Sometimes the lingo used on the internet is entirely self-explanatory. Then there are terms like creepypasta, which are so strange that they might as well be in another language. Despite how ridiculous this word might be, creepypasta has become one of the most famous concepts to come out of the online world.
Turning back the clock, we want to look at the origins of creepypasta, what it means, and a couple of the more famous examples that are still around today.
What is a Creepypasta?
The first big question we need to explore is what is creepypasta anyway. The name creepypasta refers to a kind of horror-based urban legend that, instead of being shared around a city, is shared via the internet.
Topics involved in creepypasta are wide-ranging, covering practically every monster, theme, and genre imaginable. There is creepypasta about ghosts, aliens, suicides, serial killers, zombies, vampires, and everything in between.
The one connecting factor of creepypasta is that it works to increase its legend via online media. One of the more famous examples of creepypasta is Slender Man, a character famous for being tall, faceless, and overzealous in his diet. This particular example even bled into real life, inspiring actual horrific crime.
Why Is It Called Creepypasta?
There are a couple of layers to this one. Firstly, creepypasta borrows from the term copypasta. This is a word traced back to the online world in 2006, reflecting the act of copying and pasting text to share. Copy and paste became copypasta, a joke on the nature of sharing memes.
Creepypasta then built on this portmanteau and replaced the copy part with creepy, to mirror the horrific nature of what was being shared. The actual term creepypasta was first recorded in 2007. Sharing horror media via this method is, of course, much older, but the term creepypasta provided a word that was just bizarre enough to be funny.
What Does Creepypasta Mean?
Today, creepypasta has evolved alongside many forms of internet media beyond its amateur and casual roots. Just as Slender Man eventually became a film, many forms of creepypasta pass themselves off as real in attempted guerilla marketing or brand-building.
Outside of the mainstream, creepypasta has also become increasingly specialized, building on ideas like haunted video game cartridges, or shared LARPing to affect a growing mythos. Creepypasta is a kind of shorthand that demonstrates the evolving nature of horror within a contemporary digital space.
The more ingrained with technology we become, the more natural creepypasta can become, and the easier creepypasta becomes to sell. From the amateur works that fall flat to properties now worth millions, creepypasta is more serious than the name alone would suggest, and if you’re a horror fan, such development is nothing but a good thing.
