Safety Not Guaranteed

**Safety Not Guaranteed** is a YTMND site that incorporates an image of a stone-faced young man wearing a mullet is placed on the left of the text, although this was not included in the original newspaper advertisement. The ad, which insists that it is not a joke and even provides contact information, warns that a potential respondent's safety is not guaranteed as he only tried once before; the image is accompanied by Paul Engemann's song "Push It To The Limit" from the movie Scarface (1983). The nature of the man's hair and serious tone of the ad (*This is not a joke*) adds to the humor. The photo and newspaper advertisement originally appeared on the Jay Leno Show.

## Fad Structure

Safety Not Guranateed has spawned a fad that come in 3 different varieties:

* Some sites will show the traveler in different time periods starting with the civil war. Most recently this has evolved into a variant of the Wikipedia Vandalism Fad, in which users would try to edit wikipedia material such as the "safety" entry, with such footnotes as "when you push it to the limit, safety is not guaranteed". [2]
* Some sites will parodize the original ad for other people.
* Other sites will show the Time Traveler in action either traveling back in time or assisting other people.

Most fad sites including the original "Safety Not Guaranteed" have the entire 3 minute song.

## Influence

The Time Traveler has become a popular icon of YTMND. Several fad spin offs placed the Traveler in various time periods.

The fad mixed with the PTKFGS fad, with the creation of Safety Not Guaranteed Changes Internet History, which depicted the Time Traveler going back in time and replacing YTMND with PTKFGS, creating the Alternate Universe Fad. It also had its own PTKFGS version, Security Not Ensured.

## Investigation

On January 16, 2006, YTMND user scrow, posted a picture he claims he found in his attic. This picture seems to show the same man, mullet and all, taken during the American Civil War.

Within this investigation, vex5 claims that after calling the number of those believed to own the P.O. box, he received very suspicious reactions. When asked about time travel, the person on the other end of the phone allowed a short pause, replied "never call here again" and hung up the phone.

Another YTMND user, guano, called the same number, getting the answering machine. He announced that the message asks to "leave a message for Mark, Debra... also, Moses or Caesar!"

Since this announcement, several others have tried calling, also getting the same message. Some have even managed to record it.

In response to these calls, the answering machine message has been changed to say that this number has nothing to do with "Time travel" or "Going back in time". It also asks for the persons who started the fad's name and number to be stated so that she can turn him over to the proper authorities. This was too late however, for many to hypothesize that Moses and Caesar are the actual Moses and Caesar of history, giving more evidence to the argument that perhaps somebody has actually gone back through time. However, as the time traveler has only done it once before, he would have been unable to have gotten both Moses and Caesar, or either if he had gone to the Civil War. Unless, of course, his one experience consisted of him jumping across time to several different periods before returning to his own.

Some argument remains as to where the original "Safety not Guaranteed" photo came from. Many believe, with the civil war photo, that this may actually be the time traveler himself, and that the woman who answers the phone is possibly his mother. It is now known that the woman is just an old woman from Southern California named Debra. Moses and Caesar are just her pet dog and bird. This is in contrast to Maybe my safety isn't, in which someone calling asked for Ceasar, and was given a person, not a dog or bird. Mark, being the only name left in the original message that still has no person to be identified with, is now presumed to be this man's name. However, research says he was born in 1953, only a few years older than Debra. His name is also rumored to be Dwane Jones (Brother of Allen Jones). It should also be noted that pictures taken of Mark at various events in the Oak View area suggest that he, in fact, is 53 or 54 years of age, however to rule him out as a suspect is impossible as temporal jumps can cause aging variants.

Recently, user I-Found-The-Mullet-Man claimed he'd actually found and gone to the house in the ad and found an empty lot, but found a piece of paper on a fence linking the "mullet man" with another time traveling legend "John Titor". I-Found-The-Mullet-Man's site can be seen here: saftey guarantee found. However the creator has been ridiculed to be falsely claiming this because, amongst other things, his site is very badly done, but is open to be seen for yourself

A photo taken by NASA shows another face on Mars, looking very similar to the Mullet man. It brings some to curiosity whether the Mullet man has went to Mars or not during his time travel. The photo can be seen here.

## Safety Not Guaranteed outside YTMND

In June 2006, user Jewson and his friends made a short film about the story of mullet man.[3]. The fad also appears to have made it into the *The Movies* community, where someone has created a movie called 'Safety Not Guaranteed' which contains several references to YTMND.

The online game "World of Warcraft" has also given caution to the need for safety while travelling through (the Caverns of) Time. Mousing over the dragon on the 'Caverns of Time' page warns that Safety is Not Guaranteed.

## NARV Status

While SNG sites are rarely created these days, there have been numerous effortless attempts at a SNG site. These might be "lazy edits" with text or poorly-done photoshopping involving the head of the Mullet Man.

## Don LaFontaine Reading

On October 31, 2007, user Blackadders2 posted a YTMND featuring a recording that he was able to get the late famous movie trailer voiceover artist Don LaFontaine to read. On September 2, 2008, almost 1 year after the site was made, the reading returned to the top 15 due to LaFontaine's death. Soon afterwards, an update of another Safety site, Hard Safety, was made using the LaFontaine voiceover. This site is currently the top-rated site of all time.

## Safety Not Guaranteed Movie

An Safety Not Guaranteed IMDb entry was found which seems to indicate the impending release of a 'Safety Not Guaranteed' movie. The film was confirmed to be released in early 2012, and stars Aubrey Plaza, Mark Duplass, Jake Johnson and Kristen Bell. It premiered in January 2012 at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah, where it was nominated for a Grand Jury Prize, and received favourable reception from critics.

## Links

http://timetraveler.ytmnd.com/ - Original site by **axlbonbach**

http://totsafety.ytmnd.com/ - Another by **smoothmedia**

http://civilwarsafety.ytmnd.com/ - Another by **scrow**

 http://timesafety.ytmnd.com/ - Another by **Blost**

http://aotssafetyinvestigation.ytmnd.com/ - Another by **k0mputer**

http://lafontainesafety.ytmnd.com/ - Another by **Blackadders2**