The Hunt for the Gangadiddle is an ARG featuring a Big Good known as "Hoodie", The Hunt Master, or Nathan Israel. Through a series of creepy YouTube videos, he revealed to the Hunters (the participants) that they were trapped in "isolated worlds" created by the being known as the Gangadiddle, who would "harvest" them if given the chance. It was presented as an unwieldy world-ending entity that was either the Big Bad or The Dragon.
Nathan created the Hunt using magic-like technology as a way to trap the Gangadiddle.The Hunters were given clues which corresponded to special web addresses on a site belonging to dolst, one of the main characters. These clues were, in turn, encrypted using information only available upon visiting the next IRL location in the chain. Over the course of two years, several Hunters followed this chain of clue, location, clue, etc.
Partway through the story, a new group showed up called the s33k3rs. They claimed to be after the Gangadiddle for their own purposes. Apparently figuring out the names of individual s33k3rs destroyed them, and they were mostly vanquished until the last one managed to possess dolst, leading to a showdown between him and Nathan Israel, after which Nathan admitted that he created the Gangadiddle in his world, and came here to atone for his mistake.
It was also revealed that the s33k3rs were Nathan's colleagues in his world, and wished to harness the Gangadiddle's power. It was further revealed that the other s33k3rs were not dead after all and, after solving yet another series of puzzles the last s33k3r un-possessed dolst and returned his spirit from limbo and everyone laughed and shook hands because it was just a big misunderstanding.
The deadline for finding the Gangadiddle was March 15, 2013 but as the Gangadiddle was found near the end of 2012, that's now moot. The final location was found by tomatogoateee and he found the "shrunken form" of the Gangadiddle (well, okay, he had it shipped to him, since he didn't quite find it), the Hunt was over, and the world was saved.
The latest development in the whole thing is that they were all just dolst's tulpae and now there is an organization called LSS that is apparently after him, possibly trying to harness his tulpa-creating abilities, likely cooked up in a lab in the 1980s by this same group.
Meanwhile, another group called the Shapeless 7 appears to be aiding the Hunters and trying to keep LSS off Dolst's back. For now, everyone's true motivations in this are a mystery. Another Mysterious entity known as the Technician seems to be hacking and infiltrating to learn information of some kind. He has his own youtube channel and has hacked dolst's website on numerous occasions. It seems that this may not be over...
This ARG is most known for its tie-in animated web series, Poochee and Pansy. It is framed as a story of two young dogs saving a kitten from a witch. However, the first episode ends in a Jump Scare, and the episodes get creepier from there, featuring disturbing imagery and video footage, more jump scares and sudden pop-ups, and other horrors throughout, along with various references tying into the ARG. The original series lasted from 2009 up until the end of the ARG in 2012.
Since 2020, remastered versions of the Poochee and Pansy episodes have been uploaded to the series' YouTube channel. However, they lack the references to the ARG and most of the disturbing content.
The Tropes for the Gangadiddle:
- Beat: Part 5 of Poochee and Pansy has a long one once the kitten appears from the door, which is followed by a minor jumpscare.
- Big Bad:
- In the main series, the titular Gangadiddle is the entity threatening to destroy the players' worlds unless they hunt and vanquish it.
- The Poochee and Pansy subseries has the witch, who kidnapped a kitten and is holding it captive in her castle in Sufferdark.
- Canines Primary, Felines Secondary: Of the Rescuee type in Poochee and Pansy; the main characters are dogs who rescue a kitten, who is a minor character.
- Censor Box: How the title of Part 5 of Pooche and Pansy is censored.
- Disguised Horror Story: On the surface, Poochee and Pansy looks like a cute cartoon about two puppies on a mission. However, the series reveals is true colors with Jump Scares, scary images, and other creepy moments abound.
- Entry Point: The Big Good reveals in a Youtube video that you are trapped in what is called an isolated world.
- Gratuitous Japanese: Part 4 of Pooche and Pansy is entirely in Japanese, complete with subtitles.
- I Don't Like the Sound of That Place: Sufferdark from Poochee and Pansy.
- Jump Scare: Happens frequently in Poochee and Pansy. Usually, it's in the form of a stock image or other disturbing footage popping up suddenly.
- MacGuffin: The titular characters of Poochee and Pansy are searching for the Midnight Crown so the Witch won't get her hands on it. What the purpose of the crown is and why the Witch wants it are not explained.
- MacGuffin Title: The first part of the Poochee and Pansy series is titled "The Quest for the Midnight Crown".
- Meta Twist: The original version of the first Poochee and Pansy video ends in an out-of-nowhere Jump Scare. The Remastered version, however, lacks it completely, and ends the video without one.
- Pixellation: How the titles of Part 2 and 6 of Pooche and Pansy are censored. However, if you manage to pause just at the right time in Part 6, it turns out the censored part says "Gangadiddle".
- Rescue Arc: The Poochee and Pansy series is centered around the titular characters saving a kitten from a witch.
- Stock Footage: Most of the creepy images shown in the Poochee and Pansy videos are pictures which every /x/phile would have in their hard drive.
- Stylistic Suck: The Poochee and Pansy videos aren't made on a big budget at all, containing simple animation and more.
- Updated Re-release: On November 6th, 2019, a remastered version of the first video
was released as a celebration of the first episode's 10-year anniversary. - Word Salad Title: Parts 2 and Part 5 onward of Poochee and Pansy are this, consisting of a bunch of jumbled letters and other characters.
