N.C. Sewer Monster Is the Summer’s Susan Boyle

The biggest horror hit of the summer may not come from any box-office blockbuster, but rather from video footage taken from a Raleigh, N.C., sewer system. The clip uploaded earlier this week shows a moist, throbbing blob affixed to the inside of a pipe.

The video has been a hit, watched more than 3 million times since June 30 as people tune in to see the curiosity from below just sit there. Pulsating. Waiting for the right moment to stri–aaaaahhhhflghhglhghgglggh!!!

Sci-fi blog io9 has been following the story and attests the creature is real, and not some viral video prank — though there appears to be some confusion as to what this real creature actually is. At first it was thought to be a slime mold, but then the News & Observer wrote:

Actually, the sewer monster is made up of thousands of tiny organisms called bryozoans, or moss animacules, said N.C. State University biologist Thomas Kwak. Invertebrates, they bunch together in colonies and feed with tiny tentacles.

This theory was disputed by DeepSeaNews which said that no, it is not bryozans; instead it is “clumps of annelid worms, almost certainly tubificids (Naididae, probably genus Tubifex).”

Whatever it is, it’s gross, it’s captured the Internet’s imagination, and the hacks in Microsoft’s marketing department are probably looking to use it for an ad campaign now that their vomit video has been pulled.