Rewind: The Momo Suicide Challenge

American Hysteria

W!ZARD Studios

Society & Culture, History

4.4 • 3.5K Ratings

🗓️ 26 April 2021

⏱️ 15 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In preparation for our season finale next week on Urban Legends, we wanted to replay our deep dive into the 2018 viral internet urban legend about "Momo", a creepy humanoid figure with giant eyes, an uncanny too-wide smile, and grotesque chicken legs. Momo was somehow believed to be involved in mysterious texts that teens and kids were receiving on messaging apps, giving them escalating dangerous challenges sometimes ending in self-harm and suicide. Obviously, these kind of stories abound in the days of the viral internet, but they are actually part of a much older folklore tradition. Next week we will look at the last 50 years of American urban legends to see how we started to figure out that many of the stories we love to tell are simply too good to be true. Become a Patron! Follow American Hysteria on social media: Twitter: @AmerHysteria Instagram: @AmericanHysteriaPodcast Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey everybody, we have a sweet little bonkers re-release for you ahead of next week's
0:07.9	Season Nally, Urban Legends.
0:12.4	To give us a hand in covering such an immense topic, we wanted to first give you this look
0:18.6	at how urban legends are working in the modern days of the viral internet, very different
0:24.6	and in many ways the same as the oral tradition of passing on sensational rumors.
0:31.7	Next week we're going to look at the discovery and scholarship that led to our understanding
0:38.0	of how urban legends work.
0:40.9	And we've also got you covered with some of my patented poetic drama all about the holy,
0:48.6	very stories to tell in the dark book series, and of course, much, much more.
0:55.8	So please enjoy this ludicrous, modern legend to see how it formed and spread and how these
1:02.5	urban legends can, like moral panics, cover up more important and complicated issues with
1:10.0	a story too good to be true.
1:13.7	For it is the Momo Suicide Challenge, and join us next week for our deep dive into urban
1:21.7	legends.
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1:30.2	We've all started the new year with resolutions we know we won't keep, so do it right this
1:34.7	year.
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1:50.1	Download the new and improved Duolingo today!
	...

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