Lair of the Beast

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Column: The Lighter Side of Bigfoot

Sasquatch Humor

By Nick Redfern June 20, 2009

The Lighter Side of Bigfoot
© 2009

Back in the latter part of 2004, I gave a lecture on my monster-hunting pursuits at the annual conference of the Texas Bigfoot Research Conservancy – a highly-motivated group dedicated to solving the long-time mystery of the hairy man-beast known as Sasquatch.

While I was at the conference, I had the opportunity to meet a man named Scott Herriott. Scott was a stand-up comedian for eleven years and worked at Tech TV for three-and-a-half years as the host of Internet Tonight.

At the Friday night dinner that preceded the conference, Scott revealed that he had very grave doubts about the authenticity of the famous “Patterson Film” of 1967 that purports to show a striding Bigfoot; but he was in little doubt that something strange was indeed lurking within the deep forests of the Pacific Northwest of the United States.

Scott did not limit his experiences with Bigfoot to simply talking about the creature and informing the faithful of his personal theories, however. Rather, he went a step further and produced two DVDs on the subject of Bigfoot-hunting, namely: Journey toward Squatchdom and Squatching.

At the conference, Scott mercilessly promoted and negotiated the sale of his wares to eager buyers of all things Bigfoot-based. And I can state firmly and accurately that he did so in such a fine fashion that he would have had no problem in becoming a prime candidate for a starring role on Donald Trump’s The Apprentice.

Both of Scott’s DVDs were monumentally funny and entertaining – but not in a cruel sense. Essentially, they saw Scott and a variety of his buddies, work colleagues, and family members running around forests, drinking beer, visiting the locations of alleged Bigfoot encounters and having an uproarious good time in the process – but always uncovering some genuinely intriguing data, meeting credible eyewitnesses, and securing friend-of-a-friend-style reports from both down-to-earth characters and the occasional, and inevitable, genial oddball.

My own personal experience has been that many investigators of unsolved mysteries such as Bigfoot are openly hostile towards anything that – even in an affectionate way – pokes fun at their subject. So be it.

But for those people such as me who enjoy getting entertained at the same time as actually learning something of actual value of a cryptozoological nature, I concluded that Scott’s products were the absolute perfect place to start.

Both of the productions had a fun, “road-trip” feel to them, and Scott had a dry and cutting sense of humor. Try and imagine a comedic episode of The X-Files carefully intertwined with a slightly less intense version of Fear And Loathing In Las Vegas, and all wrapped up in a monster hunt with your friends, a lot of beer and not much else, and you’ll get the picture.

To his credit, Scott steered clear of doing an in-depth and mind-numbing case-by-case analysis of the Bigfoot controversy (in a particularly amusing scene, he decides to avoid a multi-mile-trek through the woods to the scene of the Patterson film purely because it would mean having to take some exercise); but instead chose to deliver an utterly unique slice of Americana in a fashion that few had ever successfully achieved.

Always fun – and frequently hilariously so, too - certainly informative and thought provoking, and produced by someone with a deep passion and a great affection for his subject matter, both DVDs were essential viewing.

And for me, five years later, they still are – not least for the fact that I got to meet (on-screen, at least) Scott’s girlfriend, mom and dad, and his pet dog, the latter playing an integral and crucially important role in Scott’s valiant attempts to utilize high-tech camera wizardry as a part of his Sasquatch quest.

If you want a slight departure from the average on-screen Bigfoot hunt/investigation, I heartily recommend Scott’s productions: you’ll laugh and learn something at the same time. I guarantee.

You can find all about Scott’s work at the following link:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scott_Herriott

Go on: laugh a little at Bigfoot!

Nick Redfern is the author of many books, including There’s something in the Woods; Three Men Seeking Monsters; and the forthcoming Science Fiction Secrets.