[RECORDING:CHASING/PARANOIA2.0/THEYLIVE.AVI.MP3]
[REPORT:PARANOIA2.0/REGAN:THEYLIVE]
SCP-1981 is a standard Betamax tape. “RONALD REGAN CUT UP WHILE TALKING”(sic) has been handwritten on the adhesive sticker in felt tip pen. Laboratory analysis indicates that SCP-1981 is made of ordinary material, and serial numbers correspond with home cassette tapes produced in September of 1980. SCP-1981 was initially encountered by a filing clerk in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in 1991, who upon watching it alerted the police, with the intent to find the tape’s creator to press “obscenity charges”. A low level police investigation was conducted, at which point the Foundation was alerted and secured SCP-1981. Class A amnesiacs were administered before █████ could be notified. Further investigation of the library’s records by Foundation personnel failed to yield any leads on SCP-1981’s origin.
SCP-1981 appears to be a home video recording of former United States President Ronald Reagan delivering his “Evil Empire” speech to the National Association of Evangelicals at Sheraton Twin Towers Hotel, Orlando, FL on 3/8/1983. However, at 1 minute and 10 seconds, the speech begins to deviate heavily, eventually resembling no known speech ever made by Reagan. Beginning at approximately 5 minutes, multiple incisions, lacerations and penetration wounds can be seen being slowly inflicted, though no corresponding source of these wounds is visible. Despite suffering bodily harm that would likely incapacitate an ordinary person, Reagan will continue to deliver his speech until either his vocal cords are severed or the tape degrades to static at 22:34.
An extended version of this report has been edited for public release and embedded as a mythic memetic entity on the archives of the SCP Foundation.