Mike plays SLENDER.

Slender Man and I have had a long and somewhat overwhelming past. However, before getting into that, I’ll clue some of you into what Slender Man is.

This is the definition of Slender Man provided by The Slender Man Wiki:

The Slender Man is a creature or being with various nebulously defined characteristics and abilities. Slender Man was first mentioned in Something Awful Forum’s “Create Paranormal Images”. Slender Man generally appears (in modern times) as a tall man in a black or grey suit, red or black tie, and white shirt, with no eyes, mouth, or clearly defined facial features. It has no hair, and generally has normal-looking bare hands. Slenderman typically is depicted in imagery and literature as between 6 and 15 feet tall, depending on the situation, and in video as around 6-7 feet tall. Because of its inexact nature, and differences between series, no one has yet determined what it is.

For those of you who still can’t quite picture this little fella, I drew you a picture:

If you’re a regular listener, we actually tackle the Slender Man topic in Episode 14: Romancing Slender Man

Alright, feel like you’re all caught up now?

Good. We have something to talk about. After experiencing some of the lore of Slender Man a few summers ago (specifically Marble Hornets, a video series based on this legend.) I began to dread going outside alone at night. I found myself thinking about Slender Man even in the places I felt most comfortable. It wasn’t a fun summer. That was about the time that I spread my knowledge to Bill and Jeff. They thanked me in their own ways. (They didn’t thank me.)

After getting over Slender Man, for the time being, I let myself forget about him. It was quite the effort. Over the next year, Slender Man became somewhat of an internet celebrity. People KNOW Slender Man now. This led to commercialism of the Slender Man. I thought my fear was over. Boy, was I wrong. Heck, Slender Man even had his own mob in Minecraft called Enderman.

Over the past few weeks, talk of a computer game starting spreading across my usual internet hangouts. The talk was of a game called SLENDER.

Not a chance in hell was I playing this game. I was over Slender Man. I didn’t need that in my life again, no sir.

Today seemed different. It was bright and sunny. I’m in a place I consider safe. I can handle this stupid game. Bring it on.

I downloaded it and quickly began to become concerned, I hoped the download would take longer so I could talk myself out of playing. Turns out I was out of luck.

I knew I wouldn’t be able to remember all of my feelings as I played, so I chose to live tweet my experiences. Here’s what happened:
re to Slender Man by now.

-*cracks fingers* Alright, now let’s try out SLENDER. I can handle this, I’ve had plenty of exposure to Slender Man by now.

-Of course, headphones on and lights out is the way to go.

-When you pause, the game restarts. Hmm, no chicken exit. This concerns me.

-The sound of my footsteps is drowning out the sound of everything around me. When I stop, all I can hear is wind.

-Shut up, stupid owl.

-Apparently my only goal is to collect eight pages. I can do this.

-First page found. All it says is CAN’T RUN.

-Found my second page, looks like a children’s drawing of Slender Man. Nice rendering, good detail. Kids a pro.

-Found an old truck in the woods. The trailer attached to it has barred windows. Guess I’ll go in.

-Can’t get in, all the doors are locked. Oh well, ONWARD!

-Still no Slender Man. Starting to get bored…or worried.

-Weird repetitive thunder noise just started. Won’t stop.

-Sounds like a heartbeat?

-Maybe mine?

-This whole forest is surround by a fence. Also, that weird noise won’t stop. Fuck.

-Just looked over my shoulder IRL.

-Found another building. Rest area, perhaps? Haven’t found any pages in a while.

-Going in. I guess.

-That building seemed to just be crappy tiles and hallways to nowhere.

-I don’t like hearing my footsteps echo through these confusing hallways.

-Hmmm, found some gas tanks in the woods.

-OH SHIT THERE HE WAS. INSTA-CHILLS NO JOKE. FFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUU-

-Well, I made it to the second sighting and fear-quit. That’ll be enough of that. Jeeeesus.

The game is free. Try it if you want, although I don’t recommend it if you like not having poop in your pants. Download SLENDER if you must.

Good lord, that was more intense than expected. Despite the somewhat subpar graphics, that was terrifying. I need to go lay down. Excuse me.

Let’s Get Twiharded!

Outcasts! Twihards! Twitards?

We’re very sure all of you are well aware of what we do here by now. If you consider yourself an avid listener, this post is not necessarily for you.

Every three weeks we tackle a very pressing matter on the podcast: Twilight.

First, a backstory:

One day, after a sudden inner-revolution, Jeff realized that he spends countless precious seconds directing hatred toward a certain sparkly, romance-filled, vampiric love story. As these thoughts were juggled around in his mind, he realized that maybe he doesn’t quite have the right to hate a series with such passion.

After carefully assessing the danger, Jeff decided he’d tackle the Twilight audiobook in an effort to understand where the hype came from. At each recording session, Jeff brings an incredibly detailed outline. This outline is presented to Bill and Mike; their reactions are recorded in real-time.

Popular Outcasts assumes that if they absorb the roots of the series (the books) then maybe they can get away with making fun of the series guilt-free.

For those of you that consider yourself fans, this is where you come in. Look at your Facebook friends, look at your phone’s contact list, scan your twitter feed; we want you to tell the fans about what we’ve been up to, who knows, maybe they’ll enjoy themselves!

We’ve compiled a helpful list that will allow you to easily access every “Let’s Get Twiharded” segment we’ve recorded thus far.

New listeners the Twilight segments are found within the last 30 minutes of each episode, but feel free to listen to everything! Have fun and and don’t take our satire too seriously!

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Let’s Get Twiharded Segments:

Segment One: Stripper Love Triangles

Segment Two: Ghosts & Shit

Segment Three: Romancing Slenderman

Segment Four: We’re Twelve

Segment Five: Autastic

Segment Six: Outcast Babies

Segment Seven: Project Loko, Part 1 (We’re totally drunk for this one.)

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Important Reminder: Whether you’re Team Edward, Team Jacob, Team Katniss or Team Outcast, we still love you.

Secret Revealed!

Hey there Outcasts!

This is Jeff again, bringing you all the details of our no longer secret project!

The secret project is:

3 Popular Outcasts

3 Four Lokos

3 Hours

The Popular Outcasts will be embarking on a journey without leaving the recording studio, and we’re taking you with us. Some of you remember when a drink called Four Loko existed in a caffeinated form. I, Jeff, had the foresight to buy two cases of these caffeinated Four Lokos a week before they were banned forever! It has been one year since the banning of the caffeinated Four Loko and I have four cans left. We will each crack and drink a Four Loko as we begin recording. We will record for three solid hours and then break the session into a trilogy of one hour long episodes.

We will be recording in the last weekend of May and releasing the first part of the drunken trilogy the first Tuesday in June. If we don’t die that is.

Super Mega Ultra Post!

Outcasts. Are you sitting down? This is gonna be an exciting post.

This week, we have our usual YouTube segment (as well as last week’s segment since Mike has been dealing with finals and he decided to take on the task of keeping up with all of these silly things…unsuccessfully. Smooth, right?)

LAST week’s YouTube segment has the Popular Outcasts talking to Mike McGranaghan (Aisleseat.com) about chick flicks and their place in Hollywood:

Listen to the whole episode right HERE!
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The Youtube Segment meant for THIS week heads in a…different direction. Bill was on Jerry Springer. That about sums it up. Here’s the story:

Listen to the whole episode right HERE!
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Despite these fantastic memories, we have some more exciting news for you.
As of today, we’ve reached some pretty unexpected milestones in our short Podcasting careers. iTunes is the home to nearly 200,000 Podcasts. Here’s where we stand thanks to all of you:

Top 200 – Comedy (#135)
Top 100 – Games & Hobbies (#93)
Top 100 – TV & Film (#81)
Top 150 – Society & Culture (#122)
Top 150 – Technology (#129)

In case you need us to tell you:

THIS IS INSANE.

Never in a million years did we expect to reach numbers like these. We only have you to thank, Outcasts. It means a lot that you share our episodes, rate our podcast and review us on iTunes. We owe all of this to you!

In celebration of these astronomical numbers, we’re releasing a new cut of our documentary: From Couch to ‘Cast! We cleaned ‘er up a bit and added a few things here and there, hope you all enjoy!

Until next week, Choo Choo Chugga Chugga.

Top Secret

Hey there Outcasts!

This is Jeff with a special teaser to a very special 3-part episode/event!

I can’t say more yet, in case it goes horribly and we have to can it.

I’ll be bringing you more info in the next few weeks.

[JK]

Hero Of Today – A Sort-Of Review

Hey Outcasts. Bill here. I just wanted to do a quick post in regards to the Desolation Films flick, Hero Of Today.

I recently purchased the digital copy of Hero Of Today and, without shame, I can tell you that I’ve have watched it four times since. Matter of fact, I’m probably going to watch it again once I’m done with this post, actually. Yeah, I dig it that much.

It’s not just another zombie flick. At all. It’s a story of a guy who goes from underdog to bad ass, just the way I (and probably you) would hope things would go for me if something like this actually happened. Sure, it’s got some (minimal) rough edges, just like pretty much anything else I’ve ever watched, but damn, does it pay off! There’s some good scares, a bit of gore (I may be understating that) quotable lines, and a good amount of laughs. It hits all the sweet spots near and dear to my heart: zombies, horror, humor, and well, there’s this line that made me actually shout, “YES!! BAD ASS!” when I heard it. If you’re a geek like me, you’ll have the same reaction.

Being a fan of Desolations Films’ work since I was exposed to it a few years ago, I was happy to get the opportunity to actually watch the flick again recently. Let me tell you, it really held up! I was so happy to watch again, and I really hope that you folks give it a shot.

Currently, if you head to the Desolation Films website, you can purchase your digital copy right now for $1.99. Worth every single cent, and then some.

You can listen to our interview with Desolation Films’ James Mattern and Chad Renn right here.

 

p.s. Chester needs a prequel. You’ll see what I mean.

Popular Outcasts Youtube Clip – Episode 4: Baby, It’s Rapey Inside

Christmas can haunt our pockets and bank accounts for ages, but the female character in the classic carol “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” will never escape her terror. Mike and Jeff take the time to recite and analyze this beloved christmas song, while Bill experiences it for the first time.

Join Bill in realizing how rapey the 50’s could be in this week’s Popular Outcast Youtube Clip!

Listen to Episode 4: Podcast Interrupted in full right HERE.

The Outcasts Army is 200 Strong!

We realize that not all of you use Facebook, so we’ll fill you in as to what happened recently:

We reached 200 likes!
(And then there’s this whole Amazon thing, which we will explain SOON!)

This is a major milestone for all of us here at Popular Outcasts.

(Insert Snarky Social Networking is For Losers Comment Here)

We told Facebook that if we managed to reach 200 likes on April 3rd, we’d give them some sort of super special treat. After much deliberation and several brainstorming sessions, we’ve decided we’re giving you, the Outcast Army, an official Popular Outcasts ringtone! You know that jingle you hear before every episode? Well, it can now reside in your pocket for the low low price of…free! Who doesn’t like free, after all?

We’d like to end this by saying thank you to everyone who has been supporting us over the past four months (give or take a few weeks). It means a lot to us that we have such endearing fans. Props to all y’all! Now, we will leave you with what we promised.

The Official Popular Outcasts Podcast Theme:

The theme’s limited time available has passed, sorry!