The Curious Disappearance of Creepypasta

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Creepypasta: the Internet’s take on spooky campfire stories, spawning unforgettable works such as Ben Drowned, Candle Cove, Jeff the Killer, and the Slender Man.

But unlike campfire stories which remain timeless, Creepypasta seemed to have a pretty short lifespan, reaching its peak in the early 2010s and then sort of just slowly fading away, and becoming a shadow of what it once was. “Oh, Creepypasta. I remember that.”

But how did this happen? With the seemingly endless possibilities that the internet provides, you would think that a horror-based community like Creepypasta would be flourishing, especially for longer than just a few years. But you just don’t really hear these stories anymore.

There were several factors which contributed to the downfall of Creepypasta, including the over-saturation of similar stories, bad writing, some violence within the community, and even the very aging of the internet itself. It could even be argued that this has not just affected the Creepypasta community, but online horror storytelling altogether.

So now, we take a look at what has since been left behind.

Google +: just kidding.

Wholesome by Kevin MacLeod

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[nationsquid]

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[hxcny]

honestly, i was always obsessed with creepypasta as a child with unrestricted internet access... so sad i didnt even notice it vanishing from the internet

[ERRORDownBad]

I kinda find it funny that the most relevant creepypastas today are Jeff the Killer and Sonic.exe, which are creepypastas known for being notoriously bad

[slasherpool]

Analog horror has effectively replaced Creepypasta. But a small part of me wishes Creepypastas would make a come back.

[jonathanmoore]

Really love the subtle touch at 14:06 where the poster blinks.

[ChrischiTutorialLPs]

The really interesting part? Not all creepypasta was made up. There was one early creepypasta about a user named SlaveMaster, who would supposedly invite you to their property, and once you were there, murder you. Yeah, turns out the name "SlaveMaster" belonged to a John Edward Robinson, a serial killer whose MO was exactly that.

[Underqualified_Gunman]

The SCP project has probably absorbed a lot quite a few people interested in creepy pasta type works.

[thefoolaidman]

As someone who was always scared to death of creepy pastas for quite a while, especially Jeff The Killer, I think it's quite ironic that I ended up joining the Jeff The Killer Original Image Search.

[LloydTheZephyrian]

I think the Rake was more terrifying when its intentions were left ambiguous and it didn't actively harm anyone physically. The moment people had him just butcher people was when he started falling off.

[solidgent]

Smile dog still creeps me the hell out. Not the demon version weirdly but the original husky version. That image led me to never look at huskies the same way again. All from an unsettlingly edited photo. That's how you do horror.

[Kitkatcaitlin]

I like how now people are still searching for the origin of the jeff the killer image. Its so fascinating how no one knows where it came from

[OtakuUnitedStudio]

This was an excellent dissection of the history.of creepypasta, but I do have one minor correction: trollpastas are intentionally bad, while genuinely bad ones are crappypastas. That's why two separate wikis spun off from the original. I was actually active on the Creepypasta Wiki back during the schism.

[s_ludge]

I use to be pretty terrified by the Lavender Town creepypastas, it made me pretty upset hearing about the Cubone and its mother. Read a lot of these on my flip phone. Nowadays I tend to browse the nosleep subreddit now for my occasional horror reading.

[feathdev]

“Ben Drowned, Candle Cove, Jeff the Killer, and that weird story where Squidward had, like, laser eyes.”
That last one is the best.

[Pierogo]

Funny how we all collectively slowly got bored of creepypastas roughly at the same time, and thus barely anyone even noticed they disappeared - thinking they were still "out there", just never bothering to actually check.

[MegaOverclocked]

I think the main issues with Creepypastas is simply that people lost creativity.
It's not an issue exclusive with Creepypastas pretty much all creative media is starving for true inspiration and individuality. After the 100th retelling of the same ol pasta that got stale the moment it was new, it was time for people to move on. Now it seems analogue horror and the like are taking its place. But I think we're already seening the same issue in that genre with a lack of creativity and mediocre story telling.

[bippaasama]

Probably an unpopular opinion but I loved those creepypasta narration channels in the early 2010s.

[hypnosismicrophone]

Some context on the Jeff the Killer image: the origin is from a Japanese discussion forum/image board from the 2002/2004s. The image was most likely created through the same trend as Ahenobarbus Henocied, "make me cute". An image of a girl was posted to the forum, and users took turns photoshopping the hell out of it to create an abomination named "white powder." There was a different image before the famous Jeff image we all knew, which has larger eyes and a more realistic looking mouth.
The creator of the current popular image was actually contacted via Twitter. He said the original picture was a screenshot of a girl from a video who got really close to the camera, adding that the video is old and buried in the deepest corners of the internet that its impossible to find.

SO yea we know the story of where it came from but we don't know who's in the image.

BTW love your reaction at 13:59. The funniest thing is that the writer of this story claimed that the Jeff the killer picture was his own and that he made it using a white mask and stuff. It's so obvious the image doesn't look like real life materials.

[blast]

Anyone else notice the red thing blink at 14:06?

[chipputer]

Regardless of what you *think* Ted the Caver is regarded as the first, "creepypasta, " for a reason. The concept of creepypasta never really went away, either, it's just taken on new forms. The issue with the story format is that people decided to start writing novels instead of vaguely creepy or scary, easily digestible short stories that were easy to share. I mean, look at r/nosleep, for example. It's full of people trying their absolute best to flex the concepts they learned in their creative writing class, earlier that day, and the stories suffer, horribly, for it. Meanwhile, you look at the original posting of SCP-173, and its original context (as in, none), and you realize why so many people latched onto it, creating the foundation for what became the SCP Foundation, today.