The Abstract-

For my project as an amateur folklorist assigned in my summer semester Folklore class, I investigated the internet community and history around Creepypastas. I sought to answer whether the Creepypasta story was indeed a digital equivalent to tall tales, folklore, myths, or legends (urban or otherwise). I wanted to investigate not only the stories themselves but the group that has grown around them, the people who read them and the people who write them, how they spread, and how and where they are collected. My particular interest lied in how these stories are perceived by the respective groups involved with them. I also wanted to trace their revolution and see how stories have changed, and expanded, and how mainstream culture has tried to profit from them.

I am sure there are those of you wondering how something like a Creepypasta could be related to folklore. The answer is that most people do not realize how many things can be defined as a piece of folklore. The textbook The Study of American Folklore states: “The study of folklore (or folkloristics) records and attempts to analyze these traditions (both content and process) so as to reveal the common life of the human mind apart from what is contained in the formal records of culture that compose the heritage of people.” (Brunvand 3). In the textbook “Living Folklore,” which explains where folklore can be found, “Folklore exists in cities, suburbs, and rural villages; in families, work groups and residents of college dormitories. Folklore is present in many kinds of informal communications, whether verbal (oral and written texts), customary (behaviors and rituals)”(Sims 2) As you can see folklore is all around us, it can be in the physical world, online or only peoples minds. Some examples of folklore are jokes, chain letters, internet avatars, a customary food dish, specific types of architecture, good luck charms, childhood games, as well as the things you might typically associate with folklore like oral or written folktales and folk music. So many things fall into the category of folklore it is impossible to name them all. The general rules of what is and is not folklore are easier to understand if you know what is not folklore. Folklore is not mainstream media such as books and movies (Although this might be questionable about cult-classics as they can form groups around them.) Folklore is also not usually taught in a professional setting. It is also not scientific usually or religious text. Normally, the original creator is not known or is anonymous, but there are some exceptions to this rule. Folklore is also not an official historical record, although those may be consulted on some Folklorist's projects. Textbooks and official instruction manuals themselves are also not folklore.

There is also a misconception that folklore is always old-fashioned, made by rural people, or is always untrue. While some folklore falls into these categories, there is folklore happening everywhere and around every type of folklore group and people all over the world. We think of old-fashioned stories or music or even outdated home remedies and superstitions when we think of folktales, but folklore is various things other than the outdated or the improbable. That is why you may have raised an eyebrow at my topic of choice for this project, as Creepypastas are a relative invention in their current form. I believe that Creepypasta is a continuation of old scary stories told at slumber parties or around a campfire. I am familiar with many of these stories which all fall into different folklore categories and I want to know more about how modern-day scary folk stories are being shared and created, that was too big of a topic for a single semester, so I narrowed in on Creepypasta. So in my project, I want to see what aspects of Creepypasta and its connected communities fit into the label of “folklore” and what parts of this online creation do not. I believe the study of Creepypasta and the people who enjoy it could be telling about folk groups that are online and mostly anonymous and how these new folk groups function.

I chose this topic because I have always known about Creepypastas, but I had an interest in the collaborative side of online storytelling and internet culture. When I was younger, I was into horror movies, books, stories, and video games, and I still remember reading the book In a Dark, Dark Room and Other Scary Stories, then devouring every Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark book as well. I watched all sorts of scary movies I was probably too young to watch and I think a lot of other children may have had the same experience with these books and the Goosebumps series before reading things like Fear Street novels, and finally finding YA and adult horror books. For me, I read Carrie by Steven King in 6th grade and The Vampire series by Anne Rice. I continued watching scary movies (as long as no animals were harmed!). I also grew up on the Internet, which exposed me to different media than maybe people older than me saw in their childhoods (for better or for worse). Around the time that Creepypastas were very popular, I no longer enjoyed horror. In fact, I would have massive panic attacks when I was exposed to true crime or anything too scary. I am still not into anything too spooky, so I know this sounds like a strange project to work on, considering I am a fraidy cat. But I am approaching this from a folklorist perspective and as I mentioned, I have a special interest in Internet culture but also an immense interest in Internet History. Creepypastas and everything that surrounds them has a historical element to it. I am interested in how the community built around them functions, and I also had an interest in what specific type of folklore the stories themselves were. My results for all these questions will be found in the collection sheet.

For this project, the first thing I did was read what is probably considered the Creepypasta canon (or as close as one can find to one, there are probably millions of pastas, and of course which someone considers best is a matter of preference.). I wanted this background as I moved forward with my research. What I found upon initial readings was that the style and skill of writers varied. After reading these and taking notes, I moved on to looking at academic articles, top news articles, online magazines, and finally blog entries, wikis, and medium and Substack posts. The information I found on this gave me a good base to decide on what questions I wanted to ask members of the Creepypasta community, so I sought someone or someone to interview. This proved to be quite difficult. The very nature and sometimes allure of the Creepypasta community is sometimes the anonymity, so it was hard to get someone to commit to an interview. I decided around the 3rd of July to make a questionnaire for members of the community to fill out, because then they could be anonymous. This worked out well, and I got answers to all the questions I wondered about. Most people were very willing to talk over an anonymous form. This group is mostly informal, so this was, I felt, the best I might get. I also had some conversations over Discord about this topic with various people and that gave me more to think about. I realized this was a big project, and that I had mostly been focusing on the English language Creepypastas, so I did a little more research into regionality and Creepypasta from different cultures and countries. I had to stop researching at one point though, because I had a deadline for this project.

After the collection phase of the project, I began working on the website, and also trying to categorize all the data. I had to do some re-reading of assigned texts to identify what the information I had gathered had to do with folklore. This was not because Creepypastas are not folklore, it was more a matter of the subject being complex, and Creepypasta fits into the Folklore classifications in several places. For a moment I was worried all I had collected was information about “fakelore”, but then upon more introspection, I found to my relief that there were folklore elements to the Creepypastas and community. Then I wrote the main collection sheet paper and after that, I wrote the other sections of the paper and website.

What I learned is that something being online rather than tangible can be infinitely more complex to analyze. I also learned a little about how, in a folklore setting, pieces of folklore can expand very far and be changed to an almost unrecognizable state after being spread by numerous people. I also learned so much about the process that internet trends can go through, and also that folklore and scary stories like I remembered from my childhood still are popular, and people are still having fun telling these stories, changing these stories, or inventing new Creepypasta. Also, unfortunately, I learned that Creepypasta has a darker side as well, with at least one murder case having involved “Slenderman” (the popular Creepypasta character I mentioned earlier.) I still have not answered the question of why some Creepypasta that are of what most admit “lower quality” can become so popular, and others that are well-written or more creative, fail. I have not found the answers to the secret blueprint to the perfect “pasta” unfortunately. But this website will contain my research and other things I discovered during my studies. So look around, and I hope you have fun and also learn a little about why Creepypasta fits into the category of folklore.

To navigate these sections of the website you can press “CREEPY” on the left main navigation to the site, or you can press the home buttons at the end of each webpage.