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Can you handle stories that are a little spooky? What about viral memes that lean into the absurd? If unhinged, creepy, and amusingly ghoulish corners of the internet are your thing, you’ve come to the right place.
In Week 2 of The Daily Dot’s 2024 Hall of Fame, we’re turning to “Urban Legends.” These are online trends or digital figures that have ominous, uncanny, or just plain strange undertones.
In previous years, these legends have come from horror movies, like The Babadook and M3GAN. In earlier days, they originated from creepypasta lore, like the ever-terrifying Slender Man. This year, we give you a group of Urban Legends that cropped up at the intersection of irreverent internet humor, conspiracy theories, and technological innovation.
Here are the nominees for week two of the 2024 Daily Dot Hall of Fame.
Transgender Operations on Illegal Aliens
This year’s presidential debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris producedcountless viral moments and memes, but few were as instantly meme-able as Trump’s suggestion that Harris “wants to do transgender operations on illegal aliens that are in prison.”
The long-winded and largely nonsensical statement attracted online meme-sters at once, who posted examples of these so-called transgender aliens, including E.T. dressed as a woman, an alien from the Alien franchise wearing a dress, and Lady Cassandra from Dr. Who.
The evening following the debate, Sabrina Carpenter—one of the year’s most meme-able popstars—performed at the Video Music Awards, kissing an ambiguously gendered alien on stage.
Carpenter’s performance made the phrase even more popular among internet users, particularly those not on board with Trump’s right-wing agenda. No one making jokes about Trump’s fear-mongering actually believed in the conspiracy theory he was peddling, which is why many conjured up images of aliens from outer space rather than the aliens Trump was (presumably) referencing.
Through no intention of his own, Trump created an urban legend that became a leftist icon.
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Clone Avril Lavigne
The Avril Lavigne clone theory dates back to 2011, but unlike the original Avril, it refuses to die. Lavigne actually addressed the theory for the first time this year while appearing on the “Call Her Daddy” podcast, re-igniting chatter about the conspiracy.
If you’re unfamiliar with the legend, here’s the gist of it. Thirteen years ago, a Brazilian fan site posited the theory that Melissa Vandella, who Lavigne had supposedly hired to dupe the paparazzi, had replaced the real Lavigne back in 2003 following her death. The idea is that Vandella has been impersonating Lavigne since then, with astonishing success.
Obviously, most people posting about this conspiracy theory don’t really believe it’s true, but it’s the kind of internet legend that only gets more ridiculous with age.
Thankfully, Lavigne told “Call Her Daddy” host Alex Cooper that she’s not too bothered by the theory, and that she actually finds it kind of funny. “I don’t know, it could be worse. Obviously, I am me. It’s so dumb,” she shared.
A likely thing for a clone to say…
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RFK Jr’s Brain Worm
It’s still up for debate whether the next nominee is a legend or the gospel truth, but either way, it’s no doubt achieved legend status.
It’s long been understood that RFK Jr’s brain doesn’t work quite like the rest of ours do.
Leaving a dead bear in Central Park isn’t something you do if your brain is functioning properly. Have you ever heard the phrase “worms for brains?” Well, RFK Jr. has that. He revealed in a 2012 deposition that a worm literally ate part of his brain, a confession that recirculated earlier this year.
The general response to this information was “that makes perfect sense.” Whether or not the medical details check out is irrelevant —spiritually, it feels true.
Online sleuths were quick to investigate the supposed source of Kennedy’s brain worm, with some positing it was his love of doctor-not-recommended raw milk that caused the parasite. Later, others alleged that dog meat was the culprit after a photo of him posing next to a barbecued dog surfaced online.
Either way, this urban legend, which RKF Jr. publicized of his own accord, captured the zeitgeist in a year of increasingly deranged political discourse.
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Lana from Roblox
The video game platform Roblox has been the site of many fascinating online trends. From hilarious memes, to kids attending virtual funerals and protests, to gambling controversies, it’s the wild wild west out there.
More recently, an eerie controversy has struck the platform. Roblox is populated by user-generated games, including Dressed to Impress, a fashion game where users create outfits and are rated on their looks. The game includes a minor character named Lana, also known as “Nail Lady.” Players developed a fondness for Lana, until one day, she mysteriously vanished.
Soon after, she was replaced by a similar character named Lina, and fans discovered a secret room where Lana was trapped in a cage. Who kidnapped Lana? Was it Lina? What began as a lighthearted game spawned deep lore, with players obsessing over solving the mystery and reporting seeing Lana pop up in other games.
Things got more complicated when Gigi, the 17-year-old who created the game, was accused of racism, ripping off other creators’ ideas, and treating Dress to Impress employees poorly.
This controversy was considerably less fun than the Lana mystery, and put a damper on some of the fond feelings people had for the game. But such is the trajectory of internet fads—nothing remains pure for long.
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Loab
Loab, a uniquely disturbing digital creation, is a true urban legend of the 2020s. Though not many voted for her in 2023’s Hall of Fame, Loab returns this year like the persistent apparition she is.
In case you missed it, Loab is a product of artificial intelligence, the decade’s most controversial piece of technology. She was created by artist Steph Swanson, also known as Supercomposite. Swanson produced Loab using a negative prompt weight, which tells AI to generate the opposite of a subject. Swanson used Marlon Brando as the subject, and the result was Loab, a deranged-looking woman with extremely rosy cheeks.
It’s not just Loab’s physical appearance that gives one the heebie-jeebies, it’s also how and where she appears.
Swanson reported that the prompt kept generating Loab repeatedly, which is not normally how AI works. Even more disturbing is how she interacted with the landscape around her. When crossbred with other images, the result was always a terrifying, gory landscape, often including mutilated children. Loab would eventually disappear after Swanson crossbred her with other images enough times, but then she would return, out of the blue.
While earlier urban legends like Slenderman and Momo were created by devilish human beings intending to frighten the public, Loab is distinctly creepy because she was created by an ever-powerful technology—albeit with some human intervention.
Is her presence an omen of something sinister to come? We’ll likely never know.
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