SHADOW BALLOON BOY'S ORIGINS

Shadow Balloon Boy is one of the most iconic old FNAF hoaxes in existence.
However, it's origins are incredibly hard to track down.
This page serves as the best possible proof I have of it's origins.

SECTION 0: I AM STILL HERE

While discussing FNAF hoax characters with a friend, I found this old Freddit post that featured Shadow BB.
The linked image was a FULLY-SIZED YOUTUBE THUMBNAIL. This is THE thumbnail image in the HIGHEST POSSIBLE QUALITY.

All we need now is the video itself!!!
I have archived my research information about the thumbnail here.

SECTION 1: THE VIDEO

Shadow BB's origins come from a single YouTube video from December 12th, 2014.
The screenshot below shows the exact video he originates from at the very top.

This screenshot comes from PrettyGrumpyBear's video on the hoax.
Unfortunately, PGB's video is actually the oldest video about Shadow BB still in existence.

The other video worth bringing up is this video by a child incoherently rambling about him.
Here, we can see what COULD BE the original video on the left,
and to the right of it, a screenshot showing a non-cropped version of Shadow BB.
Cut-off on the far right seems to be an exact screenshot of the original video, with correct lighting.

Here we can also see an important detail: The HUD's current status.
While it's unknown if these images are the original video itself,
we can assume that these are probably screenshots of the original video at the very least.

However, during my research, I had also found this hilarious video without realizing until 2 days later that this video's thumbnail
had a LARGER crop in a much larger size than the video above.

While still low quality and crusty, it DOES give us a much better look at the video for it's size and crop alone.

SECTION 2: IMPORTANT DATES

Here is a timeline of the important dates:

DECEMBER 12TH, 2014: The original video is posted.

DECEMBER 17TH, 2014: This tweet is posted, which is the oldest post about Shadow BB still in existence.

JANUARY 15TH, 2015: Shadow BB gains traction online.

JANUARY 17TH, 2015: Shadow BB goes viral everywhere.

This is everything I could gather about Shadow BB's origins.
If anyone has any important, worthwhile info about the video itself,
please post it on Bluesky and tag me @vaporluck.neocities.org.

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