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8.18.8

Turn That Frown Upside Down: The Discovery of "RickMatt"

By now, everyone who is even just a little bit into Fortean matters knows about the so-called "Georgia Bigfoot" find. Bloggers of esoterica everywhere, including myself, have been commenting around the clock on this latest Bigfoot news.

The majority opinion, one I share, is that the whole thing was a huge hoax. Der. As I’ve written in my Rant of the Day and other places, I did have a very thin sliver of a hope that, if the body of the poor dead Bigfoot is not for real, then, well, maybe, the people involved are not the pea brained jerks they appear to be and there’s more to the story than we know, so just wait and see. Mainly that view was colored by the fact Micah Hanks of the Gralien blog and UFO Magazine’s Green Room blog has a friendship with Tom Biscardi. Since I respect Micah, okay...I’ll wait and see. Kind of. Maybe.

From the very beginning, this whole story made me want to throw up. It pissed me off! Rick Dyer and Matt Whitton, who allegedly found the already dead body in the deep deep woods of Georgia wanted to call the creature "Rickmatt." Are you kidding??!! Then they wanted to go out and find themselves another one --trap it, don’t you know. Alive. Nice. Then they moved the body, were waiting for scientists to come and study the thing, threatened lawsuits over use of the photos, charged $2.00 on their site to view images. . .and they weren’t even bigfoot hunters in the first place, they said.

The only thing in their favor is that they said they were keeping the location to themselves in order to protect Bigfoot. But this whole thing is so tainted with exploitation that it’s difficult to take them at their word and not suspect ulterior money grubbing motives instead; assuming of course that any of that is true in the first place.

(An aside: Tom Biscardi doesn’t have the best reputation among many; did Team Rickmatt drag him into this knowing that? If Biscardi is actually innocent in all this, that wasn’t very nice of them now was it?)

Anyway. The Anomalist recently asked, concerning this story: "Are there any reports that cast a positive light on this affair?" Snoopy the Goon, who runs his own blog Simply Jews, posted a comment on my blog in response to my comment that "I can’t take it anymore." Snoopy asked: "You can't take it - in what sense? It was quite enjoyable, clear hoax to start with." And Danielle Lee (no relation) who is the newest contributor to Women Of Esoterica and blog owner of The Spirit Guide, posted a positive piece on the whole sordid affair on WOE.

So I began to wonder. Why has this whole sorry episode in Bigfoot world sickened me so much? It’s a big fun hoax, some say. Doesn’t change a thing about Bigfoot’s existence. And what about my own belief that I harp on all the time, about The Trickster being ever present in the UFO and paranormal, crypto realm? This entire affair screams trickster. It’s dripping with it. So why so grumpy over this whole thing? Maybe I should lighten up.

I thought about it. Maybe I’ve lightened up a little. Just a bit. But not much. True, it’s to be expected, this kind of thing, in context of trickster behavior, and the fact that there will always be bozos on the Fortean bus. Here’s why this episode has me so disgruntled. One, it wasted a lot of time better spent on real Bigfoot research. It’s already been let loose into the mainstream mindset and media: Bigfoot’s a big fat joke.

The next time serious researchers have something actual to bring to the infrastructure, those scientists and media pundits aren’t going to be willing to look at the evidence in any serious way. (Plus, the skeptoids are loving this, and anytime the skeptoids get happy is a bad day. I ranted about this as well on my Rant of the Day on Snarly Skepticism. I tell you, I’m loving Rant of the Day. I’ve been Ranting of the Day on all my blogs. It’s great fun.) There are a few Bigfoot researchers out there who support a kill policy -- Chester Moore is one, for example -- and this will only encourage those who think this is a grand idea to redouble their efforts to kill themselves a Sasquatch. Great.

The second reason is that Bigfoot deserves better. It’s just not dignified. It’s disrespectful. Bigfoot is more than just a flesh and blood creature, but even if Bigfoot is just "flesh and blood" the creature deserves more than the awful and sleazy carnival side show treatment it’s been getting lately.

I realize that last bit sounded like I belong to the Church of Bigfoot. Shrug. Maybe it’s a guy vs. chick thing; I don’t get hoaxes much. A lot of expense and time has gone into a big fat stupid beer can crushing on the forehead prank, and for what? Money is one goal, obviously, and a lot of pettiness aimed towards Bigfoot researchers is another.

Well, after all this self reflection I still haven’t lightened up much, but I gave it a chance.


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