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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nDvhMBkYhE
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Pop Cryptid Spectator 2
In this edition:
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.
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 Pop Cryptid Spectator 12Pop 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
Pop Cryptid Spectator 1
#1 #chupacabra #cryptid #Cryptozoology #deathOfAUnicorn #popCryptid #reddit #rollerCoaster #scientific #seaSerpents #Skinwalker #Wendigo
Pop Cryptid Spectator 1
In this edition:
Hello! Welcome to the first edition of the Pop Cryptid Spectator, my regular (hopefully) posting of observations and commentary on my current favorite personal project – watching the parade of “cryptids” in popular culture.
I recently recalled that when I was a kid, like 9 years old, I used to collect interesting things about whatever I was interested in at the time and send to my friends or just pretend to be running a newspaper. Here I am, still doing that decades later. It seems to be what I do.
My intent with this regular posting is, roughly:
If you are looking for me to criticize Bigfoot believers, or to make fun of Hodag hunters, there will be none of that. I would suggest that might a.) lighten up because this is not a highly serious subject and, b.) stick around to just enjoy it, because the cryptid scene is crazy right now. It’s so diverse, creative, and complicated. It’s so much more than monster hunting or extinction guilt. Cryptids are a way to express personal and regional identity, attract tourism, inspire art, examine history, explore spiritual ideas, represent liminality and a sense of the “other”. I could go on and on. There is a lot to say. So I’m going to get started.
But, I feel I have to backtrack just a bit first.
Pop Goes the Cryptid
I put out an explainer presentation called Pop Goes the Cryptid a little while ago as part of the Virtual Folk Zoology conference hosted by researcher and data scientist, Floe Foxon. Check it out if you haven’t already. I reworked the presentation a little bit and put it up on my website, as well as re-recording it into a video for people who prefer that. The reaction has been interesting. I received comments by some respected colleagues that highlighted some hot button issues in the cryptozoo. My subsequent post noting these issues just fanned the flames. In short – there is a bifurcated view of the world of cryptozoology in more than one way. And each side can be broken into additional factions. It’s messy. The two opposing camps argue a lot.
First, there is the division between those with a scientific view of cryptozoology and those who embrace the paranormal and supernatural. Now, that is grossly oversimplifying it. I’ll may try to address that at some later time but I think you get the general idea.
There is also a more nuanced break between those who wish cryptozoology would return to a more scientific framework and those who say it never was scientific and might never be. And, that’s also is an oversimplification. You can take a look at my recent writings for more explanation on that dispute.
And, there is the evergreen argument about what does or doesn’t fit under the label of “cryptid”? What’s the definition? How should the word be used? The reasons for the bickering about labels and boundaries is very much under the umbrella of my Pop Cryptid framing. However, I’ll attempt to be neutral in this forum.
Alternative naming
Venturing into the latest goings-on, I begin with a specific dispute regarding the inclusion of two popular “cryptids”. The moderator of the cryptid subreddit has broached the sensitive topic of the use of two entity names that represent Native spiritual creatures. I’ll say them once, with apologies, to clarify. It is common to see Skinwalker and Wendigo referred to as “cryptids” in the broadest sense of being secretive or hidden creatures of dubious existence. They are in no way zoological animals to be named and collected, which is why many on the subreddit don’t think they should be mentioned at all. However, they are both extremely popular in media. The “what is a cryptid” question remains the core of contention. For now, the moderator is asking contributors to come up with alternative names for these two beings. The ’S’ word has already been substituted with options “flesh gait”, “flesh pedestrian” (which is objectively stupid) and “pale crawler” based on modern storytelling, not indigenous lore. The W creature doesn’t seem to have a ready substitution, and the floor is open to suggestions. If you are familiar with the legend of the cannibal monster with a heart of ice, you probably noticed how the modern depictions play fast and loose with the lore.
And they will continue to change because they are not physical things able to captured and measured, they can morph into whatever we need them to be.
New cryptid media
The venerable Adrian Shine has a new book out on sea creatures titled A Natural History of Sea Serpents. You certainly know him – he’s the exceptionally bearded scholar of Loch Ness legends. The book was out in the UK in October and is now available in US markets and looks like a worthy volume.
Jenna Ortega and Paul Rudd are starring in a very bizarre-looking film featuring life-saving and life-threatening unicorns. In a setup that reminds me of Harry and the Henderson’s, they have a vehicular encounter with the magical creature. Death of a Unicorn is set to be released in the next few months.
Once again, we see how the line between cryptid and not-a-cryptid is more porous than a bad email spam filter. The title unicorn is labeled in at least in some media outlets as a cryptid even though it historically was not seen as such. However, in this case, it seems to literally be one.
Six Flags Fiesta Texas amusement park in San Antonio announced that it’s changing the branding of its Goliath roller coaster into that of the Chupacabra. The news release for the transformation includes mention of the chupa as a “Texas folklore legend”. Indeed! I was interested to see which version of the chupacabra they picked – the spiky alien kangaroo or the mangy vampire dog. Turns out they combined them both and added additional parts, embracing the chupacabra tradition of being a cultural shape-shifter representing any weird thing that looks scary.
Loss of an OG cryptid website
WordPress sent me a notice that I’ve been blogging for 18 years on that platform. But 25 years ago, there was cryptozoology.com. The site was registered in 1998, before some of you were even aware that the subject, or the internet, even existed. The site had articles about lots of popular creatures and stuck mostly to the zoological framing, as much as I can remember. I hadn’t visited in a while but, when looking for other cryptid forums online, I checked in. And it was gone. Shut down. This happened in (oops) November 2022! The domain name is still registered for the next several years. I have no clue as to what might happen to the site.
During those 25 years, the scene changed drastically. Most of the content on cryptids has shifted to Cryptid Wiki which includes more modern media and depiction of many new creatures that seem to appear or resurface from the past on a weekly basis.
Will the original .com site return all new and shiny? If it doesn’t, what a lost opportunity. However, the loss of this place on the web feeds into the Pop Cryptid trend very neatly. People don’t do an internet search for the word “cryptozoology” like they do for “cryptids”. The zoology part, while still guarded by the stalwart old-school gatekeepers, is completely overrun by the pop cryptid scene all over the web that deals in folk horror, AI and game-based creatures, cosplayers, DeviantArtists, and pokecryptids. Although a bit sad, it seems appropriate that cryptozoology.com would fade away at this time as a symbol of how things used to be.
For more on this trend from cryptozoology to cryptids, check out my post called “Cryptid” out-trends “cryptozoology”, which includes the Google trends data results comparing the two terms. There is a story being told there.
Pop Goes the Cryptid Facebook group
If you are still on Facebook, I have a page where I drop all the links I find to new cryptid content. Read them there first at facebook.com/Popcryptids {EDIT: I’m no longer posting to this group. Buh-bye, Meta}
Here are some recent posts:
That’s a wrap for the first Pop Cryptid Spectator. I hope to be back soon to supply new observations from the world of mystery creatures.
Go to SharonAHill.com and 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 also email me with comments, suggestions or questions at Popcryptid(at)proton.me
Watch the video version of Pop Cryptid Spectator on my YouTube channel.
More:
Pop Cryptid Spectator Pop Cryptid Spectator 12Pop 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
Pop Cryptid Spectator 2
#1 #2 #AICryptids #Bigfoot #BigfootHuntersDie #cryptid #cryptidFake #cryptidTVShow #giantOwls #GodzillaSighting #GoogleEarth #HoodCryptids #OutThereCrimesOfTheParanormal #popCryptids #scryptids #Skinwalker #TheCryptidFactor #Wendigo
Skinwalker, el rancho maldito.
El rancho Skinwalker es uno de los lugares de Norteamérica que más y diferentes fenómenos extraños acumula.
https://mundopandereta.blogspot.com/2024/10/skinwalker-el-rancho-maldito.html
#ranchoskinwalker #skinwalker #mundopanderetablog #halloween #halloweenpandereta #halloweenpandereta24 #misterio #terror
Perhaps naming a highway Route 666 was asking for trouble. Skinwalkers, hell hounds, a ghostly woman in white and a phantom semi-truck were all witnessed on the road, which ran from Utah to New Mexico. In 2003, "The Devil's Highway" was rechristened US Route 491. #FolkloreSunday
📷: Gilberto Parada
#Folklore #Route666 #Highway #Skinwalker #Ghosts #HellHounds #Paranormal
Skinwalker – Man Walks Backwards into the Ocean Review
By Dolphin Whisperer
Alaska bears the honor of being the largest landmass of freedom—larger than even Texas—and also the most sparsely populated space in the union. Separated both geographically from the country and communally within its borders, living in the frozen frontiers can create a profound sense of isolation. Hailing from Anchorage, the industrial hardcore two-man assault of Skinwalker seems to find inspiration (or rather spite) in the kind of loneliness and frustration that a great, open land can bring. Having released only nuggets of their downcast wisdom over the past couple years, Skinwalker has been fine-tuning their hissing, howling, and malformed tunes for maximum impact, ready to enter the realm of full-length fury.
Paranoia surrounds both the sounds of Skinwalker and the folklore from which their namesake originates. As a manifested character of evil and witchcraft, the skinwalker, in American Indigenous traditions, represents a pure and real phenomenon of negative, chaotic intent. And reflecting that, Man Walks Backwards into the Ocean through shattered industrial pulse and scream-walled breakdown forces its way through fifteen tracks of disconnected vignettes of disaster and dissociation. As with much industrial music, a heavy layer of cringe-inducing narrative plows unsubtly over its crackling beats, with tracks like “Witch”1 and “Under the Veil” letting loose dead-eyed spoken word lamentations in a manner that fits with the late-night doom-scrolling aesthetic that Skinwalker chases.
One hand holding Godflesh-toned, brutalist rhythms and the other releasing Racetraitor-lit metalcore lashings, Skinwalker wears a robust shroud of intensity. And with most tracks throughout hanging around the two-and-a-half-minute mark, it’s rare that any individual moment overstays its door-kicking welcome. Blowout intro “Finding Solitude in Suffering” drops mutilated chords against an urgent percussive build that falls face-down into a mangled throat tirade. Early burner “Eighty Six Thirty One” melts break-inspired cyber-kicks against riffs made by a guitar that shouldn’t have survived its output. Late album pick-me-up “A Deconstruction of Tragedy” sees Skinwalker launching a Nails-spikedsprint into an unholy breakdown that should lead any lover of flipping tables down a path of relentless stank. Distortion, of course, is the key to Skinwalker’s success, and with noise as a backbone to their hardcore spirit, not a moment exists without frying or collapsing its electronic nature.
Ambitious in output, Man Walks doesn’t always land as well as this act’s talent would suggest. Skinwalker does lean into many higher frequency squeaks, blips, and other electronic squeals that break of the mire of broken amp tones and full volume drum blasts that smear a static black about this debut, but not often in a way that breaks up the landscape. More often, the kinds of flippant and flittering noise signals that sear and tickle the canals like a pleasurable irritant find position to fizzle and fade away with conclusions—exclamation marks to statements that lack differentiation prior (“An Avocation for Pain,” “Bastard Son of God,” “Under the Veil”). It’s frustrating because when these kinds of scurries find a place in breakdown or bridge (“Below,” “What We Do Is Not Art,” “To Detest a Nameless Grave”), they find a welcome home and amplify the already ceiling pushing sounds that Skinwalker has built up to that point. But as it is, Man Walks lands in a sound design that feels hollow in its crushed layering that do no benefits to longer and shorter numbers alike—especially plaguing the instrumental break “The Five and a Half Minute Hallway.”
Yet in a rare feat, Skinwalker has managed to arrive at an industrial, metalcore, and noise-fused sound via the path of electronics first, which doesn’t often feel to be the case for acts who might appear as sound cousins. Occasionally, a throbbing wall of distortion or fret-rattling plonk will resemble something that you could believe rendered from a traditional guitar or bass. And, though abusive toward a standard throat’s life, the vocals decayed through carefully chosen methods of capture render as human—tortured, pleading, confused, but human all the same. Man Walks Backwards into the Ocean, as a first foot forward for Skinwalker, has a certain polish, a certain earnestness that leads me to believe that this sound will develop and grow and explode—tricky rhythmic exercises like “Dancing on the End of a Pen” and “Eighty Six Thirty One” come naturally to their brand of anger. But as it stands, Skinwalker shows only glimmers of what their true power holds.
Rating: 2.5/5.0
DR: 5 | Format Reviewed: PCM2
Label: Self Release
Websites: skinwalkernoise.com | skinwalkernoise.bandcamp.com
Releases Worldwide: August 16th, 2024
#25 #2024 #AmericanMetal #Aug24 #Godflesh #Hardcore #IndependentRelease #Industrial #IndustrialMetal #ManWalksBackwardsIntoTheOcean #Metalcore #Nails #Noise #PowerElectronics #Racetraitor #Review #Reviews #SelfRelease #Skinwalker
Pop Cryptid Spectator 2
In this edition:
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.
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:
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