History YMMV / BeyondBeliefFactOrFiction

* RetroactiveRecognition: The segment "The Newsstand" features a young Justin Chatwin, years before ''Series/ShamelessUS'', ''Series/AnotherLife2019'' and ''Film/DragonballEvolution'' (the last one he'd likely wish was more obscure than this).

* HarsherInHindsight: Comedian Rachel Reenstra appeared in the segment "The New House", where she played a mother who sees a vision of a ghost warning her there's a fire, and to save her daughter (it's revealed the ghost was of a woman who was unable to save her own daughter from a previous fire, and the story was listed as true). Only a couple months after the episode this segment was a part of aired, Reenstra's apartment caught fire, and burned down.

* NarmCharm: Jonathan Frakes' puns and wordplay at the end of each segment are undeniably cheesy but knowingly so and Frakes' sly and self-aware delivery makes them quite enjoyable.

* NarmCharm: Jonathan Frakes' puns at the end of each segment are undeniably cheesy but knowingly so and Frakes' delivery makes them quite enjoyable.

* MemeticMutation: It's become a popular practice to edit clips of Jonathan Frakes' segments into rapid-fire compilations of him saying certain things for 47 second (and it ''has'' to be 47 seconds). It started in earnest with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM-e46xdcUo "Jonathan Frakes telling you you're wrong for 47 seconds"]], then quickly expanded to him doing other things, like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tC3FhA3_DDs asking rhetorical questions]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxPSApAHakg interrogating you]] and, yes, [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MCT80HJWQ2A telling you you're RIGHT]].

* RecycledScript: A large number of stories follow this basic formula: the spirit of a dead person warns someone of an impending doom, rescues someone in danger, or exacts revenge on the person who killed them. Another common theme is an apparently inanimate object coming to life (an animatronic gorilla, mannequins, a wax figure, a rubber hand, a doll). In fairness, while the Fiction stories are certainly to blame for repeated variations, one can't fault them entirely when the stories turn out to be Fact. Even if they are VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory, they are still based upon outside claims and recordings. Any repetition there is not entirely the writers' fault.

* GrowingTheBeard: The first season was not exactly bad, but the show's more memorable segments (and [[IncrediblyLamePun groan-worthy puns]] started when Jonathan Frakes (the TropeNamer himself) was cast as the host in the second season.

* GrowingTheBeard: The first season was not exactly bad, but the show's more memorable segments and Jonathan Frakes's corny puns, along with more episodes a season, came after. Convenient with Frakes' involvement, given he helped create the term due to his role in ''Series/StarTrekTheNextGeneration''.

* MemeticMutation:
** "[[https://twitter.com/softsynthbear/status/1116843758945878017 Jonathan Frakes telling you you're wrong for 47 seconds]]" came out of nowhere in 2019.
** Likewise, [[https://twitter.com/ErnieLies/status/1138798957268803585 a montage of Jonathan Frakes asking you hypotheticals]] also became a Twitter meme out of nowhere.

* FridgeLogic: Many stories include details that could only be known by the person involved and are thus impossible for us to have knowledge of if he or she dies or disappears as a result of the events of the story. Similarly, if there are details that are revealed to the audience but never to any character, how did the show's writers know about them? FridgeBrilliance if the story is revealed to be fictional, FridgeLogic if it's purportedly true. One example where a story like that turned out to be true had a woman who was hit by a car see her dead aunt as she's lying there, dying. There was no indication in the segment that she said to any bystanders, "Oh my gosh, as I am dying I am seeing the ghost of my dead aunt and here is what she's saying to me!" Because of the instances of [[DanBrowned Dan Browning]] on this show and statements that certain facts are changed to protect the real people involved, one must take their claims of factuality with a grain of salt.

* TearJerker:
** The ending to "Firestation 32". Stevie, a child that hangs out at the station, warns the crew about a house fire. Stevie and the fire crew managed to save everybody inside, except one: [[spoiler:Stevie. He went inside the house to try to save the occupants, but dies from smoke inhalation. The Stevie that helped the firefighters was merely his spirit.]]

* NightmareFuel: If they're not {{Glurge}} or {{Narm}}, some episodes can fall under this. Major offenders include the stories "Red-Eyed Creature" and "The Mirror of Truth". To elaborate:
** In "Red-Eyed Creature", a couple, their young son, and their nanny purchase a new home. On the night they move in, the young son goes downstairs, and in the dark kitchen, witnesses a pair of ominous red eyes floating towards him, accompanied by a disturbingly loud whooshing sound. The parents think the frightened son just imagined the whole thing, until the same thing happens to the wife some time later. When the father inspects the house, he notices that the panel of the family's thermostat on the wall has two red lights that could easily be mistaken for glowing red eyes in the dark, and postulates that the whooshing sound was just the heater kicking in. The parents are relieved by this rational explanation, but the son remains unconvinced. When the son is in bed that night, the nanny goes to tuck him in and reassures him that there's nothing to be afraid of. As she leaves the son's room, she pauses, faces the audience, and her eyes glow red and emit a whooshing sound, implying that she's some sort of [[BeneathSuspicion supernatural entity intent]] on terrorizing the family. Of course, she might be a supernatural creature who looks scary but is otherwise a nice person. Jonathan Frakes even brings up the possibility that the woman/creature is ''protecting'' the family, not terrorizing it, as no bad incidents happened to them while they were in the house even though bad things always happened to past owners.
** In the "Mirror of Truth", a vain, shallow woman obsessed with her appearance enters a beauty parlor and is given a makeover. Dissatisfied with the results, she treats the beautician with rude indignation, and in response the beautician apparently casts a curse upon her. Although we never see her face, the woman believes her good looks are rapidly fading, and soon states that she finds herself grotesquely ugly. In TheReveal, she looks into a mirror, and her reflection shows a hideously deformed face with bugged out eyes and diseased skin. When we see the woman's actual face, her youthful, photogenic appearance remains, it was only that the curse caused her to perceive herself as ugly. The deformed face is NightmareFuel at its finest for anybody that wasn't expecting it.
** The reveals. Seeing FACT or FICTION stamped over the creepiest screenshots of each segment and holding it for a few seconds was rather nightmare-inducing. Especially ones that were revealed as FACT.
** "The Land" is about a farmer who is about to lose his land because of a long drought and makes a deal with someone (and to the writers credit, it's not implied to be The Devil or some demonic entity, just some guy who lives in town) for the land to be fertile for the next twenty years. The next day his family wakes up to find that it is indeed fertile, and the man is heavily implied to have ''become'' the land itself. The imagery in this story is ''creepy''.
** "The Stalker" is a truly terrifying segment. Revolving around an escapee from jail, he torments a lady and her daughter by hiding in their home. It is one story that can seriously leave viewers scared and paranoid, especially if they had an experience with stalking before.
** "The Cake" is about a kind baker ordered by his {{Jerkass}} boss to bake a truly gigantic cake as a reward to a man he had done a favor for. The baker begins hearing groaning from inside the oven and sees a spectral entity inside the oven. The baker informs his boss, and is promptly fired since he wisely refuses to bake the cake. The boss decides to bake the cake himself. At home, the baker discovers the entity was the ghost of a crime boss that the boss had assassinated and his wife informs him that smoke was filling the bakery. The baker goes to check on the boss, and finds his boss baked into the cake.

* EarWorm: The old woman's chant from "The Gravedigger's Nemesis":
-->''"An awful, awful man...Not well-bred...No respect for anyone...Not even...THE DEAD!"''

** "The Cake" is about a kind baker ordered by his {{Jerkass}} boss to bake a truly gigantic cake as a reward to a man he had done a favor for. The baker begins hearing groaning from inside the oven and sees a spectral entity inside the oven. The baker informs his boss, and is promptly fired since he [[GenreSavvy wisely refuses to bake the cake]]. The boss decides to bake the cake himself. At home, the baker discovers the entity was the ghost of a crime boss that the boss had assassinated and his wife informs him that smoke was filling the bakery. The baker goes to check on the boss, and finds his boss baked into the cake.

* MemeticMutation: "[[https://twitter.com/softsynthbear/status/1116843758945878017 Jonathan Frakes telling you you're wrong for 47 seconds]]" came out of nowhere in 2019.

* MemeticMutation: "[[https://twitter.com/jonathansfrakes/status/1118964356337680384 Jonathan Frakes telling you you're wrong for 47 seconds]]" came out of nowhere in 2019.

* MemeticMutation: "[[https://twitter.com/softsynthbear/status/1116843758945878017 Jonathan Frakes telling you you're wrong for 47 seconds]]" came out of nowhere in 2019.

* HilariousInHindsight: "Kirby" involves an animatronic gorilla seemingly coming to life at night to kill a human being, over 10 years before the popular ''Franchise/FiveNightsAtFreddys'' franchise debuted.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: The spooky music played throughout each episode greatly amplifies the eerie atmosphere of the show.