Finding Bigfoot Faked
Posted by: Loren Coleman on July 17th, 2011
The talent, i.e. cast, of Finding Bigfoot is now yelling far and wide that the whole show is a hoaxed entity. It has been revealed to be one of the most recent worst examples of “reality television” not being real. See the latest installment of this by clicking here.
You’ve heard it all here at Cryptomundo before, but it is spreading like wildfire throughout the Internet.
Cast member and BFRO leader Matt Moneymaker says, in response to a question about one particular scene with typically grainy footage, “… the thing I ran after up the hill was a human — someone who was sneaking around us in the woods trying to watch the production in progress. I said so repeatedly and vehemently at the time, for the cameras, but they edited out all of that in order to make it seem unclear what I was chasing after.”
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 don’t really like when reality series aren’t realistic at all, either. Here are my now two major ‘realistic’ television series pet peeves: Lost Tapes and, now, Finding Bigfoot.
Schadenfreude.
🙂
Why do I get the feeling MM is working this into negotiations, OR after seeing the numerous comparisons between himself and Tom Biscardi has decided to get a fall guy in place before the excrement hits the fan. Truthfully, since he is constantly proclaiming himself an expert and team leader most of the backlash is falling squarely on his shoulders while the rest of the cast tends to come off as personable. Although I have seen several comments across several forums that take particular offense at the way Renae is ‘bullied’ by a fellow BFRO member.
Either way, I can’t imagine the Production crew is going to be particularly happy or helpful after all this finger pointing. I do think the editing has a LOT to do with the troubles this series is constantly being zinged over, but like the commentor on Ghost Theory stated; garbage in, garbage out.
It doesn’t take more than a minute or two to type in ‘recreation’ or ‘enhanced’ at the bottom of the screen. Wouldn’t take long to have a disclaimer at the beginning of the show either (a la Swamp People).
I think there have been enough mistakes and foolishness in this series to pass around a lot of the blame. It isn’t all post-production editing and it isn’t all MM they are in this together, like it or not.
Loren,
No joke we’ve heard it all here at Cryptomundo before.
Matt left the following comment here himself on June 13, 2011.
I just hope all of this “flack” gets back on Animal Planet’s shoulders…force them to shoot a little more frankly. I ASSume the next season is still in the works?
That’s the problem with reality TV…it’s supposed “reality” but really, it’s TV. And unless you have an actual documentary instead of a mocumentary–which is what FB really turned out to be, this is what you end up with. I have no doubt that Bobo and the others were putting their best feet forward, but it all got destroyed by the producers and Animal Planet’s need for ratings.
It also shows just what Animal Planet and Discovery really think about BF and other cryptids…they’re not serious topics of discussion, but just pseudo topics usable to generate ratings.
@Loren, thats not really new to us. We read it before 🙂
Are you kidding me,
AS if i couldnt think worse of MM and has rediculous, stupid, arrogant acts and statements, he now comes out trying to defend himself as others above have stated. MM didnt see a clear human through the thermal, he is simply reading and feeling the wrath of how stupid of a move it was to run towards whatever it was, when he is supposed to be this great researcher. He is trying to cover up his rediculous behavior and blame it on the production. But every member of the team is even riding him and quiet pissed off about him running through the woods. If MM is telling the truth, then the other cast members wouldnt have gotten on to him like that. I dont believe any garbage coming out of MM’s mouth and i dont think anyone else with a lick of sense is either. He is seeing the hard truth of what he really is and doesnt like it. Plus people everywhere i am sure are insulted by this show and the crazy crap MM has made up. He is getting shunned from the bigfoot community just as biscardi and he isnt happy. So naturally he now is going to make up whatever he can to make it look like he has been the victim of cruel editing. In fact, if finding bigfoot comes back for another season, it wouldnt surprise me if MM makes some big statement in one episode of how he has been made to look bad and that his actions and statements are just taken out of context. I am sure that the BFRO has lost alot of members and support because of him, but sadly this is how this guy is, and hes not gonna change. Its always gonna be about him and what he has accomplished in his mind which in reality is zero. His antics and ideas are without logic and knowledge of the outdoors, but who needs that when you have practically invented sasquatch research. It really will be astonishing when the erickson project comes out and bigfoot is recognized, or at least i hope it will be, when MM tries to come forward and be interviewed and tell people how he contributed so much and how he helped do this and that and how he knew this or that. The funny part is though, for those of us in the know, we are just gonna laugh him out of the place. I really wonder what would happen if he actually saw one of these animals. I dont know if hed pee his pants and run or would try and give it a shoulder bump, afterall he knows them so well. Maybe he can ask it how its puppy dog nose has been doing and how it felt when he discovered its communication of tree knocking. I really hope he just fades away and quick!
Reminds me of the classic movie Casablanca:
Rick: How can you close me up? On what grounds?
Captain Renault: I’m shocked, shocked to find that gambling is going on in here!
[a croupier hands Renault a pile of money]
Croupier: Your winnings, sir.
Captain Renault: Oh, thank you very much.
Captain Renault: Everybody out at once!
In other words, Matt Moneymaker has been front and center in not only perpetrating the fraud but also in denouncing it.
Really, is anyone surprised?
@trapper9990
Well I tend to sympathize with Cliff, Bobo and Ranae on running half cocked bit. Even if Matt was right about it, to run off the way he did is just plain stupid. I can’t judge if the others were right about it being a BF, I wasn’t there, nor am I expert enough to eliminate what it was not, never worked with thermal imaging.
I’m happy to hear the cast is sticking by their guns here. Bobo was pretty emphatic about how much they were screwed the few times he was here.
I hope all this internet pressure about the show can be used to salvage the reputations of the people involved with the show and next season they can produce a better, more scientifically accurate series. I’m also with Flame821, it would be nice for them to type “recreation” or “enhanced audio” on the screen, so folks know what they have been hearing or seeing/hearing is a recreations or has been tampered with.
You know what they say “Don’t throw rocks when YOUR house is made of glass.”
Whenever this show is talked about there sure is alot of people chuckin’ rocks.
No matter what the show is bringing the whole phenom to the public. It’s a good show and I’m sure everybody on and around the show will learn and make it better. We can all sit in our recliners and say they should do this and I would do that, but it has to be a nightmare dealing with TV production……… So give them all a break. I’m sure its not the only “reality” show that has been “Fixed” to look better. In fact I would bet there are few that are true “reality” TV.
Bigfoot will be found when some scientist creates one.
There are no 10 foot tall ape men roaming around wooded areas of the United States. It doesn’t matter how much “data” and “proof” anyone comes up with….there will never be a bigfoot body, skeleton, or even photographs.
However, it will be even more interesting to track something real in the future.
The future of Cryptozoology is when rouge scientists create creatures in the same way computer hackers currently create computer viruses. It’s not that far off. There is enough interest currently in “bigfoot” to bridge the gap between the current bigfoot nonsense and actual creatures. There will be no gap where people in the bigfoot business will not be able to make money.
There are NO true reality TV shows. Life is not edited and does not have commercials. All these shows are edited and have commercials. Besides, EVERYONE acts at least slightly differently when a camera is on them.
Oh my! The next thing you know we’ll be hearing that TV wrestling isn’t real….
You know what’s sad? These “reality” shows like Finding Bigfoot and Ghost hunters, etc. kill the legitimate field they claim to be trying to help or substantiate.
Sure to the uninformed casual observer, they are taken at face value or viewed as fodder entertainment (like WWE wrestling), but to those who truly care about the field, they are so damaging and when the truth seeps out about the hokey fakery, it adds to the mocking it already receives from mainstream science and society.
These producers and the people at places like Animal Planet and SyFy could obviously care less as long as they fool enough people to make it profitable.
So, of course they are going to encourage fakery, creative editing, or turning blind eyes to all of it, as results (real or completely bogus) sell ratings.
A ghost show with no qhosts or bigfoot show with no bigfoot (which would be much more “realistic”), won’t make it very long on TV.
It’s a shame really, as I am very interested in the subject matter.
Fun to watch them make fools of themselves. BTW who says sasquatchs act the way they said they do on the show.
I recently read a post above that distrubed me.
If your not a fan of cryptid community and dont believe in bigfoot, than i find it very strange that you have registered on this site and have taken the time to not only read the articles pertaining to bigfoot but also write your opinion on them. Your whole writing on the forum contradicts your input. But you are entitled to your opinion and you may be right, i cant say. What i can say though is that when you say that no matter how much dna evidence is found their will never be a bigfoot, i even believe you know you are wrong. Or maybe it just came out wrong and you were trying to type something else. DNA cannot be faked, so if your getting unknown dna that is coming from different sources across the country and is related to both humans and something else, but is definetly in the primate lineage, then their has to be something leaving that. In other words, if and when we have DNA for these animals, their existence is proved, right there and then, no buts about it. It came from somewhere, and it didnt come from a lab making fake dna as you compared to a computer virus. You simply cant make fake mitochondrial and nuclear dna. But your other assertions are correct. We currently dont know of any body found, any bones, or even any great pictures. And that may never change. But if the projects underway do currently have what they say they have, then not only will their be good pics, but also dna evidence to back that up. And that DNA evidence is enough to prove the existence of the animal. Many people may not like that fact and may have trouble with it, but it is none the less a fact. I think some people get confused when they hear the term synthetic DNA, this is by no means DNA that is manufactured in a lab somewhere. What it refers to is a system of putting a brand, if you will, on something that identifies it as a unique item. Such as PSA/DNA authenticating autographs on baseball cards. They give them a unique number denoting the items type and significance, aka, synthetic DNA. While we can pick and choose nuclear bases and rearrange them in any order we like, you simply cant put those together in the real world and make an animal, or a fake strand of believable DNA that stands up to even rudimentary testing. All you would have is a computer module of that DNA workup, Never a real, hold in your hands, DNA sample. So even though we may not have a body right now, if we have DNA that is confirmed by many to be unique and unknown of a certain origin and class, then we have proven a lifeform exists. pure and simple
@ John Adams
The thing is, Ghost Hunters (the original, not the Academy or International) isn’t that horrible a show. They do try to rule out mundane reasons for things first. (uneven floors, old electric wiring, sound carrying from outside of building, etc) They don’t immediately jump to “its a ghost”. They ‘seem’ more balanced and level headed, enough to make the show enjoyable. And their live broadcasts on Halloween are plain fun.
Not to mention, having met both Grant and Jason (not at the same time) IRL, they are both extremely personable, particularly Jason which, to be honest, surprised me.
I don’t know. Maybe its because GH doesn’t come across as so blatantly fake or hokey that I have a higher tolerance for it. May the hosts are simply more palatable to me. But Ghost Hunters has been on for 8 season on a Network that has some fairly good shows on it. (Haven, Eureka, Battlestar Galatica, Alphas, Sanctuary, Stargate. {oh how I wish they would nab Dr. Who and Torchwood} – and yes, some truly, truly horrible, not-even-a-B-movie movies)
Maybe paranormal fans have more tolerance than crypto ones do. Maybe Ghost Hunters aren’t trying to claim special knowledge and expertise that doesn’t seem to exist in any book I’ve ever read. But I don’t recall there being quite so much backlash at a show before. Even MonsterQuest, while having its detractors, didn’t seem to rile so many people up. Or if it did, I just don’t seem to remember it being this harsh.
The problem being that if this show had the ratings, it’ll be back next year — fake scenes or not. And that’s the sad reality. Money talks.
Trapper9990, I put the words “data” and “proof” in quotes meaning they aren’t amounting to anything conclusive. Can you imagine if gorillas were native to and living in the United States but no gorilla was ever captured, no gorilla bones were ever found, and no conclusive gorilla photo was ever taken? Impossible as that seems, imagine if gorillas were 9 feet tall and still the same situation persisted.
I am a fan of the cryptid community and like the idea of bigfoot but on a scale of 0-100 I’d say there is 0 chance of bigfoot existing. I think the odds are much better that something like an orang pendek may exist in remote Indonesia.
My brother and I were talking about this show and how idiotic it is. Although as someone said it could make for a great drinking game— “Bo Bo says “SQUATCH” — chug yer beer. Anyway we were wondering if anyone has done any real field research. You know, spending a month or two in the forest with camera blinds, living rough, bugs and all.
I am sure someone has, but those are the kind of folks who don’t get on TV. Anyway we had this idea—what if we combined “Survivor” with “Finding Bigfoot”. For 30 days a group of people have to go into a BF hotspot and camp rough the whole time. They will only be allowed to take enough food and water for two weeks and only pup tents and sleeping bags for comfort. Instead of voting people off, we will just let nature take its course and whoever is left standing at the end wins the million dollars. If they actually find proof of BF, they get an extra million. Remember folks, you heard it here first. I smell an Emmy!!See More
@trapper9990
Allow me to correct some grammar errors in your otherwise well written opinion.
(corrections in all caps)
–“If YOU’RE not a fan of THE cryptid community and don’t believe in bigfoot, THEN I find it very strange that you have registered on this site…”
–“But you are entitled to your opinion and you may be right; I CAN’T say.”
–“…no matter how much DNA evidence is found THERE will never be a bigfoot,…”
–“…DNA cannot be faked; so if YOU’RE getting unknown DNA…”
–“…then THERE has to be something leaving that…”
–“In other words, if and when we have DNA for these animals, their existence is PROVEN, right there and then, no buts about it…” (This is a run-on sentence.)
–“…then not only will THERE be good pics, but also DNA evidence to back that up…”
Ahhhh, there’s too much to correct. Hopefully you get the idea. You can’t write something intellectually profound that is littered with horrible grammar. You won’t be taken seriously. I’m just trying to keep it classy.
Go Bigfoot!
Finding Bigfoot or Faking Bigfoot? This is definitely hurting any real proof of the existence of any cryptid. I say if you’re searching for cryptid proof and you want publicity for evidence, go to the news.
Did anyone really think this show was for real?
Keep it up, gang, with all your griping and negativity – you’ll convince the sponsors and AP, and they’ll forget all about any Season 2, and we all lose!
How about offering some CREATIVE suggestions that might help improve the program’s quality? Redrose999 mentioned above that they should “type ‘re-creation’ or ‘enhanced audio’ on the screen…” so viewers would be aware, f’rinstance, that the hand sliding out near the bunny’s cage was an illustration, not real.
This is not rocket surgery, gang – it’s just a show about the rigors of research – LEARN from it, and participate positively!
Fuzzy
Several of us, myself included, have offered simple, easily implemented changes and we were verbally slapped by MM for our efforts, so while we will discuss the issues with each other here we will not discuss them other places.
As for AP cancelling or not cancelling the show? Could care less either way. Sure the show brings some attention to the search for Bigfoot, but it also makes the researchers and witnesses look like idiots as often as not.
Maybe you are of the ‘no such thing as bad press’ school of thought, if so, fine. But the internet is forever, so whatever is lingering on the ether and cloud, good and bad, is going to be there until no one cares enough to look it up anymore. So perhaps the better suggestion would be for AP and PingPong Productions (I think that’s the name of the editors) to clean up their acts a bit and be more forthcoming with the truth about enhancements and re-enactments and for MM and BFRO to either be extremely careful what they say from now on or to hire a PR person/firm to at least put a decent spin on things so they don’t end up looking like dullards and liars.
The problem with this situation is that it’s bringing all the WRONG kind of attention (read: ridicule and train-wreck rubbernecking) to the crypto community. And it’s just as much Moneymaker and Company’s fault as it is PingPong’s dodgy editing. His ego got in the way of his common sense and better judgement. Result: his show is about as valid as Fact or Faked: Paranormal Files and his credibility sinks to the same level as his “expertise”.
Ah, what could have been…
Hmm… One thing i find interesting because he seems to comment on every other board when it comes to this show is MM is not saying anything to defend or not defend himself.
My one problem i have had through this whole show and the BFRO is that, they all believe Bigfoot/sasquatch all behave the same way, there is never any doubt that it was not a sasquatch if it did not act in the way that they think it should have. In my encounter that i had, the bigfoot did not in anyway act how Matt thinks it should have, it was not standing behind a tree, or sneaking around or shaking bushes or limbs and trying to hide, it came right out in the open and let me see it. I do think it did this to let me know it was there. It was an experience i will never forget.
So MATT if you read this, don’t let your one sided belief that Bigfoots are prone to do only one thing, expand your thoughts and listen to what others have experienced and do not brush them off, collecting more and more data from what you already know or think you know, might be the ticket for you to actually catch one on tape for conclusive evidence.
@flame821
In regards to GH, I’ve attended two of their events (one at Mt Washington, where I had the honor of meeting none other than Loren Coleman, and another at The Stanley Hotel).
Having met all the cast members, I found them all fun to hang out with and had a great time at the events. This however, doesn’t cause me to be star struck enough to ignore the evidence of their fakery or evaluate without prejudice the evidence as presented.
Their Halloween 2008 live event has more than abundant proof for me. Grant’s coat tug, the voice “you’re not supposed to be here”, etc. Some great debunking can be found on Youtube btw. Grant and Jason were actually asked about these two instances at the Mt. Washington Q & A. Their explanation was one of wanting to “move past” it and that the coat tug may have been his earpiece wire (laughable) and the voice may have been the Coast Guard…yes, the Coast guard,,lol
Anyways, I picked up some very good insights from various people including Steve Gonsalves (who personally told me that he believes the phantom from Eastern State was faked and not a ghost – he did not say they faked it, just to be clear).
Donna who used to be on the show also has been on a radio show discussing how she cried when she found out that they started staging things.
The basic concensus I was getting, and pretty much agree with, is that they started off legit and began the ratings push (ie: staging things) somewhere between the 2nd and 3rd season.
It was interesting to note the producers of Finding Bigfoot telling the BFRO crew that everyone is doing it. Since there isn’t a plethora of BF shows, or even cryptid shows, I have to wonder who “everyone” might be? Perhaps the paranormal umbrella as a whole?
Believe me, GH isn’t the only one, nor even the worst but I have a bit of personal ire as I vested real time and money into believing what they were selling. If you ask me, it’s outright fraud to sell tickets and profit off something you built off fakery, but sold as real.
Atleast I met some great people along the way.
I smelled a rat when they were using a thermal downfield at an alledged bigfoot and Bobo went walking towards it. you clearly can see Bobo and this alledged creature, then you see MM going “And there it runs off.” and all you see is Bobo standing in the field and suddenly as if teleported…no ‘creature’. They don’t show the ‘creature’ running off as they should have if the thermal was fixed on the two.
The show screamed shenanigans almost out of the gate sadly. I really wished it was going to be good, now its a laughing stock. Least MonsterQuest is making an effort to not be the proverbial turds in the punchbowl.
As far as the ghost shows, I still like Ghost Hunters, but certain things I gotta question. They always in most shows, get hits at something. I will applaud them for exposing things like noisy plumbing, bad wiring , cracks that allow outside noises in and such. But having been an active ghost hunter, especially in a known actively haunted building. in 16 years of ghost hunting in the old Hotel San Diego. Only a handful of times did I get a solid ‘hit’, most of the time it was hours and hours of nothing.
Least that British show Most Haunted, while great to see the settings, 99% were so damn fake it was painful. You could make a drinking game from it. “Evette screams”, take a slug, James reads psychically that the house was “once haunted by a man named Thomas who like to dress up as a Fox and died brutally by hoards of angry midgets.” And was wrong all the time. Take a drink. Plus the “Please knock twice if you are here!” and get an instant reply within feet. Or the “I’m going to toss this rock, can you throw one back?” and always get a pebble pitched back immediately.
@JohnAdams re: Ghost Hunters… my wife and I were big GH fans and were grateful to have what we considered a fairly responsible paranormal investigation show to enjoy every week (as compared to Paranormal State, Most Haunted, et al) and when we learned about all the funny business going on behind the scenes once the show got popular, our hearts sank. To date, the single best para/crypto show in the history of television is the original run of the classic “In Search Of…” with Leonard Nimoy. Really says a lot about how far standards have fallen for this kind of programming when a show from the 1970’s with bad hairstyles, tacky clothing and wacked out electrosynth music still outshines contemporary programs with ten times the budget, with MonsterQuest still the would-be heir apparent to the genre. Can you (we) imagine how awesome it would be to have a para/crypto show that took it seriously (but not too much) and did due diligence in their investigations, didn’t resort to ADHD fast edits and music stings to keep our attention, and didn’t underestimate the intelligence of the viewers?
*sigh*
Shows like this do nothing for the field. I can’t understand how people who have thought a lot about this could have that opinion. (Enlighten me. Really.)
Shows like this…well, read this blog. They lampoon the field and lend aid and comfort (Smugness: The Death Of Science) to those who want to dismiss it.
The best thing to happen to this field would be: absolutely nothing. No one who isn’t looking, or isn’t really interested in the search, knows anything about it for five years. Ten. However long, until there’s confirmation.
OK, but it would be better than *this.* Because? THAT’S HOW SCIENCE WORKS, PEOPLE.
How often do you ever hear about a new discovery (if you’re not of all-African descent, you have Neanderthal DNA. Did you know that?) before it’s confirmed?
EXACTLY.
How could ‘reality’ tv – the fakest thing of my lifetime – do anything good for any field?
Does anyone think it’s funny that everywhere the crew of “Finding Bigfoot” goes there are “squatches”? The way Matt Moneymaker talks on the show there are millions of these things around. I believe that there are sasquatch out there, but his rants and ridiculous ability to turn anything he sees in the wilderness into “evidence” that they exist is baffling to me. Really? I think that if the crew went to NYC to investigate, Moneymaker would find “evidence” of sasquatch in Times Square. He makes himself look ridiculous with some of the things he says, not to mention the way he belittles his fellow investigators, especially the most skeptical Ranae. My favorite ridiculous claim was the “spiral fracture” of the deer leg during a search. Moneymaker claims that sasquatch break a deers leg to “immobilize” it. Really Matt? Jump on youtube and search for deer with a broken leg. They run just as good on 3 as they do on 4, and I’ve even seen deer run with 2 broken legs. I believe in the cause, I believe in sasquatch, but I don’t believe that Matt Moneymaker is doing anything to sway people who are “on the fence” to become believers. If anything he’s creating non-believers. EVERY SOUND, EVERY TRACK, EVERY BLIP ON A THERMAL IS A SASQUATCH. Come on Matt, it’s ridiculous. My new favorite is the advertisement for the next episode where the video shows the “eyes” of a squatch in the dark wilderness. The one skeptic of the group, Ranae, states that it could be an owl on a branch and good ‘ole Matt rips in with “Shes projecting a branch where there isn’t one” (or something along those lines). Well Matt, your projecting a creature that isn’t proven to exist where there isn’t one! (visible that is). C’mon, not everything is your coveted squatch. LOL. And your about as full of yourself as a person can be, if I didn’t know any better I’d think you invented sasquatch yourself. KUDOS to you!