Pronunciation Book Is The Most Interesting Mystery On The Internet Right Now

Is it hinting at a new Halo game, or a new Battlestar Galactica series, or something else entirely? Fans are trying to unravel the cryptic video countdown before time runs out.

For two years, YouTube channel Pronunciation Book made videos like this.

youtube.com

Short, simple pronunciation guides. It garnered tens of thousands of followers and was a genuinely useful tool for people interested in learning English.

But on April 14th 2012, Pronunciation Book uploaded "How to Ask for Help in English."

The same voice from the channel's previous pronunciation videos asks someone named "Chief" for help.

The next several videos are titled things like "How to Bargain in English" and feature similarly dark messages and exchanges from the same voice.

The contents of these videos are transcribed here.

The channel then returned to its normal pronunciation videos until July 9th, 2013, when the countdown began.

The same Pronunciation Book voice says "Something is going to happen in 77 days," and is followed by silence with some low static noises in the background.

The countdown has continued each day since then.

77days.wikia.com

At the time of this writing, something is going to happen in 34 days.

In the subsequent countdown videos, the PB narrator typically says something cryptic before announcing "Something is going to happen in XX days."

"Omelettes aren't the only western food." What does it mean?

A sizable fan base has started several wikis, Google Docs and a subreddit to unravel the mystery of Pronunciation Book's 77 days.

Some of the channel's fans ran the static at the end of each video through a spectrograph, which so far reveals this image:

dl.dropboxusercontent.com

A propaganda-style image of someone pointing?

Okay, so what's going on? There are three major theories. The first is that PB is counting down to a new Battlestar Galactica series.

NBC Universal Television/ / Via battlestargalactica.com

Most of the theory relates back to the Bob Dylan song "All Along the Watchtower." Seriously.

The Daily Dot makes a (spoiler-heavy) point-by-point analysis how the videos could relate to Battlestar, but it's not conclusive.

NBC Universal Television / / Via google.com

Over at Geekosystem, however, they're convinced Pronunciation Book is promoting a new Bungie venture, possibly their upcoming game Destiny.

google.com

"Chief" could be a reference to Halo's main character Master Chief.

The third major theory focuses on the creator of Pronunciation Book himself, a man called Thomas Bender. Bender owns the domain for PronunciationBook.com.

docs.google.com

The mysterious Bender is also one of the people behind "This Is My Milwaukee," an alternate reality game from 2008.

Some Pronunciation Book theorists suspect the countdown will lead to the launch of a sequel to "This is My Milwaukee."

thisismymilwaukee.com

"How to Ask for Help in English" launched on 4/14. 414 is Milwaukee's area code. Is it a clue to the bigger picture, or just an easter egg?

But we'll have to wait to for the countdown to end on September 24th to know for sure what's going to happen.