Hey everyone, Dave here. It's Thursday, so you
know what that means. We got another interdimensional
swap for you guys. This week, I'm super excited
to bring you probably one of my favorite new
shows. It's called Greg's Cryptid Corner. It's
a lot of fun. Basically what it is, is Greg,
a true believer in cryptids, paranormal, that
kind of stuff, tells the story of a cryptid encounter,
paranormal event, whatever, to his guests who
are more on the skeptical side. I wouldn't say
tries to convince them, but tries to move the
needle slightly, I guess. It's a ton of fun,
so definitely check this one out. And if you
like what you hear, they got episodes coming
out every Wednesday. So they actually just released
one. But here you go. This is the episode of
theirs called Black Stick Men. A lot of fun.
I've said the word fun so many times that I'm
going to stop talking now. And just, you know,
enjoy. We had a big trip last week, international.
We basically went to the other side of the world.
You dragged us out of bed. I mean, Eric and I
were in a bed together. I mean, this is pretty
close to where we live. We were on break. We
sleep in connecting beds like in Willy Wonka.
Brand parents. Guys, you know there's no rest
in the paranormal world. I'm sorry to drag you
out into the woods again to just tell you a spooky
story. You said it was life or death. And then
I showed up and there was a campfire and you
had s'mores. And I was like, I know what's going
on. Greg's doing. Yeah, it's the same thing every
week. It's shocking that you guys still expect
something different. All right. So what's going
to haunt my nightmares this week? Well, you know,
like so. So what I want to talk about this week.
It doesn't really have like a localized region.
So we're just kind of in the woods in general
because it's a global situation. So tonight while
we're out here, I want you to watch the shadows
in the forest because the black stick men might
be tough to notice in the dark. I don't like
that. We're going to talk about the black stick
men. Yeah, I figured. I'm familiar. I can draw
a stick man. I'm a little bit worried about watching
for the shadows, though. Yeah, okay. All right,
my nipples are erect. Let's do this. Honestly,
you're about 90 % of the way at knowing what
these things are, so you're good. It's Greg's
Cryptid Corner, where mysteries abound. Bigfoot,
Mothman, Monsters, let's see what we found. Hey,
and welcome to another episode of Greg's Cryptid
Corner, a podcast about monsters for weirdos.
I'm your host, Greg. And as always, in these
dark, dank woods, I'm here with my two guests,
Dan and Eric. How are you boys doing today? Doing
well. Ready for some stick pit action. Yeah.
Do they fight? Do you remember those in like
the... early 2000s stickman fighting videos where
people would like hand animate stickman fighting
to the death and like what was it like macromedia
flash before they got bought by adobe yeah yeah
so i'm on like e -bombs world and stuff like
that do these stickmen know karate i guess is
what i'm wondering um i mean they might okay
they could it's a little less scary if they don't
know karate anything anything the creep level
gets turned up two gauges if they know if they
know karate So you're terrified of all Kung Fu.
The Kung Fu movies are horror movies to you.
Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know. They can kill
me pretty easily. I do like watching movies where
like monsters are doing like drop kicks and stuff
like that. And it's like, come on. That's a human
thing. Monsters. That's one thing we got over
you. You got cool scales and stuff. We get drop
kicks and roundhouse punches. Give us one thing.
Guns. Oh, also guns. Yeah. Humans and bombs.
Atomic bombs. That was a nice thing. That's pretty
scary. Are we the scariest monster of all? Are
we the monster? I think we're the baddies. Oh,
no. It was coming. It was coming all along. We
knew it. My eyes are locked on these shadows,
dude. I need you to talk about these so I can
soothe myself by explaining a way that they don't
actually exist. I need that right now because
right now I believe it. Good luck. So yeah, let
me tell you about the Black Stick Men. I was
jogging before sunrise on a trail near the edge
of town. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw some
movement. I turned my head and saw what looked
like a stick figure. Jet black. impossibly thin
maybe seven feet tall jesus walking across the
trail about 20 yards ahead it moved in long jerky
strides but fast no face no clothes it didn't
turn or react to me at all i stopped dead in
my tracks then it just wasn't there anymore i
looked for footprints or broken grass nothing
This is a report from a witness in California
in the early 2000s. Okay. So he kind of gives
a good description of what is known as the black
stick man, or it's often referred to as the black
stick man phenomenon. And it kind of came out
of nowhere. Reports started surfacing online
around like 2005 -ish. referencing like events
that occurred in the late to mid like mid to
late 90s well that's around the time that uh
the stick man animations i was just talking about
were all the rage oh no yeah so maybe they maybe
they broke out of the computer now hold on that
that quote the describes the stick man is not
having a face correct okay so am i imagining
like a loop or am i imagining like a giant like
ball a giant ball like a filled in black so it's
filled in okay flat yeah All right. So it's like
if a black hole sprouted legs and arms and a
little sticky torso. It's exactly like a stick
figure, but with a colored in head. Yeah. Okay.
So they are extremely thin and completely black,
like matte black. So like there's no reflections.
There's no nothing to them. Most of the time
they're humanoid shape, but there have been reports
of potential like black stick animals accompanying
them, which is kind of rad. I like that. They
have like little dogs. Yeah. I think, I think
one report said there was like a stick horse,
which just kind of, that's great. It would just
look like a saw horse with a head. Are these
like one dimensional? Like they're like, like
a piece of paper, like a floppy piece of paper.
Yeah. And I think we'll get to that, but basically,
yeah, if you pick. It's hard to describe, right?
When we're talking about our own 3D world, they're
2D in this 3D world. So a lot of times people
reported saying like, no matter what direction
it was going, it always was facing or what I
would assume was facing me. So like it didn't
have a side because it would disappear. And maybe
like the quote that I read, it said, you know,
it just disappeared. Like there was nothing there.
It could have just turned and you can't see it
because there's nothing there. I am imagining
you've ever seen those short films made by Dan
Hertzfeld. Don Hertzfeld. Yes. Yeah. What was
that one called? It's so good. I am a banana.
Rejected. Rejected. Yeah. Those are really funny.
Yeah. Yeah. He has a couple like really beautiful,
existentially devastating short films. I can't
remember the names right now. Just Google it.
If you like devastating movies, you should Google
it. But he has that like really flat stick man
kind of style. And I'm kind of imagining one
of his characters like wandering through the
woods. And I got to say, dude, nothing about
this is scary. You're saying like check the shadows.
I don't think I'll be freaked out if I saw this
guy. You wouldn't be freaked out if you saw a
stick figure walking through the woods like that's
normal. Yeah. I mean, when you put it that way,
I would just assume I like accidentally microdosed
on something. I also wonder if they, like, make
noise. Yeah. Because that's scary if they don't,
you know? Like, they're not crunching leaves,
and they're not, like, you know. That's pretty
freaky. Most of the reports comment that they
don't make noise. Okay. That they're silent.
So good roommates. And they move in a way that,
like, it looks like they're walking, but it's
more like floating. So we'll get into that in
a moment as well. Is it Gumby? If you think of
Gumby like that, like Gumby is kind of that kind
of thing. It's kind of scary too. Gumby's like
terrifying. Yeah. Yeah. He can turn into different
things. He's made of clay. He's horrifying. Just
picture him seven feet tall peeking around a
tree at you. No face. Yeah. Terrifying. Yeah,
so basically, like I was saying, they look like
the stick figure drawings that we've all done
when we were kids, and I still do today because
I can't draw. Now, while some black stick men
are average human height, they can range up to
an estimated 10 feet tall. And the taller versions
are associated with witnesses feeling dread or
unease. How many witnesses are we talking? I
mean... I read a lot on Reddit and other blog
posts about it. So it's not just a couple. I
mean, I have three witness reports in here, but
I just grabbed three that I liked, but there
were a ton of other ones. And it's in the UK,
the US, Canada, all different countries they're
popping up. Is it always in the woods? It's not
always in the woods. Okay. And it's in the script
later, but... It's not always at night either.
Okay. All right. So I'm beginning. Ooh, do you
smell that? I'm getting a whiff of a future diatribe
from Greg about interdimensionality and whether
or not these creatures are popping in and popping
out. They're just slipping in and slipping out.
Razor. Yeah. I think, yes, that'll come up, but
there's also something else that comes up. Okay.
I'm here. I'm here. You have to play the, you
have to play the dimensional card with these
creatures. Is it a sulfur smell? There's no reports
of stink. So no smell, no sound. They can just,
so they're matte, right? So they're not reflective.
So they absorb light. So it sounds like it's
not that you see light bouncing off of them like
you normally would. You see the absence. Right,
right. So they're almost like made out of shadow.
Well, we'll talk about that. We'll talk about
that a little bit later as well. You guys are
jumping way ahead. I think Art Bell did a thing
on the shadow people. I don't know if that's
similar to this. We should just keep going because
it sounds like we want to keep going. There's
a lot here. Do you feel that tugging on your
cheek, Eric? We're hooked. So, like I said, yeah,
like the tall ones are associated with feelings
of dread and unease. Some even describe their
encounter as feeling like they were being observed,
while others said it seemed like the black stick
men were just completely unaware of the people
around them. Now, on top of that, they also move
in like a weird, glitchy, jerky kind of way.
never leaving footprints or tracks, and seem
to be massless and flat like they exist in a
two -dimensional plane of existence. Okay, hear
me out. Reality is a simulation, and these are
admin accounts. Okay. Keep that in mind. Okay.
Hold on to that. All right. You can't see, but
I'm just holding my crotch. I know that's how
you remember things. My admin account. Yep. So
like I said, reports have been from all over
the world. So these babies don't have any borders.
And tracking them is basically next to impossible
because they are seen just disappearing behind
an object or even just dissolving or being erased
from sight entirely. And they happen at nighttime
and during the daytime. Now, a witness in British
Columbia in 2020 stated, It walked across the
field behind our house. I was watching it from
the window with my dog next to me. It was tall,
maybe eight feet, limbs too long. It didn't make
a sound, and even the dog didn't bark, which
was strange. Just watched quietly with his ears
tucked back. The figure vanished as it passed
behind a tree, but it didn't come out the other
side. I checked. No footprints in the snow. So
what are the black stick men? Now, Eric, you
brought up shadow people. And I hate talking
about the shadow people because we haven't done
an episode on shadow people yet. This is like
the third time they've come up. I know. But no,
I don't think they're shadow people. Only because
shadow people are typically described with like
more shades of gray, more depth. to their bodies
and they seem to be like associated like always
with fear and dread um on top of like the um
what's it called uh sleep paralysis and bedrooms
and more inside hallucinating yeah yeah yeah
so that's that's the main reasons i don't think
that they're yeah shadow people i do think there's
like a peripheral and i'm not saying this is
what's happening for sure but there's You've
caught things out of your peripheral vision,
right? Where you thought somebody was in the
room with you, like a person, and you look over
and you're like, oh, no, by myself. That was
weird, you know? Yeah. So what are you saying?
So you're leaning into dimensional being? No,
I'm just saying maybe it's your brain, like,
playing a trick on you out of your peripheral
vision. Oh, okay. That makes sense. Oh, a less
fun concept, I see. Yeah, and everybody has,
like, past experiences with stick figures. Like,
everybody starts with stick figures. Like, even
describing, like, the stick figure animals and
stuff like that sent me back to, like, grade
school and doodling during history class or whatever.
Yeah. Yeah, and so we're going to talk about
that concept in just a minute. But I do need
to talk about, could this just be another instance
of dimensional beings? I think, like, not necessarily
higher level dimension, but actually a lower.
So like existing in our kind of same dimension
or I guess same reality, but on another like
2D plane and somehow crossover due to like a
reason. I have no idea what the reason would
be, but they kind of just exist in this sort
of 2D liminal space where just intersections
occur. And that's when they kind of peek through.
It's like 8 -bit dimension. Yeah, basically.
I mean, you know the whole idea of... 1D is a
point, 2D is a plane, 3D is XYZ, right? Yeah,
yeah. We're technically in 4D because there's
time. Well, yes, but you can't see time. Right.
Yeah. That'd be cool. What do you think time
looks like? Shit. Flat circle. Man, you answered
that fast. There you go. Yeah. he's a true detective
that's what i've always said eric eric the true
detective i was you know i was trying to think
of what time could look like the only image i
swear to god this is true the only image i could
conjure to my mind was you like i think of like
a toilet paper roll but instead of paper like
the toilet paper it's um it's like infinite tortilla
oh wait a tortilla tortilla roll but it's on
like a cardboard tube and you could just wheel
out as much of it as you want. I'm just picturing
wiping my butt with a tortilla roll. Well, I
mean, if you had tacos the night before, bada
bing, bada boom, you got leftovers, baby. I mean,
we don't always pack well for these camping trips,
so that'll happen at some point, I'm sure. Yeah,
so they could be shadow people. I don't think
so. They could be dimensional beings. I kind
of don't think so. There is another one, and
Dan mentioned it. But I want to hear a witness
report from Iowa in 2007 first. I saw one standing
by a cornfield at dusk. It looked like a stick
figure from MS Paint. It twitched like it was
buffering. Its legs jerked halfway forward and
then back again like a corrupted animated loop.
Then it started walking again and faded into
thin air after a few steps. Not like it vanished
suddenly, more like it got erased. So when I
read that quote, I kind of got thinking about
simulation theory. So could it be like, could
black stick man just be like a bad render or
some sort of glitch in that simulation? Um, like
to me, that would make sense because if you think
about like base level. designed for video game
characters or CG characters in a movie. They're
essentially built with like a stick figure frame
inside, which is then layered on. Yeah. Animation
bones. Yeah. So, and the stick figure is what
is used to manipulate the movement of it. So
if, if let's say we're in a simulation and the
render of an object is faulty, you would just
see. Like, you know, they T -pose a lot in video
games when something's broken. So if you think
like, if this is what happens when the simulation
breaks, that you just see the animation bones,
is that what you call it? Yeah. Yeah. You're
saying there's a little bit of black stick man
in all of us. Yeah. You know what? There is a
little bit of black stick man in all of us. Potentially
if we're in a simulation. But this is like the
best idea for me personally that I've heard about
so far. for simulation theory well i'm yeah what
what would you got well i was just gonna say
like it's jarring for me to hear um i'm so used
to cryptids being like early 20th century or
like late 19th century folktales and it's always
strange to hear like here this is a testimonial
about a cryptid that drops ms paint in it you
know And it talks about like it's buffering.
It's got like a corrupted animation loop. You
know, like they're using like modern technological
nomenclature. And it has me wondering, like,
you know, people weren't really talking that
much about simulation theory. Or maybe we didn't
have the vocabulary for it until well after the
Internet dominated all of our brains and all
of our waking hours. So maybe like the real simulation
theory is. The more time we spend on the internet,
the less time we spend in the real world. And
so the more we just assume the real world, this
thing that's becoming like slowly alienated from
us is actually like the fake one that we're choosing
to spend our time in instead. Simulation theory
is the friends that we made all along. I think
so. I think so. Yeah. Yeah. That's the most like
freshmen in college shit that I think I've ever
said in my entire goddamn life. I'm so sorry.
I'm saying this. It sounds kind of like. internet
brained terminally online people step out in
the woods and touch grass for the first time
in like six years. And like out of the corner
of their eye, they see like my little pony characters
or like whatever bullshit they watch all day.
Like, like a meme jumps out from behind a tree
and they're like, what the fuck was that? I do
think it's interesting that it's the 2000s. Like
it's fairly recent. Yeah. I have to tell you,
like after I've been playing call of duty for
too long, when I go to bed, I feel like I'm moving.
Yeah, I have that too. Like I'm rocking on a
boat. You know what I'm saying? Interesting.
My eyes are still tracking the screen or something,
and I feel like I'm in motion. So maybe it's
something with online presence that you're talking
about, Dan, or too many computer screens or too
much screen time. I don't know. There's something
going on with the fact that it's a recent phenomenon.
There's always a moment. Or there sometimes is
a moment where you look at something and there's
like, you have to take a second for your brain
to register it. And you're like, what is, oh,
oh, that's, that's like a nude man on a boat.
I couldn't figure out that that was a nude. I
thought it was a, I don't know, a naked bear.
I don't know. That's a weird example, but you
know what I mean? When it takes you like a second
to identify what is this thing that I'm looking
at? Yeah. It's like your brain is buffering,
but where previously we would have. like filled
that gap with something natural. Now in modern
days, we are filling those gaps with digital
concepts because that's just what we're used
to seeing. Yeah. Like we're used to seeing T
posing glitchy CGI now. Um, I mean, one thing
I forgot to mention about the black stick men
that they also reported like, uh, like elevated
static electricity, uh, in the areas during like
the, so to me, that also goes towards like simulation.
Or like some sort of computer technological aspect
and not necessarily just like dimension. I mean,
you could say we have no idea. So you could say,
oh, like a surge of electricity is required or
happens when you shift dimensions. But like that's
just conjecture at that point. But we do know
electricity is involved in technology. Yeah,
that's kind of cool. What if they're just really
shy? They could just be really shy. Maybe they're
very apprehensive and anxious about how skinny
they are. I know I'm a fat guy, so I'm always
anxious about my appearance, but they're the
polar opposite. They're thin as sticks. Whatever
alien species they are, they blush pitch black.
That's why they're just constantly embarrassed
and trying to skitter out of view. Yeah. I don't
know. What do you guys think? Do you like the...
black stickman phenomenon when i heard about
it i was kind of like man this is the weirdest
it's both the weirdest and the dumbest thing
i've ever heard like it's just stick figures
but i kind of like i kind of like it too i like
that it's not just isolated to one small like
area uh and i also like that it's a recent yeah
that's interesting and i do like the concept
of like if we are in a simulation there's some
sort of like you said dan like an admin or or
like leftover bones from you know, some sort
of animation or like a glitch or I don't know.
It's cool. Yeah. I have two ideas. One idea is,
um, if we are in a simulation, could these stick
men be ghosts when you die? And like maybe during
the death process, you glitch your bones, your,
your animation bones are left terminally unrendered
and you wander the globe like popping in and
out of existence. Uh, that's kind of, I mean,
I don't think that's actually true, but that's
really fun to think about. The other thing that
I was thinking about is, um, I'm going to do,
I'm going to bring these two things that Greg
loves to talk about together. If, if we do live
in a simulation, what does interdimensionality
mean? Like in the context of a simulation, other
simulations. Yeah. Okay. So, okay. All right.
I guess that answers my question really patently.
Thank you. It's concurrent servers running concurrent.
So if you think about a server farm, each server
being a reality, that's basically just parallel
worlds, right? Just parallel simulation worlds.
Oh, you just gave me an idea. Okay, so you know
when... Like back in the day when you're playing
like Doom on your computer, like back in the
90s or SNES or like one of the old gaming systems.
You know how every time a new gaming system comes
out, the graphics look so good. And then you
go back and you play the old one and you're like,
holy shit, how did I ever think this looked real?
You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like
graphical fidelity jumps. What if that's happening
but in real life? What if the stick people are
actually what the world looked like like a hundred
years ago? But it's just the rendering technology
has gotten good and so has our ability to interpret
it. And now, like, when we see something jump
at us from the past, it's like, oh, shit, that
looks badly rendered. Yeah. I mean, we have proof
of that, actually. Because if you look at, like,
photographs from, you know, 60 years ago, they're
black and white. The world didn't have color
yet. Well, you look at cave drawings, they all
kind of suck. That's true. And if you think of
cave drawings, there's a lot of stick people.
A lot of stick animals. There's a lot of tall
stick weird people with big heads. Yeah. With
little pets running around. I didn't even bring
that up because I totally forgot. There's a lot
of stick people in our history. And maybe that's
why we draw them as kids. Because, listen, we
forget a lot of what happened when we were young.
Like, I think you can see ghosts. I think you
can see things we can't see anymore when you're
a baby. And maybe... You know, toddlers are drawing
stick figures because that's what they see. And
not just because it's the easiest way to represent
a human and we still use them for bathroom signs.
Yeah. But... Greg, do you think these are real?
I kind of do. I kind of do. Yeah. All right.
Like, I think there's a case for them. It's not
like it's such a ridiculous thing. It really
depends on how... bad your brain is broken that
you could be like yeah there's a lot of there's
a lot of reasons the history our history alone
has too many um stick people popping in and out
of drawings and and and all this kind of jazz
and we've developed technology to a point where
we can understand that like the stick people
and and we have words for it now and they didn't
used to so it was just a drawing on a wall it
was higher hieroglyphics right yeah or even and
like and like like native america and like um
uh caveman drawings you know it's all throughout
time yeah uh but what about you do you do you
buy into this no oh are you are you surprised
No, I don't buy into the Reddit stories about
stick people in the woods. But I do like the
ideas that it put up. I like thinking about an
infinite toilet paper roll made out of tortilla.
I never would have gotten that without Stickman.
So I like the stories. That's cool. Eric, how
about you? I'm the same. I really like the stories.
I think the interesting part is that the no sound,
the weird gliding, the fact that they're 10 foot
tall, the feelings of dread, the static electricity.
Like at first I didn't think they were very scary,
but now I'm kind of like if I was alone in the
woods and all that shit was happening simultaneously,
it would be pretty freaky, you know? I agree.
Well, yeah, that was our discussion on the black
stick men. Maybe tonight Dan and Eric will see
them in the woods and they'll change their opinion
and think that they're 100 % real because they
are. But yeah, and guys. Greg's Cryptid Corner
doing well. We got another five -star review.
Hey, that's nice. It's from Jeff the Agropelter.
So watch out for Jeff. He's going to throw sticks
at you from a tree. He'll pelt you. Heading his
greatest tagline of all time, and it just says,
I am Squonk, you are Squonk, go birds. Yay! I
am Squonk, you are Squonk, go birds. If you can,
leave us a five -star rating and a review, and
we're going to read them out on the show. We're
only going to read the five stars, because if
you put four or less, you're just making me sad.
I'm like, I'm already sad. Why do we want to
increase that? Um, but, uh, yeah. And follow
us on Instagram at Greg's cryptid corner, all
one word. I'm not going to spell that cause it's
hard enough to type the word cryptid for some
reason. I didn't let alone trying to spell it
without looking at it. Um, I'm a, I'm a dummy.
Uh, but yeah, so we will tell it on yourself.
I know this is a, this is Greg's therapy corner
tonight. Um, um, yeah. So like, uh, probably
Fridays. I don't know if I'll remember each week,
but probably Fridays. I'll, uh, you know, put
a post up about what the next cryptid will be
or the next topic. So follow us there and you
can read up on it on your own. And then I guess
we'll just, you'll just hear the same information
on Wednesdays when the episode comes out. So
just do you, do you, do you, we love you. And
I love you. Pennsylvania is nice woods. I love
the woods. And, and you know, we, we, we've already
said it, but I do want to make this kind of just
our, like, The tagline at the end of the episode,
I am Squonk, you are Squonk, go birds. It just
feels good. It feels good to say that. But yeah,
like you guys haven't had any weird black stick
men, shadow people experiences, have you? Like
what's the weirdest nightmare you've ever had?
I vomited spiders once. Oh, that's a good one.
Yeah. When I was a teenager, I had recurrent
dreams of spiders crawling all over me and then
vomiting spiders. That's horrible. Yeah. That's
rough. Yeah. I had one where we were playing
hide and seek from a werewolf, and if he found
you, he ate you. That's pretty intense. It is.
Wow. Eric, what about you? Oh, I only have wet
dreams. It's pretty upsetting. Don't start. It's
pretty upsetting. We should be hydrated.