Decemystery (2024) 16: bubbles.avi

 

Here’s a random fun fact for you, dear reader: This story’s the only one that’s both a “purge survivor” from the original schedule for this month and a part of the five entries I picked from the Conspiracy Iceberg. I thought that was kind of neat.

Anyway, hello, dear reader; welcome back to Decemystery 2024. We’ve hit the halfway point, and I wanted to write about something that was as fun as yesterday’s entry. That was ridiculously easy to do because this story’s been on my radar for a while; I believe it was a part of last year’s Decemystery duology, and I’d considered covering it in 2022. The third time’s the charm, I guess!

If you were to ask me why on God’s green Earth I picked this case out to cover over any other number of Conspiracy Iceberg entries, I wouldn’t be able to answer you. While it’s easier to understand when you hear the claims (yes, claims—there’s more than one version of this), the name doesn’t exactly sound that exhilarating. In fact, it sounds like a really cliché creepypasta—or a plot element to one.

Yet, surprisingly enough, that’s not the case. In fact, the more prevalent version of this conspiracy is beautiful—a word that I don’t think I’ve ever used to describe something without being the slightest bit sardonic. The same can’t be said for the other version, but I digress. Come along, dear reader; let’s take a look at bubbles.avi and see what it’s like when beauty meets brutality!

Bubbling Over

Both variations of this conspiracy are short. This isn’t a surprise, given the Conspiracy Iceberg entries I tend to look at have virtually no documentation online.

As is the norm, I began my search for information on 4plebs, a 4chan archiving site, and looked up “bubbles.avi” to see what had been posted across every board. I didn’t expect it to have been mentioned anywhere outside of /x/, the site’s paranormal board, but there was one person who’d inquired about it on /pol/, 4chan’s infamous politically incorrect board.

The earliest archived post mentioning it was made on August 8, 2018, by an anonymous user who I know all too well. They’re named “Modem,” and I talked about them last year when I covered The TED Talk “There Is Nothing” Incident. If you’re uninterested in scrolling through that write-up, Modem’s someone who either roleplays as a bearer of knowledge or a supercomputer and gives cryptic answers to various entries (which Modem refers to as “files”) you’d find on the Conspiracy Iceberg.

As an added bonus, allow me to give you an example of how Modem relays information to 4chan users. Here’s their answer to someone who asked about a “file” called “Groundhog Day Squared.”

>Groundhog Day Squared

Report: the original Groundhog Day film is, unsurprisingly, an extended metaphor for the dark night of the soul - Phil, the name of Bill Murray’s character as well as the town’s titular groundhog, must wake up every day to see if “sees his shadow” or else he must endure “another six weeks of winter” (read: the continuation of the cycle), that is to say, he must endure the cyclicity of time without lapsing into degenerative patterns of behavior. In this way the Buddhist parallels are not unwarranted - Phil lives the entire gamut of experiences possible to beings still tied to the spokes of the samsaric wheels. In the scene where he gorges on sweets, for instance, he has entered the experiential bandwidth of the pretas - afflicted as he is with an unending hunger to consume and savour the tastes of being. Groundhog Day is not an exclusively Buddhist parable, however. McDowell’s character Rita serves as the sophianic figure of wisdom, the Beatrice/Virgil of Phil’s hell, whose beauty and kindness is the spur to Phil’s spiritual development, in the same way the beauty of the material realm are the rays of the noetic Sun.

Report.2: Groundhog Day Squared refers to a copy of the film in which Phil’s character retains an awareness of the time loop across recordings. In this way he experiences the entire sequence of degeneration and self-realization itself as a loop, a spiral within a spiral. This not only forces his character into darker and darker depths of depravity so as to cope but also to higher and higher states of bodhisattvic compassion and wisdom. There is only one copy in existence in the possession of.......////// The copy has been played constantly in a secured facility since its discovery to understand just how low and how high the human soul can go, and if the circle will ever be cut.

I’ve never seen Groundhog Day (I really should, though), so I have no idea if this is in any way representative of the film. If it is, then I had no idea that Danny Rubin and Harold Ramis wrote such a deep, philosophical film. That said, the second report sounds like a half-baked SCP. Allow me to add it to Decemystery 2025’s schedule.

Anyway, let’s get to the first variation of bubbles.avi, which is the one that Modem explained. This is the beautiful version of the story—which I just so happened to call “pretty icky” three years ago when I summarized this in the second conspiracy Megalist. Oops.

According to Modem, bubbles.avi shows “footage of a child being born” that suddenly cuts to a “luminescent sphere” in a void. Slowly, this sphere grows until the video presumably ends. Modem adds that this is thought by some to be a recording of a “child’s soul being blown into existence like a bubble on some metaphysical plane.”

That’s all there is to this version of the story. The only minor difference is that some 4chan users added that the sphere is blue. Where this detail came from, I don’t know. My best guess is that it might be tied to another Conspiracy Iceberg story—the “Singularity Tape”—that one user mentioned in the same post. I’ll talk more about that story another day, though; I have a considerable amount I want to discuss there.

With that, the first version of this story comes to an end. Honestly, it’s a really beautiful thought. The idea of witnessing the birth of a soul is something out of a fantasy novel to me; I cannot fathom ever seeing it with my own eyes. The most I can do is envision it in my mind, and it’s truly magical.

That said, there’s a variation to this story, and it’s a lot less magical. It’s also likely a misunderstanding on the part of a couple of 4chan users, but I digress. Let’s quickly go over this iteration of events.

This version of events centers on Michael Jackson’s pet chimpanzee, Bubbles. Surprisingly, Bubbles is still alive and currently resides in an animal sanctuary in Wauchula, Florida. He’s at least 40 years old, which amazes me. I wasn’t aware chimpanzees could live that long.

Anyway, for those who are familiar with chimpanzees, they’re remarkably intelligent primates. They’re also very dangerous and shouldn’t be treated lightly; they’re significantly stronger than a human and can easily kill you if you’re not careful.

That’s, unfortunately, what this theory proposes. One user claimed that bubbles.avi is a video showcasing Michael Jackson’s pet chimpanzee “eating a little girl alive.” As horrific as that may sound, chimpanzees attacking humans isn’t unprecedented. The story of Travis the Chimpanzee comes to mind—though he didn’t eat someone’s face. Rather, he mauled a woman named Charla Nash to the point she needed 72 hours of surgery and severed parts of her body. Thankfully, she survived the ordeal.

However, there’s another side to this story—one that may sound remarkably familiar to those who enjoy creepypastas. I won’t spoil what it is because that’ll cause a major digression, but I did say that this was likely a misunderstanding for a reason.

With that, though, the second variation of bubbles.avi comes to an end. It’s certainly an unpleasant thought—one that I’d much rather avoid lingering on. So, instead, let’s move on to the third iteration of this story.

Yes, the third iteration.

I know; I said that there were only two versions of this case. However, as I was looking for information on the previous one, I came across a 4channer who brought up a third version. So, surprise! You get an additional bit of fun in your Conspiracy Iceberg write-up! As for why I didn’t retroactively correct the write-up, I was too lazy to do so. That, and I thought it’d be cool to have a little twist. Let me have my fun, dang it. It’s been a long year.

This interpretation of bubbles.avi was brought up by a 4chan user on December 29, 2020. In it, they bring up the previous version, adding that the little girl was attacked on Neverland Ranch (which was Michael Jackson’s home). I decided to look up if Bubbles ever lived there, and yes, he did; he was relocated after he became “too aggressive.”

Celebrity information aside, the user also noted that another 4chan user claimed that bubbles.avi is “a long video about bubbles floating on the screen.” After some time, the viewer will “hear voices.” These voices will “call out your name,” occasionally using nicknames (should you have any). They will then plead for you to “release it.”

I can’t find anything about this version of events beyond what the one user claimed. I snooped around a bit on 4plebs, but there’s absolutely nothing. I’m sure if I scroll through enough archived iceberg threads, I could find it, but it doesn’t seem worth it when the whole thing reads like a creepypasta. It also reminds me a lot of the Pokédex entry for Gigantamax Gengar from Pokémon Sword. Take a look:

It lays traps, hoping to steal the lives of those it catches. If you stand in front of its mouth, you’ll hear your loved ones’ voices calling out to you.

I usually dislike comparing things to popular media (well, the word “popular” is dubious in the case of Pokémon Sword & Shield), but I couldn’t help but think that. And for those who are curious, Sword & Shield was released on November 15, 2019. Unless the version about hearing voices in a video originates earlier than that, I genuinely wonder if Pokémon of all things inspired the person.

With that, the story of bubbles.avi comes to an end. In my opinion, it’s one of the most interesting Conspiracy Iceberg entries I’ve ever covered. Each version of it varies so heavily from the other that it feels like all three could be their own bite-sized write-up. Of course, I prefer quality over quantity (that’s why I opted to forego a lot of the more grandiose stories I had in mind).

Anyway, I think it’s about time we head into the theories. I’m excited because there’s a fair bit I want to discuss, and I’ve been biting my tongue a bit too much about some stuff. So, come along; allow me to ramble on like a fisherman at a bar.

Theories

1. The version about the soul is real

We’ll be going over the theories in the same order that we went over the variations of the story. So, to start things off, the first one is that bubbles.avi relates to a recording of a human soul being created. I maintain that this is a beautiful image, and it’s one that I’d love to see a filmmaker like Terrence Malick recreate.

I cannot, in good faith, think of a reason to support this theory. There are so many issues with it that even attempting to be unbiased is astronomically difficult at best and makes me feel disingenuous at worst.

Setting aside my Roman Catholic beliefs, there’s never been any proof that souls exist. Do I believe in them? Yes, I do. However, if we’re to examine things through the lens of what we as a species know to be true, there’s no concrete evidence to support their existence.

Ultimately, that makes the claim here incredibly difficult to believe. Not only does the original source for this appear to be 4chan, a website known for pranks and trolling, but I can’t fathom why any scientist worth their weight in salt wouldn’t have announced that they’d recorded the creation of a soul. That would be one of the biggest discoveries in human history; sweeping it under the rug would be insane.

Even if it was swept under the rug, though, I can’t fathom how we’d even film the creation of a soul. I doubt souls are made here on Earth at factories, being put together on assembly lines like they’re a Toyota Camry. I’d assume they originate from Heaven.

My understanding of Catholic doctrine may or may not be a bit lackluster; do forgive me, Pope Francis.

Anyway, as beautiful and awe-inspiring as this version of the story sounds, the chances of it being true are near zero. I’d love for it to be true by some miraculous chance solely for how wondrous it must be to witness the creation of a soul, but the idea that it’s a simple .avi file that’s floating around the Internet or Dark Web is nonsensical.

Additionally, if it existed, it’d be all over social media; there’d be no way to suppress it. That’s how the digital age is. It’s becoming increasingly hard for governments and authoritarian regimes to control the flow of unwanted information to the general public. Something like this would never be hidden—not for long, anyway.

2. The version about Michael Jackson’s pet is real

This theory has had me biting my tongue because it relates to a creepypasta that I adore. I’m aware that creepypastas aren’t exactly high art in the eyes of many, but there are several that I’d argue are legitimately great.

The one I want to mention here is one of them: Normal Porn for Normal People. It’s a creepypasta written by Cosbydaf, who also wrote the famous NES Godzilla Creepypasta. Yes, that is the title of the story.

I excluded a detail earlier when first discussing the version about Michael Jackson’s pet chimpanzee: the earliest mention of it is from May 21, 2020. The linked reply mentions that it’s a spin on “useless.avi.”

For those who have never read the above-mentioned Normal Porn for Normal People, I highly recommend you do; it’s great. If you’re uninterested, that’s fine; let me give you a quick rundown of the story. It centers on a nameless person detailing the discovery of a site called “Normal Porn for Normal People.” The site is dedicated to the “eradication of abnormal sexuality.”

The story then details how there are a plethora of strange videos that are, by and large, not pornographic in nature. Of them, only two get sexually explicit. The rest are unnervingly innocuous and weird, which leads me to believe the story is an allegory for pornography addiction. As you become more accustomed to what is “normal,” you seek out the “abnormal” to satisfy your urges.

My interpretation of the story aside, the story’s big scene is the aforementioned useless.avi, which centers on a chimpanzee mauling a woman to death before eating her. The implication is that the chimp had been starved and abused before being let into a room where the woman was bound.

Personally, while the description of the mauling is quite graphic, I always viewed it in an artistic sense. I took it to either mean that the person defeated their porn addiction (with the woman representing lust) or that porn had consumed the person (with the chimpanzee representing succumbing to said lust).

Anyway, what does this have to do with anything? Well, I suppose that’s a pretty silly question. Both useless.avi and the supposed story about Michael Jackson’s chimpanzee are practically the same. The only difference is that the latter features a famous pop star and a child and is clearly riding off the controversial side of his life.

That last part is what I believe to be the biggest issue with this theory. Michael Jackson’s life was highly documented, and his numerous legal troubles were on the front cover of every tabloid magazine here in the United States.

For my readers who weren’t alive in the early-to-mid 2000s, the Michael Jackson sexual assault scandals can best be described as what you’re seeing nowadays with Sean “P. Diddy” Combs—and before him, Jeffrey Epstein. You couldn’t go anywhere without hearing about how the King of Pop was on trial again for sexual assault, nor could you go to the supermarket checkout without every magazine having his face on it with a sensational headline.

However, whereas there’s insurmountable evidence against both Epstein and P. Diddy, Michael Jackson’s guilt remains a point of contention. Trust me on this because I have friends and family members who think that he was guilty and that he was innocent. I may do a survey to see what those closest to me believe. But that’s a topic for another day. For now, let’s get back to the main point of this little anecdote.

Because of the heavy amount of focus on Michael Jackson and his legal battles throughout the latter part of his life, I find it highly improbable that something as major as his pet chimpanzee (who is still alive, might I add) was swept under the rug.

It’s also worth noting that animals that attack humans tend to be euthanized. While not mandatory by any means, I have to imagine it would be performed if the animal in question was a chimpanzee and the victim was a child. Sure, Michael Jackson may have been a world-renowned musician, but even the rich can’t get out of some legal trouble, especially if it were something like this.

Though, hey, don’t take it from me. Out of curiosity, I decided to look up when Normal Porn for Normal People was written, and according to a Redditor who got in contact with Cosbydaf, he wrote it in 2011 on DeviantArt. The story of Travis the Chimp inspired the scene involving the chimpanzee within the creepypasta. So, the idea that bubbles.avi was about Michael Jackson’s pet is a few layers deep in lore. It’s a spin on a creepypasta that was inspired by a real event. Make your own Christopher Nolan joke here; I’ve already referenced him twice this month, and I don’t feel like recycling material a third time.

On one final note, the Redditor added that Cosbydaf said the story was “a cautionary tale about avoiding the hidden evils of the Internet.” Honestly, I wasn’t surprised to learn that my interpretation of the story was wrong; I’m not good at catching subtexts. However, I have to admit that Normal Porn for Normal People remains one of the few stories that’s ever gotten me to make an effort to find a deeper meaning to it all. So, like I said at the start of this theory, I suggest you read it if you haven’t. But before you do, finish reading this write-up; that would mean a lot to me!

3. The version about the bubbles on the screen accompanied by whispers is real

Sounding closer to something out of a Blumhouse script, this theory is easily the coolest and one that I’d pay good money to see in theaters. Well, assuming they got someone like Scott Derrickson to direct it.

Anyway, this theory—like the other two—is heavily flawed. There’s no proof of the purported video existing, though the concept around it isn’t totally crazy. While I doubt an avi file could whisper your name and potential nicknames to you, I’m reminded a bit of Psycho Mantis from Metal Gear Solid. During his boss fight, he’d read your memory card data and reference games you had saved data from.

To an extent, I’m reminded of that with this theory. If you were to tweak it and make it into a creepypasta akin to Jvk1166z.esp (which is another creepypasta that I recommend giving a read), you’d have a halfway believable story.

For those unfamiliar with Jvk (as I will call it), you may know it by its more informal name, “The Morrowind Creepypasta.” It’s the story of a mod for The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind that drastically alters the game by killing off every major NPC (thus rendering the game unbeatable) and cryptically telling the player to “watch the sky.” Should the player watch the sky, they’d realize it correlates to the real world.

The mod also allegedly features a ghoulish monster—nicknamed “The Assassin”—who slowly kills you if you remain still for too long. It’s kind of like standing in bad stuff in a video game, only from the era when textures more closely resembled the water paint that got mixed with cooking oil.

Now that I’m done talking about things unrelated to the story at hand, the reason this reminds me of Jvk is because the mod featured a new dungeon called “The Citadel.” Purportedly, the mod would take images from your PC’s pictures folder and put them into the dungeon as art pieces. I believe this is something that some games can, in fact, do, but I forget which.

Regardless, the idea of bubbles.avi operating in a similar manner to Jvk isn’t crazy. Well, if it was a mod and not an an avi file. Though, even then, I doubt there’s a way to mod a game into having a character verbally whisper your name (unless it reads whose account you’re logged into).

While I’d love to sit here and talk more about Jvk since it’s easily one of my favorite creepypastas, I don’t want to digress too much. Maybe I’ll take the time next year to discuss it since I believe the modding community has made it a real thing, and I happen to own Morrowind (and, funnily enough, have yet to play it—thanks, Bipolar!) on PC.

Until then, all I can say is that this theory’s got nothing going for it whatsoever. It’s certainly more believable than the other two, especially if you were to argue that some people misremembered a weird video from YouTube, but I’m certain this would be a much more well-known mystery if that were the case. The Internet is so obsessed with lost media that there’s no way this could’ve flown under anyone’s radar. It’s way too odd, plain and simple.

4. It’s all fake!

This theory is self-explanatory. The idea is that bubbles.avi is just another conspiracy that was made up for the Conspiracy Iceberg.

In the past, I’ve talked about how there have been threads on 4chan’s /x/ board dedicated to making up believable-sounding conspiracies. Sometimes, these were done to add entries to the iceberg chart the original poster was making. Other times, they were done for fun or to dupe future visitors to the site into believing them—a way to filter out normies from those who frequented the board. I participated in one of these threads. It was really fun.

However, I can find no indication that this originated from one of those threads. So, that would require this to have been made up by someone who made a conspiracy theory iceberg and added it themselves. Given the vast quantity of them out there (seriously, the only reason I capitalize “conspiracy iceberg” is when I’m referring to one that has something like 1,000 entries on it).

If I had to guess, Modem found an iceberg at some point in 2018 and crafted the original story themselves. Heck, they might’ve made it up in the post they made; some people are incredibly at impromptu storytelling, and it’s possible Modem’s one of them. If that’s the case, then they’ve got a knack for weaving some of the weirdest and most cryptic stuff I’ve ever read.

If you asked me to pick between those two possibilities, I’d lean toward it being something Modem made up, but that’s primarily because their post is the earliest one to directly reference bubbles.avi. So, take my assumption with a grain of salt; it’s highly probable that I’m grossly incorrect.

5. interdimensionaltheory.avi

If you watch it, it’s just a video of me devising sixteen more variations of this theory. Oh, and SpongeBob SquarePants is dancing in the background.

My Take

It’s fake; it was all made up.

Yeah, I’m not going to lie; I began writing this section before I even wrote the intro. This is a textbook case of “it was made up for the Conspiracy Iceberg,” if I’ve ever seen one. It’s utter nonsense, but it’s also the type of “utter nonsense” that I relish writing about. It’s ludicrous, and there’s practically nothing out there on it, and it strikes me as the kind of thing that’ll make my friends and family ask if I made it up.

I can only wish I was this creative. Alas, I’m not.

On top of being the type of thing I love covering, each variation of this story was a blast to write about; they were unique and brought about such a refreshing change of pace. It didn’t feel stressful or frustrating; it felt brisk, light-hearted, and, above all else, fun.

Now, with that said, I feel it’s only fair to ask: Is there any possible way for this to be real?

Honestly, no.

As I said earlier, there’s nothing available out there. But even if we set that aside, I cannot fathom humans having the technology to record the creation of a soul. I’ve always believed that humans are more technologically advanced than we’re let on to believe, but filming the creation of a soul is more than “we have the means to go to Mars” or something like that. This implies we can film the very thing that ascends to Heaven after we die.

Couple that with the idea that Michael Jackson could cover up his pet chimpanzee mauling and eating a child and the Internet having no interest in a video that can somehow speak your name and nicknames, and you’ve completely lost me.

Sure, I liked the first and third a great deal (the second one I preferred when it was attached to a well-written creepypasta), but that doesn’t mean I believe them to be fact. I happen to love Roland Emmerich’s 2009 disaster film 2012 a lot. However, if you asked me if it’s a well-written movie that depicts a realistic end-of-the-world scenario, I’d tell you, “No, it’s as realistic and accurate as anything else Roland Emmerich has made.”

But I digress. You get the gist of my stance; I’ve got nothing else to add to it. Well, nothing that wouldn’t amount to me gushing about how much I love 2012 despite all of its comical issues. Man, that movie is awesome. I have to rewatch it one day.

Conclusion

You know, it’s nice to have a couple of Decemystery entries that weren’t terrifyingly long. I’ve mentioned a few times this month about how I’ve become concerned that people won’t want to read these write-ups because of how lengthy they are. So, it’s nice that this one ended up being leaner than the others.

But, once again, I digress. I already said how much I loved writing this, and I think it’s about time I started working on the next write-up. So, I’d love to read which version of bubbles.avi is your favorite! That’s right, rather than asking if you think it’s real, I’d love to know something different.

If you do happen to believe in the story, though, I’d love to know why; if there’s something I missed, I’m always open to learning about what I missed. Anyway, until tomorrow, stay happy, stay healthy, and thank you for reading!