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The '''Slender Man''' (also spelled '''Slenderman''') is a [[fiction]]al [[supernatural]] [[character (arts)|character]] that originated as a [[creepypasta]] [[Internet meme]] created by [[Something Awful]] forum user Eric Knudsen (also known as "Victor Surge") in 2009.
Stories of the Slender Man commonly feature his stalking, abducting, or traumatizing people, particularly children.
Beginning in 2014, a [[moral panic]] occurred over the Slender Man after readers of his fiction were connected to several violent acts, particularly a [[Slender Man stabbing|near-fatal stabbing of a 12-year-old girl]] in [[Waukesha, Wisconsin|Waukesha]], [[Wisconsin]].<ref name="Gabler" /> The stabbing inspired the documentary ''[[Beware the Slenderman]]'', which was released in 2016.
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===Origin===
[[File:H. P. Lovecraft in DeLand Florida, June 1934.png|thumb|upright|The writings of [[H. P. Lovecraft]] influenced the creation of the Slender Man.]]
The Slender Man was created on June 10, 2009, on a thread in the [[Something Awful]] [[Internet forum]].<ref>{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/06/03/the-complete-terrifying-history-of-slender-man-the-internet-meme-that-compelled-two-12-year-olds-to-stab-their-friend/|title=The complete history of 'Slender Man,' the meme that compelled two girls to stab a friend|last1=Dewey|first1=Caitlin|date=2014-06-03|newspaper=The Washington Post|access-date=2017-06-21|last2=Dewey|first2=Caitlin|language=en-US|issn=0190-8286|archive-date=2017-08-17|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170817123023/https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-intersect/wp/2014/06/03/the-complete-terrifying-history-of-slender-man-the-internet-meme-that-compelled-two-12-year-olds-to-stab-their-friend/|url-status=live}}</ref> <ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.tampabay.com/news/nation/slender-man-how-a-myth-was-born/2182945|title=Slender Man: How a myth was born|website=Tampa Bay Times|language=en-us|access-date=2017-06-21|archive-date=2017-09-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924183229/http://www.tampabay.com/news/nation/slender-man-how-a-myth-was-born/2182945|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news|url=http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/slenderman-wisc-stabbing-article-1.1815135|title=What is Slenderman, and what does it have to do with the Wisc. stabbing?|work=NY Daily News|access-date=2017-06-21|language=en|archive-date=2017-05-22|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170522045126/http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/slenderman-wisc-stabbing-article-1.1815135|url-status=live}}</ref> The thread was a [[Photoshop contest]] in which users were challenged to "create paranormal images."<ref>{{cite journal|last=Smith|first=Cathay|title=Beware the Slender Man: Intellectual Property and Internet Folklore|journal=Florida Law Review|date=6 March 2017|volume=70|issue=1|page=10|doi=10.2139/ssrn.3005668|language=en|url=https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1408&context=flr|access-date=12 December 2019|archive-date=7 March 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200307190319/https://scholarship.law.ufl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1408&context=flr|url-status=live}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|author=Gerogerigegege|title=Create Paranormal Images - The Something Awful Forums|url=https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3150591|website=forums.somethingawful.com|language=en|date=30 April 2009|access-date=19 April 2018|archive-date=10 November 2012|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121110133132/http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3150591|url-status=live}}</ref> Forum poster Eric Knudsen, under the pseudonym "Victor Surge",<ref name="copy" /> contributed two [[black and white photography|black-and-white]] images of groups of children to which he added a tall, thin, spectral figure wearing a black suit.<ref name="taylor" /><ref name="dane">{{cite web |title=Why Slenderman Works: The Internet Meme That Proves Our Need To Believe |first=Patrick |last=Dane |url=http://whatculture.com/history/why-slenderman-works-the-internet-meme-that-proves-our-need-to-believe |date=October 31, 2012 |access-date=2013-02-20 |archive-date=2016-04-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160413051329/http://whatculture.com/history/why-slenderman-works-the-internet-meme-that-proves-our-need-to-believe |url-status=live}}</ref> Although previous entries had consisted solely of photographs, Surge supplemented his submission with snatches of text—supposedly from witnesses—describing the abductions of the groups of children and giving the character the name "The Slender Man":
The quote under the first photograph read:
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===Early development===
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The Slender Man soon went [[Viral phenomenon|viral]],<ref>There is some dispute over whether the Slender Man qualifies as a viral phenomenon since, under some definitions, viral phenomena must spread quickly, while the Slender Man initially spread rather slowly. Some, therefore prefer the term "spreadable" to viral. See {{cite book| last1= Chess |first1= Shira| last2= Newsom| first2= Eric| year= 2015| title= Folklore, Horror Stories, and the Slender Man: The Development of an Internet Mythology| page= 20}}</ref> spawning numerous works of [[fanart]], [[cosplay]], and online fiction known as "[[creepypasta]]"—horror stories told in short snatches of easily copyable text that spread from site to site.<ref>{{Cite news|first=Devan|last=Sagliani|url=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comicsandcosplay/columns/darkdreams/11906-Slender-Man-Birth-of-an-Urban-Legend|title=Slender Man: Birth of an Urban Legend|magazine=The Escapist|date=14 July 2014|access-date=21 June 2017|archive-date=24 September 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170924182453/http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/comicsandcosplay/columns/darkdreams/11906-Slender-Man-Birth-of-an-Urban-Legend|url-status=live}}</ref>Divorced from its original creator, the Slender Man became the subject of myriad stories by multiple authors within an overarching mythos.<ref name="creep">{{cite web |title=The Definitive Guide to Creepypasta—The Internet's Urban Legends |first=Aja |last=Romano |url=http://www.dailydot.com/culture/definitive-guide-creepypasta-slender-man/ |website=[[The Daily Dot]] |date=October 31, 2012 |access-date=2013-04-22 |archive-date=2019-05-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190505084433/https://www.dailydot.com/culture/definitive-guide-creepypasta-slender-man/ |url-status=live }}</ref>
Many aspects of the Slender Man mythos first appeared on the original Something Awful thread. One of the earliest additions was added by a forum user named "Thoreau-Up", who created a folklore story set in 16th-century Germany involving a character called Der Großman, which was, the writer implied, an early reference to the Slender Man.<ref name="shirachess2" />{{rp|36}} The first video series involving the Slender Man evolved from a post on the Something Awful thread by user "ce gars". It tells of a fictional [[film school]] friend named Alex Kralie, who had stumbled upon something troubling while shooting his first feature-length project, ''[[Marble Hornets]]''. The video series, published in [[Found footage (pseudo-documentary)|found footage]] style on [[YouTube]], forms an [[alternate reality game]] describing the filmers' fictional experiences with the Slender Man. The ARG also incorporates a [[Twitter]] feed and an alternate YouTube channel created by a user named "totheark".<ref name="Contemporary Legends">{{cite book
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