408: The Short Stories of Shortstory1

[Lemon]

[honey]

Thank you for spreading the good word about Freaked, Portaxx

[vaMpiresoftWare]

I’ve been waiting for this to drop! I love the enthusiasm right from the start.

I love how frequently these incredibly short stories somehow still manage to go off the rails. I think the surreal vibes of these stories definitely hits harder when you read a bunch in a row.

[KendrickLobstar]

when I heard a weird single laugh after jack’s intro I thought “wow that sounded like me” …imagine my surprise when I found out that it was me

i forgot I did this episode

[adrenochrome dome]

These stories remind me of Charn from the porno forum. Dream logic in a way that's intentional, but doesn't really come together.

[CozyJosie]

Remind me to come back here in like four hours and I'll draw a shitty image of patrick star as saturn devouring his son

[Lumbermouth]

MC Donalds joining Mike Decades and MC Stories in the Lemon Rap Voice Cinematic Universe

[Puppy Time]

People really jump the gun with labeling bad writing as AI.  AI could not possibly come up with writing this coherent and yet completely bonkers, nor could it manage to come up with such wild premises.

This is why AI cannot win: it can't beat the weird human brain for things that make you go, "Wait, what???"

[CozyJosie]

Remind me to come back here in like four hours and I'll draw a shitty image of patrick star as saturn devouring his son

Patrick Devouring His Sponge (also feel free to put this on the episode as fanart if you want)

[vaMpiresoftWare]

Here’s some fun trivia: This isn’t the first time Shortstory1 has been on the show. I was already compiling the doc when it hit me that the style was the same as a post from Episode 309.

[Dr. Buttplug]

This person is all creativity with no substance and less patience. If this guy hung out with Stephen King we might actually get some good books out of him. Since he stopped doing cocaine I mean.

[EYE OF ZA]

These readings are fascinating because they're so divorced from any sort of storytelling logic. At the same time, that's kind of what makes them good. You can't rely on your hack writer instinct like, "Obviously 'ioxygen addiction' is a euphemism and the twist will be that the cure for it is death by strangulation" but it's not a euphemism, and he does cure it by strangulation but that's not a twist.

Also the scariest thing in the world is people aging at weird rates.

[Recon Rabbit]

Not only does the beach make you old but the month makes your babies old.

[xX_sp00ks_Xx]

I know that a lot of pop culture references were already made this episode but for my money 3/4ths of these stories would fit as Cowboy Bebop plots dead on. These are all bounty targets the gang stupidly tries to collect on without realizing there's weird, supernatural/sci-fi caveats to their evil that makes them totally inviable to take in.

I also agree that they very much feel like you're in a weird dream. Not only is there no thoroughgoing narrative logic, it extends to there being no meaningful resolution either. Maybe... maybe if shortstory1 posted these on r/ambien instead of r/creepypasta et al, unscrupulously hiding that his posts were fictional, he'd be the proverbial ruler of hell rather than just another one of heaven's servants.

[positive stress]

Would a Jean-Claude Van Damme sock puppet be called Jean-Claude Van Darn?