Internet Culture

Pronunciation Manual parodies Pronunciation Book’s creepy countdown

Pronunciation Book has gone off the rails, and its parody account has followed.

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Gaby Dunn

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Now that Pronunciation Book has gone off the rails, it’s only fitting that its longtime parody, Pronunciation Manual, start doing the same.

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For three years, the YouTube channel Pronunciation Book was a simple place where videos teaching non-English speakers how to say English words were churned out regularly. A male voice reads each of the words, which are displayed in black text on a white background, sometimes providing a sample sentence to shw the word’s usage. 

In July, Pronunciation Book’s content abruptly changed, growing into a mysterious sinister countdown from the number 77. Each video in the countdown ends with an ominous “Something is going to happen in X days” which sparked an intense investigation on 4chan, Reddit, and other forums, resulting in a lengthy crowdsourced Google Doc that compiled more than a dozen theories.

Not one to stop copycatting, Pronunciation Manual, which essentially makes the same videos but with hilariously incorrect pronunciations has started its own bizarre countdown.

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We’ve learned that Pronunciation Book’s videos are a viral marketing campaign leading to a big media release. We’ve speculated it could be foreshadowing a reboot of Battlestar Galactica

Wonder what Pronunciation Manual’s countdown is leading up to? A new Harry Potter series following Neville Longbottom? A reboot of the reboot of Doctor Who? Nothing at all?

It’s probably the last one.

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Photo via Kara Allyson//Flickr

 
The Daily Dot