I recently got the urge to rewatch Courage the Cowardly Dog. However, I’m not exactly chomping at the bit to subscribe to streaming services, and I’m low on cash for physicals, I decided to torrent the show. And it was good fun, except for a weird copy of the Freaky Fred episode in an “extras” folder. The file itself was just called “FORJASON.mp4,” and I remember being baffled as to who Jason could possibly be as I opened the file.
Here is an explanation of what I saw, in case anyone is tempted to look for this thing themselves.
It opens identically to the original Freaky Fred episode until a shot of Courage staring out the window. Total silence as it hangs on one frame until it cuts to him downstairs with Fred at the door. He looks terrified as Fred kneels down. Cut to his face, at first almost sympathetic until his grin becomes wider and wider and his mouth opens more and more to total blackness inside, almost with a CGi level of animation.
Short burst of static and then cut to Eustace in his rocking chair, silent except for faint creaking.
“Eeeegh,” Eustace groans. Subtitles are on screen from here on out.
The room darkens abruptly and Eustace says his famous “what’s huh?” Fred’s face with the deranged smile appears behind him.
Cut to black and Eustace begins to scream, but the subtitles instead read “HELLO, NEW FRIEND. MY NAME IS FRED.” The screams fade into loud, hysterical laughter.
Another burst of static. The quality is now noticeably worse, almost VHS levels with noise and all. Muriel knitting. “I wonder where Courage has gone,” she says. Cut to another silent shot of the rocking chair, now totally still, except with Eustace’s hat in it. The lights dim again and cut to black once more, now showing an even wider smile. This one isn’t Fred. It’s Eustace this time, with his glasses off and his eyes wide and showing a painfully large grin.
No screaming this time, just laughter. The subtitles now read “THE WORDS YOU SEE ARE IN YOUR HEAD.”
Another burst of static, now a shot of Courage in the bathroom. There’s an incredibly heavy vignette over everything and the camera is shaking. He frantically looks around until eventually he finds a razor, shaving bloody murder all over his head. He grins, terrified, and looks around. But, evidently, Fred isn’t working like that anymore.
The lights once more flicker. Courage whimpers and the subtitles read “I SAY, I SAID, MY NAME IS FRED.”
Pan up to the mirror and loud ambience drains into silence as Fred’s now manically-grinning face fades into view, along with Muriel, Eustace and Courage grinning as well. Their faces are low-poly 3D.
Flicker to black and back several times before the subtitles take up the entire screen.
“AND YOU’VE BEEN VERY NAUGHTY.”
A very quick, very loud buzz sounds before the last few seconds of the original episode play in original definition and the credits start, with the music lower-pitched. The subtitles glitch rapidly until eventually, over a black screen, they settle to read:
“THE NAUGHTY ONES MUST LEARN TO CHANGE THEIR FACE.”
The video then immediately closes (and at this point I’ve been rattled enough to have weird, Fred-centric dreams for the next 3 nights).
After I watched the video, I found a TXT file buried a couple of empty folders deep in the torrent, also named “FORJASON.”
It read as follows:
JASON, JASON, IN HIS BED
LOST INSIDE HIS EGO’S HEAD
PERHAPS SOME VISIONS OF DEAR FRED
WILL MAKE JASON LESS NAUGHTY.
Whoever Jason is, I’m getting some weird vibes about his fate. Some weirdo made this entire fake episode for him, so I’m not too optimistic about his living status.
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Author's Notes:
My first ever retake, and one I had to modify a bit from script form.
I had made this inspired by Vibingleaf- explaining the mentions of crude 3D models- but also was somewhat inspired by that old Courage the Cowardly Dog game thing that never really went anywhere.
I also came across something called Freaky Fred's Poem while searching for future retake subjects- dang, Creepypasta writers used to love Fred.
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