If there’s one thing the internet loves, it’s spreading misinformation about memes. Amid the news flood (sorry) through the internet about the implosion of the OceanGate Titan submersible, Five nights at Freddy’s eventually became part of the story on TikTok. It’s all thanks to a viral audio clip from the games, passed off as “audio of the sounds” coming from the missing ship.
In case you are unfamiliar with the OceanGate Titan situation, on June 18, five passengers boarded a submersible named Titan in the Atlantic Ocean to visit the wreck of the Titanic. The voyage ended tragically, as two hours into the voyage, all communications with the Titan were lost. Four days later, on June 22, debris from the wreck was discovered, confirming that the submersible imploded, killing all five passengers. In the days between its descent and its discovery, search attempts were made, including the use of sonar. This is a Canadian P-3 aircraft Popping noises detected
The playing sound comes from a Video made by fans It shows series antagonist William Afton begging his son Michael to let him out somewhere, and it’s completed by tapping on the exit to actually sell it. The video was created by YouTuber Squimpus McGrimpus as part of an analog horror game set in the United States Five nights at Freddy’s Fiction and includes a vocal performance by Nolan David.
David’s sound clip of him begging Michael not to leave him was used as a viral clip on over 30,000 videos on TikTok, some of which have millions of views. Some of them are comedic, for example if you play them for a while Cat is trying to get to its owner through a dooror Washing a plush in a washing machinebut completely out of context, it could easily be mistaken for something horrible, including the voice of someone who was aboard the Titan submersible when it was lost on its voyage to the wreckage of the Titanic.
A video by TikTok user @ayshanepal uses the audio and includes a caption saying it is “the audio of the sounds of the missing Titanic submarine”. Obviously everyone who knows the tone is aware of the joke, but as of this writing, that video alone has over 18 million views on the platform (with Several other videos make the same joke), and that means it’s spreading, to people who don’t know any better.
The comments on the video are one thing, full of people who are either there and offering their condolences, or people who genuinely believe in it Five nights at Freddy’s Fan audio is that of the people who died on the imploded submarine and also posted about how tragic the incident was. But there’s also the side of the internet that we don’t see in the comments section, which is that people are in all seriousness sending and showing this video to others, believing it’s actually audio from the lost ship. Likewise there is fake screenshots of the game controller used to control the ship and allegedly survived the implosion
The internet is an untameable beast, and jokes are often so contextual and layered that they can be impenetrable to anyone who doesn’t know about three other references that make it funny. It is natural to always have all this information at hand. We can’t possibly know everything, and you will inevitably come across videos and images that you don’t understand or take at face value. But when my mom calls me later this week and tells me she heard the audio from the submersible and plays me this video, I’ll blame you all.
The entire OceanGate saga has been oddly linked to video games due to the reported use of the submersible with a different brand of video game controller. Since then, modders have used the entire situation as joke fodder, including to perpetuate it Grand Theft Auto V with a mod.
