Do not adjust your set...
Oddity Archive is a series that looks into odd things, which sometimes are well-known for being scary, so it shouldn't be a surprise that it's bound to have some scary moments.
- The episode on the Max Headroom incident. Even Ben is grossed out by the closing part of it.Ben: I hope that's not a young boy in the maid's outfit.....EWWWW!!!!!
- The Happy Hamster isn't compared to Pedobear for nothing. He's basically a terrifying goofy costumed character gone up to eleven.YouTube Commenter: If I ever see one of those tapes with the hamster on it, I will shove it full of nitro glycerin, so if some how the tape is played, no other person or kid, will be mentally traumatized for life.
- Also, at the very end of Amvest Video kids tapes, after a long Fade Out after the fan club promo, suddenly a "BING!" sound is heard for NO reason at all.
Ben: Nice touch! - The Stinger on the episode on Vanity Plates.Ben: Oh, come on, you weren't really expecting some weird logo to appear here, were you?Ed the Editor: Actually...Ben: Okay, you win.(The Rainbow Releasing logo is shown with the Last Note Nightmare BND logo music playing underneath it, and is topped off by a loud VHS drone.)
- The "zooming logos" scene is hilarious, but if it's your first time watching it and you aren't expecting it at all, then it will make you crap your pants.
- The Stinger from "Protect and Survive" is a Screamer Prank involving the picture of the skeleton reading the pamphlet combined with the jingle from the titular films.
- The Archive's own "technical difficulties" slide in "Teknikel Diffikultees". Ben's blacked-out silhouette and glowing, red dot-eyes would have been bad enough, but then there are his arms/wings.
- Made even creepier in the intro to Macrovision - the Macrovision protection darkens the picture to the point where the only distinguishable things are the glowing eyes.
- It gets worse in "Episode 78: The Death of Analog TV", where it moves.
- For potential Nightmare Retardant, Ben revealed in the commentary episode for the 2016 Halloween Special that the silhouette is actually Ben wearing a Grim Reaper costume he bought at Wal-Mart.
- The tape from episode 9 (the 2012 Halloween special) is the most literal personification of "weird things at the end of VHS". This means it's nothing but white screens of death, loud noises, and other scary stuff.
- The Cold Open to Episode 36 ("Halloween Special 2013") is pretty terrifying, too, with Ben's Hell Is That Noise nightmare. It gets even worse when one considers that Ben is mumbling, "Hamsters do have lips..." over and over again, in reference to the aforementioned Happy Hamster. note
- "PSA's (or, The More You Know, The Less You Understand)" contains several examples. Of special note is "Do You Mime If I Smoke?", which even manages to scare Ben and Ed.
- "Prehistoric Television" invokes and lampshades this.Ben: Anyway, join us next time on the Archive, when we discuss whether or not the TV is actually watching you. Sweet dreams. *cue Silent Credits*
- The episode also contains clips of Nazi television, which are preceded by several extended Content Warnings about how people sensitive to Nazi imagery shouldn't watch the following segment, because it's bad. And indeed it is — it's terrifying. Of special note is a clip where a television host uses bad musicians in a concert as a metaphor for the internment of "undesirable" groups, all while smiling the entire time.
- From the Archive's Facebook page
: Ben has a Voice-o-Graph recording disk (basically, a vinyl record you can use to record a message) containing someone's rendition of "It Had To Be You", but that's not the creepy part. It comes ten seconds into the song...Voice: This one's dedicated to you, Ben. - It may lapse into hilarity or sadness for some, but seeing Ben disappearing at the end of "An Overly Nostalgic Halloween" is a bit...jarring. Espcially since the credits have no music at all.
- The Spanish cartoon dubs that Ben features at the end of the Public Domain VHS Distributors episode. Normally these would be Narm, but the video grain, desaturated picture, and the two middle-aged Hispanic men doing all the voices (including the female roles) makes them souvenirs from hell.
- "Episode 114.5: Ben's Junk: Gemmy Douglas Fir Talking Christmas Tree" lampshades it when Ben demonstrates one of his defective Douglas Fir trees:Ben: This is gonna be so awesome. This is classic Archive nightmare fuel.(Ben turns on the tree, whose eyes and mouth open wide and remain stuck that way)Douglas Fir: Merry Christmas, everybody! (sings the first few lines of "Jingle Bells" twice) Happy new year!(Ben turns off the tree)
- Originally from the first episode of Laser Karaoke Hell, we have Neon Nightmare Karaoke Hell Faces singing The Macarena.
- On a similar note, the Scanimate-generated Mr Noise and the Turn On Dancer featured in "Scanimate".
- "Local Flavor (Part 2: Anti-Nostalgia)" gives us Feeling Wonderful with Silly-cize. It's supposed to be a fun and cute children's video about fitness, but instead it comes across like a really creepy artifact, which looks like it was made on lots and lots of LSD.
- In the commentary for "Mystery 8mm Films/The Ballad of Ben & 8mm", Ben describes the worst thing he's found on a mystery tape reel, which he understandably deems too unsuitable for Archive: a head and shoulders shot of a man wrapping barbed wire around his own head. Ben is audibly uncomfortable describing it.
- The Rejuvenique episode's stinger has Ben lean out from behind the box wearing the very uncanny mask, mockingly asking the viewer "Haven't you always wanted to see my face?" Not helping is that the lighting makes Ben's eyes practically invisible behind the dark eye-holes of the mask.
