Super Bigfoot Sunday 2010
Posted by: Loren Coleman on February 7th, 2010
This may be the lowest day of the year in America (or worldwide?) for reading the Internet. Everyone, it seems, likes to watch the Super Bowl for the ads, because some of them are actually very funny. Some fans even enjoy the cheerleaders and the music. A few people reportedly watch the Super Bowl for the football.
I always like to investigate the pop culture appearances that seem to haunt the edges of the game.
Will any of them have a cryptozoological theme? Tell me if you see one. I certainly haven’t this year. Other Super Bowls might have given us Bigfoot and beer or Sasquatch and shoes. But what’s up with 2010?
Bigfoot does not seem to be part of Super Bowl Sunday for 2010. Even though this game is in Florida, I haven’t heard of any reports being filed about Skunk Apes. Or blockbuster ads produced with a Yeti in it. Ah, there may be a Wolfman about, but that’s another story.
Right after the game, the news organizations will turn their cameras in the direction of British Columbia and the Winter Olympics. Now that could be interesting but not because of the events. I’ll get back to that, in a minute.
Do you recall the last time the Super Bowl was in Florida?
Remember 2007?
David Shealy
Who would have thought that CBS News on Super Bowl Sunday would attempt to tackle the Skunk Ape?
It is all about location, location, location, I thought. On “CBS Sunday Morning,” on February 4, 2007, news correspondent Bill Geist did one of his folksy and friendly stories from the field.
Geist is one of the best parts of “Sunday Morning,” and routinely does a roadside America-type report. Even though they are funny, as opposed to getting the feeling Geist is trying for ridicule, he honestly appears to enjoy this kind of journalism about unusual attractions and weird stops during his travels.
Due to the fact the 2007 game was in Florida, Geist calmly began his football story, “What Can A Regular Super Bowl Fan Do?” He did the routine reportage about prices of tickets and parties, celebrities and the glitz of Miami.
But then near the end of Bill Geist’s story, he decided to venture into the Everglades, in pursuit of the Skunk Ape. Before I could drop my cup of Constant Comment, Geist was talking to David Shealy. It was a rather long supersegment for Geist, with footage of Shealy’s films, shots of Shealy’s giftshop, and interviews with fans visiting Shealy’s store.
Once again, Shealy’s rather obvious self-created man-in-a-suit Skunk Ape footage needed no help in undermining his own “evidence.”
On the CBS News online site, a brief overview of Geist’s report was posted. The following excerpt from the longer article concentrates on David Shealy, with a mixture of Geist’s sense of humor and Shealy’s lack of understatement for his role in Skunk Ape research in Florida:
It’s nice to get out and enjoy the flora and fauna over in the swamp, too. After all, South Florida is home to the Everglades, which is home to animals like alligators and blue heron….
Your Average Joe is always welcome at the Skunk Ape Research Headquarters and Souvenir Shop. Top research scientist David Shealy has spent his life studying the skunk ape.
“The skunk ape is kind of what people describe as Bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest, but down here they’re a little bit smaller. A large male may grow to 400 – 450,” he said. “It smells like a skunk. Half-man, half-ape. That’s exactly what I saw, and I’ve seen it more than once.”
And yes, he has proof: video good enough for you? Shealy said his research is going well, and a number of Super Bowl fans came to learn more about the skunk ape. – Bill Geist
In 2010, what do you think Bill Geist is covering during his spot for “Sunday Morning”?
Here’s what CBS gives for the answer: “Lingerie Bowl VII. Yes, Florida is hosting a major sporting event this weekend! Bill Geist reports on the championship matchup between the L.A. Temptation and the Chicago Bliss.”
So there you have it. From Skunk Apes to lingerie in a mere three years.
Anyway, settle back, enjoy the day if you are a football fan, or have a laugh with the most expensive advertising on television. Some of the ads are really very clever, and perhaps one or two will even venture to the edge of hominology, with a caveman here or a Sasquatch there. Then you have The Who for the halftime show. You’ve got to love that.
Don’t look for any cryptozoology news coming from the majority of the mainstream reporters today or for the rest of the week. But, oh yeah, phone that assignment editor to get your local reporter out there to report on the cryptids at the Olympics.
Guess who is waiting in the wings?
Quatchi!!
About Loren Coleman
Loren Coleman is one of the world’s leading cryptozoologists, some say “the” leading living cryptozoologist. Certainly, he is acknowledged as the current living American researcher and writer who has most popularized cryptozoology in the late 20th and early 21st centuries.
Starting his fieldwork and investigations in 1960, after traveling and trekking extensively in pursuit of cryptozoological mysteries, Coleman began writing to share his experiences in 1969. An honorary member of Ivan T. Sanderson’s Society for the Investigation of the Unexplained in the 1970s, Coleman has been bestowed with similar honorary memberships of the North Idaho College Cryptozoology Club in 1983, and in subsequent years, that of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, CryptoSafari International, and other international organizations. He was also a Life Member and Benefactor of the International Society of Cryptozoology (now-defunct).
Loren Coleman’s daily blog, as a member of the Cryptomundo Team, served as an ongoing avenue of communication for the ever-growing body of cryptozoo news from 2005 through 2013. He returned as an infrequent contributor beginning Halloween week of 2015.
Coleman is the founder in 2003, and current director of the International Cryptozoology Museum in Portland, Maine.
I’m curious, has Jack Links Beef Jerky ever approached Cryptomundo for Ad space?
Yeah! Big sweaty guys in sparkly capri pants grappling with one another! Oh wait, that sounds a little too homoerotic to me! I think I’ll just turn off the TV and maybe put some material through my sluice box. Oh wait, did you say lingerie bowl?
Well, the actual football game turned out to be great. Whether the skunk ape dressed out out as an offensive lineman, we may never know.
If you mention sasquatchy things in connection with football, I always think of the biggest man I ever met in person, USC/Cincinnati Bengals offensive tackle Anthony Munoz. Six-eight, 280, with the build of an athlete rather than the giant-blob linemen we have today, coupled with the widest shoulders I have ever seen on a human being. At 6-4, 200, and fairly broad-shouldered myself, I felt DWARFED. If I have a point, it’s to avoid assuming a sasquatch sighting can’t be a man in a suit because the witness was struck by seemingly superhuman size. There may be other reasons to rule out a suit, but if you put a well-made ape suit on Munoz and he surprised a startled witness, I wouldn’t be surprised if the latter estimated the former at closer to 8 feet / 500 lbs than what he actually is.