SCP-5981

Item #: SCP-5981

Object Class: Edifice

Containment Class: Euclid

Special Containment Procedures: Each road leading into the supposed location of SCP-5981 has been closed off under the cover story that a chemical leak has rendered the area uninhabitable. Keyword Search Crawler #198 ("Operator") is to remove any mention of "Nuke City" from the internet. The cadaver of SCP-5981-2 is to be kept frozen in the Cadaver Storage Sector of Site-19 for further research.

Description: SCP-5981 is a fictional city, named "Nuke City," supposedly located on the intersection of U.S. Route 93 and U.S. 93 Alternate. According to accounts, SCP-5981 was founded in the early 1940's, but was the subject of a nuclear strike in 1966, destroying most of the city. However, most of the city's inhabitants survived this attack, only to become mutated . Of note is that SCP-5981 is not a memetic agent; in fact, most subjects will not believe that SCP-5981 exists, and no future consequences will occur.

Subjects who both believe that SCP-5981 exists and attempt to visit SCP-5981 will disappear from reality shortly after entering SCP-5981's "city limits". It is of note that subjects who visit "SCP-5981" without being informed of SCP-5981's existence will not find SCP-5981, but rather an abandoned Department of Transportation building. After subjects leave SCP-5981, they will often reappear in reality with memories of visiting SCP-5981. Occasionally, they will return with paraphernalia related to SCP-5981, designated SCP-5981-1. Some instances of SCP-5981-1 include:

T-Shirts with slogans such as "I survived Nuke City!" and "We'll Never Forgive [various nations] for Nuke City!"

Vials of nuclear byproducts.

Photographic and video media. These do not appear to be doctored, and show that "Nuke City" is a thriving suburban metropolis populated with mutated humans.

Negotiable U.S. currency, supposedly won in SCP-5981's many casinos.

Assorted paraphernalia from "Nuke Slides," which is supposedly SCP-5981's "world famous water park."

Irradiated rubble.

SCP-5981-2. See Incident Reports for more information.

Aside from SCP-5981-2, none of the supposed mutants living in SCP-5981 have left the city.

Additional Notes: The original propagation of SCP-5981 was in Season 13, Episode 7 of the animated sitcom Family Guy, titled "Nuke City". In this episode, main character Brian Griffin begins to date a woman who he later discovers has been mutated to have gills. In spite of this, Brian still resolves to continue seeing this woman. Brian and his family are later invited to visit the woman's family in SCP-5981. After several minutes of hi-jinks, mostly due to Brian's owner, Peter Griffin, having an infatuation with the city, the woman's father is revealed to have only invited the Griffin family in order to kidnap the family's baby, Stewie Griffin. The episode ends with the kidnapper being pushed into a nuclear reactor. This causes a nuclear explosion which destroys SCP-5981 once again, but not before the Griffins escape. A full video transcript of this episode can be found in Document 5981-GRIFFIN.

This episode was met with general acclaim, and internet searches for "Nuke City" increased by over 5000% after the episode aired. Seven minutes after the episode premiered on Fox, the website "visitnukecity.com " appeared, providing bus tickets to, tours of, and paraphernalia related to SCP-5981. It is estimated that 200,000 civilians visited SCP-5981 before Foundation leadership realized that SCP-5981 was anomalous.

Seth MacFarlane, the executive producer of Family Guy, was forced to produce a statement asserting that SCP-5981 was not real and simply an element of fiction. In addition, the Foundation encouraged the removal of the episode in question from public distribution, under the pretense that it encouraged dangerous activity. After three months, it was determined that public knowledge of SCP-5981 was low enough that more aggressive measures could be taken to suppress it; see Special Containment Procedures for current protocol.

Shortly after this incident, the staff and crew of Family Guy were interviewed by the Foundation for information on SCP-5981. Most staff members asserted that SCP-5981 was real, and that the episode was an attempt to shine light on a lesser known tourist destination. The sole exception was Seth MacFarlane, who explained that he had originally intended for the episode to be a homage to an earlier episode where the world of Family Guy was destroyed in a nuclear explosion, but the plot was modified by the writing staff due to fears of viewers not being able to recall the earlier episode.

However, when under hypnosis, MacFarlane revealed that he had been approached by a man clothed in black robes and a cone-shaped hood prior to the episode's conception. This man, who MacFarlane associated with a heavy sense of fear, instructed him to produce an episode about Nuke Town, specifically involving Peter Griffin murdering a resident by pushing them into a nuclear reactor. This memory had been suppressed via unknown means.

Addendum: Incident Reports