The Man Behind the Slaughter
Part of a series on Five Nights at Freddy's. [View Related Entries]
Warning: this entry contains spoilers for Five Nights at Freddy's video game series.
About
The Man Behind the Slaughter refers to a series of ironic memes referencing a line from a fan-made Five Night's at Freddy's song "It's Been So Long" by The Living Tombstone. The line "the man behind the slaughter" describes the main antagonist of the series William Afton (aka The Purple Guy), with memes referencing the character in one way or another, often by including the line in the caption.
Origin
On December 4th, 2014, Israeli YouTube[1] musician The Living Tombstone released a single based off the plot of the 2014 game Five Nights at Freddy's 2. The chorus of the song references the main antagonist of the series Willaim Afton (also known as The Purple Guy), describing him as "the man behind the slaughter." The video received over 92 million views in six years (shown below).
It's been so long
Since I last have seen my son,
Lost to this monster,
To the man behind the slaughter.
The song did not see use in memes until on December 31st, 2019, Instagram[2] user hd_chungles posted a recaptioned webcomic edit based on the song that received over 173,000 views and 20,000 likes in three months (shown below).
Spread
In the following days, the meme received viral spread online with multiple reposts on Twitter,[3] Instagram[4][5] and iFunny.[6] On January 8th, 2020, YouTuber[7] The Acid Muskitears created another recaptioned webcomic edit of the song that received over 342,000 views in three months (shown below, left). On January 14th, 2020, iFunny[8] user CoasterCrusader posted a Barnacle Boy's Sulfur Vision meme referencing the lyric (shown below, right).
The meme format did not see viral spread until March 2020 when it gained popularity on iFunny, Twitter and Instagram. For example, on March 7th, 2020, iFunny[9] user TheEliteDidNothingWrong posted a GIF Caption that received over 430 smiles in three weeks (shown below, left). On March 12th, iFunny[10] user RemingtonV2 posted a PogChamp edit that received over 3,000 smiles in two weeks (shown below, right).
Various Examples
make you lose control pic.twitter.com/1IJyHFUgV8
— ins_step (@ins_step) March 24, 2020
Search interest
External References
[1] YouTube – Five Nights at Freddy's 2 Song – The Living Tombstone
[2] Instagram – hd_chungles
[4] Instagram – doki_doki_communist_club
[6] iFunny – CoasterCrusader
[7] YouTube – The Living Tombstone – It's Been So Long – Meme lyric song
[8] iFunny – CoasterCrusader
[9] iFunny – TheEliteDidNothingWrong
[10] iFunny – RemingtonV2
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