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Pop Culture
Jul 30, 2008, 12:55PM

The Search For "Simpsons Incest"

In 2006 AOL mistakenly let the search records of over 500,000 users become public. Luckily it was impossible to identify most of the specific individuals, but some extreme interest developed around User 927. This mysterious surfer searched the web for everything from "Testicle festivals" to "tortured Elmo." Their searches created such a buzz that a play opened in Philadelphia this year based on User 927. Here's an interview with the writer.

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Actress Emilie Krause plays 14-year-old Deena Letts in the new play User 927. Photo credit to Michael Alltop

A play about search queries might sound as enjoyable as listening to Winnie Ille Pu read entirely in Latin (I speak from experience), but AOL user 927 was no ordinary searcher. The Consumerist picked 927's queries from the complete archive and published them online in 2006, which inspired director Michael Alltop to pitch Gray on the idea of doing "a play about it."

The queries start harmlessly enough. Sure, user 927 has some medical problems ("heal time for broken legs," "human mold," "mold on humans," "skin mold") but who has the time these days to keep themselves entirely fungi-free?

But things quickly take a turn for the worse with the sudden appearance of "dog sex" at 9:28 PM one evening. Half an hour later, the queries are about flowers ("anemona," "arbutus," "aster," "pink camellia"), which lasts until 2 AM the next morning, and all appears well again. The following day, "forced rape porn" makes an appearance. "Testicle festivals" follows soon after. "Hentai pedofilia," "bdsm electricity," and "tormented elmo" (?) are entered. Things go downhill from there, getting downright unprintable (let's just say that incest, torture, and urine are involved), until we run across the not-amusing-at-all "cut into your trachea."

 

Discussion
  • All this may sound really weird or shocking at first, but if you think about it, we've all searched for some pretty weird shit on Google in the past. Just think of your weirdest search query ever; would you tell your mom what it was?

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