“The Horror at Camp Jellyjam” Really Happened to Me – Guest Post by R.L. Stine

Posted on by Dan Rice

You all know me, you know how I make a living. For decades, I’ve spooked young and old alike with my charmingly macabre tales of terror. People ask me all the time, “R.L. Stine, how do you come up with all this twisted-ass shit?” to which I usually say, “I’m just one sick fucking puppy.” Let’s face it — slime gerbils, living dummies, saying cheese or dying — you gotta be pretty loco in the fucking cerbesa to imagine all that shit. Cocaine helps, but I can’t give high-grade Colombian marching powder all the credit. If being a psycho motherfucker word-pervert is a crime, your boy is guilty as charged. One of my tales, however, is so dark, so deranged, so utterly batshit insane, even my depraved psyche couldn’t have come up with it.

Confession time — “The Horror at Camp Jellyjam” is a 100% for real fucking thing that, I shit you not, actually happened to me. God help me, I lived it.

Now that I think about it, maybe that’s why I’m such a fucked up basket case to begin with. “Monster Blood,” “The Haunted Mask,” “One Day at Horrorland,” hell, every sicko snuff-story I’ve ever written, they’ve all been my attempt to unpack and reconcile with the very real horror I very really experienced at the very real Camp Jellyjam when I was a boy. I guess it was only a matter of time before I got to getting that real-deal shit down on paper.

I don’t know what got into me at the time — I didn’t set out to do it. When I sat down at my computer that morning, I had no goal outside of cranking out another schlocky gore-porn to make the sicko Schoolastic kids fork over their milk money for another cheap thrill. Maybe someone slipped something in my breakfast Wild Turkey 101. Maybe I shouldn’t have bought my crank from that rando at Deny’s after my regular guy got shot. Or maybe, just maybe, part of me was tired of running.

I needed an inciting incident — kid moves to a new town, school gets a weird new principal, whatever the fuck, you’ve read Goosebumps — and this time the little voice inside me said “Why not use that time your parents moved you and your sister in a Uhaul trailer and the trailer got unhitched and you wound up marooned at that spooky Camp Jellyjam place? You know, with the weird culty competitions and the giant jelly-monster enslaving and eating people?” So I did.

I had every intention of pivoting back into one of my sick-fuck-make-em-ups — vampires, mummies, killer snowmen, whatever gets you off, Jack — but to my astonishment, the truth just kept pouring out. Next thing I knew, my fingers stopped hitting the keys, and it was all there. The sinister counselor Buddy. The King Coins. The giant purple blob monster I, for real, watched eat dozens of children. Before I knew it, the greatest trauma of my life was on bookshelves around the world, available to any 12-year-old pervert with $4.50 burning a hole in their pocket.

I didn’t change the names or anything. If it weren’t for the fact that everyone involved in the story besides me is either dead or in prison, I probably would have been sued to death.

What did I get for sharing my pain with the world? Closure? Catharsis? Absolution? Fuck. No. I was still the same sick fuck shell of a man I always was. The pills, the whores, the near-death brushes with auto-erotic asphyxiation, none of that shit went away, hell I doubled down. Worse of all, if you’ll notice, I kept writing Goosebumps.

Maybe that’s why I’m finally coming clean about what I experienced at Camp Jellyjam. Maybe I’m still just that scared little kid trying to put it all behind me, and maybe now the nightmares will finally stop. Yeah… and maybe priests make great babysitters. I’m at the point where any day without a needle in my arm is a good day. I gotta tell ya, I don’t think today is gonna be a good day.

Shitty Cloud Doesn’t Even Look Like an Animal or Nothing

Posted on by Ben Sobieck

MINNEAPOLIS — The appearance of an unremarkable cloud in the sky enraged pedestrians in Uptown, prompting a police response in a part of the city known for its music venues, sources confirmed.

“I was in line for a Roadkill Sushi show outside the Apocalypse Room this morning, since the city is condemning it in the afternoon. I accidentally looked up at the sky—I usually try not to—and there it was: the shittiest cloud I’ve ever seen in my life. Just a fuckin’ prolapse of meteorology. It didn’t even try to look like an animal or nothing—not even the easy ones like a worm or a dino nugget. It was the only cloud in the sky, so anyone who wanted a cloud to look at had to look at this one. I was so mad, I punched a guy. He pulled a gun, but then I showed him the cloud, and he said he understood,” said Leo Chmura, who has 22 years of amateur cloud observation experience. “I ate the caps I brought for the show, thinking they’d make the cloud more interesting to look at. Nope. Next thing I know, I think I’m in the pit with Roadkill Sushi, but I’m still on the street and there’s puddles of hair and blood and teeth everywhere. People went cloud crazy!”

The cloud also attracted attention from observers in the sky.

“I dropped the airplane 10,000 feet to get a better look at this thing,” said Ellie Lag, captain of a commercial airliner. “I thought to myself, ‘This has to be a UFO. No cloud is that shitty.’ I’ve seen millions of clouds, many of them beautiful. Not this one. If I hadn’t spent all my weather-modifying spray on that last hurricane, I would’ve chemtrailed a tornado to rip up that cloud as a ‘fuck you.’ It deserved it. I expect this sort of behavior in a nimbostratus cloud, but not a cumulus.”

Dr. Autumn Jesien, a climatologist for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), confirmed the shitty cloud printed on radar.

“Unfortunately, climate change is accelerating the shittification of clouds. Pleasing shapes like eagles, faces, religious symbols, and the Phillie Phanatic are nearly extinct,” Dr. Jesien said. “However, elephant clouds should return to that part of Minneapolis after the Apocalypse Room shuts down. The ozone layer can finally heal the hole in it caused by all the cigarette smoke.”

As of press time, the cloud successfully morphed into Glenn Danzig and left the area.

Misogynist Who Can’t Get a Second Date Starting to Wonder if Maybe It’s Him, in Addition to the Liberal Media

Posted on by RJ Atkinson

EASTON, Md. — Local misogynist Bryce Turner is starting to suspect that he, in addition to MSNBC, are to blame for his inability to convince a woman to be in his presence for even a second longer than absolutely necessary despite dozens of first dates, confirmed sources.

“I used to think it was just Rachel Maddow, and the rest of the liberal propaganda machine,” quipped Turner. “But then I realized it was maybe 10% my fault, and that I had just been projecting too much dominant energy during my dates. Look, it’s no secret females are intimidated by alpha males such as myself. I mean, showing her my Pantera fan fiction Substack, AND pictures of my guns within the first 15 minutes of meeting her must have been pretty intense. Plus she didn’t laugh at any of my jokes that I mainly took from Joe Rogan’s standup special. I should probably dumb them down, so the next one understands them. All in all, I’m proud of myself, though. It takes a strong man to look at himself in the mirror. I bet Anderson Cooper has never done that.”

One of Turner’s dates couldn’t be more turned off by him.

“He kept mentioning how much he hated CNN, and that I was one of the good ones,” said Courtney Landis. “In his Tinder profile, he said he wanted to be my knight in shining armor, which I thought was kind of cute, in an old fashioned way. But then he showed up wearing chainmail and carrying a broadsword. At first I was like ‘OK he’s eccentric. I can work with this.’ But then he rambled for over an hour about the Crusades, and how awesome it was that women weren’t allowed to go on them.”

Turner is not without hope, however.

“I’ve worked with men like Bryce before, and his path to rehabilitation is exceedingly narrow,” said relationship coach, Sarah GIlbert. “The only thing I can do for men as far gone as him is recommend a large dose of psychedelics. I’ve been helping men make personality adjustments for years, but for men like Bryce, the only hope he has is to experience ego death from a heroic dose of LSD or Ketamine. This will literally shatter his ego, and completely reshape his personality. A complete factory reset if you will.

At press time, Turner finally scored what he considers a second date, by following an earlier date to their favorite coffee shop and covertly reading Ayn Rand in the corner.

What the Fuck? “Big Score” in Heist Movie From 1990 Is $29,000

Posted on by Kyle Donley

If you’re anything like me, you like to end a nice long day of crushing it at your dead-end job by perusing Tubi for movies that you remember seeing the covers of at Blockbuster when you were a kid. The idea is, if you manage to see them all one day, you’ll finally fill that deep, dark void inside of you.

So yeah, I decided to watch this one with Billy Zane, you know the one where the cover is him running all cool with a metallic briefcase in his hand and there’s a sniper’s target on him? Opens with a really gratuitous, sepia-toned sex scene with an actress who looks like the big sister in Troll 2, but it’s not on her IMDB, so who knows? We’re talking full frontal by the time we get to the First Assistant Director credit (Tanner Skinmintz if you were curious). You know that one?

Right, so everything was going according to plan in regards to my catatonic enjoyment of the proceedings, the small bombardment of texts from my mom reminding me that I still owed her $2,700 notwithstanding. But by the time we reached the end of the first act, it’s revealed that this one last job at the Monte Carlo International Banking Institute was only going to net $29,000. And while I initially found that funny, it’s actually very distracting now.

Listen, I’m aware that inflation is a thing, but why is everyone in the film referring to $29,000 as a life-changing amount of money? There’s no way Billy Zane’s going to be able to retire, move to Panama, and start a banana farm as he post-coitally suggests to Jennifer Jason-Leigh in a hammock. Also, there are 5 of them! That’s like, $5,800 per person. Holy shit, Ernie Hudson just shot someone in the head for $5,800! These guys are literally risking their lives for 3 months’ worth of rent.

I can’t tell if this movie is just poorly written or if our economy is just that irreparably fucked. Like, now I’m looking up inflation rates on my phone which is not at all the vibe I was trying to cultivate here. It’s not like this movie is that old; it’s only been… 35 years? Fuck that’s old! Fuck, I’m old!

I just paid $81 for GrubHub, and I’m the poorest person I know. How could our economy let this happen? I should be running the goddamn banana farm! Do you realize how powerful I could be if I lived inside this movie? I could have Ernie Hudson kill my mom for the amount of money she’s asking me to pay for barely crashing her car. Reality is such bullshit.

“That Kind of Music Sounds All The Same,” Says Fucking Genius Friend Who Figured Out How Genres Work

Posted on by Stephen Bell

UPPER ARLINGTON, Ohio — Local fucking genius music critic Sam Buchman recently made very poignant critiques of all of their friends music tastes after pointing out how music within a certain genre tends to sound the same, according to peers thoroughly impressed by his ineffable insight.

“My friends as much as I love them really are philistines when it comes to understanding music,” said Buchman while carrying around a Neutral Milk Hotel record as a fashion accessory. “Everything they listen to sounds the same. Like they don’t even seem to notice that the ska music they listen to is completely dependent on guitar upstrokes and a horn section, or that reggae uses so many goddamned steel drums. I mean could it be any more contrived or dare I say derivative?”

Friends were nearly dumbfounded by Buchman’s ability to point out these musical consistencies.

“The way he was able to really break down my favorite songs by simply telling me they sucked because they sounded somewhat similar sure was something,” said friend Kaitlyn Niner. “He definitely knows what the word contrived means and doesn’t simply say it because he heard someone smarter than him say it first to describe a piece of music. It’s certainly not the case that he doesn’t even care for music but more so that he gets off on criticizing the things other people like. He’s so erudite and precise in his criticisms that certainly he deserves a fucking award or some shit.”

The Grammy awards were apparently in agreement as they announced they were going to nominate him as part of the newly created “Best Music Critic” category.

“Never have we heard of a more witty or acerbic music critic than young Mr. Buchman here,” said Grammy spokesperson Niki Patel. “His powerful vision into how shitty and repetitive so many different kinds of music are make us really think about how wrong we were to like something that hit consistent beats. It’s like how anyone who likes chocolate is wrong for pretending that chocolate is anything but a one note food without any variety because it’s all chocolate in the end. Which is why he deserves this award.”

At press time, Buchman could be seen getting into the film critic space after pointing out how many movies have similar plot structures.

Woman’s Morning Positive Affirmations Replaced with Fiona Apple’s 1997 VMAs “This World is Bullshit” Speech

Posted on by Laurie Bolewitz

NEW YORK CITY — Local woman Ashleigh Deacon officially replaced her morning positive affirmations with the entirety of Fiona Apple’s 1997 MTV Video Music Awards “this world is bullshit” speech, confirmed sources.

“I used to buy into the whole ‘manifest abundance’ thing and would start every morning with an organic smoothie and a cold splash of water while saying inspirational quotes and motivational phrases into my bathroom mirror,” the 38-year-old administrative project manager said. “It was this ‘fake it ’til you make it’ thing. I was trying to feel like a winner, someone who could conquer anything this world threw at me. But after rewatching the 1997 VMAs as I do once a month, I was inspired by Fiona’s speech. This world is bullshit, and it’s not worth conquering. So I repeat it every morning in the mirror, during traffic, and when trying to make small talk with colleagues at work until it finally sinks in.”

Neighbors have noticed a marked change in Deacon’s demeanor, and are grateful for the change of tone.

“Honestly, it’s been a nice change of pace, we share a bathroom wall and I can hear her every goddamn morning. You could tell she was on the verge of a breakdown,” said Cassandra Bolvin, Deacon’s long-time next door neighbor. “Occasionally, she’d half-ass mumble a brilliant Maya Angelou quote, and it seemed borderline disrespectful. What’s fascinating is it turns out that Apple also referenced the brilliant words of Maya Angelou in the infamous ’97 speech specifically. I think in order to tap into her own power and understand anyone’s work on a deeper level, Ashleigh just really needed to rediscover that this world is poppycock.”

Scientists have confirmed that vocally admitting reality is bullshit to yourself can help a person come to terms with the absurdity of human consciousness.

“Our brains develop neurological pathways at a very early age, creating survival techniques and coping mechanisms that may no longer serve us as adults,” said Dr. Phoenix Bailey of NYU’s Center for Neurological Study. “This individual was clearly attempting to rewire her own brain with positive affirmations, which only reinforced the self-abnegating tendencies that she learned in her childhood. Instead, she is now creating healthier, stronger neural pathways that better map the extreme reality that this world is nonsense. Though I must say, the section in which Ashleigh thanks music producer Andrew Slater every morning feels off.”

At press time, Deacon stated that she’s fully absorbed the information that “this world is bullshit” and plans to quote Apple’s sophomore album title “When the Pawn…”

Whoops: We Sat Down With Jason Voorhees Because We Thought He Was a Member of Slipknot

Posted on by Steve Packosky

Oh man, we really need to do more research before we set up our interviews. To be fair, we are not huge nu-metalheads, but that’s really no excuse. It only would have taken the most rudimentary amount of research to learn that Slipknot does not have any large, machete-wielding percussionists who wear hockey masks, so truly, we’re sorry about this. We just went full-speed ahead because we were so focused on all the clicks we’d be getting, and we weren’t thinking clearly. Again, our bad. Anyway, here’s a recap of our completely misguided attempt to interview Jason Voorhees.

We should have known something was up when the only way we were able to get him to sit down was by putting on an old, beige sweater and pretending to scold him like his mother did. Nevertheless, once he was seated across from us, we proceeded to ask him about his experience recording “Iowa,” only to be met with complete silence and a slowly rising machete. Suffice it to say, the interview came to a fairly abrupt halt when Jason stood up and started trying to decapitate us.

You could imagine our confusion as we were running for our lives from what we still assumed was a member of a prominent nu-metal band. It was only after we stumbled into that isolated shed in the woods and came across the corpse of our intern Dustin hanging upside-down from the ceiling that we realized this was not a Slipknot member thirsting for our blood. Apparently Dustin had been smoking grass in the woods during pre-marital sex again. We made a mental note to send his parents a bereavement basket and hid in a batch of what we later learned was poison sumac until Jason presumably got sick of us and gave up.

So yeah, we’re alive, thankfully, but that’s pretty small consolation when you’re completely covered in maddeningly itchy, blistering rashes. The worst part is, our editor is still expecting a full transcript of our Slipknot interview on his desk by next week. We’re hoping to overshadow our fuckup by crushing our next interview, but we’re absolutely going to have to double-check our appointment with that guy who recently escaped from an insane asylum where he had been kept since he killed his sister and her boyfriend when he was six, because he might not in fact be the bassist for Mudvayne.

Man Who Sold Burned CDs of Limewire MP3s Out of His Locker Arrested After Decades Long Manhunt

Posted on by Brian Wishart

PORTLAND, Ore. — Local man Jason Ulbrych was arrested after being accused of selling burned CDs out of his locker full of MP3s he downloaded off of Limewire while he was a teenager, ending a decades long manhunt, confirmed sources.

“Ulbrych was selling copyrighted material,” said FBI agent Norm Smith-Johnson. “We believe in upholding the law and punishing serious crimes. It took us 25 years but our team of over three dozen agents have finally tracked down the culprit who sold the burned CD that is titled with black sharpie ‘Jason’s Cool Beatz.’ We cannot have dangerous criminals selling unregulated media that contains ‘The Hampster Dance Song’ and Nelly’s ‘Hot In Herre.’ He is facing up to 20 years imprisonment for his crimes.”

Ulbrych is in custody and claims that he barely remembers selling that CD back when he was young but admits that he did the crime.

“It was something that pretty much everyone did at school,” said Ulbrych. “We heard the warnings that it was wrong and we were taking money from starving artists like Metallica and Destiny’s Child. I think I put that $5 I made towards a Linkin Park album. I will accept my punishment and hope to get out of prison soon with good behavior. I will miss seeing my lovely wife each day and I will never forgive myself for missing the birth of our daughter.”

The FBI executed the raid off of an anonymous tip who reportedly is the person Ulbrych sold the CD in question to.

“I was cruising the FBI tip site to look up serial killers and other dangerous criminals for my true crime podcast when I saw a familiar description in their Most Wanted List,” said Natalie Suzuki. “Our school was mentioned and the CD seller matched the description of that guy I was in social studies class with. I saw they were offering a $10,000 reward so I called it in. I believe in supporting artists. That’s why I always listen to my music directly from YouTube without paying for a premium service.”

At press time, Suzuki has yet to be paid the reward money and the FBI is denying they ever offered a bounty on their website despite the offer still being listed.

Trump Says if Americans In D.C. Don’t Start Cooperating He Will Call in the IDF

Posted on by The Hard Times Staff

WASHINGTON — President Trump threatened the residents of the nation’s capital by saying that if they don’t fall in line and obey the orders of American law enforcement agencies he will be forced to call in the IDF to restore order, sources confirmed.

“We are going to get this city back under control by any means necessary. I’ve order the National Guard, the FBI, the CIA, and even a couple of other agencies you havent even heard of, and these are really bad dudes, to sweep the streets. But if people decide to whine and complain I have a nice surprise for them, I’m going to call in the IDF and let them go nuts, they are already paid for by American taxpayers, we might as well use them,” said Trump. “The IDF soldiers are a different breed. They don’t give a crap about anything. I’ve seen them shoot children right in the face and not even flinch. I honestly wish we had more of that here. We could finally get rid of the radical left Antifa maniac children who have been indoctrinated by critical race theory in their preschools to hate America.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was excited about the prospect of his fighting forces on American soil.

“It’s a well-known fact that most of America is a Hamas stronghold. Cities like New York, D.C., and Los Angeles are almost entirely populated by Hamas operatives and it would be a dream to come in and open fire on anyone we suspect to be a terrorist, whether they be man, woman, child, or rescue dog,” said Netanyahu. “We are working closely with the Trump administration to be able to mobilize our troops at a moment’s notice. He has already promised us the full use of Air Force One, and the same airplane that the government seized from Jeffrey Epstein.”

Officials from the Democrat party were quick to condemn Trump’s actions.

“We will simply not stand for this. As soon as we get back from our summer recess we vow to write multiple stern emails and send them directly to the official White House email address. We also promise to stand up to this tyranny by wearing a small pin on our lapels that show we stand against fascism. We aren’t sure what that pin will look like yet, but we are bouncing around some really cool ideas,” said Hakeem Jeffries. “But, also we want to let the IDF know we support their efforts to defend themselves against any Americans who fight back against them if they are to enter our cities. We stand with the IDF in condemning any forms of anti-semitism, which includes criticizing the IDF.”

At press time, President Trump threatened to declare Martial Law in the city after seeing a few Black teenagers loitering outside of a 7-Eleven.

Six Injured at Tesla Diner After Tuna Melt Sandwich Explodes

Posted on by Ben Friedman

LOS ANGELES — Emergency crews were dispatched to the newly opened Tesla Diner after six patrons were left with life-threatening injuries as a result of one of the restaurant’s tuna melt sandwiches blowing up, witnesses have confirmed.

“It was actually a pretty smooth meal until I got to the third bite. That’s when the damn thing started smoking and then exploded searing tuna and cheese all over the place! Considering the bread can only be put out with a chemical extinguisher, I was able to walk away with only half my face burnt off. I’m a little disappointed considering it was a two month wait to get a table,” said victim Troy Williams. “Still, I have to trust Elon knows best and he’ll figure out why the tuna was sourced from an exploding fish hatchery. I’m hoping he sees my post on X and can cover my hospital stay, or at least reimburse my dinner.”

Tesla Diner’s general manager was adamant the accident was purely user error.

“While I sympathize with Mr. Williams and the family next to him who are in the ICU, upon our own internal investigation it was clear that the sandwich was being improperly consumed. He had activated ‘hands free mode’ by setting the tuna melt back onto the plate, on top of it being in direct sunlight causing it to overheat,” said Devin McCalister. “I have already compensated everyone within the blast radius with a free small coffee, and we have updated our T&S to remind patrons that saliva will compromise the structural integrity of the food.”

The L.A. health inspector noted that it was only a matter of time before tragedy struck.

“I have been here nine times to address multiple complaints, and every time I just get more excuses. Not only is their tuna inflammable, the grilled cheese gets stuck in people’s throats, the buns on the chicken sandwich don’t align, and the pecan pie has broken teeth in half in addition to being dry,” said Veronica Sutton. “Every time I try to cite this place I get doxxed and death threats from the staff. Mark my words, it’s only a matter of time before someone loses their tongue getting it stuck in a smash burger.”

As of press time, Tesla has pushed out an update to the sandwich’s safety features, but only if the diners have Neuralink installed.