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It's funny. Laugh. Science

Bigfoot A Hoax? 116

Posted by timothy from the well-sooprise-sooprize dept.
elzbal writes "The family of a Pacific Northwest prankster is coming clean. The Seattle Times is reporting that Bigfoot was just a creative figment of Ray L. Wallace's imagination. He orchestrated the prank that created Bigfoot in 1958. According to family members, he had asked a friend to carve a few pair of 16-inch-long feet. Then he and his brother Wilbur had slipped them on and created the footprints as a prank, family members said. He was also somehow involved in the famous walking Bigfoot film."
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Bigfoot A Hoax? More

Bigfoot A Hoax?

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  • In other news.... (Score:5, Funny)

    by f64 ( 590009 ) on Thursday December 05, 2002 @12:37PM (#4819398) Homepage
    "upwards of 500 scientists, all having invested years of their life to researching bigfoot, often giving up their carreers, have pronounced a fatwah against the family of Ray L. Wallace.

    said one spokesperson: "the reward of $50.000 we offered for a captured bigfoot, will now be rewarded to those who bring us the heads of Mr Wallaces' family".

    f64: making crack remarks since 1978 (the year crack was invented).

    • Re:In other news.... (Score:4, Insightful)

      by EschewObfuscation ( 146674 ) on Thursday December 05, 2002 @02:46PM (#4820542) Journal
      [From the article]
      > Remembrances may be donated to Children's
      > Hospital & Regional Medical Center in Seattle.

      Seriously, it might be nice if any bigfoot reward money were instead donated to the medical center. It would be a nice legacy for the man, and a good ending to the story.

      Probably never happen, though - I bet that Bigfoot hunting goes on for the next hundred years.

      Anyone else care to bet that a lot of the same people who doubt the moon landing will continue to believe in Bigfoot?
      • not to mention that most of the people offering revards for a bigfoot probably did so knowing no-one would ever be able to claim them.

        or to paraphrase mr burns: "i think i'll donate a million dollars to an orphage... when pigs can fly!"


        f64 : making crack remarks while on crack!
      • Anyone else care to bet that a lot of the same people who doubt the moon landing will continue to believe in Bigfoot?

        So someone needs to create www.badbiology.com, like www.badastronomy.com [badastronomy.com]

  • They are going to have to be a lot more convincing and specific than that to turn the tide of belief in Bigfoot. We need actual photographic proof that this guy is Bigfoot or maybe a diary or something where he wrote "June 13. Dressed up as large ape-like creature. Was spotted by hunters."

    As an example of this kind of thing, remember crop circles. No one seriously believes that those guys pulled this hoax because the geometric shapes are too perfect, plus the wheat stems show no signs of cracking. There is clearly more here than meets the eye.

    • Dunno, those bigfoot shoes sure look an awful lot like the castings I remember seeing when I was into this as a kid.

    • This is beautiful! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by manyoso ( 260664 ) on Thursday December 05, 2002 @01:10PM (#4819623) Homepage
      I love it!

      Actual proof is not required for the popular belief in the fantastical Bigfoot, but 'convincing and specific' proof with 'photo graphic evidence' and maybe 'a diary or something' is needed to refute the existence of a hypothetical fairy tale creature.

      That is freakin awesome! :)
      • Actual proof is not required for the popular belief in the fantastical Bigfoot, but 'convincing and specific' proof with 'photo graphic evidence' and maybe 'a diary or something' is needed to refute the existence of a hypothetical fairy tale creature.
        I don't normally do this, but here goes; mod parent up! If I had mod points I'd do it myself, but sadly they expired a week ago.

        This is exactly what I was thinking (and chuckling about) as I read the article.


      • > ...but 'convincing and specific' proof with 'photo graphic evidence' and maybe 'a diary or something' is needed to refute the existence of a hypothetical fairy tale creature.

        I'm curious as to what sort of photograph would show that fairy tale creatures don't exist. Maybe a picture of the whole universe, that you could go through and show that there weren't any FTCs in?

      • Who do you think you are to argue with a "Physics Genius"? His finely honned powers of critical thinking, obviously see the problem more accurately than you.

        If for some reason he doesn't require any sort of proof to believe that a hairy man ape is plotting against us while perfecting monster dunks so mass rad Darryl Dawkins' nuts will retract themselves and become ovaries, but does require physical proof that something isn't real, THAT'S why he's a genius!

        We should just trust him. It's the internet, why would he lie?

    • Re:"somehow involved"? (Score:5, Interesting)

      by GuyMannDude ( 574364 ) on Thursday December 05, 2002 @01:32PM (#4819811) Journal

      They are going to have to be a lot more convincing and specific than that to turn the tide of belief in Bigfoot. We need actual photographic proof that this guy is Bigfoot or maybe a diary or something where he wrote "June 13. Dressed up as large ape-like creature. Was spotted by hunters."

      I doubt anything is going to convince the Bigfoot believers that it was a hoax. People seem to have the desperate need to believe in fantastical things. I'm not sure exactly why (although I could come up with some ideas). It's nice that these guys came clean about their involvement with the Bigfoot legend but, realistically, I don't see anything coming of this.

      As an example of this kind of thing, remember crop circles. No one seriously believes that those guys pulled this hoax because the geometric shapes are too perfect, plus the wheat stems show no signs of cracking. There is clearly more here than meets the eye.

      Hmmm. Now you've lost me. Actually, most people DO believe that crop circles are hoaxes. I'm not sure where you get this "no one believes..." stuff. And you can certainly place me in the category of non-believers. I don't want to get into a crop-circle argument with you, PhysicsGenius, but I'll only ask one question. Which do you think is more likely: that some guys went out with wooden planks and played a trick or that aliens from a far away planet spent valuable resources to visit our world and, when they got there, all they did was make a few crazy patterns in the local vegetation and left? If you say that latter, then you and I are so far apart that it wouldn't make sense for us to discuss this, Bigfoot, healing crystals, psychic phenomenon, LockNess, Yeti, and all the other pseudo-scientific stories out there.

      GMD

      • It's not a question of likelihood (Score:1, Insightful)

        by Anonymous Coward
        The hoax explanation doesn't cover all the facts. The stems are bent without damange to the plant and the area of the circles displays odd flux vortices. You simply can't do that with a wooden plank.

        It doesn't have to be aliens, but it sure isn't some drunks on a lark.

        • Re:It's not a question of likelihood (Score:4, Insightful)

          by manyoso ( 260664 ) on Thursday December 05, 2002 @02:02PM (#4820112) Homepage
          And this is a perfect example of the faulty reasoning used by people who mistake crop circles as proof of alien contact.

          Simply because one can not adequately explain how the crop circles were made does not inevitably lead to the conclusion that 'aliens did it' or that it does not have a completely mundane and ordinary solution. I can not adequately explain many of the magical tricks performed by talented magicians, but I do not suppose that the *tricks* are truly magical in nature.

          Now, you have every right to believe what you will, but do not mistake that *belief* with proof or evidence of the existence of aliens. After all, it is possible that aliens did make the crop circles (highly improbable IMHO ;), but until we have proof we are just left with our respective opinions.

          I am delighted that people require such strong 'proof or evidence' to disprove a fantastical notion, but require no proof and flimsy evidence to believe in a fantastical creature such as Bigfoot :)
          • I saw David Blane take the head off a chicken one time, man, and it was off!!!!!!!1111!!!!! Totally gone! No camera tricks! Just headless chickens! There is no logical explaination for how that chicken lost its head and then got it back again, man! It can only be aliens! Er, Magic!

            And don't get me started on Jonathan Edwards! He so does not deserve Biggest Douche in the Universe, man! He's like in touch with God!
            • That was the only thing I didn't by about that episode of south park. Edwards is such an attention whore, he'd proudly accept a Biggest Douche in the Universe Lifetime Achivement Award. People would be clapping and he'd be on TV.
        • The stems are bent without damange to the plant and the area of the circles displays odd flux vortices.

          These issues and more are addressed in CSICOP's "Circular Reasoning: The 'Mystery' of Crop Circles and Their 'Orbs' of Light" [csicop.org]:

          Hoaxers, most croppies insisted, could not be responsible because the plants were only bent and not broken, and there were no footprints or other traces of human activity. Skeptics replied that from mid-May to early August the English wheat was green and pliable, and could only be broken with difficulty.
        • "Odd flux vortices"??!! What the hell is a flux vortex? How do you measure it? What does it look like? Geez, what a crap pseudo-scientific buzzword. What are you, a writer for Star Trek or something?

          No one ever claimed it was "some drunks on a lark." They're very intelligent people who plan their projects carefully and deliberately. They also by now have many years' experience under their belts, and this is the main reason the circles have become more elaborate as time has gone by. Those who make them have gotten lots of practise; it would be surprising if the circles didn't get more elaborate. It's why American circles tend to be cruder than British ones; the Americans aren't as practised.

      • But the guy isn't an asshole. Just don't take everything he/she says so seriously. Damn funny, IMHO.
      • Actually, most people DO believe that crop circles are hoaxes.

        Well I don't. I honestly believe that there are people [circlemakers.org] who sneak out in the middle of the night and create geometric figures in fields of cereal crops. Those circles are real. Very real.

        • What I'm waiting for is the theory that mirthful aliens sneak into fields and produce the circles using boards, ropes, and common surveying techniques.

          • That does seem to be next, doesn't it? We'll probably hear it the first time an element of the crop circle investigation industry finds some circle-making equipment left behind by the (for want of a better word) artists.
      • Not speaking for PhysicsGenius...

        But, you're arguing a bit unfairly. While one explanation is that guys with wooden planks played us for fools, there are possibilities other than graffiti-writing spaceships buzzing the UK.

        You see, I actually believe most are hoaxes. Do I believe the few remaining are UFO related? I don't believe anything, except that they are strange phenomena that I would like explained. Uncommon though it is, sometimes the simplest explanation is wrong. Strange things do happen.
    • I saw a program on TLC not too long back that showed these people making crop circle with time lapse photography. They are man-made
    • Ha ha ha ha! Haaaa ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha, ha ha ha! Ha haa haaaaaa! *breathe* HAAA!

      *deep breath* Oh. Wait. You're not joking.

      Thats even funnier! Ha ha ha ha ha ha....

      As the great scientist Peter Venkman said, "you're right Ray, no human could stack books this way." Sure....

    • ... for i think my Sig speaks volumes...

      -malakai
    • Scientist: "I just cant believe that such a creature could ever exist, it sjust not possible. Probability dictates that even a minute number of the species will soon..."
      Joe Schmoe:"Yeah, I made up Bigfoot back in the day."
      Scientist: "I just cant believe that, Bigfoot must exist. You see, chaos dictates that soon, possibilities of events..."

      There will be no satisfying a skeptic.
    • If these aliens are so magically powerful, how come you never see forest circles?

  • This is a SURPRISE? (Score:4, Informative)

    by MacAndrew ( 463832 ) on Thursday December 05, 2002 @12:50PM (#4819472) Homepage
    I was *so* relieved when the Lock Ness pranksters came clean. How cruel, exploiting the weak-minded, vulnerable and credulous ... journalists, conspiracy theorists, etc. Then there was that ship-eating squid thing a few years ago. :)

    There are so many real scientific puzzles and the press preoccupies itself instead with the mystery of Michael Jackson's deflating nose (which has be checking my nose all the time now to see if the cartilage is poking through like his....).

    Bigfoot, we never knew ye. What will the Weekly World News do? Their circulation has been battered enough already.
    • Bigfoot, we never knew ye. What will the Weekly World News do? Their circulation has been battered enough already.

      Hey, no worries there. They've had several front pages speculating on the location of Osama bin Laden!
    • Speaking of scientific mysteries and Michael Jackson (sorry, it's too easy), maybe it was aliens who abducted him and did all that plastic surgery. It would do a lot for my faith in humans as a race to not have to believe that a person did all that to his face on purpose and that he actually paid for it.
      • I think he seriously hates himself. It's a classic case of black self-hatred in my uneducated armchair opinion. It's a shame, too, he used to be a perfectly normal-looking African-American. Here [anomalies-unlimited.com] is a chronology -- even if he'd stopped back at age 26 or so... It's not just the nose -- the skin-bleaching and other surgeries, too. And orangatans?

        OK, he needs help for other reasons [usatoday.com], but I think he does have the common social maladjustment, too. To the extent his fame has denied him the help he needs, I feel bad for him. He seems to be a nice guy; nice, anyway, these days.

        And yet -- what was the deal with the child dangling thing, anyway?
        • I heard he wanted to look like Dianna Ross. He darn near suceeded. He at least looks just like his sister. He now wants to look like Elizabeth Taylor. This could be really interesting.

    • If skepticism is your hobby, you should check out Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal (CSICOP) [csicop.org] magazine. Carl Sagan used to be a contributor. CSICOP encourages the critical investigation of paranormal and fringe-science claims from a responsible, scientific point of view and disseminates factual information about the results of such inquiries to the scientific community and the public.

      but mostly it is some relentless ass-kickin' of pseudoscience and the paranormal. :-)

  • I'm coming clean too (Score:5, Funny)

    by succotash ( 230711 ) on Thursday December 05, 2002 @12:54PM (#4819502)
    I built the face on mars.. have to go now, Mike Wallace is on the line.
  • So Harry and the Henderson's wasnt based on actual events?!?!?

    g
    • No, Harry and the Henderson's was, at least loosely, based on real events. This is simply a ruse to give Harry some privacy which has sadly been denied since his smashing film debut. The public was eager to drink up news of the heady excesses of his marathon sexual excapades with Britney Spears, Shakira and Oprah. The fleeting hands of fame and fortune were just as quick to let him plummet painfully to earth when news of his addiction to Penguin Mints and predeliction for priest porn reached the light of day.


      Let this charade go on, let him live out the rest of his days in happiness with his faithful lovers Mary-Kate and Ashley Olson.

  • There were some scientists
    Try to figure out the Sasquatch riddle
    Then they figured out it was a missing link

    'In Search of Sasquatch'
    That was a kick-ass 'In Search Of'
    With Leonard Nimoy kicking out the jams

    He captured the imagination
    Of people all around the globe
    His name was Sasquatch so I'm told...
    • I read a while back that they were supposed to bring "In Search Of..." back to life.

      I just hope its not some cheesey rip-off that only has the show's name in common with the original version.

      I used to love to watch those and National Geographic as a kid... Then again, I'm a weirdo 'cause I've been watching 'This Old House' since I was 11...

  • So... (Score:3, Funny)

    by Dannon ( 142147 ) on Thursday December 05, 2002 @01:10PM (#4819620) Journal
    ...it was all a hoax. Just like the government's secret UFOs were really weather balloons, swamp gas, and light reflecting from Venus.

    Or maybe they're "coming clean" because that's what They want us to believe!
  • Bob Young wrote this article.
  • He couldn't have lied about it. He had a cross on his head [nwsource.com].

  • This is excellent news!

    Now, if only someone could solve the Mysterious Mystery of ChickenFoot [augiewan.com]


  • Hey that thief stole MY PRANK! I'M the Bigfoot prankster!

    "No way! I'M the Bigfoot prankster!"


    "No, no you imposters, I'M the Bigfoot prankster!""No no no...I'M.."
  • Perhaps all you budding Perry Mason motherfuckers need to realize something: what if this schlep rock was really pulling a meta hoax?
    • That scenario would be much more likely if the guy had just showed up out of the blue and made this claim, but he's been connected to the Bigfoot stuff from the beginning, and it was already suspected that he originated the hoax. Also, he's apparently been marginalized by Bigfoot enthusiasts for a long time, probably in fear of this very revalation.

  • Just now? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Pierre ( 6251 ) on Thursday December 05, 2002 @02:07PM (#4820172)
    I thought they came clean years ago?

    I remember watching a 60 minutes on it years ago...

  • This man didn't invent Bigfoot! (Score:4, Insightful)

    by RevAaron ( 125240 ) <{moc.liamtoh} {ta} {noraaver}> on Thursday December 05, 2002 @03:00PM (#4820697) Homepage
    He may have hoaxed it a few places, but Bigfeet, Yeti, Sasquatches have been around in our mythologies for thousands of years. It's not like it was just invented one day in '58! Not that having a mythology about it makes it a reality, but take everything, even this guy's claims, with ag rain of salt.
    • yes, the mythology has been around for a long long time, but this guy decided to play pranks on scientists and others to get them to believe it really existed... and his pranks worked!!! that's the best part of the whole thing.
      • Has this guy been traveling around the world planting fake evidence? There has been stuff found in places other than the pacific northwest...
        • Pranksters are global, and memes spread.
        • like the other reply says... pranksters are global... also, if you really believe something, you'll see resemblences of what it is. like when listening to some music, if you want to hear something in the background (like subliminal messages), you'll hear it. if someone says "they say "die die die" all garbled up, you're going to be listening for those words and they coudl be saying nothing at all, it could just be sounds that are similar to the words "die die die". same thing goes for seeing things. the imagination is a wonderful thing...

  • Dang. (Score:4, Funny)

    by Unknown Poltroon ( 31628 ) <unknown_poltroon1sp@myahoo.com> on Thursday December 05, 2002 @03:27PM (#4820890)
    THis completely blows my theory that it was Sasquatch who killed kennedy.
    • " THis completely blows my theory that it was Sasquatch who killed kennedy."

      That's why the CIA put the Wallace family up to this. Too many people were getting close to the truth.

    • You know, I read that as "who killed kenny". That movie has warped my fragile little mind :(

  • Hey, about the Easter Bunny (Score:3, Funny)

    by NickFusion ( 456530 ) on Thursday December 05, 2002 @03:38PM (#4820967) Homepage
    What can I say, some tiny hippity-hop strap on bunny feet, some eggs and a bottle of Jack Daniel. Seemed like a funny idea at the time. My bad...

  • A prank? A hoax? WELL DUH!
  • I've been using their email forwarding service for years now.
    I just wish all the spam was non-existant.
  • Yea, right... I guess the next thing you're going to tell me is that Santa Clause isn't real either.

    What was that...

  • HOLY CRAP! And all this time I thought it was real!

    *rolls eyes*
  • What a headline: Lovable trickster created a monster with Bigfoot hoax

    Lovable? This jackass and his family played a stupid practical joke, then swore up and down that they were telling the truth. Now they are having a very public laugh at the trusting people who believed them.

    But this does clear up a mystery about those Microsoft/astroturf guys who hang out on Slashdot. "Shameless-Bullshit-Enabler Discovered in Washington Water Supply."

  • You mean... Harry and the Hendersons.... WASN'T a documentary?
  • Those who think that Bigfoots doesn't exist have never played Sam'n'Max!

    What more proof do you need?

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