. It's a very weird thing. You know, I'm getting vibes of like, whenever you read like the New Testament gospels, you know, like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John or whatever. And if you read them without the assumptions in place that most people have and without telling yourself that they're all telling the exact same account, it's actually very shocking how different

[01:38:00] each of the gospels is from each other, even the ones that are very similar in many ways. And even the ones that share the same stories will very often have extremely different versions of the same story. So it's very interesting reading, reading red mist and seeing it's, it's a, it's a similar

[01:38:23] experience of like, Oh, okay, this is the same, but extremely different. Actually, it's very, very different. And a lot of the details are quite unique. And another big difference, uh, just in this very short description of the scene is that in Squidward suicide, after SpongeBob was booing Squidward,

[01:38:48] it, at that moment cuts to Squidward sitting in his house on his bed in a dark room at night. But in this, it says that we then see Squidward walking. So we see like a walk cycle of Squidward walking to his home. And it notes that there was nothing else happening. He was just walking very

[01:39:18] slowly, uh, with his head and his tentacles, it says for three minutes and 50 seconds before then cutting abruptly to red for about 20 seconds, just as he arrives at his house. Now this is interesting because this shows another classic creepypasta influence, uh, which is oddly, interestingly and

[01:39:42] oddly, one of the influences that the supposed Squidward suicide author noted that was an influence for him, which is suicide mouse dot AVI. Anyone who's read that story knows that the, the entire base of the lost episode tale is Mickey Mouse walking in this loop, this kind of infinite loop with obviously, you know,

[01:40:11] some terrifying and disturbing details in the mix. So to have this in the red mist version shows that, you know, the influences keep compounding. What influenced Squidward suicide even influenced the story completely influenced by Squidward suicide. So, you know, what does that tell you about

[01:40:34] the longevity and the influential nature of suicide mouse dot AVI? It's very interesting, but we're, we're getting pretty close to the main scene here. And so let's go ahead and get into that. And, uh, we'll, we'll talk about it and dissect it and dig into it after we've read it.

[01:40:57] A new scene appears, back to the original cartoon eyes, with Squidward sitting in a chair in his room that night, with a blank look on his face for roughly 30 seconds, before starting to sob softly. Again, the audio is completely missing for most of the scene, until the sobbing begins.

[01:41:27] This is when the sound of a slight breeze through a forest can be heard in the background. It also begins very mildly zooming in on Squidward's face, only noticeable if you compare 10 seconds of frame side by side. The sound of him sobbing can suddenly be heard, very loud and severe,

[01:41:50] as the screen twitches in on itself briefly. A salesman's laughing can also be heard echoing in the background. After another 30 seconds, the screen blurs and twitches violently, and a single frame flashes over the screen. Upon pausing it exactly on the frame, the viewer can see a

[01:42:16] real-life photo of a deceased six-year-old next to him. The shadow of the photographer is clearly visible, with part of the photographer's hand appearing to the right of the screen. Did you guys catch that detail? The one I'm thinking of? Can you guys read my mind? Do you

[01:42:45] know exactly what I'm thinking right now? Okay, so here's what I noticed and what popped out to me very, very intensely. And it's actually probably, in a sense, the most interesting innovation that Red Mist has done so far, because it actually takes something that was not clear in Squidward's suicide

[01:43:10] and gives it an explanation. This is very, very interesting. So when the scene begins, we see Squidward, just like in Squidward's suicide, except again, there's a slight detail change. In Squidward's suicide, he's sitting on his bed. In Red Mist, he's sitting in a chair in his room. But the very interesting detail is that in Squidward's suicide, when the sound of the wind and the

[01:43:38] breeze and the forest and all of that begins, and it begins ramping up, it says that something like the laughing can be heard. But we never get an explanation for that. And I think what most people would assume is that the laughing is probably the laughing of that psychopathic murderer, who is apparently to blame for Squidward's suicide. But in Red Mist, we actually are told

[01:44:06] who laughed, who was the Scottish salesman. So we have the Scottish salesman who appeared at the beginning, who said the Red Mist is coming, which is apparently the name of the song Squidward was practicing for the performance that night. Squidward is booed and humiliated, including by

[01:44:31] the Scottish salesman who was there. And now he's heard in the background laughing at Squidward, as he begins to, as we discussed in the Squidward suicide discussion, just have kind of an emotional release, an emotional breaking point, breakdown, and all of the pain of the, really the betrayal,

[01:44:58] I think, of Squidward. And now Patrick. And now Patrick was at the concert booing him, which is even worse, because Patrick would also very often, at the very least, may not be purposefully, intentionally cruel to Squidward. You know, all Squidward torture aside in the later seasons, let's, you know,

[01:45:21] that happened. But, you know, that aside, SpongeBob and Patrick are very innocent people. And so looking at it in that way, the concert scene in Red Mist is way more of a betrayal than even in Squidward suicide, because, you know, maybe in Squidward suicide, there was still a

[01:45:44] possibility that Patrick was on Squidward's side. But in Red Mist, that is, that is done, that is over. There's no chance, there's no possibility. And of course, we have the exact same details of the disturbing crime scene photos, essentially. I mean, not in the sense that they were taken by a cop,

[01:46:08] but in the sense that it is photos of a crime. And, uh, yeah, you know, I mean, it's very disturbing. It's, uh, it's a disturbing description. It is, uh, I mean, what can you say? And I'm sure a lot of people feel this way. You almost wish these details were not in the story, because it's just so unpleasant.

[01:46:32] That's just the truth of it. But, uh, it's a part of the story and it does add a level of, well, seriousness to it in the sense of if it was, if you were taking it as a, as a, as a play, as a game before, well, it's not a game and this is serious and this is, there's real evil involved

[01:46:56] here. So in that sense, I guess, I guess you could say that the, uh, violence and the serial killer aspect of the story does serve a purpose and is useful for the story and for communicating the point of the story. Okay. Well, let's, uh, let's continue on. Let's keep on trooping through

[01:47:23] red mist and seeing what more we can notice. After this photograph is seen, it cuts back to Squidward sobbing much louder than before with what appears to be blood running from his eyes

[01:47:45] instead of tears and the sound of the salesman still hurt. The sound of the wind in the forest is also played at much louder volume, but now with the sound of branches snapping in the screams of a young boy hurt. After 20 more seconds, another single frame appears, this time of an eight-year-old girl.

[01:48:12] The shadow of the photographer is also visible. The scene reverts back to Squidward. Now with the same realistic red eyes from before, completely silent and no longer sobbing, the sound of the forest can no longer be heard. Another three seconds later, and it cuts back to the sobbing, this time piercing

[01:48:42] loud and with the sound of the forest heard. The screams of both a young boy and young girl can be heard mixed together as the song Amazing Grace plays on both the clarinet and the bagpipes.

[01:49:05] Wow. Well, let's pause here and deconstruct. Or I don't know if deconstruct is the right word, but let's pause here and talk about what we just read. Very interesting details, interesting changes, at least from my memory. Because you have it being pretty similar, you know, we go back and Squidward is

[01:49:30] sobbing much harder, just like in Squidward's suicide. There's now blood running from his eyes, just like in Squidward's suicide. Although it's interesting because, you know, in this Red Mist version, we've already seen Squidward with blood red eyes. And with, you know, we've seen a lot of creepy and disturbing stuff. So, in the original Squidward's suicide story, yes, SpongeBob had had hyper-realistic,

[01:50:00] creepy, terrifying red eyes. But we didn't see Squidward have that as well until after SpongeBob. And it felt much more like a, like a building. Like you laid the foundation, the realistic foundation of the story in the SpongeBob world. And then you built upon it just a weird, unnerving thing here,

[01:50:25] and a creepy thing here, a disturbing thing here, and then it goes off the cliff. Whereas in Red Mist, the trend over and over and over again has been something like the opposite of that, where from, from moment one, things are off. Things are strange. From the very first scene, things are different. And so in here, we have, in a sense, being a little general, everything that was in

[01:50:54] and described in this scene in the original Squidward's suicide version. But the details that are described in the Squidward's suicide version, uh, actually are kind of papered over a little quickly. And there's a bunch of new points made. Like, with hearing the sound of screams of a young boy and a young girl.

[01:51:21] Now, that's strange in and of itself, but even more so, imagining that mixed in with that was a clarinet and bagpipe version of the song Amazing Grace. I mean, that's really, really weird. Now, I think that's worth hovering on for a second, actually. Because obviously with the clarinet,

[01:51:49] you have Squidward. That's a, that's a clear Squidward symbol. We're getting into Squidward symbolism, if you will. But then the bagpipe, well, we know what that's a symbol of too. That's a symbol of the Scottish salesman. So this song Amazing Grace being mixed in and played over the screams of

[01:52:14] what it describes as a young boy and a young girl being played on both the clarinet and the bagpipes. It's another instance of the conjoining in the mixing of this Squidward character with this Scottish salesman character. Because we first heard the term Red Mist from the Scottish salesman,

[01:52:38] but then Squidward reveals that that's the name of his song, Red Mist. It's, it's such a strange thing. It gives the impression that almost that the Scottish salesman is, and well, maybe this is actually more obvious than just an impression, but he's some kind of a specter. He's some kind of a

[01:53:01] supernatural entity that is really haunting Squidward, and maybe even tricked him. If we think that it's possible that Squidward got that Red Mist term from the Scottish salesman, if he got the idea of the name Red Mist from the Scottish salesman when he appeared at his door, that would be very interesting.

[01:53:30] Well, just like it says in the reprise of Sergeant Pepper, we are getting very near the end. So let us continue through this commentary on Red Mist and see what we can figure out even more.

[01:53:53] It cuts back to Squidward again, this time staring at the viewer as the sound of the salesman echoes, do it, and the Red Mist is coming, repeatedly. After 40 seconds of this, the camera quickly pans out to reveal Squidward holding a realistic gun, looking as though it were photoshopped into the scene.

[01:54:23] Squidward lifts the barrel into his mouth and fires with blood shooting out from his head. It was discovered that the last edit of the tape had been made exactly 24 seconds before it was watched

[01:54:42] by the SpongeBob staff. One copy of the tape was made before the police confiscated the original by Chaz Agnew. The writer of this article, and the sole surviving intern from that same night. Agnew has made various attempts to distribute copies of Skinner's tape in hopes to secure clearance

[01:55:08] rights to release it on several online auction websites soon. So there you have it, everybody. There you have it. Very strange, very strange, very interesting.

[01:55:33] In the original Squidward suicide, when we hear the words do it, it's this disembodied, unclear who's saying it voice that I think the general assumption is probably that it's obviously related to the the murders and the murderer situation, the murdering situation that we get a glimpse of.

[01:55:59] But in this, once again, it's another instance where Red Mist takes something that was not clear in Squidward suicide, in the original version, and bumps it up to being kind of extremely clear, at least certain, albeit very small details.

[01:56:22] Because in the original, we just hear words do it. In this one, it turns out it was the salesman, the Scottish salesman saying do it. But he didn't just say do it. He also said the Red Mist is coming. And he says them repeatedly. Another interesting detail that is not necessarily different, but in the original story, it says that Squidward was holding a shotgun.

[01:56:47] In Red Mist, it only says he was holding a realistic gun. It also says that it looked as though it were photoshopped into the scene, which is kind of, you know, if you understand what that means, and you put yourself into, you know, kind of the nature of what that would mean in 2010, it's kind of a funny idea.

[01:57:09] It's a strange image. Another weird thing is that Red Mist completely leaves out the detail, and the details that seem to paint the parallel of Squidward's state after he committed the horrible act, and the violent images that were found within the Lost Episode tape itself. That's completely missing from Red Mist.

[01:57:39] Which is interesting to note. It implies that the author of Red Mist either did not notice that connection, or he did not care about that connection, and purposefully swept past it, breezed past it, didn't mention it because he didn't think it even mattered.

[01:58:01] And that's interesting because to me, that was one of actually the only big, in my mind anyways, literary or artistic justifications for the serial killer evidence depictions that were described,

[01:58:19] is if you draw that reflective comparison between Squidward and what he was going through in that Lost Episode, and the horrible crimes that were apparently done.

[01:58:38] And of course, you know, they made sure the writer of this at the very least made sure to slip in that detail about the tape having been edited 24 seconds before it was watched by the staff. Although it's kind of just slipped in there. Another thing that I realize now is entirely missing from this version of the story,

[01:59:02] which I don't recall having noticed before, or at least, you know, anytime recently I haven't thought about it, is that Steven Hillenburg is not mentioned being contacted at all. He is entirely absent from this story, actually completely. Apparently, in this version of the event, the cops were called instantly before Hillenburg came or saw it at all.

[01:59:32] And, or, you know, yeah, I mean, Hillenburg isn't even mentioned, so the police came, took the original, but apparently Chaz Agnew, who was an intern, so that's another parallel, actually, with Squidward's suicide. At the beginning of Squidward's suicide, the author says, I'm an intern at Nickelodeon, or I was an intern at Nickelodeon, which is how I experienced this. In Red Mist, we don't hear that at all until, apparently, I guess, the very end.

[02:00:02] He writes of himself in the third person, which is kind of funny and kind of interesting. And the other really interesting parallel here that I think a lot of people wouldn't notice with SuicideMouse.AVI is that when he's again in the third person saying that he was able to make a copy of the original,

[02:00:30] he says that he was the only surviving intern from that night. What? He was the only surviving intern from that same night? What is he talking about? Because nowhere in the Squidward's suicide story are any of the writers or anything like that said to have died or anything like that.

[02:00:59] And in Red Mist, even this story, we don't hear of anyone dying or having anything like that reach out and affect them physically or literally in that sense. So what in the world is this Chaz Agnew, if we're going to just call him that? What is he talking about? Well, again, this is where SuicideMouse.AVI comes in.

[02:01:26] Because that actually is a detail in that story. In SuicideMouse.AVI, the people who have witnessed that tape undergo some horrible, horrible fate. But it's very funny because that detail is just inserted into this story as if the reader will clearly understand. Like, oh, well, of course.

[02:01:52] Anyone who saw that tape is clearly going to have died. But, of course, if you're not familiar with SuicideMouse and you don't have that concept, that creepypasta concept already in your head, it really is confusing. Extremely, extremely confusing. But, you know, with the connection in mind, it's very interesting, I think.

[02:02:21] And even more interesting, the fact that he ends the story with saying that he intends to distribute copies of this episode. If he can secure clearance rights. Which is like, okay, yeah, whatever. As if, I mean, guys, imagine. Just imagine. If this tape was real, let's even go as far for the sake of preserving the creation.

[02:02:50] Creepypasta aesthetic and atmosphere. Let's say this tape is real. Is there any chance that Nickelodeon, the corporation, based off of, if we're to assume it's something similar to the story we just read. Is there any chance that the Nickelodeon corporation would release something like this to the public?

[02:03:14] Is that even a remote possibility in the most wild of fantasies? Absolutely no way. That's impossible. That is absolutely impossible. Never, ever could that happen. Or would that happen. So that detail is really kind of funny.

[02:03:35] But you know, speaking of which, when I was looking up this Red Mist story, I found that there is supposedly an update that was supposedly, it seems to have been written by the original uploader of the Red Mist story on the wiki, Chagnu.

[02:03:57] And so, let's go ahead, before we get into the retrospective and really going over everything, let's go ahead and see if this update can shed any light on the mystery. Update. Update.

[02:04:23] A Sony Betamax tape, also marked Red Mist, was discovered in a warehouse in mid-eastern Canada on August 12th, 2016. It was found by Marcus Andrews, who then reported it to Nickelodeon. The tape was also brought in to Chaz Agnew, the intern who wrote the account from Squidward's suicide.

[02:04:51] They had to hunt for a beta VCR in decent condition, but they were able to find one at a nearby Goodwill. When the tape was watched, it was in poor condition. The tape was then cleaned for a few hours, and the quality vastly improved, although still quite low for a beta, which was supposed to be better than any other videotape at the time.

[02:05:17] The tape fit exactly to the reported content. And that's the update, folks. Okay, so this update basically serves the purpose of trying to cement the legitimacy.

[02:05:44] Or I think rather, another way of putting it is that this update addendum, this kind of epilogue, is meant to actually be the final twist in the story that, now that I've read this, kind of actually was not even in Red Mist. Especially after reading Red Mist fully now. Squidward's suicide is very literary. It's very well written. It's very good.

[02:06:12] And it really reads like a story meant to be read. Whereas Red Mist really reads like a Wikipedia article or something. And so, yeah, when Red Mist kind of ends, the entire detail of the tape being changed only 24 seconds before they started watching it,

[02:06:42] that was just kind of mentioned super briefly, without any explanation or really anything at all. And then it was just kind of papered over by the guy saying he's going to try to release the tape soon. So, yeah, this update, I think that's the purpose. I think he was trying, the author of this story was trying to

[02:07:06] kind of give one final oomph in the story. And hey, you know, it's okay. It's okay, it does the job. Although, really funny detail. You know how at the beginning of Red Mist, I was complaining about how I had no idea why in the first paragraph of Red Mist, it specifically says that this is not Squidward's suicide. Well, in this update,

[02:07:36] in this little update, I'm going to read verbatim. It says, The tape was also brought in to Chaz Agnew, the intern who wrote the account from Squidward's suicide. What? So now the author is conflating Red Mist and Squidward's suicide as if they're the exact same thing. Well, that is just bizarre.

[02:08:06] Now, there's a whole world, there's really an entire other episode to be done exploring the character of Andrew Skinner that's mentioned in this Red Mist story. Because, once again, it's very interesting how in Squidward's suicide, the killer throughout the entirety of it remains completely unnamed.

[02:08:36] He is a ghost. He is invisible. He is never known or revealed. But in Red Mist, we get a name right off the bat. But strangely, that name, Andrew Skinner, as the name of this guy who apparently is responsible for this tape, we get absolutely no information at all. Like, no information at all. It's very funny, really. It's very... It's interesting.

[02:09:06] But, of course, you know, where there's a mystery, people are going to explore that mystery. And there's been a lot of people who have explored this concept and this detail of the Red Mist story. And there's actually a lot of information online about this character and a lot about him. But again,

[02:09:36] that is almost so complicated and so detailed and kind of expansive that I think that would be worth having its own episode on. Especially since this episode is a little longer. So, we'll probably get into that on the next episode or at the very least a future episode. Now, here's what's really interesting. You can find in like comment,

[02:10:06] archived comment threads from some of these Spongebob wiki pages people arguing back and forth very, very intensely about whether or not Squidward's suicide or Red Mist is real. And what's really interesting is that around this time, which is to say around like 2010, maybe getting into 2011, but especially

[02:10:35] that golden era in like the fall to winter of 2010 after Squidward's suicide had already been out since April and Red Mist had dropped in August. That magical period, there was a real kind of obscurity, you could say, as far as the legitimacy of the legend of this tape. And notice I didn't say tapes, because you know,

[02:11:05] technically, Squidward's suicide is described, although very similar, but Red Mist has a lot of different details from the story described as Squidward's suicide. But in people's minds, including my own, these two are, they were descriptions of the exact same story. And so, to me, before I read through this stuff again, and really kind of relived

[02:11:35] what that experience was like of reading this stuff for the first time, there were a lot of these details that I forgot were not in the original Squidward's suicide episode, like the Scottish salesman. Even how in Red Mist that first scene of Squidward practicing his clarinet is supposed to have glitched and then repeated in like a creepy way without sound with red eyes. I thought that was in the original Squidward's suicide.

[02:12:05] And then, the detail of Andrew Skinner, once again, I'm actually, I'm excited to explore that, that thread and that part of creepypasta history because, I'll tell you, that was where I was led. When I was sitting at home reading these stories as a kid, I was absolutely obsessed with this. And I remember looking up, I remember searching on Google,

[02:12:35] Andrew Skinner, Red Mist, tape, Andrew Skinner, real, Andrew Skinner, Nickelodeon, you know, searching anything I could to try to find details about this evil serial killer who had somehow been responsible for creating this dark, dark, lost episode of Spongebob. In the next episode, I think it is just going to be the next episode. It'd probably be good to just make it

[02:13:05] the next episode. We are going to go into the lore, essentially, that spawned from these two original stories because both Squidward's suicide and Red Mist together as a package you got the yin, you got the yang. And it really created a wave and it really sparked and started an era in creepypasta that

[02:13:34] in many ways is my all-time favorite era. This was the era of the lost episode and the era of the video game creepypastas. When those two genres were at their height and there were just new stories coming out all the time, people not only loved writing them, but they loved reading them and talking about them and it was a whole thing and it wasn't

[02:14:04] about... This is actually the crux of the matter. This is actually why it was so beautiful and so great even when the stories themselves were very dark and disturbing because creepypastas at their best and I think any good, any great at least, lost episode or video game creepypasta has at its core mystery. It's about the mystery. It's not about

[02:14:33] this disturbing thing or this horrifying thing. It's not about that really. Not at the end of the day. It's about the mystery. It's about the fact that, quite frankly, any of these stories could be real. And this is something I want you to think about for a second actually because it's really worth meditating on. You know, in life, no one

[02:15:03] wants to be a fool. No one wants to be an idiot. No one wants other people to think they're an idiot. Everyone wants to put on their best face and be seen to one extent or another as intelligent. If you pair that with the fact that most people get most information that exists

[02:15:32] outside of their own direct experiential lives second hand or third hand or fourth hand or simply you know. Most facts and their opposites are known completely on faith. You might say that you have good reason that oh this comes from a trustworthy source oh no I know they have good sources

[02:16:02] they have good reasoning there but ultimately most things are essentially just concepts they exist in the realm of concept for us broadly speaking and so for example in the case of this legend of Squidward Suicide or Red Mist it's a legend it exists in legend and for most people to scoff at it or laugh at it is enough to say

[02:16:31] oh that is so ridiculous yep that's definitely fake and for for people who that were that's not enough what definitely will be enough is someone who they think is sitting in a seat of authority all it takes is for them to rebuke this and then they're fallen in line in fact might as well mention now one super interesting thing that happened

[02:17:00] with this Squidward Suicide is that many many many many years like about almost a decade actually almost a decade after Squidward Suicide came out a new episode of Spongebob premiere this is a real episode I'm not talking about a creepypasta here a new episode of Spongebob premiered called Spongebob and Random Land it aired in September of 2019 and there was this weird

[02:17:30] kind of almost like multiverse thing going on in the episode anyway there is a clear reference to Squidward Suicide we see Squidward with those blood red eyes in a very very creepy pasta image now that's very interesting what is also interesting is that apparently that only aired once and after it aired with that it was censored

[02:18:00] and the Squidward suicide image was replaced with a baby Squidward image which is uh that's kinda lame quite frankly but putting that aside Vincent Waller who's the co-executive producer of Spongebob uh said publicly after that gag aired that yeah that does not make the creepypasta canon uh that does not make Squidward suicide canon and of course that's that's ridiculous and not real at all

[02:18:31] now for most people having someone in a situation of authority in regards to the show saying oh that's ridiculous there's no way that happened that didn't happen it's and it's not even canon by the way that would be enough for most people to say oh yep I told you it was fake and there's the proof that it's fake but it's funny to contemplate how actually no evidence or proof was

[02:19:05] that people get works and I'm not making a political or even a philosophical or any kind of stance on anything like that but kind of just a meta stance or a point that most of reality that we think of as solid and real and that we base all of our assumptions on are themselves assumptions and actually quite illusory and at a distance from our own

[02:19:35] direct experiential lives just something to think about I see you Avatar Fire and Ash is now streaming on Disney Plus it's the film critics are calling the best Avatar yet a true epic and completely jaw-dropping this is the only pure thing in this world return to Pandora on Disney Plus it will be an adventure for the whole family and watch the Oscar winning phenomenon at home this is sick

[02:20:06] Avatar Fire and Ash now streaming on Disney Plus rated PG-13 at ZocDoc we know you care about your health you wouldn't do that early morning cardio if you didn't so the fact that your annual physical is overdue just shows how hard it can be to get seen by a doctor sorry that doctor's not in network press press press press press press press for more options you've reached us outside normal business hours the next availability is in three months but ZocDoc makes finding the right doctor easy download the app and search by specialty insurance and availability read

[02:20:36] real patient reviews then book instantly ZocDoc ready to be seen and you know in the wake of these stories coming out and all of the interest in the story and people trying to look into it the fandom around this story is was so intense it's hard to properly describe it there was so so much fan art made around Squidward suicide and Red Mist so many images made of like trying to

[02:21:06] capture a scene from it obviously not the disturbing crime related scenes but the you know the actual Spongebob and Squidward parts of it and I think because this episode is going on so long we're gonna take a look at that stuff and talk about that stuff in the next episode so stay tuned for the next episode where we're going to do a deep deep dive

[02:21:35] into the essentially the aftermath of Squidward suicide and Red Mist and the effect that it had on people as far as the work they made and all of the fandom lore and the essentially canon that came out of these two stories reading through these two stories and remembering what it

[02:22:05] was like the memory comes to mind of I think this was maybe a day or two after I discovered Squidward suicide and Red Mist and I had spent just hours upon hours researching and looking into it as a 12 year old boy and I remember just sitting and talking on Xbox Live to some of my school friends at the time and just telling them about

[02:22:34] this telling them about Squidward suicide and Red Mist and what I had been reading and it was like it was it was so cool it was so cool because me and my friends took it very to the extent that we could seriously and the mystery of it very seriously and it gave me a feeling a feeling that I've I've rediscovered in a in a much

[02:23:03] in a non-dark way again as an adult but it gave me a feeling at that time that I I had kind of lost track of which is that feeling of wonder it was a dark wonder it was a creepy wonder but it was still a feeling of wonder that there are things that are happening that are not in line with the typical way we assume life to go and the

[02:23:33] world to behave and it was just so intriguing so incredible it captured my imagination like nothing else had I'll be continuing we'll be continuing on that same journey in the next episode of exploring the aftermath and all of the lore that came out of Squidward Suicide and you know trying to answer some more questions of like what in the world who is Andrew Skinner

[02:24:03] what is the idea even about this character who is he supposed to be what is he supposed to have really done what is he responsible for there's a lot of there's a lot of mysteries still left over in Red Mist even though in a sense it kind of tried to answer a lot of questions as well in one one thing I want to mention about the Squidward Suicide story that I I keep forgetting to mention is a

[02:24:33] specific criticism that a lot of people have around Squidward Suicide you know in the original Squidward Suicide story it's mentioned that Steven Hillenburg is called in the creator of the show to see this terrifying episode and to see what's going on and understand what's going on why because he is the creator something that's very interesting is that a lot of people criticize Squidward Suicide

[02:25:03] and not only that but they they use this as evidence that it's obviously clearly fake and not only that but it was a lazy detail of the writer and that is they point out that during season four of Spongebob Steven Hillenburg had stepped down as show runner he wasn't the show runner of the show he wasn't a writer of the show or anything like that and so therefore the idea that he would be brought in to see this episode is ridiculous

[02:25:33] but here's the thing what I think a lot of people just don't understand is that yes it is true that Steven Hillenburg stepped down as show runner after season three and after the Spongebob movie but he did remain on as a producer I think even executive producer technically as the show continued on now I'm not saying that he had a lot of influence during those years after

[02:26:03] he stepped down as show runner because it certainly seems everyone knows everyone sees that the vibe of the show changed dramatically after he stepped down as show runner and the quality seemed to dip a lot as well in many ways at least although there's still a lot of great episodes and moments in season four but yeah I just wanted to point out that Steven Hillenburg was involved with

[02:26:33] the show still during season four and in fact it actually almost works better because if he was the show runner he might have actually been there when they were watching the episode of Squidward Suicide for the first time but the fact that he was actually called in partway through kind of lends itself to that idea that he was more of a background producer but still a producer and still involved with the

[02:27:03] show well thank you these creepy pastas that affected me so deeply when I was growing up and I'm actually shocked by how much I'm enjoying this and how interesting these stories still seem to me right now

[02:27:31] so I really look forward to continuing this with you in the next episode but this is where this is where you guys can really help me out because I really want to know your experiences with these stories in particular also just creepy pastas at large how did how have they affected you did they affect you were you a part of that wave with me of

[02:28:01] experiencing some of these first creepy pastas and that of lost episode and video game related creepy pastas and just that entire just awesome creepy mysterious exciting era of creepy pasta and what was your experience with it did you like Squidward Suicide or Red Mist better did you like them at all did you prefer

[02:28:31] other ones I'm very curious of what you guys think now for those of you who have been wondering or might have in your mind hey Clancy that's this is all great and okay cool but what about you know the show where you you know produce audio productions of creepy pastas the classic Clancy pasta stuff the what I'm

[02:29:00] now calling Clancy pasta presents all of that you can find and there's new episodes there are new creepy pasta narrations audio productions being put out by me you can find them on any podcast platform you can go to Spotify you can go to Apple music you can go to any of your podcasting platforms and search Clancy pasta and there you're gonna find new episodes of Clancy pasta

[02:29:30] presents uploaded very regularly I was doing them daily for a while there I've taken a slight break to work on this but I'm gonna be getting that going more again so that's on the audio podcast side of things so if you want to hear just some cozy creepy pasta narrations you can go to again Apple music Spotify any other ones I don't remember the names of these platforms in search Clancy pasta and you'll

[02:30:00] you'll find it there but if you'd like to hear ad free versions of not just every episode of this show that you tuned into right now and again thank you so much for tuning into this debut episode of this podcast but also of the Clancy pasta presents series as well as any Clancy pasta original stories that I produce as well in going forward you can go to

[02:30:30] patreon.com slash Clancy pasta and for as little as two dollars a month you get everything that I upload here ad free so that's if you have a couple bucks laying around that's a great way to support the show there are a few higher tiers as well if you would like to show your support there I really appreciate it but aside from that I would really just appreciate it if you guys would comment let me know what I was talking about earlier tell me

[02:31:12] thanks to all my five dollar and up supporters both on patreon and my youtube members because they really help out so much and I cannot thank you guys my supporters enough so right off the top the highest tier the oligarchs of the chamber there's only two of them they're OGs thank you so much Gabriel B and thank you so much Archimite you guys are awesome

[02:31:41] thank you so much for supporting the show and the way you do and there's only one ancient demon in the tier below that Diener W thank you so much for your support I cannot tell you how much I appreciate it and then the $5 tier of shadow people thank you so much Sabrina Maya Tag Morgan Raw Ghost Face Dweller Death Metal Ryan B and Lydia P I cannot tell you how thankful I am for your

[02:32:11] support and then my YouTube members which are all $5 and up it's incredible thank you guys so much for all the support you give me now I'll go ahead and read your names thank a Slightly Schizzo Matthew Shannon M

[02:32:41] Eric R Rebecca H Charles W King Baby Trash Mouth Etta P Santana R Corey O Katelyn M MV Toph Trinity C Tyja Not

[02:33:01] a droid, David, Cameron P, YOLO, Daniel J, Liam C, Ashlyn K, Jake A, Barrett Barrett, and Elizabeth. So thank you all so much for your support. And again, if you would like to join them, you could become a YouTube member, but really the better way, if you want to support the show,

[02:33:29] is to go to patreon.com slash clancypasta and support the show there. That's just the, probably the better way for both me and you. You actually get a little more on Patreon. Well, anyway, thank you so much for listening. I will wrap this up here. Tune in next time. We're going to explore this thread even more. We're going to go deeper. And this is going to be exciting

[02:33:56] because we're really going to be getting into the kind of everything that blossomed out of the seeds that are Squidward Suicide and Red Mist. So it's very exciting stuff. I cannot wait to explore it with you guys. So thank you again for listening. I will see you all next time. Please subscribe and follow

[02:34:20] for more. And without further ado, have a great night, everyone. Cheer. At ZocDoc, we know you care about your health. You wouldn't do that early morning cardio if you didn't. So the fact that your annual physical is overdue just shows how hard it can be to get seen by a doctor. Sorry, that doctor's not in network. Press one for more options. You've reached us outside normal business hours. The next availability is in three months. But ZocDoc makes

[02:34:47] finding the right doctor easy. Download the app and search by specialty, insurance, and availability. Read real patient reviews, then book instantly. ZocDoc. Ready to be seen? This episode is brought to you by ChatGPT. Hey, it's Bill Simmons from the Bill Simmons Podcast. Have you guys heard about ChatGPT work? It's the new way to use ChatGPT for bigger multi-step projects. And when you need more than just answers, give ChatGPT work access to your apps and files,

[02:35:15] and it can create real work documents like spreadsheets, slides, and structured reports. Get started at ChatGPT.com by selecting work mode available on Plus and Pro Plans.