UFO Photos Made Easy

How I turned a dollar store decoration into a flying saucer!

No skill required!

Not all hoaxes are elaborate. In fact, many of the most infamous hoaxes turned out to be ridiculously simple.

Consider the McMinnville photographs. Many UFO enthusiasts still insist that they depict a real flying saucer, and the Condon Report said that the photographs could possibly be considered strong evidence.

But skeptics (myself included) can point to a number of factors indicating that the photographs very likely show a model or piece of junk strung between two power lines. Doesn't get much simpler than that! Yet the effect is convincing and the photos themselves are striking even to the skeptic.

Frankly, I find the creativity behind most hoaxes to be far more interesting than the narratives provided by the hoaxers themselves. I admire the ingenuity behind using mundane objects as interstellar spacecraft! And what better way to recycle than by turning garbage into a flying saucer? So I keep my eyes open, constantly on the search for the next would-be UFO.

Recently, I came across a potential flying saucer at the local dollar store...

Three Bigfoot Hoaxes that were a LOT Worse than Coyote Peterson's Skull Stunt

Coyote Peterson's Bigfoot skull publicity stunt made headlines, frustrating and aggravating fans and online educators alike.

Coyote's "discovery" was presented as a fictional "what-if" scenario, seemingly to encourage his audience to question why such evidence has never been found before. It wasn't so much a hoax as it was slightly misguided clickbait.

Other would-be Sasquatch body snatchers, however, have had much less educational goals in mind.

Here are three of the most notable Bigfoot corpse hoaxes to date...

The Minnesota Iceman

Bigfoot... on ice!

 

The Minnesota Iceman was the supposed cadaver of a Sasquatch-like critter recovered from Vietnam in the 1960s. While this "specimen" isn't technically part of the Sasquatch family, having emerged from stories that originated on the other side of the world, I think we can lump it in with the American Bigfoot mythos for the sake of this article.

Credit: Darren Naish, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons. Source.

The Iceman toured the US as a sideshow attraction, earning the attention of skeptics and true believers alike. Two cryptozoologists, Bernard Heuvelmans and Ivan Sanderson, invested quite a bit of time and energy espousing this thing's authenticity. But other experts weren't so convinced.

Coyote Peterson's Bigfoot Skull UPDATE

 Okay. This is better.

Coyote Peterson and his team have addressed the most controversial part of their previous Bigfoot video.

A new video on the Brave Wilderness channel clearly states that what Coyote did in the first video's hypothetical (fictional) narrative was NOT what you're supposed to do.

Coyote Peterson's Big(foot) Misstep

Okay, full disclosure: I am a big fan of Coyote Peterson’s work.

Is he clickbait-y? Yes. But I'd argue that his clickbait-y-ness is his strength. He has, for the most part, used clickbait for good rather than evil.

Hear me out! You click on a Coyote Peterson video to see some guy get stung by a hornet. The next thing you know you’re learning about conservation efforts and growing an appreciation and respect for wildlife. AND you still ACTUALLY get to see him get stung by a hornet!

Everybody wins!

This approach is certainly not for every viewer, but it's a clever and effective way of getting the message across and I can respect that. The hyperbole and showmanship are there to get eyeballs on something a lot more important. Overall, he promotes respect and appreciation for wildlife of all kinds, and I can get behind that 100%.

When it comes to clickbait, he walks the line, keeping his content engaging without sacrificing credibility or education.

Then, this happened…

Hello World!

Welcome to the Hoax to Hoax blog!

It may seem a little barren right now, but soon this place will be swarming with all manner of hoax-related content!

Before we get started though, let me explain myself.

As a kid, I obsessed over countless books about the “unexplained,” marveling at the low resolution images of ghosts, ghouls, flying saucers, and monsters. But when I started to learn filmmaking and videography techniques, I realized just how easy it was to fake that stuff.

Ectoplasm? Cheesecloth. Ghost? Reflection. Flying saucer? Hubcap with an icee dome glued to it.

But surprisingly, this disillusionment only strengthened my fascination. The game was no longer deciding if something was real, but deciphering HOW it was faked! The more elaborate the hoax, the more believable the hoax, the more fascinating it became.

At this point, I see many photographic and other media hoaxes (particularly those pertaining to the supernatural, paranormal, or otherworldly) as a form of art, a craft, an offshoot of the trick photography techniques of the 1800s. (It is no coincidence that the rise of spiritualism in the United States coincides so nicely with the emergence of photography!)

Unfortunately, the art is overshadowed by the deception. And for good reason. There are far too many folks willing to exploit other people’s desire to believe in something, be it fantastic or bizarre, if it means making a quick buck or getting their name in the local paper.

I believe that if others understand that something CAN be faked, HAS been faked, and HOW to do so, maybe they will be less susceptible to the snake oil salesmen. Additionally, maybe it can foster an appreciation for the craftsmanship and art behind the fakery, which could overshadow the need for deception. (A photo of a flying saucer may be fake, but we can still appreciate it as a cultural artifact, a piece of art, without the need to believe or convince others to believe that it is real.)

So here I am. I’m not necessarily debunking anything here (though that may happen too). My goal is really to encourage everyone to look at visual media critically, and with an informed eye. That way, maybe one day, we can start appreciating fake alien photos and Bigfoot videos for what they are--fun works of art--and worry less about being conned.

That's my rant. Here's a little about myself:

Some of the first books I ever read were cheap paperbacks about cryptids, ghosts, and "the unexplained." By the age of twelve, an obsession with visual effects, special effects, and trick photography eclipsed my interest in the paranormal. I have a BA in TV, Film, and Media studies, and a minor in Science, Technology, and Medicine studies. My focus in college was documentary filmmaking. I’ve worked as a makeup effects artist, a prop-maker, an editor, a director, and a behind-the-scenes videographer for feature films. My favorite planet is Saturn, my favorite dinosaur is Allosaurus, and my favorite cryptids are the Flatwoods Monster and the Dover Demon (I can't help but love those big, bulbous eyes; he's just SO CUTE!). I think that just about covers the important stuff.

Keep checking back to see where this wild adventure takes me.

Until next time, safe travels! 🛸

--Sean