Mermaids

[AttorneyTom]

I'm waiting for the follow-up documentary on selkies and nixies.

Yes.. I could definitely see these topics as "follow up" material.

 

[Graham2001]

Yes.. I could definitely see these topics as "follow up" material.

They are following up, but sadly your wish is not granted...

Perhaps the most haunting, lingering imagery from last year’s MONSTER WEEK is the physical evidence linked to the existence of mermaids. In MERMAIDS: THE BODY FOUND, Animal Planet stunned viewers with captivating footage and an in-depth investigation of these fantastical creatures. Toward the tail-end of this year’s Monster Week, Animal Planet revisits this startling, groundbreaking topic in the much-anticipated follow-up special, MERMAIDS: THE NEW EVIDENCE, premiering Sunday, May 26...

http://press.discovery.com/us/apl/p...aidbe-very-afraid-animal-planets-monste-2444/

That's right they're doing it again, more paranoia and disclaimers buried at the end of the credits.

Here is Doubtful New's take on all this.

http://doubtfulnews.com/2013/05/animal-planet-continues-to-confuse-fantasy-animals-with-reality/

 

[smartcooky]

Just copy the URL from your address bar while viewing the site and paste it into the post....

There is an even simpler way if you are using tabs.. click and drag

Once you have your JREF reply box open,

1. left-click on the tab of the website you are trying to link to.

2. left-click in the address bar (this will highlight the URL)

3. left-click and HOLD on the highlighted URL and drag it to JREF Reply page tab, and still holding, wait for the tab to open then continue to drag down to the reply box

4. release the left mouse button.

This works with tabbed browsing in Firefox. I haven't check it in other browsers

 

[Vinegar Tom]

Mermaids! Definitely in my Top Ten mythical beasts because they're so implausible. Also, there was a rather good sketch Michael Bentine used to do in which he played a lonely lighthouse keeper. It started with him looking wistfully at a mermaid and saying: "There must be way..."

I just wondered - does anyone know if AlaskaBushPilot actually went to Thailand to look for that mermaid? I'm guessing that, since he isn't world famous, he didn't find it, but did he at least go and see if there was one? Or was it just a rather optimistic ruse to get people on this forum to pay for his Thai holiday?

Never mind - we may be seeing an upsurge in mermaid sightings soon, if the products of this company catch on:

http://www.facebook.com/FinfolkProductions

 

[dudalb]

Mermaids are nonsense,a total myth.
The Deep Ones are the ones we really have to worry about..........I ain't going swimming anywhere near Innsmouth, MA.

 

[Graham2001]

Mermaids are nonsense,a total myth.
The Deep Ones are the ones we really have to worry about..........I ain't going swimming anywhere near Innsmouth, MA.

Ah, good ole' Lovecraft County, New England...

But in a more serious vein, Snopes has updated their page on this 'documentary' with a couple of interesting quotes and mention of the 'sequel'.

http://www.snopes.com/photos/supernatural/mermaids.asp

As for how to do this sort of thing properly, here's something about a similar pseudo-documentary that aired in Australia in 1993.

Einstein's Code

I didn't see it myself, but my Aussie friends that did told me that the show ended with the words "APRIL FOOL" splashed across the
screen...

https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups#!topic/alt.conspiracy.jfk/09HbTTVh0jY

 

[Brian-M]

As for how to do this sort of thing properly, here's something about a similar pseudo-documentary that aired in Australia in 1993.

Einstein's Code

https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups#!topic/alt.conspiracy.jfk/09HbTTVh0jY

I don't know if it's the same one, but I saw something a bit like that many years ago. My memory might be faulty because it was so long ago, but I do recall that there was some kind of ridiculous explanation about how a new kind of particle could induce "bad luck" in the thing it hit. I remember wondering how the hell that was even supposed to make sense.

At the end, they started talking about how it could be used as a weapon, for things like knocking communications satellites out of commission, and stopping television broadcasts... then the whole thing stopped and the screen was filled with static as if the program had been suddenly knocked off the air.

And a few seconds later an "April Fools" message appeared.

 

[smartcooky]

Mockumentary April Fools Jokes go a long way back further that you might think

In 1977 there was one called "Alternative Three". (which was in itself a nod to the mother of all mockumentaries, Orson Welles 1938 radio production of HG Wells' "War of the Worlds"

Alternative Three was was presented as an edition of a fictitious Anglia TV series called 'Science Report', and was about a British goverment conspiracy involving the suspicious disappearances and deaths of important scientists, a mysterious lunar base and a secret manned mission to Mars.

If you have an hour to spare... enjoy

 

[Graham2001]

Anybody seen the 'sequel'. I don't have cable, but a commenter on the Snopes.com forum said they could only stand it for three minutes.

From what little they did stand it looks like it was tricked out as a 'live' interview of one of the earlier films characters.

 

[HighRiser]

It's on Discovery right now. It's terrible.

There are better actors in my local community theater.

The USN is developing a sonar weapon that's beaching and killing whales and mermaids by rupturing their ears.

Ya, I'm quitting this program after 15 minutes or so. Unwatchable drivel.

 

[tyr_13]

My mother was telling me and my younger brother about this tonight. We both were skeptical, but thought it sounded cool and was fun to think about. He said it was more plausible than bigfoot and I agreed, which was exactly what my mother had said when she watched it.

She texted me later to tell me it was a mockumentary.

 

[TheJackal]

The "this is fiction" statement flashes very quickly at the end. The CG in parts is frankly poor. The problem is that if one were not to watch to the very end, or miss the quickly flashed fiction note, and they might fall for this drivel. Unbelievable that they try and spin this as a documentary. And it's not even April 1st.

 

[BTMO]

Interesting aside - I know one of the actresses in the Animal Planet mermaids "documentary"...

 

[Graham2001]

Sharon Hill is weighing in with her comments...

We got very big hits on our Animal Planet post about the Mermaid sequel – another fake documentary using what appears to be real scientists, real people and actual theories.

http://doubtfulnews.com/2013/05/reaction-to-animal-planets-monster-week-and-mermaids/

I've seen comments by an anti-sonar activist on the HuffPo claiming that whale beachings are up world-wide.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/brenda-peterson/mermaids-on-animal-planet_b_3321506.html

Not that I've seen any such upspike in the media.

 

[Graham2001]

A prediction (For which I make no guarantees of accuracy, unlike Sylvia Browne & her ilk). Next May we are going to see ‘Mermaids: We make contact’.

We might also see Animal Planet try and hire the Sea Shepards from the Discovery Channel to make an appearence (Or at least get someone to impersonate them for the purposes of ‘entertainment’.), which should hopefully result in Animal Planet getting sued.

 

[DuvalHMFIC]

I remember when the first one came out last year at this time. My daughter had just been born premie, so we were stuck at the hospital. My stepdaughter and my fiancee's mother caught the program, and were trying to get me to watch, saying I wouldn't believe what was going on. I knew in the first five minutes that it was bunk, but had a hard time convincing them.

When I decided to look it up, I was only met with a "thanks for spoiling the fun." Some people love to be ignorant. I can't blame my 13 year old stepdaughter, she's a kid. But my fiancee's mom? Shouldn't she know better?

 

[Graham2001]

If this blog post is anything to go by there will be a third:

It’s astonishing to me that the sequel to Mermaids: The Body Found (2012) called Mermaids: The New Evidence (2013) racked up the highest ever ratings for Animal Planet, with more than 3.6 million people tuning in to watch the network lie to viewers about the existence of mermaids. That’s more than watched the first mermaid film last year. It’s also disturbing because Animal Planet failed to disclose until the very end—and then only in a brief flash—that the documentary was a complete and total fake.

http://www.jasoncolavito.com/1/post...r-animal-planet-viewers-believe-its-real.html


This review is heartening, but we are going to have our work cut out for us.

http://www.slate.com/articles/healt..._s_fake_documentaries_misrepresent_ocean.html

 

[Graham2001]

When I decided to look it up, I was only met with a "thanks for spoiling the fun."

I find that attitude strange, how is being convinced of something untrue 'fun'?

I'm still trying to get my head around just how well this rated.

 

[KuriousOrange]

This was just covered in the latest 'Skeptic's Guide' podcast for anyone interested.

 

[Strange famous]

Hmm, Wikipedia calls it a "mockumentary". The first reference listed calls it a "fake documentary", but complains that it doesn't reveal the fakery till the end, and has a lot of misleading information that may confuse people who don't recognize that the whole thing is BS.

I dunno. If it were presented as an actual documentary, I would certainly be outraged. If it were a full-on mockumentary, making obvious fun of all the footers and other cryptozoology nuts, I'd be overjoyed. As it is, I'm not sure what to think.

Did you ever see the BBC "documentary" Ghostwatch?

if it was openly portrayed as fiction it wouldnt have had a tenth of the impact it did.