Creepypasta

Many a fan of the Slender Man Mythos has heard the term “creepypasta” before. “Slender Man is a creepypasta,” people say, or “Slender Man is not a creepypasta,” or –most accurately!– “the Slender Man Mythos includes but is not limited to several creepypastas.” But what are these spiritual successors and predecessors to the stories, images, and alternate reality games about the internet’s favorite faceless businessman?

“Creepypasta” means horror-fiction “copypasta” – short segments of text copied-and-pasted across forums and imageboards. The term originated on 4chan’s /x/ paranormal board in 2007, and the strictest definitions treat the term as 4chan-exclusive.1 However, the genre soon proliferated to such platforms as Creepypasta Wiki, Creepypasta.com, and r/nosleep – where expectations of brevity have given way to long series and expansive fictional universes.

Creepypastas’ dubious reputation precedes them: no barrier to entry means Sturgeon’s Law applies in spades. But their semi-anonymity and absence of a profit motive also brings unique immersion and a dedication to the art of storytelling seldom found elsewhere.

This page is perhaps the largest quality-controlled list of creepypasta on the Web, curated annually by one individual with a literature degree and too much free time. So gather around the virtual campfire of your screen with thousands of anonymous friends, and enjoy the communal storytelling of the demon-haunted Internet Age!

Short Stories

Below are creepypastas in the purest sense of the term: short stories copied-and-pasted on forums and imageboards, often anonymously written and reliant on twist endings and/or pretenses of truth. Some are fully-realized narratives, others fragments of disquieting suggestions, and still others retellings of quintessential urban legends.

Longform Stories

Standalone

When most people think of “iconic creepypastas,” they think of these: stories that you can read in one sitting, from the edge of your seat – preferably with a hot beverage and some atmospheric music. This section features well-loved classics and forgotten gems alike!

Series

For avid readers, there are multipart creepypastas that can occupy hours or weeks of binge-reading. Creepypasta anthologies feature many of the genre’s most prolific authors and worldbuilding projects, while series include many fan-favorites and stories that have graduated to the status of published literature.

Immersive Web Experiences

Many online art projects that netizens share alongside creepypastas defy easy categorization. They may experiment with genre, form, and –as is the case for many alternate reality games and viral hoaxes– reality itself. But what these projects, creepypasta, and the Slender Man Mythos all share are multimodal storytelling innovations that could have only come from the World Wide Web.

Footnotes
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