Welcome to this installment of Context Clues, where we gather segments from previous episodes

to give you deeper insight into our upcoming topic, our Halloween special called the 12-foot

skeleton.

In the terrifying year of 2020, hardware empire, home depot, home grewus, an October

decoration that seemed to spring from the collective American subconscious, a giant

posable skeleton whose sheenie skull reached above the first story of many suburban homes.

This wasn't just another hokey Halloween animatron, like the ones we find yearly at pop-up

spirit Halloween stores.

No, this was a sensation, a craze on par with the all-out brawl for beanie babies or tickle

the elmos, the 12-foot skeleton, selling out each year within hours of being posted online,

which limited the parking lot fistfights.

Lovers of Skelly, as the skeleton has come to be known, have even created a black market,

reselling the monster at triple the price.

In many communities, these Skellies stay up all year round, dressed for various holidays

far beyond Halloween, leading us at American hysteria to wonder, is there something deeper

going on here?

Plaster and plastic and cardboard skeletons have been a staple of the holiday for decades,

long before our giant patron saint of Halloween actually arrived.

And as we'll learn in our upcoming episode, the history of skeleton displays in America

is as dark as it is amusing.

In fact, you may want to do a double take on the skeletons you think you know.

Because if history is any indication, these collections of bones may be far more real

...