The Why Files patreon

Solving Cicada 3301: Decoding the Internet's Greatest Mystery

🕑 Added 2023-08-16 22:50:23 +0000 UTC

Comments

George Quihuis

Your my favorite youtuber/content creater. I appreciate how the onion was explained.

David Parisi

Thank you AJ and team for this great story!

Jason Goode-Domingues

I remember all this happening. Nice to know the whole story! Thanks AJ!

Daniel Hardt

Took me 4 days at sea to finish this episode. It’s like they didn’t want me to see the ending. Lol

Angeline JoVan

I need a Cicada hoodie!!!!

Robert LaBella

This is probably - no definitely- the best explanation of Cicada 3301 I've seen. You did a great job with this pointing out all the various cipher techniques and telling the story. Great job with this one. May be my new favorite WF episode. Keep up the good work!

MikeD

Yes. Arrived yesterday, the 21st. I received a notification over the weekend from one of my shipping apps alerting me that "Albatross North America" was sending me a package for Monday delivery. I suspect that's the U.S.-based receiving company for the manufacturer in China. I figured that had to be the plushie, and it was. I ordered mine the first day it was available for Patreon subscribers, so yours can't be far behind. Hopefully arrives before the move you mentioned above.

Bosco Lemonzit

you got yours? mines gone from china to chicago to dallas. I live in Colorado. Getting closer!

MikeD

The Hecklefish plushie has landed.

Bosco Lemonzit

How about hecklefish is the motivational speaker i.e., Chris Farley, who lives not down by the lake, but in the lake

Bosco Lemonzit

Or a point counterpoint between aj and heckle and heckle can say “AJ you ignorant slut “

Bosco Lemonzit

Samurai AJ or Hecklefishs Neighborhood I can't believe nobody else thought this to be a fun question!

Jack (Doc) Gryphon

I won a heckelfish plush. It's a major award!

Angelique Fouquet

OMG...just realized you were the 1st to get the puzzle. You don't have to tell me, but I REALLY hope its "Be sure to drink your Ovaltine " 😅

Angelique Fouquet

Best comment!

Sendrius Telt

What's your favorite SNL sketch? Are there any you would like to redo with the three of you?

Alexander 🦊

What about the futzing of retro-grade and pro-grade during the Black Knight vid. I happened so often I'm like– Come on! This gotta' be on purpose.

Tracey Graham

I was so invested in thus episode I wish it went longer. I'm now waiting on the arrival of my hecklefish plushy.😆

scott considine

=4729? don't know after that

Mik Smith

Lol I had noted that he had but chose not to say as didn't want to appear petty :)

Joan Robinson

Jeez, from CTL/ALT/DEL (me) to that level of programming was mind boggling. Absolutely loved this video! Phenomenal!

DS_the_RN

Or “dope-ah-men” instead of “dope-ah-mean?”

Bosco Lemonzit

I am an old geezer and learned a long long time ago. Back on the news groups of MSN 1995 days, never ever correct somebody else’s spelling or grammar. It will be guaranteed in the correction you will also make a spelling or grammatical error.

Autumn Spredemann

Oh yeah, it was obvious but also fun to see how excited you were to dive into this. And I'd sit through 2 hours of you talking to the fish any day!

Mik Smith

Phew! Thanks:) Please make sure you and no-one else makes him aware of this typo..... :/

Jaya

Would the be an A rather than a C?

Birdie the Cockatiel Randt

yet another great video and I get to watch it again tonight :)

Nikki G_0

Exactly, AJ has blown my mind several times. That's why I love this show so much.

Susi Su

I knew about the crosswords in the newspapers when we were recruiting for Bletchley codebreakers during WWII, so the idea wasn't new to me. Thinking back, the "we wanted people to write free software" was a bit lame, so yes, it was totally the CIA recruiting! :-D

Mik Smith

Bosco Lemonzit

I realized last week my fav episodes were the hollow moon and the crop circles, because in both, I had to stop, say holy crap, I've got to think this thru, this is new info and can completely change my worldview on the subject - for example, the press conference after moon landing. I actually looked up previous to launch news conferences and interviews to compare the guys performance and now think "holy crap, what did they find up there?" Those are the best and different for all of us, AJ makes us sit up and think. What a gift! What a great teacher he would have been in junior high science.

Daniel Buompane

I love it!

Bosco Lemonzit

I remember when that came out on the net and I ran the other way. I've refused to use face/twit/etc because it's social engineering and I looked at this cicada thing and just thought, yea, it might be fun, but you might regret deeply figuring it out. Plus a man's got to know his limitations (quick, which Clint Eastwood movie) and dark web Tor, stuff, way above me and safer to stay off it. I've worked tech for 40 years this year and much of it scares the beejees out of me now. Tech did not make life easier, it actually made the simple complicated

Mik Smith

I HAVE SOLVED THE PUZZLE! 'kcohtgsmhirathosotnabca', once run through the correct decoding software (I am obviously not at liberty to share this with others) translates as 'AJ is so impressed he is sending you a free 'Why? Files' mug right now so be happy!'.

Sammy the Ditch Doctor

Nerd heaven. I love it.

Nikki G_0

This story could be a Geek litmus test. I'm a geek, but maybe not as much of one as I thought because I never heard of this before. Very interesting story.

Kazren

Intriguing episode. People needed to put out a lot of money for all those tools they needed to decode the puzzles. I would have been stumped at the first one! Thanks for the enlightenment, A.J.

Deborah

As per usual I've had my weekly hit of dopermine watching the TWF 😊. I've been totally entertained, thank you AJ 🙏

7Heather7

I loved this one! Very neat!!

Todd Twilley

My most favorite episode in many months.

Peter Anniko

Great video - good job documenting all the steps as well as the final explanation

MikeD

I'm not unconvinced it's not a government spy agency recruitment drive. (Hopefully I didn't double-negative that sentence to mean the opposite.) The "explanation" and the website and having that info leaked is how they'd cover their tracks. Granted, I had never really heard about this until I watched TWF video, but now that I have, it remains an open question to me.

Peter Anniko

I think it’s 3301

Julia Fox

Intriguing 🤓🧡🙏✨

Susi Su

Fascinating episode. I'm afraid I fell for the "it's got to be a recruitment drive",but in hindsight that was a bit too obvious.

Dena Laura Shea

Even though I'm not smart enough to solve computer code, this story always intrigued me. Thanks for this. I love psychology and philosophy type of puzzles.

Jeremy Shorter

This is my new favorite episode…….. 😁

Rob Potts

Great episode, really enjoyed it!

EuroJenn

Super interesting and fun episode!

Karl poff

I like puzzles but omg I don't have that level (equipment or breadth of knowledge) and I have ADD.

Jackson

So, the code is asking for my mother's maiden name, my date of birth and whether I am a pescetarian? Very odd..

James Winn

Amazing episode once again!! My head hurts 🤯🤯. So much research must’ve gone into this one! You completed your goal to entertain …… here’s a shot of dopamine 🥃 ☺️

Daniel Hinshaw

THE ONLY WAY OUT IS IN. ALL IS SACRED EMERGENCE IS CoMING

Ben Dover-Nimmo

I appreciate the accurate description of the deep / dark web, being a US military project may have been a worth addition to your brief explanation.

Tammie Harper~Wilson ❤️

Fantastic, I’m on vacation and still can’t get enough of TWF!!!! 😁

Ben Dover-Nimmo

http://www1.845145127.com still exists as a domain but leads to a blank page, the map of locations all correspond to NATO intelligence locations...

rob denton

Me neither 😂

rob denton

Great episode. Really enjoyed it

John Seychel

This is very strange, and this cicada thing one big failure, it's a good story just because you told it, but the subject in itself failed to impress. The worse part for me is the puzzle master's completely failed to realize the puzzle of why the cicada gang was looking for puzzle masters, so why did they not do it, puzzles are made in order to solve. What did it matter if they where searching to change things, it's a puzzle all the same. Something like that I think? HOUSE

George Kuhn

Another fascinating video. Puzzle in the video? Not in the tiniest bit interested.

Alexander 🦊

So… All are all the weird mistakes in past vids also clues? Such as putting up a pic of "Tiwanaku," but it's actually Rapa Nui. Or, that one time you said Buddhist "monetary" instead of monastery.

Jon Daniels

Greatest channel on YouTube by far

Chase Schleich

Was Cicada 3301 partially covered or at least discussed in one of the early videos or am I suffering from the Mandela Effect? I've heard of it before and I swear it was in a Why Files video. Now I'm gonna have to start re-watching all the early videos to see if I'm crazy or not lol

Jamarr Mays

Great episode! Loved the ending

No Way Jose

You son of a gun. I listened to this in the car. Now, I have to listen/watch when I get home. It’s 12:24 am and I have to be at a meeting at 9:00am. Ughhh

Joseph Thurmond

Omg this is me and my son’s favorite show and our first time being a patron to any YouTube channel at that ! So we just wanna say hi and thank you for giving me and my son another thing we get to set make memories with conversations and bond together while watching your show ❤️

John McGuire

This video might be come the most viewed whyfiles video. Also, can we finally talk about all the 1/10 second splash screens in your videos? 😉

Moe

You stop making me think 🤔 I’m off the clock

Moe

So your’e 2 cut outs were intentional?. Hmm

thormusique

Truly excellent, cheers !

Brian Lantz

Are you going to make me watch this again at .25 speed looking for clues? I don’t even know if I can solve this or not.

Bealy Good

Sweet, I suggested the Beale papers awhile back. Cool to see them mentioned.

The Why Files

As soon as someone gets it, I will announce.

The Why Files

I wish I would have thought of this, Mike. I would have included this in the video.

The Why Files

Same! Lots of folks thought Cicada was an ARG at first.

The Why Files

The puzzle in the video is very Cicada-like. Meaning: once you find it, you'll wonder how you ever missed it. 😎

The Why Files

You saw that, huh? It's one of my favorite internet mysteries. I could have done two hours on this. There is SO much more.

The Why Files

Next time you hear someone say "pry-mus", you can correct their anglified Latin. 😉

John Edgeworth

Another great show, different and fun, but MMMMM, me and I fish could use some help with looking for the clue! See you tomorrow!

Sam Treadway

LIFE

Bosco Lemonzit

Yea kind of same. Did you ever try Einstein’s riddle? He gave it to grad students in physics back in the 1920s.

Bosco Lemonzit

Yeah, it’s kind of cool, isn’t it?

Jack (Doc) Gryphon

If the message isn't "drink more ovaltine" I'm gonna be really disappointed.

Jonathan Leiendecker

I found my self in the list of names :-) !!!!!!

Jonathan Leiendecker

This shows the growing gap between the educated and the uneducated. A quarter of the net is people getting clicks for making reaction videos. A quarter is people doing complex projects for the fun of it. I understand all of the topics mentioned but do not have the time to do it.

Connie Brand

I was thinking about dopamin. Lol. Love you AJ

Colin Butterworth

The only thing I noticed was one line of text that was not normal in the list. Not sure if there is more in the video yet.

Lori Carrig

Great video! Yes I did also order a heckle fish plushy! Cannot wait until it arrives. :)

Joe Ragu

I saw the puzzle… but I use nothing but an old iPhone 8. I no longer have the ability to decode…..:( I hope you younger pc freaks are able to carry the torch! 0011001100000001

William Scott

Need a talk session for those that solve it!

Colin Butterworth

Y'all are the best! Love these videos!

Autumn Spredemann

The best part of this episode was watching AJ get his geek on full blast. Interesting to learn how the whole 3301 deal turned out. Well done as always!

SpaceMatt Spliff

I was surprised to have not found this when I first found the channel. Great episode. Thank you all for your hard work.

Whiskey Tango-Foxtrot

glad I didn't have anything planned for the next couple of days. Time to re-watch.

Elak Swindell

Until today, I've never heard anyone say the word "Primus" as "Premus". It's always been "Pry-mus". Fascinating history lesson on a unknown topic, to me at least. Congrats to those that have the hyper-intelligence to crack all of those super elaborate puzzles.

Fane Reian

Damn, so we still don't know

Pete Mitchell

Another great episode! I saw/read about this a couple of years ago, but not in so much detail. Great work, as usual. Y'all do an amazing amount of research for these, and it shows.

Ryan Downing

Awesome! Early .. 😁

Manny Melo

I couldn't be assed to solve that, but is so cool that you did that for our betters. I look forward to the spoiler. I love you all. Even the fish.

Jacob Scott

Great episode! Find the conclusion of the story just like cicadas conclusion

Joe P

Another awesome episode from The Why Files! A puzzle…very cool!!!

Mystically

omg a puzzle inside of a puzzle video.... SHEESH! probably a Find DINO image

Jason McCue

So much better than last week’s episode.

Sibyle

Did you do the goofy DaVinci Code puzzles?

louladylala

I love puzzles and I’m pretty smart - but I’m also incredibly lazy. I bounced out of the Cicada thing pretty quickly. I always wondered about it though, and now I know. Thanks for this, it was great fun. Another fantastic win for the Fab WF Team!

Sibyle

Facebook employed a similar intelligence gathering technique with their quizzes and surveys.

Brian Sincerbeaux

This one bent my brain a little bit. Should sleep soundly tonight. Thanks gang!

Ivari Tölp

This video made me happy.

Brian Jackson

Reminds me quite a bit of the Latitude club in retrospect

h0tline.actual

Pretty sure that it was never about open source encryption but a counterintelligence honey pot to identify gifted individuals in the art of cryptography in order to surveil and monitor. Just my opinion.

Diane Given

I'm smart. But since most of the text of this video sounded like a foreign language, I guess not smart enough. LOL (Or at least not smart enough in the right fields!)

MikeD

And so, AJ cleverly informs us how he was originally recruited into a certain three-letter agency a few years back. Just kidding. I think. Another interesting story and another one I didn't know. Those are the best.

Saturn's Dad.

I was finally here for the Patreon Premiere Unlock. After a few weeks of falling behind. And catching up. I am glad I am not late this time. Isn't this month Hecklefish month? I am looking forward to the shipment email to begin tracking him. Because once my cat and I have him? We can watch all upcoming episodes with hype and anticipation. Whether my cat is nestled with Hecklefish and I by then? Or off being playful, independent, and entertaining herself with her own thing. One thing is certain. Once Hecklefish is with us? It will be a Braum's meal that we can make sure to acquire for the occasion that can only be experienced to the fullest of maxed out fun in perpetual darkness during the middle of the night. That will be the celebratory way we do out best to watch WhyFiles. Because why go to a movie theater? When you can enjoy AJ, narration, on screen Hecklfish, talking stuffed doll Hecklfish toy, a cat, and tasty food for the occasion that there is no concierge to check your bag and demand you surrender outside food to pay for expensive food at a theater you don't have to go to in order to watch TheWhyFiles. We....are excited for that new ritual.

Adrian Kemp

Loved the Cicada 3301 puzzle

sic Butcher

I didn’t solve it, but AJ emphasized the patreon list with “you should really check it out”. My guess is it’s in there??

NikkiBubblesMom

Excellent episode! I am not a puzzle person, but that was fascinating!

Tripal Helix

Love......it.....the race is on!

sic Butcher

You went yard on another one. Sooo entertaining!!

Ashley Grace

Anyone figure out the puzzle in this video? I’m amazed at those who are good at puzzles. My gifts lay elsewhere haha

NorthwoodsJen

That was a learning experience!! Sweet - thanks!

Mark william lane

I understand that. Now I’m scared. Lol

Mark william lane

Curiouser and curiouser

The One True Chris

Area code 214 is Dallas, not Austin.

Ashley Grace

I wish I was this smart maybe someday. I’m not the person they were looking for. Haha

Kevin Via

I can't watch this now, but have wanted the inside scope since it happened. Looking forward to it. I was told it was a recruiting tool for the intelligence agencies

Bosco Lemonzit

Firs…..shit! Foiled again!

Jeff Pierce

7th…….lol👍🏻

Mellie

6th! 😄

Colin Butterworth

Guess I won't be working much for the next 35 minutes 🙃

W

Long day! Why files puts a smile on my day! Thank you guys

Doc Hollidxy

My crappy day just got much better, thanks to this Patreon notification! Can't wait to get home and watch. TWF never fails to deliver ♥️ Edit: as expected, another great episode! On to the premiere/live on YT tonight!