Bigfoot in popular culture

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bigfoot, whether it is a real creature or not, has had a demonstrable impact as a cultural phenomenon, and closely related genres such as yeti fiction have also appeared.

1 Advertising
2 Conventions
3 Films
4 Games
5 Internet
6 Literature
7 Law
8 Music
9 Television
10 See also
11 References
12 External links

[edit] Advertising

The meanings of the words, "Bigfoot" or "Sasquatch", are quickly understood by most individuals (at least in North America) and have been used in advertising and applied to many products or services, such as pizzas, beef jerky, skateboards, skis, an Internet search engine, computer hard drive series, gas station, Kokanee beer, a monster truck, and the mascot of the basketball team, the Seattle SuperSonics.^[1]

A sasquatch is also a lead character in a series of television commercials for Kokanee beer, in which a conservation officer and his bumbling sidekick are always thwarted by the beer-snitching 'squatch.

Jack Link's brand beef jerkey has produced a series of commercials entitled, "Messin With Sasquatch." In the commercials, men appearing to be hikers play tricks on Sasquatch (such as unscrewing the top of a salt shaker, causing salt to spill all over when bigfoot goes to pour some on the food he is cooking). The end of the commercials usually show Sasquatch reacting angrily to the pranks, chasing and sometimes even causing harm to the hikers.

[edit] Conventions

There are annual Bigfoot-related conventions, and the creature plays a role in Pacific Northwest tourism, such as the annual "Sasquatch Daze" held for several years in Harrison Hot Springs, British Columbia. Napier writes, "Bigfoot in some quarters of North America has become big business ... It can no longer be considered simply as a natural phenomenon that can be studied with the techniques of a naturalist; the entrepreneurs have moved in and folklore has become fakelore" (Pyle, 160).

[edit] Films

Snowbeast (1977)^[2]
The Capture of Bigfoot (1979)^[3]
Revenge of Bigfoot (1979)^[4]
Bigfoot (1987)^[5]
Harry and the Hendersons (1987)
Little Bigfoot (1997)^[6]
Little Bigfoot 2: The Journey Home (1997)^[7]
Sasquatch Hunters (1997)^[8]
Ape Canyon (2002)^[9]
The Untold (2002) ^[10]
Sasquatch Hunters (2005)^[11]
The Unknown (2005)^[12]
Sasquatch Mountain, A Original Sci-Fi movie seen on the Sci-Fi Channel.
Sasquatch appears in the movie Tenacious D in: The Pick of Destiny while Jack Black is under the influence of shrooms.

[edit] Games

In the computer game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas various reports posted on various message boards claimed to spot Bigfoot in a random section of the ficitonal state San Andreas.

In the Monster in My Pocket game for the NES, Bigfoot is the boss of stage 2 of the video game, wandering about in the freezer until struck, after which he charges. In the video game and most other Monster in My Pocket materials other than the comic book, Bigfoot has white fur.

In SSX 3 One of the many secret characters you can play is Bigfoot. By completeing all 3 peak goals or typing in "callhimgeorge" it will unlock North West Legend. He uses his enourmous feet as a snowboard.

The adventure game Sam & Max Hit the Road involves a search for a sasquatch that had escaped from a traveling freak show.

In Tony Hawk's Underground 2 Bigfoot is an unlockable secret character on the final level, Skatopia.

[edit] Internet

Several Internet cartoons created by Adam Phillips contain a Bigfoot, and its child who features in its own episode: Littlefoot. The Littlefoot is an inquisitive creature and the parent is a protective caring animal who comes to its child's rescue when threatened. Both live in the fictional forest of Brackenwood.

The Homestar Runnerwebstie has one Strong Bad email where Strong Bad tells about a Bear-Holding-A-Shark, the footage shown is allmost exactly the same as the Patterson-Gimlin film

[edit] Literature

Many have written on the subject, demonstrating a broad spectrum of approaches from lurid tabloids to a small body of serious scholarly work. The Weekly World News occasionally runs a story on the mysterious creature.

Monster describes the capture of a woman by a group of bigfoot, who are being chased by a similar animal later revealed be the product of a science experiment).

There is a Marvel Comics character named Sasquatch, a mutant who transforms from an odinary-looking human into a creature resembling a sasquatch.

Bigfoot is Monster in My Pocket #17. He appears briefly among the evil monsters in issue #4, choking Werewolf.

A "Skunk Ape" features in an issue of the comic book The Goon, a creature manipulated into the service of the resident supervillain by its love of blueberry pies.

A Bigfoot was depicted as a relentless and brutal killer in the graphic novel Bigfoot by Steve Niles and Rob Zombie.

Toronto-based Graham Roumieu has written and illustrated two comical books about Bigfoot. The first, Me Write Book: It Bigfoot Memoir, is followed by In Me Own Words: The Autobiography of Bigfoot.

The short story "Dissertation" by Chuck Palahniuk (found in his book Haunted) is about a tribe of people who carry a genetic trait that transforms them into sasquatches.

[edit] Law

Regarding Sasquatch, Skamania County, Washington passed a law in 1969 that "any wilful, wanton slaying of such creatures shall be deemed a felony", subject to substantial fine and/or imprisonment. The fact that this legislation was passed on April 1 did not escape notice, but County Commissioner Conrad Lundy said that "this is not an April Fool's Day joke ... there is reason to believe such an animal exists" (Pyle, 278). Hunter and Dahinden record their own "speculation that Skamania County authorities had their ears tuned much more to the music of a publicity bandwagon than to any song of distress" for Bigfoot (Hunter and Dahinden, 135-136). Notwithstanding, the ordinance was amended in 1984 to preclude an insanity defense and to consider such a killing homicide if the creature was proven by the coroner to be humanoid (Pyle, 279).

[edit] Music

"The Bigfoot Song", [1] also known as "I Still Believe in Bigfoot" written and recorded by Bigfoot proponent and satirist Danny Freyer, following the passing of is somewhat of an underground anthem of Bigfoot supporters, and has been used to introduce Bigfoot-related talk and pop culture shows and news segments on CNN, late night talk radio, and even in on BBC Radio in London.

The comedy team and Band Tenacious D have a friendly relationship with a Sasquatch in their television show episode "Death of a Dream" in which his existence verifies their perceived realities of the "rock star mythos," after a roady attempts to dissuade them from the Rock and Roll profession. In the episode, they sing an original song about the sasquatch. Also, they have a different song written about him on their album "The Pick of Destiny" entitled "Papagenu (He's My Sassafrass)," in which the Sasquatch is depicted as Jack Black's character's father.

In the song "Monster" by The Automatic, Bigfoot makes an appearance - alongside the Loch Ness monster and a UFO.

[edit] Television

There was a short-lived television series based on Harry and the Hendersons, with the same title.
Bigfoot and Wildboy was a recurring segment in the 1970s children's program The Krofft Supershow produced by Sid and Marty Krofft.
Sasquatch or Bigfoot appeared in three instances in the The Six Million Dollar Man television series.
In the Rugrats episode "The Legend of Satchmo," (Season 3, Episode 4) the Sasquatch is mistakenly referred to as "Satchmo." Whic prompts several characters to ask "The trumpet player?", with the reponse, "No, the monster!"
In The Simpsons episode The Call of the Simpsons, Homer was mistaken as Bigfoot when he and his family were on a camping trip.
In an episode of Futurama, the cast takes a camping trip to the woods where Fry is certain he'll see Bigfoot. Later in the episode, Bigfoot is actually found.
In the Family Guy episode "I Never Met the Dead Man", when an angry crowd is gathering around Peter, he points and says "Look over there! It's Bigfoot!" Bigfoot is indeed there, and responds that this is Peter's mess, not his, and runs into the bush.
In the 2005 special of All Grown Up "Interview with a Campfire" Dil claimed to see bigfoot, apparently he did because when he turned around, bigfoot ran between two trees.
In The Goodies episode 'Bigfoot', Bigfoot is revealed to be Tim Brooke-Taylor
In the 2005 episode of Duck Dodgers (TV series) titled The Six Wazillion Dollar Duck, Duck Dodgers is injured and repaired with "cyborganic" parts, a reference to bionics. A cyborganic Bigfoot appears in the episode, a reference to the appearances of a bionic Bigfoot in The Six Million Dollar Man.