Oddity Archive: Episode 23 - Scary Logos (and other Nostalgic Video Terrors) 

These logo animations always fascinated me. It's not *just* the overly dramatic or eerie synth sounds playing that makes them unnerving; but the impression that all these weird abstract things are taking place in a boundless, empty void. It's like peering into a universe created for just this very specific, odd event to happen. Also, as it's all taking place in a void, you have no grasp on the relative size of anything within it, meaning what you're seeing could be absolutely massive.

This logo on furniture: "Do not remove this tag. Under penalty of law. " I thought that if you removed the tag a cop would show up at my front door to immediately haul me off to the firing squad.

What really scared me were the intermission screens between adult swim shows

I can't particularly blame kids for being unnerved by a lot of these logos. It's probably the obnoxiously loud audio and the zoom part can be seen as intimidating...or something unpleasant.

I've always liked the Universal Studios logos, the plane flying around the Earth, and how it changes through the decades.

I don't feel like typing/remembering it again, so here's my 9 month old comment from a video of the Screen Gems logo on RU-vid: I see why kids found this scary. It's pretty unsettling, especially at the time, seeing as how synthesized anything was rarely seen. The unreal sound of it could be nightmarish. Personally, I was always terrified of the THX deepnote and the MGM lion. The RCH Productions (It's always Sunny) backwards messages still creeps me out. I think the reasoning behind the fear is that the show is over; you shouldn't still be watching. You're left with that final frame of credits (usually the credits rolling fully up, leaving you with a clear picture while the final note is playing), signifying that the show is over, then there's an uncomfortable silence. Then suddenly some strange jingle with an abstract logo is staring you in the face. It's the fact that it doesn't feel like it should be there. I've always gotten that same ominous feeling from finding Easter eggs in video games and movies. It feels weird, and a little unnerving.

Oddity Archive is now one of my favorite RU-vid channels!! Where has it been all my life? Oh, that's right we didn't have RU-vid when I was born in 1956.

I"m a logo purist. I hate it when a logo I've come to love get changed over to something cold, sterile and plastic.

About Screen Gems: I think it was intended to be two rolls of film, which shared the same end-cap. Kind of an Escher effect, really.

I always figured the floating Ozma head in the L. Frank Baum movies wouldn't be as scary for the kids that saw it originally. These kids probably grew up reading the Oz books, so knew exactly who Ozma was and how she was a good character, so would've seen it as a sign of comfort that she was watching over them and smiling at them

No reference to the THX logo? Shame on you!

The Paramount logo with that LOUD orchestral stinger in the early 70s made me duck behind the covers more than once! Then I got older and realized the TVs now had a remote with a mute button.... Problem solved!

Having Asperger's syndrome, it makes me sensitive to some sounds, so I'm asking myself why I am torturing myself with these logos?

I've never had a fear of logos...although I'll admit the Erry Vision logo is a bit creepy. But when it comes to nostalgia, when I saw that f.h.e. logo I just about melted.

The FBI warnings on VHS tapes never scared me, since I couldn't read when I was a child.

One of my favorite anti-copying things is on the first My Chemical Romance disc, which reads the following: "Unauthorized duplication is a violation of applicable laws and will result in Gerard coming to your house and sucking your blood." Copy this CD, and the somewhat vampiric lead singer will feed off your greedy corpse.

In the 1980s our local TV station (in rural Australia) during an ad break would suddenly place a card on the screen with a photo of an illuminated police sign with a newsreader stating, after about 1.5secs of silence: 'This is an urgent police message: could anyone knowing the whereabouts of (named criminal) please contact (police station) urgently...do not approach this person as they may be armed...' It was bloody terrifying!

I don't usually post RU-vid comments anymore, but I have to say this. Thank you. This episode made me laugh so hard I had tears in my eyes. It didn't just do that for me, though. For this to make sense, I have to explain a bit. I've been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, and as a result, FBI warnings tend to terrify (and sometimes trigger) me. I usually have to avert my eyes because they bother me so much. This episode actually helped with that. It made me laugh at them, made me feel better about them, made those messages and thoughts loose some of their power over me. Made me see the humor in them. Made me less likely to have those thoughts when I see them. I especially loved the "several millenia in jail part; I laughed so hard at that, and that one's related to some of the worst thoughts (my major problem has been thinking that the FBI wants to put me in jail). Once again, thank you. I'm so, so glad that I discovered this RU-vid channel.

Take a look at Klasky-Csupo's logo or some early Nickelodeon bumpers (specifically the "dancing face") and tell me you aren't unnerved.

You should do an episode on MTV logos from the 90's. Those were both terrifying and creative as hell!

Back (not too long ago) I remember living by myself in my apartment, and since I didn't have cable, I used the good ol' bunny ears antenna and the only thing on late at night when I was falling asleep, was the local news channel that played late night talk shows up until about 2am. Once those ended, there was nothing left to broadcast, so the station would play this overly long national anthem (that was slightly distorted, as it was very aged) followed by a emergency broadcast like thing after. Which followed this creepy "beeeeeep" that was consistent and never stopped, along with a "station off the air" sign. I remember waking in a daze, or just about to fall asleep and hearing/seeing that and being so creeped out. It always reminded me of what the air waves would be just before a nuke hit us and there was nothing we could do. The actual "emergency broadcast system" is also super creepy when it pops up...(see comment below)

5:06 was the WGBH (Boston, MA) noise from 1977 to 1984. It was heard on some PBS shows in the 2000s.

Thank God i wasn't alive to see the floating Ozma head logo....the Grandma of all scary logos

Good news everybody, Shout! Factory released The Compleat Al on DVD for the first time on November 11, 2014. But you probably know that already.

12:26 Hey look, it's Grandpa Dracula!

These production logos never scared me--but the "technical difficulties" cards did. It took me a long time to figure out why. I had a really acute startle reflex as a kid, to the point that I was scared of popping party balloons, and what would often happen when the PLEASE STAND BY card came up was a long, unpredictable interval of silence, followed by a sudden voice announcement at a fairly high volume level, and I think I was just anticipating that sudden announcer voice out of nowhere startling me.

*WBGH logo turns on* Me: WELL LOOK AT THE TIME SO LONG SATAN!

14:44 Yep, I saw that one coming. It was also on the first Sweatin' to the Oldies tape (also with Richard Simmons), which my mom used to watch; so it makes sense that another Richard Simmons tape would use that logo.

You guys are wimps. The THX sound system test was really scary. Whenever my family watched Aladdin when I was 4, and the THX logo came on, I would run behind the couch and start crying. It wasn't the logo itself, it was the eerie sound that accompanied it.

Oh god. Was NOT expecting to see mine! “Sit BooBoo, Sit… Good dog!” That has been in so many of my nightmares and I don’t even remember which show it came after. Just that it made (and apparently still makes) my skin crawl!

When I was younger, I had a Teddy Ruxpin-like toy called the “2-XL” which ran on cassette tapes. When the cassette was almost over, it would warn you and then play a very, very loud siren that freaked the flip out of me, and still does.

And I used to scared of the EAS until I saw your episode on it. I love how you replace the scary radio-like voice from EAS with a funny computer voice.

I swear WGBH was still being used until a few years ago. It woke me out of a dead sleep one night after I fell asleep channel surfing and landed on the local PBS station. Totally remembered all the times it scared me during my childhood.

I'm not easily scared but oh dear god I feel like the OZ lady is gonna eat my soul

"Burger King Bucks" LOL

PEEEEEEEACHEEES. (DOM DOM)

I remember all of those (I think). Glad to see the Magnetic Video logo again. The very first home video label. One FBI warning that you didn't use was one used by Worldvision Home Video on their "The Addams Family" TV series LaserDiscs. They included the line "we don't know lawyers. We know cement contractors."

What your show lacks in comedic value and timing is more than made up for by the absolutely stellar awesomeness of the footage you have gathered, and the well researched supplementary information you provide is a boon to a retronaut such as myself.. You made a new follower this day, good sir. More!

been feeling stressed out from the last couple years and i keep coming back to this channel, especially this episode. keep cranking out the hits, ben.

I remember when I was little, a logo on a DVD of a Lynyrd Skynyrd concert scared the crap out of me. It was of like some sign like thing that had a bunch of nails fly into it really quickly. I remember they mixed it super loud, so everytime I watched that DVD, right after they finished playing Free Bird and the credits started, I would always go right back to the main menu. lol

What about the Klasky Ku- i mean csuop... The logo with the scary paper robot in front of an ink backdrop?

As a 3 year old, the Viacom logo scared the crap out of me. It's one of my earliest memories. I really thought it was attacking me and I remember crying after seeing it.

9:18 is the noise they use after some shows on Adult Swim, which is sometimes combined with what sounds like someone screaming NO!!!! afterwards. That still scares the shit out of me.

I'm sure many other _Sailor Moon_ fans like myself remember that "DiC" logo.

They might as well have just come out & said it on the Richard Simmons Deal-A-Meal warning: *VIOLATORS WILL BE EXECUTED!*

Love the use of the Dragnet theme at 14:45 haha!

I was about to comment about Weird Al's "don't download this song" and how it could be a great FBI warning parody just before you mentioned him. LOL, I loved his FBI warning parody, "Virus Alert" definitely reminds me of it

The king of scary logos is the ViD logo from the 90s. From Russia

Those "beware of illegal videocassettes" warnings were quite common in the UK (and far more interesting than our rather staid FBI warning screens, IMO)...was surprised to find about a dozen variants of them on YT, as well as a few homemade recreations!

That Vestron was so full of 80's goodness. The colors the sound. 1981 to 1984ish were such pivotal years for these topics. Thank you sir. This took a lot of effort. Still not sure where you came up with some of them.

This is still one of my favorite Archive vids.

What scared me the most was the DTMF dialing tones at the beginning (and in some cases, the end) of most mass-produced VHS tapes, much like what was heard at the very beginning of this video at 00:11. Is there an episode of Oddity Archive that talks about these?

I'm surprised to not see any of Disney/ Paramount's feature presentation logos from the nineties; so much of my childhood was spent lying awake in bed because of those clips.

Man, this is probably going to sound geeky as hell, but this is the first video from your channel that I've seen and I'm in love. I know I'm probably going to spend the night binging your other videos... thanks for the great content!

Some of these still make me still shiver till today 0.0 happy I'm not the only one here. None the less another great video :D

Im glad I'm not the only one who was freaked out by logos lmao

For some strange reason as a little kid I was terrified of that damn THX logo and would always cover my ears and close my eyes until it was over. It wasn't until Spy Kids replaced it with a cow mooing that I was able to enjoy it a little more

To be honest, the warning for the pirated Fantasia tape at 15:20 is actually pretty funny and clever. It's basically the FBI Warning but in layperson's terms.

It wasn't until I went on RU-vid for the first time that I leaned that many other people have childhood fears of old TV logos. I was both surprised and relieved. As a kid I could not stand the Universal "Globe of Doom" and my parents wondered why I'd be freaking out and running into the kitchen whenever it was shown, and I occasionally have nightmares about the V of Doom. I hear it zooming at me and then it feels like every strand of hair on my whole body is standing straight up. Ha ha.

Heya, great channel. Just wondering, what's the intro song?

Oh hey, I didn't expect to see a screenshot of my logo compilation video show up in your video, lol. Good catch. Your video's also pretty informative too and rather entertaining. Nice work. :)

I used to get scared of the fbi warnings,the brodcasting service and the dreaded grey screen of beeps.there was once at 6:00 in the mornings a thing called "tones and bars" I went on there and found,well colured bars and the anoying beep on a loop.

16:10 Vaporwave? :p

I used to hyperventilate to the WGBH logo.

1:59 ~ Every time the EAS goes off I always hear that in the back of my head. XD

The head cleaning tapes for VHS's use to scare the living crap out of me as a child. I would literally pop it in and run out of the room

Great videos man :) - I grew up in 80's and the protect and survive stuff about nuclear war used to freak me out

Scariest is "Horror Incorporated," a Minneapolis TV horror movie opening sequence. But the PBS one from the 70s @10:43 was unnerving for me as a kid, too.

The only logos that scared me as a kid, were the ones on those weird old BBC educational/documentary VHS tapes the teacher would have us watch when they couldn’t be bothered to make a lesson plan. I remember every time I saw the tv get rolled into the class room, I’d get so pissed off because I knew I was going to be bored out my mind for an entire hour.

When I was beginning to read/talk/insert sarcasm into daily life, my dad would say "FBI" in a deep serious tone at the beginning of every Disney VHS I had. Anyone babysitting me (and subsequently forced to watch these VHSs with me) would hear me say "FBIiiii" every time...it's not a family tradition :-) Thanks for the video, it rocks

The creepiest logo ever (in my opinion) is the Red Hour logo from 1999, it features a creepy face, and Ben Stiller shouting "RED HOUR", complete with a nice echo for that extra-creepy effect!

I helped contribute to those high view counts on those scary logo compilation videos. Yes, I have no life. I don't know why I find watching old commercials/logos/PSAs so interesting. Anyway, I'm really glad I found your video, and I'll be sure to subscribe and look through your other stuff.

I never suffered from "logophobia" as a kid, although the Mark VII logo caught me off-guard the first time I saw it at the end of a Dragnet rerun on Nick at Nite (for you Adult Swim fans, its sound effects were re-used as part of the Williams Street logo). However, those end-of-tape "video gremlins" were a different story!

As for logos, when I was in 5th grade, and at the end of A Pup Named Scooby Doo, I saw the Hanna-Barbera logo. It kind of scared me, but it actually made me question it more than scary, like, what the fuck did I just listen to? I may sound like some weirdo here, but I actually LOVE the Viacom "Wigga Wigga" logo. I think it's because I have nostalgic memories of seeing it at the end of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch back when I lived at my old house as a kid. I just love that music that plays! It fills me up with nostalgia! As for the V of Doom... it's scary as shit! First off, Viacom is an evil company to begin with, so naturally, anything that I see of them now will scare me. Second off, the ugly-looking V coming towards you may sound comedic, but it's scary! Thirdly, the music is especially dreadful. The Closet Killer is another scary fucker. I'd like to say that I thought the zoom-in was an edit by you, since you were talking about people editing logos to make them scary, so I found it funny. When I found out that it wasn't edited, I shit myself. The zoom-in and scary-ass music are scary.

Not sure if this counts but some of the Cartoons R Fun VHS tapes produced here in the UK ended extremely abruptly, cutting from the "The End" caption on the final cartoon straight to end of tape fuzz/static instead of having a black lead-out screen first.

Dude wtf i almost had a heart attack with that emergency alert system sound

@OddityArchive Have you ever thought of creating an episode (at least a mini-sode) based on screener cassettes, or cassettes loaned to video stores and critics for viewing before the actual release date?

the most scariest logo i ever remember from child hood was the United Artist logo from the 80s/90s

So happy that I found your channel :)

Good night, that FBI warning was a bit much. My Logo bete noir was the Viacom one, with that guy who was probably Frank Welker with synth on his voice roared "VIACOM!" at you. That voice scared the pants off me.

@R0ck4x3 Actually, it's called the, "Closest Killer."

The WGBH audio cue is still used on tv and radio in 2023. They’ve even kinda doubled up the end of it for emphasis.

I can remember covers for movies at the video store scaring the crap out of me. Like the movie “Troll” not the CGI cartoon with Justin Timberlake in it, No, I’m referring to the 1986 PG-13 horror film called Troll With Michael Moriarty, Shelley Hack, and the late Sonny Bono. He gets killed by the Troll, turned into a tree, But in real life, he gets killed by one when he decides to go skiing at night. But that cover with the troll with the beaty eyes really gave me nightmares. And speaking of “Nightmares”, the 1983 horror anthology film that had the movie poster with the flaming red eyes and a pair of white hands popping out of the poster, it still gives me visions of terror to this day even though I’m 45 years old as of yesterday. The movie was pretty tame when it came to whore since it had no gore, one story features Emilio Estevez as a kid who is addicted to video games that he ultimately get sucked in one, literally, And another story features horror sci-fi mainstay Lance Henriksen Playing a priest who decides to leave the mission in New Mexico because he feels he’s losing his faith however it is tested when he has pursued by a demonic black 4 x 4 which he defeats when he reaffirms his faith. I think the film was written by conservatives if they came up with horror films.

I was today years old when I discovered that the music over the _Weird Al_ FBI warning is actually _Jiminy_ by the Jimmy Fifth Band (as used at the start and end of this very video), played at half speed!

The scariest video terror I've ever seen was the PARI or the Philippine Association of Recording Industry piracy warning. It starts of with a kid with a doll on her hand. She ran to hug her dad then it suddenly cuts to her dad who died in the car, all bloody. The last one is the kid's doll covered in blood. It was all black and white style so it may have been in the 80s or 90s. It gave me nightmares when I was a kid. Up until now, I still have the copy of it.

The only logo that ever truly frightened me as a kid was the Jim Henson logo for the 1992 release of the Muppet Movie. It just came off as very loud and threatening to me. Even at 21 years old, I still get a sense of uneasiness watching it.

Been waiting for this one

I bet someone in the AVID wiki (originally the CLG Wiki) called the Columbia Sunburst logo "The Blue Sunshiney Thing" after seeing this episode.

"The Compleat Al" is included as an extra on Shout Factory's 2014 release of "UHF" on Blu-Ray.

I'm 9 years too late to ask this question, but......at 4:15 - when you (at least half-jokingly) say, "possibly to even yourself!!" - this brings up a loophole that I've always believed in since I was like 14. All these warnings saying you can't duplicate such and such production - what if the duplication you make is not of the production itself, but simply a recording of YOU watching the production, but from perfect 1:1 first-person perspective, as if you were perfectly aligned to the 4:3 ratio??

You forgot about Australia and their Roadshow Home Video logos, they are not as creepy, but menacing. Also VID creeps me out. Edit: The date is May 3rd, 2024, about 3 years after this comment was posted, so nice to see an old comment of mine that actually isn’t that cringey.

I have aspergers and seeing certain things or hearing certain things irrationally scared me as they stick with me long. My favourite of scary (to me) logo start ups were the ones from Elmo Movies. The Jim Henson Pictures logo. Kermit the Frog with his camera...... I am afraid of Kermit when he isn't on the Muppet Show or Sesame Street when I am aware of him coming so an unknown Kermit is scary as fuck for me! I used to think he was outside my window just staring at me! Ugh!!!!

These warnings used to scare me silly as a kid, then my dad bought some pirated VHS tapes home and I was on edge whenever a police car went past. Then DVD's and high speed internet started to take off and suddenly everyone was doing it!

Peaches duh duh

14:40 Who knew Richard Simmons was so serious about copyright enforcement. Speaking of which, besides the death threat, is that authorized use of the Dragnet theme?

For those curious, The Compleat Al is now on DVD thanks to Shout Factory. www.shoutfactory.com/product/the-compleat-al?product_id=3435

The only logo I was scared of was the Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer logo. I always used to run away from the ?TV when it came on, and then came back when the cartoon started.

I used to be terrified of the "SunLife" sun. SunLife is a corporation for elderly people in the UK and in the 90s and early 2000s SunLife had a sun with a face for it's logo. In the advertisements for SunLife, the sun used to have a ripple effect that made the sun's rays wriggle around. That terrified me so much that every time a SunLife advert would come on the T.V. I would have ran out of the room. I used to think it was some kind of tentacle monster thing that wanted me to die. I imagined it with lazers coming out of the eyes. I had a fairly overactive imagination when I was a child.

Thanks for this episode, there's a lot of us out there that actually enjoy Movie Logos (regardless of Scare Factor), call it a Guilty Pleasure of sorts.

That Rainbow Release logo was actually from my old RU-vid channel that I haven't had since 2013. I have never seen this episode to the end, so that was a nice surprise. I got that logo from a movie on one of the Encore stations back in 2007. I'm super excited right now, even though that channel doesn't exist anymore!