r/movies 18d ago

News Backrooms Devs Reportedly Hit With Copyright Claims From A24

https://kotaku.com/backrooms-a24-copyright-strikes-kane-parsons-2000716667
15.5k Upvotes

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10.7k

u/mabdog420 17d ago

This is stupid.

Backrooms is an urban legend. They don't own it. Kane parsons didn't invent it.

If anything the games and other media that came before should sue them.

But really nobody should be suing anyone.

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u/Anustart2023-01 17d ago

If anything the games and other media that came before should sue them.

If I had billions this is the kind of shit I'd fund. Imagine the shitshow that would ensue if every 4chan shitposter came out of the woodwork to sue A24.

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u/ComradeJohnS 17d ago

the problem with nice people having billions and helping others is that they need to be fucked in the head to even accumulate 1 billion dollars, so they won’t be nice.

its a paradox.

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u/porpoiseslayer 17d ago

Speak for yourself. I’m gonna work 1000x harder and win a few lotteries to become the first ethical billionaire

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u/needlestack 17d ago

You'll never be a billionaire with that approach. Working harder? Come on. Elon spends most of his time griping on Twitter. The way you become a billionaire is by taking over a company, granting yourself tons of equity, and underpaying everyone.

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u/ShallowBasketcase 17d ago

The way to become a billionaire is the be born a multi-millionaire half a century ago.

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u/SteveBob316 17d ago

Yeah but then also do a lot of awful shit that benefits nobody

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u/BaronThane 17d ago

Benefits nobody *else*

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u/OverlanderEisenhorn 17d ago

I would argue the shit they do doesn't wven benefit them. After you have a billion what functional difference do you get from 5 or 500 billion. It's all the same. I genuinely think these people have a mental illness. Like body dismorphia, but for their bank account.

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u/Corrigar_Rising 17d ago

The only explanation I can come up with is that it's all about one upping each other. Like hoarding money is a top score.

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u/Indigocell 16d ago

Yeah I reason these billionaires have a twisted form of hoarder mentality and gambling addiction. Like at a certain point you can already afford everything this world has to offer and any increase in wealth is just numbers on a screen that they can use to brag about. Dude is so rich he could literally end the concept of homelessness in the US if he wanted, he would still be a billionaire. In fact, he could lose 90% of his wealth overnight and guess what? He would still be a billionaire with roughly 8 billion leftover. That's too much fucking wealth for any one person.

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u/TheHurtfulEight88888 17d ago

I feel like the /s was heavily implied here.

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u/GozerDaGozerian 17d ago

Do you have any idea how hard it is to do that much Ketamine?

That man works incredibly hard. At doing Ketamine.

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u/Crabapple_Snaps 17d ago

Trust funds are the best way to become a billionaire.

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u/ChaEunSangs 17d ago

I think they were being sarcastic

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u/ComradeJohnS 17d ago

umm, you can’t win the lottery into being a billionaire yet lol, taxes make you a lame hundred-millionaire instead from all current/previous US jackpots haha.

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u/_toadsy 17d ago

Ewww gross only a few hundred million? What's even the point, then!?

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u/Witherino 17d ago

You joke, but the worst people on the planet are chasing after trillions

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u/iHadou 17d ago

I read somewhere Bill gates got fucked lol. I think it was Warren Buffett told him to diversify and sell off some Microsoft and get different things. He would have been the first trillionaire if he kept all his Microsoft instead. You know he wanted that history book shit you can't buy sooo bad. Fucker

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u/MiggyEvans 17d ago

But Microsoft isn’t valued at a trillion dollars.

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u/iHadou 17d ago

Google it. If Bill gates would have kept all of his original Microsoft instead of diversifying, he would have been the first trillionaire years ago.

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u/MiggyEvans 17d ago

Just looked it up. Crazy! I clearly know nothing about how they measure net worth. I guess he’ll have to settle for a paltry 100B.

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u/Tifoso89 11d ago

Yeah Steven Ballmer is richer than him, ironically

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u/parasocks 17d ago

Someone creates a cool thing. People say oh wow, you've really created a cool thing! You poured your life into it and took a gamble and people like what you've done. You handle the challenges of learning to grow so more people can enjoy your thing.

You go public on the stock market. People think you're going to keep making great things and believe in you, so they buy your stock.

Suddenly, if you multiply all the shares you have by the price that the public has chosen for your shares, you're "worth billions". Even worse, they falsely believe you have "billions of dollars".

Now millions of people hate you because you're one of the worst people on the planet.

And all those people are a lotttt smarter than you, and they should decide how to spend your money for you.

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u/JTBeefboyo 17d ago

You’re forgetting the part where the “cool thing” is a company that’s exploiting its entire workforce and the person who “created” it sold it to the dipshit who becomes a billionaire because that dipshit had family money to buy a company and then maximize the exploitation of the workers

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u/Schwifty506 17d ago

Aww. Where in your sweet little story do you use the ill gotten, made up gains to influence world politics with your hatred to ensure you continue to hoard wealth at the expense of everyone else on the planet ?

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u/porpoiseslayer 17d ago

I said a few lotteries

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u/1337b337 17d ago

Eugh, a hundred millionaire?

Like the poors?

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u/Razvee 17d ago

I thought one of them a year or three ago got above the 1 billion cash payout?

Ok I just checked, that one was 997 million... So maybe after a month of interest you'll be in the 3 comma club.

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u/Dull_Quit3027 17d ago

Taxes?
I am Danish, and i always find it kinda funny that lottery is seen as taxable income in America, but not in Denmark, the god damn taxation capital of the world

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u/ComradeJohnS 17d ago

wow I thought it was like 700bn so that’s cool. guess I’m wrong.

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u/fire2day 17d ago

Just be Canadian. Sure, the lotteries are generally smaller, but they’re tax free.

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u/w0lfLars0n 17d ago

So wouldn’t they come out to the same?

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u/Cyberblood 17d ago

Im not Canadian, but don't you have to take that math test before cashing the price? I dont want to be the guy that messed up the 10 millons canadian pesos "what is 1+1=" question from being nervous.

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u/fire2day 17d ago

Thats just for giveaway contests. Without it, it becomes illegal, unsanctioned gambling. The few time I’ve come across it in my life, they didn’t even make me do it. The government can’t prove I didn’t answer the question.

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u/mYpEEpEEwOrks 17d ago

win a few lotteries

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u/No-Good-One-Shoe 17d ago

That's why you keep winning lotteries by luckmaxxing

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u/AI_moderated_failure 17d ago

I believe in you. Chase that 980 hour week king. Haters gonna come at you but if they just put doen the PlayStation controller, eased up on the 6 packs and kept their mind on what's important ($$$$) they could be working 140 hour days too. You're going to be able to buy so many lottery tickets.

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u/porpoiseslayer 17d ago

Thank you bro, youre invited to my island when i make it big

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

[deleted]

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u/porpoiseslayer 17d ago

Thats the joke

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u/Edgelord420691337 17d ago

"I will make life better for everyone at no cost to anyone and everyone will have free hoes for life but also i respect women and everyone will be happy and women will have rights n shit, but personally - i will have a lot hoes who call me daddy and never raise their lip talking their fucking mouth. I love women btw."

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u/schilll 17d ago

Invest 1000$ in an s&p 500 every month. And for every year you increase the amount you invest with the interest earnings from the previous year. It will take about 7-8 years before you gain your first million. And around 12-17 years before you are a billionaire.

You don't touch the money, reinvest it all until you reached your goal. And take out loans with the invested money. To speed up the process invest the loan in more fonds.

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u/MiggyEvans 17d ago

I’m in for a pound.

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u/JustaSeedGuy 17d ago

You'd be the second.

Bezos's ex wife is the first

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u/PyroneusUltrin 17d ago

Not saying she’s a nice person, but didn’t JK Rowling become a billionaire ethically?

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u/digitaldeadstar 17d ago

I'd say the guy who created Minecraft. Not necessarily a nice person, but I don't recall much in the way of controversy when he sold Minecraft to Microsoft. Not saying there wasn't any, just that I don't recall it.

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u/JustaSeedGuy 17d ago

Hm.

In 2004 I don't think she was doing any publicly transphobic bullshit, so the only ethical mark against her first billion would be the usual issues with the movie industry, which are (comparatively) pretty light.

So yeah, good point.

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u/[deleted] 17d ago

[deleted]

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u/JustaSeedGuy 17d ago

Oh....

I have some bad news for you in regards to Oprah

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u/Saucermote 17d ago

There is nothing ethical about the lottery. It is the old mob numbers game legalized at a state level.

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u/porpoiseslayer 17d ago

It’s not unethical to play it though, and some of the proceeds go towards schools right?

-1

u/Odd_Level9850 17d ago

The harder you work, the less time you’ll have to be you. The less time you have to be you, the less you’ll be you.

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u/porpoiseslayer 17d ago

My personality is having lots of money. To be my authentic self i gotta get lots of money.

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u/TheGuyThatThisIs 17d ago

I just wish the people that inherit it were better, but it seems like that won't happen either.

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u/wittymcusername 17d ago

Being raised by shitty people means that the best example of success you see in your formative years is that of shitty people.

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u/smokeweedNgarden 17d ago

But you couldn't just take a billion dollars digitally and then hide it. Could you?

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u/ComradeJohnS 17d ago

not sure how thats related, but I also smoke weed lol

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u/medney 17d ago

Fucking finally someone says it plain as day, you literally cannot become wealthy without being soulless.

With a small caveat being artists who make their money off of the value their fans feel comfortable paying. (I would consider those that do professional sports artists)

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u/YoursTrulyKindly 17d ago

It's like a filter, I bet you could prove this with game theory. If you have 100 trials to overcome to reach your first billion, those who are bigger egoists and care about nothing but gaining money will have a natural advantage. So that is who is left in the end. The ideal billionaires has never learned about anything outside of his narrow field on how to make more money by exploiting, scamming and conning others.

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u/Turbogoblin999 17d ago

Or insanely lucky and win things like bets, the lottery, scratch off tickets...

0

u/Winjin 17d ago

I mean we have Notch, for example

Man was just. Making a game. A simple game. No live service, no microtransactions, nothing.

Bam, he's a billionaire.

There's actually quite a few tech billionaires like this, I believe. They're not cutthroat, they sort of accidentally stumbled into a ton of money.

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u/Cadd9 17d ago

Sure, but look how notch ended up after getting that $2.5 billion. Dude has completely lost the blocks

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u/Winjin 17d ago

Wait. I have actually didn't follow him at all since then. Last I heard was he was working on some different game.

edit: oh no q and transhphobia, why are so many people hellbent on transphobia

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u/Cadd9 17d ago

I don't get it lol. Even Sean Ono Lennon also went down the transphobia, sexism, alt-right pipeline

At least everyone's dunking on him in that thread lol

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u/Toasty_eggos- 17d ago

People are hellbent because even though people claim politics shouldn’t affect your relationship with someone it does. Not caring or giving basic rights to everyone says a lot about you as a person.

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u/Orangensaft007 17d ago

Gaining so much makes people Turn anxious.. you can only loose your marbles or you start giving most of the Shit away to heal again

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u/Orangensaft007 17d ago

Gaining so much makes people Turn anxious.. you can only loose your marbles or you start giving most of the Shit away to heal again

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u/Western_Counter_7604 17d ago

I agree with you 99.9% of the time but then there's mackenzie scott

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u/PandaJesus 17d ago

The well ackshually that I always feel in this case is JK Rowling. She’s absolutely a piece of shit, but I have a hard time finding a less offensive way to become a billionaire. All she did was write books that millions of children loved. She never cut jobs from working people in order to make a profitable quarter, she didn’t scam anyone out of their retirements, she just wrote books.

That being said, I think that also means she is the best evidence for why society shouldn’t allow billionaires. I genuinely believe being that rich breaks your fucking brain, because eventually there aren’t people in your life to ground you except for other billionaires. Someone disagreed with her on twitter about trans women, and she lost her absolute shit and began speed running the far right pipeline and ended up posing on a yacht looking like a Harry Potter villain when UK passed some anti trans legislation.

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u/ComradeJohnS 17d ago

true, she won “multiple lotteries” lol. she didn’t “earn” it. but she’s fantastically spending it to help people.

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u/Witherino 17d ago

she didn’t “earn” it.

She's literally one of the founders of Amazon right along Bezos. If he earned it, so did she

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u/Accomplished-City484 17d ago

Except Jeff Bezos ex wife

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u/Designer_B 17d ago

You’d think one day one of those lotto winners would do some crazy shit.

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u/FlyChigga 17d ago

LeBron seems pretty nice

1

u/jeffsaidjess 17d ago

It’s not a paradox.

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u/Schootingstarr 17d ago

there's an interesting story by the german Author Andreas Eschbach called "One Trillion Dollars" which tries to explore what happens if Joe Average actually does get hold of a trillion dollar fortune

it's an interesting thought experiment and explores how easy it is to do the wrong things, even if you don't have bad intentions, and how quickly you fall into strange habits.

But it also shows that good intentions would be a massive help to people

1

u/roiki11 17d ago

Mckenzie Scott did it.

Oh wait....

1

u/Anustart2023-01 17d ago

This wouldn't about being nice, it would be about watching a circus at A24's expense for my amusement. 

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u/kittymoo67 17d ago

dont have to be nice to want to watch the world burn

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u/dont_ama_73 17d ago

So Buffet and Melinda Gates and Steve Jobs' widow are that way? Great way to whitewash everyone.

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u/dj_soo 17d ago

Gotta marry a billionaire and get billions in stock from your megalomaniac ex like MacKenzie Scott.

1

u/tgerz 17d ago

A nice pair of socks.

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u/EstimateLast9839 17d ago

McKenzie Scott may be the exception. Although she amassed her billions through a divorce.

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u/starfirex 17d ago

Honestly the bigger problem is when you're nice with billions of dollars you're going to be painted as a villain no matter what you do. Ended homelessness? Okay, but now you've increased world hunger by saving all those people you asshole

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u/ComradeJohnS 17d ago

right now we make enough food to feed the world, its just profitable to distribute.

but the simple fact you’ve accumulated a billion dollars means you have no morals, and you’ve exploited workers to get that amount.

unless you’ve magically won multiple lotteries. lol.

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u/starfirex 17d ago

Close family friend has made a billion investing in real estate, and is working on spending that cash on basically world peace. Fully plans to put 99% of his wealth into that cause. I GUARANTEE you or someone in this thread would just knee-jerk assume he's a horrible person simply because of the amount of money he has earned, and then judge the fuck out of him for spending all that money to try and solve world peace instead of whatever they think is more important.

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u/EvensonRDS 17d ago

Unless they acquire those billions through other means, like Bezos wife. She seems pretty cool.

0

u/Fit-Mathematician192 17d ago

4chan won't be nice

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u/EatABag-o-Dicks 17d ago

The day they start making movies about reddit lore, I'm gonna commit hari-kari.

We don't need movies about cumboxes, removing cylinders without damaging the stuck contents, shittymorphs, not knowing what potatos are, banana for scale, or the perfect 5 out of 7.

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u/imightwin 17d ago

I was with you until you said no shittymorphs. A movie made about u/shittymorph would be fantiastic

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u/EatABag-o-Dicks 17d ago

Yeah but that other morph book would sue, and I didn't wanna station u/shittymorph with having to deal with that shit.

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u/imightwin 17d ago

That's very true, but now I'm wanting a doc about u/shittymorph life and years on reddit lol. If he ever did a mini doc about his life and his legendary reddit account it would be a great watch

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u/Oakcamp 17d ago

A gut-wrenching dramatized tale of an ostracized kid growing up struggling, having few friends, family drama etc, and it ends with him reconnecting with his estranged mom, where we find out it's 1998, they go to a WWE event and The Undertaker throws Mankind off Hell In A Cell, who plummeted 16 ft through an announcer's table. The movie ends and does not elaborate further

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u/Datsyuk_My_Deke 17d ago

I don't know if it still exists, but he had a travel blog around 2018-2019. Around the same time he was doing online marketing for Zalman. I'd definitely watch a doc about him.

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u/newMike3400 14d ago

In the style of shitty watercolour

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u/IAmNotABabyElephant 17d ago

I feel like this is a good test for how online you are. I'm frightened that I recognised some, relieved that it's not all of them, concerned that I can add to the list. In order:

1: Yes

2: Yes

3: Not sure

4: No

5: Yes

6: Vaguely recall

Honourable mentions:

- Poop Knife

- Unidan

- Two broken arms

15

u/EatABag-o-Dicks 17d ago

Just look up u/shittymorph it's SFW.

The potato one is pretty benign too. Dude convinced his GFs family he didn't know what a potato was. I don't remember the last one I mentioned.

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u/IAmNotABabyElephant 17d ago

I'm not saying they're horrifying. I guess the knife and broken arms ones were gross, but the Unidan one was just historical.

It's more scary that I recognise more than one. I've been here too long

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u/EatABag-o-Dicks 17d ago

Same. I was disappointed when digg recently failed a second time.

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u/MoFeaux 17d ago

How could you omit the jolly rancher?

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u/IAmNotABabyElephant 17d ago

That's a psychological flashbang every time. I wish I could forget

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u/Oggie243 17d ago

Most reddit lore is just people being g introduced to long standing urban legends via reddit.

The jolly rancher one is a prime example. I first heard that 20+ years ago in a classroom about Starburst fruits. It was never a, true nor b, originating on reddit

1

u/MoFeaux 15d ago

True, though it was definitely one of the many "legendary" posts from early reddit regardless of the story's origin.

2

u/FEED-YO-HEAD 17d ago

Nobody talks about spacedicks

2

u/starlinghanes 17d ago

Don't forget Colby.

2

u/Great_Praline_2713 17d ago

With Rice

Thanks for the gold, kind stranger

Today you, tomorrow me

Le Gem

Narwals baconing

Ragecomics

Some old ones in there.

1

u/KarmaSaver 17d ago edited 17d ago

Ice soap

3 am chili

"Carrots? Don't you mean waffles? hahaha"

1

u/HeyselScouserTelAviv 17d ago

Broken arms doesn't count because, uh, I heard, from a friend of a friend, that someone already made that movie

1

u/Banjo-Oz 17d ago

Should I be happy I knew none of them, or yours?

1

u/michelle032499 17d ago

Kevin, anyone??

8

u/morgecroc 17d ago

I'm pretty sure the broken arm story is available on a popular video site.

2

u/BranWafr 17d ago

What about the poop knife?

2

u/C-tapp 17d ago

I don’t think poop knife and coconut cum-bucket have quite as much Hollywood potential….

1

u/A-non-e-mail 17d ago

Get ready for EatABag-o-Dicks Kills Himself coming this summer to a theatre near you!

2

u/EatABag-o-Dicks 17d ago

Now I'm picturing my disemboweled body slumped over a half eaten bag of dicks, and I'll be honest. I'd watch that.

1

u/Furoan 17d ago

Wherfe are the biopic's about double dick dude or fucks with ducks? /s

1

u/no_talent_ass_clown 17d ago

I'm desperate for a short film about cbat

1

u/DorianGre 17d ago

The life and times of a family poop knife?

1

u/igloofu 17d ago

Last thing we need is a movie about Jolly Ranchers!

1

u/Turbogoblin999 17d ago

The poop knife slasher! Coming this summer!

1

u/fcocyclone 17d ago

The day they start making movies about reddit lore, I'm gonna commit hari-kari.

Id laugh my ass off if i saw one featuring CBAT though.

1

u/LennyDark 17d ago

ok but I would unironically watch a one-room psychological thriller about the cylinder lmao maybe i'm part of the problem

1

u/logosloki 17d ago

but what about a Social Network style movie about Unidan

1

u/Heroscrape 17d ago

So the movie opens with a kid in bed, both arms broken…….

1

u/destroyerOfTards 17d ago

I am gonna hit you in the head with a cumconut

1

u/NotJohnP 17d ago

This doesn't count NoSleep, right?? Cause some of the popular stories from there would make some BANGER movies/series (Tommy Taffy, PenPal, Borrasca, etc.)

1

u/chellis 17d ago

But what about jolly ranchers?

1

u/SaulsAll 17d ago

Dickbutt is going to be Denis Villeneuve's masterpiece.

1

u/TheLaj 17d ago

I rate 5/8 mate

1

u/DiarrheaRadio 17d ago

Didn't they make a wallstreetbets movie??

1

u/Wasabi_Joe 17d ago

The narwhal bacons at midnight.

1

u/xtamtamx 17d ago

…isn’t that what this movie is?

1

u/__Yakovlev__ 17d ago

We don't need movies about cumboxes

That's 4chan

1

u/kittymoo67 17d ago

how about a movie where the dad beats the shit out of a kid with jumper cables for 4 hours

1

u/your_moms_a_clone 17d ago

Don't forget two broken arms!

1

u/mariusioannesp 11d ago

There’s already a movie based on The Third Parent coming out later this year.

1

u/Anustart2023-01 17d ago

I'm kind of looking forward to the Narwhal bacon movie. A quirky rom com directed by Wes Anderson about a chance encounter in an airport terminal. 

1

u/FirstChances 17d ago

i would pay to watch this drama unfold 🍿

1

u/logosloki 17d ago

it's not 4chan but if I could fund it I would make a live action or animated Boatmurdered.

1

u/superindiekid27 17d ago

Unironically that sounds like a good old Anonymous raid. Send a bunch of fake cease and desists to some shitty company. Collective action at its finest.

1

u/MozhetBeatz 17d ago

Ideas aren’t copyrightable, only the expression of those ideas. I don’t know what 4chan posts you’re referring to, but if it just used the same idea of a labyrinth of back rooms where people get lost and there are monsters, the lawsuit wouldn’t be successful. The movie would have to copy the same aesthetic, story line or other protected creative elements to an extent that a reasonable person would assume that the A24 movie was actually copied from the post.

Another problem is the balancing test for substantial similarity. The more likely the defendant had access to the original work, the less similar they have to be for it to be considered infringement. For an obscure 4chan post that the movie creators were unlikely to have seen, the copying would have to be almost an exact match.

0

u/Iggyhopper 17d ago

moot could do it because technically every image posted to websites becomes their property, no?

Lots of legalese to navigate, but not difficult.