Morbid · Podcast summary
Let’s Boogey: The Boogeyman Around the World (Vol. 1)
Ash and Elena delve into the fascinating and often terrifying world of boogeymen, exploring their origins, cultural significance, and evolution across different societies. They discuss three specific boogeymen: La Llorona, Jenny Greenteeth, and Slenderman.
Listen on the show ↗Key takeaways
- 👹Boogeymen are ambiguous figures used by cultures to project fears and anxieties, serving as warnings to control behavior, especially in children.03:02
- 👻The amorphous, shapeless nature of boogeymen allows them to exist across diverse cultures, adapting to specific societal fears without a fixed physical description.04:51
- 🛌Boogeymen often lurk in dark, dangerous places like under beds or in closets, not because these places are inherently scary, but to deter children from misbehaving or leaving their beds.06:09
- 💧La Llorona, the Weeping Woman, is a Latin American boogeyman who haunts riverbanks, mourning her drowned children and threatening a similar fate or bad luck to those who encounter her.08:14
- 🌿Jenny Greenteeth, an English water hag, warns children away from stagnant pools of water that appear solid but are deep and dangerous, reflecting specific local hazards.17:44
- 💻Slenderman originated as a creepypasta, a form of online scary storytelling that often blurred the lines between fiction and reality, similar to traditional urban legends.25:31
Chapters
- 2:19Introduction to Let's Boogey
- 5:02Defining the Boogeyman
- 13:21La Llorona: The Weeping Woman
- 27:26Jenny Greenteeth: The Water Hag
- 40:17Slenderman: The Modern Creepypasta
- 1:01:47Slenderman's Tragic Impact
- 1:07:15Conclusion and Future Boogies
The digest
Ash and Elena kick off a new series, "Let's Boogey," dedicated to exploring the concept of boogeymen from various cultures and time periods. They define what constitutes a boogeyman, discuss their societal roles, and then dive into the first three figures: La Llorona, Jenny Greenteeth, and Slenderman.
What is a Boogeyman?
Elena begins by defining the boogeyman as an "ambiguous figure" that cultures project their specific fears and anxieties onto. Ash adds that boogeymen are a "broad category of monster or supernatural being that circulates within a culture as a warning." These warnings often aim to deter certain behaviors or keep people away from dangerous places. As historian Marina Warner notes, boogeymen are not literary figures or characters for entertainment, but rather exist as a "societal way of control" or a means of encouraging/discouraging specific behaviors, especially in children. The primary defining characteristic, according to the dictionary of English folklore, is "any figure deliberately used to frighten others, almost always children, to control their behavior." Krampus, the horned half-demon helper of St. Nicholas, is a prime example, frightening children into good behavior. However, figures like Bloody Mary, while scary, don't quite fit the boogeyman mold because they don't primarily exist to control behavior.
Keep reading in The Digest
The full 7-minute article, 5 more sections, and every new episode from Morbid and the creators you follow.
- The Amorphous Nature of Boogeymen
- La Llorona: The Weeping Woman
- Variations of La Llorona and Jenny Greenteeth
- The Rise of Slenderman
- Slenderman's Evolution and Tragic Turn
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