In Seneca, South Carolina, an unnamed viewer is channel surfing. He stops on a broadcast of one of his old teachers reading a poem on public television. As he watches, the teacher’s poem is interrupted by a cartoon, which features a typical, middle-class family on a typical day. It is drawn in an overly detailed but choppy style of the sort fashionable in America in the early ’90s.
As the family makes small talk, a broadcast comes on the radio about how mutations are occurring, flesh is melting, and monsters are emerging from the sea. The family ignores this, despite the fact a green light is coming in through the windows and their skin is becoming jaundiced. They go about their day, absorbing more and more of the green glow, which is making them more and more like mutant blobs. The cartoon ends with white text that reads “Report to the nearest shelter immediately. Remaining at private residences is strictly prohibited.” The date of November 17, 2017 is stated in the cartoon, giving the experience a sense of being prophetic. The author of this story is unknown, and the tale itself seems to have emerged sometime around 2011.
As bizarre as the cartoon and its predictions are, real life has shown it’s not as far-fetched as you might initially believe. After all, the American Broadcasting Channel, certainly a much bigger target than any public television channel, was once hacked by a man in a Max Headroom mask. The man left behind a much more cryptic messagethan the one featured in this story. And if this Seneca, South Carolina broadcast were real, it still wouldn’t be quite as gory as a network television broadcast called “A Short Vision” (from 1956, of all times). There has been some weird stuff broadcast over the nation’s airwaves, legitimately or otherwise.
