Everything you need to know about Welcome to Night Vale and why you should be listening to it.
Anyone who follows my personal blog is acutely aware that I have become increasingly and absurdly obsessed with Welcome to Night Vale these past few days. But what is it? What is it about? Why should you watch it? Does it even exist? Do you even exist? Does anything really exist? Are we all just blips of meaningless dust floating in an uncaring universe? I will answer some of these questions for you.
Welcome to Night Vale is a (free) semi-weekly internet podcast set in the small desert town of Night Vale. The show is set up as the local radio news show, with a man named Cecil as the newscaster.
Night Vale isn’t a normal town though, oh no. In Night Vale all sorts of weird things happen. Dog Parks which no dogs are allowed in (do not look at the Hooded figures. Do not go in the Dog Park), PTA meetings that are occasionally interrupted by Pterodactyl attacks, and strange lights that hover in the sky above the Arby’s sign are common place. It’s got a really good dark spooky kind of humor, mixing the mundane with the certifiably strange. Plus, there is Carlos the Scientist, with this dark delicate skin and perfect perfect hair, whom Cecil is more than a little bit crushing on super hard.
It combines Eldritch Abomination style horror with nonchalance and unreliable narrative voice. It’s trope-savy and plays with common horror and mystery cliches with a humor that conflates the mundane and the bizarre. It’s quirky and creepy and plays with nihilism, Lovecraftian monsters, and a preoccupation with pedestrian minutia all with equal emphasis.
Sometimes there is real world satire and commentary going on (like the bits with the NRA or the Apache Tracker), but most of the time it focuses on ribbing classic horror tropes (like the secret police) and even small town life/politics (like their over the top rivalry with Desert Bluffs.)
But, Rosie, you might ask, why are you posting this on your feminism blog? Is this show somehow feminist in nature? How so? WELL, dear readers, let me tell you: From an intersectional feminist perspective, this show is pretty darn fancy.
Carlos, with his perfect, perfect hair, is a queer man of color. The only romance in the program is a queer romance at that: Cecil and Carlos’s relationship is adorable, and above all that, it is framed in a truly amazing way. At no point does Cecil defend or justify or rationalize his feelings for Carlos. No, he just…loves Carlos, enthusiastically and embarrassingly all over the radio. There is no “ah but I’m so straight no homo" angst about their relationship. They just…like each other. In all the bizarre strangeness of Night Vale, Cecil and Carlos’s feelings are framed as normal and sweet.
There’s more though. The show also takes time to:
- Challenge “white as default" assumptions by pointing out that some of the angels are black.
- Challenge cultural appropriation. One character who calls himself “the Apache Tracker" is, in fact, just a white dude in a “cartoonishly offensive headdress" who Cecil points out, repeatedly is “an asshole" and a “racist embarrassment" to the town.
- There are a few female characters, including Dana the intern and Old Woman Josie who talks to angels. While they aren’t front and center, they are interesting and are not subjected to any horrific sexist cliches. They are just as strange and besieged by the abnormality that engulfs them as everyone else in that town.
Listen to Welcome to Night Vale. I repeat: Listen to Welcome to Night Vale.
And remember, do not approach the Dog Park.
If you’re the kind of person who has issues following audio-only things, or if you simply don’t have the time to listen to this excellent podcast, there are also a variety of transcripts out there! This tumblr has collected transcripts for every episode I know of, with the list updated as new ones become available.
AWESOME! I was hoping to find transcripts!