WEBVTT - Thinking Sideways: The Grinning Man 0:00:04.320 --> 0:00:16.079 Thinking Sideways. I don't interest you've never known stories of 0:00:16.200 --> 0:00:20.919 things we simply don't know the answer too. Hey, guys, 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:26.239 welcome to uh ann episode of Steve makes a Weird 0:00:26.280 --> 0:00:30.920 Face the podcast. I don't think that's the name of 0:00:30.960 --> 0:00:33.599 the show. We should rename it though, probably Steve make 0:00:33.640 --> 0:00:37.600 the weird face. Yeah, constantly, I can't help literally constantly. Yeah, 0:00:37.840 --> 0:00:40.680 we'll have to build up our listenership again, that's gonna 0:00:40.680 --> 0:00:43.520 take a long time. Just kidding. This is Thinking Sideways 0:00:43.560 --> 0:00:49.159 the podcast. I'm Devin, joined most weeks by and Steve 0:00:50.360 --> 0:00:52.560 Steve makes a funny face. This week, we're going to 0:00:52.600 --> 0:00:55.600 talk about a mystery that is a little bit associated 0:00:55.600 --> 0:00:57.400 with the mystery we've already talked about. That would be 0:00:57.400 --> 0:01:04.320 the Mothman. Scarier. This one's better, No, I mean I 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:07.440 think the stories are better true. I'll give you that. 0:01:07.720 --> 0:01:12.319 Thank you for giving that. Yeah, uh. This week you 0:01:12.360 --> 0:01:16.319 probably know we're going to talk about the Grinning Man, who, 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.520 it turns out a surprising number of people don't know about. 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:21.640 I didn't know about Earning Man ahead of time. I 0:01:21.680 --> 0:01:24.440 didn't either. Every time I'm like, oh yeah, the Grinning Man, 0:01:24.680 --> 0:01:26.959 people are like, I don't know what you're talking about. 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:31.520 I'm like, oh, that's my story's at end of episode, Okay, 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:36.119 all the credits. No, he also had a name, he 0:01:36.200 --> 0:01:41.319 did um. He may have been called Indurd Cold. He 0:01:41.360 --> 0:01:46.040 could have also maybe been called Ingrid Cold. I saw 0:01:46.080 --> 0:01:49.120 it as injured of the places, but I did see 0:01:49.200 --> 0:01:50.920 Ingrid every once in a while, so I thought i'd 0:01:50.920 --> 0:01:55.520 throw it in there, just in cases auto correct. I hope, 0:01:55.640 --> 0:01:58.960 I hope so. But he only told told his name 0:01:59.000 --> 0:02:01.560 to one person, only in person, and it was in 0:02:01.800 --> 0:02:06.720 Injured in that one, which makes me think that I 0:02:06.760 --> 0:02:08.800 would assume so. But you know how these things go. 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:11.160 It's all. We got to throw it all in, we 0:02:11.200 --> 0:02:15.880 do so. The Grinning Man is described as quote well 0:02:16.000 --> 0:02:20.959 over six ft tall, totally bald, with black, beady eyes 0:02:21.280 --> 0:02:25.240 that are set a little too far apart. He most 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:29.800 often is said to wear a shiny green or metallic 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:32.880 suit or overalls, and is staring in your window right now, 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:38.040 looking now, now, now, just kidding, probably maybe my hand, 0:02:38.919 --> 0:02:41.240 don't look. I hope it's not nighttime where you are. 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:44.400 People who have met or seen the Grinning Man are 0:02:44.440 --> 0:02:47.200 often so taken aback that they can't say for certain 0:02:47.280 --> 0:02:51.360 if he has ears or a nose, because what they notice, 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:57.960 as you might guess from his name, is the smile. Huge. Yeah, 0:02:58.400 --> 0:03:01.959 like very uncomfortably large, just like a jack d Yeah. 0:03:02.520 --> 0:03:04.520 And I don't necessarily get the sense that it's like, 0:03:05.040 --> 0:03:07.560 you know, an extra large mouth or anything. It's not 0:03:07.680 --> 0:03:10.160 an actual ear to ear. But did you guys watch 0:03:10.240 --> 0:03:15.000 Buffy ever? Yeah? Yeah, do you remember the absolute best 0:03:15.000 --> 0:03:18.240 episode of all Buffy canon, which is called Hush, which 0:03:18.280 --> 0:03:22.600 I actually did see. That's the one where it's completely silent, 0:03:22.600 --> 0:03:24.880 all of the voices get taken away by those creepy, 0:03:25.040 --> 0:03:28.679 terrifying guys who float around and smile constantly. I don't 0:03:28.720 --> 0:03:33.160 remember that one. It's a really really good it's by 0:03:33.280 --> 0:03:35.960 far the best episode of Buffy to ever exist. Go 0:03:36.040 --> 0:03:38.160 out check it out. I was really impressed with the 0:03:38.280 --> 0:03:42.880 musical episode. Yeah, that was a good one. This one's better. No, 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:45.360 I think that that's the way I kind of picture 0:03:45.600 --> 0:03:55.800 the smiles of being not inhuman, but uncomfortably large and fixed, fixed, constant. Yeah. Okay, 0:03:56.040 --> 0:04:01.520 the Grinning Man may have his skin maybe kind of grayish, 0:04:01.560 --> 0:04:07.760 maybe tannish, maybe greenish, certainly not a supernatural healthy color, 0:04:07.920 --> 0:04:13.160 not supernatural, but very natural. They only ever saw him 0:04:13.160 --> 0:04:15.560 at night at night, Yeah, so it's harder to tell. 0:04:15.800 --> 0:04:18.800 I think it's like a pallid tone. Whatever it is 0:04:19.120 --> 0:04:23.480 would be the way I would describe it. Apparently, sometimes 0:04:23.520 --> 0:04:28.120 he maybe wore a black belt, right, well, so when 0:04:28.160 --> 0:04:30.640 he wore overalls or coveralls, he was maybe wearing a 0:04:30.680 --> 0:04:33.080 black belt. Probably not wearing black belt with the suit 0:04:33.279 --> 0:04:37.559 that you would notice necessarily true jacket would the way, yeah, 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:42.880 it would. He apparently sometimes communicates telepathically with the people 0:04:42.920 --> 0:04:46.920 he encounters. I think I only heard about that happening once. 0:04:46.960 --> 0:04:49.000 I don't know if you guys encountered it anywhere else. 0:04:51.240 --> 0:04:54.120 Which is where we get the name Indrid Cold. And 0:04:54.800 --> 0:04:58.400 he was seen at Point Pleasant, West Virginia. Yeah, West Virginia, 0:04:58.440 --> 0:05:03.159 And if you'll remember correctly, that's uh where Mothman was 0:05:03.240 --> 0:05:07.720 seen made his debut. Was he seeing that point Pleasant 0:05:07.800 --> 0:05:12.120 or near like not too far, very close to yeh. 0:05:12.360 --> 0:05:15.840 So he's a Mothman sidekick or just the Mothman. Maybe 0:05:15.839 --> 0:05:21.280 the Mothman's ball, the boss supervisor. Maybe Mothman is his pet. 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:23.279 He was just taking him out for a walk and 0:05:23.279 --> 0:05:25.880 he got off leash somehow. What what if he's like 0:05:26.000 --> 0:05:29.160 you know, the mothman collector the catcher like the dog catcher. 0:05:29.640 --> 0:05:32.760 So he's always he's always there because he's always chasing him. Well, actually, 0:05:32.760 --> 0:05:34.680 we'll touch on that a little bit in a minute, 0:05:34.839 --> 0:05:36.720 because one of the theories kind of plays into that. 0:05:37.720 --> 0:05:40.320 So we're gonna in this episode it's going to be 0:05:40.400 --> 0:05:42.479 one of those ones where we kind of tell stories. 0:05:42.760 --> 0:05:46.280 It's less theory based, more story based, and start contrast 0:05:46.320 --> 0:05:50.919 to like last week, where it was like almost entirely 0:05:51.000 --> 0:05:55.680 theory Yeah, almost entirely theory based. Sorry about that. It's 0:05:55.720 --> 0:05:59.120 not your fault, it's mine. It's Steve's fault. He made 0:05:59.160 --> 0:06:05.559 us watch that horrible movie again again and again again. 0:06:05.880 --> 0:06:08.440 I think it's a pretty good movie myself. We disagree 0:06:08.480 --> 0:06:13.400 on that. He didn't think I could make that voice. 0:06:13.440 --> 0:06:24.720 Did you know that was legitinely terrified? Sorry, but you're ready, 0:06:24.760 --> 0:06:27.360 we'll get back on track. Yeah, that's that's We've got 0:06:27.360 --> 0:06:30.680 an important mystery to self here. Okay, now that we've 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:34.000 taken a pause to recover, the editing might be a 0:06:34.000 --> 0:06:36.320 little weird there because we were cracking up. Sorry, guys, 0:06:37.640 --> 0:06:41.000 let's tell this story. I'm gonna start by telling the 0:06:41.040 --> 0:06:44.400 story of the first maybe documented sighting of the Grinning Man. 0:06:44.800 --> 0:06:48.760 And would you say this is the standard version or 0:06:48.880 --> 0:06:53.800 is this the official version? Standard version? A version, like, 0:06:53.839 --> 0:06:56.520 how would you cluse? It's a version, It's the thinking 0:06:56.560 --> 0:06:59.920 sideways version. It's the kind of thing that we all 0:07:00.200 --> 0:07:04.440 kind of do, where we search out the most authentic 0:07:04.480 --> 0:07:08.440 documents but also mixing accepted lore. I just because sometimes 0:07:08.520 --> 0:07:11.440 we do it. This is exactly what we're told. You 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:13.280 just want to clarify that. Yeah, this is kind of 0:07:13.320 --> 0:07:17.480 the general telling of this story perfect. I'm so we're 0:07:17.480 --> 0:07:20.640 going to tell this story. And then I want to 0:07:20.640 --> 0:07:22.920 tell you about the story that made me interested in 0:07:22.960 --> 0:07:25.600 the Grinning Man years and years ago. That was my 0:07:25.640 --> 0:07:28.520 first point of contact for even hearing about the Grinning Man. 0:07:28.640 --> 0:07:32.240 It was at least three years ago. And uh, well, 0:07:32.400 --> 0:07:35.880 we'll talk about that in a second. Two kids in October. 0:07:38.240 --> 0:07:43.240 Two kids, two boys, James and Marvin. And she's not 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:46.480 telling you their last names because they're unpronounceable, but they 0:07:46.560 --> 0:07:52.440 have like five names. It's it's fine, Uh no, James 0:07:52.480 --> 0:07:55.240 and Marvin because this is the Sties. And somebody named 0:07:55.280 --> 0:07:59.240 their child Marvin like a jerk. I'm sorry, that was 0:07:59.280 --> 0:08:00.880 an okay name back in those days. It was a 0:08:00.880 --> 0:08:02.760 pretty good name. It's an old dude name now, but 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:07.960 because yeah, that's true. Any idea how old these kids were? 0:08:08.000 --> 0:08:12.480 They were teenagers, they weren't. I thought they were like 0:08:12.560 --> 0:08:19.200 early teenagers though it's not like sev but barely teenagers, 0:08:20.560 --> 0:08:25.080 young teen, tweens and teens. They lived in Elizabeth, New Jersey, 0:08:25.200 --> 0:08:29.200 and they were walking home from if I recall correctly, 0:08:29.240 --> 0:08:32.400 some kind of mischief. Then the first reading of the 0:08:32.559 --> 0:08:35.199 stories that I did years and years ago, I distinctly 0:08:35.200 --> 0:08:38.160 remember being included in in the stories that like, they 0:08:38.160 --> 0:08:41.400 were out creating mischief and they were walking home from 0:08:41.559 --> 0:08:45.120 the toilet paper. I wasn't Maybe I wasn't able to 0:08:45.160 --> 0:08:48.280 find that again though, so it could be my misremembering. 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:51.280 They were walking home along Fourth Street, which Joe may 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:54.280 or may not have Google street viewed, actually didn't. He 0:08:54.320 --> 0:08:58.120 didn't go. I was busy. The road runs near the turnpike, 0:08:58.280 --> 0:09:01.160 and um as they arrived at a fairly treacherous part 0:09:01.200 --> 0:09:04.440 of the journey along a fence that kind of went 0:09:04.520 --> 0:09:07.120 past the turnpike. So there was the fence and then 0:09:07.160 --> 0:09:11.679 there was this huge hill and then the turnpike. Uh As, 0:09:11.679 --> 0:09:14.720 they were walking over a turn at this place. Is 0:09:14.720 --> 0:09:18.840 it below the ground level? Yeah, and so there was. 0:09:19.000 --> 0:09:21.839 It was a very very steep incline, so steep in fact, 0:09:21.880 --> 0:09:27.040 that almost everybody agrees that it's unclimbable from the turnpike, 0:09:27.280 --> 0:09:30.800 that it would be impossible for whatever whoever these boys 0:09:30.800 --> 0:09:35.199 saw to have climbed up from the turnpike. Apparently nobody 0:09:35.240 --> 0:09:37.280 had really ever been seen on the other side of 0:09:37.280 --> 0:09:39.920 that fence. Well, it would make sense because it was 0:09:39.960 --> 0:09:42.920 like impassable, and who would be dumb enough to climb 0:09:43.000 --> 0:09:46.760 the fence just to like be on a impassable incline 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:52.720 basically right, or to climb up that grade? Yeah? Yeah, yeah. 0:09:52.720 --> 0:09:54.880 So the boys were, you know, the story is always 0:09:54.880 --> 0:09:58.200 really dramatically told. They're like passing in between pools of light. 0:10:00.000 --> 0:10:03.600 They were walking along a fence, you guys, and they 0:10:03.640 --> 0:10:06.959 paused to catch their breath. I don't know if they 0:10:06.960 --> 0:10:13.200 were like ridiculously out of shape. They weren't. Yeah, I 0:10:13.240 --> 0:10:16.199 would guess one had to pee, and I believe it 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:21.600 was James looked at Marvin, who was peeing apparently totally 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:29.920 facing him back was to the fence, and said, who's 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:32.599 that behind you? And they turned around and there's a 0:10:33.200 --> 0:10:38.000 man standing on the other side of the fence. Yeah, 0:10:38.080 --> 0:10:41.720 of course. And now they were already a little on 0:10:41.960 --> 0:10:45.400 edge because somehow, I don't know how, they had heard 0:10:45.440 --> 0:10:48.720 rumors of that night one of the women in the 0:10:48.720 --> 0:10:52.360 neighborhood being chased by a quote, tall green man. I 0:10:52.400 --> 0:10:56.560 don't know how they heard that, but Okay, I guess 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.640 the grape vine moved way more quickly than I anticipate 0:11:00.000 --> 0:11:03.120 in the sixties, I guess apparently. But but at this 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:05.199 time they saw this guy was about a quarter to ten. 0:11:05.240 --> 0:11:07.880 It was about quarter to ten around really fast, So 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.240 I guess. Yeah. Um, they described this guy that they 0:11:11.280 --> 0:11:14.920 saw as quote, the strangest guy we've ever seen. He 0:11:15.000 --> 0:11:17.480 was the biggest man I ever saw. At about three 0:11:17.559 --> 0:11:25.080 days later, this guyist afologists. Yes, my favorite upologist, John Kiel, Yes, 0:11:26.120 --> 0:11:30.200 he somehow heard that they had seen this guy and 0:11:30.320 --> 0:11:34.480 showed up and interviewed them in three days and three 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:38.600 days later. Yeah, yeah, And here's what Kiel wrote about 0:11:38.920 --> 0:11:41.920 the interview. I don't think he actually quotes them or anything, 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:44.040 So this is a quote from him talking about his 0:11:44.080 --> 0:11:46.800 interview with them. Quote. The man was over six ft tall, 0:11:46.840 --> 0:11:49.520 day agreed, and was dressed in a sparkling green coverall 0:11:49.600 --> 0:11:52.319 costume that shimmered and seemed to reflect the street lights. 0:11:52.480 --> 0:11:54.920 There was a wide black belt around his waist. He 0:11:55.040 --> 0:11:58.160 was very dark complexion, with little round eyes, real beaty 0:11:58.320 --> 0:12:01.040 set far apart. They could not remember seeing any hair, 0:12:01.400 --> 0:12:06.240 ears nose on this figure. Yeah, that's they don't remember 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:08.280 that because as soon as they saw him, they ran 0:12:08.360 --> 0:12:10.520 like a little girl. They saw the grin and then 0:12:10.520 --> 0:12:14.760 they were like, maybe just we're getting out of here. Bye. Yeah. Yeah, 0:12:15.720 --> 0:12:18.280 was like twenty days away. Yeah, it was pretty close. 0:12:18.600 --> 0:12:23.800 Apparently there were reports of UFOs sightings at quote exactly 0:12:24.280 --> 0:12:29.600 the same time, forty miles away. Okay, so this is 0:12:29.679 --> 0:12:31.440 we're going to hit like a little interesting spot. So 0:12:31.480 --> 0:12:35.280 we'll just talk about this real quick. Steve's already super annoyed. 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:37.439 He hates it when we talk about UFOs at all. 0:12:38.920 --> 0:12:43.280 Um small diversions. You guys know about the Men in Black? Yes, 0:12:44.000 --> 0:12:46.000 the Men in Black. These are different than the movie, 0:12:46.400 --> 0:12:49.480 different than the movies. Yeah, so no, Will Smith, no, 0:12:49.559 --> 0:12:55.280 Will Smith Jones, No, sorry, what about the pug? The dog? 0:12:56.559 --> 0:12:59.600 Definitely not the pug. So the you know, I mean, 0:12:59.720 --> 0:13:03.400 and they you are aware that, like some descriptions have 0:13:03.720 --> 0:13:09.760 these quote unquote men not being men, alien humanoid aliens. 0:13:11.600 --> 0:13:15.240 I s yeah, maybe the bibs, Yeah, they're bibs. They're 0:13:16.000 --> 0:13:21.000 most often described as unusually pale, most often with no eyebrows, 0:13:21.040 --> 0:13:24.800 no hair, no facial hair. Once I I did see 0:13:25.000 --> 0:13:29.080 describe them as at once being pale, complexioned and swarthy. 0:13:29.200 --> 0:13:31.559 So I'm not totally sure how that that doesn't make 0:13:31.600 --> 0:13:35.880 any It doesn't make any sense. Maybe they were spotted, Yeah, 0:13:35.920 --> 0:13:40.000 maybe that's it. Some reports say that the Men in 0:13:40.040 --> 0:13:44.040 Black speak with weird accents. Some say they communicate in 0:13:44.120 --> 0:13:51.080 weird giggling noises, like butthead, Yeah, exactly like that. Yeah, 0:13:51.400 --> 0:13:53.360 we're in the spot. It's you know that part of 0:13:53.360 --> 0:13:56.840 the episode again already where Steve makes weird faces. He 0:13:56.880 --> 0:14:02.360 doesn't like this appearance. Yeah, it's Keel Keel Drives sightings. 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:04.360 But the Men in Black were also seen in well 0:14:04.440 --> 0:14:07.280 so yeah, and anyway, in October of nineteen sixty six, 0:14:07.280 --> 0:14:11.360 there was a rash of sightings of um UFOs Men 0:14:11.400 --> 0:14:15.880 in Black and then also um the Grinning Man in Elizabeth, 0:14:15.880 --> 0:14:18.880 New Jersey, and the surrounding areas. But in New Jersey 0:14:19.200 --> 0:14:21.880 they are even some alleged pictures of the sightings of 0:14:21.920 --> 0:14:24.880 men in black, but nobody actually has a copy. Well no, 0:14:24.960 --> 0:14:27.440 actually I looked at them online and it's it's just 0:14:27.520 --> 0:14:30.080 hard to tell because it's nineteen sixty six, so it's 0:14:30.080 --> 0:14:34.480 not like it's the highest definition picture. And then dudes 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:37.440 wore black suits a lot in those days and the fedoras, 0:14:37.960 --> 0:14:40.000 So you know, you catch a picture of a dude 0:14:40.040 --> 0:14:43.760 lurking in you know, from a slightly far distance, he's 0:14:43.840 --> 0:14:45.960 kind of standing in a doorway. You take a picture 0:14:46.000 --> 0:14:48.600 of it. What are you going to get at night? Well, no, 0:14:48.680 --> 0:14:50.840 it was during the day. During the day men in black? 0:14:50.840 --> 0:14:53.240 Do you go out in the day? And I wasn't 0:14:53.280 --> 0:14:57.040 able to find any actual reports of the actual UFO 0:14:57.200 --> 0:15:00.600 sightings that happened in October of nineteenth sixty six in 0:15:00.640 --> 0:15:03.360 New Jersey. So do you check the papers. I did 0:15:03.360 --> 0:15:05.440 not check the papers, but I checked a lot of 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:10.600 different websites, but more than one site did refer to 0:15:11.560 --> 0:15:14.760 nineteen sixty six as the year of UFO sightings. So 0:15:14.800 --> 0:15:17.680 it's not nothing. You're gonna talk about this now or 0:15:17.680 --> 0:15:19.560 in the series section. You can talk about it now. 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:22.880 Let's talk about it now the Black Book. No, here's 0:15:22.920 --> 0:15:27.280 my problem with this whole thing for this story of 0:15:27.320 --> 0:15:29.240 the grading. Man, I know we have more story to go, 0:15:30.320 --> 0:15:33.320 but in this original one, and I'm using air quotes 0:15:33.320 --> 0:15:37.080 when I say original, Kiel's the only one. He's the 0:15:37.160 --> 0:15:41.040 only source, and he's he's the one who says that 0:15:41.080 --> 0:15:43.600 there were all these UFO sightings. And one of the 0:15:43.640 --> 0:15:47.880 places that he loves to talk about is the n 0:15:47.960 --> 0:15:51.880 i c a P, which is the National Investigations Committee 0:15:51.920 --> 0:15:55.440 on Aerial Phenomena. They're the ones who tracked UFOs. That 0:15:55.520 --> 0:15:58.400 was their big thing at there that nearly is active 0:15:58.400 --> 0:16:01.920 with their archives are online, and he's there was UFO 0:16:02.080 --> 0:16:06.320 sightings in the area every day. So I went through 0:16:06.480 --> 0:16:10.760 the prior month and then the month after in nineteen 0:16:10.800 --> 0:16:14.800 sixty six, and there's like three a month, and most 0:16:14.840 --> 0:16:18.160 of the sightings are all over the maps. So like, 0:16:18.240 --> 0:16:20.960 I really I questioned this just because this one thing 0:16:21.000 --> 0:16:23.680 that he's making such a big deal of turns out 0:16:23.720 --> 0:16:27.880 to be absolutely completely wrong by an organization that tracks that. 0:16:28.040 --> 0:16:30.600 So yeah, So in other words, there were three in 0:16:30.640 --> 0:16:32.240 that whole time period, and none of them were in 0:16:32.280 --> 0:16:35.320 New Jersey. No, No, in New Jersey there was three. 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:37.960 Like there's tons and tons and tons in the month 0:16:38.000 --> 0:16:40.760 of night and each month in nineteen sixty six. But 0:16:40.800 --> 0:16:44.320 they're all over the world, you know, They're everywhere, So 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:47.520 it's not as if it was New Jersey the month 0:16:47.560 --> 0:16:50.520 of October nineteen sixty six, bang bang bang bang bang 0:16:50.560 --> 0:16:52.560 bang bang. It was a couple of them, but they 0:16:52.560 --> 0:16:56.320 were in New Jersey in general, not necessarily this one 0:16:56.360 --> 0:17:00.520 small town. So that that really really I have a 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:03.680 problem with him being the only source and then him 0:17:03.720 --> 0:17:09.520 making claims that are provably I agree. Yeah. I also, 0:17:09.560 --> 0:17:12.399 I don't think we mentioned if you aren't familiar, if 0:17:12.400 --> 0:17:15.439 you didn't listen to the Mothman episode, or you just 0:17:15.480 --> 0:17:18.400 don't know. John Keel, who we're talking about right now, 0:17:18.480 --> 0:17:21.520 is the author of The Mothman Prophecies. That's his most 0:17:21.520 --> 0:17:24.199 famous work. He's an author. On top of that, he 0:17:24.280 --> 0:17:28.040 also was a fictional screenwriter for horror movies for really 0:17:28.119 --> 0:17:32.400 long time. So that's uh interest that. Yeah, Well, when 0:17:32.400 --> 0:17:34.280 he wrote I can't remember the name of his book 0:17:34.320 --> 0:17:37.600 before the Mothman Prophecies, he's a lot of first showed 0:17:37.680 --> 0:17:41.840 up in a book of strange stories. That's not the name, 0:17:41.840 --> 0:17:43.879 but that might as well be the name, and the 0:17:43.920 --> 0:17:46.440 Mothman got I think it was all of chapter fourteen 0:17:46.960 --> 0:17:51.320 and several chapters before he briefly mentions the Grinning Man 0:17:51.960 --> 0:17:54.919 and what we read in what you just read and 0:17:54.960 --> 0:17:59.160 you see all the internet is directly taken from that. 0:17:59.600 --> 0:18:03.719 There is no other source for the story of Marvin 0:18:03.800 --> 0:18:08.280 and James. Yeah, there's there's nowhere else. Yeah kind of, 0:18:08.320 --> 0:18:14.040 that's usually what those things were a little bit, yeah, often, Yeah, Okay, 0:18:16.000 --> 0:18:17.959 it's great. I love that, and it's going to make 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:20.639 the theory section go even faster. Yeah, but this is 0:18:21.240 --> 0:18:23.000 the story. We're going to read this. When are you 0:18:23.000 --> 0:18:24.879 going to read it to us? I mean, we're about 0:18:24.880 --> 0:18:28.680 we're there right now. Actually, yeah sweet. There's this story 0:18:28.720 --> 0:18:33.280 on reddit, that one that's a creepy one story. It 0:18:33.400 --> 0:18:37.840 first appeared on our the subreddit Let's Not Meet. Sorry, 0:18:37.880 --> 0:18:40.040 I wrote it and read it lingo, you really did? 0:18:40.160 --> 0:18:43.159 Started to read it um, and then again the subreddit 0:18:43.280 --> 0:18:48.560 No Sleep Let's Not Meet is um. It's meant to 0:18:48.680 --> 0:18:52.800 be all true stories, true horror stories, true experiences that 0:18:52.840 --> 0:18:56.720 people have actually experienced, whereas No Sleep can be true 0:18:56.800 --> 0:18:59.879 or fictional, no matter what, it's just horror stories. The 0:19:00.080 --> 0:19:04.040 author of this story claims that it's true. He's continued 0:19:04.119 --> 0:19:08.280 to claim it's true. If that's the case, then I 0:19:08.280 --> 0:19:11.919 don't ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever ever want to 0:19:11.960 --> 0:19:16.360 be outside alone when it's dark, and you'll be fine. 0:19:17.200 --> 0:19:20.640 Maybe this story is called The Smiling Man, and I'm 0:19:20.640 --> 0:19:23.240 not going to tell the whole thing. It's really easy 0:19:23.280 --> 0:19:25.159 to find. You can just google the Smiling Man and 0:19:25.240 --> 0:19:27.960 it is literally the first thing to come up. But 0:19:28.480 --> 0:19:31.680 we're gonna do some mixture of direct quotes and then 0:19:31.720 --> 0:19:34.760 summarize what happens in between. The story is written by 0:19:35.040 --> 0:19:38.919 a user named Blue Title. I did get permission to 0:19:39.119 --> 0:19:43.240 use this story from the author, Just so everybody knows, 0:19:43.720 --> 0:19:47.040 I also spoke to him. I keep saying him. I'm 0:19:47.040 --> 0:19:50.239 just assuming him. I didn't actually ask, because it's read 0:19:50.359 --> 0:19:52.679 it and that's rude. But we'll talk a little bit 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:55.440 about the discussion I had with him after the fact. 0:19:55.920 --> 0:19:59.280 So Blue Title starts the story out by talking about 0:19:59.320 --> 0:20:01.359 how he likes to walk at night. I think we 0:20:01.440 --> 0:20:03.840 all do things like this sometimes, you know, walk or 0:20:03.920 --> 0:20:06.440 drive or something at night to clear your head, or 0:20:06.480 --> 0:20:10.560 if you can't sleep, or a drink and drive. Not 0:20:10.680 --> 0:20:14.560 a thing to admit, not a thing to do, definitely not. 0:20:14.600 --> 0:20:17.920 I don't even know what that means. So around two 0:20:17.960 --> 0:20:21.880 am he turns down a side street heading home off 0:20:21.920 --> 0:20:25.200 of kind of a more main thoroughfare, when he sees 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:28.639 the silhouette of a man dancing. That was a strange dance, 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:32.159 similar to a waltz, but he finished each box with 0:20:32.200 --> 0:20:35.080 an odd forward stride. I guess you could say he 0:20:35.160 --> 0:20:38.800 was dance walking, heading straight for me. Deciding he was 0:20:38.920 --> 0:20:41.080 probably drunk, I stepped as close as I could to 0:20:41.080 --> 0:20:42.960 the road to give him the majority of the sidewalk 0:20:43.000 --> 0:20:45.600 to pass by. I mean, the closer he got, the 0:20:45.640 --> 0:20:48.280 more I realized how gracefully he was moving. He was 0:20:48.440 --> 0:20:51.600 very tall and lanky and wearing an old suit. He 0:20:51.760 --> 0:20:54.440 danced closer still until I could make out his face. 0:20:55.359 --> 0:20:59.040 His eyes were wide open and wild head tilted back slightly, 0:20:59.680 --> 0:21:02.399 looking off at the sky. His mouth was formed in 0:21:02.440 --> 0:21:06.200 a painfully wide cartoon of a smile. At this point, 0:21:06.320 --> 0:21:11.359 the author wisely crosses the street. Uh, and terrifyingly, the 0:21:11.840 --> 0:21:16.560 man quote unquote man the figure follows him, kind of 0:21:16.840 --> 0:21:20.639 it won't he won't move until blue title looks away 0:21:20.640 --> 0:21:25.160 from him. So like an angel and doctor who kind 0:21:25.160 --> 0:21:28.560 of weeping angel like the weeping angels. So he you know, 0:21:28.680 --> 0:21:30.919 he decides this guy is drunk. He like is creeped 0:21:30.920 --> 0:21:33.760 out by him, so he looks at him, he turns, 0:21:33.800 --> 0:21:37.960 he walks across the street. He turns back and is paused, 0:21:39.280 --> 0:21:43.080 just frozen, like he's about to cross the street, exactly 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:46.680 parallel from blue title. So Blue title desides, but I'm 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:49.679 just I'll just keep walking. That's weird, it's creepy, but 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:52.640 I'm just gonna keep walking. So he turns around and 0:21:52.680 --> 0:21:55.800 walks for a minute or two, and then turns around again. 0:21:56.119 --> 0:21:59.600 He had crossed the street and was now slightly crouched down. 0:22:00.280 --> 0:22:03.480 I couldn't tell for sure due to the distance in shadows, 0:22:03.520 --> 0:22:05.879 but I was certain he was facing me. It was 0:22:05.880 --> 0:22:08.280 clear that he had moved fast. I was so shocked 0:22:08.320 --> 0:22:11.280 that I stood there for some time staring at him. 0:22:11.359 --> 0:22:14.119 And then he started moving towards me again. He took giant, 0:22:14.280 --> 0:22:17.800 exaggerated tiptoe steps, as if he were a cartoon character 0:22:17.880 --> 0:22:21.479 sneaking up on somebody, except he was moving very very quickly. 0:22:22.119 --> 0:22:24.080 I'd like to sit at this point I ran away 0:22:24.400 --> 0:22:26.440 or pulled out my pepper spray or my cell phone 0:22:26.520 --> 0:22:29.400 or anything at all, but I didn't. I just stood there, 0:22:29.480 --> 0:22:32.919 completely frozen as a smiling man crept towards me, and 0:22:32.960 --> 0:22:35.280 then he stopped again, about a car length away from me, 0:22:35.560 --> 0:22:40.080 still smiling, his smile, still looking to the sky. When 0:22:40.080 --> 0:22:42.440 I finally found my voice, I blurted out the first 0:22:42.480 --> 0:22:45.080 thing that came to mind. What I meant to ask 0:22:45.240 --> 0:22:50.800 was what the do you want? Yeah? In an angry, 0:22:50.840 --> 0:22:54.920 commanding tone. What came out was a whimper, what the fun? 0:22:56.920 --> 0:22:59.399 Regardless of whether or not humans can smell fear, the 0:22:59.480 --> 0:23:01.800 concertainly hear it. I heard it in my own voice, 0:23:02.040 --> 0:23:04.520 and that only made me more afraid. But he didn't 0:23:04.520 --> 0:23:07.560 react at all. He just stood there, smiling, and then, 0:23:07.680 --> 0:23:10.960 after what felt like forever, he turned around very slowly 0:23:11.280 --> 0:23:15.440 and started dance, walking away just like that. Not wanted 0:23:15.480 --> 0:23:17.440 to turn my back on him again, I just watched 0:23:17.520 --> 0:23:19.840 him go until he was far enough away to almost 0:23:19.880 --> 0:23:22.960 be out of sight, and then I realized something. He 0:23:23.000 --> 0:23:26.679 wasn't moving away anymore, nor was he dancing. I watched 0:23:26.720 --> 0:23:29.040 in horror as a distant shape of him grew larger 0:23:29.119 --> 0:23:32.480 and larger. He was coming back my way, and this 0:23:32.560 --> 0:23:36.840 time he was running blue. Title decided to run to Yeah, 0:23:36.840 --> 0:23:40.119 I would smartly, so right, Yeah. He ran to a 0:23:40.119 --> 0:23:43.720 busier street, at which point he turned around and the 0:23:43.760 --> 0:23:47.840 smiling Man was gone. Didn't follow him onto the busy street, 0:23:48.160 --> 0:23:51.840 which also makes sense for a weird creepy dude. Yeah, 0:23:52.400 --> 0:23:54.960 he would like to stick to the shadows. Yeah, as 0:23:55.000 --> 0:23:58.679 I said, I did exchange a few messages with the 0:23:58.880 --> 0:24:02.840 poster off their blue title. He said the suit didn't 0:24:02.880 --> 0:24:06.360 match the description of the smiling man. It wasn't metallic, 0:24:06.440 --> 0:24:08.679 it wasn't greenish, he said, it was probably black or 0:24:09.840 --> 0:24:12.479 I'm sorry of the grinning man. Got it, okay, smiling man. Well, 0:24:12.520 --> 0:24:16.560 we've just been doing the story of the Yeah. He 0:24:16.680 --> 0:24:20.600 also said that the the guy had a headful of 0:24:20.600 --> 0:24:23.640 hair and that he was over six ft tall, certainly, 0:24:23.720 --> 0:24:27.080 but still within a normal range for a human. That 0:24:27.240 --> 0:24:29.359 really he thought this guy was more of a psychopath 0:24:29.400 --> 0:24:31.320 than he was, like an alien or something like that. 0:24:31.600 --> 0:24:37.760