Rings Hallow(een)

Radio station Y-94 in Fargo has an internet sensation on its hands. They claim an area woman will hand out a letter to obese kids on Halloween instead of candy to help them change their ways. This jaw dropping story has taken off like wildfire, except there’s one problem: it’s all a big lie.

Those wacky morning DJs at 93.7 claim it’s legit — even though nobody can find this mysterious listener named Cheryl who called out of the blue to tell about her Halloween plans. It should be noted that Y-94 is the same radio station that caused a huge stir with “Donna the Deer Lady,” a “listener” who called their station to suggest we could prevent car/deer accidents by moving deer crossing signs to less busy roads.

Why am I suggesting that Cheryl the Halloween Monster and Donna the Deer Lady are hoaxes? Because that’s the kind of schtick radio stations like Y-94 do — and in this case it’s been done brilliantly.

All this is harmless nonsense — until it’s picked up by national media. Y-94’s stunt has been reported across the country, from the biggest media outlets to local TV to ridiculous “parenting” blogs. And most of them don’t bother to question the source. Not even once.

Rob, you may be asking, what if it IS true. Tell you what: if it can be verified, I’ll print this blog post and eat it.

Well, here’s something that IS worth your time: a shot by shot analysis of the amazing cultural references in Guillermo Del Toro’s recent Treehouse of Horror intro. Enjoy!

4 thoughts on “Rings Hallow(een)

  1. This is probably a bad time to admit that I bought the Blair Witch internet promos hook-line & improbable sinker, huh? 😉

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