Game Theory: There's No Place Like HOME (Welcome Home)

it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood a beautiful day for a neighbor could you be mine would you be mine could you be my would you be my name [Music] [Applause] hello Internet welcome to Game Theory the show that hopes to make this day a special day by just being itself and you can make my day very special by gently and kindly tapping that subscribe button you know that original quote is nothing short of iconic attributed to one man in particular Fred Rogers host of the show Mr Rogers Neighborhood no single man has done so much for Children's Entertainment or redneck cardigan sweaters I think it's fairly safe to say that every kid who grew up between 1968 and 2001 are at least passingly familiar with his work an educational show hosted on PBS that encouraged respect compassion kindness integrity and humility it was simple it was heartwarming and it became one of the longest running kid shows of all time bested only by Sesame Street in 2003 but when you make an impact on kids lives inevitably something strange happens when those kids grow up they begin to explore their Nostalgia but they give it a new twist to transform it into something original and nowhere else is that more true than here on the internet where everything gets thrown into the pop culture grinder to be remixed and melted together together until something inevitably pops out at the other end sometimes it's good sometimes it's evil sometimes it's Welcome Home the latest spooky craze to capture the imagination of the internet if this hasn't been flooding your content feed lately I'd be surprised it has been everywhere and for good reason the premise behind it all is that this is a website dedicated to recovering pieces of lost media from an old 70s show called fittingly enough welcome home a kids educational series that suddenly went off the air and disappeared even its production company went completely silent in that way it's very reminiscent of hello puppets if you happen to remember that one as we explore the website we can learn more about the residents of the neighborhood called home and it's your typical children's edutainment roster people like Rumbi Frank joyful Julie goofy but Street wise Barnaby but the most important character is the lead Wally darling a character who's one part Mr Rogers one part Sesame Street and with just a dash of Bob Ross thrown in because the internet do what the internet gonna do exploring the website we learned that episodes of the show would revolve around Wally learning a lesson going on adventures and and drawing and painting with viewers it all sounds quite idyllic really and it is at least until you look beneath the surface as you explore the website you get a sense that not everything is right in this neighborhood links don't seem to work as they should text appears to be overlapping out of alignment or hidden entirely and there's this weird image of Wally just looking mighty sauce that's not Sinister at all there he is ladies and gentlemen this isn't just a website it's an ARG an artfully realized Gallery full of drawings cardboard models vinyl records a physical puppet and of course puzzles lots of puzzles and they're all hiding a suspicious amount of lore something sinister is going on in this neighborhood and we're about to figure out what it is but before we dive in I do want to take a minute to remind everyone that well yes websites with Secrets like this are exciting we have to be kind and respectful while we explore welcome home's Creator clown has been very explicit in saying that they welcome theorizing but they also ask that you don't share them on any Theory videos for fear of the video influencing their intended narrative additionally as always with any website based mystery remember our five rules that we've covered in past episodes never publish private information stick to publicly available information do not trespass do not contact or harass individuals and keep the discussion centralized to help with that there's going to be a link in the description for the Mega thread on the game theorist subreddit but these rules are especially true for this particular series rumors have been circulating in the community that clown has actually been doxed fortunately they put out a post confirming that that isn't true that said let's just keep it that way secondly as I mentioned before online discussion about this world and its characters has blown up across Tick Tock and YouTube and because of how quickly and aggressively this has gained in popularity clowns currently taking a step back from posting and creating right now there's even a deleted post saying how overwhelmed they feel by the amount of attention the Project's received so just as a reminder stay patient stay polite and do not pressure anyone into making more content be kind and respectful members of the community and clown if you're watching which you shouldn't be since this is a theory video but still if you are just want to say take your time there is absolutely zero pressure for you to make anything anytime soon I mean let's be honest it took me seven years to finally launch style Theory creating something cool takes time one Creator to another just keep doing what you're doing and put your own Mental Health First alright so with all of us on the same page let's actually look at some of the clues that I mentioned earlier when you visit the home page you'll find Wally sitting on a rock and Below him is a newsletter explaining the latest updates however if you look closely you'll see something that's quite literally out of place the letter Y in the word your is sitting much higher than the rest of the text now you might think that this is just a website glitch something that the Creator didn't realize was there but when you look through the rest of the site you find the same thing happening over and over again one misplaced letter on practically every main page the W in Wally on the welcome home page is slightly too low there's an X in the word expand on the neighborhood page an o in the title of the about us page an e in the news logo and a v in the I love you message over in the guest book what do you do with all these letters well you go back up to the URL bar and type in clownillustration.com and then the letters y w x o e v that then brings you to a brand new page that contains the image of a house with a gif of eyes over top These Eyes appear to be that of our lead character Wally eventually the gift stops showing only an image of his eyes wide open with dilated pupils staring right at us which I gotta say is making me all sorts of uncomfortable but this isn't the only secret that those letters unlock notice the title tab of the website here it says try again clearly there are right and wrong combinations of all these letters by putting in w-o-x-y-v-e we get to see a page of the show's script along with a gif that shows Wally's eyes looking at us and if you try eov w x y you'll see a video of a TV screen with static but when the 42nd Mark hits suddenly there's a flash of those same eyes staring at us through the screen something tells me we're being watched and it's at this moment that you notice the designs at the edges of the website what initially seems like loud flower power style designs of the 60s are actually a mass of eyes constantly watching us as we scroll through the website's various pages but this doesn't end with it just watching us whatever this thing is it's also trying to communicate with us on the welcome home page we find lots of images that are noted as being restored remnants and reproduced pieces this is where we find that creepy image of Wally closing his window shutters but there's also another image that's of Interest here there's what appears to be a newspaper clipping with a scene of the characters Frank and Eddie delivering mail however if you look closely you'll see part of the article is visible on the right hand side take an even closer look and you'll notice at the bottom the first letters of each line spell out something hello you that's ominous into US exactly it's also not the only time that we see messages like this either if you head on over to the about us page the page where we learn about the recreation efforts we can see a picture of Frank's head mechanics but in the corner of that image is a set of books all with writing on the spine the first couple are obvious and again give off that creepy Vibe of something trying to communicate with us hello it's you know who but it's the last books that really get into uncomfortable territory they read I'm your neighbor do you know about me you do I've seen you so we know someone's watching us we know they're trying to communicate with us but who are they they assume that we know them so we should probably figure out who's on the other side of those book spines feels very much like someone from the show in some way calling us neighbors very Mr rogers-esque like a TV host addressing the people that are watching brick in the fourth wall YouTube style could it be that the reason that we saw the eyes of Wally on those mysterious Pages was because he's the one trying to communicate with us well the only way to know for sure is to keep on searching and I want to go all the way to the end to the page that's filled with probably the most lore of this entire project the a guest book this guest book is for people visiting the site to leave comments but that's not the only thing the page displays sometimes there are drawings next to those comments which aren't made by regular users like you and me someone or something has drawn them on the page most likely the one who's been watching us this entire time and this is where things start to get even cooler sure having even more pictures of eyeballs drawn next to comments as unsettling but that's not all they're doing if you open the image in a new tab you'll find almost all of them have interesting file names for example on page 3 there's a spiral drawn in red yellow and blue crayon next to a comment that asks why do you like eye contact and if you open that image up in a new tab you find the response so you will know I am looking at you neighbor I am talking to you so whoever has drawn these images is definitely connected to everything else that's been going on around here so who is it well we get Clues to that answer throughout the rest of the guest book for instance there's one comment that says Wally's my favorite to which the website drawings reply I am your favorite too awfully presumptuous of you there mystery host so we know that Wally and this character aren't one and the same except maybe they are in another comment that says I hope Wally knows that he's my favorite the title tab says I'm your favorite that makes me happy so are you or are you not Wally well it seems like the answer may actually be yes and no when you go to the last page of the guest book you're presented with a lot of blank entries which I don't know about you but feels awfully suspicious so if you hit select all in one of those empty guest book entries it suddenly reveals that there is hidden text here from Wally that reads you're looking for me silly silly but right next to it is another entry also credited to Wally except this time it's like somebody wrote his name and then put it through a SpongeBob Meme filter it says you won't write back the fact that both of these are identifying as Wally just with one of them corrupted it seems to indicate that there are either two entities inside our beloved host or there are two Wally's running around the real Wally and something else but what well at the bottom of each webpage all the characters sign their name each with a unique signature but to borrow phrase from a rival kids show one of these things is not like the other or should I say two of these things are actually exactly like the other notice how the writing for home is the same as the handwriting for Wally same red crayon same style of writing especially when you compare the m and the Wally and home are connected in some way they seem to be one in the same this is also heavily supported by another one of the guestbook pages on page five one comment says that Wally is such a doll and the website's response is a picture of an eye titled no a puppet it's a double meaning not only is Wally the character a physical puppet but he seems to be getting puppeteered by something else behind the scenes pulling the strings whoever or whatever home is supposed to be there are a lot of other messages hidden throughout the guestbook and I'd encourage you to go and check them out but I figured I'd try somewhere else to see if it would yield different results and lo and behold my hunch was correct this site is hiding a ton of information in very unique places on the the neighborhood page you can actually click on the houses to learn about each of the characters each one gets themselves an illustration and then a page on the right with their key character traits however if you do what I tend to do with these types some Mysteries and just click on everything in sight in the hopes of finding Clues he'll actually be rewarded if you happen to click on the word you in the word you're at the top of the page you'll be taken to a brand new screen one that has a description card like all the other characters only this time it has you yes you the one watching and you got yourself a single line in your description Wall-E is your best friend I don't know that along with a constant calling of people in the guestbook neighbor it's kind of giving me Vibes of a cult where everyone refers to each other as brothers and sisters or in this case neighbors rather than by their actual names speaking of weird details in the character descriptions all of these characters minus Wally don't originate from home they all moved here from somewhere else they all have friends and family we even see a picture of Julie and her siblings Elsewhere on the site but they don't exist inside of home which again gives me some creepy cult Vibes where members are encouraged to abandon their former lives and move to live with other cult members in a closed off community and given that Wally is the one that never had to move my gut's telling me that he's the one in charge my gut seems to be right as I looked through more and more of the images on the welcome page I noticed one very specific and Tiny detail the characters all wear badges pins or cufflinks related to their personality and traits some are pretty darn obvious Eddie has a male pin on his hat because he's a mailman Sally has a star and moon pin on her because she is literally a star but what about Dear Old Wally I expected to see him with some kind of art based pin a paintbrush easel crayon but those were nowhere to be found instead there are two images on the website that show what cufflinks Wally's wearing and they're pretty surprising he's wearing crosses which doesn't really feel all that thematic for a character who's a painter instead that's the sort of thing that you get out of a religious leader A vibe that starts to get even stronger if you go back to the earliest days of the website now this website was first launched back in February of 2022 and back then it looked very different than it does today at one point there was this image of Wally staring directly at us with a simple phrase above his head hold my gaze and follow me I don't know about you but if Mr Rogers started speaking to me that way I'd be catching the first trolley on out of here no this sort of phrasing is very similar to the style of speech used by religious figures especially Jesus from various passages throughout the Bible where he would ask his disciples to follow him it's also a tactic used by Cult leaders as they indoctrinate new members but bring it all back around to the current website if you visit that neighborhood page that I mentioned earlier and take an even closer look you might notice that Wally's house has this pulsating black goo coming out from underneath it and with internet projects like these we all know that black goo is never a good sign to my surprise that space below the house was clickable so I clicked it and I got this a black image of Wally drawn in red kneeling before the eye of his house with one hand raised I mean this is the most creepy thing that we've come across so far and it gets even creepier because the title tab text is listed as so below if those two words don't immediately ring alarm bells for you that's fine to me though as someone who's done his fair share of weird internet research that phrase always leads to one thing it's actually half of a phrase that you see a lot as above so below a phrase that's usually used in conjunction with occult practices not just any practices either more often than not the phrases associated with one particular image of the deity Baphomet Baphomet was worshiped as a deity by groups like the Knights Templar and represented balance with the two-finger salutes pointing up and down hence As Above So Below is a symbol of mercy and Justice as well as explaining the idea that if things are a certain way in the heavens so shall they be down here on Earth and fun fact if you take a look at Clown's professional art page there's actually an image of Wally pulling the exact same pose now it's at this point that I should probably mention that all the stuff on that particular website isn't considered Canon by clown quote everything outside of the website especially anything prior to the beginning of January of 2022 is conceptual artwork these items are not solidified any longer such as Wally's cufflinks which no longer adorns crosses on the outside so I would not regard these very old pieces as anything to consider welcome home has been completely overhauled since then so that Baphomet image is definitely not canon but it does seem like some of these ideas have persevered throughout the various updates of the website hence that other image still being titled So Below despite various website updates I've also seen comments saying that this statement disproves any sort of religious or cult Theory but looking at these words from clown which are the only comments that I could find related to this particular topic I don't think that's actually what they're saying so back to As Above So Below Baphomet wasn't only depicted in that one pose he was also regularly depicted with children surrounding him because the idea was that children wouldn't immediately see him as the devil they should be allowed to make their own decisions rather than being told how to interpret something specifically the worshipers of Baphomet were against the indoctrination of children which is pretty darn interesting if Wally is now fulfilling the role as some sort of puppet deity in short all of this seems to imply that just like bath met represented balance Wally and home also balance each other out Wally is the friendly childhood host and home is the Darkly chaotic perhaps even evil monster lurking within on the about us page we see some of the artwork that's being received from an anonymous source but the original artwork always arrives in a damaged State covered in red yellow and blue paint the colors that Wall-E uses again showing us that this isn't just a show but that the real puppet of Wally is alive and purposely trying to reach out to us on that same page there's an FAQ section where there's some text that overlaps text that reads when I unwrap the first letter I felt it I heard it open open open open I want it out I'm going to get it out what does he mean get it out are you talking about home we see the same type of language on the news page where we're told that a museum curator is wanting to put on an exhibition for all these findings together we will get it out we will get everything out you will see as we do neighbor now that right there that sounds like indoctrination at its finest Wally has managed to brainwash these people now thanks to this exhibition they're going to be able to spread the word of this show this cult the masses the Links Page for instance is literally labeled as spread the good word the doctrine of Wally but what exactly is Wally's Doctrine on the surface thanks to that Baphomet imagery you might think that Wally is both a deity and leader but I don't think that's the case as we've talked about multiple times now home appears to be alive and it's considered the ninth neighbor of Welcome Home none of the other houses in this neighborhood are alive it's just home given that it's Wally's house and he's some kind of a cult leader that strikes me as fairly suspicious especially when you check out the page on your phone because the image has to be resized for a mobile device home is no longer in the middle of the page it's higher and as a result you see what's behind it a black void with a single spiral in the middle just like the spirals that Wally is drawing into the guest book and while that is certainly disturbing look at the whole image the colorful trees in the middle the paths leading to and from the void and all around the neighborhood it almost looks like a person lifting their arms in an act of worship Wally isn't the deity here home is Wally is just the good and faithful servant they are all welcoming home if you remember the letters that we used to find some of those hidden web pages at the top of the episode there's a couple that I neglected to mention if you put them in the order yxwvoe you'll find an error page but click the telephone and suddenly we're treated to a rendition of the song Beautiful Dreamer [Music] okay Angel props are waiting for it in the world of Welcome Home Knights symbolize the end of the episode The Neighbors would all go home the children would turn off their TVs and the crew would retire for the nights the show however has been off the air for a very long time nearly 50 years and so it's time for home the Beautiful Dreamer to awaken once more and we can be sure that this song is directed at home because while the songs currently labeled as singing mp3 in the files the web page is labeled Duets but there's only one person singing or is there if you listen a little further to the end of the song we hear some banging sounds foreign if we read Wally's bio it says that home talks using onomatopoeias so these banging sounds are home responding to Wally's song slowly Awakening ready for Revival we don't exactly know what happened in 1974 what caused the show to shut down in the production company to fall silent but I've seen my fair share of indie horror to know that when he got sentient mascots and demonic entities it's not gonna be a good one maybe the production company fell silent because many of their workers were killed maybe a ton of children died maybe Wally was able to possess them through the TV to serve whatever home's motivation is whatever happened back then it is gonna happen again now that this exhibition is planned Wally is regaining his influence sharing these images to gather people together and slowly he will reawaken home to continue whatever their plan was half a century ago the one thing I do know is that this story of Welcome Home has me hooked especially when you consider that clown is said that we're only five percent into the project so until more is revealed we wait I suppose you could consider us the neighborhood watch but hey that's just a theory a game theory thanks for watching oh [Music] foreign

Channel: The Game Theorists

Views: 3,868,215

Keywords: welcome home, welcome home arg, welcome home puppets, welcome home puppets show, welcome home puppets show arg, wally, wally darling, wally welcome home, welcome home secrets, welcome home arg explained, welcome home arg secrets, welcome home website, welcome home puppets website, welcome home website solved, welcome home secret links, welcome home website links, game theory, matpat, welcome home explained, welcome home wally, welcome home puppet show, game theorists

Id: kaKa6bnoXa8

Length: 19min 59sec (1199 seconds)

Published: Sat May 06 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/Realistic_Two_8486]

And here will come all the gatekeepers that are running the fandom to the ground…..well it was nice while it lasted!