Menu
Sign In Search Podcasts Charts People & Topics Add Podcast API Pricing
Podcast Image

Stuff You Should Know

Short Stuff: The Call is Coming... FROM INSIDE THE HOUSE

08 Oct 2025

Description

Did you know that the "the call is coming from inside the house" urban legend may be based on a very grisly murder case from the 1950s?See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Audio
Transcription

Full Episode

0.031 - 35.704 Unknown

This is an iHeart Podcast. This is a really stunning development for the AI world. And how you think about your bottom line. Listen to The Big Take from Bloomberg News every weekday afternoon on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

0

40.429 - 48.297 Josh Clark

Hey, and welcome to The Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck, and Jerry's here too. And we are coming to you from inside your house.

0

48.547 - 57.402 Chuck Bryant

That's right. No, we're not. Trigger warning on this one, by the way. There's some pretty violent content, including speak of sexual assault at some point.

0

57.542 - 59.605 Josh Clark

Yeah, this takes a real hard left all of a sudden.

0

60.146 - 75.111 Chuck Bryant

It really does. And we're talking about the sort of trope of the call is coming from inside the house. And as a trope, we want to thank TVTropes.com, Tropedia, and a really good article from Chrissy Stockton on Thought Catalog.

75.091 - 80.582 Josh Clark

Plus also Sean Van Horn on Collider and the good folks on the Straight Dope message board.

81.103 - 82.866 Chuck Bryant

That's right. And Principal Seymour Skinner.

83.548 - 113.687 Josh Clark

That's right. So the call is coming from inside the house is also often called the babysitter and the man upstairs. And just the quick sketch of it, this is an urban legend that probably dates back to the 60s and essentially says that there is a usually a young teen tween girl alone at home or more often that she is alone babysitting some kids who are younger than her.

113.667 - 129.651 Josh Clark

And she keeps getting calls from some mysterious stranger who asks her, have you checked on the kids who are ostensibly asleep upstairs? And she just hangs up. She thinks it's a prank call. And as time goes on, these calls get more and more sinister.

Comments

There are no comments yet.

Please log in to write the first comment.