Urban Legends

Cuckoo

Origin: Korea

The Cuckoo is a Korean scary story about an insane man who attacks girls on deserted streets and darkened laneways.

The Cuckoo urban legend began to spread rapidly around Korea a few years ago. Rumors were heard in schoolyards about a crazy man they called Mr. Cuckoo or The Cuckoo Man.

They said he would lurk in alleys and side streets, lying in wait for his victims.

As soon as a group of young girls passed by, they would hear a voice saying, "Cuckoo! Cuckoo!" 

When they turned around to look, the man would attack them with overwhelming and indiscriminate violence. Some say he carried a baseball bat and others say it was an ax.

Reports claimed that many Korean girls were maimed by the crazy man and a few were even killed. In one incident, 20 to 30 Korean schoolgirls were walking down a street, when a man suddenly stepped out of the shadows and began beating them with a baseball bat as if he was playing a game of Whack-A-Mole. Before the police arrived, the unidentified man fled, leaving five girls severely injured.

They say that if you are walking down a deserted street and hear someone say, "Cuckoo! Cuckoo!" you should answer the call with "Cuckoo! Cuckoo!" and then run for your life.

As the story goes, Mr. Cuckoo was a man who suffered from a severe mental illness. He was committed to an insane asylum as a mental patient. While he was being treated there, he was attacked by a female patient who beat him senseless and left him scarred for life. After he recovered, he developed an intense hatred for women.

Soon afterward, the Cuckoo man escaped from the mental home and disappeared. The authorities were never able to track him down and, after a while, they gave up searching for him.

Today, he is still on the loose and stalks the lonely streets, looking for young girls to attack. Kids who have seen the Cuckoo man describe him as being in his early 30s, very big and tall, wearing a black beanie hat.

According to the legend, the Cuckoo man will sometimes ask a nonsensical question like, "Is Mr. Cuckoo cuckoo?" or "Do you know the Cuckoo?" 

If you don't know the answer to his question or don't answer at all, he will immediately attack you. The best thing to do is say "Yes" to whatever he asks and then start running.