#ai-cryptids — Public Fediverse posts

Pop Cryptid Spectator 18

Hi, everyone.

The Pop Cryptid Spectator is about the proliferation of depictions of cryptids in popular culture. In particular, these depictions are outside the context of the original, and serious, concept of cryptozoology as a specialized branch of zoology.

I realize this is a very niche topic. First, you have to know about cryptozoology. Then, you have to have some concept about how it was framed in its early inception. Finally, you have to be aware of, and interested in, the modern cryptid landscape, which exploded with new and imaginative ideas. Cryptids are EVERYWHERE today. And their presence in popular culture rarely has anything to do with a scientific endeavor to find a mystery animal unknown to science.

That calculation results in a tiny population of people that is going to get the gist of this specific newsletter. If you are one of them, thanks for coming along with me on this journey.

There are self-styled cryptozoologists and even scholars writing about these topics that don’t see the subject through the lens of pop cryptids. Even they aren’t catching this vibe. It’s still important for me to document the pop cryptid concept, since it helps me understand what’s happening in real time and tease out the reasons why cryptids are so popular these days, both commercially and socially. As always, I’m here to deliver examples of this popularity with each edition.

Through the pop cryptid lens, the creatures called “cryptids”, as defined and redefined continually through products of our society, transcend the idea of a “hidden animal” to be identified by zoological science. This is no longer the primary goal. Instead, the pop cryptid model shines a light on the many other purposes and goals. It’s important to document these cultural ideas because they can affect how we identify with the places we live or visit and our beliefs and our immediate environment. Cryptids are used in the stories we tell to convey important messages about ourselves and how we see the world. They reflect our fears and our relationship with the nature or the beyond-nature. The stories also play a huge role in tourism and media products. Let me illustrate…

In this edition:

• Jersey Devil is a Cryptid of the Moment
• Cryptid AI vlogs
• SpiracyCon goes heavy on cryptids and Christian commentators
• What’s with the “archiness” of water monsters?
• Monster Festivals Season – Thank the Mothman
• In Research Of… The Mothman Prophecies deep dive
• Pop Cryptid trivia

Jersey Devil is a Cryptid of the Moment

One can reasonably argue that the Jersey Devil (JD) is not a cryptid because it was viewed as a folklore creature, a mass panic event, or, in reality, a political smear campaign, instead of an animal to be discovered. However, JD clearly ranks as a top pop cryptid. It’s a fantastic creature and I love it. Reactor magazine has a lovely article about how a current book of poetry, a play, and a comic about the Jersey Devil have arrived to show it is still beloved. The three very different ways of utilizing the same subject show how versatile JD is. The writer remarks that it is “a combination of the Jersey Devil’s unique qualities and vague history that make it so appealing to writers and storytellers right now.”

Cryptid AI vlogs

I wrote a new piece for Modern Cryptozoology about the sudden proliferation of cryptid vlogs on visual social media platforms.

Starting in June 2025, video blog shorts have been materializing daily featuring cryptids rendered with amazing realism. They are meant to be humorous, with the cryptids pointing the phone cam at themselves and their friends, making jokes, and showing the viewer what it’s like to be their best selves. They talk, sing, demonstrate life skills, discover cool things, and even interact with people. Check out the piece here.

SpiracyCon goes heavy on cryptids and Christian commentators

I just want everyone to take a look at the header for SpiracyCon. This is really something!

This conspiracy conference promises “a world of intrigue and revelation!” “With a wide variety of speakers—bold investigators, daring theorists, and passionate truth-tellers… this event promises to challenge everything you think you know.” You wouldn’t expect cryptids to feature so prevalently – maybe UFOs and JFK. But, the dogman/werewolf, Bigfoot, and Mothman imagery is concerning when the content is advertised as “a thrilling mix of talks and discussions that dive deep into topics like government cover-ups, unexplained phenomena, and forbidden knowledge.” The term “truth seekers” is mentioned several times.

Of the content creators on the speakers list of 19 so far, 16 have “Christian” or Biblical studies in their bio. The other 3 might just not say it out loud, but clearly know this is an event with a seriously militant Christian vibe. Four mention Bigfoot research or cryptids in general. More than a few bios are downright terrifying in an evident personality disorder kind of way. If you know anything about the insane conspiracy ideas such as aliens as demons, Bigfoot as Nephilim, and Satanic allegations against one’s political enemies, you can bet what will be mentioned here will be even worse.

I would not be the least bit comfortable in such a crowd. However, it is not new that ideas about cryptids are popularly blending with the supernatural and occult, government coverups, and End Times Biblical stuff. Some people go hard core. Take this as a wake-up call – not all cryptid fans are in it for the fun.

What’s with the “archiness” of water monsters?

Charles Paxton and Adrian Shine have a new journal article out examining the “sticky” cultural image of water monsters depicted with “arches” of their long, serpentine bodies out of water. The conclusion of the article is that only very few eyewitness reports describe these “arches” in contrast to the very many media, art, and consumer imagery that does.

The more common description of “humps” (showing no space between the flesh and the water), while not examined in this article, is treated in Shine’s book A Natural History of Sea Serpents where he argues that the appearance of humps are frequently the result of natural wakes or waves on calm water. There is no related trend of eyewitnesses reporting “arches” even though the common pop-cultural depiction of, say, Nessie, shows these. This conclusion contrasts with other evidence that clearly suggests that pop-cultural depictions of cryptids influence eyewitness reports of seeing them. So, this is an intriguing finding.

It’s important to emphasize that NO vertebrate animal can move in a way that creates vertical “arches”, not even snakes. The best nature can do is a series of surface breaches just on the surface, such as when dolphins or porpoises travel in a line. Therefore, if a witness reports “arches” instead of humps, they can fairly be deemed to be mistaken to some degree.

A closing note on this, the BBC had a write-up where they got things confused regarding arches vs humps. People definitely see humps, but not arches.

Monster Festivals Season – Thank the Mothman

Town monster festival season continues: The Grafton monster festival, in its second year as one of several cryptid festivals located in West Virginia, was a huge success, and Port Henry, New York will hold its 40th Champ Day at Lake Champlain in early August.

Several other events coming in later summer and fall are ramping up to attract more visitors than ever as previous visitors tell their friends and families and word spreads via social media. Typically, these festival feature vendors, bands, and speakers. The speakers are frequently content creators, or associated with a TV show, what we colloquially call “para-celebs”. It used to be ghost hunters who got all the attention; but this social cachet is now rubbing off on cryptid investigators. If you visit one in your area, let me know how it was by emailing me!

Why do we have cryptid town festivals multiplying and growing every year? Mothman. Several new festivals, such as for Ol’ Green Eyes, Albatwitch, Grafton, Van Meter, and more, are spun from the template of Point Pleasant’s Mothman Festival.

In Research Of… The Mothman Prophecies deep dive

Here is a fantastic two-parter podcast that you must check out. Jeb Card and Blake Smith of In Research Of… go step by step through The Mothman Prophecies (2002) film. They compare the book to the movie and discuss aspects of the film and the phenomenon that you will certainly not have heard before. Instead of the usual Wikipedia-referencing shallow cryptid podcast, indulge with two extremely well-versed commentators sharing their thoughts on Mothman, movies, John Keel, and pop cryptids.
Part 1 https://inresearchof.libsyn.com/s04-bonus-the-mothman-prophecies-part-1
Part 2 https://inresearchof.libsyn.com/s4-bonus-the-mothman-prophecies-part-2

The Mothman festival, one of the most popular cryptid town festivals in the world, was almost certainly a result of this movie. And, remember, without the Mothman festival, there would probably not be the plethora of other monster festivals worldwide that we have today.

Pop Cryptid trivia

See if you can answer this movie trivia question.

What actress has appeared in TWO movies as a cancer-stricken wife of a man who embarks on a personal journey involving a cryptid?

Click here to go to my “reveal” page with the answer.

Thanks for reading.

Please continue to send me links to interesting news and content. I really appreciate that. Email sharon(at)sharonahill.com.

For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam. 

Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!

Pop Cryptid Spectator 17

Pop Cryptid Spectator 16

Pop Cryptid Spectator 15

Pop Cryptid Spectator 14

Pop Cryptid Spectator 13

Pop Cryptid Spectator 12

#AICryptids #BigfootAsAlien #conspiracy #cryptidFestivals #JerseyDevil #Mothman #Nessie #popCryptid #PopCryptidSpectator #popCryptids

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9936

AI Cryptid Vlogs

In June 2025, video blog shorts have been materializing daily featuring cryptids rendered with amazing realism. They are meant to be humorous, with the cryptids pointing the video cam at themselves and their friends, making jokes, and showing the viewer what it’s like to be them being their best selves. They talk, sing, demonstrate life skills, discover cool things, and even interact with people. These vids can be quite entertaining. However, the novelty is already wearing off as there are so many flooding the platforms with varying quality. Let’s look at a few.

Bigfoot

The first channel that kicked it off was https://www.tiktok.com/@bigfootvlogs. The first video was on May 28, 2025. And the scene exploded over the following weeks. There are so many Bigfoot vlogs and re-posters now that I can’t untangle who is doing what. Bigfoot is usually rendered as a chestnut or dark brown, husky creature, sometimes more muscular than Bigfoot is usually portrayed, with a dark gorilla-like face. Sometimes, however, he resembles a giant orangutan. Because this is an AI generated Bigfoot, this version is collectively what the culture says it looks like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3F1yTvmWqQ

He carries a selfie stick so you get the personal and steady view. In some, he has a wolf dog named Lobo. Bigfoot often finds drugs, and the punch line is that he always uses them. Most of these aren’t very funny, though they have their moments. In some longer videos, Bigfoot’s look differs from clip to clip, even having an entirely different voice or accent, which is sloppy and annoying. Also, yes, there is a female Bigfoot blog. Many of these videos are rather PG-13 in ratings, but kids are certainly watching them.

Yeti

So far, the individual Yeti vlogs or those along with Bigfoot are not very good. The Yeti is depicted as white-furred with a dark face, which is a very pop culturally derived version. The realism is less convincing and these are just not well written so far. Sometimes, the face might be pink or the head shape different across the same video. Often appearing with Bigfoot, Yeti has not found his influencer niche yet.

Yowie

This one is bloody hilarious. The key is that the Yowies have personality and use Australian slang. (Remember how much we loved Crocodile Dundee and Steve Irwin? Same fun vibe.)There are two top Yowie creators: @Big_Yowie is rendered as a dark brown Bigfoot relation, and Kev the Yowie is more orangutan-like. I subscribe to big_yowie as the realism on this channel is superb. He likes to drive (badly), and blow things up (real good) – sometimes in combination, such as when driving off a cliff. One of the best bits is when he teaches you how to swim, and fist fight a shark. Check it out on TikTok, Instagram and YouTube. Kev is a bit more salty in language, not as naturally funny, but your mileage may vary.

https://www.tiktok.com/@big_yowie/video/7514151492429958443?is_from_webapp=1&sender_device=pc&web_id=7513322067216254506

Mothman

There are a few Mothman vlogs out there as well. This has potential, but isn’t quite there yet. Mothman tends to comment on the same things in the woods as Bigfoot. This Mothman vlog comments on the fact that the creature looks different in each clip, a useful point. The truth is that Mothman is not as well-defined as Bigfoot, so the face, physique and wing descriptions can be more, uh, fuzzy.

https://www.tiktok.com/@mothman.vlogs/video/7512589692185906463

Flood of AI creature vlogs

According to this June 2025 article, the explosion in these types of creative projects are due to the availability of Google’s video generator Veo 3 that has more realistic results. To make a fun depiction, you no longer need a costume and makeup! In fact, you simply put a description in a prompt. The voices and movements sync up. All you need to make a video of your own is skill with the software, the funds for the digital tools, and some writing talent to generate a distinct personality for your cryptid.

This source notes that the Bigfoot vlogs meme has really caught on, generating consistent engagement and sharing. Other videos are surfacing to teach you how to do it yourself.

It’s certain that other cryptid vlogs will follow. I see some with Rougarou, Nessie, werewolf, Jersey Devil, chupacabra, and skinwalker. The wendigo makes an appearance in one of the Yeti vlogs. These are mostly pretty awful, but if the trend continues, you’ll see them improve and proliferate.

The Danger of AI video

There is little to fret about from the serious cryptid hunter; these are clearly made for fun and may become profitable as well. Most viewers won’t readily understand how they were made, but will enjoy them for entertainment. However, the danger of AI is obvious when it’s used to create with the intent to deliberately fool people. Therefore, no video or image can now be reasonably considered as evidence for a cryptid. By default, if the visual is clear, we should assume it is hoaxed, manipulated, or created outright, as that is so simple to do. The ubiquity of AI means that those aiming to get useful evidence of a cryptid animal will have to up their game as well.

For more on AI cryptids, check out Pop Cryptid Spectator 11, and 15, and Chaneque video unmasked

#AICryptids #Bigfoot #BigfootVideo #BigfootVlog #meme #mothman #TikTok #Yeti #YetiVlog

Pop Cryptid Spectator 12

Hello and welcome to Pop Cryptid Spectator no 12 – an “approximately weekly” collection of thoughts and opinions about Pop Cryptids. What are Pop Cryptids? Well, I’ve been working on idea that for a while now and it is coalescing around the observation that cryptozoology is far less about zoology than about the various creatures of cryptozoology and their popularity. And, the subject creatures are far less zoological than ever before, at least since the term “cryptozoology” was invented. Hence, this week’s collection of the various examples of how mainstream cryptids are these days.

In this edition:

• New cryptid alert: North American Pine Squid
• Bigfoot in the Backyard
• Be the Bigfoot
• Cryptid media: Nessie, the Musical
• Big little cat makes headlines in UK
• Fiji mermaid seen at Margate beach in Kent
• The mokele-mbembandwagon

North American Pine Squid

I bet you haven’t heard of this cryptid! Or, if you live on YouTube, you might have. But if you know of hoaxes from the late 1990s, it might sound familiar. The North American pine squid is being touted online, particularly on TikTok, as a large, black mass of tentacles that emerges from a pine tree and feeds on people and/or pinecones. The creature is said to be lurking in the forests of the Pacific Northwest and the Appalachians (clue #1 – these would likely be different species because of the lack of pine forests in between). It “swims” above the forest floor. From what I can tell, the tall tale of this fearsome creature went mainstream around September of 2024. I totally missed it, maybe because I’m not a regular consumer of TikTok that is like 90% garbage content. The NAPS is a rip off of the Pacific Northwest tree octopus, a hoax from 1998. But, hey, it’s the 21st century and we can haz AI naow! Someone birthed the new, more evil variant and it grew. So we can count the NAPS as another in a growing list of AI cryptids. And, make no mistake, there are many people who have no education regarding the natural world and may assume these are real animals. Here is the “fascinating truth” about the pine squid.

Bigfoot in the Backyard

A group of National Weather Service investigators, documenting storm damage, captured an image of a dark figure in the woods west of Uniontown, in western Pennsylvania. The incident made it to the local news. What they saw was not Bigfoot but an extremely common Bigfoot sillouette placed in the forested land surrounding the property. Bigfoot sighting reports are quite common here, as the area is part of the Chestnut Ridge, now known as a “Gateway to the Paranormal” thanks to a local county tourism initiative. I often wonder who makes the choices about stories to include in the news. But, maybe it was someone who wanted to demostrate the Pop Cryptid idea. You will quickly run out of fingers with which to count the properties who have a Bigfoot sign or marker in their yard like this or more obvious. They abound. People seem to enjoy displaying their love for Bigfoot, or their hope that the yard ornaments will attract a curious monster, or at least some like-minded neighbors. Check out the article, if you can spare a minute you will never get back.

Be the Bigfoot

If you really are obsessed by Bigfoot, soon you will have the opportunity to be one in a digital simulation called Bigfoot Life. The Demo is out now. You can scare animals and other humans, throw rocks, bang on a tree with a big stick, eat berries, steal picnic baskets, etc.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vOX_lUAs1Dw

Cryptid media: Nessie, the Musical

The Guardian posted a short trip through some interesting depictions of the Loch Ness monster on TV and in film. The headline for “From The Simpsons to Werner Herzog: the coolest, craziest, scariest Nessies ever” turned out to be misleading and disappointing as the short-ish article only touched upon a handful of selections including an appearance on The Simpsons, and the movies The Secret of the Loch, and Incident at Loch Ness (which I need to rewatch because it was lots of fun). Mostly the piece was intended to publicize a new Nessie musical in Edinburgh this summer.

Big little cat makes headlines in UK

Hardly a week goes by without some story from the UK adding to the rumors that big cats (usually of the zoologically ambiguous “black panther” type) are slinking around the villages and fields. The examples are almost universally terrible. But people want so badly to believe they have encountered the elusive creatures, which are typically named after their locations (Beast of Bucks, in this case). This recent claim comes from a man who lives “near” Wycombe in Buckinghamshire, England and it’s accompanied by a video. The entirely black feline is seen on the edge of a “skip” or dumpster in USAnian English, and then it jumps in to pick at the trash. The video does not show it exiting so we never see the creature head on. You can see the video here. This is not a big cat. It’s a hefty domestic cat. The camera location and angle give the impression of it being large. But it does not at all resemble a jaguar or leopard (the only two wild cats that fall under the general term “black panther”). Many photographic and video claims show similar black felines that are all almost certainly just regular house cats where the surroundings allow for a perception of exaggerated size.

As an aside, in the US, our locally named beasts aren’t usually big cats but varieties of bipedal monsters. (Beast of Whitehall, Beast of Boggy Creek, Beast of Bray Road, etc.)

Fiji mermaid seen at Margate beach in Kent

A news story circulated this week about a couple walking the beach on March 10 in Margate, Kent, England, who came across a strange object. With a front described as “skeletal” and the back end of a fish, the object, which looks to be about 2 ft long, is a replica of the Fiji mermaid. The original story from Kent Online didn’t pick up on this but subsequent outlets recognized the relation to the infamous hoax from 19th century associated with P.T. Barnam. Clearly, this object copies that depiction. However, what was most frustrating is that no article that I could find described what the Margate object was made from. There is no way it could have survived made of a real fish and paper mache – and it definately does not look like a genuine fish tale. It seems most likely it was made of resin. I could not find a good match online; the head is more alien-like than most depictions. Also, there is no mention of who picked it up and took it, because SOMEONE had to. This makes me think that it could have been a deliberate plant as a hoax.

The mokele-mbembandwagon

In PCS no. 7, I linked to an article on SyFy that was spun off from a February Nat Geo article regarding the increased local sightings of mokele-mbembe in the Congo Basin in Africa. The Nat Geo article was a good one, noting the resurgence of a contemporary legend in response to deforestation in the region. The story of this cryptid began in the very early 20th century when it was framed as a “saurian”. Cryptozoologists and Creationists loved the highly romanticized, “Lost World” idea of a surviving dinosaur living in the unexplored African jungles. With the rise of Pop Cryptids in culture, mokele-mbembe is having another spotlight moment along with growing interest in sightings of other prehistoric survivor cryptids such as Kasai Rex, the thunderbird, megalodon, and the ropen. This week, not only did IFLScience copy SyFy (I often think these two enties are related), but now Popular Mechanics joined the fun with an article that took snippets from knowledgable writers such as Darren Naish (who is an expert on the “Prehistoric Survivor Paradigm” – the cryptozoological habit of resurrecting extinct animals as potential explanations for mystery animal reports), Eddie Guimont, and Loren Coleman regarding their view of living dinosaurs to get clicks related to the creature. Like the other copycats, this article uses the same brontosaurus imagery and also drops clues that the writer doesn’t actually know much about cryptozoology. At least this piece may introduce readers to the thoughts of more qualified individuals than those of Creationists or uncritical cryptozoological explorers who seem to simply embellish and repeat witness stories.

There remains zero evidence that any large creature that went extinct many millions of years ago is still out there for us to find. But the facts never seem to stand in the way of a good story about popular cryptids.

According to Google trends, it does not appear that people are searching for more info on mokele-mbembe. Maybe they don’t know how to spell it. But speculation on the creature regularly turns up on Reddit and in other online cryptid content.

For more on the background of cryptids as extinct animals, see my 2014 article “Prehistoric Survivors? They are Really, Most Sincerely Dead”. (Excuse the terrible formatting, though, since the publishing website never checked their pages after a upgrade years ago.)

And to close out, I was sent this pic of a very cryptid sign posted at the Venice canals in California this week.

Thanks for reading! Send comments, questions, or suggestions to sharon(at)sharonahill.com. If you want to send some cryptid plushies or other merch, or books to review, email for my physical mailing address.

For more, click on Pop goes the Cryptid landing page. Make sure you subscribe to all the posts – it’s always free and I don’t send annoying spam. 

Pop Cryptid Spectator is also available on Substack. Please share this with cryptid fans you know!

Pop Cryptid Spectator 11

Pop Cryptid Spectator 10

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Pop Cryptid Spectator 2

Pop Cryptid Spectator 1

#1 #AICryptids #alienBigCats #Bigfoot #BigfootLife #cryptid #cryptids #Cryptozoology #FijiMermaid #mokeleMbembe #NorthAmericanPineSquid #PacificNorthwestTreeOctopus

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9707