Wanna See Something REALLY Scary? Puppets Teach Kids About Organ Harvesting
“Wanna see something REALLY scary?”
To horror fans who came of age in the 1980s, the line above instantly evokes memories of Dan Aykroyd and Albert Brooks in the opening scene from Twilight Zone: The Movie. Now, on a bi-monthly basis, I’ll be asking, “Wanna see something REALLY scary?” with the goal of shocking you with chilling footage plumbed from the darkest corners of YouTube.
Puppets are creepy; yes, even those cuties on Sesame Street and The Muppet Show can be unnerving. It all has to do with The Uncanny Valley, a psychological/aesthetic theory explains why things that look almost human are terrifying. In addition to puppets, The Uncanny Valley explains why so many people are averse to clowns, dolls, robots, and mannequins. Check out a short exploration of The Uncanny Valley in the video below from Extra Credits.
The irony of puppets and their connection to The Uncanny Valley is that they’re often used as educational tools for children. Sometimes, puppets are used to broach “adult issues” with kids, teaching lessons about environmentalism and internet safety, for example. But one campaign seeking to educate children about the importance of organ harvesting went completely off the rails, becoming a paradigm of “Unintentionally Creepy”.
Wanna see something REALLY scary?
In the video below from MORE (Multiple Organ Retrieval and Exchange), a young puppet laments that he’s too young to be an organ donor. “Fear not!” says Mom, “Kids can be donors too”. The idea of a youngster getting excited about the possibility of being helpful in death is disturbing; the idea of a puppet full of bloody organs is terrifying!
Check back every other Friday at 9:00AM PT. Got an idea for a future installment of “Wanna See Something REALLY Scary?” Hit me up on Twitter @josh_millican!
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