Editor's Note: You do not recognize the bodies in the water.

About

SCP-2316, sometimes referred to as You Do Not Recognize the Bodies in the Water, is an SCP Foundation object that is described as an anomalous lake in which a group of human corpses is floating. The premise of the SCP is that a person who looks at the lake recognizes the bodies as their childhood friends or relatives and enters the lake in an attempt to save them, never to return.

Origin

On January 24th, 2016, SCP Foundation^[1] contributor djkaktus created an entry for Keter-class object SCP-2316. The entry started with a requirement to repeat the phrase "I do not recognize the bodies in the water" and described an anomalous lake containing a large number of bodies floating on its surface. According to the description, SCP-2316 presents a danger for anyone who has it in its view as the individual recognizes the bodies in the water and enters the lake in an attempt to save them.

The description has the phrase "you do not recognize the bodies in the water" repeating several times through the text as if to keep their "cognitive resistance value" at a high level. The entry ends with another test to repeat the phrase, with the result indicating that the reader failed to pass.

While SCP-2316 appears to be individual instances, it is theorized that SCP-2316 may instead be an entity composed of a collective consciousness. Individual instances of SCP-2316 do not act on their own but do seem to be able to act collectively as a single unit. The individual instances of SCP-2316 are unrecognizable, and you do not recognize the bodies in the water.

The entry has two instances of invisible text in which a person attempts to communicate with the reader, urging them to go to the lake and saying that "they want us to remember." A hidden link^[2] leads to "Not Fade Away," a short story written from the point of view of a victim of SCP-2316.

Spread

The SCP-2136 gained notable popularity within the SCP community. As of August 11th, 2021, the entry had a positive rating of over 1,300.

The popularity of the SCP is reflected in a large number of memes about SCP-2316 in the community. The phrase "you do not recognize the bodies in the water" gained particular popularity as a reference to the SCP, often appearing in various memes. For example, on February 19th, 2019, Redditor^[3] BetaDecay121 posted a meme that gained over 7,200 upvotes in /r/DankMemesFromSite19 in six months (shown below, left).

On July 12th, 2021, content creator SCP Realised posted a creepypasta-style video in which they explored the scenario of an XK-Event (an end-of-the-world scenario) occurring due to SCP-2316 spreading to most bodies of water on Earth. The video went viral on TikTok,^[4] gaining over 9.7 million views and 1.7 million likes in one month (shown below). On YouTube,^[5] the video gained over 115,000 views in the same period.

On August 9th, 2021, Dexerto^[6] posted an article titled "Creepy viral TikTok terrifies users: 'You do not recognize the bodies in the water'" in which they reported on the video.

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References