Awesome or Off-Putting is a weekly delve into cryptozoology, ufology, aliens, medical marvels, scientific wonders, secret societies, government conspiracies, cults, ghosts, EVPs, ancient artifacts, strange facts, odd sightings or just the plain unexplainable.

When most people see Bigfoot he’s generally lumbering across a road, staring from a distance or getting really upset with John Lithgow after finding dozens of animal heads in the Lithgow family coat closet. Also, people often picture the great beast nibbling on a Mars bar.

What’s that you say? That’s not a typical Bigfoot scenario you say? Well, tell that to the guy who caught it on video.

Bigfoot’s an odd legend. A giant hair-covered neanderthal with a monkey’s IQ who doesn’t wrestle professionally? Well that’s just a bit too much. People have caught him on film though – remember the Honey Island Swamp Monster? It was caught on film in the late 70s, allegedly, and it sure looked Bigfoot-ish. That meaning, of course that you never get a clear shot of the thing that’s moving through the woods like 100 yards from the camera.

Today’s topic is similar to that – but with a slight twist. The big beast was filmed with a thermal camera. We’ll let Mike Greene, the man who hit the record button, tell you about it in his own words as found on MyFox8.com:

“”The image is the first comprehensive thermal image of a Sasquatch? even though I admit that it’s blurry,” said Greene. In the video, Greene claims you can see a big creature come out of the woods and grab a candy bar that was set up to attract the Sasquatch. “It can’t be anything else, I mean, it literally can’t be anything else,” said Greene.

“Greene said many people have said the image is just a guy in a fat suit or gorilla suit, but he claims the thermal image proves it’s something different. “The heat signature – which is what you’re looking at?the heat signature would be completely different. It would be splotchy,” said Greene. “You could put a guy in a Bigfoot costume and fool night vision, because that’s just like a video camera. But if you put a thermal image on him, that’s going to look completely different.”"

He’s got a point, right? A guy in a monkey suit would look pretty warm where the body is, but there’s be cooler spots around the edges of the costume where the suit was bigger than the body inside it. The only way we can think of that the monkey outline could be so uniformly colored on the heat scan is if the guy wearing the suit ran himself through a pizza oven. We kind of wish Greene had filmed more of the area to show that there’s no glowing Dominoes logo nestled under a pine tree anywhere.

Yes, yes we’d be far more comfortable had Greene done that. But you know, you should decide for yourself:

Awesome or Off-Putting is a weekly delve into cryptozoology, ufology, aliens, medical marvels, scientific wonders, secret societies, government conspiracies, cults, ghosts, EVPs, myths, ancient artifacts, religion, strange facts, odd sightings or just the plain unexplainable.

What a great name, eh? The Batsquatch – part bat, part Sasquatch. It’s like a marriage made in cryptozoological heaven. It exists though – allegedly. It’s been sighted around Mt. St. Helens in the US, and according to witness report – its exactly what is sound like.

Batsquatch is a rare paranormal anomaly that we’ve never previously heard of. So rare, in fact, that its possible he could be lumped into the exact same category as the Clutchbone. Here’s how AmericanMonsters.com describes the creature:

“Purportedly living in the shadows of Washington’s colossal Mt. Saint Helens, are a species of purple-skinned, nocturnal primates, which allegedly have pterodactyl-like wings, blood-red eyes, and a head which is said to resemble that of a simian synthesized with large bat. Hence its name… Batsquatch.”

Before you get too excited you should know ol’ Batty’s only been seen once – in 1994 by a man named Butch Whittaker. Of course, only having one sighting allows plenty of room to call it all a simple and obvious hoax – if there weren’t any pictures. Whittaker did allegedly snap some off, though. These pics aren’t available online, apparently, but all the sites relating the encounter state the man definitely took some.

Obviously Whittaker has his detractors – and some of them appear to be from the paranormal community, too. These paranormal naysayers aren’t necessarily calling the man a liar – they just think he’s mistaken some other paranormal phenomenon for the previously unidentified Batsquatch.

Some say he probably saw Mothman – the harbinger of doom. Other’s think it may have been the Jersey Devil, apparently on a sight-seeing vacation or something. Still, others claim it could have been a Chupacabra, or just a regular Sasquatch strapped comfortably into a hang glider.

There’s also at least one more down to earth explanation, as found, again, on AmericanMonsters.com:

“Other researchers have contended that these animals may not be flying primates at all, but a large (and heretofore unknown) species of North American fruit bat. That having been said, Batsquatch has been known to display a decidedly carnivorous disposition, and numerous chickens, goats, hogs and cows in the region have turned up missing, although there has been no direct evidence linking the creature to this phenomenon.”

So does Batsquatch exist? We’re leaning towards the probably not – but if Butch were to make his alleged photos available online it could change our thinking. And if he can’t – its probably because the pics never existed in the first place.

You! Follow hecklerspray on Twitter!

Awesome or Off-Putting is a weekly delve into cryptozoology, ufology, aliens, medical marvels, scientific wonders, secret societies, government conspiracies, cults, ghosts, EVPs, myths, ancient artifacts, religion, strange facts, odd sightings or just the plain unexplainable.

Southern Fried Bigfoot is a sasquatch documentary, and although it doesn’t contain a single delicious apeman recipe, it does contain a few bigfoot tidbits that we’d never ever heard before. For instance – did you know these animals are said to defecate out their mouths? That’s not true, actually.  But on the next page we’ll tell you some SFB-info that’s supposed to be.

Over the years we’ve noticed that sasquatch footprints fall into two categories – those with five toes and those with less than five toes. This we’ve often thought to be a weakness in some encounter-stories that might be fabricated. Southern Fried Bigfoot, however, has been kind enough to toss a reasonable explanation in the mix.

First of all – prints found in the American Pacific north-west always have five toes – its the ones found in the south that have only three or four. Still – if ol’ BF exists at all the prints found in both locals should look the same, right? Then why don’t they? Inbreeding. That’s right, inbreeding. Although we could toss in countless southern ‘when in rome’ jokes right about here we’ll simply state that apparently due to a smaller population, the hairy behemoths have been forced to turn to their cousins for sexual delights. Or their sisters. Or their moms.

It’s disgusting, really.

The next thing we took away from Southern Fried Bigfoot was a list of monster-legends that we hadn’t previously heard of. Sure, they mentioned the Lake Worth Monster and the Honey Island Swamp Monster, both of which we’ve kept you all too informed on in the past. But there were others brought to our attention. Sweet mother of Moses, were there ever.

Here are two pulled from Southernfriedbigfoot.com:

The Fouke Monster:
The hairy creature that has been sighted around Fouke, Arkansas for decades and was the inspiration for the cult classic film “The Legend of Boggy Creek.”

The Skunk Ape:
The foul-smelling creature that is said to haunt the Everglades in Florida.

The Skunk Ape, as we’ve always understood it – is kind of a generic term for the creature like ‘Bigfoot.’ The Fouke Monster, on the other hand, is a legend about a particular creature. Wikipedia will expand a touch:

The Fouke Monster is a legendary cryptid reported near the town of Fouke in Miller County, Arkansas during the early 1970s, where it was accused of attacking a local family. Initial sightings of the creature were concentrated in the Jonesville/Boggy Creek area, where it was blamed for the death of local livestock. Later, sightings were made several hundred miles to the north and the east of Fouke.

Southern Fried Sasquatch is a pretty good watch. You curious to see it? Well lucky for you if you have the Documentary Channel you can:

Tues    June 16, 2009    9:00 PM EST/8:00 PM CST (encore at 12 E/11 C)
Fri    June 26, 2009    3:00 PM EST/2:00 PM CST

You! Follow hecklerspray on Twitter!