This week on the channel +2.1M views this week

Farrell McGuire traces the Hat Man back to late-night radio

His new documentary follows a shadowy internet figure from Art Bell's listeners to Reddit and the language of digital contagion.

Channel:

Farrell McGuire Story of November 5, 2026Trari Newsroom

Why this story? The channel's weekly summary: what went up this week, what is drawing views now, and where the channel stands among similar channels.

The Internet Unknowingly Created a Demon

Things we can learn from the video

Press to jump

2:18Farrell traces the legend's early circulation through Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM and companion websites.
9:56Listener drawings begin showing a shadowy figure wearing a brimmed hat and trench coat.
12:28The Hat Man Project gathers encounter accounts and helps popularize the figure's name.
17:19Farrell examines sleep paralysis as an explanation for shadowy bedroom encounters.
23:32He explains forms of social contagion before arguing that online sharing can reshape familiar folklore.

Farrell McGuire has passed 700,000 subscribers, with a man in a hat providing the week's new rabbit hole. His only upload, "The Internet Unknowingly Created a Demon", has reached roughly 619,000 views.

Despite that title, this is an investigation into folklore, not a declaration that a demon exists. Farrell opens in the woods before heading back to Art Bell's Coast to Coast AM, listener drawings and early web forums. The interesting question isn't simply why people report shadowy figures, but how a particular hat-and-trench-coat silhouette became so recognizable.

There is a personal thread in the internet history, too. Discussing Bell's Post-to-Post forum, Farrell says: "You can draw a direct line between this forum and my entire internet career." A documentary about an online legend becomes, briefly, a look at the communities that helped shape his own work.

The essay examines sleep paralysis and argues that cultural priming and online sharing can influence the figures people describe. It also contains a sponsored segment. In the comments, viewers discuss older sinister silhouettes, bring up the game LSD Dream Emulator and debate whether the internet created the Hat Man or spread an existing idea.

The new documentary is currently the channel's busiest video. "Horrors Secretly Filmed in Prisons" follows it, while the older "Horrors Found in Dark Web Marketplaces" continues attracting views after featuring here last month.

Across the channel, daily viewing is above its usual level, and subscribers increased over the week. Nearby commentary channels have varied rhythms: KSI+ is also drawing above-usual daily views, while Nikki Carreon is a little quieter than usual. For Farrell, the distinctive addition is this move from cataloguing internet horrors to asking how the internet helps give one its shape.

Published on Trari

Where next?

Also in Reactions and internet commentaryA video worth knowingJoe Bartolozzi's paid-cuddling question: why not book a massage?His Papa Meat reaction moves from hourly rates to a harder question about buying physical comfort without emotional intimacy.Channel: Joe Bartolozzi · Story of November 5, 2026

A different discovery todayVideo taking off 66x its usual first dayJimmy Kimmel turns Idaho's state-gun vote into an attack adHis midterm monologue also gives Mike Johnson a Sarah McLachlan farewell before his assistant Natalie zips herself into a duffel bag.Channel: Jimmy Kimmel Live · Story of November 5, 2026

What viewers say

Very normal not scary thumbnail to scroll across at 3am
@PolluxGoBrrrrSee it on YouTube
Ah, we're entering into the Cognitohazard era
@mrsmith9079See it on YouTube
"I say to you, 'Don't think about elephants.' What are you thinking about?”"
@ironmikesimsSee it on YouTube

1 more comment

My favourite example of the Hatman appearing is LSD Dream Emulator. It's game about dreaming from the 1990s and sometimes you can encounter the Hatman and if you touch him, you wake up.
@IdkpleasejustletmechangeitSee it on YouTube

Public comments from the video's page on YouTube