And Now, For The Alternate Dimension Showdown: The Sunken Place Vs. The Upside Down

In the opening sketch of 2017’s MTV Movie & TV Awards, host Adam Devine takes a tour through the year’s most fascinating alternate realities: The Sunken Place from Get Out and the Upside Down from Stranger Things. The sketch begins when Allison Williams from Get Out clanks her spoon against a teacup, and sends a hypnotized Devine hurtling through the Sunken Place. Yet he lands in Stranger Things’ Upside Down.

“When you’re teacup hypnotized and super high, you go one level deeper,” Barb (Shannon Purser), who’s hanging out in the Upside Down, explains. “One level beneath the Sunken Place is the Upside Down,” Devine confirms once he comprehended the layering of the dimensions.

Obviously, the skit is a joke — but it's easy to conflate the Upside Down with the Sunken Place. They’re both fictional realms that emerged within a year of each other, and they’re both attached to pop culture sensations. With Season 2 of Stranger Things coming out on October 27, let’s delve into the Sunken Place and the Upside Down like the intrepid (pop culture) explorers we are.