#bigfoot — Public Fediverse posts

Labor Day Levity

https://abbasart.com/2026/09/06/labor-day-levity/

Labor Day Levity

https://abbasart.com/2026/09/06/labor-day-levity/

Labor Day Levity

https://abbasart.com/2026/09/06/labor-day-levity/

Labor Day Levity

https://abbasart.com/2026/09/06/labor-day-levity/

Labor Day Levity

https://abbasart.com/2026/09/06/labor-day-levity/

A centaur, but it's a Yeti head-arms-torso on a wooly mammoth body. Move the trunk and tusks to the Yeti head. (Oh, you think that would look silly? That boundary was already crossed.) Don't let it in the house, it sheds an enormous amount, and would accidentally tip over furniture and tear doors loose. It will be fine outside as long as the weather is cold enough. 🦣
#Yeti #Bigfoot #chimera #megafauna

Pop Cryptid Spectator #5

Hello and welcome to the 5th Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of observing the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. 

My interest is in exploring the expansion of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon. This edition provides more examples of how cryptids are part of our everyday lives. They are a way of framing the world in terms of mystery and wonder about monsters, and animals that may still be out there to find. Or, they are useful as liminal creatures formed from and existing only in our imaginations, or on the internet, but that we enjoy believing are real.

In this edition:

• Bigfoot makes an appearance in a divorce case
• Sidenote – Hunt for the Sasquatch race
• The Times of London promotes growing belief in Bigfoot
• E-DNA and the Enormous Eel Effect
• Sidenote – Excited whale parts
• The Utah Yetis dream dissolves
• Reality Shifting and Cryptids
• The Goosepig of Alexandria, Virginia

Bigfoot makes an appearance in a divorce case

A recent news story shows how important Bigfoot is to some peoples’ personal identity, so much so that it impacts their relationships and their work life. A man in British Columbia lost a claim for spousal support after a judge concluded that if he was capable of hunting Bigfoot, he was capable of getting a real job. The judge made multiple references to the unnamed man’s love for “camping, fishing, hunting, riding ‘quad’ motorcycles, and exploring remote areas of B.C. in search of sasquatch”. During a camping trip in 2020, the man was joined by an ex-girlfriend, who apparently shared his interest in cryptid hunting, without the wife’s knowledge. This led to the dissolution of the marriage. He claimed that a fall in 2016 while on a Sasquatch expedition caused him injuries and chronic pain that still prevented him from being able to work. The judge did not agree since evidence was provided that his still pursued his hobby and he had a capable brain for jobs that didn’t involved physical exertion. Sounds like he might do well as a Bigfoot reality TV star.

Sidenote – Hunt for the Sasquatch race

In a tangentially related side note, a Bigfoot “hunt” for the more physically fit occurs in Polk County, Florida on February 1 when Parks and Recreation will host its 9th annual The Hunt for Sasquatch trail race. Here’s hoping the winner finds a Sasquatch!

The Times of London promotes growing belief in Bigfoot

The Times (UK) has an article out this week, which highlights the continued interest in Bigfoot. Unfortunately, however, it features Matt Moneymaker of the Bigfoot Field Research Organization and Finding Bigfoot TV show, a person who is less than reasonable or cordial to anyone who doesn’t unquestionably accept his fringe claims. Just skip over his parts to see that the article states Bigfoot is “one of the most enduring myths in the United States has inspired a thriving subculture”. The writer cites a 2022 poll that shows 13% of American adults agreed with the statement that Sasquatch is a real, living creature, and suggests that percentage is growing. There is an unavoidable problem when polling people about beliefs, or anything else – they give you their opinion of the moment. This is heavily influenced by the media they consume and maybe the last person they talked to about it, or perhaps they answer “Sure, why not?” just because they are in a cheeky mood. We don’t know. But it is a reasonable estimate for interest in the subject for that particular population sampled.

E-DNA and the Enormous Eel Effect

In 2019, Professor Neil Gemmell, a geneticist from the University of Otago in New Zealand, used eDNA collection procedures and analysis at Loch Ness. The result was a bit of a bust since he found no mystery DNA that provided evidence of an unknown animal in the lake. But, he found lots of eel DNA, and then, inappropriately concluded that there may be giant eels which might be what people are seeing in that loch. Gemmell hit the jackpot by hooking his research to Nessie as it made headlines worldwide. The giant eel nonsense has reared its head out of the water again.

Prof Gemmell is once again planning to head back to the lake for Loch Ness 2.0 where he wants to use a different type of DNA sequencing to show the proportional change in a species’ population over time. The project has real world value regarding biodiversity, but Gemmell continues to use Nessie as the gimmick for attention even though he doesn’t expect to find a monster (eel or otherwise).

“[L]ast time around with Loch Ness 1.0, being able to capture that excitement and communicate it to the world was so much fun.”

He might still be pushing the big eel idea that no knowledgable Nessie researcher takes seriously. Of course there are eels in Loch Ness, but there is no evidence, not even DNA, that suggests a giant eel lives there. Gemmell erodes his cred by taking such a leap, previously saying, “Well, our data doesn’t reveal their size, but the sheer quantity of the material says that we can’t discount the possibility that there may be giant eels in Loch Ness. Therefore we can’t discount the possibility that what people see and believe is the Loch Ness Monster might be a giant eel.”

The enormous eel trope stuck with other DNA researchers too. When Prince William was visiting scientists at NatureMetrics, a research lab near London that also uses eDNA processes, he joked, “Does this mean you can find the Loch Ness Monster?” Firm founder Dr. Kat Bruce then claimed that the so-called creature was more likely a “very big eel” — at least according to testing done on one of the world’s most infamous lakes. Ugh! Silly ideas can be so sticky!

Sidenote – Excited whale parts

In the same Prince William article, the NY Post tabloid also printed that “A few years back, one daring academic proposed that the mythical beast is actually a “whale’s penis” — only to retract the whopper of a theory after being ridiculed mercilessly.” That’s incorrect. The whale penis suggestion is not ridiculous – the appearance of such a spectacle almost certainly happened in the past and threw observers for a loop – but it was in relation to sea serpents, not lake monsters like Nessie. For more on that story – see this compilation. (It’s SFW.)

The Utah Yetis Dream Dissolves

Here’s an update on the story from Pop Cryptid Spectator #4, there will be no new cryptid-named NHL team. You can thank your vacuum-sealed double-walled water bottles and coolers. The Utah hockey club stated the following: “An SEG executive shared that it explored every avenue to make Yeti work but that YETI Coolers, LLC was ultimately unwilling to agree to a co-existence agreement. SEG has confirmed it is no longer pursuing Yeti as a potential name for the team.” That’s a real shame. The next best name is the Mammoth, especially since mammoths did once roam the area now known as Utah.

Reality Shifting and Cryptids

There is an undeniable rift in the cryptozoology scene now. On one side is the idea that cryptids exist in our reality – that we can search for them, maybe find them, even if they have non-natural attributes. On the other side is that cryptids are made part of our reality because we put them there, we create them, and believe in them for strong personal reasons. For the latter, discovery is not the goal. The creatures exist in our defined reality because we allow them to and they serve a purpose that is not zoological.

If you are still following along and haven’t rolled your eyes and checked out, I thank you. I think the concept of reality shifting is important to why we are are experiencing the explosive growth of “cryptid” in its popular context, why cryptid cosplay and merchandise is so popular, and why cryptids are now incorporated into how some define their identity.

Reality shifting is a deliberate activity where a person, usually under the age of 30 (a generation known as Gen Z or Zoomers, born after 1996), decides to construct their own reality and live in that instead of the stressful, unrewarding, day-to-day grind of modern times. The world feels unreal and upside down to many people, so they go online. While the concept of reality shifting appeared in 2019, Covid lockdown created a surge of people constructing their alternate reality. People who create their own fantastical reality can include cryptids or even be cryptids themselves.

Internet folklorist, Gunseli Yalcinkaya, writes about reality shifting. And, she is also a huge fan of cryptids. I was introduced to her work via the Reality Studies vidcast from August 2024. Calling reality shifting an “ascendant form of zoomer spiritualism”, she talks about the development of shared fantasies online, where reality and fantasy merge. People take up a desired reality as a form of escapism and creative expression. The current internet landscape makes this very easy to do.

“To imagine the cryptid – a creature that is by definition unknowable – demands us to suspend real-world rules and immerse ourselves in the fantasy of what’s ‘out there’. […] The desire to uncover hidden truths extends across our post-truth landscape, from the tin-hat conspiracies we consume, to our ongoing fascination with creepypastas like Slenderman and Loab, and the UFOria sweeping across the mainstream. Similarly, we cannot fully comprehend the cryptid because it exists outside the human world.” – Gunseli Yalcinkaya

Gunseli talks about cryptids mostly in the pop cryptid framework, which is where she excels, but sometimes slips into the old timey cryptozoology tropes. She defines cryptids as creatures that may or may not exist under a Western scientific framework, in the sense that any undiscovered animal is a cryptid. She counts interesting animals, like the gorilla, as cryptids prior to it being discovered; I don’t agree with framing historical finds as cryptid prior to the word existing. But she has keen insight into the modern view of cryptids that sci-cryptozoology lacks entirely. In one article, she noted that the appeal of Bigfoot may be that it manages to “exist” in reality, or as just an icon, but still manages to avoid being overtaken, tracked, and captured by technology. Her way of using cryptid, however, is often missing the concept of it being “ethnoknown” (a subject that exists in prior human knowledge, usually from local cultural tales). The minimizing, or total loss, of the historical anecdotal basis for cryptids is evident with new AI cryptids that appear online – LOAB, crungus, and erosion bird. They are shared online in a form of “existing” but their origin is hidden; it remains unclear how or why they appeared. They might appear so often in your online environment that they begin to feel “real”. If any faked or fictional thing sticks around long enough, it can become real – like when fakelore turns into folklore and people tell the stories about encoutering the creatures that originated in Internet liminal space.

I talked about AI cryptids in the Pop Cryptid Spectator #2, but there far is more to be said on these creatures. I know that talking about very modern pop cryptids, from the view of the “extremely online” population of mostly young people, is so far from the original concept of cryptozoology that it makes many people uncomfortable. But fields of study evolve in response to changes in society and technology. That is certainly happening with cryptozoology.

Check out this talk by Gunseli called Cryptid: A Theory of Post-Digital Selfhood for some more brain stretching exercises. I really love the statement early on that the cryptid is defined by the “patchwork of stories” about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0X8C8WmCUM

The Goosepig of Alexandria, Virginia

A fakelore cryptid is thriving at Spa Spring in Alexandria, Virginia. The “goosepig” legend gets a boost by appearing on signage designating historical areas. The creature, resulting from the cross-breeding of pigs and geese, derived from the town’s history of banning these two animals from the city via a local ordinance. Pushed to the fringes, they interbred creating an impossible four-legged animal with a beak. The source of the story on the historical marker is a book on local pets dated 1972. But the story derives from tales referenced from 1928. It might have circulated even earlier as a town historian says that swine and geese were banned from the town beginning at least around 1811.

The new Alexandria Historical Sign Finder map will certainly help boost the goosepig story as more people will find and popularize the sign celebrating the creature. Although the animal is fake, it represents a social event that pushed livestock, and a way of living, out of a city aiming to modernize. While the goosepig does not qualify as a “mysterious animal” in terms of the original intent of “cryptid”, it is set to become a pop cryptid similar to the Hodag of WI and the Squonk of PA. Next logical step is for a goosepig festival to appear!

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. 

You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me

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

#Bigfoot #cryptid #EDNA #GiantEel #Goosepig #LochNess #Nessie #popCryptid #PopCryptidSpectator #PopGoesTheCryptid #Sasquatch #utahYetis

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9257

Pop Cryptid Spectator #5

Hello and welcome to the 5th Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of observing the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. 

My interest is in exploring the expansion of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon. This edition provides more examples of how cryptids are part of our everyday lives. They are a way of framing the world in terms of mystery and wonder about monsters, and animals that may still be out there to find. Or, they are useful as liminal creatures formed from and existing only in our imaginations, or on the internet, but that we enjoy believing are real.

In this edition:

• Bigfoot makes an appearance in a divorce case
• Sidenote – Hunt for the Sasquatch race
• The Times of London promotes growing belief in Bigfoot
• E-DNA and the Enormous Eel Effect
• Sidenote – Excited whale parts
• The Utah Yetis dream dissolves
• Reality Shifting and Cryptids
• The Goosepig of Alexandria, Virginia

Bigfoot makes an appearance in a divorce case

A recent news story shows how important Bigfoot is to some peoples’ personal identity, so much so that it impacts their relationships and their work life. A man in British Columbia lost a claim for spousal support after a judge concluded that if he was capable of hunting Bigfoot, he was capable of getting a real job. The judge made multiple references to the unnamed man’s love for “camping, fishing, hunting, riding ‘quad’ motorcycles, and exploring remote areas of B.C. in search of sasquatch”. During a camping trip in 2020, the man was joined by an ex-girlfriend, who apparently shared his interest in cryptid hunting, without the wife’s knowledge. This led to the dissolution of the marriage. He claimed that a fall in 2016 while on a Sasquatch expedition caused him injuries and chronic pain that still prevented him from being able to work. The judge did not agree since evidence was provided that his still pursued his hobby and he had a capable brain for jobs that didn’t involved physical exertion. Sounds like he might do well as a Bigfoot reality TV star.

Sidenote – Hunt for the Sasquatch race

In a tangentially related side note, a Bigfoot “hunt” for the more physically fit occurs in Polk County, Florida on February 1 when Parks and Recreation will host its 9th annual The Hunt for Sasquatch trail race. Here’s hoping the winner finds a Sasquatch!

The Times of London promotes growing belief in Bigfoot

The Times (UK) has an article out this week, which highlights the continued interest in Bigfoot. Unfortunately, however, it features Matt Moneymaker of the Bigfoot Field Research Organization and Finding Bigfoot TV show, a person who is less than reasonable or cordial to anyone who doesn’t unquestionably accept his fringe claims. Just skip over his parts to see that the article states Bigfoot is “one of the most enduring myths in the United States has inspired a thriving subculture”. The writer cites a 2022 poll that shows 13% of American adults agreed with the statement that Sasquatch is a real, living creature, and suggests that percentage is growing. There is an unavoidable problem when polling people about beliefs, or anything else – they give you their opinion of the moment. This is heavily influenced by the media they consume and maybe the last person they talked to about it, or perhaps they answer “Sure, why not?” just because they are in a cheeky mood. We don’t know. But it is a reasonable estimate for interest in the subject for that particular population sampled.

E-DNA and the Enormous Eel Effect

In 2019, Professor Neil Gemmell, a geneticist from the University of Otago in New Zealand, used eDNA collection procedures and analysis at Loch Ness. The result was a bit of a bust since he found no mystery DNA that provided evidence of an unknown animal in the lake. But, he found lots of eel DNA, and then, inappropriately concluded that there may be giant eels which might be what people are seeing in that loch. Gemmell hit the jackpot by hooking his research to Nessie as it made headlines worldwide. The giant eel nonsense has reared its head out of the water again.

Prof Gemmell is once again planning to head back to the lake for Loch Ness 2.0 where he wants to use a different type of DNA sequencing to show the proportional change in a species’ population over time. The project has real world value regarding biodiversity, but Gemmell continues to use Nessie as the gimmick for attention even though he doesn’t expect to find a monster (eel or otherwise).

“[L]ast time around with Loch Ness 1.0, being able to capture that excitement and communicate it to the world was so much fun.”

He might still be pushing the big eel idea that no knowledgable Nessie researcher takes seriously. Of course there are eels in Loch Ness, but there is no evidence, not even DNA, that suggests a giant eel lives there. Gemmell erodes his cred by taking such a leap, previously saying, “Well, our data doesn’t reveal their size, but the sheer quantity of the material says that we can’t discount the possibility that there may be giant eels in Loch Ness. Therefore we can’t discount the possibility that what people see and believe is the Loch Ness Monster might be a giant eel.”

The enormous eel trope stuck with other DNA researchers too. When Prince William was visiting scientists at NatureMetrics, a research lab near London that also uses eDNA processes, he joked, “Does this mean you can find the Loch Ness Monster?” Firm founder Dr. Kat Bruce then claimed that the so-called creature was more likely a “very big eel” — at least according to testing done on one of the world’s most infamous lakes. Ugh! Silly ideas can be so sticky!

Sidenote – Excited whale parts

In the same Prince William article, the NY Post tabloid also printed that “A few years back, one daring academic proposed that the mythical beast is actually a “whale’s penis” — only to retract the whopper of a theory after being ridiculed mercilessly.” That’s incorrect. The whale penis suggestion is not ridiculous – the appearance of such a spectacle almost certainly happened in the past and threw observers for a loop – but it was in relation to sea serpents, not lake monsters like Nessie. For more on that story – see this compilation. (It’s SFW.)

The Utah Yetis Dream Dissolves

Here’s an update on the story from Pop Cryptid Spectator #4, there will be no new cryptid-named NHL team. You can thank your vacuum-sealed double-walled water bottles and coolers. The Utah hockey club stated the following: “An SEG executive shared that it explored every avenue to make Yeti work but that YETI Coolers, LLC was ultimately unwilling to agree to a co-existence agreement. SEG has confirmed it is no longer pursuing Yeti as a potential name for the team.” That’s a real shame. The next best name is the Mammoth, especially since mammoths did once roam the area now known as Utah.

Reality Shifting and Cryptids

There is an undeniable rift in the cryptozoology scene now. On one side is the idea that cryptids exist in our reality – that we can search for them, maybe find them, even if they have non-natural attributes. On the other side is that cryptids are made part of our reality because we put them there, we create them, and believe in them for strong personal reasons. For the latter, discovery is not the goal. The creatures exist in our defined reality because we allow them to and they serve a purpose that is not zoological.

If you are still following along and haven’t rolled your eyes and checked out, I thank you. I think the concept of reality shifting is important to why we are are experiencing the explosive growth of “cryptid” in its popular context, why cryptid cosplay and merchandise is so popular, and why cryptids are now incorporated into how some define their identity.

Reality shifting is a deliberate activity where a person, usually under the age of 30 (a generation known as Gen Z or Zoomers, born after 1996), decides to construct their own reality and live in that instead of the stressful, unrewarding, day-to-day grind of modern times. The world feels unreal and upside down to many people, so they go online. While the concept of reality shifting appeared in 2019, Covid lockdown created a surge of people constructing their alternate reality. People who create their own fantastical reality can include cryptids or even be cryptids themselves.

Internet folklorist, Gunseli Yalcinkaya, writes about reality shifting. And, she is also a huge fan of cryptids. I was introduced to her work via the Reality Studies vidcast from August 2024. Calling reality shifting an “ascendant form of zoomer spiritualism”, she talks about the development of shared fantasies online, where reality and fantasy merge. People take up a desired reality as a form of escapism and creative expression. The current internet landscape makes this very easy to do.

“To imagine the cryptid – a creature that is by definition unknowable – demands us to suspend real-world rules and immerse ourselves in the fantasy of what’s ‘out there’. […] The desire to uncover hidden truths extends across our post-truth landscape, from the tin-hat conspiracies we consume, to our ongoing fascination with creepypastas like Slenderman and Loab, and the UFOria sweeping across the mainstream. Similarly, we cannot fully comprehend the cryptid because it exists outside the human world.” – Gunseli Yalcinkaya

Gunseli talks about cryptids mostly in the pop cryptid framework, which is where she excels, but sometimes slips into the old timey cryptozoology tropes. She defines cryptids as creatures that may or may not exist under a Western scientific framework, in the sense that any undiscovered animal is a cryptid. She counts interesting animals, like the gorilla, as cryptids prior to it being discovered; I don’t agree with framing historical finds as cryptid prior to the word existing. But she has keen insight into the modern view of cryptids that sci-cryptozoology lacks entirely. In one article, she noted that the appeal of Bigfoot may be that it manages to “exist” in reality, or as just an icon, but still manages to avoid being overtaken, tracked, and captured by technology. Her way of using cryptid, however, is often missing the concept of it being “ethnoknown” (a subject that exists in prior human knowledge, usually from local cultural tales). The minimizing, or total loss, of the historical anecdotal basis for cryptids is evident with new AI cryptids that appear online – LOAB, crungus, and erosion bird. They are shared online in a form of “existing” but their origin is hidden; it remains unclear how or why they appeared. They might appear so often in your online environment that they begin to feel “real”. If any faked or fictional thing sticks around long enough, it can become real – like when fakelore turns into folklore and people tell the stories about encoutering the creatures that originated in Internet liminal space.

I talked about AI cryptids in the Pop Cryptid Spectator #2, but there far is more to be said on these creatures. I know that talking about very modern pop cryptids, from the view of the “extremely online” population of mostly young people, is so far from the original concept of cryptozoology that it makes many people uncomfortable. But fields of study evolve in response to changes in society and technology. That is certainly happening with cryptozoology.

Check out this talk by Gunseli called Cryptid: A Theory of Post-Digital Selfhood for some more brain stretching exercises. I really love the statement early on that the cryptid is defined by the “patchwork of stories” about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0X8C8WmCUM

The Goosepig of Alexandria, Virginia

A fakelore cryptid is thriving at Spa Spring in Alexandria, Virginia. The “goosepig” legend gets a boost by appearing on signage designating historical areas. The creature, resulting from the cross-breeding of pigs and geese, derived from the town’s history of banning these two animals from the city via a local ordinance. Pushed to the fringes, they interbred creating an impossible four-legged animal with a beak. The source of the story on the historical marker is a book on local pets dated 1972. But the story derives from tales referenced from 1928. It might have circulated even earlier as a town historian says that swine and geese were banned from the town beginning at least around 1811.

The new Alexandria Historical Sign Finder map will certainly help boost the goosepig story as more people will find and popularize the sign celebrating the creature. Although the animal is fake, it represents a social event that pushed livestock, and a way of living, out of a city aiming to modernize. While the goosepig does not qualify as a “mysterious animal” in terms of the original intent of “cryptid”, it is set to become a pop cryptid similar to the Hodag of WI and the Squonk of PA. Next logical step is for a goosepig festival to appear!

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. 

You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me

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

#Bigfoot #cryptid #EDNA #GiantEel #Goosepig #LochNess #Nessie #popCryptid #PopCryptidSpectator #PopGoesTheCryptid #Sasquatch #utahYetis

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9257

Pop Cryptid Spectator #5

Hello and welcome to the 5th Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of observing the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. 

My interest is in exploring the expansion of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon. This edition provides more examples of how cryptids are part of our everyday lives. They are a way of framing the world in terms of mystery and wonder about monsters, and animals that may still be out there to find. Or, they are useful as liminal creatures formed from and existing only in our imaginations, or on the internet, but that we enjoy believing are real.

In this edition:

• Bigfoot makes an appearance in a divorce case
• Sidenote – Hunt for the Sasquatch race
• The Times of London promotes growing belief in Bigfoot
• E-DNA and the Enormous Eel Effect
• Sidenote – Excited whale parts
• The Utah Yetis dream dissolves
• Reality Shifting and Cryptids
• The Goosepig of Alexandria, Virginia

Bigfoot makes an appearance in a divorce case

A recent news story shows how important Bigfoot is to some peoples’ personal identity, so much so that it impacts their relationships and their work life. A man in British Columbia lost a claim for spousal support after a judge concluded that if he was capable of hunting Bigfoot, he was capable of getting a real job. The judge made multiple references to the unnamed man’s love for “camping, fishing, hunting, riding ‘quad’ motorcycles, and exploring remote areas of B.C. in search of sasquatch”. During a camping trip in 2020, the man was joined by an ex-girlfriend, who apparently shared his interest in cryptid hunting, without the wife’s knowledge. This led to the dissolution of the marriage. He claimed that a fall in 2016 while on a Sasquatch expedition caused him injuries and chronic pain that still prevented him from being able to work. The judge did not agree since evidence was provided that his still pursued his hobby and he had a capable brain for jobs that didn’t involved physical exertion. Sounds like he might do well as a Bigfoot reality TV star.

Sidenote – Hunt for the Sasquatch race

In a tangentially related side note, a Bigfoot “hunt” for the more physically fit occurs in Polk County, Florida on February 1 when Parks and Recreation will host its 9th annual The Hunt for Sasquatch trail race. Here’s hoping the winner finds a Sasquatch!

The Times of London promotes growing belief in Bigfoot

The Times (UK) has an article out this week, which highlights the continued interest in Bigfoot. Unfortunately, however, it features Matt Moneymaker of the Bigfoot Field Research Organization and Finding Bigfoot TV show, a person who is less than reasonable or cordial to anyone who doesn’t unquestionably accept his fringe claims. Just skip over his parts to see that the article states Bigfoot is “one of the most enduring myths in the United States has inspired a thriving subculture”. The writer cites a 2022 poll that shows 13% of American adults agreed with the statement that Sasquatch is a real, living creature, and suggests that percentage is growing. There is an unavoidable problem when polling people about beliefs, or anything else – they give you their opinion of the moment. This is heavily influenced by the media they consume and maybe the last person they talked to about it, or perhaps they answer “Sure, why not?” just because they are in a cheeky mood. We don’t know. But it is a reasonable estimate for interest in the subject for that particular population sampled.

E-DNA and the Enormous Eel Effect

In 2019, Professor Neil Gemmell, a geneticist from the University of Otago in New Zealand, used eDNA collection procedures and analysis at Loch Ness. The result was a bit of a bust since he found no mystery DNA that provided evidence of an unknown animal in the lake. But, he found lots of eel DNA, and then, inappropriately concluded that there may be giant eels which might be what people are seeing in that loch. Gemmell hit the jackpot by hooking his research to Nessie as it made headlines worldwide. The giant eel nonsense has reared its head out of the water again.

Prof Gemmell is once again planning to head back to the lake for Loch Ness 2.0 where he wants to use a different type of DNA sequencing to show the proportional change in a species’ population over time. The project has real world value regarding biodiversity, but Gemmell continues to use Nessie as the gimmick for attention even though he doesn’t expect to find a monster (eel or otherwise).

“[L]ast time around with Loch Ness 1.0, being able to capture that excitement and communicate it to the world was so much fun.”

He might still be pushing the big eel idea that no knowledgable Nessie researcher takes seriously. Of course there are eels in Loch Ness, but there is no evidence, not even DNA, that suggests a giant eel lives there. Gemmell erodes his cred by taking such a leap, previously saying, “Well, our data doesn’t reveal their size, but the sheer quantity of the material says that we can’t discount the possibility that there may be giant eels in Loch Ness. Therefore we can’t discount the possibility that what people see and believe is the Loch Ness Monster might be a giant eel.”

The enormous eel trope stuck with other DNA researchers too. When Prince William was visiting scientists at NatureMetrics, a research lab near London that also uses eDNA processes, he joked, “Does this mean you can find the Loch Ness Monster?” Firm founder Dr. Kat Bruce then claimed that the so-called creature was more likely a “very big eel” — at least according to testing done on one of the world’s most infamous lakes. Ugh! Silly ideas can be so sticky!

Sidenote – Excited whale parts

In the same Prince William article, the NY Post tabloid also printed that “A few years back, one daring academic proposed that the mythical beast is actually a “whale’s penis” — only to retract the whopper of a theory after being ridiculed mercilessly.” That’s incorrect. The whale penis suggestion is not ridiculous – the appearance of such a spectacle almost certainly happened in the past and threw observers for a loop – but it was in relation to sea serpents, not lake monsters like Nessie. For more on that story – see this compilation. (It’s SFW.)

The Utah Yetis Dream Dissolves

Here’s an update on the story from Pop Cryptid Spectator #4, there will be no new cryptid-named NHL team. You can thank your vacuum-sealed double-walled water bottles and coolers. The Utah hockey club stated the following: “An SEG executive shared that it explored every avenue to make Yeti work but that YETI Coolers, LLC was ultimately unwilling to agree to a co-existence agreement. SEG has confirmed it is no longer pursuing Yeti as a potential name for the team.” That’s a real shame. The next best name is the Mammoth, especially since mammoths did once roam the area now known as Utah.

Reality Shifting and Cryptids

There is an undeniable rift in the cryptozoology scene now. On one side is the idea that cryptids exist in our reality – that we can search for them, maybe find them, even if they have non-natural attributes. On the other side is that cryptids are made part of our reality because we put them there, we create them, and believe in them for strong personal reasons. For the latter, discovery is not the goal. The creatures exist in our defined reality because we allow them to and they serve a purpose that is not zoological.

If you are still following along and haven’t rolled your eyes and checked out, I thank you. I think the concept of reality shifting is important to why we are are experiencing the explosive growth of “cryptid” in its popular context, why cryptid cosplay and merchandise is so popular, and why cryptids are now incorporated into how some define their identity.

Reality shifting is a deliberate activity where a person, usually under the age of 30 (a generation known as Gen Z or Zoomers, born after 1996), decides to construct their own reality and live in that instead of the stressful, unrewarding, day-to-day grind of modern times. The world feels unreal and upside down to many people, so they go online. While the concept of reality shifting appeared in 2019, Covid lockdown created a surge of people constructing their alternate reality. People who create their own fantastical reality can include cryptids or even be cryptids themselves.

Internet folklorist, Gunseli Yalcinkaya, writes about reality shifting. And, she is also a huge fan of cryptids. I was introduced to her work via the Reality Studies vidcast from August 2024. Calling reality shifting an “ascendant form of zoomer spiritualism”, she talks about the development of shared fantasies online, where reality and fantasy merge. People take up a desired reality as a form of escapism and creative expression. The current internet landscape makes this very easy to do.

“To imagine the cryptid – a creature that is by definition unknowable – demands us to suspend real-world rules and immerse ourselves in the fantasy of what’s ‘out there’. […] The desire to uncover hidden truths extends across our post-truth landscape, from the tin-hat conspiracies we consume, to our ongoing fascination with creepypastas like Slenderman and Loab, and the UFOria sweeping across the mainstream. Similarly, we cannot fully comprehend the cryptid because it exists outside the human world.” – Gunseli Yalcinkaya

Gunseli talks about cryptids mostly in the pop cryptid framework, which is where she excels, but sometimes slips into the old timey cryptozoology tropes. She defines cryptids as creatures that may or may not exist under a Western scientific framework, in the sense that any undiscovered animal is a cryptid. She counts interesting animals, like the gorilla, as cryptids prior to it being discovered; I don’t agree with framing historical finds as cryptid prior to the word existing. But she has keen insight into the modern view of cryptids that sci-cryptozoology lacks entirely. In one article, she noted that the appeal of Bigfoot may be that it manages to “exist” in reality, or as just an icon, but still manages to avoid being overtaken, tracked, and captured by technology. Her way of using cryptid, however, is often missing the concept of it being “ethnoknown” (a subject that exists in prior human knowledge, usually from local cultural tales). The minimizing, or total loss, of the historical anecdotal basis for cryptids is evident with new AI cryptids that appear online – LOAB, crungus, and erosion bird. They are shared online in a form of “existing” but their origin is hidden; it remains unclear how or why they appeared. They might appear so often in your online environment that they begin to feel “real”. If any faked or fictional thing sticks around long enough, it can become real – like when fakelore turns into folklore and people tell the stories about encoutering the creatures that originated in Internet liminal space.

I talked about AI cryptids in the Pop Cryptid Spectator #2, but there far is more to be said on these creatures. I know that talking about very modern pop cryptids, from the view of the “extremely online” population of mostly young people, is so far from the original concept of cryptozoology that it makes many people uncomfortable. But fields of study evolve in response to changes in society and technology. That is certainly happening with cryptozoology.

Check out this talk by Gunseli called Cryptid: A Theory of Post-Digital Selfhood for some more brain stretching exercises. I really love the statement early on that the cryptid is defined by the “patchwork of stories” about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0X8C8WmCUM

The Goosepig of Alexandria, Virginia

A fakelore cryptid is thriving at Spa Spring in Alexandria, Virginia. The “goosepig” legend gets a boost by appearing on signage designating historical areas. The creature, resulting from the cross-breeding of pigs and geese, derived from the town’s history of banning these two animals from the city via a local ordinance. Pushed to the fringes, they interbred creating an impossible four-legged animal with a beak. The source of the story on the historical marker is a book on local pets dated 1972. But the story derives from tales referenced from 1928. It might have circulated even earlier as a town historian says that swine and geese were banned from the town beginning at least around 1811.

The new Alexandria Historical Sign Finder map will certainly help boost the goosepig story as more people will find and popularize the sign celebrating the creature. Although the animal is fake, it represents a social event that pushed livestock, and a way of living, out of a city aiming to modernize. While the goosepig does not qualify as a “mysterious animal” in terms of the original intent of “cryptid”, it is set to become a pop cryptid similar to the Hodag of WI and the Squonk of PA. Next logical step is for a goosepig festival to appear!

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. 

You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me

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

#Bigfoot #cryptid #EDNA #GiantEel #Goosepig #LochNess #Nessie #popCryptid #PopCryptidSpectator #PopGoesTheCryptid #Sasquatch #utahYetis

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9257

Pop Cryptid Spectator #5

Hello and welcome to the 5th Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of observing the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. 

My interest is in exploring the expansion of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon. This edition provides more examples of how cryptids are part of our everyday lives. They are a way of framing the world in terms of mystery and wonder about monsters, and animals that may still be out there to find. Or, they are useful as liminal creatures formed from and existing only in our imaginations, or on the internet, but that we enjoy believing are real.

In this edition:

• Bigfoot makes an appearance in a divorce case
• Sidenote – Hunt for the Sasquatch race
• The Times of London promotes growing belief in Bigfoot
• E-DNA and the Enormous Eel Effect
• Sidenote – Excited whale parts
• The Utah Yetis dream dissolves
• Reality Shifting and Cryptids
• The Goosepig of Alexandria, Virginia

Bigfoot makes an appearance in a divorce case

A recent news story shows how important Bigfoot is to some peoples’ personal identity, so much so that it impacts their relationships and their work life. A man in British Columbia lost a claim for spousal support after a judge concluded that if he was capable of hunting Bigfoot, he was capable of getting a real job. The judge made multiple references to the unnamed man’s love for “camping, fishing, hunting, riding ‘quad’ motorcycles, and exploring remote areas of B.C. in search of sasquatch”. During a camping trip in 2020, the man was joined by an ex-girlfriend, who apparently shared his interest in cryptid hunting, without the wife’s knowledge. This led to the dissolution of the marriage. He claimed that a fall in 2016 while on a Sasquatch expedition caused him injuries and chronic pain that still prevented him from being able to work. The judge did not agree since evidence was provided that his still pursued his hobby and he had a capable brain for jobs that didn’t involved physical exertion. Sounds like he might do well as a Bigfoot reality TV star.

Sidenote – Hunt for the Sasquatch race

In a tangentially related side note, a Bigfoot “hunt” for the more physically fit occurs in Polk County, Florida on February 1 when Parks and Recreation will host its 9th annual The Hunt for Sasquatch trail race. Here’s hoping the winner finds a Sasquatch!

The Times of London promotes growing belief in Bigfoot

The Times (UK) has an article out this week, which highlights the continued interest in Bigfoot. Unfortunately, however, it features Matt Moneymaker of the Bigfoot Field Research Organization and Finding Bigfoot TV show, a person who is less than reasonable or cordial to anyone who doesn’t unquestionably accept his fringe claims. Just skip over his parts to see that the article states Bigfoot is “one of the most enduring myths in the United States has inspired a thriving subculture”. The writer cites a 2022 poll that shows 13% of American adults agreed with the statement that Sasquatch is a real, living creature, and suggests that percentage is growing. There is an unavoidable problem when polling people about beliefs, or anything else – they give you their opinion of the moment. This is heavily influenced by the media they consume and maybe the last person they talked to about it, or perhaps they answer “Sure, why not?” just because they are in a cheeky mood. We don’t know. But it is a reasonable estimate for interest in the subject for that particular population sampled.

E-DNA and the Enormous Eel Effect

In 2019, Professor Neil Gemmell, a geneticist from the University of Otago in New Zealand, used eDNA collection procedures and analysis at Loch Ness. The result was a bit of a bust since he found no mystery DNA that provided evidence of an unknown animal in the lake. But, he found lots of eel DNA, and then, inappropriately concluded that there may be giant eels which might be what people are seeing in that loch. Gemmell hit the jackpot by hooking his research to Nessie as it made headlines worldwide. The giant eel nonsense has reared its head out of the water again.

Prof Gemmell is once again planning to head back to the lake for Loch Ness 2.0 where he wants to use a different type of DNA sequencing to show the proportional change in a species’ population over time. The project has real world value regarding biodiversity, but Gemmell continues to use Nessie as the gimmick for attention even though he doesn’t expect to find a monster (eel or otherwise).

“[L]ast time around with Loch Ness 1.0, being able to capture that excitement and communicate it to the world was so much fun.”

He might still be pushing the big eel idea that no knowledgable Nessie researcher takes seriously. Of course there are eels in Loch Ness, but there is no evidence, not even DNA, that suggests a giant eel lives there. Gemmell erodes his cred by taking such a leap, previously saying, “Well, our data doesn’t reveal their size, but the sheer quantity of the material says that we can’t discount the possibility that there may be giant eels in Loch Ness. Therefore we can’t discount the possibility that what people see and believe is the Loch Ness Monster might be a giant eel.”

The enormous eel trope stuck with other DNA researchers too. When Prince William was visiting scientists at NatureMetrics, a research lab near London that also uses eDNA processes, he joked, “Does this mean you can find the Loch Ness Monster?” Firm founder Dr. Kat Bruce then claimed that the so-called creature was more likely a “very big eel” — at least according to testing done on one of the world’s most infamous lakes. Ugh! Silly ideas can be so sticky!

Sidenote – Excited whale parts

In the same Prince William article, the NY Post tabloid also printed that “A few years back, one daring academic proposed that the mythical beast is actually a “whale’s penis” — only to retract the whopper of a theory after being ridiculed mercilessly.” That’s incorrect. The whale penis suggestion is not ridiculous – the appearance of such a spectacle almost certainly happened in the past and threw observers for a loop – but it was in relation to sea serpents, not lake monsters like Nessie. For more on that story – see this compilation. (It’s SFW.)

The Utah Yetis Dream Dissolves

Here’s an update on the story from Pop Cryptid Spectator #4, there will be no new cryptid-named NHL team. You can thank your vacuum-sealed double-walled water bottles and coolers. The Utah hockey club stated the following: “An SEG executive shared that it explored every avenue to make Yeti work but that YETI Coolers, LLC was ultimately unwilling to agree to a co-existence agreement. SEG has confirmed it is no longer pursuing Yeti as a potential name for the team.” That’s a real shame. The next best name is the Mammoth, especially since mammoths did once roam the area now known as Utah.

Reality Shifting and Cryptids

There is an undeniable rift in the cryptozoology scene now. On one side is the idea that cryptids exist in our reality – that we can search for them, maybe find them, even if they have non-natural attributes. On the other side is that cryptids are made part of our reality because we put them there, we create them, and believe in them for strong personal reasons. For the latter, discovery is not the goal. The creatures exist in our defined reality because we allow them to and they serve a purpose that is not zoological.

If you are still following along and haven’t rolled your eyes and checked out, I thank you. I think the concept of reality shifting is important to why we are are experiencing the explosive growth of “cryptid” in its popular context, why cryptid cosplay and merchandise is so popular, and why cryptids are now incorporated into how some define their identity.

Reality shifting is a deliberate activity where a person, usually under the age of 30 (a generation known as Gen Z or Zoomers, born after 1996), decides to construct their own reality and live in that instead of the stressful, unrewarding, day-to-day grind of modern times. The world feels unreal and upside down to many people, so they go online. While the concept of reality shifting appeared in 2019, Covid lockdown created a surge of people constructing their alternate reality. People who create their own fantastical reality can include cryptids or even be cryptids themselves.

Internet folklorist, Gunseli Yalcinkaya, writes about reality shifting. And, she is also a huge fan of cryptids. I was introduced to her work via the Reality Studies vidcast from August 2024. Calling reality shifting an “ascendant form of zoomer spiritualism”, she talks about the development of shared fantasies online, where reality and fantasy merge. People take up a desired reality as a form of escapism and creative expression. The current internet landscape makes this very easy to do.

“To imagine the cryptid – a creature that is by definition unknowable – demands us to suspend real-world rules and immerse ourselves in the fantasy of what’s ‘out there’. […] The desire to uncover hidden truths extends across our post-truth landscape, from the tin-hat conspiracies we consume, to our ongoing fascination with creepypastas like Slenderman and Loab, and the UFOria sweeping across the mainstream. Similarly, we cannot fully comprehend the cryptid because it exists outside the human world.” – Gunseli Yalcinkaya

Gunseli talks about cryptids mostly in the pop cryptid framework, which is where she excels, but sometimes slips into the old timey cryptozoology tropes. She defines cryptids as creatures that may or may not exist under a Western scientific framework, in the sense that any undiscovered animal is a cryptid. She counts interesting animals, like the gorilla, as cryptids prior to it being discovered; I don’t agree with framing historical finds as cryptid prior to the word existing. But she has keen insight into the modern view of cryptids that sci-cryptozoology lacks entirely. In one article, she noted that the appeal of Bigfoot may be that it manages to “exist” in reality, or as just an icon, but still manages to avoid being overtaken, tracked, and captured by technology. Her way of using cryptid, however, is often missing the concept of it being “ethnoknown” (a subject that exists in prior human knowledge, usually from local cultural tales). The minimizing, or total loss, of the historical anecdotal basis for cryptids is evident with new AI cryptids that appear online – LOAB, crungus, and erosion bird. They are shared online in a form of “existing” but their origin is hidden; it remains unclear how or why they appeared. They might appear so often in your online environment that they begin to feel “real”. If any faked or fictional thing sticks around long enough, it can become real – like when fakelore turns into folklore and people tell the stories about encoutering the creatures that originated in Internet liminal space.

I talked about AI cryptids in the Pop Cryptid Spectator #2, but there far is more to be said on these creatures. I know that talking about very modern pop cryptids, from the view of the “extremely online” population of mostly young people, is so far from the original concept of cryptozoology that it makes many people uncomfortable. But fields of study evolve in response to changes in society and technology. That is certainly happening with cryptozoology.

Check out this talk by Gunseli called Cryptid: A Theory of Post-Digital Selfhood for some more brain stretching exercises. I really love the statement early on that the cryptid is defined by the “patchwork of stories” about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H0X8C8WmCUM

The Goosepig of Alexandria, Virginia

A fakelore cryptid is thriving at Spa Spring in Alexandria, Virginia. The “goosepig” legend gets a boost by appearing on signage designating historical areas. The creature, resulting from the cross-breeding of pigs and geese, derived from the town’s history of banning these two animals from the city via a local ordinance. Pushed to the fringes, they interbred creating an impossible four-legged animal with a beak. The source of the story on the historical marker is a book on local pets dated 1972. But the story derives from tales referenced from 1928. It might have circulated even earlier as a town historian says that swine and geese were banned from the town beginning at least around 1811.

The new Alexandria Historical Sign Finder map will certainly help boost the goosepig story as more people will find and popularize the sign celebrating the creature. Although the animal is fake, it represents a social event that pushed livestock, and a way of living, out of a city aiming to modernize. While the goosepig does not qualify as a “mysterious animal” in terms of the original intent of “cryptid”, it is set to become a pop cryptid similar to the Hodag of WI and the Squonk of PA. Next logical step is for a goosepig festival to appear!

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. 

You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me

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

#Bigfoot #cryptid #EDNA #GiantEel #Goosepig #LochNess #Nessie #popCryptid #PopCryptidSpectator #PopGoesTheCryptid #Sasquatch #utahYetis

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9257

Pop Cryptid Spectator 2

In this edition:

• News: Two deaths dubiously linked to Bigfoot hunting
• Cryptid Media See This – Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal
• Cryptid Media Skip This – Lost Monster Files
• Update on naming taboo cryptids
• AI cryptid carnival
• Google Earth cryptids
• Hood cryptids meme

Hello and welcome to the 2nd Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of observing the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. My intent with this project is to highlight the fun ways legendary or dubious animals are showing up in modern media, to share interesting news bits about them, and to explore the expansion of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon – a cornucopia of strange entities that are labeled as “cryptids”.

News

Two men die searching for Bigfoot

Cryptid-related headlines appeared just after Christmas as two Oregon men were found dead in Gifford Pinchot Forest in Washington after they “failed to return from a trip to look for Sasquatch,” authorities said. This area is known for many Sasquatch sightings. However, I could find no report directly linking the outing to a Bigfoot excursion. In the subsequent days, I have not been able to find out much more about the intentions of the two hikers. Some commenters to news posts said they knew the men and expressed that it was not Bigfoot hunt but just a regular hike. I certainly can’t tell if this was true either, but the men appeared unequipped for camping outdoors, and that they perished from exposure in the cold and wet weather. Hikes in the woods here in the winter is not recommended. Rescuers spent Christmas facing dangerous conditions during the search.

It’s possible to assume a more gracious explanation – that the men were Bigfoot enthusiasts who hoped to see the creature. The ultimately unfortunate outcome was subsequently linked with the cryptid, which seemed to be out of proportion, as if belief in Bigfoot was the cause of death. Several commenters on the news stories, unsurprisingly, were cruel and mocked the men based on speculation about their behavior. Worse than that, some people took the tragedy even farther by saying that the men didn’t die from exposure, but from some other cause that officials are covering up. This is nonsense propelled by irrational and contrived ideas under the umbrella of a book series called “Missing 411” by Bigfoot writer David Paulides. Promotion of a sensationalistic cause for the tragedy works as clickbait for attention mongers. It’s unfair and ghoulish, and should be dismissed as such.

At least one news piece noted that certain tourism efforts in this area encourage hikes to look for Bigfoot, tacitly suggesting that local officials are promoting this type of potentially dangerous activity to outsiders.

Many people each year get lost in the woods and some perish. Many more people take forest excursions with the notion that they might have their own personal encounter with the unknown. It’s not “crazy” or worthy of scorn, but a sober lesson about safety and taking precautions when hiking.

Cryptid media

See This – Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal

A paranormal-themed docu-series streaming on Hulu from September 2024 surprised me by being well-written and produced, as well as captivating. That’s a rarity! But Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal, while sounding atrocious and potentially exploitative, was not only jammed packed with good content but also featured some truly heartbreaking stories directly related to cryptids or cryptid-adjacent.

I was impressed by the first episode on “Lizard People” which mainly centered on the paranoid conspiratorial belief about Reptilians which played into a Christmas 2020 suicide bombing in Nashville, Tennessee. The episode also touched on the legend of Lizard Man of Bishopville.

Episode 3 covered the growth of the legend of the Goat Man of Pope Lick, Kentucky. The town has a love/hate relationship with the Goat Man as legend tripping by young people results in deaths by attempting to traverse the active train trestle bridge. A festival to celebrate the Goat Man legend/cryptid feels, to some, disrespectful to the memory of several who died and perhaps increases the odds that more people visit and venture into harms way.

The content of all 8 episodes consists of interviewees, some of whom are telling their own story for the first time. The complex details of each episode topic are well-managed by the editing. Each succeeds in distilling a full narrative into an understandable and fascinating piece. The show also uses bits of animation to reconstruct scenes. To me, this is preferable over acted reconstructions. I recommend this show, produced by the Duplass Bros., at least as an example of how nonfiction TV about paranormal subjects can be smart and done well, contrary to the majority of examples.

Skip This – The Lost Monster Files

As one of the contrary examples, do not bother with the awful run of The Lost Monster Files, a cryptid show on Discovery channel based on the files of Ivan T. Sanderson. It’s not low budget, but it’s low on originality and almost insultingly dumb. I watched all the episodes (so you don’t have to). They did chop jobs on the chupacabra, the abominable snowman of North America, the Thunderbird, the Minnesota Iceman, the Kodiak sea monster, and the Gowrow of Arkansas. You can read my reviews to see the details regarding each episode, including the obvious oversimplifications, lack of experience from the cast, fabricated process of inquiry and staged investigation, and the extreme speculation and lack of reasoning found in their conclusions. It was a total bust in that it misinformed and conflated ideas without being at all entertaining. I’d rather not see the likes of it again.

Update on taboo “cryptids”

In the Spectator #1, I talked about the attempt to remove mention of two certain spirit/magical creatures based on Native lore from the cryptid subreddit. As I explained last post, I’ll call them the “W” and “SW” to avoid mentioning the names since that is seen as potentially dangerous or at least disrespectful, and perpetuates misconceptions about Native beliefs.

The renaming contest stalled quickly. People have suggested some names for the entities but none are helpful. Neither entity is referred to on the forum as representing what the “W” and “SW” actually represented in Native lore, and some posters have expressed their disgust, attempting to state the authentic origins of the SW as humans using witchcraft or the W as a spirit.

For the “W”, the names are meant to distinguish the skeletal “antlered” entity, depicted as huge and horrific, whose horns are not part of the indigenous lore. The leading contender for the alternate name is “Stag Man”. This version is seen everywhere due to popular art and a Hollywood movie.

The “SW” entity stories made popular by a book and TV show based on the paranormal ranch tales, depicts encounters outside the context of Navajo lore. The story has morphed into a being that is pale and spindly, absorbing the look and behaviors of the creepypasta creature, the Rake. (Confusingly, some depictions of the W also resemble an emaciated, pale creature.) It’s difficult to roll back that misinformation and correct the labeling when it becomes ingrained in popular culture.

The conversation at r/cryptids came right back around to enforcing contrived boundaries on the word “cryptid” and how neither entity should be mentioned at all – either in the the original or the popularly modified version. It’s not clear anything was accomplished by the effort to fix confusion except to highlight it.

I did wonder how both indigenous terms got into the common lists of pop cryptids. I had suspected that the umbrella of “cryptid” (as any thing of dubious existence) just organically encompassed them at some point in the 2000s. However, I’ve since discovered that both terms are included in in Eberhart’s renowned encyclopedia, Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology (2002). In it, “SW” is said to resemble a werewolf or bigfoot. “W” is in the cannibal giant category, which overlaps with several other creatures that are lumped into Bigfoot/Sasquatch discussions by some modern speculators.

Things are, therefore, quite messy, because the SW and W are based on culture, stories, and legends. We’re not dealing with zoological samples here; tales evolve far faster than animals. Cryptids are defined by the stories told about them. It will be hard to put these now well-known monsters back into their original contexts.

AI cryptid carnival

Social media is lousy with AI generated videos of extreme cryptids and manufactured images of fake creatures. It’s not clear if people think these are real, even though they are obviously not. It’s possible the audiences just play along because it’s fun to imagine, though some may lose the ability to distinguish the boundaries between fact and fiction. Examples I found this week illustrate the widespread problem caused by AI creating cryptid material.

In the Xmas issue of Fortean Times (No. 452), Dr. Karl Shuker pointed out the growing problem of AI generated videos and images circulated as real cryptids. Correspondents sent him images, in this instance, of giant owls, though Bigfoot is the most common subject seen in manufactured images. Any semi-expert eye can spot the flaws in these “too good to be true” images.

In Episode 99 of The Cryptid Factor podcast (October 2024) – the long running show featuring actor and comedian Rhys Darby – Buttons, the producer, asked Chat GPT to suggest cryptid news. He discovered that the algorithm manufactures fake news stories regarding cryptids based on conspiracy ideas and other associated themes.

According to the Unexplained Mysteries web site, the top cryptid story of 2024 was Bristol zoo creating a faked photo to drum up business. This was a clear fake, but again, I’m just not sure who believes this was a real mystery.

These examples show how cryptozoology is one of the prime news areas for manufactured claims, a well worn path for decades. Fiction is often mixed in alongside facts making it more difficult to tease out what may be real. At this point, every cryptid image, video or report online should be considered fiction, by default, unless multiple legitimate sources can confirm it (not just repeat it).

Google earth cryptids

Sticking with the explosion in fake content posing as genuine, here is an example of a fake that got quite a bit of traction – an image showing Godzilla appearing on Google Earth. There ought to be a name for movie creatures that get reported in real life – and there IS! They have been dubbed “scryptids” by Monster Talk host and cryptid historian Blake Smith.

The idea of Godzilla being a real creature is absurd but someone could not resist manufacturing an image that shows the kaiju swimming alongside a boat full of shocked tourists off Japan. The video of the reveal shows the person zooming in from the Google Earth platform. However, after a cut you aren’t supposed to notice, the manufactured imagery appears. Snopes.com reports that the video was seen across social media platforms and websites. It was particularly popular on TikTok, MSN (which syndicates news stories from other outlets), the UK Express, YouTube, and Instagram. As if seeing Godzilla in the ocean wasn’t enough of a clue, the clear giveaway that this is nonsense is that there are no “street views” of the ocean on Google Earth. Obviously. In the moment of seeing a fun and surprisingly reveal, people forget that.

https://www.tiktok.com/@hidden.on.google.earth/video/7377507909300751648?lang=en

There have been several other cryptid hoaxes that used Google Earth/Maps and we certainly will see more.

• Sail Rock, north of Antarctica, was said to be a giant squid or “kraken” by some speculative web sites. Uh, it’s a rock.
• People have claimed to have found other sea or lake monsters including a boat wake as Nessie.
• Who can forget Crabzilla! In 2014, a satellite view was said to show a gigantic crab off the pier in Whitstable, Kent. It was quickly debunked.

Hood cryptids

What are “hood cryptids”? This is a meme from December 2024 that serves as yet another in a parade of endless example of the extended use of the word “cryptid” to mean any weird creature whose existence has been suggested, but regarded as highly unlikely. “Cryptid” is used to describe photos that are distorted so that the subject looks unnatural or unsettling. (See also r/cryptiddogs for more hilarious examples.)

“Hood cryptids” is a TikTok trend of sharing photos of a younger person with some phrasing such as “When I grow up I want to be a…” followed by an altered, exaggerated, ridiculous image with the caption “Forgive me Mother“. The origin appears to be an Instagram account that would post freaky images of rap artists. As happens with social media, others copy the actions and they evolve into memes.

That’s a wrap for the second Pop Cryptid Spectator. I did not do a video for this version as I did for the first one because the ratio of effort vs return was low. I’d also love to do a podcast but I’d need some help with that becasue it’s a ton of work. Though, it seems like this is a pretty niche topic that many people who are already immersed in cryptozoology seem primed to reject. They would rather hang on tightly to their existing view and not embrace the inevitable wider scope. So, I’ll keep plugging away at this. If you like it, share this with your cryptid-loving friends. I know there are millions of people out there who are interested in cryptids because I see them everywhere. I’d like to reach them and hear their views!

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

You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me

More:

Pop Cryptid Spectator 15

Pop Cryptid Spectator 14

Pop Cryptid Spectator 13

Pop Cryptid Spectator 12

Pop Cryptid Spectator 11

Pop Cryptid Spectator 10

Pop Cryptid Spectator 9

Pop Cryptid Spectator 8

Pop Cryptid Spectator 7

Pop Cryptid Spectator 6

Pop Cryptid Spectator 5

Pop Cryptid Spectator 4

Pop Cryptid Spectator 3

#Appalachia #BritishCryptids #cryptid #CryptidFestival #cryptids #folkHorror #GreenEyes #GreenEyesFestival #hornedRabbit #Jackalope #Mothman #mythologicalCreatures #popCryptid #PopCryptidSpectator

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9206

Pop Cryptid Spectator 2

In this edition:

• News: Two deaths dubiously linked to Bigfoot hunting
• Cryptid Media See This – Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal
• Cryptid Media Skip This – Lost Monster Files
• Update on naming taboo cryptids
• AI cryptid carnival
• Google Earth cryptids
• Hood cryptids meme

Hello and welcome to the 2nd Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of observing the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. My intent with this project is to highlight the fun ways legendary or dubious animals are showing up in modern media, to share interesting news bits about them, and to explore the expansion of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon – a cornucopia of strange entities that are labeled as “cryptids”.

News

Two men die searching for Bigfoot

Cryptid-related headlines appeared just after Christmas as two Oregon men were found dead in Gifford Pinchot Forest in Washington after they “failed to return from a trip to look for Sasquatch,” authorities said. This area is known for many Sasquatch sightings. However, I could find no report directly linking the outing to a Bigfoot excursion. In the subsequent days, I have not been able to find out much more about the intentions of the two hikers. Some commenters to news posts said they knew the men and expressed that it was not Bigfoot hunt but just a regular hike. I certainly can’t tell if this was true either, but the men appeared unequipped for camping outdoors, and that they perished from exposure in the cold and wet weather. Hikes in the woods here in the winter is not recommended. Rescuers spent Christmas facing dangerous conditions during the search.

It’s possible to assume a more gracious explanation – that the men were Bigfoot enthusiasts who hoped to see the creature. The ultimately unfortunate outcome was subsequently linked with the cryptid, which seemed to be out of proportion, as if belief in Bigfoot was the cause of death. Several commenters on the news stories, unsurprisingly, were cruel and mocked the men based on speculation about their behavior. Worse than that, some people took the tragedy even farther by saying that the men didn’t die from exposure, but from some other cause that officials are covering up. This is nonsense propelled by irrational and contrived ideas under the umbrella of a book series called “Missing 411” by Bigfoot writer David Paulides. Promotion of a sensationalistic cause for the tragedy works as clickbait for attention mongers. It’s unfair and ghoulish, and should be dismissed as such.

At least one news piece noted that certain tourism efforts in this area encourage hikes to look for Bigfoot, tacitly suggesting that local officials are promoting this type of potentially dangerous activity to outsiders.

Many people each year get lost in the woods and some perish. Many more people take forest excursions with the notion that they might have their own personal encounter with the unknown. It’s not “crazy” or worthy of scorn, but a sober lesson about safety and taking precautions when hiking.

Cryptid media

See This – Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal

A paranormal-themed docu-series streaming on Hulu from September 2024 surprised me by being well-written and produced, as well as captivating. That’s a rarity! But Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal, while sounding atrocious and potentially exploitative, was not only jammed packed with good content but also featured some truly heartbreaking stories directly related to cryptids or cryptid-adjacent.

I was impressed by the first episode on “Lizard People” which mainly centered on the paranoid conspiratorial belief about Reptilians which played into a Christmas 2020 suicide bombing in Nashville, Tennessee. The episode also touched on the legend of Lizard Man of Bishopville.

Episode 3 covered the growth of the legend of the Goat Man of Pope Lick, Kentucky. The town has a love/hate relationship with the Goat Man as legend tripping by young people results in deaths by attempting to traverse the active train trestle bridge. A festival to celebrate the Goat Man legend/cryptid feels, to some, disrespectful to the memory of several who died and perhaps increases the odds that more people visit and venture into harms way.

The content of all 8 episodes consists of interviewees, some of whom are telling their own story for the first time. The complex details of each episode topic are well-managed by the editing. Each succeeds in distilling a full narrative into an understandable and fascinating piece. The show also uses bits of animation to reconstruct scenes. To me, this is preferable over acted reconstructions. I recommend this show, produced by the Duplass Bros., at least as an example of how nonfiction TV about paranormal subjects can be smart and done well, contrary to the majority of examples.

Skip This – The Lost Monster Files

As one of the contrary examples, do not bother with the awful run of The Lost Monster Files, a cryptid show on Discovery channel based on the files of Ivan T. Sanderson. It’s not low budget, but it’s low on originality and almost insultingly dumb. I watched all the episodes (so you don’t have to). They did chop jobs on the chupacabra, the abominable snowman of North America, the Thunderbird, the Minnesota Iceman, the Kodiak sea monster, and the Gowrow of Arkansas. You can read my reviews to see the details regarding each episode, including the obvious oversimplifications, lack of experience from the cast, fabricated process of inquiry and staged investigation, and the extreme speculation and lack of reasoning found in their conclusions. It was a total bust in that it misinformed and conflated ideas without being at all entertaining. I’d rather not see the likes of it again.

Update on taboo “cryptids”

In the Spectator #1, I talked about the attempt to remove mention of two certain spirit/magical creatures based on Native lore from the cryptid subreddit. As I explained last post, I’ll call them the “W” and “SW” to avoid mentioning the names since that is seen as potentially dangerous or at least disrespectful, and perpetuates misconceptions about Native beliefs.

The renaming contest stalled quickly. People have suggested some names for the entities but none are helpful. Neither entity is referred to on the forum as representing what the “W” and “SW” actually represented in Native lore, and some posters have expressed their disgust, attempting to state the authentic origins of the SW as humans using witchcraft or the W as a spirit.

For the “W”, the names are meant to distinguish the skeletal “antlered” entity, depicted as huge and horrific, whose horns are not part of the indigenous lore. The leading contender for the alternate name is “Stag Man”. This version is seen everywhere due to popular art and a Hollywood movie.

The “SW” entity stories made popular by a book and TV show based on the paranormal ranch tales, depicts encounters outside the context of Navajo lore. The story has morphed into a being that is pale and spindly, absorbing the look and behaviors of the creepypasta creature, the Rake. (Confusingly, some depictions of the W also resemble an emaciated, pale creature.) It’s difficult to roll back that misinformation and correct the labeling when it becomes ingrained in popular culture.

The conversation at r/cryptids came right back around to enforcing contrived boundaries on the word “cryptid” and how neither entity should be mentioned at all – either in the the original or the popularly modified version. It’s not clear anything was accomplished by the effort to fix confusion except to highlight it.

I did wonder how both indigenous terms got into the common lists of pop cryptids. I had suspected that the umbrella of “cryptid” (as any thing of dubious existence) just organically encompassed them at some point in the 2000s. However, I’ve since discovered that both terms are included in in Eberhart’s renowned encyclopedia, Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology (2002). In it, “SW” is said to resemble a werewolf or bigfoot. “W” is in the cannibal giant category, which overlaps with several other creatures that are lumped into Bigfoot/Sasquatch discussions by some modern speculators.

Things are, therefore, quite messy, because the SW and W are based on culture, stories, and legends. We’re not dealing with zoological samples here; tales evolve far faster than animals. Cryptids are defined by the stories told about them. It will be hard to put these now well-known monsters back into their original contexts.

AI cryptid carnival

Social media is lousy with AI generated videos of extreme cryptids and manufactured images of fake creatures. It’s not clear if people think these are real, even though they are obviously not. It’s possible the audiences just play along because it’s fun to imagine, though some may lose the ability to distinguish the boundaries between fact and fiction. Examples I found this week illustrate the widespread problem caused by AI creating cryptid material.

In the Xmas issue of Fortean Times (No. 452), Dr. Karl Shuker pointed out the growing problem of AI generated videos and images circulated as real cryptids. Correspondents sent him images, in this instance, of giant owls, though Bigfoot is the most common subject seen in manufactured images. Any semi-expert eye can spot the flaws in these “too good to be true” images.

In Episode 99 of The Cryptid Factor podcast (October 2024) – the long running show featuring actor and comedian Rhys Darby – Buttons, the producer, asked Chat GPT to suggest cryptid news. He discovered that the algorithm manufactures fake news stories regarding cryptids based on conspiracy ideas and other associated themes.

According to the Unexplained Mysteries web site, the top cryptid story of 2024 was Bristol zoo creating a faked photo to drum up business. This was a clear fake, but again, I’m just not sure who believes this was a real mystery.

These examples show how cryptozoology is one of the prime news areas for manufactured claims, a well worn path for decades. Fiction is often mixed in alongside facts making it more difficult to tease out what may be real. At this point, every cryptid image, video or report online should be considered fiction, by default, unless multiple legitimate sources can confirm it (not just repeat it).

Google earth cryptids

Sticking with the explosion in fake content posing as genuine, here is an example of a fake that got quite a bit of traction – an image showing Godzilla appearing on Google Earth. There ought to be a name for movie creatures that get reported in real life – and there IS! They have been dubbed “scryptids” by Monster Talk host and cryptid historian Blake Smith.

The idea of Godzilla being a real creature is absurd but someone could not resist manufacturing an image that shows the kaiju swimming alongside a boat full of shocked tourists off Japan. The video of the reveal shows the person zooming in from the Google Earth platform. However, after a cut you aren’t supposed to notice, the manufactured imagery appears. Snopes.com reports that the video was seen across social media platforms and websites. It was particularly popular on TikTok, MSN (which syndicates news stories from other outlets), the UK Express, YouTube, and Instagram. As if seeing Godzilla in the ocean wasn’t enough of a clue, the clear giveaway that this is nonsense is that there are no “street views” of the ocean on Google Earth. Obviously. In the moment of seeing a fun and surprisingly reveal, people forget that.

https://www.tiktok.com/@hidden.on.google.earth/video/7377507909300751648?lang=en

There have been several other cryptid hoaxes that used Google Earth/Maps and we certainly will see more.

• Sail Rock, north of Antarctica, was said to be a giant squid or “kraken” by some speculative web sites. Uh, it’s a rock.
• People have claimed to have found other sea or lake monsters including a boat wake as Nessie.
• Who can forget Crabzilla! In 2014, a satellite view was said to show a gigantic crab off the pier in Whitstable, Kent. It was quickly debunked.

Hood cryptids

What are “hood cryptids”? This is a meme from December 2024 that serves as yet another in a parade of endless example of the extended use of the word “cryptid” to mean any weird creature whose existence has been suggested, but regarded as highly unlikely. “Cryptid” is used to describe photos that are distorted so that the subject looks unnatural or unsettling. (See also r/cryptiddogs for more hilarious examples.)

“Hood cryptids” is a TikTok trend of sharing photos of a younger person with some phrasing such as “When I grow up I want to be a…” followed by an altered, exaggerated, ridiculous image with the caption “Forgive me Mother“. The origin appears to be an Instagram account that would post freaky images of rap artists. As happens with social media, others copy the actions and they evolve into memes.

That’s a wrap for the second Pop Cryptid Spectator. I did not do a video for this version as I did for the first one because the ratio of effort vs return was low. I’d also love to do a podcast but I’d need some help with that becasue it’s a ton of work. Though, it seems like this is a pretty niche topic that many people who are already immersed in cryptozoology seem primed to reject. They would rather hang on tightly to their existing view and not embrace the inevitable wider scope. So, I’ll keep plugging away at this. If you like it, share this with your cryptid-loving friends. I know there are millions of people out there who are interested in cryptids because I see them everywhere. I’d like to reach them and hear their views!

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

You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me

More:

Pop Cryptid Spectator 15

Pop Cryptid Spectator 14

Pop Cryptid Spectator 13

Pop Cryptid Spectator 12

Pop Cryptid Spectator 11

Pop Cryptid Spectator 10

Pop Cryptid Spectator 9

Pop Cryptid Spectator 8

Pop Cryptid Spectator 7

Pop Cryptid Spectator 6

Pop Cryptid Spectator 5

Pop Cryptid Spectator 4

Pop Cryptid Spectator 3

#Appalachia #BritishCryptids #cryptid #CryptidFestival #cryptids #folkHorror #GreenEyes #GreenEyesFestival #hornedRabbit #Jackalope #Mothman #mythologicalCreatures #popCryptid #PopCryptidSpectator

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9206

Pop Cryptid Spectator 2

In this edition:

• News: Two deaths dubiously linked to Bigfoot hunting
• Cryptid Media See This – Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal
• Cryptid Media Skip This – Lost Monster Files
• Update on naming taboo cryptids
• AI cryptid carnival
• Google Earth cryptids
• Hood cryptids meme

Hello and welcome to the 2nd Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of observing the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. My intent with this project is to highlight the fun ways legendary or dubious animals are showing up in modern media, to share interesting news bits about them, and to explore the expansion of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon – a cornucopia of strange entities that are labeled as “cryptids”.

News

Two men die searching for Bigfoot

Cryptid-related headlines appeared just after Christmas as two Oregon men were found dead in Gifford Pinchot Forest in Washington after they “failed to return from a trip to look for Sasquatch,” authorities said. This area is known for many Sasquatch sightings. However, I could find no report directly linking the outing to a Bigfoot excursion. In the subsequent days, I have not been able to find out much more about the intentions of the two hikers. Some commenters to news posts said they knew the men and expressed that it was not Bigfoot hunt but just a regular hike. I certainly can’t tell if this was true either, but the men appeared unequipped for camping outdoors, and that they perished from exposure in the cold and wet weather. Hikes in the woods here in the winter is not recommended. Rescuers spent Christmas facing dangerous conditions during the search.

It’s possible to assume a more gracious explanation – that the men were Bigfoot enthusiasts who hoped to see the creature. The ultimately unfortunate outcome was subsequently linked with the cryptid, which seemed to be out of proportion, as if belief in Bigfoot was the cause of death. Several commenters on the news stories, unsurprisingly, were cruel and mocked the men based on speculation about their behavior. Worse than that, some people took the tragedy even farther by saying that the men didn’t die from exposure, but from some other cause that officials are covering up. This is nonsense propelled by irrational and contrived ideas under the umbrella of a book series called “Missing 411” by Bigfoot writer David Paulides. Promotion of a sensationalistic cause for the tragedy works as clickbait for attention mongers. It’s unfair and ghoulish, and should be dismissed as such.

At least one news piece noted that certain tourism efforts in this area encourage hikes to look for Bigfoot, tacitly suggesting that local officials are promoting this type of potentially dangerous activity to outsiders.

Many people each year get lost in the woods and some perish. Many more people take forest excursions with the notion that they might have their own personal encounter with the unknown. It’s not “crazy” or worthy of scorn, but a sober lesson about safety and taking precautions when hiking.

Cryptid media

See This – Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal

A paranormal-themed docu-series streaming on Hulu from September 2024 surprised me by being well-written and produced, as well as captivating. That’s a rarity! But Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal, while sounding atrocious and potentially exploitative, was not only jammed packed with good content but also featured some truly heartbreaking stories directly related to cryptids or cryptid-adjacent.

I was impressed by the first episode on “Lizard People” which mainly centered on the paranoid conspiratorial belief about Reptilians which played into a Christmas 2020 suicide bombing in Nashville, Tennessee. The episode also touched on the legend of Lizard Man of Bishopville.

Episode 3 covered the growth of the legend of the Goat Man of Pope Lick, Kentucky. The town has a love/hate relationship with the Goat Man as legend tripping by young people results in deaths by attempting to traverse the active train trestle bridge. A festival to celebrate the Goat Man legend/cryptid feels, to some, disrespectful to the memory of several who died and perhaps increases the odds that more people visit and venture into harms way.

The content of all 8 episodes consists of interviewees, some of whom are telling their own story for the first time. The complex details of each episode topic are well-managed by the editing. Each succeeds in distilling a full narrative into an understandable and fascinating piece. The show also uses bits of animation to reconstruct scenes. To me, this is preferable over acted reconstructions. I recommend this show, produced by the Duplass Bros., at least as an example of how nonfiction TV about paranormal subjects can be smart and done well, contrary to the majority of examples.

Skip This – The Lost Monster Files

As one of the contrary examples, do not bother with the awful run of The Lost Monster Files, a cryptid show on Discovery channel based on the files of Ivan T. Sanderson. It’s not low budget, but it’s low on originality and almost insultingly dumb. I watched all the episodes (so you don’t have to). They did chop jobs on the chupacabra, the abominable snowman of North America, the Thunderbird, the Minnesota Iceman, the Kodiak sea monster, and the Gowrow of Arkansas. You can read my reviews to see the details regarding each episode, including the obvious oversimplifications, lack of experience from the cast, fabricated process of inquiry and staged investigation, and the extreme speculation and lack of reasoning found in their conclusions. It was a total bust in that it misinformed and conflated ideas without being at all entertaining. I’d rather not see the likes of it again.

Update on taboo “cryptids”

In the Spectator #1, I talked about the attempt to remove mention of two certain spirit/magical creatures based on Native lore from the cryptid subreddit. As I explained last post, I’ll call them the “W” and “SW” to avoid mentioning the names since that is seen as potentially dangerous or at least disrespectful, and perpetuates misconceptions about Native beliefs.

The renaming contest stalled quickly. People have suggested some names for the entities but none are helpful. Neither entity is referred to on the forum as representing what the “W” and “SW” actually represented in Native lore, and some posters have expressed their disgust, attempting to state the authentic origins of the SW as humans using witchcraft or the W as a spirit.

For the “W”, the names are meant to distinguish the skeletal “antlered” entity, depicted as huge and horrific, whose horns are not part of the indigenous lore. The leading contender for the alternate name is “Stag Man”. This version is seen everywhere due to popular art and a Hollywood movie.

The “SW” entity stories made popular by a book and TV show based on the paranormal ranch tales, depicts encounters outside the context of Navajo lore. The story has morphed into a being that is pale and spindly, absorbing the look and behaviors of the creepypasta creature, the Rake. (Confusingly, some depictions of the W also resemble an emaciated, pale creature.) It’s difficult to roll back that misinformation and correct the labeling when it becomes ingrained in popular culture.

The conversation at r/cryptids came right back around to enforcing contrived boundaries on the word “cryptid” and how neither entity should be mentioned at all – either in the the original or the popularly modified version. It’s not clear anything was accomplished by the effort to fix confusion except to highlight it.

I did wonder how both indigenous terms got into the common lists of pop cryptids. I had suspected that the umbrella of “cryptid” (as any thing of dubious existence) just organically encompassed them at some point in the 2000s. However, I’ve since discovered that both terms are included in in Eberhart’s renowned encyclopedia, Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology (2002). In it, “SW” is said to resemble a werewolf or bigfoot. “W” is in the cannibal giant category, which overlaps with several other creatures that are lumped into Bigfoot/Sasquatch discussions by some modern speculators.

Things are, therefore, quite messy, because the SW and W are based on culture, stories, and legends. We’re not dealing with zoological samples here; tales evolve far faster than animals. Cryptids are defined by the stories told about them. It will be hard to put these now well-known monsters back into their original contexts.

AI cryptid carnival

Social media is lousy with AI generated videos of extreme cryptids and manufactured images of fake creatures. It’s not clear if people think these are real, even though they are obviously not. It’s possible the audiences just play along because it’s fun to imagine, though some may lose the ability to distinguish the boundaries between fact and fiction. Examples I found this week illustrate the widespread problem caused by AI creating cryptid material.

In the Xmas issue of Fortean Times (No. 452), Dr. Karl Shuker pointed out the growing problem of AI generated videos and images circulated as real cryptids. Correspondents sent him images, in this instance, of giant owls, though Bigfoot is the most common subject seen in manufactured images. Any semi-expert eye can spot the flaws in these “too good to be true” images.

In Episode 99 of The Cryptid Factor podcast (October 2024) – the long running show featuring actor and comedian Rhys Darby – Buttons, the producer, asked Chat GPT to suggest cryptid news. He discovered that the algorithm manufactures fake news stories regarding cryptids based on conspiracy ideas and other associated themes.

According to the Unexplained Mysteries web site, the top cryptid story of 2024 was Bristol zoo creating a faked photo to drum up business. This was a clear fake, but again, I’m just not sure who believes this was a real mystery.

These examples show how cryptozoology is one of the prime news areas for manufactured claims, a well worn path for decades. Fiction is often mixed in alongside facts making it more difficult to tease out what may be real. At this point, every cryptid image, video or report online should be considered fiction, by default, unless multiple legitimate sources can confirm it (not just repeat it).

Google earth cryptids

Sticking with the explosion in fake content posing as genuine, here is an example of a fake that got quite a bit of traction – an image showing Godzilla appearing on Google Earth. There ought to be a name for movie creatures that get reported in real life – and there IS! They have been dubbed “scryptids” by Monster Talk host and cryptid historian Blake Smith.

The idea of Godzilla being a real creature is absurd but someone could not resist manufacturing an image that shows the kaiju swimming alongside a boat full of shocked tourists off Japan. The video of the reveal shows the person zooming in from the Google Earth platform. However, after a cut you aren’t supposed to notice, the manufactured imagery appears. Snopes.com reports that the video was seen across social media platforms and websites. It was particularly popular on TikTok, MSN (which syndicates news stories from other outlets), the UK Express, YouTube, and Instagram. As if seeing Godzilla in the ocean wasn’t enough of a clue, the clear giveaway that this is nonsense is that there are no “street views” of the ocean on Google Earth. Obviously. In the moment of seeing a fun and surprisingly reveal, people forget that.

https://www.tiktok.com/@hidden.on.google.earth/video/7377507909300751648?lang=en

There have been several other cryptid hoaxes that used Google Earth/Maps and we certainly will see more.

• Sail Rock, north of Antarctica, was said to be a giant squid or “kraken” by some speculative web sites. Uh, it’s a rock.
• People have claimed to have found other sea or lake monsters including a boat wake as Nessie.
• Who can forget Crabzilla! In 2014, a satellite view was said to show a gigantic crab off the pier in Whitstable, Kent. It was quickly debunked.

Hood cryptids

What are “hood cryptids”? This is a meme from December 2024 that serves as yet another in a parade of endless example of the extended use of the word “cryptid” to mean any weird creature whose existence has been suggested, but regarded as highly unlikely. “Cryptid” is used to describe photos that are distorted so that the subject looks unnatural or unsettling. (See also r/cryptiddogs for more hilarious examples.)

“Hood cryptids” is a TikTok trend of sharing photos of a younger person with some phrasing such as “When I grow up I want to be a…” followed by an altered, exaggerated, ridiculous image with the caption “Forgive me Mother“. The origin appears to be an Instagram account that would post freaky images of rap artists. As happens with social media, others copy the actions and they evolve into memes.

That’s a wrap for the second Pop Cryptid Spectator. I did not do a video for this version as I did for the first one because the ratio of effort vs return was low. I’d also love to do a podcast but I’d need some help with that becasue it’s a ton of work. Though, it seems like this is a pretty niche topic that many people who are already immersed in cryptozoology seem primed to reject. They would rather hang on tightly to their existing view and not embrace the inevitable wider scope. So, I’ll keep plugging away at this. If you like it, share this with your cryptid-loving friends. I know there are millions of people out there who are interested in cryptids because I see them everywhere. I’d like to reach them and hear their views!

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

You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me

More:

Pop Cryptid Spectator 15

Pop Cryptid Spectator 14

Pop Cryptid Spectator 13

Pop Cryptid Spectator 12

Pop Cryptid Spectator 11

Pop Cryptid Spectator 10

Pop Cryptid Spectator 9

Pop Cryptid Spectator 8

Pop Cryptid Spectator 7

Pop Cryptid Spectator 6

Pop Cryptid Spectator 5

Pop Cryptid Spectator 4

Pop Cryptid Spectator 3

#Appalachia #BritishCryptids #cryptid #CryptidFestival #cryptids #folkHorror #GreenEyes #GreenEyesFestival #hornedRabbit #Jackalope #Mothman #mythologicalCreatures #popCryptid #PopCryptidSpectator

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9206

Pop Cryptid Spectator 2

In this edition:

• News: Two deaths dubiously linked to Bigfoot hunting
• Cryptid Media See This – Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal
• Cryptid Media Skip This – Lost Monster Files
• Update on naming taboo cryptids
• AI cryptid carnival
• Google Earth cryptids
• Hood cryptids meme

Hello and welcome to the 2nd Pop Cryptid Spectator – my chronicle of observing the changing appearance of and attitudes towards “cryptids” in popular culture. My intent with this project is to highlight the fun ways legendary or dubious animals are showing up in modern media, to share interesting news bits about them, and to explore the expansion of cryptozoology into a mass cultural phenomenon – a cornucopia of strange entities that are labeled as “cryptids”.

News

Two men die searching for Bigfoot

Cryptid-related headlines appeared just after Christmas as two Oregon men were found dead in Gifford Pinchot Forest in Washington after they “failed to return from a trip to look for Sasquatch,” authorities said. This area is known for many Sasquatch sightings. However, I could find no report directly linking the outing to a Bigfoot excursion. In the subsequent days, I have not been able to find out much more about the intentions of the two hikers. Some commenters to news posts said they knew the men and expressed that it was not Bigfoot hunt but just a regular hike. I certainly can’t tell if this was true either, but the men appeared unequipped for camping outdoors, and that they perished from exposure in the cold and wet weather. Hikes in the woods here in the winter is not recommended. Rescuers spent Christmas facing dangerous conditions during the search.

It’s possible to assume a more gracious explanation – that the men were Bigfoot enthusiasts who hoped to see the creature. The ultimately unfortunate outcome was subsequently linked with the cryptid, which seemed to be out of proportion, as if belief in Bigfoot was the cause of death. Several commenters on the news stories, unsurprisingly, were cruel and mocked the men based on speculation about their behavior. Worse than that, some people took the tragedy even farther by saying that the men didn’t die from exposure, but from some other cause that officials are covering up. This is nonsense propelled by irrational and contrived ideas under the umbrella of a book series called “Missing 411” by Bigfoot writer David Paulides. Promotion of a sensationalistic cause for the tragedy works as clickbait for attention mongers. It’s unfair and ghoulish, and should be dismissed as such.

At least one news piece noted that certain tourism efforts in this area encourage hikes to look for Bigfoot, tacitly suggesting that local officials are promoting this type of potentially dangerous activity to outsiders.

Many people each year get lost in the woods and some perish. Many more people take forest excursions with the notion that they might have their own personal encounter with the unknown. It’s not “crazy” or worthy of scorn, but a sober lesson about safety and taking precautions when hiking.

Cryptid media

See This – Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal

A paranormal-themed docu-series streaming on Hulu from September 2024 surprised me by being well-written and produced, as well as captivating. That’s a rarity! But Out There: Crimes of the Paranormal, while sounding atrocious and potentially exploitative, was not only jammed packed with good content but also featured some truly heartbreaking stories directly related to cryptids or cryptid-adjacent.

I was impressed by the first episode on “Lizard People” which mainly centered on the paranoid conspiratorial belief about Reptilians which played into a Christmas 2020 suicide bombing in Nashville, Tennessee. The episode also touched on the legend of Lizard Man of Bishopville.

Episode 3 covered the growth of the legend of the Goat Man of Pope Lick, Kentucky. The town has a love/hate relationship with the Goat Man as legend tripping by young people results in deaths by attempting to traverse the active train trestle bridge. A festival to celebrate the Goat Man legend/cryptid feels, to some, disrespectful to the memory of several who died and perhaps increases the odds that more people visit and venture into harms way.

The content of all 8 episodes consists of interviewees, some of whom are telling their own story for the first time. The complex details of each episode topic are well-managed by the editing. Each succeeds in distilling a full narrative into an understandable and fascinating piece. The show also uses bits of animation to reconstruct scenes. To me, this is preferable over acted reconstructions. I recommend this show, produced by the Duplass Bros., at least as an example of how nonfiction TV about paranormal subjects can be smart and done well, contrary to the majority of examples.

Skip This – The Lost Monster Files

As one of the contrary examples, do not bother with the awful run of The Lost Monster Files, a cryptid show on Discovery channel based on the files of Ivan T. Sanderson. It’s not low budget, but it’s low on originality and almost insultingly dumb. I watched all the episodes (so you don’t have to). They did chop jobs on the chupacabra, the abominable snowman of North America, the Thunderbird, the Minnesota Iceman, the Kodiak sea monster, and the Gowrow of Arkansas. You can read my reviews to see the details regarding each episode, including the obvious oversimplifications, lack of experience from the cast, fabricated process of inquiry and staged investigation, and the extreme speculation and lack of reasoning found in their conclusions. It was a total bust in that it misinformed and conflated ideas without being at all entertaining. I’d rather not see the likes of it again.

Update on taboo “cryptids”

In the Spectator #1, I talked about the attempt to remove mention of two certain spirit/magical creatures based on Native lore from the cryptid subreddit. As I explained last post, I’ll call them the “W” and “SW” to avoid mentioning the names since that is seen as potentially dangerous or at least disrespectful, and perpetuates misconceptions about Native beliefs.

The renaming contest stalled quickly. People have suggested some names for the entities but none are helpful. Neither entity is referred to on the forum as representing what the “W” and “SW” actually represented in Native lore, and some posters have expressed their disgust, attempting to state the authentic origins of the SW as humans using witchcraft or the W as a spirit.

For the “W”, the names are meant to distinguish the skeletal “antlered” entity, depicted as huge and horrific, whose horns are not part of the indigenous lore. The leading contender for the alternate name is “Stag Man”. This version is seen everywhere due to popular art and a Hollywood movie.

The “SW” entity stories made popular by a book and TV show based on the paranormal ranch tales, depicts encounters outside the context of Navajo lore. The story has morphed into a being that is pale and spindly, absorbing the look and behaviors of the creepypasta creature, the Rake. (Confusingly, some depictions of the W also resemble an emaciated, pale creature.) It’s difficult to roll back that misinformation and correct the labeling when it becomes ingrained in popular culture.

The conversation at r/cryptids came right back around to enforcing contrived boundaries on the word “cryptid” and how neither entity should be mentioned at all – either in the the original or the popularly modified version. It’s not clear anything was accomplished by the effort to fix confusion except to highlight it.

I did wonder how both indigenous terms got into the common lists of pop cryptids. I had suspected that the umbrella of “cryptid” (as any thing of dubious existence) just organically encompassed them at some point in the 2000s. However, I’ve since discovered that both terms are included in in Eberhart’s renowned encyclopedia, Mysterious Creatures: A Guide to Cryptozoology (2002). In it, “SW” is said to resemble a werewolf or bigfoot. “W” is in the cannibal giant category, which overlaps with several other creatures that are lumped into Bigfoot/Sasquatch discussions by some modern speculators.

Things are, therefore, quite messy, because the SW and W are based on culture, stories, and legends. We’re not dealing with zoological samples here; tales evolve far faster than animals. Cryptids are defined by the stories told about them. It will be hard to put these now well-known monsters back into their original contexts.

AI cryptid carnival

Social media is lousy with AI generated videos of extreme cryptids and manufactured images of fake creatures. It’s not clear if people think these are real, even though they are obviously not. It’s possible the audiences just play along because it’s fun to imagine, though some may lose the ability to distinguish the boundaries between fact and fiction. Examples I found this week illustrate the widespread problem caused by AI creating cryptid material.

In the Xmas issue of Fortean Times (No. 452), Dr. Karl Shuker pointed out the growing problem of AI generated videos and images circulated as real cryptids. Correspondents sent him images, in this instance, of giant owls, though Bigfoot is the most common subject seen in manufactured images. Any semi-expert eye can spot the flaws in these “too good to be true” images.

In Episode 99 of The Cryptid Factor podcast (October 2024) – the long running show featuring actor and comedian Rhys Darby – Buttons, the producer, asked Chat GPT to suggest cryptid news. He discovered that the algorithm manufactures fake news stories regarding cryptids based on conspiracy ideas and other associated themes.

According to the Unexplained Mysteries web site, the top cryptid story of 2024 was Bristol zoo creating a faked photo to drum up business. This was a clear fake, but again, I’m just not sure who believes this was a real mystery.

These examples show how cryptozoology is one of the prime news areas for manufactured claims, a well worn path for decades. Fiction is often mixed in alongside facts making it more difficult to tease out what may be real. At this point, every cryptid image, video or report online should be considered fiction, by default, unless multiple legitimate sources can confirm it (not just repeat it).

Google earth cryptids

Sticking with the explosion in fake content posing as genuine, here is an example of a fake that got quite a bit of traction – an image showing Godzilla appearing on Google Earth. There ought to be a name for movie creatures that get reported in real life – and there IS! They have been dubbed “scryptids” by Monster Talk host and cryptid historian Blake Smith.

The idea of Godzilla being a real creature is absurd but someone could not resist manufacturing an image that shows the kaiju swimming alongside a boat full of shocked tourists off Japan. The video of the reveal shows the person zooming in from the Google Earth platform. However, after a cut you aren’t supposed to notice, the manufactured imagery appears. Snopes.com reports that the video was seen across social media platforms and websites. It was particularly popular on TikTok, MSN (which syndicates news stories from other outlets), the UK Express, YouTube, and Instagram. As if seeing Godzilla in the ocean wasn’t enough of a clue, the clear giveaway that this is nonsense is that there are no “street views” of the ocean on Google Earth. Obviously. In the moment of seeing a fun and surprisingly reveal, people forget that.

https://www.tiktok.com/@hidden.on.google.earth/video/7377507909300751648?lang=en

There have been several other cryptid hoaxes that used Google Earth/Maps and we certainly will see more.

• Sail Rock, north of Antarctica, was said to be a giant squid or “kraken” by some speculative web sites. Uh, it’s a rock.
• People have claimed to have found other sea or lake monsters including a boat wake as Nessie.
• Who can forget Crabzilla! In 2014, a satellite view was said to show a gigantic crab off the pier in Whitstable, Kent. It was quickly debunked.

Hood cryptids

What are “hood cryptids”? This is a meme from December 2024 that serves as yet another in a parade of endless example of the extended use of the word “cryptid” to mean any weird creature whose existence has been suggested, but regarded as highly unlikely. “Cryptid” is used to describe photos that are distorted so that the subject looks unnatural or unsettling. (See also r/cryptiddogs for more hilarious examples.)

“Hood cryptids” is a TikTok trend of sharing photos of a younger person with some phrasing such as “When I grow up I want to be a…” followed by an altered, exaggerated, ridiculous image with the caption “Forgive me Mother“. The origin appears to be an Instagram account that would post freaky images of rap artists. As happens with social media, others copy the actions and they evolve into memes.

That’s a wrap for the second Pop Cryptid Spectator. I did not do a video for this version as I did for the first one because the ratio of effort vs return was low. I’d also love to do a podcast but I’d need some help with that becasue it’s a ton of work. Though, it seems like this is a pretty niche topic that many people who are already immersed in cryptozoology seem primed to reject. They would rather hang on tightly to their existing view and not embrace the inevitable wider scope. So, I’ll keep plugging away at this. If you like it, share this with your cryptid-loving friends. I know there are millions of people out there who are interested in cryptids because I see them everywhere. I’d like to reach them and hear their views!

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

You can email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me

More:

Pop Cryptid Spectator 15

Pop Cryptid Spectator 14

Pop Cryptid Spectator 13

Pop Cryptid Spectator 12

Pop Cryptid Spectator 11

Pop Cryptid Spectator 10

Pop Cryptid Spectator 9

Pop Cryptid Spectator 8

Pop Cryptid Spectator 7

Pop Cryptid Spectator 6

Pop Cryptid Spectator 5

Pop Cryptid Spectator 4

Pop Cryptid Spectator 3

#Appalachia #BritishCryptids #cryptid #CryptidFestival #cryptids #folkHorror #GreenEyes #GreenEyesFestival #hornedRabbit #Jackalope #Mothman #mythologicalCreatures #popCryptid #PopCryptidSpectator

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9206

Lost Monster Files is a cryptid bust

It would be awesome if there were no more faked-science TV shows. Back in 2017, I published a book on how amateur paranormal researchers pretend to do science. Around that time, there were so many TV and YouTube shows of people doing this – staging “investigations” using sciencey-looking gadgets and language and playing at being experts – that I couldn’t keep track of them all anymore. And they are still going strong.

Cryptozoology is my favorite fringe subject, but it’s not fringe anymore, it’s mainstream. We can credit Monster Quest and Finding Bigfoot for the current popularity of self-styled cryptozoologists looking for mystery creatures. The latest cryptid show is Lost Monster Files on Discovery based on the files of Ivan T. Sanderson. It’s not low budget but it’s low on originality and almost insultingly dumb.

I realize that people want to be on TV and make a living doing stuff like this, but I will argue that these shows make the audience less knowledgeable about the topic because of the dumbing-down of the presented scenarios, and the exceptionally poor content passed off as “facts”.

Recap

Episode 1 explored the Carolina Chupacabra and the content failed to include anything interesting or new except what they seemingly made up. A condensed show can hardly begin to explore the complex history of the legendary creature and its strange cultural evolution. However, all history and much of the interesting details were entirely ignored for a ridiculous plot and very silly conclusion.

Episode 2 covered Sanderson’s work on ABSMery (the study of abominable snowmen accounts). The cast goes to British Columbia to follow up on an old Sasquatch/Bigfoot account. They confuse us more than enlighten or even entertain. They find nothing.

Episode 3 is on the Thunderbird where the team finds an eagle’s nest but concludes, laughably, that this suggests there is a still living Teratorn or unknown giant eagle.

I took a break from watching the show because it was worthless to me. I was curious, however, and binge-watched the (hopefully) last three episodes.

Bernard is ghosted

Episode 4 was on the Minnesota Iceman, or “wild man” as the show calls it, which was a very popular sideshow promoted by Frank Hansen in 1968 depicting a body of what people thought of as a “cave man” frozen in ice. The team, as usual, ignores much of the important parts of the tale – that the Iceman model that was used still exists, and that Sanderson conducted his inspection of the body with Bernard Heuvelmans. Heuvelmans is entirely absent from this show even though his history is entwined with Sanderson’s. While these extractions were done for time limitations I would guess, it makes the cast appear clueless to those of us who know that actual history. For drama, one half of the cast goes to the old Hansen farm to look for the real body they believe is buried there. And the other half goes to the location where Hansen supposedly shot the creature – they have an “infrasound” experience. (Again. They had a similar thing happen in episode 2, which was also dropped with no consideration). The best find they come up with is a footprint which they do not show on camera in any detail but gush over, claiming it matches Sanderson’s information about the creature having a really big toe. They conclude with misguided blather about evolution connected to Denisovans.

Heuvelmans is entirely absent from this show
even though his history is entwined with Sanderson’s.

Deception island

Episode 5 sent the team to Kodiak Island in Alaska to find out about the Kodiak sea monster. This was probably the worst episode. It was boring and, tracking with all the other episodes, absurd in their suggestion that a plesiosaur twice the size of a blue whale (all wrong) could still be living in the offshore trench. Really reaching for an exciting conclusion, they suggest that the chemicals dumped after WW2 could have caused a genetic mutant 30 years later. Ironically, the episode closed with a voiceover of Sanderson talking about truth and deception.

The cave “dragon” final episode

Episode 6 took the cast into a cave in Arkansas where they actually found something! The subject cryptid was the Gowrow, almost certainly a made up legend of a giant, spiny backed lizard. What caught my attention for this was the appearance of a USGS hydrologist discussing groundwater. I’m certain his words were cut and edited to lose all meaning because the jumbled word salad spewed about aquifers and caves was rubbish. Summing up their misinformed ideas about how water moves underground, they suspected that the creature that might be the Gowrow was travelling between a surface pond and cave systems via underwater passageways (they erroneously called “the aquifer”). This is the well-worn and mistaken idea often proposed for lake monsters using subterranean passageways to the ocean. The average person doesn’t know how groundwater moves, and this episode shows that ignorance in spades.

“Finding all that water in [the cave] was a gamechanger,” says Brittany, who seems to be the one to say the most ridiculous things in the show. Caves are created by water and typically still have water in them because they are under the surface.

The team descends into a cave – it is not shown where it is but the implicit suggestion is that they “found” it and it’s unexplored. This is clearly false, it is too large and accessible for it to be unknown. It is extremely dangerous for inexperienced people to go a mile into a cave system like this. They find evidence of an alligator in the cave. And, they actually find the alligator.

https://www.youtube.com/shorts/d2LWxeWEGIo

I searched for more information about an alligator discovered in a cave in Arkansas and found nothing. According to the show, they were 80 miles from natural alligator habitat. There is no way this animal was native to this cave because it was too cold to comfortably exist here. It seems likely that it was let loose here. I’m not saying it was planted, it could have been released by an irresponsible person, but I can’t trust anything on this show.

Common threads in the episodes

Over the six episodes, there were common threads:

1. Oversimplification. Likely in order to appeal to the non-technical viewer, to fit in an hour time frame, and to help the narrative, every scenario, find, and explanation was oversimplified, often to the extent that it was wrong. It was framed as “Sanderson studied this.” + “There is a uptick in sighting of something like that in this area.” Therefore, “Sanderson was on to something and we are going to just jump in and finish was he started.” This is a dull, banal, and misleading premise. Thus, my opinion that this show makes people less well-informed on the topics covered.
2. Lack of expertise. Almost no experts appeared in the show. As I noted in the first review, the cast were hardly what I would consider “experts”. They spoke unintelligently about complex topics like evolution, zoology, geography, and history. The writers and research team for this show did a poor job. Brittany, in particular, was not even coached on how to pronounce words correctly. For example, “Cuvier” as in Georges Cuvier, is pronounced “curvier”. Twice. There is no excuse for such sloppiness.
3. Sham inquiry. I was entirely unconvinced that the investigation shown on screen was legitimate. It looked staged, heavily edited, and scripted to serve the pre-set narrative. This is typical of all paranormal nonfiction shows that attempt to portray a “scientific” approach, which instead shows the cast playing pretend scientist. It’s a cheap and lazy ploy.
4. Extreme conclusions. The obviously weak and questionable evidence was hyped as convincing and used to bolster their pre-existing narrative that they, indeed, were successful in showing that something mysterious was going on. That’s how an entertainment show is structured. This is not for educational purposes. But that message is not always understood by the audience.

In conclusion, this was a typical scientifical paranormal TV show with excessive hype and no substance. It wasn’t even entertaining. For anyone who knows anything much about cryptids, this show was a total dud.

#alligatorCave #ArkansasAlligator #Bigfoot #cryptidTVShow #cryptids #Cryptozoology #DiscoveryChannel #evidence #IvanSanderson #LostMonsterFiles #MinnesotaIceman #ReviewOfLostMonsterFiles #science #television

https://sharonahill.com/?p=9045