What a Yo Ghost?
A Feature by Paul Harrington

For years, man has lived in fear of the supernatural. Ghosts, goblins, the living dead; we see them in our dreams, horrible reflections of the darkest parts of our own souls. Our fear of what awaits after death drives us to find answers, but the simple truth is that the dead already walk among us. They come in many shapes and sizes, but today I'm here to examine one type in particular: The dreaded Yo Ghost.

First discovered by internet billionaire Lord Fyroa (Born Christian Sasuke Fyroa, 1978) in May 2008, the Yo Ghost has terrified countless millions of helpless people since it first exploded onto the stage of history. It seems these once unknown creatures were unleashed from their dank tomb by Fyroa on a mining expedition, and putting them back where they belong has proven impossible. Pandora's Box is open, and now America suffers the wrath of the Yo Ghost.

The Beggining

Fyroa was terrified of what he had unearthed, and knew he had to tell the world before the Yo Ghosts could sink their desperate tentacles into every corner of society. He was turned down by most major scientific publications, as he had neither the evidence or the sobriety to convince them of his claims. He turned instead to art.

On May 17th 2008, Fyroa wrote a short story about a young boy's first encounter with a Yo Ghost.

"*Yawn*Good morning mom."I greeted.
"Good moring to you too son."My mom said.
"I'm gonna go over to Lokewa's house!"I yelled as I entered the kitchen.
"Good be back at lunch!"My mom yelled as I walked out the door.
I walked through town greeting people as I went.
Suddenly YO!YOYO!
"Move!Everyone evacuate!We're being attacked!"A guard yelled
YO!YOOOOOOOO!YOYOYOYOYOYOYOYOOO!The guard shook and fell dead!!
I took off full speed toward my house.Trying to warn my mom.Smoke...I smelt smoke...Holy *&%#!They have set the town on fire!
"Go!Run into the forest son!"My Dad yelled as he faught off a yo ghost.
"But Dad!"
"No buts!Go!I'll get your mom!"
So I took off running full speed toward the forest.
It was night by now...I could see the light from the flames in the distance.
Yo...The cries of battle were fading.
Finaly I was safe.
I kept wandering the forest until I fell asleep exahusted.

"Muhahaha!"General Yovlog(A Yo Ghost General) laughed."I have you trapped!There is no way out!"He exclamed.Then I'll have to kill you!" I screamed with rage.
~Sasuke

Was this a true story, or the dream of a savant? Fyroa had caught a few people's attention, but he knew he would have to do something bigger if he were to truly change the world.

In June of 2008, Fyroa used a little known video game creation engine known as the OHRRPGCE to tell the story of his encounter with the Yo Ghosts. Names were changed to protect the innocent, but unlike his short story, there was no allegory here, just cold, hard reality. The game can be found here.


Screenshots of Lord Fyroa's Yo Ghost video game

Our brave Fyroa didn't have to worry about his words going unheard. The game received immediate criticism from the liberal media, including an in depth review. More importantly, people were talking. Lots of people. Here's a sampling of their thoughts.

the_dude257: nothing eye hurting here, but the characters eyes shouldnt be touching. a few flowers and weeds here and there for detail would help. peaple need reasons for the stuff they do like joining peaple and fighting. also the design of the ghosts could be better.

DragonBlood: The floor at Mayor Havin's house is very distracting, cut down the contrast on it a bit. The cliffs are downright terrible, the way you have them set up makes them appear as walls. Get rid of them, or fix them. The holes you have placed are too uniform, spread them out some, and give them different positions.

Heartbreak

Literally tens of people were affected by this game's release, most of them young, impressionable males. In the weeks that followed the game's release, reports of a spike in occult worship were appearing on local newscasts. Parents were horrified, and Fyroa was in shock. He had meant to teach people of the dangers of the Yo Ghosts, and instead had sent them running right into their waiting maws.

Fyroa knew he had to make amends, and released a statement on the future of the Yo Ghost video game.

... This pains me to say... I..have aborted Yo Ghost. I am sorry. No it wasn't a computer crash or anything of the sort. I am no longer making games that involve blood,cussing, and magic. Nor will i play them.I plan on starting a new project. I have no name yet.
~Sasuke

His fans were crushed. Without Fyroa's guidance, how would they be able to contain their panic? True, at least a dozen Yo Ghost: The Video Game related deaths were reported, but how many thousands of lives were saved by this game's wisdom? Right-wing pundit Leroy Leo weighed in on the situation.

Has King Sasuke gone to pure Catholicism?
No blood, no magic? I bet next yer gonna say no abortions too.
-Leroy Leo, the Leroy Radio Hour, Oct 17, 2008

Guests on his show gave their own thoughts on the matter at later dates.

That reminds me of the kid that game to a forum of a certain game and asked "Does this game have demons in it? Because I can't play games with demons in it." which caused a long discussion about whether certain monsters could be interpreted as demons or not.
-Rya Reisender, the Leroy Radio Hour, Oct 21, 2008

One of my little sister's friends (about 4 or 5 years ago) actually believed that if you have pictures of demons on your computer, actual demons will come and possess your computer and make it do weird crap. The kid went through and deleted all the demon graphics from his copy of RPG Maker 2000 just to make sure that didn't happen.
-Dark Blubber, the Leroy Radio Hour, Oct 22, 2008

Fyroa knew he had to do something. He never wanted to bring more pain and suffering to the world; he only wanted to educate.

Rebirth

In November 2008, Fyroa had a vision. Even if he couldn't save the world, he COULD get filthy rich off of his newfound Yo Ghost fame. Fyroa posted a message to his fans;

I am VERY happy to announce that Yo Ghost is back!!!
Hooray! I have made a few tweaks to Yo Ghost so that the no bllod magic cussing ect. rule will not interfear.
The story is the same mages are now called Elementalists.
~Sasuke

Following this message, Fyroa signed a lucrative deal with Fox Television to produce a TV series involving a fictional adventure starring the ever-popular ghosts. Realizing he could make more money selling the Yo Ghosts as an exciting new pop culture icon, rather than something to fear, Fyroa began to change his story, and portray the ghosts as heroes. This budding entrepreneur made millions overnight, and earned the title of Lord from the British government.

A Yo Ghost is extremly hard to capture, and I will not tell for fear of misuse of the informatinon. It is in the protection of The Yo Ghost Race.
All Yo Ghost who read this, you are welcome.

Imagine if I told on the internet how to catch a Yo Ghost.
Millions would learn how. The Yo Ghost race would be threatend from being caught and maybe killed. I do what I do in the best interest of the Yo Ghost.


Yo Ghost are more powerfull than Loudred , and all other pokemon,(EXCLUDING: Palkia, Dialga, Mew, Mew 2, Darkria, Lugia, and some others.) Yo Ghost cann'ot be caught using a pokeball, that is finnal my good friend. That is the truth, the solid truth.
~Lord Fyroa

Fyroa was on fire. He released a remake of his Yo Ghost video game, entitled Yo Ghost: THE BEGGINING. This new game received far kinder reviews, and was an instant success. If he couldn't stop the Yo Ghosts from spreading over the Earth, Fyroa could at the very least exploit them and use the cash money he earned to buy himself a private island free of anything undead. As we all know, ghosts cannot cross water.


Screenshots of Yo Ghost: The Beggining

Big Time

Soon, others would be trying to cash in on the Yo Ghost phenomenon. Artists and game makers alike would carelessly violate Fyroa's intellectual property to get their own slice of the pie, as seen in the following examples:


Legally distinct Yo Ghosts in Fenrir-Lunaris's Vikings of Midgard


Dr. Robotnik communes with an Yo Ghost in the German expressionist film Horse Game


Pepsi Ranger's rendition of a Yo Ghost on stained glass


A police sketch by Mr. 8-Bit, shortly after a Yo Ghost robbed the First National Bank

The Yo Ghosts had infiltrated the world after all; not through blood magic, but through social media and electronic entertainment. It is fair to say that there are very few American males ages 16-34 who are unaware of Yo Ghosts now, and some pollsters have suggested that they ghosts may be well on their way to being more widely known than the Super Mario Brothers.

Fyroa released three hip-hop albums using samples of audio he recorded during his very first encounter with the ghosts. Two have already gone platinum, and the third, released in the summer of 2009, is well on its way. So what's next for Yo Ghost? Apparently, another video game.

Big news! And I mean HUGE! Guess what... cmon guess. Yo Ghost is back I've put alot of work into it, but you all will have to wait alittle longer for the realease. Just thought I'd tell you guys. No I didn't leave you guys, it's just that I don't have my own computer so posting may be slow. AND progress on Yo Ghost will be slow, I'm just glad to be back and get Yo Ghost finished so I can work on the sequels: Yo Ghost the War and Yo Ghost the End.
~Lord Fyroa

It looks like Fyroa will have it made in the shade for decades to come.

Reality

We are all proud of Fyroa for capturing the American dream in a way few men ever do, but one fact still remains; Yo Ghosts, as lucrative as they may be, are still deadly creatures. Few who have encountered them in the real world have lived to tell the tale. Below are real-world images taken of Yo Ghosts over the past two years. None of the photographers survived. Click to view larger versions, if you dare.


A Yo Ghost hides behind an unmanned car outside of Los Angeles, CA


A faint image of a Yo Ghost taken in Attleboro, MA



A Yo Ghost descends the steps of a church in Wolfsboro, NY

That final image is perhaps the most shocking. It is the most detailed picture of a Yo Ghost to date, and in addition to this vivid shot is a video taken by a parishioner's cell phone.

The truth is that no matter how hard Fyroa promotes the image of a peaceful Yo Ghost society, these are creatures to be feared. I went out into the streets and asked real people a real question-- "If you could tell me, in one paragraph, what comes to your mind when I say the phrase... YO GHOST?"

The answers are as follows.

FL:
I once heard from a buddy of mine, that his cousin (or something) used to hang out at the docks in the Bronx, watching the shippers offload cargo from China. You see all KINDS of crazy stuff come through - jade swords, clay soldiers, and even that one time when
a dozen or so malnourished kids dropped out of a cargo container. Well, this one time, he heard someone yell out to him "YO! GHOST!", and these freakish bouncing, bobbleheaded monstrosities start leaping out of the cargo ship and attacking people. Well, this guy runs out of the area as fast as he can, and doesn't really get a good look at 'em.

---

FYS:
Before it probably would've been something like: "Yo Ghost? Is that some kind of gangsta rapper ghost that says 'yo' all the time?" But after playing Horse Game, the first thing that pops into my head is "ze dreaded YO GHOST!" (insert echo effect here.)

---

TL:
Imagine a gang of teenage street toughs calling to some nervous 4th grader before they offer him cigarettes and then steal his
backpack for kicks... "YO, KID". This is similar, but for some reason no one's fazed that the kid is a GHOST. That's what I thought at first, anyway. Now it's hard to remember the days before it was a greeting between a couple of white folks.

---

AS:
An 80s cartoon featuring the spirit of an american warfighter?

---

NM:
YO YO YO YO YO YO YO ~~~

---

BHD:
Yogurt, and then Go-gurt. From there I start thinking about whether Go-gurt is really yogurt, or just a slimy chemical concoction with
artificial flavoring. I also think about how Steve's mom used to keep it in the freezer, and how it comes in tubes like Freeze Pops.

---

MD:
I'm thinking of someone trying to get a ghost's attention by saying "Yo ghost!" And also maybe it's a ghost that keeps yelling "Yo!"

---

AP:
You do not eat YO GHOST. YO GHOST eats you.

---

NED:
I think of the book "Yo Yes" in which two little boys are addressing each other in single words, primarily only the words yo and yes to see if they want to play with each other. Can you imagine them asking a ghost?

---

MCW:
i think of the "ghost in the machine", as in EVIL DUALISM PHILOSOPHIES promoted by the ohr game walthros

---

SZ:
It's one of those trendy new yogarts right? Maybe it's an import.

---

TH
How can I be of ingesting the Yo Ghost?

---

AR
Yo Ghost draws near! Command?

---

RM
Sort of like the Fresh Prince of Bel Air, except a ghost. Basically exactly like Fresh Prince. Except Will Smith is a ghost.

---

DD
Rocky Balboa, in the first scene of Hamlet.

---

TP
This is what Goro yells to Ryo Hazuki in the afterlife.

A mix of opinions, confusion, love, and fear. Fyroa may have made his fortune, but he has left America holding the bill; a ghostly bill. As we ride the ghost train into oblivion, let us never lose sight of the fact that we alone can protect our country and our planet from this threat from beyond the grave.