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Hidden message
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A hidden message is a message that is not immediately noticeable, and that must be discovered before it can be known. Hidden messages include backwards audio messages and hidden visual messages.
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A backward message in an audio recording is only fully apparent when the recording is played reversed. Some backward messages are produced by deliberate backmasking, while others are simply phonetic reversals resulting from random combinations of words.
Backmasking is a recording technique in which a message is recorded backwards onto a track that is meant to be played forwards. Backmasking is a deliberate process, whereas a backward message may be unintentional. Backmasking has been a source of much controversy, especially related to supposed subliminal messages in rock music.
Some phrases will produce a message when listened to backwards. For example, "kiss" backwards sounds like "sick," and so the title of Yoko Ono's Kiss Kiss Kiss sounds like "Sick Sick Sick" or "Six Six Six" backwards. The Paul is dead phenomenon was started in part because a phonetic reversal of "Number nine" was interpreted as "Turn me on, dead man".
Backward messages also exist in mediums outside of music, including computer games, music videos and television shows.
In the computer game Doom II, a garbled message played at the start of Map 30, spoken by the "Icon of Sin", can be played backwards to hear "To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero." Romero was a programmer for the game; he put the backwards message (with distortions) in to get back at the artists who put the image of his head on the final level.[1]
The player can use the no-clip cheat to enter the brain of the Icon of Sin to see Romero's head impaled on a stake. Shooting the head allows you to win the level, although the head emits a ghastly cry. (Normally the player is expected to shoot rockets at the exposed brain of Baphomet, killing Romero via splash damage.)
Blizzard Entertainment has released two games with known hidden audio messages. In Diablo, the message "Eat your vegetables and brush after every meal" is heard as the player enters the 16th level.[2] In Warcraft III, clicking on the Demon Hunter hero a number of times produces the backwards message "I love green trees", which sounds (forwards) like "siege niege avalya."[3]
In the music video for Weird Al Yankovic's Amish Paradise, one scene required Al to film a small portion of the song while walking and phonetically singing backwards. In the video itself, this scene is played in reverse so it appears Al is walking and singing normally, and the various animals and occurrences around him are actually the ones moving backwards.[citation needed]
The grand finale of the stage show The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (abridged) by the Reduced Shakespeare Company consists of the comedy troupe performing the play Hamlet backwards. "Oh, yes," one of the performers quips, "and be sure to listen for the Satanic messages," leading to the obvious yelled joke: "Judas Priest is God!" As massive improvisation is an intentional part of the show, however, other celebrities (most notably Frank Sinatra) sometimes find themselves deified instead. Also used is the phrase 'reelect George Bush!'.[citation needed]
In once scene of Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, Beavis and Butt-Head hallucinate, and voices are heard in the background. The voices are the two characters speaking phrases such as "Everybody go to college, study hard, study hard."[4]
In the Clone High episode "Raisin the Stakes", JFK falls through the cafeteria sunroof, lands, and begins to foam at the mouth and speak gibberish. The gibberish played backwards is JFK saying "I am talking backwards, and telling you to watch Clone High ... and for us to get an Emmy ... I'm saying that backwards ... 'cause it's sneaky!"[5]
In the "Man of Science, Man of Faith" episode of Lost, Walt Lloyd is heard, and confirmed to be, speaking backwards, although fans argue on what he says. Two possible interpretations are "Don't push the button, the button is bad" and "Push the button, no button is bad".[6]
The Red Dwarf episode "Backwards" includes various backwards messages, including "Oi! Hey! Oi, you robbing bastards, that's our tandem!" and "I'm addressing the one prat in the country who's bothered to get hold of this recording, turn it round, and actually work out the rubbish that I'm saying. What a poor, sad life he's got!" The episode revolves around a return to an Earth where time is running backwards, so most of the dialogue in the show is backward. Most of the backward messages in this episode agree with the subtitled captions explaining them, with a few exceptions.[7]
The Simpsons episode "New Kids on the Blecch" involves the formation of a boy band, Party Posse, by Bart Simpson, Milhouse Van Houten, Nelson Muntz, and Ralph Wiggum. The band's music videos contain military imagery and a group of Arabian belly-dancers who recite a seemingly Arab phrase, "Yvan Eht Nioj", which is supposed to sound like "Join the Navy" backwards. It is pronounced as spelled, whereas actually saying "Join the Navy" backwards produces "Ē-vān ŭð nēōjd." When listened to backwards, it sound like "Zhŏ-ẽn těh nă-vē".[8] The message is part of a subliminal campaign by the Navy, involving brainwashing listeners into joining.
An episode of "G.I. Joe" includes the backwards message, "Anybody listening to this message backwards must be a real dweeb", which is a reversal of an incantation spoken by Destro.[9]
The episode "Robotic Hymn of Doom", from The Brak Show, includes the message "Why are you listening to this song backwards, you could have been on a date with a girl". It is sung by Thundercleese as he was going to be shut down.[10]
The next sentence in this paragraph is a hidden message. This is an example of a hidden message.
When rotated a certain way, an early 1990s Pepsi can will read "SEX." And if the Coca-Cola logo is flipped, the result is supposedly an Arabic word debasing Allah. These are both coincidences covered on Snopes.
In the 1980s, Coca-Cola released in Southern Australia an advertising poster featuring the reintroduced contour bottle, with a speech bubble, "FEEL THE CURVES!". Inside one of the ice cubes was the silhouette of a woman performing fellatio. Thousands of posters were distributed to hotels and bottle shops in Australia before the mistake was discovered by Coca-Cola management. The artist of the poster was fired and all the posters were recalled.[11]
Lucky Strike's old cigarette packaging, when rotated, supposedly shows a burning house, accompanying the Red Dot of Japan's flag and the trademark phrase "it's toasted".
The $20 bill allegedly contains a prediction of the September 11 terrorist attacks. When folded as shown, an image can be seen that resembles the Twin Towers in flames.
Conservative activist Donald Wildmon has claimed that The Walt Disney Company inserted the word "SEX" into the clouds in a scene in the animated film, The Lion King. According to Disney, however, the frame in question actually reads "SFX", a common abbreviation for "special effects", and was a signature by the effects animation team for their work. The lettering is ambiguous.[12]
Various other messages have been claimed to exist in Disney movies.[13] Many are risqué, but according to Snopes, only one "is clearly true [and] undeniably purposely inserted into the movie": images of a topless woman in two frames of The Rescuers.[14]
In 1982, Mark Lindsey, a graduate of Virginia Tech, submitted an entry for an addition to be built to the University of Virginia's football stadium. Lindsey realized that the stadium was in the shape of a "v" and promptly designed the new addition in the shape of the letter "t" to make the logo of the Virginia Tech Hokies. UVA officials were unaware that the design was a tribute to their in-state rival and picked Lindsey's plan. The addition was built in 1985 but replaced in 1999 after UVA officials discovered Lindsey's message.
PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is also the scene of a running battle with PETCO, a pet food retailer in San Diego, for several years regarding the purported mistreatment of live animals at PETCO stores. When the Padres announced that PETCO (which is based in San Diego) had obtained naming rights to PETCO Park, PETA was unable to persuade the Padres to terminate the agreement. Hence PETA used advertising in the form of an acrostic. It successfully purchased a brick with what appears on the surface to be a complimentary message: "Break Open Your Cold Ones! Toast The Padres! Enjoy This Championship Organization!" However, if one takes the first letters of each word, the resulting acrostic reads "BOYCOTT PETCO". Neither PETCO nor the Padres have taken any action to remove the brick, stating that if someone walked by, they would not know it had anything to do with the PETA/PETCO feud.
John Hargrave claims to have created a hidden message at Super Bowl XLI with 2350 lights that were turned on during the halftime show. However, it is uncertain whether the lights actually spelled anything.[15]
The letters "NYC" (New York City), when rendered in "Webdings" font, form a rebus reading "I Love New York". When rendered in "Wingdings" font, it arguably reads "Killing Jews is Good".
If your browser has access to these fonts, this table will show the results:
| Font Name | Result |
|---|---|
| Normal | NYC |
| Webdings | NYC |
| Wingdings | NYC |
The Webdings message was included deliberately. Wired News reports that "When Microsoft developed a new graphical font, Webdings, in 1997 ... typographers took pains to ensure that the image corresponding with the capital letters NYC was a pleasant one."[16]
The message in Wingdings, on the other hand, was investigated by Microsoft and the Anti-Defamation League and found to be a coincidence.[17]
- ^ PC Interview: John Romero. Computer and Video Games. Retrieved on August 19, 2006.
- ^ Diablo: Strange Noise on Level 16. The Easter Egg Archive. Retrieved on July 17, 2006.
- ^ Warcraft 3: Demon Hunter: "Save the rainforest". The Easter Egg Archive. Retrieved on July 17, 2006.
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115641/trivia
- ^ http://imdb.com/title/tt0305011/trivia
- ^ Lost Character Walt Lloyd. Retrieved on February 3, 2007.
- ^ http://www.faqs.org/faqs/tv/red-dwarf/faq/
- ^ Comedy. Backmask Online. Retrieved on July 25, 2006.
- ^ GI Joe: Destro Cult Message. The Easter Egg Archive. Retrieved on August 27, 2006.
- ^ The Brak Show: Expiration Day. TV.com. Retrieved on July 25, 2006.
- ^ http://www.cokecans.com/article/32-CocaCola-recalled-an-advertising-poster-due-to-a-risqu%E9-image-hidden-within-it
- ^ http://www.geocities.com/cameraghost/pages/lionkg3.jpg
- ^ http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/films.asp
- ^ http://www.snopes.com/disney/films/rescuers.htm
- ^ http://www.startribune.com/389/story/999892.html
- ^ http://www.wired.com/news/business/0,1367,47042,00.html
- ^ http://www.snopes.com/rumors/wingdings.asp
- Audio Reversal in Popular Culture — explanation of backmasking and phonetic reversals