Mythbusters and Bigfoot
Posted by: Craig Woolheater on July 30th, 2007
I mentioned this humorous promo for the Discovery Channel series Mythbusters in a post here on Cryptomundo entitled Answering the Bigfoot Skeptics.
As the promo is available on youtube, I thought that I would share it here for the Cryptomundo readers.
Co-founder of Cryptomundo in 2005.
I have appeared in or contributed to the following TV programs, documentaries and films:
OLN's Mysterious Encounters: "Caddo Critter", Southern Fried Bigfoot, Travel Channel's Weird Travels: "Bigfoot", History Channel's MonsterQuest: "Swamp Stalker", The Wild Man of the Navidad, Destination America's Monsters and Mysteries in America: Texas Terror - Lake Worth Monster, Animal Planet's Finding Bigfoot: Return to Boggy Creek and Beast of the Bayou.
Funny-but it doesn’t tell you much about how they’ll approach this and what they’re aiming to discover in a half-hour show. I enjoy Mythbusters, I just think they’re out of their element here.
That’s just an old commercial for the show, I do not believe they are actually going after bigfoot. Although it would make for a fun episode to see if they could duplicate the depth of the foot prints, make a costume and fake a video. They just wouldn’t have much to blow up.
They might be a little out of their element, but they have always been fair in their recreations and judgements. And like it or not, bigfoot is still generally considered a myth. Yes, they have a fondness for blowing things up. It’s a guy thing. We do that. Above all else, the show is about entertainment. Whatever they decide, that’s how it should be viewed. If it can educate as well as entertain, even better. I think Jamie would be a good candidate for the ape suit…so he can remember what hair is like.
Yeah, it’s just an old commercial. I think it’s meant to hint that if they did ever go looking into Bigfoot they’d figure it out one way or the other.
That was the commercial leading up to last season in the fall.
Yeah, it isn’t a topic that can be busted or confirmed.
Bigfoot is one “myth” that cannot be busted for a list of reasons.
However, the main reason is because it’s not a myth.
Showing a recreation of Ray Wallace or that goofy Pickens dude with prosthetic wooden feet while running down a dirt road does not bust any myth.
Showing Ben Radford’s talking head going on about how “unreliable eyewitness testimony is” will not bust any myth.
Showing an effeminate egghead professor from the University of Chicago talking about about how he knows guys run around from time to time in the woods in gorilla suits does not bust any myth (but it may propagate the myth that this act of idiocy does frequently occur).
Showing Bob Heironomus walking in front of a barn with a silly gait doesn’t bust a myth (it only feeds into another one).
If they truly look into it, by investigating it scientificly, following up on witness observations, there’s more of a chance they may actually end up affirming the “myth” as reality, or at least not being able to close the door on it.
Technically most of what they investigate are not truly ‘myths’, but preconceptions and misconceptions. There are a few real urban myths, but a lot of what they look into are things shown in movies or television. A lot of folks do consider Bigfoot to be a myth or propagated rumor, so there might be enough interest for them to try a hand at testing some of the aspects. They do occasionally confirm something as possible or true, you know. The show isn’t all entirely debunking.
Yes, I realize that it is an old commercial. I originally mentioned the commercial in my January 18th, 2006 post here on Cryptomundo entitled Answering the Bigfoot Skeptics.
As I just found the commercial on youtube, I merely wanted to share it with the readers of Cryptomundo.
Big Foot speaks with a Russian Accent!
If they decide to move ahead with any kind of bigfoot recreation attempt, I’ll be the first to know about it since Tory (who’s on the show) is my distant cousin and I’ve been pitching a P/G recreation to him for over a year. He’s personally for it and wants to do it but was turned down by the former producer who absolutely refused to do anything regarding what many consider “speculative” subjects, such as ghosts, UFO’s, bigfoot etc.. However, there is a new producer and I’m unaware of his feelings towards a show with this subject matter although Tory told me he’s still working on it and will let me know immediately should it be seriously considered. BTW, I’ve also informed Tory that the best way to go is P/G film recreation using only materials available from 1967 and begin by discussing the previous false hoax claims. He’s also aware of the BBC ‘s obvious failure and laughable claim that their attempt was even remotely similiar to the subject we see in the P/G film. I’ve also informed him that I’m absolutely not afraid of the results as none of us who are believers should be, and that my only fear is having Mythbusters concoct a major visual deviation from the real film and make a similiar claim that it’s convincing such as the BBC did. By now we are all keenly aware of the power of “media suggestion.” Since my last conversation with Tory was months ago regarding this, I’d be willing to bet that this producer has a similiar agenda to his predecessor unfortunately.
Kari
Need I say more?
Bigfoot comparison movie–
John Geen and Jeff Meldrum have a video copy of a comparison movie made in 1982, using A 6’7″ MAN, in a gorilla suit, filmed with a K-100 Kodak 16mm camera and 25mm lens.
Results – not even close.
Hmmm, Mythbusters screwed up completely in their ‘Jaws’ episode so I hope they tackle this one better.