Now that it’s a confirmed hoax, it’s funny, I have to admire the hoaxsters a bit. Taking advantage of people’s desire to believe — to just believe, man — is kind of a crappy thing to do except to people who deserve it. This happened in Pennsylvania not too long ago, despite the fact that Pennsylvania Game Commisssion biologists said it was most definitely a mangy bear. I can kind of understand why people want to believe in UFOs. I can even grok the need to believe in highly unlikely government conspiracies.
But I can’t wrap my head around why people believe there just has to be a Bigfoot. Certainly the idea that there are proto-humans living among the creatures in the wooded area behind the Wal-Mart is kind of cool, but this borders on religious for some people.  What’s the deal?
USA Media Guide has Bigfoot links including the group’s website, photos, the original story and the “hoax revealed story”. It even has a link to a story about one of the “finders” being a former Congressional candidate. Good stuff!
The link is http://www.USAMediaGuide.com
While searching google for stories about this latest hoax, I also found the Bigfoot Field Researchers Organization (BFRO) website. This site is quite comprehensive. It also has some good explanations in the FAQ section.
This hoax in Georgia was apparently an attempt to make some money. It does not deter me from believing that other people have actually seen a real Bigfoot, however. To say that every species of animal and plant has already been discovered and classified by science would be rather presumptive. It was not until 1902 that the Mountain Gorilla was discovered, in what was then known as German East Africa.
Greg,
I can see undiscovered species being in parts of the world that are scantly explored, but in North America? We’ve pretty well explored and inhabited North America, and we’re not exactly talking about a new species of ground squirrel, we’re talking an entirely new species of large primate.
That an undocumented species of large, extant catarrhine primate exists in Africa … probability near zero.
That an undocumented species of large, extant catarrhine primate exists in the southeastern USA … probability even lower, but statistically near zero.
These myth hunters would do well to study the radiation of primates from a biogeographical perspective.
Ahhhh Bigfoot… I agree with Mike McConnel: “No one has ever stepped in Bigfoot poop, therefore Bigfoot does not exist”
But how could anyone have ever doubted those guys? http://notnews.today.com/2008/08/16/internet-memeticists-find-bigfoot-ya-rly/
Wow, I saw in a story today that the cop in the bigfoot duo is getting fired for fraud.
Tom Biscardi is well known for perpetrating Bigfoot hoaxes.
He pulled the same stunt in 2005 and before that he had “The Hand of Unknown Origin”!
He said on TV that he made sure the body was real before he put his “good” name behind it.
He was in on the scam from the start and is just a rat scurrying from a sinking ship. He should drown with it.
it was all in good fun, though, right?
I’m all for a good hoax, personally.
When I saw the pictures last week it looked like a gorilla costume and could not believe anyone thought this was real.
The idiots deserved to lose their money. However this is a classic fraud since it was promoted as real and others relied on the misrepresenation and lost money.