Discussion Main / RealAfterAll

• There are likely enough ghostly encounters in various Country songs to make a TV series out of.
  • These range from the somewhat malevolent Ghost Riders In The Sky (the Johnny Cash version), to the friendly ghost of Country Music legend Hank Williams.
  • There are two versions of the song The Ride. The old version has the ghost of Hank Williams as the driver. The newer version has the ghost of Dale Earnhardt as the driver.
  • Another popular song is Phantom 309, by Red Sovine, which features the ghost of "Big Joe" (as well as that of the truck, itself), who gives the passenger a dime (the cost of a cup of coffee when the song was made). The story goes that Big Joe crashed his rig (said to be the fastest on the road) in order to avoid hitting a school bus full of children. His ghost sometimes returns to that stretch of road to give hitchhikers a ride to the truck stop.
    • "Big Joe" makes an appearance in a more recent song Big Joe, Red Sovine, and Phantom 309, in which the ghost of Big Joe can't figure out how to operate a modern payphone that lack a coin slot (instead requiring a credit or calling card) and is met by the singer. The singer then invites Joe to join him for lunch and pays for the both of them. Joe's ghost thanks the singer and leaves, saying that his "friend, Red" is waiting for him out in the truck. It doesn't dawn on the singer until later that he has had an encounter with Big Joe and that the "friend" is likely Red Sovine, the singer of the original song.

None of these "examples" actually address how they fit the trope, which is more than just 'somebody encounters a ghost'.

Would a giant count as a monstrous wildlife thing or "Other"? I want to list an example from Tinga Tinga Tales.

I've just added an example, but now I'm wondering whether it might fit better under Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane. I put it here instead due to the fact that even though everyone pretends it was mundane, it's a plot point that they're all kidding themselves. What do you guys think?

• At the end of the "Big Haunted Battleship" storyline of Schlock Mercenary, it's pointed out by several characters that the "rational" explanation of the ghostly voices on the PDCL is so contrived that it's more rational just to accept it was haunted. This isn't a throwaway gag, either; Petey's inability either to accept or to deny the existence of ghosts is responsible for both his introduction and the PDCL's eventual destruction.

Would the (cinema) ending of 1408 qualify? The one with the tape recorder.