the.com/creepypasta
copy-paste horror that spread like a virus before anyone thought to trademark the fear.
means a horror story or image born on the internet, shared and reshared until nobody remembers who wrote it.
from the name mashes creepy with copypasta, the old forum slang for text so often copy-pasted it became its own meme; early ones spread on 4chan and Something Awful in the mid-2000s.
origin wordcopypasta itself started as a spam meme
authorless by designmost spread with no credited writer, feels folkloric
slender man effectone fan-made monster caused real-world violence, 2014
wiki-fiedhas its own sprawling fan wiki, thousands of entries
for instance
slender man — born 2009 forum contest, later linked to a 2014 stabbing
jeff the killer — disfigured-face image story, viral since 2008
ted the caver — one of the earliest, a 2001 spelunking horror blog
the russian sleep experiment — gas-chamber insomnia tale, widely mistaken for true