Momo

Momo is a meme turned creepypasta character.

## History

Momo is a nickname given to a sculpture of a young woman with long black hair, large bulging eyes, a wide smile and bird legs. Pictures of the sculpture are associated with an urban legend involving a WhatsApp phone number that messages disturbing photographs to those that attempt to contact it, linked to a game referred to as the Momo Challenge or Momo Game. Similar to the Blue Whale Challenge, many have accused the suicide game of being a hoax.

Originally, Momo was created by Keisuke Aso Aisawa. Aso created the sculpture in the summer of 2016, which he named the sculpture Geisha Bird or the Tiger Bird. On August 15–27, 2016, he gave the sculpture to the group exhibition known as The Ghost Gallery, in Tokyo.

In 2018, people started stealing images of the sculpture, and started building the name Momo for the sculpture, which would lead Momo to start giving children dangerous tasks to harm themselves. The story of Momo started spreading on July 14, 2018, when a YouTube user GloomyHouse created a video talking about the legend. He goes on to say that there are different phone numbers which you can use to contact Momo on Whatsapp. Once the person gets in contact with Momo, the person behind Momo will start leaking all of the personal data and information about the person.

Sometimes, Momo will start even sending very graphical images towards the people that contacted her. It was reported that a 14-year-old had contact with Momo, which escalated in the boy screaming rapidly. When the mother of the boy entered the room, she found the chat-log with Momo. Momo sent the boy a photo of a drawing, and two graphical disturbing videos, which escalated in the boy having a seizure, making the mother bring the boy to the hospital.

It was also reported that a 12-year-old girl committed suicide by hanging herself on a tree in the family's backyard. The investigation goes on the say that the motive for her suicide was having a contact with Momo. The girl recorded the activities prior to the suicide onto her telephone. There was never any confirmation that the Momo Challenge was involved in either of these cases however. In response to the controversy, Aisawa had confirmed that he had dismantled the original sculpture when it began to rot. As Aiswa stated "The children can be reassured Momo is dead - she doesn't exist and the curse is gone". Aisawa also said that he salvaged an eye from the original sculpture.

After the 2019 spreading, the YouTube company responded to all of the controversy, stating that they didn't find and receive any videos which are promoting the Momo legend on YouTube. Although, the news continued to push against Momo with new evidences. Future on YouTube age-restricted and demonetized all the videos which are about Momo on their platform.

## Notable Momo creepypastas

Momo by Moulderkurt.5

The Momo Challenge by rios911

My Son Did The Momo Challenge and Now He's Dead by the Dead Canary

I Know The Truth by Vincent Vena Cava

I Think I Found The Real Number by Vincent Vena Cava

Please Don't Text Momo by ClancyPasta

## Miscellaneous Information

* Momo was based on the Japanese legend of the ubume, a creature who is most commonly depicted as the spirit of a woman who has died during childbirth. Passersby will see the ubume as a normal looking woman carrying a baby. She will typically try to give the passerby her child then disappear. When the person goes to look at the child in their arms, they discover it is only a bundle of leaves or large rock.

* Keisuke Aiso never actually intended for Mother Bird or "Momo" to be seen as scary or evil and it was only via urban legends and creepypastas written by other people that gave Momo that reputation.