Bigfoot in popular culture

Bigfoot or Sasquatch, is a fictional ape-like creature purportedly inhabiting forests, mainly in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. More than fifty years have passed since the first supposed sightings of Bigfoot were reported in California. The character of Bigfoot has been used frequently in popular culture including film, TV, advertising, and literature. Bigfoot has also been the subject of several tourism campaigns.

Advertising

"Bigfoot" and "Sasquatch" are pop culture terms that have been used in advertising across many different products and services, such as pizzas, beef jerky, skateboards, skis, an Internet search engine, a computer hard drive series, gas stations, Kokanee beer, Bigfoot Shadows award winning wine^[1] and a monster truck.

• Jack Link's brand of beef jerky produces a series of commercials entitled "Messin' with Sasquatch". In the commercials, hikers play tricks on Sasquatch. The end of the commercials typically show Sasquatch reacting angrily to the pranks, chasing, and sometimes picking up the hikers and throwing them into the air or objects.^[2]
• Game camera manufacturer the Bushnell Corporation, along with Field & Stream, launched a promotional contest over a photo taken in September 2007, by deer hunter Rick Jacobs of Pennsylvania^[3] on his game camera of what some believe could be a young Sasquatch.^[4] More skeptical viewers deemed it a bear.^[5] The companies offered a one million dollar reward for a verifiable photo of Bigfoot taken on a game camera.^[6]
• The food chain Red Robin ran a television commercial in which a hiker speaks the words "Red Robin" and hears a reply of "Yummm" from Bigfoot.^[7]
• The restaurant chain Boston Pizza used "Louie" the sasquatch in a series of television commercials around 2007. Ultimately they decided to drop the character as a promotional gimmick.^[8]
• Kokanee beer used "Mel" the sasquatch in a series of commercials pitting him against the "Kokanee Ranger" played by John Novak. In 2004, a Mel The Sasquatch statue (complete with him holding a case of Kokanee Beer) was built in Creston, British Columbia. The Columbia Brewery Company (who owns Kokanee beer) paid for half the construction costs.^[9]

Films

• Bigfoot (1970)
• The Geek (1971)
• The Legend of Boggy Creek (1972)
• Sasqua (1975, D:Channon Scott)
• Bigfoot Man or Beast (1975)
• The Mysterious Monsters (1976)
• Creature From Black Lake (1976)
• Snowbeast (1977)^[10]
• Sasquatch, the Legend of Bigfoot (1977)
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)
• Manbeast, Myth Or Monster? (1978)
• Curse of Bigfoot (1978)
• The Capture of Bigfoot (1979)^[11]
• Revenge of Bigfoot (1979)^[12]
• Night of the Demon (1980)
• Boggy Creek II: And the Legend Continues (1985)
• Bigfoot (1987)^[13]
• Cry Wilderness (1987)^[14]
• Harry and the Hendersons (1987)
• Drawing Flies (1996), A movie produced by Kevin Smith. Starring Jason Lee as the character Donner who wants to find Sasquatch.^[15]
• A Goofy Movie (1995)
• Little Bigfoot (1997)^[16]
• Little Bigfoot 2: The Journey Home (1997)^[17]
• Sasquatch Hunters (1997),^[18]
• Ape Canyon (2002)^[19]Whatcom County
• The Untold (2002)^[20]
• They Call Him Sasquatch (2003)^[21]
• Sasquatch Hunters (2005)^[22]
• The Unknown (2005)^[23]
• Stomp! Shout! Scream! (2005)^[24]
• Bigfoot (2006)^[25]
• Abominable (2006)
• Bigfoot (2006)^[26]
• Sasquatch Mountain (2006), a made-for-TV movie from the Sci-Fi Channel.
• Tenacious D in The Pick of Destiny (2006)
• The Sasquatch Gang (2007)
• TMNT (2007)
• Noah's Ark (2007)
• Strange Wilderness (2008)
• Not Your Typical Bigfoot Movie (2008)^[27]
• The Wild Man of the Navidad (2009), released by IFC Films
• Boggy Creek (2009)^[28]
• Momo (2009)^[29]
• Letters from the Big Man (2011)^[30]
• The Erickson Project (2011)^[31]
• Bigfoot: The Lost Coast Tapes (2012)
• Bigfoot (2012)
• Hotel Transylvania (2012)
• Willow Creek (2013)
• Feed the Gods (2014)
• Exists (2014)^[32]
• The Legend of Grassman (2014)^[33]
• Something in the Woods (2015)^[34]
• Valley of the Sasquatch (2015)^[35]
• Sassquatch: Return of the Queen (2015)^[36]
• Gimme Head: the Tale of the Cuyahoga Valley Bigfoot (2016)^[37]
• The Bigfoot Project (2017)^[38]
• The Son of Bigfoot (2017)
• Missing Link (2019)
• Freddie Goes To Washington (2021)
• Mike Quast (2001). Big Footage: A History of Claims for the Sasquatch on Film. self-published. p. 132.

Games

• The interactive robot from Mattel called the BIGFOOT Monster comes with a wireless remote control to burp, chew, throw a ball and do exercises.
• In Castlevania Dawn of Sorrow the yeti's sprite is very similar to a photograph of Bigfoot.
• In the Darkstalkers series, Sasquatch is a playable character who lives in a village of other Sasquatches deep in the Canadian Rockies.
• The adventure game Sam & Max Hit the Road involves a search for a Sasquatch that had escaped from a traveling freak show.
• In Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare Bigfoot makes an appearance, able to be hunted down with an achievement referring to the Bigfoot myth in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas above.
• In The Simpsons arcade game, Bigfoot is an opponent which players encounter during the 3.5 Springfield Butte level.
• In Ski Resort Tycoon you can create an exhibition in which you may display a captured Sasquatch.
• In Tony Hawk's Underground 2, when unlocked, Bigfoot is a playable character.
• In Zoo Tycoon players can unlock Bigfoot which costs $10,000.
• In Poptropica cryptids island, players spot bigfoot in the Pacific Northwest and have to find where he lives.
• In Tiger Woods PGA Tour 2004, Bigfoot is seen hiding behind a tree on one of the holes as an Easter egg.
• In Assassin's Creed III, the young assassin Connor is told stories of a tall, hairy figure who steals from hunter's traps. This starts a side quest, where the player is tasked with finding out the truth about this story.
• In Grand Theft Auto: V, Bigfoot is seen in the game's "Predator" mission. After finishing the game 100% you'll be treated to a random Mission where you'll actually get to hunt down Bigfoot, although it turns out to be a man in a suit.
• In The Sims 2: Bon Voyage expansion pack, a Bigfoot sim can be found on a secret vacation lot. He can be asked to move in and get a job, though he can never marry or have children.

Law

Skamania County, Washington passed a law regarding Bigfoot in 1969 declaring that "any willful, 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."^[39] Hunter and Dahinden mention 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.^[40] 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.^[41]

Complete copies of legislation (May 2015) at http://www.skamaniacounty.org/commissioners/homepage/ordinances-2.^[42]

In response to Al Magnussen from the Mt. Baker Chamber of Commerce, Whatcom County, Washington, an Agenda Bill was drafted (92-247) on 6/9/91, which unanimously passed a resolution declaring Whatcom County a Sasquatch Protection and Refuge Area.^[43]

Literature

Many have written on the subject, demonstrating a broad spectrum of approaches from a small body of serious scholarly work to lurid tabloids, such as the Weekly World News. The Gwaii, published by Arcana Studio, is an award winning^[44] children's graphic novel that features a sasquatch named Tanu searching for his mother and tribe in the Canadian wilderness. John Prufrock, the hero of the comic book Proof, is a Bigfoot who works for a secret agency that hunts and captures other cryptids. The comic, an ongoing series, was written by Alex Grecian and illustrated by Riley Rossmo. It was published in Image Comics from October 2007 to May 2011.^[45][46] "Donations to Clarity", a 2011 novel by Noah Baird, tells the story of a Bigfoot who falls in love with a Bigfoot hoaxer.^[47] The Sasquatch appears in the Italian comic series Tex (as a huge wild man with thaumaturgical powers)^[48] and Martin Mystère. In the non-canon Star Wars Tales comic "Into the Great Unknown" - in which the Millennium Falcon, after a blind hyperspace jump, crash-lands on what appears to be Endor but is in fact the Pacific Northwest around the time of Lewis and Clark, resulting in Han Solo's death at the hands of the natives and the eventual discovery of his body by Indiana Jones (who is disturbed by something "eerily familiar" about the remains) - "Sasquatch" is actually Chewbacca. One of the main characters from the Canadian Marvel Comics superhero team Alpha Flight is Sasquatch. Famed alternate history author Harry Turtledove has written a humorous Sasquatch story titled "Typecasting" (2016), published online here. The version of Bigfoot appearing in A Goofy Movie (1995) reappears in the comic strip "Picture Perfect" of the Brandon J. Santigo webcomic Erma, playing with Erma Williams, the series' title character. The series is published in conjunction with Outcast Studios.^[49] In the poem "Satch" by Jeannette Allée (Fence literary magazine, Vol. 8,1&2, Summer 2005), Bigfoot is a metaphor for how individuals childishly hide from their own talents, desires, love.

Sasquatch Books is the largest publishing house in the Pacific Northwest. Its logo features a Sasquatch paw print.^[50]

Music

Bigfoot has been addressed in American song and music, with both songs written about and by Bigfoot enthusiasts, as well as music incorporating what are claimed to be or supposed to be recordings of Bigfoot sounds made in nature.

• "The Bigfoot Song:I Still Believe in Bigfoot", by singer/songwriter Danny Freyer, has become somewhat of an anthem for Bigfoot enthusiasts since it was first released in 2005, and is used in the closing credits of a film forthcoming production titled "American Bigfoot," which is directed by American comedian Bobcat Goldwait. The songs lyrics include, "I sill believe in Bigfoot/Don't care what they say/Still believe in apple pie and the good ol' U.S.A," and were written in response to a news article following the death of Ray Wallace, the man who claimed responsibility for finding Bigfoot evidence. The article quoted Wallace's son stating that his father had perpetrated a hoax, carving the footprints himself. The song highlights the desire of many Bigfoot enthusiasts to believe in Bigfoot, regardless of scientific evidence or lack thereof.

The song "Bigfoot" by the Winnipeg indie-rock band The Weakerthans is about the frustration and humiliation of a man who is purported to have seen a Bigfoot.

Podcasts

• The Adventure Zone, a popular real-play RPG podcast, features Bigfoot as a side character in its Amnesty campaign, set in West Virginia.^[51]

Sports

• Bigfoot is the name of the first series of monster trucks. In 1975, Bob Chandler created the original truck, which he named after his driving style rather than its characteristically large tires.
• Squatch was the mascot of the Seattle SuperSonics, who were a professional basketball franchise that was based in Seattle, Washington and played in the NBA from 1967 until 2008.^[52]
• Quatchi, one of three mascots for the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, is portrayed as a "young sasquatch who comes from the mysterious forests of Canada".^[53]

Television

• The Six Million Dollar Man/The Bionic Woman featured three separate stories (two of them two-part episodes) featuring a bionic Bigfoot which was created by advanced aliens. In the first two-part episode, the creature was played by André the Giant while in the latter episodes he was played by Ted Cassidy.
• The Beachcombers featured a season 2, episode 2 storyline titled "The Sasquatch Walks By Night", in which a mysterious bigfoot is sighted but turns out to be a hoax.
• Bigfoot and Wildboy, which started as a segment of the second season of the Krofft Supershow before spinning off into a series, has the title character joined by a young orphan.
• Harry and the Hendersons was a 72 episode show that ran from 1991 to 1993 and was based on the film of the same name.
• In the Canadian TV show Trailer Park Boys one of the characters frequently mispronounces Sasquatch as a "samsquanch" and in one episode beats up another character wrapped in a fur blanket to resemble a "samsquanch".
• Sasquatch was also featured in the Tenacious D (The Greatest Band in the World) TV show and wanted to join the band but was unable to. Sasquatch did, however, cause Jack Black and Kyle Gass regained their trust in the rock star mythos.
• Bigfoot makes an appearance in a Futurama episode entitled "Spanish Fry", where Fry attempts to find Bigfoot.
• In the TV series The Invisible Man, the title character of Darien Fawkes is turned invisible by a chemical derived from Bigfoot; Bigfoot has escaped detection over the centuries by turning invisible.
• In The Simpsons episode "The Call of the Simpsons", Homer gets covered in mud and is mistaken for Bigfoot.
• In The Newsroom episode "I'll Fix You", news researchers discuss and (often jokingly) debate the reality of Bigfoot as a future story for the news.
• The iCarly episode "iBelieve in Bigfoot" focuses on the main characters visiting a forest in search of Bigfoot.
• Finding Bigfoot is a show on Animal Planet following a team of BFRO members searching for the elusive and "ninja-like" creature.
• In The California Raisin Show, the Raisins, sick and tired of autograph hounds and obsessive fans, elect to go camping in the deep woods for a much needed vacation. One of the Raisins tells of a Native American (portrayed as potatoes) legend of a monster called "Sasquash". In the fruit & vegetable manner of the show, the Raisins come across a race of gigantic anthropomorphic squash and appease them by performing an impromptu concert, then return to civilization leaving a boombox of their music and an autograph for the Bigfoot-type creatures.
• Bigfoot makes an appearance in the "Summer Camp!" episode of the family comedy series The Aquabats! Super Show!, turning out to be the boyfriend of a female shapeshifting "Were-Ape" which has been terrorizing a summer camp.
• In the Brickleberry episode "Steve's Bald", one of the park rangers, Steve, is mistaken for Bigfoot after overuse of a black-market baldness cure leaves his whole body covered in hair, playing along with the misconception until being accused of killing Steve - prompting a chase which leads to the discovery, and death, of the real Bigfoot.
• The Penn & Teller: Bullshit! episode "Cryptozoology" discusses Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster.
• The Spike reality show 10 Million Dollar Bigfoot Bounty has nine teams trying to find proof of Bigfoot's existence.
• In the Littlest Pet Shop episode "Littlest Bigfoot", Penny Ling encounters a juvenile bigfoot in a forested National Park. Her friends are skeptical of her findings, until they encounter the creature themselves later in the episode.
• In the Australian YouTube series The Big Lez Show, Sassy the Sasquatch is one of the main protagonists, accompanied by other Sasquatch like creatures. Sassy and his friends frequently engage in recreational drug use.^[54]
• In Gravity Falls, Bigfoot appears for a split second in the theme song and is parodied in the series.
• In How I Met Your Mother, Marshall Eriksen (played by Jason Segel) has often declared himself a 'believer' of Sasquatch, although being frequently mocked for this by his friends.
• Organization Australian Yowie Research's members are known as 'The Yowie Hunters' by the media, but prefer to go simply by Australian Yowie Research.^[55]
• Bigfoot is a recurring character in Back at the Barnyard.
• Timo Rose directed a documentary-style webseries over the American legend, with Max Evans, Andre Koock, Jennifer Lim and Nina Fischer in the leading roles.
• In the SheZow episode "SheSquatch", SheZow and Maz help a female Sasquatch named SheSquatch from an evil park ranger from forcing her to scare campers.
• In the Round the Twist episode "The Nirandathal Beast", the title creature is based on Bigfoot. Bronson gets mistaken for the beast after growing a long beard due to using the family razor before Pete and gets the attention of the authorities and eventually bounty hunters.
• In the Cartoon Network series We Bare Bears, the character Charlie is an anthropomorphic Bigfoot.
• In The A-Team episode "Timber", Murdock (played by actor Dwight Schultz) searches for Bigfoot.
• A childlike version of Bigfoot is a recurring character in Wabbit, voiced by Matthew Mercer.
• Stan Lakowski, a purple Bigfoot, is Friends with Ari the half-daemon In Freddie as F.R.O.7: The Animated Series(2021) Voiced by Don Lake
• Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg of Point Grey Pictures are working on an animated comedy about Bigfoot.^[56]
• In Tensou Sentai Goseiger, Kinggon of the Bigfoot is a Bigfoot.
• In Mr. Pickles, a mafia hit-man is turned into Bigfoot.
• "Bigfoot: The Convincing Evidence", released on April 14, 2017, is episode 2 of season 2 of BuzzFeed web series, BuzzFeed Unsolved: Supernatural in which evidence suggesting the existence of Bigfoot is discussed and investigated.
• In the Courage the Cowardly Dog episode "Courage Meets Bigfoot" the titular character befriends a Bigfoot and protects him from a mob.
• In the Dexter's Laboratory episode "Sassy Come Home", Dee Dee befriends a Bigfoot due to their huge feet and they have to contend with Dexter, who is determined to capture the sasquatch.
• In The Powerpuff Girls episode "Say Uncle", The girls takes a Bigfoot by mistake to home thinking their uncle, but the confusions begin when the girls take this legendary creature to Townsville.
• In the Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi episode "Camping Caper", Ami gets kidnapped by a giant Bigfoot, Yumi attempts to rescue Ami before being eaten by the Bigfoot.
• In the MacGyver episode "Ghost Ship", MacGyver encounters BigFoot on an abandoned boat in an Alaskan bay.^[57]

Theatre

Sasquatched! The Musical is a musical play written and composed by Minnesota native Phil Darg in 2012. It follows the story of a gentle, dignified talking Sasquatch named Arthur, his interactions with the human characters of the surrounding Pacific Northwest area, and the issues revolving around Sasquatch-human relations. The style of the play is humorous, fast-moving, and family-friendly. The play was submitted as an entry to the New York Musical Theatre Festival in September 2012. In February, it was chosen as one of NYMF's Next Link selections and later received an award from the Anna Sosenko Assist Trust. In July 2013, the show was performed as part of NYMF at the Pearl Theatre in New York City.^[58]

Tourism

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. Primatologist and Bigfoot researcher John Napier commented on this, stating that "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."^[59]

See also

• Bigfoot
• Loch Ness Monster in popular culture
• Patterson–Gimlin film
• Sasquatch! Music Festival
• Hibagon - Japan's Bigfoot
• Sasquatch Pushing Over a House (1982), Seattle, Washington

References

• Mike Quast (2001). Big Footage: A History of Claims for the Sasquatch on Film. self-published. p. 132.