Hidden message

This article is about coded text. For text the same color as the background, see Hidden text.

A hidden message is information that is not immediately noticeable, and that must be discovered or uncovered and interpreted before it can be known. Hidden messages include backwards audio messages, hidden visual messages and symbolic or cryptic codes such as a crossword or cipher. Although there are many legitimate examples of hidden messages created with techniques such as backmasking and steganography, many so-called hidden messages are merely fanciful imaginings or apophany.

Description

The information in hidden messages is not immediately noticeable; it must be discovered or uncovered, and interpreted before it can be known. Hidden messages include backwards audio messages, hidden visual messages, and symbolic or cryptic codes such as a crossword or cipher. There are many legitimate examples of hidden messages, though many are imaginings.

Backward audio messages

A backward message in an audio recording is only fully apparent when the recording is played reversed. Some backward messages are produced by deliberate backmasking, while others are simply phonetic reversals resulting from random combinations of words. Backward messages in various mediums, including music, video games, music videos, movies, and television shows.

Backmasking

Main article: Backmasking

Backmasking is a recording technique in which a message is recorded backwards onto a track that is meant to be played forwards. It was popularized by The Beatles, who used backward vocals and instrumentation on their 1966 album Revolver. The technique has also been used to censor words or phrases for "clean" releases of songs.

Backmasking has been a controversial topic in the United States since the 1980s, when allegations of its use for Satanic purposes were made against prominent rock musicians, leading to record-burnings and proposed anti-backmasking legislation by state and federal governments. In debate are both the existence of backmasked Satanic messages and their purported ability to subliminally affect listeners.

Examples of backmasking

• "Weird Al" Yankovic uses this technique in two different songs. The first was "Nature Trail To Hell" in which he states "Satan Eats Cheese Whiz". The next song to have a backwards message was "I Remember Larry" in which he states "Wow, you must have an awful lot of free time on your hands!".
• In the computer game Doom II, a garbled message played at the start of Map 30, spoken by the "Icon of Sin", can be played backwards to hear "To win the game, you must kill me, John Romero." Romero was a programmer for the game; he put the backwards message (with distortions) in to get back at the artists who put the image of his head on the final level.
• Stanley Kubrick, in his 1999 release, Eyes Wide Shut, features a scene depicting a Satanic ritual, where the soundtrack (the song "Masked Ball") consists of a backwards Orthodox liturgy chanted in Romanian.
• The Red Dwarf episode "Backwards" features a world where time flows backwards, allowing the opportunity for many backwards-filmed scenes. One bit features Arthur Smith as a pub owner yelling at Rimmer and Kryten; when reversed, he's actually saying "I'm pointing at you, but I'm not actually addressing you; I'm addressing the one prat in the country who has bothered to get a hold of this recording, turn it round and actually work out the rubbish that I'm saying. What a poor sad life he's got!".
• In one scene of Beavis and Butt-Head Do America, Beavis and Butt-Head hallucinate, and voices are heard in the background. The voices are the two characters speaking phrases such as "Everybody go to college, study hard, study hard."
• In the Clone High episode "Raisin the Stakes", JFK falls through the cafeteria sunroof, lands, and begins to foam at the mouth and speak gibberish. The gibberish played backwards is JFK saying "I am talking backwards, and telling you to watch Clone High ... and for us to get an Emmy ... I'm saying that backwards ... 'cause it's sneaky!"
• In the "Man of Science, Man of Faith" episode of Lost, Walt Lloyd is heard speaking backwards, although fans argue on what he says.
• An episode of G.I. Joe includes the backwards message, "Anybody listening to this backwards for a secret occult message is a real dweeb", which is a reversal of an incantation spoken by Destro.
• The episode "Expiration Day", from The Brak Show, includes the message "Why are you listening to this song backwards, you could have been on a date with a girl". It is sung by Thundercleese as he was going to be shut down.
• In the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Opposite Day", one of the "Opposite" thing SpongeBob and Patrick do is speak gibberish. When played backwards appears to be based on "Why did the chicken cross the road?", as it goes:
  • SpongeBob and Patrick laughing
  • SpongeBob: To get to the opposite side!
  • Patrick: I give up.
  • SpongeBob: Hey Patrick.
• In Episode 130 of the hugely popular anime series Pokémon ("The Whistle Stop"), James accidentally starts to get eaten by one of his own Pokémon and speaks gibberish when it happens. The gibberish played backwards, says "Leo Burnett and 4Kids are the Devil! Leo Burnett!". This had been hidden in by James' voice artist, Eric Stuart, as a protest message, as he was angered when he heard 4Kids announce that the voice actors wouldn't be paid for commercial work any more (Leo Burnett was well known for his commercial work).
• During the ending theme to Cartoon Network's The Grim Adventures of Billy and Mandy, gibberish is heard at the end. The sound played backwards is Maxwell Atoms, the creator of the show, saying "No, no. This is the end of the show. You're watching it backwards!"
• There are many cases in Gravity Falls where things are said backwards. For example, in "Dreamscaperers", Gideon says "Backwards message, backwards message, backwards message" backwards. Also, the whispering at the end of the title theme that tells people how to use new ciphers as they become introduced to the show, those whispers are backwards.
• A message occurs in an episode of Bravest Warriors, the message apparently being "This is a message playing backwards".
• In the "Health & Safety" episode of Strange Hill High, when the protagonists are walking on the opposite side of the stairs, the narrator says, backwards, "Stairwalls are carefully marked for your safety. Follow designated signs and never walk in the opposite direction." Later, in the same episode, when the film starts to crumble, Templeton says "We'll never make it" backwards, and Mitchell replies, "I bet you said never in there, but at least it sounded optimistic."

Phonetic reversal

Main article: Phonetic reversal

Certain phrases produce a different phrase when their phonemes are reversed—a process known as phonetic reversal. For example, "kiss" backwards sounds like "sick", and so the title of Yoko Ono's "Kiss Kiss Kiss" sounds like "Sick Sick Sick" or "Six Six Six" backwards. The Paul is dead phenomenon was started in part because a phonetic reversal of "Number nine" (the words were constantly repeated in Revolution 9) was interpreted as "Turn me on, dead man".

According to proponents of reverse speech, phonetic reversal occurs unknowingly during normal speech.

Visual messages

Hidden messages can be created in visual mediums with techniques such as hidden text and steganography.

Examples of visual hidden messages

• In the video game Mercenary (1985) one item to pick is "Essential 12939 supply", a box with number 12939. When seen in reverse, the numbers are seen as letters "PEPSI".
• In the British game show Robot Wars, one of the robots that competed in Series 5 and 7 was a robot called "8645T". When looked a certain way, it could be read as "BEAST".
• In the 1980s, Coca-Cola released in South Australia an advertising poster featuring the reintroduced contour bottle, with a speech bubble, "Feel the Curves!!". An image hidden inside one of the ice cubes was controversial. Thousands of posters were distributed to hotels and bottle shops in Australia before the mistake was discovered by Coca-Cola management. The artist of the poster was fired and all the posters were recalled.
• Various other messages have been claimed to exist in Disney movies, some of them risque, such as the well-known allegation of an erection showing on a priest in The Little Mermaid. According to the Snopes website however, only one image "is clearly true [and] undeniably purposely inserted into the movie": images of a topless woman in two frames of The Rescuers.
• PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) had an antipathy towards PETCO, a pet food retailer in San Diego, regarding the purported mistreatment of live animals at their stores. When the San Diego Padres baseball team announced that the retailer had purchased naming rights to Petco Park stadium, PETA was unable to persuade the sports team to terminate the agreement. Later, PETA successfully purchased a commemorative display brick with what appears to be a complimentary message: "Break Open Your Cold Ones! Toast The Padres! Enjoy This Championship Organization!" However, if one takes the first letters of each word, the resulting acrostic reads "BOYCOTT PETCO". Neither PETCO nor the Padres have taken any action to remove the brick, stating that if someone walked by, they would not know it had anything to do with the PETA/PETCO feud.

External links

• Audio Reversal in Popular Culture — explanation of backmasking and phonetic reversals