A quick question for the horror buffs: Which famous horror series features a lovable chainsaw-wielding serial killer in a hockey mask? If you answered Friday the 13th, we can say with absolute certainty that you’ve never seen a damn Friday the 13th movie in your life—and while we’re at it, you probably shouldn’t identify yourself as a horror buff ever again. See, the issue here is that Jason Voorhees, the aforementioned serial killer in a hockey mask, never used a chainsaw in any of the movies he appeared in. Not once.
Sure, Jason was lunged at with a chainsaw in Friday the 13th Part 2, and a Jason copycat killer was attacked with a chainsaw in Friday the 13th: A New Beginning. The real Jason also briefly put a Brush Cutter to good use in Friday the 13th Part VII, but that’s about as far as the power tool connection goes. But ask someone who doesn’t know what they’re talking about, and they’ll swear the chainsaw was Jason’s weapon of choice.
Are we dealing with some kind of Mandela effect, or are people just mixing Jason up with The Texas Chain Saw Massacre killer, Leatherface?
All of this confusion seems to point back to a little comedy movie you might’ve heard of: National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. Remember Clark Griswold coming out of the garage with the chainsaw? And do any of you so-called comedy buffs remember what he happened to be wearing during that scene? Here’s a brief refresher for you:
I think we found our culprit, folks. In that short scene, Chevy Chase appears to have unintentionally planted a seed that led to decades of people spreading misinformation about a beloved fictional psychopath.
Before long, the Super Nintendo video game Zombies Ate My Neighbors was terrorizing players by including hockey mask-wearing maniacs with chainsaws:
A famous Simpsons gag from later that same year had Homer bursting into Bart’s room in the middle of the night to show off his new chainsaw and hockey mask:
And as if that all wasn’t enough, even Eminem got into the action by dressing up like Jas—er, Clark Griswold during live performances:
It looks like this is one stereotype that’s here to stay. Thanks a lot, Chevy Chase. You somehow managed to make a deranged mass murderer’s reputation even worse.
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