Language. Language is a mind-bending concept to grasp, when you really think about it. Just the mere thought of how large the barrier of communication can be between you and another person just like you is astonishing. Flesh and bone brought up in two different parts of the world, speaking two completely different languages, living two completely different lives, and having two completely different cultures. With this comes a difference of perception of everyday things, such as what makes us happy, or sad, or excited, or... dare I say...scared. YouTube is a hub for creators all over the world, and with this comes different takes on different content at different times. Think about it. Think of your native language and think of something that's culturally popular. Anything. Anything that you and your friends, and your friend's friends, and your family's friends would know about. Now, try communicating the popularity of this concept to someone who's from a completely different background as yourself. Someone who, per se, speaks a different language. It's difficult. It's difficult because they weren't brought up in the same way you were and may have minimal knowledge, or even a different take entirely on a topic that instilled a sense of emotion in you. KrainaGrzybówTV is an example of a web series that was separated from a good portion of the world by a language barrier. It's a web-series that, for a while, I've personally found to be extremely intriguing. However, the number one thing stopping me from watching their videos all the way through was this barrier. I just could not get past the language barrier no matter how hard I tried, or how much I wanted to. This was, however, before Nightmare Expo even existed. Those times are behind me now, and I'm finally tackling this long-awaited project to bring this magnificent web-series to light for those who just can't seem to understand it simply due to it being a Polish web-series. You and I are going to walk through their videos, tackle their themes and major translations, discuss the characters and their significance, and lastly, walk through every major theory that has been formed about this show's purpose. It's time. I hope you all are ready to learn a thing or two. Welcome to Smile Guide. "KrainaGrzybówTV", which translates to "Land of Mushrooms TV", is a show that has a particular style, resemblant of a 1980's educational show. The entire purpose of this channel is to serve as a host to a mini-series, which the creator has titled, "Smile Guide". Smile Guide is hosted by a girl named Agatha, who seems to always be wearing the same blue clothing and ominous paper eyes over her real ones. Other characters get introduced as the show progresses, and these characters are: Maggie the Squirrel, Caroline, The Jeansman, and Agatha's mother. Each episode's main purpose is to teach us, the viewer, how to do something. The thing is, this initially seems pretty innocent and easygoing, however, throughout the course of each episode, random, disturbing shots and scenes do begin to occur... Generally, after this, each episode begins to disintegrate further and further, until we're watching a distorted mess that, at the surface, appears to make absolutely no sense at all. The story for the show hits the ground running. The description for the pilot episode is as follows: "Agatha finds out how to successfully apple. Maggie the Squirrel helps her and also. Agatha's mom although she has no idea." Now, in the first episode, like we stated before, we can see a fuzzy, 1980's reminiscent video that appears to be a children's educational show. This episode, as a whole, seems to serve as a character-driven pilot for the series. We have our introductions to Agatha, her mother, and Maggie the Squirrel. The premise of this episode is to teach us "How to Apple", whereas the title in itself makes no sense. However, once we dive into it, we can start to piece together what exactly this means. Innocently, Agatha is attempting to show us "How to Apple", and this appears to be nothing more than coring the apple itself. She begins this process, however, after doing this for a short while, the video cuts to a strange interview of a dark, faceless lady, whom we could presume from the dialogue and through the description, that this is her mother. These interviews are actually a very key part to the series, as they happen in nearly every episode of Smile Guide. I want to point out a couple of notable themes to remember going forward, one being, of course, of mushrooms. A second theme that I want you to remember is the uterus that we were shown, and lastly, the apple. We're going to dive into our theories on these later. The second episode of Smile Guide is titled, "How to Make From Paper", and the description is as follows: "Agatha with Maggie the squirrel, when she wants from paper. Fortunately cow. Agatha's Mom is troubled in current situation. Agatha goes back to." In this episode, we can see some few minor differences from before. There appears to be a solid blue color covering each of the corners, and Agatha seems to be wearing glasses here, as opposed to having paper eyes directly over her skin. Take a look at this episode. This episode also marks the first mention of the word "cow", with many, many references to them littered throughout the show. Remember this as well. Smile Guide 3 seems to be different from the rest of the series, in the sense that it's the only episode that has only a trailer, and no actual episode. In this, we can see what appears to be Agatha glancing back at the camera, before backing off, running in the opposite direction in slow motion. At the end, we can see, in Polish, the words: "Smile Guide 3". A theory that's been thrown around for this episode is that it was simply created to ramp up hype for the next upload, since it was nearly two months of time between Smile Guide 2 and this upload. Some things to note for this as well: in the description, there's a link to a merchandise shop for Mushroom Land TV, and this could actually be the entire purpose behind this upload. After a long hiatus between the trailer for Smile Guide 3 and Smile Guide 4, the upload titled, "How to your hair" was uploaded. The description for this video reads, "Absence Agatha decides mail. Unfortunately her hair. Suddenly mysterious with help." Now, not much from this episode is all that different from the previous ones. The premise of this story begins with her mother telling the camera that Agatha wasn't herself and that she didn't recognize her. One thing to know right after this is the mention of the city of Garwolin, which is significant in one of the theories that I'm going to present to you shortly. After this small segment, we can see Agatha cutting her hair off while opening fan mail. During this, she's interrupted by the characters Carolina and The Jeansman, as they appear to torment her and make her act erratically; shaking uncontrollably, and laughing in a very mysterious tone. Near the end of this episode, The Jeansman and Carolina disappear, and Agatha appears confused. Distortions begin to occur after this, and Agatha appears to go bald. To close, she wakes up from a dead sleep, which is another point to remember for this video, before noticing that her foreboding mother is sitting right next to her. This episode immediately begins very strangely. For starters, it isn't actually Agatha who is speaking the opening lines, but rather, what appears to be a bald version of her, seemingly coming out of her body. After this, she wakes up and continues with her lines, almost reminiscent of falling asleep in class and suddenly jolting awake to answer a question. When she says the word "number", however, we can see her acting out, in what looks like her having a seizure, before she falls over. When this happens, a new Agatha with lipstick, and an apparent attitude, joins the party to host what they call "Telegame". Once Telegame starts, stuff really starts to hit the fan with this one. We see Agatha playing a telephone quiz with contestants, and shortly after this, the message, "What do when makes telephone?" appears on screen, followed by an appearance from Maggie the Squirrel. The game then comes to a halt, and the two of them go to talk about randomness like Agatha's age and after this, this version of Agatha begins coughing, before the video cuts to a scene in a doctor's office, where he claims that "the mushrooms are receding." Agatha then responds with the phrase, "I want to die.", before the video shows a finger getting cut off, another shot of a cow, and Agatha rubbing her face violently until it turns red. Things really begin to get nonsensical here, and... well...I'll let you check this out. So, recapping on what I've previously told you to note: We have major themes of mushrooms, the uterus, the apple, the cow, and the city of Garwolin. I'm beginning to sound like a broken record, but please remember to keep these all in mind. They will all start to make sense soon. In this last episode of Smile Guide, we're being taught "How Your Child", through a mini-segment titled "World and Kids". From the start, we can see that Agatha is accompanied by a small doll, whom we can immediately assume is her theoretical child for this installment. I'll let you check out what happens before we dig into it. So, after this, the video essentially draws to a close, with Maggie, the doll, and Agatha having a strange conversation, with each of them switching roles consistently. Agatha then grows tired of the nonsense, and then shakes Maggie to death. After this, she appears to be alone with thoughts of all the characters she's encountered, passing above her. Eventually, she appears to wake up in darkness to a strange, realistic version of Maggie, whom tells her to open her eyes to the mushroom light. This is the point in the series where we finally see Agatha's real eyes, and after she opens them, they appear to be completely white. This results in her freaking out, before the video cuts to a field. Once in this field, we can see shots of different clips that we've experienced throughout the entirety of Smile Guide. Check out this last portion: In this very last episode, that serves as sort of a swan song to the series, we can see Agatha in a field. This is, however, a real field, not the strange, distorted version that we've seen previously. This marks the first and last sense of actual normalcy in this entire series, and while here, she references her mother, who, allegedly, spooned out her eyes. I'll just leave a portion of this ending here for you. After this, the creators and actors names are revealed, and, as expected, this entire show was set up by a group of people looking to make something obscure, uncanny, and disturbing. This doesn't take away from the show at all, and honestly, and personally, this made a fan of this creator out of me. Anyway, I digress. Back to the actual show itself. What in the world does this all mean? How does the connection with Agatha and the other characters we encounter make any definitive sense at all? There are a multitude of theories surrounding this entire series. One of the most popular ones is called The Drug Theory. This is based off of one massive theme that we encounter throughout the show: Mushrooms. Mushrooms are a very potent hallucinogen, and essentially, this theory states that the entire show doesn't actually have a central plot at all. Also, the entire premise of this show and Maggie's experiences are caused solely by these mushrooms. This theory is mainly supported by the fact that, for one, the show refers to magic mushrooms multiple times. When these are consumed, users typically experience a psychedelic trip that leaves them seeing and hearing crazy and outlandish things. It's been theorized that Maggie, herself, could simply be a hallucination that has the ability to interact with Agatha. We see the two conversing, and at times, we can even see Agatha push Maggie away. Another point that supports this theory is the fact that at multiple points, we can see Agatha sleeping, and one notable example of this is at the beginning of Smile Guide 5. Other signs that Agatha is under the influence of mushrooms include the idea that the entire purpose of the peepers over her eyes is to hide her dilated pupils. Dilated pupils, if you don't know, is a side effect of taking the drug. Also, we can see from Smile Guide 1 that Maggie tells Agatha, "You're full of mushrooms!", and jumping forward to Smile Guide 5, the doctor tells her "the mushrooms are finally receding." These points, in themselves, relate directly to the potency of the effects in their respective times for Agatha. At various parts of the show, she could be experiencing a harsher trip than others, and this dialogue ultimately supports this claim entirely. Another very popular assumption surrounding this show is The Nuclear War Theory. This essentially is the idea that the entire premise of the show is all about war. This is supported in multiple ways. For beginners, if you take a look at the KrainaGrzybówTV store, you can see one shirt with Maggie the Squirrel on it. Right below her, however, is one tiny detail that says, "Since 1988". This, in itself, helped cement the idea that the show's timeline is in the late 1980's, and the significance of this all lies with the Cold War. In 1988, Poland was under the control of the Soviet Union, and jeans were a very controversial item to have. They were viewed as owning an item that did not share ownership with the government. The Soviets really didn't like this, and so, there was a widespread ban on jeans. As a result of this, jeans became a sign of freedom for everyone, and wearing them was "anti-government" or "anti-Soviet". As a corollary to this, the significance of The Jeansman rises considerably. We often see him and Carolina appearing to torment Agatha, while decked out head-to-toe in denim material. Now, think about this: Could The Jeansman and Carolina be signs of freedom for Agatha? Could they actually be the good guys who aren't really tormenting her? It's all up to speculation. Another point that I want to make in regards to this theory is the obvious nuclear bomb schematic in Smile Guide 1. At one point, we can see Agatha giving us a schematic of an apple, however, it's been widely determined that this diagram is actually of an atomic bomb. Plus... think about it... Mushroom Land TV... mushroom...clouds... resulting from atomic bombs. It all ties together in a very convincing way. Lastly with this theory, in Smile Guide 3, we see the city of Garwolin on a map. Why is this significant? Well, this was one of the major Polish cities that was damaged in World War 2. While they are in different timelines, and are nearly 40 years apart, this ultimately could represent some connection to war entirely. Yet another assumption that's gained traction is The Rape and Abuse Theory. Remember the mention of the cow from earlier, and her coring the apple in the manner that she did? Well, a theory surrounding this is that Agatha was potentially called a cow in her childhood. This is supported by her mother claiming that "Agatha was always a wallflower with her friends.", and that she was more of a loner than anything. Jumping over to the apple scene, we can see her violently coring the apple, which could entirely signify her own rape. At one point, we can see a cow with the word "Mama", which could either signify her mother and how Agatha views her, or actually how she, herself, was tormented and called a cow, eventually becoming a mother after her rape. This theory is supported by the multiple references and graphics depicting a uterus throughout the show. The only main character who seems to cause any sort of trouble for Agatha appears to be The Jeansman. It's a strong possibility that this guy is actually her rapist, randomly tormenting her as she replays memories of what happened in her head. One last major theory that I want to touch on is The Nonsense Theory. This simply states that this entire show is based on nothing at all, and the creator made it simply to get the viewer to make their own conclusions on it. Now, honestly and truly, after all of this, I personally believe that this show is a mixture of all of these, and that the creator did this on purpose. He wanted us to make multiple opinions on it, and as a result, he threw in evidence to support every major theme that we've discussed. We have the obvious, like the atomic bomb diagram, and the subtle correlations between mushrooms and mushroom clouds. We have the not-so-obvious, like the mother claiming that Agatha was always a wallflower, and the word "Mama" with the scene of the cow, and lastly, we have the safe and easy route for the audience to make the immediate mushroom connection with drugs themselves, assuming that the entire show is depicting nothing more than a bad trip. The beauty of Mushroom Land and its theories is that it truly is all of them. KrainaGrzybówTV is a historical YouTube gem. This series will be remembered for years and years to come as the show that tormented each of its viewers in a very unique and captivating way. Agatha and Maggie initially appear to be charming and lovable characters, and to be quite honest, even after seeing them lash out in the weirdest way possible, I still do think of them in a lovable light. Either that's how you see it, too, or maybe, just maybe, I'm crazy. Anyway, I digress. Go over, check out this amazing show, and fish out portions that you think could link to a new theory entirely. If you come up with one, please do leave it in the comments below. Remember though, everything is in Polish, and for the average viewer, it just might make it that much harder and that much creepier for you. Thanks to all of you for watching my explanation of KrainaGrzybówTV. I hope you all enjoyed this ride as much as I did. Keep suggesting content to me, and I'll be looking into them in the near, near future. Here, pretty soon, I may be going on a brief hiatus due to life responsibilities getting in the way, however, after this, I will be back in full force, ready to cover content that's creepier than ever. While I'm gone, feel free to check out all 30 of my other videos that I've left here on any for you guys. Trust me, you won't want to miss them. Anyway, once again, thank you so much for watching. I'll see you soon. I love you all, and as always, Good Night.
