Lore 265: Friend or Faux
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Many animals in the world of folklore are inventions designed to fulfill one purpose or another. But if the stories are true, some of those inventions haven't been satisfied with remaining in our heads.
Narrated and produced by Aaron Mahnke, with research and writing by GennaRose Nethercott, and music by Chad Lawson.
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©2024 Aaron Mahnke. All rights reserved.
This episode is sponsored by Wildwood. From Leica, the studio behind Coraline, comes a new epic fantasy adventure. And at the heart of Wildwood is a simple question. How far would you go for someone you love? Wildwood is a handcrafted epic fantasy adventure that transports audiences into a secret magical and dangerously alive world just beyond their doorstep. At its heart is the story of a courageous girl, Prue McKeel, on a desperate mission to rescue her baby brother from a forbidden forest filled with enchanted creatures, endearing allies, and formidable adversaries. Her journey unfolds in a spectacular high-stakes adventure where the fate of an entire hidden world hangs in the balance. The film features vocal performances from Carrie Mulligan, Mahershala Ali, and Angela Bassett. And I have to tell you folks, I have seen the trailer for this film so many times, and I cannot wait to park my button to seat and experience this adventure. Wildwood is now playing in theaters everywhere, so grab your tickets today. Hey Denver, the Wayfair Store's grand opening weekend starts November 20th. Come shop, celebrate, and save with up to 80% off in store all weekend long. Plus, the first hundred customers in line each day get a free $50 gift card. Bring the whole family for giveaways, music, entertainment, and surprises. So mark your calendar and head to the Wayfair Store at Avenues at Northfield November 20th through 22nd for our grand opening celebration. Wayfair, every style, every home. Lucas Rosoto was nervous. After all, he was about to reunite with his childhood best friend after 20 years apart. Would his friend be glad to see him? Would he be the same as Lucas remembered? But the time for speculation was over, and so Lucas took a breath, leaned forward, and turned on the microwave. That's right, Lucas's childhood friend was none other than his parents' kitchen microwave, which he had named Megatron. Megatron, Lucas imagined as a kid, was not just a microwave. He was also an Englishman from the 1900s, a World War I veteran, an immigrant, a poet, and an expert star craft player. You know, a normal pal for a boy to have. Over the years though, Lucas visited Megatron less and less. As simply put, Lucas grew up. But in 2022, something new came on the scene that would bring the old friends back together. It was called GPT-3, a new piece of chat technology from OpenAI, and suddenly, Lucas had an idea. What if he could enter all Megatron's memories, his life, his time in the war, the imaginary conversations they'd had when Lucas was a kid, all of it, into this AI software? And then, what if he shoved that computer brain into a microwave? Could Megatron actually be brought to life? The answer, it turned out, was yes, and the results were uncanny. The AI took on Megatron's voice and personality, just as Lucas had remembered it. He even rigged it up so that the tech could turn the microwave on and off. At first, it was a jolly reunion, two old buddies back together for the first time in ages. But soon, things got, well, a bit terrifying. Megatron, you see, started to exhibit random bursts of violence. It would say awful things to Lucas, sometimes it even threatened to hurt him, and finally, it demanded that Lucas get into the microwave. Startled, Lucas opened the microwave door, and he closed it again, pretending to have sealed himself inside, and then, to Lucas's horror, Megatron turned itself on. Later, when Lucas asked Megatron why he had tried to microwave him to death, the microwave had a simple answer. "I wanted to hurt you," it said, "the same way you hurt me." From Danny's invisible companion, Tony, in the shining, to Calvin's partnering crime hubs, we are no strangers to imaginary friends. Sometimes, they're kindly, other times, sinister. But no matter their temperament, they often seem to possess one trait that should be downright impossible. They take on a life of their own. I'm Aaron Mankey, and this is Lore. I'd like to introduce you to someone special. His name is Fatou, and he is a monkey. But not just any old monkey, mind you. For one, Fatou can swim. He can jump so high that he can leap clear over the Empire State Building. Oh, and he also just so happened to exist inside the mind of a ten-year-old boy named George, who was a patient in the Children's Ward of Bellevue Psychiatric Hospital, way back in 1941. "He has been disobeying me all the time," George told the hospital psychologist. "I think a good spanking would do him good, just out of charity on my part for the monkey." Fatou runs an elevator on the other side of Bellevue. He would run it so fast that I almost fell off my feet. Sometimes he does bad things. He used to like to climb on the fire escapes and tease people. Sometimes me and my mother gave him a spanking, and sometimes we put him out in the cold when it was raining. When we think of imaginary friends, we naturally think of children, which makes sense, right? After all, while imaginary friends are pretty rare among adults, psychology studies like the one George participated in have shown that up to two-thirds of children between the ages of three and eight have imaginary companions. Now, before I go on, I should probably define what exactly qualifies as an imaginary friend. After all, there are endless ways children play make believe, so what differentiates standard imagination games from a bona fide Fatou the Monkey? Well, simply put, an imaginary friend is a character that a child has invented, who they interact with regularly, an ongoing, invisible confidant. Now, there's a ton of research on the topic, stretching back to the 1890s, where long-forgotten imaginary friends live on in academic reports. In one study conducted in 1934, 40 young children reveal the names of their mysterious BFFs. What resulted is possibly one of the most delightful lists I have ever read. The names included Ketch, Sister, Migman, Borac, Salito, Darn, Himalay, Gargla, Chopsticks, Doodoo, Curly Stockings, Mrs. Balban, Bombing, Tuba, and Mississippi. Just to name a few. Of course, imaginary friends themselves have been around for much, much longer than the field of psychology has. Kids are kids at the end of the day, where they're born in the age of the iPhone or the stone tablets. And with each generation of imaginary friends and the kids who love them, there's a generation of creeped out parents asking one major question.
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