Bigfoot - The Patterson-Gimlin Film

[Correa Neto]

What's so scary about mothman? Heck, witnesses descriptions seem quite incoherent IMO (wings, no wings, short wings, flys, floats, hovers). Even the "Flatwoods monster" is said by some to be a mothman (that are taken by some to be aliens). Common features are glowing red eyes and some eyewitnesses claims of feeling great (claimed to be somehow induced) fear. The "paranormal" side seems also to be more common in mothmen lore than in bigfoot lore (but this might be at least partially a filtering efect).

If my memory is not betraying me, some reports can also be seen as some "transition forms" between gray aliens sightings and mothmen sightings...

But, come to think of it, some recent descriptions of the Jersey Devil looks like a gray walking on all fours.

It all boils down to the variability of the reports of mystery animals, that seems to indicate to me that they are all part of a cultural or social phenomena, influentiated by lore, midia and psichology.

 

[LTC8K6]

I told you I couldn't explain it.

Mothman just gives me the willies. The creeps.

It's like the effect IT had on me with clowns. Now clowns are creepy, too.
If I see a clown on the street, I still don't like it since reading that book.

Bigfoot is just a big hairy guy. Not creepy at all. Not even scary.
I guess I would try to leave the area if I saw bigfoot, but I wouldn't
be scared of it. If I had a camera, I'd be hanging around trying to get pics, and following trying to see tracks, etc.

 

[UrsulaV]

This is not a logical fear by any stretch.

It's like my fear of house centipedes. I know that they are harmless and perhaps even beneficial in insect ecology, I know that their wussy little jaws cannot even penetrate human skin, and yet if I see one flow in a wave of wiggly bits across the wall, my mind goes "TOO MANY LEGS! LEGSLEGSLEGS! DEATH TO THE LEGGY THING!" and I scream and throw things at it.

Or like my fear of mimes. Logically, there is nothing to fear from the mime, unlike clowns, which is a totally logical fear, damnit. There are very few mime related killings, and I would assume they're usually perpetrated on the mime anyway. Marcel Marceau seemed like a nice fellow when I heard him interviewed. Nevertheless, I harbor a secret terror of The Doom That Walks Against The Wind.

If anyone ever wants to send me into heart failure, a giant house centipede dressed as a mime should do the job nicely.

Mothman hits me at the same level as the house centipede and the mime. There is no logic attached.

 

[kitakaze]

Bigfoot is just a big hairy guy. Not creepy at all. Not even scary.
I guess I would try to leave the area if I saw bigfoot, but I wouldn't
be scared of it. If I had a camera, I'd be hanging around trying to get pics, and following trying to see tracks, etc.

I can certainly see where you're coming from with that and for sure an encounter with Mothman would make bigfoot comparitively rather bland, but it makes me wonder if such a feeling maybe comes from the fact that we've had the concept of Bigfoot in our cultural conciousness for quite some time now and for most simply a fondly held myth.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------I think if I came around a bend in the hiking trail and suddenly found myself for whatever reasons in the company of a male mountain gorilla, or even just a big male chimp, I wouldn't wait around to find out its temperment. As any with an interest in BF has, I've often imagined a BF encounter and hope that I would do all the things LT listed. That said, were it actually to happen, I fear that given BF's described size in comparison to a gorilla I may just end up beating it that much faster.-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Nevertheless, I still can't help but find it amusing that, alas, though we have no irrefutably proven encounters with a real bigfoot, we do have plenty of cases of BF researchers and many others seeking out bigfoot and then promptly getting heck outta Dodge when they believe one to be in the vicinity.

 

[kitakaze]

Mothman hits me at the same level as the house centipede and the mime. There is no logic attached.

How 'bout a multi-legged Mothman doing The Box?

 

[Correa Neto]

This is not a logical fear by any stretch.

It's like my fear of house centipedes. I know that they are harmless and perhaps even beneficial in insect ecology, I know that their wussy little jaws cannot even penetrate human skin, and yet if I see one flow in a wave of wiggly bits across the wall, my mind goes "TOO MANY LEGS! LEGSLEGSLEGS! DEATH TO THE LEGGY THING!" and I scream and throw things at it. ...snip...

Not completely illogical... Remember Scolopendra? Check pics of it at http://www.uark.edu/depts/entomolo/museum/sheros.html and tremble. There's a base for you fear, since that critter's "jaws" are not exactly wussy and the thing is also poisonous. Have I mentioned they are very fast and agile for an arthropod of this size?

 

[kitakaze]

I was gonna say that I found a couple of those pics in Correa's link strangely beautiful but the further down the page I read this...

some scolopendromorphs have been found feeding on toads, small snakes, and other vertebrates

 

[Stellafane]

Mothman is THE MAN!

I totally hear you concerning irrational fear of Mothman -- it bugs the hell out of me, no pun intended. I think part of it is looks -- Bigfoot basically is a big, hairly ape, while the Lock Ness Monster resembles an aquatic dinosaur. You could model stuffed toys after them, and they'd be cute and cuddly and wouldn't frighten a 2-year old. But Mothman looks like nothing ever produced by terrestrial evolution -- no head, huge glowing eyes attached to the "shoulders," huge bat wings. One really freaky dude. I also think a large contributor to the creepiness factor is the fact that the Mothman phenomenon is associated with a real historical event, the collapse of the Silver Bridge over the Ohio, in which 46 people died. It's probably natural to think that two really uncommon events are connected in some way, that the first one somehow caused the other. So when Mothman appeared, and a while later the bridge collapsed, the Mothman myth became forever wedded to a real tragedy.

Weird, weird sucker...

 

[UrsulaV]

Not completely illogical... Remember Scolopendra? Check pics of it at http://www.uark.edu/depts/entomolo/museum/sheros.html and tremble. There's a base for you fear, since that critter's "jaws" are not exactly wussy and the thing is also poisonous. Have I mentioned they are very fast and agile for an arthropod of this size?

It's a good thing I didn't want to sleep this week.

 

[Correa Neto]

I always enjoyed being helpfull! No need to thanks !

Seriously, I once worked at an area at Southeastern Brazil where they were quite common. Had to be carefull when grabbing a rock. Since I am a geologist, you can guess I had some close encounters with those critters...

But nothing as close as a friend (ironically he studies arthropods and is specialized on the critters that I find most disgusting - spiders) of mine. He somehow managed to be bitten there by a small Scolopendra or similar critter while sleeping.

He became a celebrity at the hospital.

 

[kitakaze]

I must admit, in having long clung to some possibility for the existence of BF, I always totally scoffed at mention of Mothman as some absurdity without bothering to read up on it at all. Around the time the movie came out on dvd I watched it and then, keeping in mind that it had the 'based on true events' tagline, did my homework. Not only did I find it thoroughly creepy, I also found the first few reports not unlike many BF reports that I had thought credible in terms of 'believability'. I think that was a major event in terms of calling my own objectiveness into question and definitely a contributing factor in nudging me in to the fence-sitting section. That said, bigfoot vs Mothman poll, anyone? Oh...heh, sorry...wrong forum.

 

[Correa Neto]

Well, if you look at mothman's renderings, you'll see its very anatomically implausible. How come a huge thing with such small wings be able to fly? And the standard "science could not explain how bees could fly" line of reasoning is junk. Just look at any large flying animal (living or extinct) and check the ratios between wingspan and bodylenght.

 

[LTC8K6]

Hey!

If sasquatch can walk, then Mothman can fly.

Maybe that's part of the creepiness? Mothman could sneak right up on you in the dark like an owl. You'd never know he was coming.....
Just glide silently right up behind you.....

 

[kitakaze]

I considered the flight elements of Mothman reports to immediately make them bunk with my limited knowledge of aerodynamics if they had been correctly identified a humanoid figure. It was the fact that the first initial reports before the headlines started breaking out made me feel that something was seen that I then began to go back and doubt even more BF reports which I had previously felt to be credible.

 

[Correa Neto]

Ah, but bigfeet are also clever stealthy creepers... Patty could also silently sneak behind you!

I can even imagine a movie:

BIGFOOT X MOTHMAN

That would probably be very boring, since both critters are so stealthy that the actual fighting would never be seen. All you would see of the contenders are short glimpses of a few blurred images at the corner of the screen...

 

[kitakaze]

Bigfoot vs Mothman.--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- After both have entered the ring they begin posturing with a quick bout of woman-like scream noises. Round 1: The bell rings, BF makes an ape-like bluff charge and is confounded by MM's subsequent hovering. Some idiot throws a dog in the ring and both are distracted. Round over.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Round 2: Both approach center ring and start a glowing red eye staring contest. BF slighty stunned. BF makes a quick recovery and attempts to put MM in a head lock but is frustrated by MM's apparent lack of discernable head. BF then becomes distressed seeing he has left his midtarsal break, dermal ridge laden tracks about the ring and runs about trying to wipe them out. Round over.------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Round 3, final round. Bell rings, EB suddenly appears ringside. BF tags him and out of nowhere interdimensional BF appears. Interdimensional BF starts phasing in and out around MM and punching him in the glowing red eyes. Out of nowhere dozens of Men in Black appear and jump in the ring. Chaos ensues. Just at that moment Fn'B BF puts MM in a figure 4 then pins him. Ref counts 3, bell rings. MM contests the results and demands a video playback. Judges view the playback yet mysteriously find only a brown smudge they think maybe BF. Rematch scheduled.

 

[UrsulaV]

Okay, that made me laugh...

 

[UrsulaV]

Well, if you look at mothman's renderings, you'll see its very anatomically implausible. How come a huge thing with such small wings be able to fly?

Duh, midtarsal breaks!

It's not just for feet anymore...

 

[kitakaze]

That's so weird, my chiropractor told me I had a midtarsal break in my spinunculus which needed immediate stratification. Huh...

 

[Skeptical Greg]

Ah, but bigfeet are also clever stealthy creepers... Patty could also silently sneak behind you!
.....

Only if she is down wind...