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Alternate American Folklore

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Alternate American Folklore (Web Video)
THE SHIP JESTER EMERGES

"These are the same skies that the dead last saw."

Alternate American Folklore is an Analog Horror series created by Eve "M4NTICOR3" Casanas (previously called "Mister Manticore"), who also created CORNERFOLKLORE, THE MONUMENT MYTHOS, The Trinity Desk Project, and The Ningen. Like previous series such as The Monument Mythos, Alternate American Folklore takes the form of Mockumentary videos focused around an Alternate History America. Whereas before it involved bizarre and unexplainable events around or near national landmarks, this series focuses on twisted folk tales of historical events such as the expedition of Lewis and Clark.

Videos in the series are:

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    Main Series 


This series provides examples of:

  • A Head at Each End: Whatever it is that Andrew/Jackson and the skeleton "WHAT THE PILGRIMS BURIED" were, both ends of the creatures had a head of a different animal.
  • Ambiguously Evil: It's unclear how much of the Ship Jester's actions were intended to incite mass violence between the Spanish and the American Indians, and how much of its actions were performed in the interest of protecting their lives, a feat that it repeats centuries later by convincing the nuclear powers of the world to stop performing nuclear tests near the Caribbean islands. By the present day it seems to be benevolent, but "IT CROSSED THE LAND BRIDGE" implies it was once much more malicious, seemingly killing a man simply for daring to cross the land bridge to the Americas.
  • Arc Words: "These are the same skies that the dead last saw."
  • Chekhov's Gun: A very long-reaching one: all the way back in "ROCKEFELLERTREETRAGEDY", we heard the voice of John D. Rockefeller Jr. telling an interviewer that the Special Tree his father found did not truly disappear, but rather wanders the Rockefeller Center, resembling a man more than a tree. While it remains to be seen whether this series is a separate timeline from the Mythos or a new perspective of the Deanverse, "IT PUNISHED DRAFT DODGERS" reveals that it's true here too, and this time we know the identity of the "man" in question: Paper York.
  • Continuity Cavalcade: "WHAT THE SHIP JESTER KNEW" contains numerous references to details from the previous episodes and The Monument Mythos, including Bill Clinton discussing the nuclear test ban, a new look at York's confrontation with Paper York, a Mind Screwdriver for the Bering Land Bridge incident, references to the Department of Technology, a woman who may or may not be Maya Arnoldson, and a depiction of Thomas Jefferson and York being sent to Wonderland.
  • Five-Second Foreshadowing: Immediately before The Reveal in "IT DISFIGURED THOMAS JEFFERSON", we suddenly shift from the slideshow presentation of the rest of the episode to blurry photographs of what appears to be a modern-day industrial building. Eagle-eyed viewers will recognize this as the same building that was used for the Maize manufacturing plant in "MAIZEMOVIEMAKER" (the fire door with the message "FIRE EXIT DO NOT BLOCK" in red letters is the clearest giveaway), signaling the reveal that immediately follows.
  • Foreshadowing: The twist of the series being a Stealth Sequel to THE MONUMENT MYTHOS was hinted at well before the actual reveal:
    • "Alternate American Folklore" was the name of the Monument Mythos before it became a full alternate history with DEANDEMOCRACY.
    • Among the entities introduced in the series, two particular ones stand out: Paper York, implied to be a kind of sentient paper drawing, and Lyndon B. Johnson, a sentient amalgamation of wooden draft sticks. Both paper and sticks are made from trees, and the Special Trees were one of the most significant aspects of the Mythos.
    • "IT HORRIFIED ABE LINCOLN" is all about how Abraham Lincoln gained the power to remotely view huge areas of the entire country by listening to music. In a sense, this could be seen as making him a "Lincoln Looker".
    • The description of "IT DISFIGURED THOMAS JEFFERSON", in place of the usual Historian's Note, simply has an emoji of an ear of corn. Viewers may remember that corn emojis were also used in the "Statement from Maize" descriptions from Season 2 of the Mythos.
  • Freeze-Frame Bonus: During "IT PUNISHED DRAFT DODGERS", at one point the video shows a figure resembling the Virgin Mary on what appears to be the lunar surface, but before the caption can properly display more than the date, the video cuts away. However, pausing the video will show that the intended caption read "New sighting of Aiyana".
  • Kill and Replace: What seems to be the intended fate of York and his wife by their paper counterparts. York barely escapes, but his wife remains disappeared. Zigzagged with the reveal that York's wife was actually taken away by Lewis, Clark, and Jefferson as a prank; her fate remains unknown as of this time, but given that York didn't see her again for forty years, her fate probably wasn't much better than initially assumed.
  • Laser-Guided Karma: Lewis, Clark, and Thomas Jefferson all suffer for their terrible abuse of York at the hands of Paper York. Lewis and Clark are dead by unknown causes, implied to be murdered by Paper York, and Jefferson is disfigured and left to watch as Paper York is worshipped as the king of America.
  • Monster Clown: Whatever the Ship Jester is, it absolutely towers over everyone, its head piece looks to be a part of its flesh, it requires hundreds of pounds of food to feed, and is way ahead of its time on indigenous rights.
  • Nature Is Not Nice: "WHAT THE PILGRIMS BURIED" appears to be a twisted force of nature parodying the cycle of soil rejuvenation the Patuxet were practicing by burying fish, only using the tribes people it sickened instead. Elsewhere, Nathaniel Greene weaponizes the Floridan wildlife into minutefauna, which may have resulted in Andrew/Jackson.
  • Our Presidents Are Different: George Washington isn't a horned serpent anymore, but now Andrew/Jackson is a two-headed Animalistic Abomination and Lyndon B. Johnson is a sentient draft-stick effigy.
  • Replacement Goldfish: Paper York is treated with significantly more dignity and humanity than the real York, even though he is still alive and present.
  • Seers: Abraham Lincoln is apparently this, being able to use music not only to see the future, but also across the country. That is until he saw something so horrifying he swore off music. Right up until he relapsed on April 14, 1865…
  • Ret-Gone: Implied to be the fate of Paper York, whose existence was stated by Maize Machines to be “fictionalized history.”
  • Stealth Sequel: To THE MONUMENT MYTHOS, as it is revealed that Paper York is a Special Tree, that Maize Machines exists in this continuity, and that “God” Nixon may have fictionalized the existence of Paper York.
  • Title Drop: From “THE THING IN VIETNAM”:
    “Dorian, we’ve determined that you have A.W.S. Don’t ask how we got that name, because frankly, its origin sounds like it may have come out of alternate American folklore.”
  • Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Squanto unburies the corpse of a creature with A Head at Each End, causing it to release a powder that unleashes a plague which kills everyone in his village except him, as well as half the Pilgrims.
  • Wham Line:
    • "WHAT THE SEMINOLES FOUGHT" is fairly mundane by the standards of the series, describing how the fauna of Florida were weaponized into "minutefauna" during the Revolutionary War and how they resurfaced when the US invaded Florida in an attempt to hunt down runaway slaves. However, at one point there's an oddly formatted reference to "Andrew/Jackson", which at the time passes without explanation. It isn't until the end, when we see a picture of a two-headed creature resembling the skeleton from "WHAT THE PILGRIMS BURIED", that the reference is contextualized with labels on each head:
      Caption on left head: ANDREW
      Caption on right head: JACKSON
    • "IT DISFIGURED THOMAS JEFFERSON", previously a fairly straightforward sequel to "IT FOLLOWED LEWIS AND CLARK", takes a stunning turn when the series jumps forward to the present day and in the process permanently redefining the nature of the series:
      A CENTURY LATER, MAIZE MACHINES ACQUIRES THE RIGHTS TO ALL PHOTOGRAPHS OF PAPER YORK.
    • The discussion of the Ship Jester's emergence in "WHAT THE SHIP JESTER KNEW" is given by a woman who is not initially identified, and who isn't easily recognizable as a historical figure. It's only at the end of the speech that her identity is made very clear to anyone familiar with the channel:
      Statement by M.A.
    • In "IT PUNISHED DRAFT DODGERS", the author of "My York" is initially redacted. It's later revealed to be John D. Rockefeller.
    • In "WHAT CAUSED THE MOON WAR", when Aiyana and the War Jester merge together, the resulting entity is captioned with three words that will chill any long-time viewers to the bone:
  • Wham Shot:
    • Immediately following on from the Wham Line in "IT DISFIGURED THOMAS JEFFERSON", we are shown the only publicly available photograph of Paper York... and see what is unmistakably a Special Tree.
    • In "WHAT CAUSED THE MOON WAR", the sight of Aiyana and the War Jester fusing into an entity with a crescent-shaped head will likely send alarm bells ringing in long-time viewers' heads before the aforementioned Wham Line.

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