mermaids : the body found
mermaids: the body found and its ilk have done long - term damage .
both documentaries, mermaids: the body found and mermaids: the new evidence have sufficient proof .
mermaids: the body found
will air again on june 17 on animal planet .
' sabrina' posted' both documentaries, mermaids: the body found and mermaids: the new evidence have sufficient proof.'
los angeles times. “tv skeptic: ‘mermaids: the body found’ clouds the waters. ” 29 may 2012 .
feel free to submit examples of dr. paul robertson' s pre -
mermaids: the body found
work .
you should send me a few links to dr. paul robertson' s work in the years predating
mermaids: the body found .
andre weideman was the re - enactment actor in
the body found
and did not appear much in
new evidence .
“mermaids: the body found” is a made for tv mockumentary and found footage film created for the cable network animal planet and discovery channel. the film is directed by sid bennett and written by charlie foley, sid bennett, and vaibhav bhatt .
this success surely came as no surprise to discovery executives, who watched a double feature of mermaids: the body found and its sequel, mermaids: the new evidence, become the highest rated animal planet broadcast of all time .
mermaids: the body found is a found footage film and mockumentary that aired on animal planet and discovery channel. while the science behind the plot is fundamentally flawed and the runtime is a bit on the long side, the film is an exceptionally crafted mockumentary that fans of the genre are likely to enjoy .
mpok, the person in
new evidence
is the same person as in
mermaids: the body found ,
just with a slightly different hairstyle. they' re both played by andre weideman .
examining the startling, never - before - seen video evidence of aquatic hominids that has come forward since the documentary mermaids: the body found first aired in 2012, with the original... see full summary »
the plausibility of mermaids: the body found hinges on the acceptance of the “aquatic ape” hypothesis put forth in the film. under this theory, pockets of early humans moved from the land to the sea during an evolutionary event coined the “land to sea transition. ”
on may 26, everything you know about the ocean will change. watch an encore presentation of mermaids: the body found at 8pm e / p, followed by an exclusive interview at 10pm e / p !
animal planet managed to hook 3. 6 million viewers with the special that speculates about the real - life existence of mermaids using actors, according to abc news. the special is a sequel to 2012 & apos; s
documentary ,
mermaids: the body found .
as you know, documentaries often use re - enactments in which an actor plays the portrays the scientist. mermaids: the body found used this conceit and cast actor andre weideman to portray dr. robertson in the re - enactments .
animal planet managed, once again, to captivate viewers with a sequel to its 2012 fictional documentary
mermaids: the body found .
mermaids: the new evidence ,
aired on sunday, gave the channel its biggest audience ever, 3. 6 million viewers .
police find the body of a missing four - month - old boy near ...
sunday’s “documentary” mermaids: the new evidence delivered 3. 6 million viewers, shattering the network’s ratings record. the program is not only a hoax, but a sequel to a hoax — to last year’s rather effortlessly debunked mermaids: the body found, which fooled more viewers than you’d think .
mermaids: the body found aired on animal planet in 2012 and brought in 3. 5 million viewers, setting a new ratings record for the animal planet. the sequel, mermaids: the new evidence aired a year later in 2013, surpassing the previous ratings record with 3. 6 million viewers .
' mermaids: the new evidence' was advertised as a follow - up to last year' s' mermaids: the body found', with biologist dr paul robertson returning with what appeared to be brand new footage of the alleged mythical creatures, allegedly taken this spring in the greenland sea .
i’m afraid i can’t speak highly of your track record when it comes to presenting evidence - based programming, considering that finding bigfoot never finds, and won’t ever find, bigfoot. but never has it been worse than with mermaids: the body found and the upcoming mermaids: the new evidence .
mermaids: the new evidence
— animal planet' s follow - up to last may' s
mermaids: the body found
— premiered as the most - watched telecast in the network' s history, drawing 3. 6 million total viewers with its 10 p. m. airing .
the found footage purity is a composite of the cinematography, filming reason, and other factors that determine how real a film comes across. in the case of mermaids: the body found, the found footage purity is well done. this determine is substantiated by stories following the original airing of the film on animal planet and discovery channel, where viewers wrote the network (s) believing that the film was portraying a factual event and was not a work of fiction .
despite its ratings success with shows like
mermaids: the body found
and
megalodon: the new evidence ,
new discovery channel president rich ross said he' s getting rid of fake shows, according to deadline. com .
the filming reasons are relatively easy to satisfy in mermaids: the body found. the majority of the film consists of staged interviews and reenactments, which are all pre - planned. the found footage segments of the film are all adequately justified. in one such found footage scene, the cinematographer is filming an event on the beach with a cell phone camera. in another, a fisherman grabs his camera and films something of interest that takes place on a fishing boat. meanwhile, found footage from a government research facility is presumably filmed in secrecy, and the scene is short and fleeting. in all three cases, the found footage is appropriately captured .
this week, animal planet aired two fake documentaries claiming to show scientific evidence of mermaids. i say “fake documentaries” because that’s exactly what the body found and the new evidence are. the “scientists” interviewed in the show are actors, and there’s a brief disclaimer during the end credits. however, the twitter conversation surrounding the show (# mermaids) reveals that many viewers are unaware that the show isn’t real. (sample tweets: “after watching the documentary # mermaids the body found … i believe there are mermaids! !! ” and “90% of the ocean is unexplored and you’re telling me # mermaids don’t exist”—which has been retweeted more than 800 times .) it is, after all, airing on a network that claims to focus on educating viewers about the natural world. “the body found” was rightfully described “ the rotting carcass of science television, ” and i was shocked to see animal planet air a sequel .
the two - hour program is fiction, but it' s presented in documentary style, with actors playing scientists who claim to have found the body of a mermaid on a washington state beach .
reputable organizations? they' re actors. they act in fiction for a living .
dr. paul robertson
followed up
mermaids: the body found
by acting in a sci - fi action movie called
the dinosaur project .
sunday’s “documentary” mermaids: the new evidence delivered 3. 6 million viewers, shattering the network’s ratings record. yup, even bigger than the puppy bowl. the program is not only a hoax, but a sequel to a hoax — to last year’s rather effortlessly debunked mermaids: the body found, which fooled more viewers than you’d think .
in may 2013, discovery’s animal planet channel announced that during their upcoming “monster week” programming they would be airing an “extended cut” of mermaids: the body found followed by a new special titled mermaids: the new evidence. this twin - bill of mermaid hoax programs became the most - watched telecast in animal planet’s history :
the cinematography used throughout mermaids: the body found comes across as authentic. the film consists of a series of interviews, archival footage, photographs, found footage, and reenactments. the film presents as good as any documentary one would see on either the discovery channel, animal planet, or history channel. excluding the found footage scenes, all of the interviews, and reenactments are captured with a professional video camera, as is to be expected with a “documentary” of this caliber .
there’s absolutely no hyperbole in that title. last night on animal planet i caught the replay of “mermaids: the new evidence, ” the follow - up to discovery channel’s abysmally bad, misleading and rage - inducing “docufiction” from last year, “mermaids: the body found. ” it’s the worst tv i’ve ever seen. nothing else comes even close .
if you were unnerved over the holiday weekend by animal planet' s special
mermaids: the body found ,
take a deep breath. it' s ok to go back in the water again, and you can quit eyeing your copy of
the little mermaid
suspiciously .
mermaids: the body revealed does an exceptional job at replicating the documentary format used by other shows on animal planet and discovery channel. adhering to the established documentary formula on two networks that specialize in showing true documentaries helped perpetuate the illusion of reality. had this film aired on a network airing primarily fictional work (or a mix of reality and fiction), mermaids: the body found would not have had such an easy time fooling unsuspecting viewers .
3. just because a fish is from “the ocean” doesn’t mean you should release it in the nearest body of salt water .
# nw mermaids: the new evidence. go ahead and tell me mermaids aren' t real after watching that special .
mr weideman' s imdb credits now list
new evidence
, which he was in as the character he played in
body found
as dr robertson during the scenes where they played pieces of footage from bf. but it now lists in his credits for
body found
, he plays, and this is verbatim on the site, andre louis weideman (paul). both imdb are confused, and the author of this article .
the found footage portions of the film are few, but poignant. these scenes are captured with a camera phone and handheld camcorders. the creature effects in the found footage scenes (presuming what unfolds is pure fiction) are well done. contrasted with the rest of the film, the found footage scenes are captured using low resolution, poor lighting, and with very shaky cinematography .
noaa' s put out a statement on it website saying:' mermaids: the new evidence is just entertainment. no evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found.'
mermaids: the body found consists of archived footage, interviews, and reenactments that piece together evidence proving the possible existence of mermaids. the film opens with a number of incidents of mass beached whales, which were caused by the testing of sonar weapons by the united states navy. the weapons scared and confused the whales, causing them to swim and become stranded in shallow waters where they ultimately died. among the beached whales was evidence of a second, previously unknown, species of marine mammal—a mermaid, captured on a camera phone as found footage .
kylie jenner rocks curve - clinging attire as she shows off body... and considers going back to blonde
i expect your new show, mermaids: the new evidence, to be a grand argument from ignorance, as was the last installment. there is a guy who found some strange stuff and doesn’t know what it is, therefore mermaids. not to mention that the “aquatic ape hypothesis, ” the idea the show uses to materialize mermaids, doesn’t survive any critique .
twitter erupted with posts about the show and the existence of mermaids in the hours and days that followed .
while mermaids: the body found is interesting and entertaining, the 82 minute runtime is a bit long. the film would have benefited from a shorter duration and tighter story—perhaps 45 minutes, which equates to an hour of television. since this film was made for television, scenes are often repeated multiple times—presumably after commercial breaks .
the film included fictitious interviews of noaa employees. noaa is the acronym for the national oceanic and atmospheric administration, the united states federal agency responsible for researching and investigating matters concerning the world’s oceans and earth’s atmosphere. due to the controversy stirred up after mermaids: the body found aired on animal planet, noaa released a statement assuring the public that there was no evidence of the aquatic sea people featured in the film .
she was referring to mermaids: the body found and mermaids: the new evidence, a series of animal planet specials that aired in 2012 and 2013. mermaids: the new evidence was, at the time of airing, the most successful show in animal planet’s history. the conceit: that mermaids were real and that scientists from the national oceanographic and atmospheric administration were actively hiding their existence from the world. a few dedicated scientists, hunted and harassed by government agents (at one point, security footage literally shows men in black removing evidence from a lab), were fighting to expose the truth .
an animal planet documentary revealed the existence of mermaids. see example (s )
mermaids: the new evidence set record ratings for animal planet on may 26 .
miriam’s e - mail led me to the promotional page for mermaids: the body found. part of animal planet’s inaugural monster week, the press release announced, the documentary - format special “paints a wildly convincing picture of the existence of mermaids. ” an editor’s note at the top stated that the show “is science fiction based on some real events and scientific theory, ” but the rest of the release was written as if all the imaginary evidence for fish - bodied humanoids were authentic .
the thing that’s got my goat at the moment is a fake documentary on animal planet called mermaids: the body found. it has actors playing scientists talking about how they did an autopsy on some mermaid remains, and how the us government swooped and covered the whole thing up. there’s grainy fake video of mermen being hauled up in fishing nets, the whole box and dice .
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discovery is not new to the business of creating fake documentaries claiming to prove the existence of the strange and supernatural, in 2012, animal planet—like the discovery channel, part of the vast discovery communications empire—aired a piece of so - called ‘docufiction’ entitled mermaids: the body found. the immensely popular special featured footage of a “mermaid” that had supposedly washed up on a beach, and told of a government conspiracy to cover up the findings. however, mermaids concludes with an admission that the program was fictional .
an animal planet program that supposedly revealed the existence of mermaids was a fake documentary .
there' s also a 2013 follow - up: mermaids: the new evidence .
if you somehow missed the groundbreaking scientific exploration of the existence of mermaids, watch a promo for the special below .
, noaa, long suffering as ever, issued yet another statement, saying :
' mermaids: the new evidence' is just entertainment. no evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found .
an ancient cave drawing in egypt depicts what seems like the story of how humans drove mermaids away and in to hiding. the cave that the drawings were found in used to overlook a massive sea and scholars say they are authentic .
did y' all see mermaids the new evidence? ?? ? there are mermaids out there for sure... .! !! ! !
i caught an incredibly bad two - hour “documentary” on the discovery channel last night that, in a nut shell, encapsulates many of our societal foibles. that program was “mermaids: the body found. ” listed as “docu - fiction, ” which means “made up at will, ” the special was presented as entirely real, and purported to prove the existence of mermaids among us, as evidenced by man’s ancient mythologies concerning fish people and the modern - day cover - up of the phenomena by governments around the world .
as the real national oceanic and atmospheric administration put it after the first special was released last year: “no evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found. ”
looks like discovery won' t be finding new evidence on mermaids anytime soon .
' white storm' tweeted: # nw mermaids: the new evidence. go ahead and tell me mermaids aren' t real after watching that special,' while' g - host' wrote:' did y' all see mermaids the new evidence? ?? ? there are mermaids out there for sure... .! !! !!'
animal planet mermaids the new evi... national ocean and a... dr paul robertson
footage recovered from an oil derrick depicts compelling evidence that mermaids may in fact exist .
the belief in mermaids may have arisen at the very dawn of our species ,
the statement read .
but are mermaids real? no evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found. why, then, do they occupy the collective unconscious of nearly all seafaring peoples? that & apos; s a question best left to historians, philosophers, and anthropologists .
my father and i watched the documentary on the discovery channel about the discovery of mermaids. the documentary is called mermaids: a body found. however in this documentary they showed a video that was taken from a boys phone on the beach it shows a live mermaid. now my father and i would like to know if this video is real i don' t like to say we are suckers to everything we hear but i am open to new ideas. . we would like to know about this video and hoped you have some input .
newsome, brad. “mermaids and demons: science on the box. ” the sydney morning herald. 14 april 2011 .
switek, brian. “‘mermaids’ embodies the rotting carcass of science tv. ” wired. 31 may 2012 .
wood, sam. “feds: mermaids do not exist. ” the philadelphia inquirer. 3 july 2012 .
- wtf. the website mermaids are real was banned by the government. (the website was created by the show’s producers to look like it was banned. )
it adopted a documentary style to simulate a presentation of real - life body of evidence that mermaids exist, and in spite of a previous warnings by the national ocean and atmospheric administration (noaa), it managed to fool millions and spark a debate about the mythical creatures on twitter .
even the program itself can admit that its content is fraudulent, if it does it covertly enough. in the case of “mermaids: the body found, ” that admission can be found two hours in, during the closing credits. a segment is shown that reads “though certain events in this film are fictional, navy sonar tests have been directly implicated in whale beachings. ‘the bloop’ is a real phenomenon. there is still debate about what it may be. none of the institutions or agencies that appear in the film are affiliated or associated with it in any way, nor have they approved its contents. any similarities in the film to actual persons living or dead is entirely coincidental. ”
the author appears confused here. mermaids: the body found is part documentary, part dramatization. the actual dr. robertson was in the documentary parts, and an actor was in the drama parts. mermaids: the new evidence is solely a documentary, and was filmed live. the actual dr. robertson was involved, along with actual people actually portraying themselves. the evidence presented is independently verifiable. it was not a
mockumentary
. i' m wondering if the author actually watched
the new evidence
in its entirety, or simply glanced at a few parts and decided to write something contrary just to boost readership. one need not believe in mermaids to observe the evidence with an open mind, and leave with a willingness to consider the possibility that an aquatic humanoid lifeform exists in our oceans .
dr paul robertson is a real marine biologist. mr lee' s article makes it seem like animal planet paid the actor andre weideman to pose as a real person. andre weideman is indeed an actor, one that played dr robertson in the reenactment portions of mermaids: body found. dr paul robertson, the man in new evidence, is intact a real man, and a real marine biologist studying the possibility of this new species. the author of the article obviously did not use google correctly to conduct his thorough research .
the acting in mermaids: the body found was appropriate to any documentary one would expect to see on either discovery channel or animal planet. andre weideman is convincing as dr. paul robertson, a former member of the noaa fisheries department. his character appropriately portrays a scientist who is concerned about the welfare of the indigenous marine life and the impact the government weapons testing on the marine ecosystem. similarly, candice d - arcy performs well as dr. rebecca davis, also a former member of the noaa fisheries department, sharing the same values and motivations as dr. robertson. the rest of the ensemble cast also perform wonderfully in their respective roles .
“if noaa is lying to us about the existence of mermaids then they’re definitely lying to us about climate change. ”
- 90% of the ocean is undiscovered. and your (sic) telling me mermaids don' t exist !
as a marine biologist, i can tell you unequivocally that despite millennia of humans exploring the ocean, no credible evidence of the existence of mermaids has ever been found. some claim that manatees are the source of the legend, but you’d have to be at sea an awfully long time to think that a manatee is a beautiful woman. sure, new species are discovered all the time, but while a new species of bird or insect is fascinating, it doesn’t mean “anything is possible, ” and it is certainly not equivalent to finding a group of talking, thinking humanoids with fish tails covering half of their bodies. the confusion generated by “the body found” got to be so significant that the united states government issued an official statement on the matter .
the special
probes for the unfiltered story and reveals new evidence of mermaids that only has come forward in the past year ,
according to animal planet .
popular: animal planet' s' documentary' about the existence of mermaids drew the network' s largest ever audience of 3. 6million viewers
however, unlike mermaids, discovery’s megalodon does not reveal its fantastical nature. in the closing seconds of the documentary, a brief disclaimer flashes across the screen stating :
the film postulates that environmental pressures caused an evolutionary event known as a “land to sea transition, ” where early humans physiologically adapted to the ocean—resulting in mermaids, an offshoot of early humans. the film goes on to site the pervasiveness of mermaids in folklore throughout human history all over the world in many seafaring cultures. is this animal planet and discovery channel film an actual documentary proving the existence of mermaids? we’ll let you decide .
after the first special aired, the national ocean and atmospheric administration released a statement to clear up confusion for perplexed viewers over whether mermaids were real .
an israeli cop is faced with the shocking discovery of her missing twin sister' s body being washed - up on the seashore. the case opens old wounds and draws her deep into a roller - coaster ride of cryptic secrets and mysterious discoveries .
mermaids — those half - human, half - fish sirens of the sea — are legendary sea creatures chronicled in maritime cultures since time immemorial... the belief in mermaids may have arisen at the very dawn of our species. magical female figures first appear in cave paintings in the late paleolithic (stone age) period some 30, 000 years ago, when modern humans gained dominion over the land and, presumably, began to sail the seas. half - human creatures, called chimeras, also abound in mythology — in addition to mermaids, there were wise centaurs, wild satyrs, and frightful minotaurs, to name but a few. but are mermaids real? no evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found .
my thoughts aside and whether intentional or not, this made for television film managed to pull the wool over the eyes of millions of viewers who bought into the veracity its claims. since feigned plausibility is the true intent of a found footage film, this is the yardstick with which we must measure the film’s success .
what & apos; s the new evidence about mermaids? people can & apos; t get enough of them — even if it & apos; s a hoax! animal planet premiered their special mermaids: the new evidence on sunday, may 26, and the staged documentary set a ratings record for the network .
the documentary makes much of the fact that whales evolved from terrestrial ancestors, but that took millions of years, not the kind of evolutionary eyeblink that mermaids seems to be talking about .
animal planet is no stranger to mockumentaries, having aired the popular mockumentary found footage tv series, lost tapes (2008). the series effectively mixes reality, folklore, and science, creating a blend that at the time the show aired, brought into question whether the episodes were real or fiction .
as described in wikipedia, “there are only a few, easily missed disclaimers to indicate the speculative nature of the programming. on the contrary, the serious tone of the majority of the presentation implied that it was a factual documentary. the first airings of the two mermaids programs apparently fooled millions of people. ”
mermaids: the body found is a story about evolutionary possibility grounded in a radical scientific theory – the aquatic ape theory, which claims that humans had an aquatic stage in our evolutionary past. while coastal flooding millions of years ago turned some of our ancestors inland, is it possible that one group of our ancestors didn’t retreat from water but rather went in deeper? could they have ventured farther into sea out of necessity and to find food? the aquatic ape theory makes it possible to believe that while we evolved into terrestrial humans, our aquatic relatives turned into something strangely similar to the fabled mermaid .
on 27 may 2012, discovery’s animal planet channel aired a pseudo - documentary entitled mermaids: the body found in the u. s. , a purely fictional work dealing with a purported federal coverup of a discovery involving scientists from the national oceanic and atmospheric administration (noaa) that proved the existence of a remnant population of mermaids (described as being an evolutionary offshoot of the “ aquatic ape ” hypothesis, a generally discounted idea that early hominid species went through an aquatic phase in their evolution). the program was not fact but rather speculative science fiction, which included obvious cgi - produced video sequences like the one displayed above and actors fictional characters such as “dr. paul robertson, former noaa scientist. ” to enhance the pseudo - reality aspect of the program, a web site was established at urltoken offering no content other than a opening page hoax proclaiming that the site’s domain had been seized by the u. s. department of justice and homeland security .
mermaids is a feature documentary about the allure and transformative power of the universal myth; from the sirens of ancient lore to a new subculture of tail - donning women who beckon us... see full summary »
' hi. i' m linda o' keefe... 45 years ago today, i disappeared and my killer was never found': police tweet as the 11 - year - old girl who was murdered in 1973 in a bid to publicize the cold case
at the end of mermaids: the new evidence, a disclaimer read ,
though certain events in this film are fictional, navy sonar tests have been directly implicated in whale beachings .
btw, i took a moment to look up andre weideman, and anyone can see that he is clearly not the person in mermaids: the new evidence. what' s that about ?
dragons and mermaids feel out of place on what ostensibly seems to be a science channel, but i can’t begrudge animal planet trying a bit of fantasy as long as it is advertised as such. but, as i settled in with a hard drink to watch the show, two things unsettled me about mermaids .
dr. paul robertson, who presented the video
evidence
of mermaids cavorting in cold northern waters, had stated that they deliberately presented the
evidence
in documentary form to make it enhance the credulity of unwary views. he
it featured an exclusive interview with a former noaa scientist who appeared willing to stake his professional reputation on the existence of mermaids. he suggested that the noaa statement was part of a government cover - up .
others were in on the joke from the start. tweeted green bay packer tom crabtree ,
if you believed one second of the animal planet' s' mermaids' show, then turn around because sasquatch is standing behind you .
“mermaids” is fiction. it’s a fake tv documentary. you may have to look hard to see the disclaimer, but the producers and animal planet make it clear that this program is totally and completely made up .
mermaids might not be — ok, let' s face it, definitely aren' t — real. however, the mythical creatures of the sea delivered a very real ratings victory for animal planet on sunday .
cryptozoology persists precisely because there is no evidence for these creatures. if we actually found bigfoot or mermaids, they would be studied, cataloged, and brought into the wide swath of biological knowledge. bigfoot does not exist because there would be evidence left behind–hair, feces, bones, kills, offspring, a carcass–if it did. considering how many expeditions have attempted to find this evidence and have come up short, in spite of the bigfoot hunters who claim these creatures number in the thousands, we can effectively rule bigfoot out. admittedly, it’s hard to criticize the search for mermaids in the same way. we only recently captured the fabled giant squid on camera. but the difference between these sea monsters is that the squid, prowling the depths off japan, leaves evidence behind (beaks, tentacles, whole carcasses) .
using the aah to explain the existence of mermaids would be a clever twist for a star trek episode or syfy original movie. but this was on a self - styled educational network. animal planet cashed in on its poorly earned reputation as a science channel – the network previously aired the pet psychic, after all – to make gullible viewers believe mermaids are real. indeed, as craig mcclain noted in his post on mermaids, the docufiction didn’t pull back the curtain to say “this was fiction! fooled you! ” until the very end, and by then many viewers were not paying attention. craig shared a few of the shocked responses to the show posted on twitter, and i trawled for “mermaid” tweets just before posting this essay – people are still writing how fascinated they are by the illusion at the center of the show .
using the latest digital technology, the era between the dinosaurs and man is superbly recreated by the bbc and discovery channel in another winning production from the coalition .
number of refugees accepted into the u. s. falls below the rest of the world combined for the first time since 1980
but animal planet' s sunday' documentary' about the existence of mermaids was nothing but a hoax, it emerged today, a revelation that will likely disappoint the show' s record 3. 6 million viewers .
the straight - faced mermaids specials basically play like alien autopsy for a new generation, though at least the infamous fox special had “fact or fiction? ” as a nudge - nudge subtitle. both animal planet specials purportedly show video of mermaids in the greenland sea, with actors playing scientists. the specials also darkly suggest there’s government cover - up of mermaid evidence, complete with a spin - off site that says it’s been seized by the u. s. department of justice and the department of homeland security .
number of refugees accepted into the u. s. falls below the rest of the world combined for the first time ...
scientific american is part of springer nature, which owns or has commercial relations with thousands of scientific publications (many of them can be found at urltoken). scientific american maintains a strict policy of editorial independence in reporting developments in science to our readers .
strangely, though, mermaids twists the aah to fit the show’s story. early humans – who look like they came straight out of 2001: a space odyssey – settle down along a prehistoric shoreline. but not all of them stay. our ancestors head back to the inland forests, but the fictional mermaid ancestors remain on the beach and become fully aquatic within just a million years. (keep in mind that the transition between completely terrestrial and fully aquatic whales took 10 million years .) mermaids doesn’t use the aah to document the origin of our species, but alters the pseudoscientific idea to bring ichthyosapiens into our world .
it was august 2014 and i was flying home from the third international marine conservation congress in glasgow, scotland, where i has just chaired a session on the impact of fake documentaries on public understanding of science. when my seatmate—a fifth - grade schoolteacher—found out that i’m a marine biologist, she decided to share this insight with me .
the straight - faced mermaids specials (trailer below) basically play like alien autopsy for a new generation, though at least the infamous fox special had “fact or fiction? ” as a nudge - nudge subtitle. both animal planet specials purportedly show video of mermaids in the greenland sea, with actors playing scientists (credits). the specials also darkly suggest there’s government cover - up of mermaid evidence, complete with a spin - off site that says it’s been seized by the u. s. department of justice and the department of homeland security .
but the' scientist' was actually an actor and the' mermaid' in the footage was fake .
the reason i decided to sacrifice an hour and a half of my life to the tedious fiction of mermaids is that the show claimed to be partially based on the aquatic ape hypothesis. (some people say “aquatic ape theory, ” and this makes me want to punch them in the jeans. the aah is nonsense dressed up as science, and nowhere close to being a scientific theory .) from the press release :
mesmerising maps reveal record - breaking temperatures across the world as the earth experiences' one of the ...
he told abc news:' we wanted people to approach the story with a sense of possibility and a sense of wonder. hopefully that' s what mermaids allowed viewers to do…allowed them to suspend their disbelief.'
about 3 million years ago, mermaids traveled in pods and had to avoid giant sea predators. none were more fierce than megladon, an enormous prehistoric shark that fed on whales .
mermaids are a timeless curiosity... so let' s look back on what a spine - tingling year 2013 has been when it comes to our sea - borne brethren .
unfortunately, major cable networks have vastly greater reach than all but the biggest research institutes. this makes it incredibly difficult for scientists to mount a proportional response when their discipline, research area, or even their own lab and research, are used for fodder in these fabricated documentaries. though media empires like discovery communications have a reach that far exceeds the average citizen, social media and other web - based platforms have provided a venue through which knowledgeable parties can respond to this disinformation and boost the voices of subject experts who can respond directly to false of misleading claims. following the first airing of mermaids: the body found, my website, southern fried science, began a concerted effort to respond to that particular flavor of fake documentary. david shiffman and i published a guide to how scientists can respond and, more importantly, prepare, in the event that they find their research misrepresented through documentary and reality programs that are fabricated, either wholly or in part. there is no easy solution, and the success of many of these shows means that the fake documentary phenomenon is here to stay .
the two - hour scripted feature the cannibal in the jungle follows the story of an american scientist who was convicted of killing and cannibalizing two colleagues in the jungles of flores, indonesia in 1977 .
:
we wanted people to approach the story with a sense of possibility and a sense of wonder. hopefully that' s what' mermaids' allowed viewers to do... allowed them to suspend their disbelief .
this is a convenient twist on the aquatic ape myth. the traditional version of the story is that early humans waded into shallow bodies of water and adopted an amphibious lifestyle. over time, hominins became increasingly adapted to life at the water’s edge – aah proponents claim that our apparent lack of body hair, erect posture, and other aspects of our natural history are all attributable to an aquatic past. one of the movement’s chief advocates, elaine morgan, even used the aah to attack chauvinistic ideas about “man the hunter” prevalent during the 1960s and 1970s. chasing down prey on the savannas didn’t create humanity, she argued, but instead female hominins led the way into safe little pools where infants could cling to the flowing, floating locks of their australopithecine mothers .
a look at the code behind the page reveals it’s still held by the parent company of the animal planet channel, discovery communications, which bills itself as “the world’s # 1 nonfiction media company. ”
the shows were fake, though you could be forgiven if you didn’t realize that. animal planet, like many discovery communications properties, trades on its reputation for providing educational nature documentaries and lifestyle reality programs. the marketing for mermaids leaned heavily on that reputation. meanwhile, the disclaimer shown during the end credits flashed onscreen in tiny font for barely three seconds .
the problem is of course that the general public can’t be bothered to verify any of this information, and plenty simply take it at face value. they do take it seriously. if you go on google and go searching around for discussion of the program, the stuff you find will blow your mind, as people find reasons to believe a two - hour television special on the secret existence of mermaids. look a little longer and you’ll run across all sorts of cryptozoological believers. my favorites are the ones who shoot down each other’s theories as ridiculous and then offer even crazier opinions. “you’re a fool for believing the aquatic ape theory! anyone with half a brain knows that mermaids are the direct descendents of ‘nephilim, ’ the gigantic early ancestors of man that existed before the flood of noah! ” the statement to the left is an actual opinion that i read last night. i am not making this up—unlike the filmmakers .
“after the show ran, people were talking about mermaids a little more. it started popping up on social media, ” said spokeswoman keeley belva. “it was an interesting topic, so we posted a short explanation. maybe it will entice people to visit the urltoken website. ”
this wasn’t the first time animal planet presented fantasy as reality. in 2004, the discovery spin - off network aired dragons: a fantasy made real — an hour - and - a - half special about the evolution and biology of fire - breathing dragons. the speculative show hinged on the fabricated discovery of a dragon in the carpathian mountains, and, in a similar fashion, mermaids relied on imaginary forensic evidence (see the video above) and audio recordings to play out its story .
i thought this was a real documentary albeit the feeling that the three scientists involved in the interview were very well spoken (and had a strong eye contact with cameras, something only actors can do), until the moment when another
scientist
a dr. rodney webster appeared on screen. by golly, i recognized him from district 9, in which he also portrayed another scientist. the name of the actor is jason cope (on imdb). from then on, everything the' scientists' in the movie was all just plain theories and not actual occurrences. sure the bloop is real. sure the beaching were probably caused by sonar tests. and yes, there is an actual theory proposed about aquatic apes. but the mermaids? their sightings? the found skulls and x - rays conducted on them? all fake? at the end of the movie, the credits says
similarities to names are purely coincidental
. which means, none of those scientists actually exist. (google the names and university and you will find nothing). this is disappointing, considering that animal planet was broadcasting it, and i thought they should label the' movie' as fictional instead of playing it convincingly as a documentary only to have it rebuked by the credits .
“the websites we seize are part of what we call ‘operation in our sites, ’ a sustained law enforcement initiative to protect consumers by targeting counterfeit and piracy on the internet, ” said ice’s feinstein. “this operation is focused on counterfeit goods and piracy, not freedom of speech — including those regarding the existence of mermaids. ”
the version that i saw doesn’t even do viewers the courtesy of admitting that it’s fake until the credits are about to roll .
an internet meme made misleading comparisons between presidential donations and the sizes of the first ladies' staffs, calling the trumps
givers
and the obamas
takers .
i think wade makes a lot of good points here, and acknowledges mine. i especially like his last point–that he is revealing these fish so that we don’t have to fear them. hearing it from the host, it does make me think more highly of the show. now if i can just get in touch with the mermaids producers…
the phenomenon of' mermaids' has truly been a watershed – and a watercooler – moment for animal planet ,
animal planet president and general manager marjorie kaplan said of the ratings performance .
these extraordinary television specials have electrified, challenged & entertained television audiences and online fans alike .
as there' s obviously still an interest in this show, i' ll add my two penn' orth. the uk representative interviewed on the show was not even british. watch the show, listen to the guy talking; he' s there to add a supposed depth to the notion of mermaid conspiracies by stating that there' s nothing special in the' hm coastguard training video'. the notion being that the viewer is meant to shout
why are you hiding the truth? !
at the screen. listen. listen to his accent; he starts in a stereotypical old etonian civil servant - esque rp growl, but several times slips across the atlantic into a distinct us accent (his natural accent). this is because he is an american actor and not a british civil servant. how can anyone be even slightly doubtful of the pure hokum status of this show? oh, and the' mermaids' were so screamingly all cgi it' s just incredible that anyone was taken in. go look at how a fleshy mammalian body actually moves and undulates sometime. not at all like these faked cryptid jokes .
unlike works of pure fiction, the stories were framed around real events and real people and institutions. submarine blamed a real ferry accident, in which several passengers lost their lives, on a made - up shark; the search and rescue operators who performed admirably in their response to the accident had to issue a release disavowing discovery communications. actual shark scientists were looped into the shark week narrative, often filmed without full knowledge of the theme and purpose of the documentary. and noaa, of course, was directly accused of hiding evidence about the existence of mermaids. noaa was so inundated with complaints that it had to issue its own press release declaring that mermaids were not real and that there was no evidence of their existence .
i can' t understand why so many people were irked by this mermaid series. this is part two in the series and it' s very interesting with good animation too. for the people who didn' t like it because it was pseudo, guess what? mermaids aren' t real !
in remote parts of the world, dolphins and humans fish together... splitting the spoils! the humans will enter the water and call out to the wild dolphins who then drive the fish to the shore. no one is sure how it started... or who taught who to ...
it’s remarkable how well this fake documentary mimics actual programs claiming to reveal actual creatures. substitute mermaids for bigfoot, chupacabra, the loch ness monster, ghosts and aliens and it’s hard to make a distinction between what’s real but faked, and what’s really fake .
please, i write you to ask not to blur the line between real and fake for the sake of entertainment. science communicators have a hard enough time as it is setting the record straight and i genuinely like river monsters. i don’t want to see mermaids garner the same kind of attention that real, amazing animals do. but sadly they will, as long as you keep mythologizing everything with a fin .
“the phenomenon of mermaids has truly been a watershed – and a watercooler – moment for animal planet, ” said animal planet president marjorie kaplan, presumably with some degree of reluctance. “these extraordinary television specials have electrified, challenged and entertained television audiences and online fans alike. ”
mermaids is a documentary originally aired as mermaids : the body found on american tv channels animal planet ( may 27 , 2012 ) and discovery channel ( june 17 , 2012 ) . it tells a story of a scientific team 's investigative efforts to uncover the source behind mysterious underwater recordings of an unidentified marine body . the show presents the generally discredited aquatic ape hypothesis as evidence that mermaids exist , along with a digitally manufactured video . a sequel broadcast called mermaids : the new evidence aired may 26 , 2013 . mermaids : the body found , its sequel mermaids : the new evidence and several other similar programs dealing with other outrageous claims , such as the channel 4 's the last dragon and the fictional elements of the discovery channel 's shark week dealing with a purportedly discovered " monster " shark in megalodon : the monster shark lives are all recent examples of what is known as docufiction or a mockumentary , in which documentary style and programming elements are combined with fictional - or sometimes less egregiously speculative - science and fiction . this type of programming receives particular criticism when , as in the original broadcast of mermaids : the body found , there are only a few , easily missed disclaimers to indicate the speculative nature of the programming . on the contrary , the serious tone of the majority of the presentation implied that it was a factual documentary . the first airings of the two mermaids programs apparently fooled millions of people and also drew some of animal planet 's largest audiences ever . 
mermaids is a documentary originally aired as mermaids: the body found on american tv channels animal planet (may 27, 2012) and discovery channel (june 17, 2012). it tells a story of a scientific team's investigative efforts to uncover the source behind mysterious underwater recordings of an unidentified marine body. the show presents the generally discredited aquatic ape hypothesis as evidence that mermaids exist, along with a digitally manufactured video. a sequel broadcast called mermaids: the new evidence aired may 26, 2013. mermaids: the body found, its sequel mermaids: the new evidence and several other similar programs dealing with other outrageous claims, such as the channel 4's the last dragon and the fictional elements of the discovery channel's shark week dealing with a purportedly discovered " monster " shark in megalodon: the monster shark lives are all recent examples of what is known as docufiction or a mockumentary, in which documentary style and programming elements are combined with fictional - or sometimes less egregiously speculative - science and fiction. this type of programming receives particular criticism when, as in the original broadcast of mermaids: the body found, there are only a few, easily missed disclaimers to indicate the speculative nature of the programming. on the contrary, the serious tone of the majority of the presentation implied that it was a factual documentary. the first airings of the two mermaids programs apparently fooled millions of people and also drew some of animal planet's largest audiences ever.
mermaids is a documentary originally aired as mermaids: the body found on american tv channels animal planet (may 27, 2012) and discovery channel (june 17, 2012). it tells a story of a scientific team's investigative efforts to uncover the source behind mysterious underwater recordings of an unidentified marine body. the show presents the generally discredited aquatic ape hypothesis as evidence that mermaids exist, along with a digitally manufactured video. a sequel broadcast called mermaids: the new evidence aired may 26, 2013. mermaids: the body found, its sequel mermaids: the new evidence and several other similar programs dealing with other outrageous claims, such as the channel 4's the last dragon and the fictional elements of the discovery channel's shark week dealing with a purportedly discovered " monster " shark in megalodon: the monster shark lives are all recent examples of what is known as docufiction or a mockumentary, in which documentary style and programming elements are combined with fictional - or sometimes less egregiously speculative - science and fiction. this type of programming receives particular criticism when, as in the original broadcast of mermaids: the body found, there are only a few, easily missed disclaimers to indicate the speculative nature of the programming. on the contrary, the serious tone of the majority of the presentation implied that it was a factual documentary. the first airings of the two mermaids programs apparently fooled millions of people and also drew some of animal planet's largest audiences ever.