History Main / AnonymousAuthor

* A 17-second segment of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMHB0k8-wKg an upbeat, 1980s-sounding pop song]], known simply as Music/EveryoneKnowsThat or "Ulterior Motives"[[labelnote:Note]]This was eventually found to be the real title]], has been uploaded to music identifying website [=WatZatSong=] in 2021. However, the rest of the song, along with its title and author, remained lost until 2024, when it was discovered to be [[spoiler:taken from an adult film from 1986 called ''Angels of Passion''. The song was composed by Christopher St. Booth.]]

* A 17-second segment of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMHB0k8-wKg an upbeat, 1980s-sounding pop song]], known simply as Music/EveryoneKnowsThat or "Ulterior Motives", that has been uploaded to [=WatZatSong=] in 2021. However, the rest of the song remains lost, title and author included.

* WebOriginal/VoxAndKingBeau is a Creepypasta originally posted on [[Website/FourChan /x/]] that takes the format of a young woman named Vox who posts on /x/ looking for advice. The author of the story never goes by anything other than Vox or hints to the story being fictional at all.

* The animation studio that made the short ''WebAnimation/DreamComeTrue: A Mule Mom's Story'' is completely unknown. No credits are included, and the only known crew member is sound designer Shawn Sussman, who uploaded the video to Website/YouTube.

* A 17-second segment of [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMHB0k8-wKg an upbeat, 1980s-sounding pop song]], known simply as "Everyone Knows That" or "Ulterior Motives", that has been uploaded to [=WatZatSong=] in 2021. However, the rest of the song remains lost, title and author included.

Source: Conversation with Bing, 2/7/2024
(1) 'Everyone Knows That': Lost Mystery Song Intensely Debated Online. https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-features/everyone-knows-that-lost-mystery-song-1234875326/.
(2) Everyone Knows That: Lyric Video - YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DHOr1eZQKps.
(3) Everyone Knows That (higher quality) (Unofficial). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i8xucRon1Sc.
(4) meaning - "Anyone knows that" vs. "everyone knows that" - English .... https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/91215/anyone-knows-that-vs-everyone-knows-that.
(5) Everybody knows that [...] VS Everyone knows that [...]. https://english.stackexchange.com/questions/117013/everybody-knows-that-vs-everyone-knows-that.

* Music/TheMostMysteriousSongOnTheInternet, and other songs being investigated by the same people, are unintentional examples due to the information being lost.

* The director/star of the [[Main/FoundFootageFilms found footage film]] ''Murder Death Koreatown'', which is based on an actual murder case in Los Angeles's Koreatown neighborhood, has never revealed his name. The film purports to be a true crime documentary about the director's attempt to solve his neighbor's murder, which quickly devolves into him believing that he had been targeted by a conspiracy. It's generally believed that the story about the conspiracy was a work of fiction, and that the director is choosing to stay anonymous to avoid the legal ramifications of making the film in the first place. The same is true for most of the cast and crew. [[note]]([[https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5e6c64af0f525367f08392e4/t/6010c9aec531fe0cee0cb52b/1611712942802/JiBak_Resume.pdf The resume of an actress]] who was featured in the movie suggests his name was [[spoiler: Jesse Berger]])[[/note]]

* The director/star of the [[Main/FoundFootageFilms found footage film]] ''Murder Death Koreatown'', which is based on an actual murder case in Los Angeles's Koreatown neighborhood, has never been identified. The film purports to be a true crime documentary about the director's attempt to solve his neighbor's murder, which quickly devolves into him believing that he had been targeted by a conspiracy. It's generally believed that the story about the conspiracy was a work of fiction, and that the director is choosing to stay anonymous to avoid the legal ramifications of making the film in the first place.

* The director/star of the [[Main/FoundFootageFilms found footage film]] ''Murder Death Koreatown'', which is based on an actual murder case in Los Angeles's Koreatown neighborhood, has never been identified. The film purports to be a true crime documentary about the director's attempt to solve his neighbor's murder, which quickly devolves into him believing that he had been targeted by a conspiracy. It's generally believed that the film was a work of fiction, and that the director's silence is part of the way to build mystique around the story and to avoid looking like he was exploiting the actual murder case for monetary gain.

%%* ''Devil's Wheel'' for the UsefulNotes/Commodore64.
%%* ''Escape From Colditz'' for the UsefulNotes/{{Amiga}}.

* The creator of ''VideoGame/LunaGame'', a famous series of {{creepypasta}} games based on ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', has chosen to remain anonymous. Part of this choice was to add to the game's spooky and haunted feel, and part was to dodge the backlash they knew the first game would get. (Bear in mind, it was published before ''My Little Pony'' creepypastas became a staple of the fandom, so [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny it was pretty shocking at the time]], despite it overall being pretty tame and even hokey.) They've never publicly revealed their identity, since, while they're not ashamed of having made the series, they don't want to be known as "the creator of ''Luna Game''" forever. However, they did talk with [=YouTuber=] {{WebVideo/Izzzyzzz}} and give some insight for her [[https://youtu.be/pZ0yNTyWCKU video covering the series]].

Compare PenName and AlanSmithee. Contrast SameFaceDifferentName, where the pseudonym may not even be particularly opaque and serves largely to emphasize GenreAdultery. See also ReclusiveArtist for artists who are secretive.

[[Folder:Film]]

* A mysterious 1999 document called [[https://themorningnews.org/article/same-as-it-ever-was "The Rock Critical List"]], with a whole bunch of mean TakeThat quips aimed at several prominent music critics, circulated in music circles (mercilessly critiquing their writing styles, lifestyles and even physical appearances), with the author only identifying themselves by the jokey PenName [=JoJo=] Dancer, The Gay Rapper (a reference to the autobiographical Creator/RichardPryor film ''Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling''). Much of the intrigue was that there was only a small pool of possible suspects for [=JoJo=] Dancer's true identity, and they would probably be someone who the List's targets knew personally. Based on the writing style, suspicion quickly fell on ''Spin'' magazine staffer Charles Aaron, who ''was'' attacked in the List (for writing a positive profile of Music/LimpBizkit), but got off relatively easily compared to the others. Aaron has publicly denied writing it and refuses to discuss the matter, and no one else has ever claimed responsibility for being [=JoJo=] Dancer, but some former co-workers claim that Aaron admitted to them privately that he wrote it.

* ''Fanfic/{{Paradoxus}} (''WesternAnimation/WinxClub, VideoGame/WorldOfWarcraft''): Being a fanfic pretty much ensures all of its authors use internet pseudonyms instead of their real names. There's the main author, [[https://www.wattpad.com/user/Bloom_Farella Bloom_Farella]], whose name includes the name of a canonical character and some random Italian surname; as well as the secondary authors: [[https://www.wattpad.com/user/PhoenixDaybreak Daybreak]], Popsicle, and Crowgirl. Plus [[https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/silvstardust Silvstardust]] as the official illustrator.

* In 1989, a song called [[http://www.45cat.com/record/crb10522 "Spelling on the Stone"]], a jokey reference to the ElvisLives myth,[[note]]The song's TitleDrop referred to Elvis' middle named being incorrectly spelled "Aaron" instead of "Aron" on his gravestone, which believers in the myth thought was a clue that Elvis wasn't actually buried there[[/note]] was released by an unknown Elvis impersonator with no name put on the single or album. Despite being picked up for distribution by a major CountryMusic label (Curb Records) and spending some time on the ''Billboard'' charts, the song's performer has never been definitively identified (though evidence points to it being Dan Willis, who'd done some work for LS Records, the indie label that originally released the song).

* In 1989, a song called [[http://www.45cat.com/record/crb10522 "Spelling on the Stone"]], a jokey reference to the ElvisLives myth, was released by an unknown Elvis impersonator with no name put on the single or album. Despite being picked up for distribution by a major CountryMusic label (Curb Records) and spending some time on the ''Billboard'' charts, the song's performer has never been definitively identified (though evidence points to it being Dan Willis, who'd done some work for LS Records, the indie label that originally released the song).

* In 1989, a song called [[http://www.45cat.com/record/crb10522 "Spelling on the Stone"]], a jokey reference to the ElvisLives myth, was released by an unknown Elvis impersonator with no name put on the single or album. Despite being issued on a major CountryMusic label (Curb Records) and spending some time on the ''Billboard'' charts, the song's performer has never been identified.

* The creator of ''VideoGame/LunaGame'', a famous series of {{creepypasta}} games based on ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'', has chosen to remain anonymous. Part of this choice was to add to the game's spooky and haunted feel, and part was to dodge the backlash they knew the first game would get. (Bear in mind, it was published before ''My Little Pony'' creepypastas became a staple of the fandom, so [[SeinfeldIsUnfunny it was pretty shocking at the time]], despite it overall being pretty tame and even hokey.) They've never publicly revealed their identity, since, while they're not ashamed of having made the series, they don't want to be known as "the creator of ''Luna Game'' forever. However, they did talk with [=YouTuber=] {{WebVideo/Izzzyzzz}} and give some insight for her [[https://youtu.be/pZ0yNTyWCKU video covering the series]].

* ''Literature/{{Frankenstein}}'', on its initial publication, to hide that the author was a young woman.

* The ''Federalist Papers'' was published under with the pseudonym "Publius". The papers were drafted in response to the ''Anti-Federalist Papers'', a series of parallel essays, published under the pseudonyms "Cato", "Brutus", "Centinel", and "Federal Farmer".

* Before his death in 2006, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein is believed to have written four novels, all of which were heavy in metaphor. Hussein wrote the first two under the name "He Who Wrote It," a classic way to preserve anonymity among Arabs.

* The ''WesternAnimation/MyLittlePonyFriendshipIsMagic'' one-shot ''Fanfic/{{Bubbles}}'' is a widely circulated story, but its writer is unknown.