Many people love Michael Jackson. But not one woman. She claims to have a paralyzing phobia of the king of pop. The teenager’s reaction to seeing a Jackson impersonator perform went viral this week.
“It wasn’t until half an hour in that I heard the start of ‘Thriller’ playing and I instantly started panicking,” said 18-year-old Ruby Marriott of South Yorkshire, UK.
The teen claims she has a “genuine fear of Michael Jackson” that can be triggered by something as little as hearing one of his songs.
Her most traumatic experience occurred when she was out with her aunt and uncle celebrating their recent marriage.
She was having fun until a Michael Jackson impersonator hit the stage.
Marriott’s sister took out her camera and started filming her scared sister who can be seen crying in her seat as the impersonator takes on an animated version of Thriller along with the singer’s signature dance moves.
“I couldn’t even look at him,” Ruby described. “It took me a while to get to sleep that night,” Ruby said.
Ruby admits to having a fear of the singer since she was five years old. She has often been the subject of family pranks due to her phobia.
“My sister and cousin used to show me creepy edited videos of him that people made and conspiracy theories that he’s alive, like photos of him in the background of photos and in people’s windows. If a family member plays his song, I have to walk out of the room,” she explains.
She also described a prank that took place on a family vacation.
“There was a door with about eight padlocks on it and one of my family members jokingly said, ‘What if Michael Jackson was in there?’ knowing my phobia of him. Every night for three weeks, I had the same awful nightmare of him creeping out of the wardrobe and coming for me when I was asleep. It was awful.”
Ruby reveals that she still has nightmares about Jackson creeping out of the wardrobe to this day.
The video her sister recorded was posted on TikTok and racked up over 10 million views. Although commenters tried to be sympathetic, some just couldn’t help themselves.
“I’m sorry but this is the funniest thing I’ve seen,” one wrote.
“Annie, are you okay, are you okay Annie,” another chimed in.
