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Japanese elementary school students discovering “channel of the dead” on their TVs

Master Blaster Mar 3, 2018
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Kids are spreading the word that a “magic button” on some remotes opens a gateway between the living and the dead.

Kids coming into this technologically advanced world are sure impressive. My one-year-old, despite still being amused by peek-a-boo, can open up YouTube on my phone and already knows how to skip ads.

And yet, sometimes the simplest things can mystify them, as evidenced by writer Kujiradake Chonosuke (@chou_nosuke on Twitter).

娘(7歳)の小学校で最近『死後の世界が映るテレビがある』という変な噂が流行っており『うちのテレビもだった！』と怖がるので何かと思ったら、アナログ放送の切替ボタンと砂嵐映像だった。今のテレビは地デジ専用だからなw 都市伝説や怪談は、こうして生まれて形を少しずつ変えて全国に広がるのかも。 pic.twitter.com/cxk7sYQNsW

— 鯨武長之介@ 発売中【PCエンジン&メガドライブ発売中止ゲーム図鑑】 (@chou_nosuke) February 28, 2018

Kujiradake explains that his seven-year-old daughter told him about a rumor that was going around school that certain TVs were able to tune in to the “world after death.” The daughter chillingly added “Our TV does too!”

She demonstrated by pressing the button that switched the television to pick up an analog signal. However, since Japan completely switched to digital many years ago, nothing appeared but static (commonly refered to as “suna arashi” or “sandstorm” in Japanese), much like what can be seen in the video below.

Children Kujiradake’s daughter’s age are growing up in a purely digital era of broadcasting and never encountered that random noise that infuriated old farts like myself because it usually meant that lightning hit something or someone didn’t pay the cable bill.

At least, they’ve never seen it first hand, but it could still easily be seen in old movies. So, what’s the most infamous use of a TV showing noise in cinematic history?

It’s hardly a Sherlock-caliber mystery, but as Kujiradake pointed out, it is interesting to see what may become the next generation’s “Bloody Mary” or “Mr. Kokkuri” in its infancy. Some comments even got a little philosophical about it.

“I heard that the sound of noise on TVs makes babies relax because its sounds just like inside the womb. So, the picture is showing the world after death and the sound is from the world before birth!”

“So, maybe…the world after death is the world before birth…whoa.”

“Well, analog broadcasting died after digital came out, so it’s kind of true.”

It also led some to reflect back on their own encounters with the random flickering of dots.

“A long time ago I woke up in the middle of the night and went to the living room. My father was there wearing earphones and staring at the static on the TV. I didn’t understand what it meant back then, but now I finally do…
…He was watching a dirty movie and changed the channel in a panic as soon as he heard me coming.”

Also, the noise once seen on TVs is simply a mishmash of various waves of energy affecting the television’s antenna and producing a random pattern of sounds and images. So, if you were to espouse the theory that the world after death does exist but in parallel with ours and on a different wavelength, then you could argue that it is being seen on these screens to some degree.

But that’s neither here nor there. What’s truly import is that I now have a great tool with which to discipline my children through fear: “What’s that? You don’t want to go to bed? Alright, let’s watch some death TV then!” I might tell them or “Watch your language young lady, or next time you’ll be sitting a time-out in front of the abyss of ruination again!”