Terrible Secret of Space

The Terrible Secret of Space is an internet meme that originated in an instant message prank run by the editor of the humor website Something Awful, Richard Kyanka. Kyanka told a particularly gullible young IM user that he was building "space robots" to assist humans and protect them from the mysterious secret (which, appropriately, was never explained). These included a pusher robot that was programmed to shove, and a shover robot that was programmed to push. In the prank Kyanka's robot malfunctioned during the conversation and pushed Kyanka down the stairs, just as an earlier prototype had done to his grandmother. Kyanka then posed as the robot which tried to find out the location of the IM user so it could push him down the stairs as well.

Like the "All your base are belong to us" phenomenon, the Terrible Secret of Space spawned a Flash Animation with a soundtrack by The Laziest Men on Mars. It also inspired the Something Awful token phrase, "Do you have stairs in your house?"