What was the deal with the Mermaid documentary?

[Travis]

Last night on the Discovery Channel there was this show that seemed to be making the case that Mermaids were real (or a species of hominid that became a marine mammal like whales did) and their existence is being suppressed so that the Navy won't have to quit using sonar that is harmful to them. Now I didn't catch the beginning so I don't know for sure but I couldn't get over the feeling it was a faux documentary with actors in place of scientists from the NOAA making the claims.

Then there was this freaky cellphone video of an alive "mermaid" washed up on a beach that seemed to be CGI.

What was that thing?

 

[Stellafane]

This may clarify things a bit.

 

[fuelair]

Info to write home about: TDC is not any longer remotely trustworthy for any show they put on. If you do trust them you get what you deserve: A large serving of feces on toast. Eat hearty!!!

 

[RedRatSnake]

Just another show to keep the Crypto people watching the station, i watched it cause i like that stuff but i never believe any of it.

Please donate now to save the Pacific Tree Octopus, see link below.

Tim

 

[Vermonter]

Fake or not, the mermaid clip on Snopes was pretty bleepin' awesome.

 

[A'isha]

I liked it. I could have done without the "we're not saying it's real, but it's real" presentation, but the whole "what if the Aquatic Ape Theory was true and it led to the evolution of mermaid-like creatures?" thing was really well done and definitely entertaining.

 

[Travis]

Yeah that is the cell phone video I was talking about. Pretty scary but obviously fake.

I will admit I was on the fence about it until that thing came up. Then I really started doubting its veracity. Glad to know I was right in my hunch it was all bogus.

 

[JoeMorgue]

Yeah it was a not half bad piece of speculative fluff sci-fi done straight faced, but nothing more.

 

[manofthesea]

Yeah it was a not half bad piece of speculative fluff sci-fi done straight faced, but nothing more.

That's NOAA's specialty.

 

[JoeMorgue]

There was a special a few years back in the same vein, might have been done by the same people, about some mountain climbers that find a frozen dragon corpse in the Alps.

 

[shadron]

Yeah it was a not half bad piece of speculative fluff sci-fi done straight faced, but nothing more.

I liked this one:



(April Fool, 2008)

 

[Cuddles]

This may clarify things a bit.

I like this bit:

In response to airings of the fake documentary, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) put up a page on their web site stating that "no evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found"

So in response to claims that the government is covering up a new species, the government... denies the new species exists. I kind of hope they did that deliberately as a bit of a joke.

 

[CynicalSkeptic]

I like to think that the stuffy bureaucrats that made the decision to deny the existence of mermaids and the associated government coverup didn't catch the irony.

OTOH some government websites are able to demonstrate a sense of humor:
http://www.cdc.gov/phpr/zombies_novella.htm

 

[xtifr]

I suspect that people in the government are fully aware of the futility of denying claims of government conspiracy and coverup. Being a bureaucrat doesn't necessarily mean you're stupid, and the notion of government coverups is hardly going to be news. I'm sure many have recognized the inherent paradox. On the other hand, when it comes to mermaids, I might have preferred it if one of them had said, "sure, mermaids exist; you can see them down in Florida, and they're not as attractive as the legend suggests, since they're more closely related to elephants than to people."

BTW, I think we have another thread on this show; it might make sense to merge them. Conclusion in the other thread was: it was nice they had a disclaimer at the end admitting the whole thing was fiction and SFX, but would have been nicer if they hadn't waited till the very end. I haven't seen it myself, but it sounds like Travis simply missed that part, if the other reports of the show are accurate.

 

[Dragoonster]

Ugh. I watched it I think in it's first showing, thinking "WTF?" from previews. Got more skeptical that it was a mockumentary as it went on, and more pissed off. Yes, there's a brief disclaimer at the end, but 95% of the people who watched it will have no idea that the actors weren't real scientists, etc.

Was the nail in the coffin for my belief that TDC had any self-respect at all. Or Animal Planet, forget which aired it.

 

[Foolmewunz]

Ugh. I watched it I think in it's first showing, thinking "WTF?" from previews. Got more skeptical that it was a mockumentary as it went on, and more pissed off. Yes, there's a brief disclaimer at the end, but 95% of the people who watched it will have no idea that the actors weren't real scientists, etc.

Was the nail in the coffin for my belief that TDC had any self-respect at all. Or Animal Planet, forget which aired it.

I'm not sure which it started on but it's been on both AP and TDC. Is it true that The Discovery Channel is now formally known simply as "TDC"? That'd be a give-away. I can't think which has done more to promote woo, TDC, Animal Planet, or The Mostly Made-Up History Channel. And NatGeo is sneaking in there.

I think alternate history and science stuff is fun if you know that's what you're watching or reading. I remember a sci fi story I read as a kid (and damned if I can find it again) about zoologists working on alligators because they found that there's a tiny hole between the chambers of the gator heart; this being what makes them so lethargic most of the day. They decided to patch the whole to see what an alligator would be like with full energy, and the gators evolved into.... Dragons! What's not to love? Make it sound a little sciency (I still haven't checked out the "fact" it's based on), ignore the facts of the species like that they're cold blooded and need to lay around in the sun all day, and come up with a highly unlikely but marginally possible solution. Like I said, ... great stuff for a kid. But I didn't see it on something promoting itself as a farkin' science channel. I found it in a book of stories!

 

[Dragoonster]

I think alternate history and science stuff is fun if you know that's what you're watching or reading. I remember a sci fi story I read as a kid (and damned if I can find it again) about zoologists working on alligators because they found that there's a tiny hole between the chambers of the gator heart; this being what makes them so lethargic most of the day. They decided to patch the whole to see what an alligator would be like with full energy, and the gators evolved into.... Dragons! What's not to love? Make it sound a little sciency (I still haven't checked out the "fact" it's based on), ignore the facts of the species like that they're cold blooded and need to lay around in the sun all day, and come up with a highly unlikely but marginally possible solution. Like I said, ... great stuff for a kid. But I didn't see it on something promoting itself as a farkin' science channel. I found it in a book of stories!

Totally agree. It's great fun! Most of my television time is devoted to shows like Haven and Warehouse 13. Fantasy superpowered stuff. It's a great thing to imagine and watch. But as you say, supposed science channels showing that as purported real, taken-to-be-seriously theories, and especially in this case as a mockumentary that doesn't declare itself until the end, is appalling.

I can't think which has done more to promote woo, TDC, Animal Planet, or The Mostly Made-Up History Channel. And NatGeo is sneaking in there.

Depressing. Is there still any non-woo "science" channel still on air? Ironically the most objective shows I still watch are reality shows, like Face Off. At least in those the only bad agents are editors.

 

[Trish Randall]

I watched the thing recently - on my cable it was first shown on either TLC or Animal Planet (I can't remember which, within a couple of weeks it was on Discovery - as it's known on my cable) I knew before I saw it that it was fictional, but I still thought it was incredibly lame. What scientist is ok with letting what they're studying drift away & the world not knowing all the details that can be found about that discovery? To me, that sounds like new-age mushiness that is inconsistent with scientific rigor.

 

[RockNroll]

They showed this and some sort of sequel on the Canadian Discovery channel (about as bad as the U.S. version) a few days ago. I had heard about that "documentary", but didn't expect it to be as dumb as it turned out to be.

It could have been a fun thought experiment kind of thing, just having scientists take the viewers on a tour of "what could have happened if the aquatic ape theory had been true and a population of hominids had kept evolving in an aquatic environment"... but what the hell was the point of trying to present it as real, and tacking on that whole lame-ass conspiracy theory subplot?

It did have some good laugh-out-loud moments, though, like when the sequel started boasting about how much the friggin Kardashians loved the original broadcast and apparently thought it was real. Well, that proves it then!

 

[Seismosaurus]

I enjoy these fake documentaries. There was one a couple of years back about dragons which was cool, but the mermaid one is much better. I haven't seen the megalodon one yet, looking for it to turn up on youtube.

I really don't see a lot of harm in these. Okay if they're not to your taste then fair enough, tastes do vary. But if they're convincing people that mermaids are real, then those people are just stupid and the rest of us shouldn't have to do without a form of entertainment just because stupid people might mistake it for reality.