OddballGreg - CreepyPastas (Scary Stories)

People say clowns scare them? Are you afraid? Technically speaking... Gene Simmons is scarier.

About 6 days ago I wrote an article about horror games, and why they tend to make me yelp like a little puppy for no reason. So it seemed fair to continue the train of thought and discuss some other reasonably fear-inducing media, though of a kind that I actually enjoy. That would be CreepyPasta's, the internet's ghost stories from around the camp fire.

According to the Creepypasta Wikia, a Creepypasta is a "short story posted on the Internet that is designed to unnerve and shock the reader." An internet phenomenon that arose years ago, these short horror stories were quickly popularized for a variety of reasons, ranging from peoples need to scare themselves for laughs, to literary enjoyment, and the eventual movies, memes and games that originated from these stories. There's also a ton of people on YouTube who continue to say that the stories are true. (There's also people who think the contents of a lava lamp make a good moisturizer... so believe what you will.)

One of the CreepyPasta stories that is most notorious for the way it has expanded the the Creepypasta following is Slenderman, a tall, faceless man with tentacles who kidnaps people and, in some versions of the stories, spikes them onto pine trees in the forests. Slenderman has seen hundreds of stories written about him, and a fair few games which were played on YouTube by various personalities including, (Of course), PewDiePie. (Who on an unrelated note, apparently made an old game so popular that the publisher started printing it again according to Kotaku.co.uk) Some of the other notorious CreepyPasta stories range from Jeff The Killer to Smiledog.png. All extremely odd and yet strangely fascinating at the same time. (One must wonder at the mind of people who write stories like these.)

Of course, being the artsy person that I am, I found the stories themselves to be far more interesting and fun than PewDiePie's screams... but that's just personal preference. So if you are looking for some fun scares or are simply a fan of well written stories, then be sure to visit either www.creepypasta.com or the Creepypasta Wikia; both of which are compendiums of these strange horror stories.

However, being the YouTube warrior that I am, (That basically means I'm frequently bored and watch a lot of inane videos.), I have found a rather good channel by the name of IReadCreepyPasta's in which a man takes some of these stories and narrates them in his very well suited voice, complete with additional sound effects and a bit of visual stimulus for a very entertaining and genuinely frightful combination. He's even managed to scare me this way. (Which, apart from games, is rather hard to pull off.) Perhaps of all the CreepyPasta stories I know, The Russian Sleep Experiment, complete with his narration, is by far one of the best in my opinion.

Ghastly isn't it?

There are others he has narrated which have proven to be equally entertaining to listen to, such as Mister WideMouth and Tulpa, both of which, like The Russian Sleep Experiment, appealed to my enjoyment of topics regarding the human mind. So naturally I found them very entertaining.

In any case, I should mention that these stories can be VERY scary for some people, with the CreepyPasta website even requesting your age before allowing you entry because of that. So consider yourself warned. In any case, if you found this article to be of interest, or have some of your own CreepyPasta stories that you think are worth mentioning, do be sure to let us know down in the comments below or via Facebook/Twitter. And of course, if you are friends with any horror aficionados, then perhaps sharing this article with them. They'll probably thank you for it. Of course, if you would like to read more interesting articles like this one, then do be sure to like our official TCSA Facebook page and or follow us on Twitter using the associated buttons on the bar to the left so that you can get the latest posts, as they're posted. Regardless of what you do, I thank you for having taken the time to read this post; hope that you have/had an absolutely FANTASTIC day, and I will speak again soon.

Good luck sleeping my friends.

JovialJMan - Music Parodies Melodious Humor

Music. It's something we (usually) listen to every single day of our lives. Some of us listen to it on the radio on our way to work, others play it from their phones while waiting outside of class. However, some people see it as yet another way to make us laugh. People like "Weird Al" Yankovic, who think that you should just eat it, rather than beat it.

A parody is "an imitation of the style of a particular writer, artist, or genre with deliberate exaggeration for comic effect." In recent years, however, the meaning of parody has taken on the meaning of any song that has the same music behind the voice, but the lyrics have been changed into something funny. There are many artists that do this for a living and if you have heard any parody before, you must have heard of Weird Al Yankovic.

Alfred Matthew Yankovic aka "Weird Al" is regarded, in my opinion, as the best parody musician in the parody business. He has been making parodies as far back as 1976, (although he was a child back then, not a time traveler), that is 38 years of making parodies, (which is almost 4 decades). He is still making parodies today of the likes of Iggy Azalea, Lorde and even Imagine Dragons. He also has this thing about getting the artist's permission to do the parody of their song even though he doesn't have to. He says it is to keep on the good side of the artists, although that does not seem to be the case with Prince.

My favorite song of Weird Al is Word Crimes, (a parody of Robin Thicke's Blurred Lines.) He uses perfect English and corrects a lot of mistakes that people make these days in a very comedic way. The way he gets so much information across in a funny way is rather impressive and rather AWESOME in the true sense of the word. Weird Al recently did 8 songs in 8 days, (#8videos8days), as a promotion for his new album Mandatory Fun which topped various musical charts.

The YouTube channel Barely Political's series The Key of Awesome, (a.k.a. Ducky of Awesome), is another set of parodies. Their parodies come out more often than Weird Al's though. Making "The Key of Awesome" sound like "Ducky of Awesome" was a really clever thing to do, as it created a mascot for their parodies. They have also made a spoof of Harry Potter which many people have frowned upon, but I personally think is was really clever. 

This is Duck from Ducky of Awesome

Tom Lehrer is a Mathematician, teacher, lyricist, pianist, composer, singer and songwriter. He made the infamous song known as The Elements Song. This song is just a list of all the elements. (at the time he wrote the song). Now to memorize this song is really impressive and I shall give anyone who can recite this song, without aid, a cookie, (only for the first 100 people though. Maybe even 2 cookies if you are really good). His song New Maths is strangely funny, which shows how hard maths can be.

The next time you are in the need of a laugh, google some parodies. If you want a cookie, please show us if you can sing The Elements song. If you have any friends who likes cookies or like a good laugh please share this with them too. If you think I missed a parody artist or think I am completely bonkers for offering cookies please let us know down in the comments, over Facebook or tweet us on the Twitter of the Tweeters. If you would like to see what else I or OddballGreg have to say please like us on our official TSCA Facebook page and/or follow us on Twitter so you can get the latest posts as they come out. What ever you do, I thank you for reading and hope you have the most Awesomest day, and I shall speak again soon.

Enjoy the laughs friends.