

|
#3.
Laos: Phaya Naga
It's easy to feel a little down in the morning, as you slump over your wilting shitflakes and ruminate on the day of savage tedium that lies ahead. However, such existential misery can be allayed simply by saying to oneself, "No matter how dull, desperate and lonely my life has become, I nevertheless live in a world where fish can launch fireballs." On certain stretches of the Mekong River, an evening walker can behold a magical sight. At around 8pm during the full moon of October, hundreds of egg-sized balls of red flame rise from the water like a myriad misdirected Hadoukens, floating up towards the stars, where they quietly disappear. Locals claim that these fireballs are caused by an eel called the Phaya Naga, specimens of which have allegedly been found. According to legend, the fireballs are an offering of thanks to Buddha, which seems a little ill-advised, even if you are a deity, your first reaction to being pelted with fireballs is probably not going to be, "You're welcome."
In 2003, reporters from a Thai television station claimed that the fireballs were simply tracer bullets, fired as part of the Buddhist celebrations. The Laotian government responded by arresting the reporters. How Do We Kill It? Our experience with creatures like this says that they move in a predictable pattern, and will have one vulnerable spot that is usually glowing red. Each successful strike at that spot should get it to drop power-ups and three strikes should finish it. If however the phaya naga in fact just an armed, unruly crowd, it's probably better just to go with the flow. Aim your gun at the sky and join them in trying to shoot down Buddha. #2.
Philippines: Tikbalang
Otherwise known as "The Reason Furries Still Dare To Dream" the Tikbalang is a tall, hairy humanoid with the head of a horse and legs so long that they stretch above its head when it sits down. Like the Manananggal, it makes its home in the deep forests of the Philippines, where it tries its best to convince everyone that detachable torsos are for retards. Tikbalangs are said to be transformations of aborted fetuses that have been sent back to Earth from limbo, which is nice. Folklore differs on the Tikbalang's character. To some, he is simply a trickster, enticing his victims into the forest to taunt and slap them mercilessly, then vanishing and leaving them to make their own way home. In other words, a total prick. Others give him a much more demonic aspect, claiming that he is a red-eyed hellbeast who hoof-stomps the poor victim while smoking a huge cigar. All agree that he can perfectly mimic the appearance of friends and loved ones, and that his transformation is heralded by the strong smell of tobacco. And that he's a prick.
The only thing that makes us think this isn't an invention of the furries is the total pictorial absence of female Tikbalangs with disturbingly huge breasts. How Do We Kill It? It may not be necessary, since it is possible to avoid the Tikbalang's attention by turning one's clothes inside out. It is probably best not to probe too deeply into the logic behind this. We are, after all, talking about a cigar-smoking horse monster whose favorite pastime is slapping people. #1.
Europe: Rat King
This is the historical version of the Transformers. Thanks to the wondrous adhesive power of excrement, several rats become joined at the tail, combining to form one writhing mass of filth and squeaks that spins through town like a horrendous plague-tipped cartwheel. In Medieval times, seeing a rat king was taken as a bad omen, which was a bit of a no-brainer, really. You don't have to be Nostradamus to think, "Hmm, I am currently looking at a huge ball of shit-covered rats slathering a path straight towards my face. I predict that bad things will soon happen." There are actual specimens of these in museums. The first recorded sighting of a rat king was in 1596. Sightings became rarer in the 1800s, after black rats were supplanted in Europe by their brown cousins, whose tails are presumably too slick with baby tears and the blood of puppies to entwine properly.
How Do We Kill It? Since rats trapped in this way would eventually die of starvation or dismember themselves in an effort to escape their knot of filth, the best thing to do is just lock your doors and wait inside for the next month or so. In fact, survival of the rats in such a situation would be so tenuous that most scientists believe the rat king specimens in the museums to be hoaxes, though none of them deny the existence of the one that is RIGHT BEHIND YOU, OH SHIT! If you enjoyed that, you might like our rundown of The 5 Current Genetic Experiments Most Likely to Destroy Humanity. Or check out the T Shirt designs you'll be wearing tomorrow and submit your own in the Photoshop contest in the forum. And if you're tired of finding the best Cracked has to offer on your own sign up for the Cracked Newsletter and receive the choicest articles in your inbox every Thursday morning. |
|
|
5 Self-Destructive Ways People Accidentally Cured Themselves
6 Fake Foods You (Will Wish You Didn't) Have in Your Kitchen
6 Natural Disasters That Were Caused by Human Stupidity
17 More Images You Won't Believe Aren't Photoshopped
That tikbalang reminds me of the pookah, in that its a mostly horse creature with the shape shifting gene and the love of f*****g with people in the cerebral sense. And that Kelpie, which is a shape shifting horse that lives in swamps and likes drowning people who try to ride it.
What the hell is it with these bastard horse-tricksters?
The tikbalang can actually be defeated by [any means necessary] getting on it's back and riding it 'til kingdom come. It will run, jump, try to shake you off. Once it's tired, though [and it takes an effing LONG time for it to] it will let you off and [in some versions] give you a strand of its hair so you can call it when you need a ride. It basically becomes your half-man-half-horse slave.
BDSM/bestiality fetishes might want to think of that just in case they run into a tikbalang.
I'm from the philippines and we use to have a movie, ang anak ni janice I forgot the name because its an old movie. Anyway story is she found an abandoned baby in the forest and turned out to be a tiyanak. The baby was horribly disfigured and it literally bit the neck out of the lead character, anyway it still scares me even today
I'm from the philippines, we use to have movies about mananggals and tiyanaks and tikbalangs. Nowadays writers just try to reinvent some ghost stories. Still I'm proud our myths get some attention. The most frightening creature I've watched in the movie was ang anak ni janice, where she found a baby abandoned in the forrest and it turned out to be a tiyanak and the baby would literally bite her neck or any part it could get its nasty teeth into. Still scares me
and yes.. i agree with every filipino before me.....
the tiyanak is the creepiest MF to grace the folklore :D and that's just the part where it's a baby thing :D
actually... the cigar thing you mentioned about the tikbalang belongs to a capre..... a troll that lives under banana trees that's pretty much the fluffy horsey's gay cousin in slapping people...
:D
Actually, the Tikbalang could very well have females. That only having males would actually be something furries would LOVE, since most are either gay, or claim bisexuality (yet are somehow always involved only with other men). *shrug* Did anyone see the 2009 Banzai Girls Annual? Female Tikbalang w/wedding jitters.
Nuking the bastards from orbit usually work against ANYTHING.
haha...turning your clothes is supposed to fool the tikbalang(or any other supernatural creature that's stalking you)...they'll think that they've lost youu, and they'll stop tricking you...i'm not sure how that works though...
What are the manananggaland tikbalang doing in this list of mythical creatures? They're real!
philippines is the place to see....
New word for the day: boobular. Well done, sir!
the half-naked pincer-handed chick is awesome but sorry i dont know the source try google
thats explains it xD although the chupacabra is still pretty f****n cool :)
The chupacabra was most likely omitted because just about everyone has heard of them. I think the writer was going for obscure.
why no references to the Rat King of the 80s, who lived in the sewers of New York battling teenaged mutated hero turtles
Re #7. Is it a good idea to be a flying monster with no depth perception?
Hmm... that's weird. There's an even weirder creature than the Manananggal, it's called the Burnik.
I'm probably going to get flamed for asking this, but does anyone know the source of the image for Manananggal? You know, the half-naked, pincer-handed chick? She's disturbingly hot.
7 Secrets Only Two Living People Know (For Some Reason)
6 Creepy Urban Legends That Happen to be True (Part 3!)
The 6 Creepiest Places on Earth
The Men Who Stare At Goats: New Trailer
Curse of the Duck Hunt Dog
Man...
What good are Tikbalang's huge, slap-delivering hands if there's no huge, ridiculously sized breasts to go along with it?
Furries be damned, it makes perfect sense to me(or does it? maybe he's so frustrated by the lack of boobs he turns to slapping people).