Todays rip: 29/10/2023
If Pazuzu Sneezes Do You Still Say Bless You?
Season 6 Featured on: The SiIvaGunner Party Pack 7
Credited to "Anonymous Andy"
Part of Spooktacular Week!
Would you believe me if I said, for all that I've posted this week (and for the two rips still to be posted) - THIS was the one I was the most excited about? And, as you may have noticed - nobody submitted it as a request beforehand either! Somehow this absolute gem of a rip, one I only discovered earlier this month, and partially inspired me to even DO a spooky week, still sits at barely 15K views! Anonymous Andy, whoever you are, it's time I make you proud.
Yesterday, I talked about Sidelined Symphony and mentioned briefly about how it creatively tied itself to Halloween through using a song by YouTuber Chills (who, i forgot to mention anywhere in that post - reads scary stories on his YouTube channel). If Pazuzu Sneezes Do You Still Say Bless You?, then, sits at the complete opposite end of the table - it celebrates everything thats LOUDLY and proudly scary on YouTube, in particular one of the cornerstones of old YouTube - screamer videos.
You've all seen them at one point or another, right? Innocent looking, obscure, weird videos or even flash games that, just as you try to get invested, slam the door on you with a loud jumpscare and some sort of grotesque or scary imagery. These came in all sorts of forms - I remember my first exposure to them came in the form of a fake Mario Kart Wii shortcut video on Daisy Circuit. But there were loads of more popular ones: The "Scary Maze Game", "Ghost Car", the fake game of "Where's Waldo", and so much more. With the internet and many of its users still in its infancy, online horror media had this sense of complete mystery to them, that caught so many young kids off guard. If Pazuzu Sneezes Do You Still Say Bless You? is a YTPMV, or more accurately a 音MAD, that boldly celebrates this culture of online horror screamers - sampling several of the above-mentioned sources and more into a tune I cannot get enough of.
And part of that is just the Yousuke Yasui magic, right? I've covered it already on here with Siiva Lining and 【＝３】e-MUNO Disco (vs. 音MAD AGENT), the latter similarly being a YTPMV/音MAD of another song from the very same game as today's rip. The guy's music is just so infectiously catchy, and has had a long history of being remixed on NicoNico Douga in particular - something I obviously can't quite speak to as someone who hasn't ever really explored the site's history. Althesame, the Japanese-internet roots of If Pazuzu Sneezes Do You Still Say Bless You? are inescapable - one of the pieces of media most prominently featured in its visuals is the Japanese browser-based horror game Lomando.com, a rabbithole I would love to fall into someday, yet one that simple oozes the charm of early-internet horror much like all the screamers of young YouTube.
And really, that charm is what sells me on this rip as a whole. Screamers of this type are a relic of a bygone age, yet one that I was part of - a piece of internet history that I got to see be born and slowly fade away, as the internet became more closely moderated and people learned to watch for warning signs throughout. For as many nightmares as the ones I saw instilled in me, there's something oddly nostalgic about them in hindsight - and that nostalgia just turns to full-on warmth seeing them arranged to such a cheerful tune as Bless You! boy. If Pazuzu Sneezes Do You Still Say Bless You? is, on all fronts, a TOP-tier YTPMV/音MAD, right alongside the best the channel has to offer like those by Robomi and GramBam36.
