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Creepypasta

Speculative and Fantastic Fiction

A creepypasta is a horror-related legend that has been shared around the internet, a term that has become a catch-all for any horror content posted online. These entries are often brief, user-generated, paranormal stories intended to frighten readers, with subjects ranging widely across ghosts, cryptids, murder, suicide, zombies, aliens, rituals to summon supernatural entities, and haunted television shows and video games, and they range in length from a single paragraph to extended multi-part series spanning multiple media types.

Facts
Place of Origin
United States; the term first appeared on the imageboard 4chan around 2007. 1
Notable Example
Jeff the Killer 1
Defining Trait
A catch-all term for horror-themed stories, images or videos created and circulated by users across the internet, often presented as though the events described were real. 1
Origin Year
2000 1
Defining Trait
Form and Technique 1
FAQs

Where does the word creepypasta come from?

It began on 4chan around 2007 as a variant of copypasta.

The word creepypasta first appeared on 4chan, an online imageboard, around 2007. It is a variant of the slang term copypasta, which comes from copy and paste.
In the Other Atlases

Originated In

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject originated.

Source Creepypasta (Wikipedia)tier 2
Sources
1. Creepypasta (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation (Wikipedia)
  • Lead paragraph
    The term creepypasta has since become a catch-all term for any horror content posted onto the Internet.
  • Lead paragraph, notable stories list
    Other notable creepypasta stories include Jeff the Killer, Ted the Caver, Ben Drowned, Sonic.exe, and Smile Dog.
  • Definition section
    The word creepypasta first appeared on 4chan, an online imageboard, around 2007.
  • Lead paragraph, origin year
    This digital-based genre began in the 2000s
  • Lead paragraph, defining sentence
    A creepypasta is a horror-related legend which has been shared around the Internet.
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