Thoughty2 is a Youtube channel, with almost two million subscribers (1.983.761 as of January 22, 2017), and a spectacular 263.153.898 visualizations precisely (also, as of January 22, 2017), specialized in videos about curious and astonishing facts, with some of its more memorable videos certainly being the 9 Most Expensive Things in the World, Why Can’t You Remember Being a Baby, 7 Deepest Places on Earth, 7 Amazing Structures Built by Animals, 22 Surprising Facts about Albert Einstein and How Long Could You Stay Awake, among many other equally interesting videos, about usual and unusual facts.

Covering a wide range of interesting topics, its presenter, sole headliner, editor, writer and virtually only member is a bright, colorful and humorous British youngster in his mid-twenties, which lives in Northwestern England – Lancashire, more precisely –, known only as Arran. The only pieces of information we can have about him are the ones the host himself gives to us, in a Thoughty2 video about Thoughty2, called Surprising Facts about Thoughty2. 

Responding to some questions fans had asked him in his Facebook page and Twitter account, Arran tells us he haven’t gone to university, and, prior to starting Thoughty2, he used to work in an advertising department of a retail company, but this wasn’t proving satisfying to him. Taking advantage of his lifelong taste for curiosity and knowledge, he started making some videos, initially having serious doubts about having more than ten people paying attention to them. One of the best moments of this particular video is when Arran responds to someone who had asked “What it is your day job”, and he answers that by saying that his job is Thoughty2.      

Of course, with almost two million subscribers, you generate for yourself enough income to live very well on your YouTube channel, although you are wrong if you think this people become millionaires (well, in certain specific cases, but certainly not all of them). When you achieve such a status, YouTube can promote brands, companies and advertisements through the channel and you can generate a good deal of money from publicity, although this is not the only way to generate income from YouTube. Here in Brazil, which is my country, we have two amazingly successful examples of YouTube channels, popular in the whole nation, and, if you take into consideration the size of Brazil, – the fifth largest country in the world – that’s quite an accomplishment. One of them is called 5incominutos (5iveminutes), and at the present moment, having precisely 10.133.458 subscribers and 805.978.892 visualizations, it is one of the most successful YouTube channels of the country, being the vehicle for an artist an actress of southern Brazil, in her mid-twenties, called Kéfera Buchmann, that got her impressive and large fan-base from the humorous, funny and bizarre videos she had been doing for almost seven years. Another example is a channel called Felipe Neto, which is the name of its host, and, having 8.391.359 subscribers and 772.091.156 visualizations, presents a program mostly made by himself, called Não Faz Sentido (It Doesn’t Make Sense), well known for its bizarre critical and social commentary, as well as extremely abusive language. Since then, here in Brazil, some channels have been trying to proliferate – with different degrees of success – especially among teenage aspiring singers, like Mariana Nolasco (2.338.365 subscribers and 202.763.486 visualizations) and Sofia Oliveira (1.898.106 subscribers and 118.670.110 visualizations), although we have yet to see here a channel which presents to us the same degree of knowledge and interesting subjects such as Thoughty2. 

With interesting videos, and a funny display at sharing facts, knowledge and curiosities, Thoughty2 is a YouTube channel to certainly keep an eye on. YouTube comments sometimes criticize him for a lot of inaccuracies, which I especially noticed in his 10 Greatest Warrior Cultures in History video. Let’s be reasonable, he’s not perfect, which human in this world are? And we have – first and foremost – to analyze his intentions, which are to deliver complex knowledge in an easily understandable way, which is sublime. And not everything he presents to us can be categorized as undeniable truths – a lot of things are more relative, grounded in personal interpretation, although a lot of the content he taught us are indeed well-researched, and accurately true. And, with a plus, he narrates these facts in a very funny and humorous manner. Also, as I usually say, it is way easier to criticize, than do it better.

In a certain way, I think he reminds me of myself a little, when I was young. With an uncommon desire for discovering absolutely everything he can think of, and having, in his own words, an “insatiable appetite for knowledge and learning”, he displays a very scientific mind and an endless, voracious curiosity, which I can certainly relate to, having shared these same tendencies for all my life, although his results are way more interesting than my own.

With his fan-base growing stronger every day, I wish Arran all the best, so he can make more of this amazing and incredible videos of his. Accepting suggestions from fans, friends, and anybody wishing to contribute with interesting content, for sure Thoughty2 is a groundbreaking one-man made YouTube channel, with interesting potential. Let’s all have our eyes on Thoughty2, to see what’s Arran will come up with next!        


​Wagner

I know that Jack Torrance is the main character of Stephen King’s The Shining, but today’s talk is about another Jack Torrance: a freaking and terrifying YouTube channel. Jack Torrance – whose name was obviously inspired by the aforementioned character – is a creepy and sinister YouTube channel that has a lot of found footage videos, some of them terrifyingly creepy, dark and disturbing.

The channel claims these videos are all real, and that they were found at an estate sale, near Austin, Texas. Now, the person who runs the channel is digitalizing all those videos, to upload it on YouTube.   

Some videos are really creepy and disturbing. Apparently all of them decoded, they are usually very short and sinister. In less than half an hour you can see them all. The two minute video Found Footage Super 8 Reel 13.49585.76: Fragment 86t shows what appears to be a person in a dark place, with a flashlight. The individual enters an elevator, and suddenly, passing ahead of this person, there is a dark, unrecognizable figure, and breathing in fear and agony, the person who is filming the video goes to the panel of the elevator, and try to push the buttons to another floor, in an attempt to escape whatever the dangers the mysterious figure could possibly inflict. A very vague reflex of this person can be seen in the elevator door. When this person reaches another floor, after a few steps, an acute noise is heard, and the video suddenly finishes. 

    The almost sepia forty three seconds video Found Footage Super 8 Reel 97.16521.61: Fragment 5s, shows disrupted images of a girl playing, when, in the end, what appears to be a thin, long cryptid arm with enormous, giant fingernails, goes towards the little girl. The thirty seconds Found Footage Super 8 Reel 45.876.78: Fragment 87t, although it has a very unclear image, shows someone inside some place sinister. After opening a creaking door, the person sees the frightening figure of a long-haired dark apparition in a rocking chair, and then the person shooting the video tries to escape.   

The one minute and a half video Found Footage Super 8 Reel 15.656.9: Fragment 5b it is one of the most mysterious and disturbing videos of the channel. It is set in a creepy place, with a lot of bizarre objects. You can see skulls, old photographs, a demonic mask hanging from a wall, a strange hand-like chandelier, and a fox mask, encircled by candles burning, in what appears to be the place of a ritual. Afterwards, you will see a mysterious unidentified object, and a shadow embracing it, that suddenly disappears (obviously, through editing), and someone with a bizarre, horrible mask comes along, in front of the camera, for the rest of the video. 

The Found Footage Super 8 Reel 10.4566.26: Fragment 44X shows a very nervous and anxious person, breathing deeply in affliction, investigating a dark place. When he (assuming that it is, indeed, a male person) opens up a curtain, we see a dead corpse (again, assuming that it is one, the image is very dark and distorted), and the person apparently panics, and a strange noise suddenly disrupts over the video. If you freeze the image in a proper time in the one minute and five seconds Found Footage VHS Cassette 031 Fragment 25n video, you can see what appears to be a demonic figure slowly appearing behind some clothes in a wardrobe. You can freeze the image several times throughout the video, and caught the demon in different positions, as it is moving forward, pushing away the clothes. It has gigantic hands, and a very large, ugly face.   

Not all videos are interesting: some of them have just ordinary images, or dull sequences. But most of them are intriguing, to say the least. Of course, this could be just a hoax, given the fact that practically all videos have, very conveniently, distorted, vague and unclear images, to give the impression that they are old. At least, the product of antique film reels, or Betamax format, like it is explained, in the channel description. Despite being curious, the channel failed to attract attention from a lot of the more mainstream web mystery solvers. Some of them probably think that the channel simply doesn’t worth their time. But the question here is: these videos are authentic, or not? At least, some of them could be real? What do you think? Could we solve the mystery behind the channel Jack Torrance someday?

Personally, I think it is a very cool, but somewhat misleading and pretentious hoax. Certainly, from the perspective of someone who analyzed some of the creepiest and sinister YouTube channels, I think Jack Torrance is more like an entertaining, funny joke. Sure there are some cool videos, but a lot of things simply don’t match. To make fake videos nowadays is so easy, especially if you have the correct technological paraphernalia… if you own a Macintosh, a good digital camera, and really knows how to handle movie programs, to shot this kind of video, and set all the arrangements to give it a dark and old style impression is easy beyond any possibility… but we have to recognize the creativity – at least in some of the more well finished videos – of whoever it is behind this project. Despite being an inferior enigma, especially if compared to the more sinister YouTube channels, in my personal evaluation Jack Torrance remains being a very interesting YouTube mystery, that deserves, at least, a little attention. 


​Wagner

Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv is an internet video on YouTube, that grew to be quite an urban legend on the World Wide Web. The video – which part of the legend claims it was made by Satan (seriously??) – shows the black and red static face of an adult male, in front of a red background, that after some time suddenly changes, with his face turning into a more diabolical monstrous feature, while the background slowly creeps with a sinister mesmerizing sound, with sudden and very quick changes in the front and background images. And that’s all!! A boring, inconspicuous and dull video, with nothing more to offer you.

The internet urban legend surrounding Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv says that the video is a horrific manifestation of evil, and if you see, you will panic ominously in horror, and will grab and took it off your own eyes, as a result, then sent by mail to YouTube. According to the legend, the very first person who watched the video screamed in horror, gouged out his own eyes in panic, and soon afterwards sent them by mail to the YouTube headquarters. After a few more people have done this, YouTube decided to stream a softer version of the video – where literally anything relevant happens –, in order to satisfy the curiosity of individuals searching for Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv, hoping these people will not feel the need to search for the original video. Apparently, this hasn’t solved the problem, and as the video went viral, all individuals who subsequently saw it continued the ritual to panic, scream in horrifying agony, and gouge out their own eyes soon after seeing it, sending both eyes by mail to YouTube afterwards. In a few months, YouTube received approximately two hundred pairs of eyes, and had to deal with a major operation in order to cover up what was really going on. A search operation was done in order to track the individual who supposedly downloaded the video on YouTube, to no avail. Sometime later, someone discovered the man on which the face on the video was based, but to this date his name remains unknown.  

Well, this is certainly the most funny and hilarious internet urban legend of all times, to say the least. Thinking about it, it makes me want to laugh so badly. Who created this joke? And more important, who took it seriously? If there is any horror in the video, it is subjective, and psychologically induced by the very own premise that you will gouge out your own eyes. As a matter of fact, all that you have is a boring video, dull and monotonous, and you will forget about it just a few minutes after seeing it. The legend it is way more entertaining than the video itself.  

Nevertheless, Mereana Mordegard Glesgorv is a great example of the power of the internet. You can do yourself a mediocre and dull video, but if you create a powerful, compelling and appealing story behind it, and spread it like dark, insane, and mysterious creepypasta, based – first and foremost – on a “true story”, you will always find a lot of people predisposed to believe. The world is full of easily impressionable individuals, with a lot of imagination, so it is not as hard as you might think to spread ahead this kind of rumor, especially in the World Wide Web, a fertile ground for this kind of thing. 

Well, below, there is the video for you to see, and stood to your own conclusions. But be cool, nothing will happen to you. I seriously doubt that you will find the video so horrifying, to the point of took it off your own eyes. I really don’t think that any time soon YouTube staff will open up a package with your eyes on it. 


​Wagner