Trevor Henderson is a case study for how little society and the internet respects artists and their work. His creatures were robbed from him and reposted to the point they’re not even his anymore. It’s actually tragic
The hilarious one is summoning a god via getting kills (sacrifices) in Fortnite because the god is so powerful it can't distinguish the difference between a game and our real life
A few years back I was made aware that the moderators that run the SCP site were very cliquey and if you had done anything that itched one of them wrong you were basically SOL.
Also they looked the other way while one of the moderators was grooming underage girls and then acted like they totally didn't know it was going on.
I started hating SCP way back because the the constant "super powerful, destroy the universe" characters that exist. The gods and magician things just made me eye roll.
Yeah, I always liked the ones that were odd but didn't do anything catastrophic. Like the year book that when you pick it up, you think its yours and believe you actually went to that high school. I do like the slightly goofy ones like SCP-3899 since its got that weird pulp comic humor I enjoy.
I don't care about Dark Evil Death Mystery Man who must be kept in a box and have exactly 12 left ears sacrificed to him (and 13 on leap year) or he'll unleash the Shadow Curse Plague Virus onto humanity.
I care about things like a silly pen that always seems to be found in someone's pocket when they need a pen right now but can't find any of their good ones, but it always writes like it was left uncapped for a bit too long so each time you use it, it's a really big hassle, and once a major political figure tried to sign a peace treaty with it and almost caused a big political kerfuffle because of it.
The SCP isn't interesting when the core of it is "world ending threat." It's interesting when it's something seemingly weird/relatively innocent, but it has to be contained BECAUSE it can cause some issues.
I don’t understand the process of submitting there honestly, some of the dumbest stuff is accepted, with some that’s just straight up fetish content that that virus that makes people lactate. I don’t care if people are into that, write whatever you want, but for this? It’s so rare to find one of the cool ones now, your idea is what I wish there was more of.
My favorite is 4494. The personification of the Concept of Justice and Fighting Crime who is also a shadow covered vigilante who plays video games in his free time.
That's not really the core of the site nowadays though. If it is something astronomically powerful, the point isn't that it's powerful. Often its an exploration of something else, such as what living in a world made of wet tissue paper is like or how it's actually a really friendly thing once it's taught correctly (SCP-5031 my beloved)
Didn't they allow an article about a fucking gay sentient satellite/probe in outer space?
Yeah, because it was a good story.
Why couldn't his articles be allowed?
Because he never submitted any. That last comment was completely made up. Trevor doesn't even have an SCP wikidot account, and he never tried to submit stories to SCP. That's not even how SCP submissions works. No one gets "rejected" - if you get under 10 downvotes, it's automatically deleted.
"Creepy dude with a lil lore" Isnt particularly popular on the wiki, assuming he tried to shape one of his creatures into an article, it might have just not resonated with people. Personally I think his stuff is perfectly fine in the form it is, trying to shoehorn it into an SCP format would detract from it imo.
Moderation has 0 say on what is uploaded to the site past it having to be compatible with CC by SA 3.0. Articles on the site have a ranking in which any member of the site can upvote or down vote an article. An article only gets deleted if it is non-compliant, or if its ranking get to -10 overall for 24 hours, or -15 at all.
Hello- not sure where you heard this or if you just made it up whole-cloth, but this isn't true. SCP articles are voted on by the community collectively, Henderson has never posted anything to the site and he's never stated an intention to replace SCP with his works
It's a shame how scp does that to alpt of different creators and is actually very gatekeepy you just dont hear about the others because their stories either never got published because theycwere intended for scp or they never got big like his work did so it never sees the light of day
To be honest, I assumed thar Long Horse was a creepypasta inspired by the painting, and not something Trevor made themselves, entirely based on how the post was worded. I read the story once forever ago, but didn't remember who wrote it.
If thats not the case, thenin what way has it been "coopted"?
"Untitled 4" by Izumi Katō can be said to have been coopted, as most people are likely to only know it as SCP-173, but thats not the case here.
Any creepypasta made about Long Horse was not made by Trevor. All of the lore about it is on his posts. Other people decide that his creatures are free to use and make their own stories, but they're not random internet pictures that anyone can do whatever with. They're literally his OCs
trevor henderson posts most if not all of his art depicting his creatures to his instagram (slimyswampghost) with little lore blurbs that he expands on if he draws them more, which was really awesome to see. if you're at all interested i recommend just browsing some of his older original posts
He also has a podcast on spotify called "Mayfair Watchers Society", with each episode focusing on one of his creatures. Some episodes also have overarching storylines.
here you are, i either misremembered his @ or he changed it. here's his linktree too so you can check him out everywhere: https://linktr.ee/slimyswampghost
SCP foundation (the page) had to actively cull people from copy pasting their work to there.
I remember there being a big announcement about that.
And I think that lead to several 173 redesigns as well in other projects and removal of the picture entirely on the page.
I think some of the worse things that happened were copyright trolls who took, stole and then copyrighted Trevors own content. Tragic really, and a good reminder that copyright isn't protecting artists but allows companies bully people into submission and steal stiff into their own name.
But you can't copyright existing works? Even if you didn't file an official copyright first, the creation of it automatically gives you the copywrite to it (assuming that you were the first to create it which is the majority of Henderson's works)
sometimes with how internet memes (as a concept, not just the funny ones) are, it can be incredibly easy to lose the source of whatever is being passed around or built upon or whatever, but what really frustrates me about the case of trevor is that his name is so obviously and explicitly tied to all of his creatures.
during the peak era of his work's popularity with the internet (around 2020-2022) every single video or post or artwork related to one of his creatures could not be separated from the name 'trevor henderson.' it was always 'trevor henderson creatures,' which showed that the appreciation of the artist was once there until it got too big and 'trevor henderson' became less of a person and more of an identifier for what group of little freaks one was talking about
The SCPication of the Backrooms annoys me. An infinite maze you can accidentally end up in that's a sort of glitch in reality, with in the implication that something unknown might be in there and either it will get you or the starvation and dehydration will. Is already really good.
Adding a bunch of shit that categorizes it and adds more crap to it bogs down the concept so much. It makes the unknown known, thus less scary. It sucks.
I relate to this. I liked the idea of the backrooms in its 1st iteration, I'm a big liminal space horror fan, if you haven't read house of leaves you should. Though, I know not everyone understands this kind of horror, especially kids.
They added monsters, rules, structure to the backrooms. They don't understand why it becomes less scary when they add these things. Even monsters are comforting I can face monsters,
But inevitable nothingness, endless meaninglessness, is so uncomfortable.
"The backrooms has to have something in it."
No, it doesn't. It would be comforting if we found something in it, but it must have nothing, it must be nothing, it has no obligation to any expectation. Some people don't see it, but nothing being there at all, a vast space for nothing, of nothing, and you stuck inside- that's horrifying, so horrifying anything at all would be comforting. Anything that isn't nothing, even a monster.
It never actually says what though, just says that "if you hear something, it definitely heard you".
Could be monsters or could be other creatures that fell into the backrooms. Imagine running into a starving leopard that got trapped there ages ago. I've never seen an interpretation of the backrooms that does that.
Backrooms has always had monsters in it, but I do agree honestly.
Also I really wanna read house of leaves, the story sounds right up my alley, but I can’t get past how the book is structured. Not to say it’s bad, mind you, it’s very creative and very well done from what I’ve seen, b her it’s just not for me.
I think SCP has too many overpowered murder monsters, where are the more unique ones that actually feel mysterious and anomalous? I don’t want another 682 or 096, sure they’re cool, but they’re overdone. I want more original SCPs that actually fit the theme instead of being someone’s overpowered OC.
It's not some big scary monster that can kill you, it's a VHS tape of Ronald Reagan that acts really weird in a disturbing way. And it's more unnerving than basically any other article I've read.
There's a more comical version of this one in SCP-3006, featuring that old Robbie rotten We Are Number One music video that got memed on. In this instance, the number of Robbies doubled in every scene, and it had them continue multiplying between watches. It focuses on all the Robbie Rottens trying to figure out how they could possibly stay true to the video title as exponentially more Robbies are required to appear. It's a decent laugh and a funny riff on the spooky horrible fate of the people in the basketball game recording
There’s thousands upon thousands of articles. Most are like you describe it’s just those ones don’t get the insane amount of upvotes and fan art that the keter/euclid monsters get. If you haven’t read Infinite IKEA that’s probably the best non monster article by far and 087 is like one of the founding fathers of SCP.
stop it they're trying to larp as jaded scene veterans, they don't actually read any of the articles they just circle jerk about muh strange objects being better then the murderhobo creatures (which, ironically, are most of the original scp's they glaze so much)
One my personal favorites is SCP 2030, Laugh is Fun, I feel like there’s a lot you could do with it, regarding the episodes in the “Laugh is Fun” show.
The SCP wiki does acknowledge that there is no single defining lore, but rather subjects and various stories involving them. It is essentislly a creative sandbox that sometimes spits out fire. Some of the best media of SCP foundations comes from focusing into one part of lore. Some of my favorites being "There is no antimemetics division" and the various breeds of Sarkites.
It is really a pick and choose, you browse the site and you might find something cool.
What have you read about the foundation? Not even the people from the page like overpowered creatures, they get culled unless theres something really cool about them
Have you read an SCP before? After series 1, most SCPs that stick around actually have a story and if they are overpowered, it's used to simply create a believeable story. SCP-5031, despite being a big monster that when no observed could slice you open, it not about how cool and scary it is but is instead about the raising of a child.
I used to only interact with the scp community through those animated content farms. Then, sometime in middle school, I started actually reading the wiki. And I'm so glad I did, I never knew about the canons or 90% of the GOIs
the interest in his work died down like 3 years ago im aware but IM still a fan and i WONT forgive how they favored siren head and cartoon cat over literally any other really neat little guy
edit: as ive seen many interested in trevors work, here is his instagram, his bluesky, and his linktree for all other socials! check him out he's very important to me and really talented!
Long horse got some respect and appreciation. O do think there were other interesting characters though that should’ve gained more popularity. Like big Charlie and Mr mascot
theres so much untapped potential in literally all of his work. im not ENTIRELY against people taking source material in a new creative direction (as thats basically all fan material ever) and i wish people appreciated and paid more respect to some of his other creatures like anxious dogs or chicken ghost or whatever it is, but the way it was basically ripped from trevor without much of anything from the source material besides the design leaves a very, very poor taste in my mouth
Trevor Henderson is an online artist who made many popular monster designs, putting them into real world images to make unsettling artwork as seen above. But because the internet is the internet, people began to repost the monsters everywhere without any context (typically in YouTube videos with unsettling sounds), as well as ignore the established “lore” he set out for them.
Kinda wish the OP would have explained that better.
It’s not so much that as never crediting him as the artist because they got the original image from someone else. Think of it like a virtual game of telephone. So in the above example, Long Horse, Trevor wrote that the character is actually friendly but just unsettling. So someone uses the video in a creepy image collage, and someone else sees it but isn’t informed that the original artist is Trevor. So they take it, post it, and someone else sees it, doesn’t know anything about the character or Trevor, and assumes “clearly this is an evil monster” before sharing the image with the claim it’s evil.
So that’s where the complaints come from from, less that people are sharing art but more of never crediting the artist.
Trevor Henderson is an artist known to create monsters such as the very popular Siren Head, Long Horse, and Cartoon Cat, plus loads more
Basically OP dislikes how to internet co-opted (practically took over) the entire concept, world building and creatures, without any real rights to do so, to the point the media is hardly credible to the original artist
i lurk this subreddit quite often and i guess i dont click on enough posts to understand the audience i should go for rather than shouting into the void, thats my bad
the replies to your comment are pretty accurate to what im saying though!
Same. I had to look it up but I did not know this guy created Siren Head which is crazy to me because I always thought it had a similar origin as Slender Man as just an internet creation without a clear "creator."
I hated seeing his characters, especially Siren Head, being used to make shitty brainrot content. I'm glad that "the internet" has moved on from his work but it just sucks that genuinely cool ideas and works get so warped that they lose all identity and meaning.
I ain't gonna gatekeep anyone but shit like that makes me second guess sharing cool stuff like that with other people.
SCP is so bankrupt now. There’s a reason so many of the new articles now need to have been co written by “popular” personalities on that site. They all follow what’s popular even if it’s boring
In my honest opinion, all the best content is more recent (like 2020s) but I've also been reading unveiled, which is an entire canon. But also really good
trevor himself seemed to neglect them but i really love the idea of 'massive creatures symbolic of the end times,' which is actually explored in the excellent short film titled Creatures of the End Time
There's something mesmerizing about observing absurdly massive creatures just, doing their own thing, and due to them appearing in the darkness, its hard to even comprehend their true size
One of my favorites is Breaking News. He's just so enigmatic and unsettling, and you feel the immense feeling of danger he's supposed to portray. It makes me scared to know what his eyes might look like
There is a fine line in internet popularity where you want to strike that happy medium. Too small and it feels like you go underappreciated, too much and it blows way out of your control. There are several examples of games, studios, companies and fandoms in general that reach that "Goldilocks Zone", not too much attention, but enough attention that it forms a nice little community.
Basically once your niche fandom breaks into the mainstream it's all over, I'd say it's better for something to be underrated than overrated.
The community is split between those who go on the wiki, and those who get their stuff from other mediums. The issue is that there are far too many content farms that only ever highlight the murder monsters without including any of the story. And if you want any content about different Canons or lesser known gois, then you can just forget it
The problem was that he followed the inspiration a little too closely.
Creepy photoshop or digitally drawn images in this kind of style, posted out of the blue by artists for fun, have been a thing since the 90s, it's an ancient thing in internet terms and we've all seen examples of the idea over the past few decades, long before Henderson released any of his work.
These sorts of images were the inspiration for a ton of SCPs to begin with.
Henderson's pieces are clearly drawing inspiration from and trying to imitate this long standing piece of internet culture, but due to being too faithful to that inspiration, all his attempts in expanding upon his designs with stories and lore were undermined from the start.
Without an element embedded in the pieces themselves to clearly communicate that "this is part of a story, not some random image", they ended up easily becoming examples of the very thing that inspired them.
In short, Trevor Henderson had/has some really cool art of monsters he creates and drops like a line or two of info about and moves on to the next, it got popular and then people starting making lore and just overcomplicating or ruining things, as an example see siren head or cartoon cat, which both got turned into content farm characters unfortunately
Is there anywhere I can read about his creatures? They sound interesting but when I tried to look his name up on YouTube to see if there was any lore about them all I found was content farms.
It's really just Cartoon Cat and Siren Head the ones that were disrespected and defiled the most, the rest were either still ruined but not that much or nobody really tainted them at all, besides those two i can't really think of any other monsters that ended up turning into content farm slop
I love Nervous Houseguest and The Man With The Upside-down Face, something about them is so cool to me. Bonesworth is also really funny to me as a concept, like imagine if Red from Angry Birds decided you were "his favorite" and followed you around like a doofus.
so i was in hospital and there was some 7yo placed next to me and he was watching some yt kids stuff without headphones, even tho in my current state i heard only bits and pieces, it mentioned alot of trevor henderson creatures
To be fair, Mayfair Watchers Society was hooooribly written. I'm a big fan of Trevors but others are clearly not the only one who can muck up his creations.
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u/BaeIz Mar 14 '26
Trevor Henderson is a case study for how little society and the internet respects artists and their work. His creatures were robbed from him and reposted to the point they’re not even his anymore. It’s actually tragic