Maxwells world gettin turned upside down

When I was a kid, I had a CD Rom with a few Namco arcade games on it, one of which was Ms. Pac-Man. The intermission cutscenes in that game don't feature the ghosts so prominently (although the first one does show the monsters colliding with eachother and making an audible "bonk" noise, which I found strange since I figured ghosts would just phase right through eachother). I didn't play the original Pac-Man until I was an adult, and I too had my reality shattered seeing the intermissions depict the "ghosts" tear their skin off and sew it back on. One thing I don't think you mentioned that also played heavily into the idea that they were ghosts is that there's a prominent "woo-woo-woo" noise constantly playing in the background during the game.

"We're the ghost monsters" actually made me laugh

Pac-Man expert here. The "ghosts" in Pac-Man are, no lie, animated bubble gum. Pac-Man 2 The New Adventures and Pac in Time both feature the ghost's leader, the Ghost Witch, who is busy assembling an ABC (already been chewed) gum monster. To this end she has the four spooks collecting chewed gum from across Pac-Man's hometown. Knowing that her speciality is endowing gum with life, and considering that Blinky without his "sheet" (wrapper?) looks an awful lot like a chewed wad of gum, the conclusion is obvious. Some spiritual force, represented by the eyes, animates the gum. Pac-Man can eat the gum, but not the spiritual energy, which returns to the ghost house for a new gum wad and wrapper.

Please acknowledge that "ghost" is a subset of "monster" and therefore if they are defined only as "monsters", that does not preclude them from being ghosts

I think the fact that the enemies in Packman are practically immortal, being turned into disembodied eyes which reform in the Central pod of the "maze" further cemented the idea that they were not living creatures but some sort of undead

It also probably didn't help that the fact that their eyes could fly back into their box and regenerate a body feels very noncorporeal. May or may not have been a factor.

My girlfriend is actually crying after I told her they weren't ghosts, I'm on the verge of tears too. We are incredibly obsessed and invested in them being ghosts

I never really thought about what the characters in Pac-Man are called. In Latvia, we always call them "spoki" or "призраки," which are both the same as "ghosts." About a decade ago, I came across a Vietnamese forum of people arguing if they were "ma/ghosts" or "quái vật/monsters." However, I think "ma/ghosts" is more common. This was a very interesting video!

The difference between ghost as dead person and ghost as a type of monster is fascinating. Reminds me of stuff like Scooby Doo or urban fantasy where each “race/species” of creature gets its own worldbuilding.

You forgot to mention a big thing about the sheet ghost cliche, as ghosts are invisible, they are depicting wearing sheets to make themselves visible to people.

That is a fascinating history. And yeah, if they were supposed to be ghosts in Japan, they'd have little blue flames hovering to either side of their heads, and instead of eyes, they'd probably have hands floating in front of them, like an American kid playing at being a T-rex might hold his. (If you watch in anime, ghosts always hold their hands limply before them as a "rest position," and they'll often have 'spooky person' characters naturally default to that pose, as well. And also in Japan, their "traditional ghost" costume isn't a bed sheet, but instead is wearing all white with a headband holding a pair of candles on either side of the head, lit to give the "ghostly flames" to the undead representation.) In this context, it makes sense that the "monsters" of PuckMan would've been oozes or jellies, I suppose. Explains why PuckMan eats _them_ if he gets empowered, too. Delicious gummy-monsters! What's interesting with the second and third intermissions is that they could be interpreted as the "monsters" being people in "ghost costumes," in the American sense.

“…and in this 1982 ruling from the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals” is a phrase I did not expect to hear

As a Japanese guy, this video was super interesting. “Ghost“ is often translated as “obake“ since “yuurei” has a very specific image among the culture and the depiction of a typical western ghost doesn’t fit that image. I think obake is like the ghosts of Christmas since they aren’t actual deceased spirits but a creepy otherworldly thing so I think it’s ok to refer to these monsters as ghosts in a broad sense.

Monsters can be ghosts. Ghosts can be monsters. It sounds like even though the japanese word used was monsters, Toru Iwatani the creator of the game himself intentionally designed the "monsters" in PacMan to specifically be ghosts. "Iwatani cited Casper the Friendly Ghost for the ghosts. Their simplistic design was also attributed to the limitations of the hardware at the time, only being able to display a certain amount of colors for a sprite."

There's something I think is more important to the ghost interpretation than the shape. when you defeat one of them they are immortals that turn into non-corporeal eyes that phase through walls so they can return to the regeneration center before trekking back out again. I think a lot of us understood that immortality floating through walls mechanic as something a ghost could do. Also, to some of us, "ghost" doesn't always mean a dead spirit in every context. ghost is also sometimes used as a crude catchall for non-corporeal creatures. a "ghostly being" doesn't always imply that you know what that thing actually is. Ghost is a convenient name for them, like a "Bogey" aircraft in military terms, which also has its origins from words meaning specter or ghost.

I would say “monster” would be the best interpretation of “obake” from context alone. They both seem like a genera name for a general antagonist of a story told for a purpose. Where “ghoul, ghost, goblin,” etc. are definitely more specific

To be honest I always thought of the cut-away scene where the “Ghost” rips his costume as a 4th wall breaking joke

Monster (especially モンスター) basically means generic enemy in Japanese. It is an absence of a description, not a positive statement of identity.

Actually Japan has several words that can be described as, "ghosts." For example, yokai, though yokai in the Japanese culture are different from yurei, but from the descriptions of some yokai they would fit the western definition of a ghost, but not all yokai would because it's a broad term that applies to several supernatural and mythical beings. There's a type of yokai that is a sheet of white cloth that attacks people, it's more of a wide and long ribbon of cloth, but that most westerners would consider that yokai to be a ghost. So westerners aren't, "wrong," about calling them, "ghosts," since they do fit with what westerners would recognize as ghosts in our culture. It's kind of like the distinction between, "cookie," and, "biscuit," in the United States and I think Canada as well we call it a, "cookie," but in UK it's called a, "biscuit." To us in the US a, "biscuit," is a completely different thing from a, "cookie," but that doesn't make the British wrong about calling them a, "biscuit," it doesn't make us wrong for calling it a, "cookie," it's simply a cultural difference.

I've also heard people point out that the flickering nature of the Atari 2600 ghosts (due to the game only being able to show 1 of them at once) might've made them seem more ghostly, but obviously the term was used somewhat before that.

"Part II: Where The Heck Did That Come From?" could probably be a title card in all of your videos

0:29 this image.. stop... stop stop astronaut? AND GHOSTS TOO? WE ALL KNOW IT HAD TO BE ON PURPOSE

7:43 sounds a _lot_ like how rotary phones and floppy disks have become the 'call' and 'save' icons in the Internet age, despite both those things being well gone by the time their new uses as symbols were adopted.

I don’t think I’ve ever been interested in Pac-Man, but this was a very interesting video. In fact, many of the topics you cover would not be something I would usually think about, but you make the material engaging by the amount of thought and care you put into creating your videos. While we have different interests, I think I consume and enjoy your content mostly because I feel like you are a guy who likes learning about things, and I can relate to your passion for learning.

Reminds me about a mexican beer name. The beer, made by the Moctezuma Brewery, was originally named "moctezuma beer", and it had the image of that aztec emperor on the label. But people started calling it the beer with "the indian" (el indio), and in some point Moctezuma Brewery changed it's name and today it is called "indio" (indian).

The sheet was originally a shroud. In old times, a dead body would be washed and laid out for viewing and funeral rites. Since nobody wanted to see a naked corpse, it would be wrapped in a length of white cloth called a shroud. Typically, the shroud covered the whole body except possibly the face during viewing and would be drawn over the face for burial. Since a ghost is supposed to have the appearance of the dead person, it was no surprise that he would be depicted as he or she was last seen, wrapped in a shroud. If the ghost was part of a stage play, like Hamlets Father, it would be reasonable to cut holes in the shroud for the actor to be able to see where he was. Actual shrouds were not easily available, and since they were usually wrapped around the corpse's legs and feet, it would be difficult for an actor to walk around in one. The closest practical costuming substitute would be a bedsheet. So, the most common ghost costume, especially in amateur productions and low budget silent films, was a sheet with vision holes cut in it. When a child wanted to appear as a ghost at Halloween, that was the easiest costume to make. So, the sheet and eyeholes became the stereotypical image of a ghost. It is interesting that in most descriptions of actual ghost appearances, the ghost is seen as a normal human figure wearing regular clothing.

Keep up the good content, I love videos debunking common misconceptions like this!!

The sheet/cloak/covering of some kind is a common trope with Japanese monster characters, and you will see a lot of generic ghoulish/monster type characters in anime, manga, and videogames alike depicted as just a set of eyes with some sort of disguise that obscures their true form. The lore behind this often has to do with the monster character being embarrassed to be seen because of their grotesque physical form, and often the reason they are evil is because of the ridicule or societal rejection they experienced because of their appearance. In all likelihood, the reason the monsters in Pac-Man ever wore a sheet in the first place is simply because it’s an easy, cop-out character design for a monster character that comes pre-packaged with a well-understood, easy to digest backstory.

I wonder if "Q-tarō" is more inspired by the traditional Japanese teru-teru bōzu charms. They would look like ghosts to a western viewer but in Japan are a charm to bring good weather.

This was such an interesting video, I love how many sources you looked into.

the "ghost" in the 3rd intermission where its costume falls off looks like Spongebob from the halloween episode after his ghost costume falls off to reveal his spongeless brain body lol

hey JJ, can I suggest a topic? Would be interesting if you talked about the concept of "western culture", because it's such a broad, contradictory and quite controversial subject, I think.

I remember seeing a short film in the early days of KZfaq that imagined the Pac-Man "ghosts" as terrified creatures running from a monster. I don't know if I could find it again, but I remember being fascinated by the concept

Girl: He's probably thinking about other girls. Guy: What creature is Pac Man?

When I was young, my first time seeing the Ghasts in Minecraft. I thought they were actually ghosts and I started calling them "ghosts" instead of "Ghasts". now that I'm seeing this video, I don't think they are giant ghosts. What are the Minecraft ghasts?

I think it's unfair to depict "Casper" as a learned response on the part of Iwatani. American theatrical cartoons from the 30s, 40s, and 50s were popular in Japan in the post-war period and hugely influential on the culture. Anime and Manga would look totally different today if not for the influence of things like Betty Boop. It's very likely other ghoulish imagery from these old American cartoons were an inspiration for Iwatani and perhaps "Casper" was a shorthand.

This also reminds me of the way that cartoon turtles can be depicted as 'losing' their shell, which is embarrassing for them because they are then 'naked' when really a turtle's shell is a part of its body and can no more pop off than we could misplace our bones.

“Oh no, I gotta get away from those ghost monsters!” “We’re the ghost monsters!” That shouldn’t have made me laugh but it did.

Man, do I love these weekly factoids -- nice addition to the week!

It's interesting that in the Pac-Man strategy book, published in 1982, the "ghosts" were also apparently known as "zombies" and (weirdly) "screw-eyes" by some people at the time.

I think you're too hung up on the American "ghost" in its cartoonified form being the literal spirit of a once-living person. I don't know if it really means that anymore, at least not entirely. It's more of an archetype non-corporeal or semi-corporeal monster, with general shapelessness being denoted by the draped sheet.

Personally, I think that the reason the second and third Pac-Man intermissions were hardly seen, if at all by American audiences due to the fact that they often enough were not skilled to get past the 1st one. Only people who want to reach 256 or get the Maximum Score will ever see these but due to losing lives early on they likely will not see the other animations as often

MIND. BLOWN. Also Q-Taro looks EERILY familiar to Elizabeth from Gintama. Maybe a certain gorilla doing what he does best and parodying it?

Toru Iwanti similarly also envisioned the dots as "Cookies", and still refers to them as such to this day, although they were only referred to as cookies in the Wii game Pac-man Party. All other official material simply refers to them as "Dots" or "Pac-dots" or "Pellets"

When I first saw the game Pac-man, and heard that waka-waka sound, I thought the four creatures were supposed to be squids. Later on, I heard they were ghosts so I went with it. Thanks for the video, J.J. It explains a lot.

Phenomenal video JJ, love this stuff

6:20 I like your rabbit trails, especially this one. I did not see this coming, but so glad you followed it. 8:58 Don't forget Casper the Friendly Ghost.

"its not a ghost, its a monster" monster is an non-descript word that means something unnatural or threatening, or to quote Oxford: "an imaginary creature that is typically large, ugly, and frightening.", "monster" encompasses literally anything from ghosts, werewolves, to even sentient tomatoes arguing that they cannot be ghosts because they are "monsters" is like saying pikachu cant be a pikachu because its a pokemon the intermissions are really really surprising though, im surprised ive never actually seen anyone talk about those, seeing Blinky like that is horrifying, but strangely it conflicts with the idea that pacman can eat them and that their eyes are the only thing left, because if theyre an actual fleshy creature.. well, you know that one handheld game though, you actually see Blinky flying when he chases pacman, and the original pacman arcade cabinet depiction shows Inky as flying too the idea theyre based on that one manga character (i already forgot the name) makes a lot of sense, they dont seem to really have any overarching idea of what they are by themselves

"But let us now just take a step back for a sec and discuss why this phenomenon ever occurred" In my head canon, j j used the idea of the ghosts being a subset of or even different than monsters in his American spooky creatures videos to prepare us for his pac man video that would appeal to gamers.

Ive only ever played Ms Pac-Man so those intermissions are all new to me! Thanks for the lore JJ

I actually went most of my life never knowing that those little intermission scenes existed, because I was never good enough at the game to see them. But at one of my old jobs there was an arcade cabinet in the break room, and one of my coworkers was really good at it, so I would watch him play and lose my mind over the little cut-scenes. lol

I think if any western monster is like an obake it would probably be a mimic, which is a Dungeons and Dragons creature that takes the form of something humans fine desirable to draw them in and eat them. Usually they're treasure chests or sets of armor. There are many interpretations. Some modern interpretations suggest they evolved to look this way just because mimics that look desirable to intelligent creatures are more likely to eat and thrive, but originally they're just monsters that blend into underground environments very well.

"Chubby Cherub," one of the first third party NES games to come out in America, was an Obake no Q-Taro game in Japan.

Man, I gasped when you urged me to salvage my memories of the pac man intermissions. I probably haven't seen those since I was five years old, yet I immediately thought of the foot getting caught on that thing, though I don't think I ever saw the ones after that. To be honest though, the Pac Man creatures were probably one of the first things I was ever taught to call "ghost", even before seeing a more traditional ghost. I guess at that point, my mind hadn't really established what the "rules" were what ghosts were yet.

JJ, I’ve been binge watching your videos for the past couple days now. They’re so informative and interesting, I love them! However, I have to ask, do you speak with pauses regularly? Or is that just something that comes out in the videos?

I totally love the energy of the argument with Max "What if they're not ghosts, **Maxwell?** Also, you gotta love how LegalEagle is the one reading Judge Wood's statement JSJDJDU

Life is like a game of Pac Man. You don't ever win, it just gets faster and more difficult until your demons eventually catch and kill you.

I dont ever recall seeing the Ghost ripping his Cloth. This much be a new "Mandala Effect".

What a delight this was. Thank you.

Now that I think about it, it is weird that we call them ghosts even though they can’t phase through walls.

Excellent video. JJ always seems able to find some seriously under-discussed things to talk about in videos, all while imparting historical and cultural knowledge people may have otherwise never learned. This channel is unique and valuable in a way so few are.

That cartoon clip is golden lmao “I gotta get away from those GHOST MONSTERS!” “We’re the GHOST MONSTERS!”

I feel like intermissions are far less remembered beacuse they require you to complete several rounds of the game before seeing them. The first one that your friend mentioned is the most well remembered because you only need to complete 2 rounds to see it. The one where blinky's "cloak" is torn off only plays after completing 5 rounds of the game. (A "round" is when you collect all the dots.) Due to it being an arcade game, the majority of people probably never got that far. Kind of similar to how everybody remembers level 1-1 of Super Mario bros but not nessacarily level 1-3.

When it comes to flowy garments depicting the dead, think of what most people wore when they died. If from sickness or elderly, it was likely they wore their bedclothes. For many years everyone wore nightgowns.

Also, Japanese and Western ghosts differ in some respects, like the fact that the latter are more associated with stormy wintery weather and the former with hot summer days.

I always kinda assumed we called them "ghosts" because we didn't have an English word for whatever they actually are. I always thought it was weird that "ghosts" could "die" and then resurrect as... ghosts again.

2:46 thank you for nodding at this. This was what came to my mind when I saw the title of the video.

I've been interested in retro since my early childhood (enjoying games before my time, being a late millennial/gen Z) and one of my favorite games as a little kid was Pac-Man. I always thought of them as ghosts and never thought of them as anything else. This video opened up my perspective in a way I've never thought of. Leave it to you, JJ for making me question my perspective on the games I love.

The use of 'Q' to denote mysterious/strange creatures is interesting to me too. There's obake no Q-taro in Japan, and the story of ah-Q in 1920s China.

love this guy, he asks a question, i immediately want an answer, then he answers it straight away :D

i had that shirt ordered before i was done watching , id never seen it before , loved the video JJ

Even though I grew up with the Pac-Man games from the 2000s that call them ghosts, I never really viewed them as literal ghosts; they're just ghost-like creatures that aren't actual dead spirits (with the Ghostly Adventures canon being an exception) Also, from what I can tell, the first instance of the enemies being referred to as ghosts was on the North American flyer for the first game, which referred to them as ghost monsters. Interestingly, it seems that the games for a while went back and forth on what to call them. Pac-Mania from 1987 called them monsters, then Pac-Man 2: The New Adventures from 1994 called them ghosts, then Pac-Man Arrangement from 1996 went back to calling them monsters, then Pac-Man World from 1999 went back to calling them ghosts!

The cut scenes blew my mind... So they are like worm creatures 🤣🤣🤣. So when Pac Man ate the power pellet, the ghosts turn that bluish color and their eyes go all white that I assumed they were "see through" which kinda cemented the ghost vibe for me. But of course now that I say that it brings up all kinds of issues with what the power dot is, what does it do to the "ghosts" and what is happening in the middle box where they regen... You weren't kidding about a rabbit hole 🤣🤣🤣. I will say also at that time ghosts were a pretty big deal with shows like Scooby Doo and the Ghostbusters movie coming out a couple of years later but the frickin cutscene worm creature.... The horror. Loved this JJ!! Hope everyone has a Spooktactular Saturday! 👻👻👻

I love how J.J's videos work together. Hyper-reality!

Fun fact of other misunderstanding of characters, Hello Kitty is a little British girl with a cat ear hat... despite living in a world of animal people (Please explain this to me Sanrio)... and Bettty Boop (At least initially she was a french poodle) was a dog thus her boyfriend (Bimbo) being a dog wasn't so "Controversial" at least to start.

Wow, what a great video! It's obvious you invested a lot of time and effort into this one and it really paid off. I think this is my favourite non-Canadian video in the JJ canon.

For some reason, I always thought suit and tie zombies were just, like, accountant zombies...

In interviews Iwatani actually uses the word "ゴースト" which is just a phonetic transcription of the English word "ghost".

I first called them "Goblins" because they reminded me of the "Fry Guys" of McDonalds

My first guess for what they might have been instead of ghosts was that they were actually cephalopod creatures. Cartoonized depictions of octopus and squids are a big trope in Japanese popular culture, so it wouldn’t have been a surprise if that was what they actually were.

"How the Victorian age forced Namco to change a video game booklet"

I used to watch that cartoon. I loved Pacman Fever. I played that tape until it wore out. We used to get a roll of quarters each to go to the arcade to play it. We lived in an apartment complex that had a rec room with a small arcade, and they had one Pacman machine. In May of 1982, my sister and I stayed there all day long waiting for our turn to play. Back then, you used to put your quarter up on the screen to call next game. There were quarters running all the way across the bottom of the screen. We were lucky to play 4 or 5 times a day. There was one kid in the complex who had it on Atari a little later. She was really popular for a while. I would have killed to have one at home. Now it's on my phone and I've played it once in two years

I believe that most of ppl figured that the bottom of the monster resembles torn off sheet at the bottom, which looks like ppl imitating "ghosts" from the early part of the century

What if the Obake-ness of Casper allowed us to connect to pack-man's monsters in a similar way? So it was natural for us to see them as ghosts but not spirits of the dead?

I LOVE that you used the Scott Pilgrim clip rather than saying it yourself

This video summarized: “Are the Pac-Man monsters ghosts?” “Well, no but actually yes?

NICE I watched to 1/5 of the video and thought "so this is it? What more is there to say about this topic?". I was delightfully surprised :)

You know, the more I think about it the more I realize I have few memories of playing original Pac-Man, but loads of memories playing Ms. Pac-Man, and I remember those cute little cut scenes.

I always thought of the "dots" as cheese, and pacman as a cheese wheel wanting to eat all the cheese to become whole again, idk does anyone else share that, cuz I was expecting jj to talk abt them but he didnt

11:24 The laugh is giving me everything! I love it! So cute! ^_^

one of the other reasons might be that the game regularly animates them as passing through walls to return to (and under certain circumstances leave) that starting zone...not sure which versions of the game I'm talking about though: the one I had at home did it and a couple different arcade games. one version I've played also had a powerup situation for them where they just ingored walls entirely for a couple seconds. on a related note pacman is one of the earliest games I've played that gave the impression that I'm probably the monster here.

I really enjoy these more creative videos there a nice change. Don’t let anyone discourage from doing them. Keep it up

I love how jj will explain the entire history of a certain thing just to explain his point a little more

If Pac-Man came out today, we'd call the "Ghost Monsters" Yokai. The Hundred Demon Night Parade is the main source for all of this

There's a physical medium iteration, the 'Magnetic Maze', where Blinky, Pinky, Inky and Clyde/Sue are described as 'monsters'. Obake, Youkai, what's the difference? I guess Youkai refers to both the creatures and their backstories.

If it was a ghost in the original Japanese concept I'd expect it to have one of those white headbands with the triangle bit on the front

The ghost symbol is so powerful that even after watching the video I can’t not see them as ghosts.

"I'm not gaslighting you" - Every gaslighter ever

that just changed my whole perspective of the game i've known and loved for seven years now