First and foremost, I apologize for my long absence. I was doing some research on a different possible topic only to discover a video I thought was fake turned out to be very real, and it upset me to know I had just watched/listened to someone genuinely being tortured. Because of that, I had to step away and shake that off, but I'm back so let's get into one of my personal favorite topics: The Goddess Bunny.
In 2007, a strange video emerged on YouTube by the user "OBEYDAWALRUS." The actual title was similarly named "Obey the Walrus," and became the source of urban legends that went as far as to call it a cursed video. It opened with the character Andross, from Star Fox, singing a Spanish version of "The Itsy Bitsy Spider", that then breaks in to some psychedelic effects with the music sped up until the singer sounds reminiscent of Alvin and the Chipmunks. A few seconds later the song slows significantly and becomes loud and distorted while the scene suddenly cuts to what looks like an extremely emaciated girl awkwardly tap dancing with an umbrella. By the end of the song, the girl leans in to glare at the camera and it ends with a picture of a walrus. There are claims that the video is the product of a cult called La Morsa and that bad things will happen to anyone who views it.
Like all creepy YouTube videos, this one seemed to come out of nowhere and very little was known about the "scariest" part of the video, the dancing girl. Her presence alone was likely what led the video to the level of notoriety it gained, however it doesn't take much digging now to find out who she is as well as an explanation for her physical appearance. However, even though she is easy to look up, it doesn't mean her actual story is easy to confirm as she has told many versions of it. But I'll do the best I can to reconstruct what we know about her.
The dancer in question is a woman by the name of Sandie Crisp but is best known for her stage name, Goddess Bunny. Sandie was born in 1960 as John Baima. According to her, her mother gave birth to her at the top of a ferris wheel in Santa Monica, and has consistently stuck to that story though as of writing this, no one knows if that's actually true. As an infant, she contracted polio and became subject to a series of botched operations that only added to her physical disabilities. One of the operations, according to her mother, even involved attaching a Harrington Rod to her spine. Her emaciated appearance and the way she moves when she is on her feet are examples of the results of her condition.
And if you feel like an ass now for getting freaked out by how she looked in the video, don't worry. I did too.
Some time later she wound up in the foster care system, bouncing around from family to family while suffering from several types of abuse, including physical and sexual. Because she was handicapped, she was completely unable to fight back and the trauma for her was horrific. By the time she was 14, she managed to move back in with her mother and came out for the first time as transgender, identifying as a female and not a male. Her mother, however, did not accept her identity in the slightest and resorted to classic Bible thumping to try to convince her she was wrong, which eventually pushed Sandie into moving out and pursuing her dreams of having a career as a film actress.
Despite her condition, Sandie refused to resign herself to it and her motivation eventually brought her to Keith Holland, the man who filmed the original video of Sandie tap dancing and whose clips landed in the notorious, "Obey the Walrus," video. What needs to be noted about this video is the face that Sandie, who was mostly confined to a wheelchair at this point, was able to manage to get on her feet and dance for the camera, proving her ability to fight through the hurdles her life had thrown at her. And that's pretty incredible.
During the 80's, while living in Meadmore in Hollywood, Sandie grew a reputation of bringing home young gay prostitutes, claiming she was just doing her "Christian charity." Occasionally she would go back to living with her mother, but her mother's views on her gender identity never changed and the relationship was tumultuous at best. Despite this, Sandie began performing at the Limbo Lounge and caught the attention of filmmaker, Aes-Nihil, who went on to cast her in some of his films, including "The Drift." She quickly became an underground celebrity and fully embraced her role in this.
Over time, her performances grew more extreme and often offensive in nature, pushing for shock value above all. It never deterred her when she caused outrage, not even after getting punched one night by an offended audience member (the incident took place after she performed a piece as Eva Braun alongside another performer dressed as Adolf Hitler). "When you push the boundaries, then people all of a sudden open their eyes and see what you're trying to do. [You're] giving that extra push," she explained.
During the 90s, her career continued and she began to making cameos in film, including an appearance in Marilyn Manson's video, "The Dope Show." However she claimed she was often taken advantage of and not properly paid for her work. On top of this, her physical condition often caused her to be cast as the freak for the audience to gawk at, while Aes-Nihil set out to present her in his films as any other actress regardless of her condition.
Sandie eventually met a man by the name of Rocky who was a drag queen. The two fell in love and soon got married, however Rocky died suddenly and the cause of death is still unclear. One story says he was in prison and grew sick only to never recover. Another says he committed suicide by driving off a cliff. After his death, Sandie went on to join a band named partially after her called "Punk Bunny," but soon became homeless after the band member she was living with kicked her out into the streets. She wound up staying in homeless shelters but eventually ended up in an assisted living facility. Despite her identity as a woman, the facility refused to let her reside in the women's side and forced her to stay on the men's side. She still resides in that facility as of writing this, and I'm assuming she's still alive since I can't find any announcement of her death.
Since public knowledge of Sandie has grown over the years, the allegedly cursed video, "Obey the Walrus", has gradually become less of a scary find and more of a shameful one. It's an unfortunate example of how people with disabilities can often be treated as freaks rather than human beings who deserve the same dignity and respect as any other human. While Sandie has, in the past, consented to participating in roles that portray her as a freak, "Obey the Walrus" was not one of those instances which is why it garners criticism.
Sandie Crisp, the Goddess Bunny, stands as a motivating example of how perseverance in the face of obstacles can lead to a life filled with more stories and accomplishments rather than resigning yourself to your fate. While she was last documented as still living in the assisted living facility, her situation did become less sad. Her son, Hunter, became a consistent part of her life and she regularly takes in any friends she becomes close to and dubs them as part of her family.
Sources:
- The Legend of the Goddess Bunny: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/wje84n/the-legend-of-goddess-bunny-hollywoods-forgotten-disabled-trans-art-star
- Teh Meme Wiki: Obey the Walrus: https://meme.fandom.com/wiki/Obey_The_Walrus
- The Goddess Bunny (a documentary): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNEPfK1I2og
