Books

This Hashtag Will Send Shivers Up Your Spine

by Caitlin White

Comedy Central and Chris Hardwick are at it again with their Hashtag Wars game, and this time it has a spooky twist. This week's Halloween-themed hashtag from Midnight is #ScaryStoriesIn5Words, and Twitter is already overflowing with pop cultural ghost stories.

Some Twitter users have taken the game earnestly, offering up truly chilling tales in only five words — a feat in itself. But of course, the hashtag is mostly populated by jokey references and faux horrifying tales of everyday life. (Seriously though, that wine one sends shivers up my spine.) A surprising (is it?) number of entries center on One Direction breaking up, members of One Direction getting girlfriends, and never meeting anyone from One Direction. Which could really be its own Scary Story In Five Words, "My Twitter's Full Of 1D."

As always, trolls can get a hand in there, showing just how scary the Internet can be, on Halloween and otherwise, with man after man after man making the, "She's pregnant, and it's mine" joke. Har, har, har, aren't women the worst?

But some people really dug deep and came out with some winners. A major theme was tweets in the "we are out of [blank]" vein:

Props to Ledo's for guerilla marketing and taking a different tact of "someone ate all the pizza," because that has the added bonus of the fact that one of your friends is a monster. And really, chips shouldn't exist without guacamole. Others went in the legit scary direction:

AHHHHH!

Double ahhhhhh!

This one really resonated as I scrolled and scrolled deeper into the depths of Twitter, where some of the scariness hides:

All you writers, you feel these scary stories:

How about any story that begins with "She was a jilted ex"? #ScaryStoriesIn5Words

Any city girl knows that those five words are the first step into a the deepest hell hole of your nightmares.

You see, that one is scary because it's real.

Raise your hands if you've actually dated that horror story. Oh, you can't see me but:

I mean, haven't we all?

It's funny, clever, and socially conscious. Two thumbs up.

Praise! Self-contained stories FTW!

Swipe left! Swipe left! Though, as someone who spent her high school years waitressing for a restaurant in a retirement community, I'm really sad to tell you that dating among the elderly is alive and well. Think of it this way: You'll be really happy about it when you're 80.

But really, I can't believe I have to put on heels for this.

Don't even go there. This one is way too scary.

Images: Farknot Architect/Fotolia