FACT OR FAKED: Bar Fright; Mexico City Cave Witch

SyFy - Original Air Date: 11/30/11

The "shown but not investigated" videos this episode include: Greensberg Flyers shows UFOs through a grove of trees. Lanisha thinks they look like balloons, and that was my feeling, too.  Trent UFO Photographs show an iconic UFO shape over  a house and telephone lines (much like the Rex Heflin case).  Devin points out some photo inconsistency, and Austin suggests the UFO could be suspended from the power lines.  (Which is pretty much how I made a similar photo as a kid; plus, I've always thought this UFO looked suspiciously like an old-time metal lampshade -- look for the cord at the top.)  Stonehenge Apparition seems to show a shadowy figure on one of the stones at the famous monument. But more shadows are a likely culprit, and it seems slim evidence for a long trip.  In the commercial debunk, Enfield Demon Seed seems to show a mysterious figure in a nighttime crib.  But the figure turns out to merely be the baby's twin, who was already in the crib, and a motion blur from the IR camera.  Which leaves the 2 cases for investigation:

Ashtray Poltergeist seems to show an ashtray in a bar (on security cam) shattering for no reason, and also an orb (bug).  The bar has plenty of "spooky" history, but stories aren't proof, so the team does some experiments.  First they test dropping objects, in case something came loose from the ceiling.  But objects big enough to shatter the ashtray are picked up by the camera.  Next, they try shattering the ashtray with thermal shock (sudden temperature change).  But normal heat won't shatter a frozen ashtray, though a blowtorch does.  Next, they rig the ashtray with a special effects squib. They get a puff of smoke, but otherwise the vid is dead on.  Later examination shows what might be a similar rig in the initial video.  Case solved, but they still do a ghost hunt.  (Annoyingly, every show must have a nighttime ghost hunt.)  Of course, they get strange results, but one -- a glass falling off a secure bar rack -- impresses even me (a bit), though the EVP, not so much.  Again, we get the annoying "fake but maybe some real supernatural goings on anyway" verdict.

Mexican Bruja seems to show a floating witch-like figure (outside a cave) that then seems to fly away.  They talk to the witness, who swears (of course) that it's all true, and go to the cave to make some tests.  First, they use a big owl to see if the shape could be a bird.  But it shows clear wing flapping: no match.  Next, Austin dresses in black and does some parkour (free-running) moves, in case it was just an athlete caught by mistake.  Closer, but doesn't quite have that float/fly quality.  So, they set up some pulleys and a dummy, and ... Bingo!  Perfect match for the original fake.  (Liar!  Liar!  Witness on fire!)  Happily, they do not do a night bruja hunt, just to be sure.

Again, this show does some very good scientific investigation, and exposes two hoaxes (plus extras).  I just wish they'd skip the ghost hunts, which have very little (if any) basis in science (experimentation, repeatability, etc.)  Clearly, though, those ghost hunt segments play to people who want to believe, and SyFy must believe: 1) those folks make up a big percentage of FoF's audience, and 2) those people would desert the show if the investigations stuck to pure science, like Mythbusters.  Too bad.

FACT OR FAKED: Old West Haunting; Freeway Flyer

SyFy - Original Air Date: 11/16/11

Debunked videos this week include: Zombie Cam claims to show a zombie figure caught by a hunter's camera trap, but it's just Photoshop trickery.  Snow Triangle shows a huge "snow circle" design in the Alps.  It's a fractal, as many "circles" are, but fakery seems very likely.  (Regular readers will know I think -- with some justification -- that crop circles are made by human artists.)  In the commercial-break debunk, Wedding UFO shows strange lights hovering over the water, but it's merely a reflection of a chandelier on the picture window between photographer and water.  Leaving us the subjects of this week's show.

Bird Cage Theater Ghost is another famous haunted site, and the video seems to show a ghostly image of a figure which appears as a flashlight beam passes over a wall.  At the theater, they hear scary stories and talk to the original videographer, who shows them where and how he shot the video.  First, they test whether items on a nearby table could cast reflections/shadows to form the "ghost."  They get some interesting shapes, but not the right ones.  Then they try hoaxing the image with black light paint, but the image is too vague.  But Devin has noticed something, and shining a flashlight through the wheel of a big museum coffee grinder produces a perfect match.  But, because the audience won't like the "no ghost here" conclusion, I assume, they then stage the usual ghost hunt.  Naturally, they hear spooky sounds, and one of the camera lights falls off and is mysteriously outside a door (where it was previously inside).  Rats maybe?  No, that plus an EVP are  this week's sop to believers.  Video: faked; paranormal activity: yes.  Really?

Freeway Flyer seems to show a bright light hovering over a freeway (at night) that then zips away with amazing speed.  They talk to the videographer and then set up their own highway in the desert to test some theories.  They start by shining a laser into the moving vehicle used to film the video.  But the laser beam seems too small, and the beam reveals itself when it moves: no match.  Next, they test reflections off of power lines; similar, but too elongated.  Finally, they test a helicopter with a mounted searchlight.  That and a little After Effects trickery to speed the light up at the end create a perfect match.  The team's Layered Voice Analysis (which I'm not sure I totally believe in) suggests that's how the videographer did it -- doctoring the original video to make it sexier.

So, two good debunks this week, but I'm still bothered by the apparent need to reinforce audience beliefs in the supernatural.  Why not let this show be a real supernatural Mythbusters and just go for it?

FACT OR FAKED: Asylum Apparition; Mystery Over Mexico

SyFy - Original Air Date: 11/9/11

The videos the crew is not investigating this week are: Roswell Alien shows a purportedly living alien in B&W footage, though puppetry, animatronics, or CGI seem more likely.  Cascades Bigfoot is a cell phone video of a mysterious figure walking through the woods -- but it's shadowy enough to be a suit or even just a person.  In the commercial break, Sky Portal is supposedly an alien portal in the sky.  The "portal" is merely a misidentified smoke ring being used to advertise the amusement park where the video was shot. Which leaves the two cases they're actually looking into.

Waverly Hills Apparition shows 2 figures in the deserted hallway of a legendary haunted sanatorium.  A second video seems to show a toy ball moving on its own.  Waverly is a ghost-hunting hotspot, and the team gets the usual grisly tour (as seen on several Ghost Hunters shows).  A test with a ball immediately shows how uneven the floor is.  They do a wind test, and the ball moves around easily because of that, too.  Seems debunked to me, but the team becomes caught up in the ball moving too much, rather than just rocking as in the video.  That's silly.  Clearly this drafty old place with the un-level floors could produce any number of effects on a light ball like this, depending on drafts and floor dents/grooves. Then they try  to recreate the hallway apparitions with first humans (too solid), then with heaters (too obvious in frame or not defined enough when out of frame).  So, even though this "ghost" looks like another reflection or camera malfunction to me,(nothing was seen by the human filming, only the camera), they start a ghost hunt and (no surprise) hear strange noises.  Plus, the ball they set down rolls around, seemingly on its own.  I'd be more impressed with a baseball, basketball, or even a standard playground ball, rather than the lightweight play balls they're using. Vibrations in this rickety old building could probably move the test-subject ball around.  In fact, a heavier-looking ball nearby doesn't move at all.  They also get EVPs, which you should know by now I think are almost always completely bogus.  Should you be surprised that they declare Waverly Hills haunted?  You shouldn't be; the MO of the group this year seems to be to have one gimme for believers every episode.  I'm guessing the SyFy execs think there's not enough ratings in bursting believer balloons -- or rolling balls -- every week.  And speaking of balloons...

Guadalajara UFO Fleet seems to show a fleet of round white UFOs hovering in the sky.  Their first theory is that the objects might be birds, so they send up a flight of pigeons, but the birds are obviously birds.  Next, they try floating ping pong balls in a pool with dry ice clouds to fake the shot.  Closer, but ripples are a problem.  So, they try what I thought the obvious solution from the beginning (though I understand the need to structure the show this way) and release a mass of balloons.  Yeah, hey, bingo!  Balloons plus dodgy camera equals UFO fleet.  Which makes me think the original videographer was an idiot not to notice.  I saw three UFOs this summer, and one of them was likely a Mylar balloon floating over Yellowstone.  (Other 2 might have been a helicopter and a Chinese lantern.)  So, good job, group.  One out of two ain't bad, but...

The problem I'm having with this show this year is that each episode seems to have an obvious sop to believers -- a case where the group just doesn't push far enough.  Last year, this wasn't so much a problem, and I was encouraged.  This year, not so much.  I hope they'll do better in the second half of the season.

FACT OR FAKED: Sinister Spirals: Flying Saucers

SyFy - Original Air Date: 11/4/11

This week, the crew rejects Menger Hotel, which seems to show a shadowy figure walking across walls and down a hall (not enough info & possible CGI), Duende Gnome, a tiny figure chased by teens (probably a marionette), and UFO in the Clouds where a San Paolo (Brazil) photog supposedly catches a UFO hiding in a cloud and later mysteriously zooms away.  Close inspection by Bill shows the object missing from the sky as a truck passes: CGI  Galveston Ghost Face -- their commercial break debunk (which I remain glad they're doing) -- shows a "mysterious" face on the side of a building, but it's only a stain and pareidolia, the tendency of human beings to see patterns as familiar shapes -- like Jesus on a piece of toast.  Which leaves FOF with the two cases they will be investigating.

Heflin UFO Ecounter is a famous case that shows a hat-shaped silvery object floating above a road in 3 pictures and a mysterious smoke ring in a 4th.  Supposedly the photos were later confiscated by Men In Black and then mysteriously returned 28 years later.  Ben, Devin, and Lanisha go to California and talk to "researchers" who talked to the photographer, who is now dead.  Scientifically, such second-hand information means very little, and when a "doctor" (of what?) declares that Polaroid photos of this type would be very hard to fake, my spider sense goes off loudly.  I could fake you a great Polaroid UFO before I reached high school.

Nevertheless, the crew stages some experiments.  First, they re-create the photos using a remote-controlled helicopter UFO, testing whether the pics could have been taken in 20 seconds, as Heflin claimed.  Why they believe the 20 seconds is necessary, as this was before date/time stamps on photos, I don't know.  I certainly don't believe it.  But they do, and they do manage to replicate taking 3 photos that fast -- though none of the photos is as sharp and focused as the Heflin photos (which are very clear).  This, for me, would tend to indicate Heflin lied about the rapidity of his picture taking, but the crew continues.  They try some natural explanations for what he saw, using various types of wind-blown debris: paper plates, clay pigeons, and a hat.  But it's too hard to take pictures of things moving that fast.  (Hmm...  Wonder how fast that "UFO" was flying....)  Then they try a hat on a fishing line, which looks quite similar, though they then declare that there's no evidence that Helflin had an accomplice to pull of such a hoax.  This seems like flimsy reasoning  to me -- for reasons I'll explain in a bit.

Finally, they put up a saucer-shaped balloon to "prove" that what Heflin saw could have been a large object further from the camera, as he claimed.  Results look similar (though they don't match the size and distance he claimed to have seen the object at).  So they decide to explode the balloon, as if it had hit a power line, theorizing the hat-shape might have been an actual balloon, and its explosion could have created the smoke ring.  The explosion, though, just kills the balloon.  Devin, however, recreates the smoke ring with a metal tube, diesel fuel, and propane, essentially blowing a smoke ring into the sky -- with technology available from the time.  So that, at least, could be hoaxed.  Ben notes that El Torro Marine Corps is near the original sighting area, and might have been doing testing.  Devin adds that perhaps the MIB were really from the government, as they claimed, and protecting a then-secret project, only to return the pictures later.  Ben concludes that they were able to show that the craft could have been close to the vantage point, something hoaxed, or something far away -- so the case is still open.

I say, nice try, but you didn't try hard enough.  First, I would ask, if I wanted to fake this, how would I do it?  1) I'd simply toss a pie plate or vintage hub cap (both made of metal at the time) in front of the camera -- or have someone do it for me.  2) I'd take as many Polaroids as I needed to get a some good shots, and then I'd throw the rest away.  Remember, there are no negatives with this type of film (or, at least, the negatives elements are seldom kept).  Unless the photos were numbered in their canister (I don't remember if they were), there would be no way to tell how many photos I actually took to get 3 good ones.   3) And for a capper, I'd use Devin's set-up to get a mysterious smoke ring -- or just have someone blow a cigarette smoke ring for me and then photograph it back-lit against the sky so that it appeared black.  Because I'm clever, I might take all 3 pics against slightly different backgrounds, to make it hard to compare shadows to show the passage of time while I was experimenting.  4) Then, I'd claim to have taken the pictures faster than I actually did, just so people would think I couldn't have faked them in the supposed time frame.  (He wouldn't have time to throw a hat into the air 3 times in twenty seconds and take pictures!)

I don't buy that no one ever having come forward as an accomplice is proof of something not being hoaxed.  My brother hasn't come forward to talk about our hoaxed monster/UFO photos, has he?  And even if they were famous, would he?  It's a silly argument.  But, if I had no accomplice, I'm certainly capable of rigging up a pole with mono-filament to take the pictures myself.  Heck, I've even got a convenient van to attach it to.  All I need is a bit of time to move the rig around between shots -- and since I've already decided to lie about how long it took me to take the pictures....

Which is to say, I think that -- because of this case's iconic nature -- the team was way too easy on this one.  In my experience, anything that can be faked, likely has been faked.  People do hoaxes for a number of complex reasons, and sometimes, once done, they don't admit it ever.  Look how long the Loch Ness and Cottingley Fairy hoaxes took to be exposed.  It's reasonable to assume that some hoaxers carry their secrets to the grave rather than face embarrassment or public ridicule, especially in a famous case like this.  (And let's not even start in on the malleable nature of memory and how people can come to believe their own lies.)

Sorry, team, you blew this one.  I hope you'll be harder on iconic cases in the future -- as you were on the UFO in the Woods story a few seasons back (even if doing so may crush the feelings of your want-to-believe audience).

Spiraling Rods shows mysterious wave-like creatures flying through the sky.  (Those of us who saw the Monster Quest show know they're really just insects and slow-shutter digital cameras, but maybe that bears repeating here.)  Bill, Austin, and Jael go to Joplin, Missouri, to talk to the videographer.  He claims to have taken the pictures after setting off a bug bomb -- so it couldn't be bugs -- and to have taken similar photos in winter (though we never see any of those).  The team then bug bombs the area, sets up a net tent, and brings in various critters to try having them fly past the camera.  Bats don't look like it, nor does a slingshot, but the team wisely notice that the bug bomb has not cleared the area of insects -- not nearly.  (You'd have to be a dope to think it would.)  So they catch some bugs and try fly-bys with some of the bigger ones.  Close ... until they put on the slow-shutter night shot, and then ... Bingo!  Perfect match and a job well done.  Hopefully, this puts the "rods" case to rest for good.  Mistaken identity, bugs, and shoddy camera work (and knowledge) -- end of story.

So, one out of two this week ain't bad, though given last season, I'd come to expect more from Fact or Faked.

FINDING BIGFOOT: Birth of a Legend

Animal Planet - Original Air Date: 10/30/11

This Bigfoot Believer show returns with a 2-hour premier looking at the legend they're pursuing by going to Humboldt County, CA, site of the controversial Patterson film -- still the Holy Grail for many bigfoot researchers.  (Despite the fact that National Geographic's Is It Real debunked it for me long ago.)  The rest of the crew, Cliff, Bobo, and Matt have all clearly spent a lot of time convincing themselves the film is real.  Happily, despite having seen the film as a child and believing, Ranae Holland, often the only sensible member of the team, remains more skeptical; she thinks it could be a suit.  (And so do I.  See part of my critique in this review, here.)  The team goes to Bob Gimlin, the surviving member of the two-man team who filmed the footage, and they all ride and hike into the forest where the film was taken.  More "why it's real" excuses by the believers ensue.  Ranae asks Gimlin if it could possibly been a man in a suit, and he says no; he could see the muscles moving under the fur.  (Though I seem to remember an interview where he previously confessed that Patterson could have duped him; sadly, despite my Howls & Growls database, I cannot turn up a program reference.  Nor do I remember Gimlin mentioning muscle movement on the thing until that became the catchword of bigfoot believers.  Muscle movement is bullshit.  See the Michigan Dog-man case.)

They reconstruct the sighting using Bobo as bigfoot, and though it looks good, Cliff makes the usual muscle-movement excuse for why he still thinks the original is real.  I suggest they check the Is It Real show on bigfoot.  So they do a night bigfoot hunt in the area, including Bobo's dog in the team.  Would you be surprised if they heard mysterious sounds?  I wouldn't, and sure enough, they do: Ranae seems to hear children yelling.  But finding nothing else besides a bear track, they leave behind some camera traps and move on to Willow Creek, a town built on bigfoot belief.  There, they meet Al Hodgson and see his bigfoot museum; not surprisingly, he thinks the film is real.  He thinks both Patterson & Gimlin were honest men, though we know Patterson had a history of hucksterism and deceit.  They then call a town meeting, talk to more witnesses, and try to recreate sightings for which there is no video record.  All in good fun, I guess, but aside from placing sightings for further investigations and collecting interviews, not a lot of hard scientific.

So they do a night investigation and camp-out sasquatch party, hoping to attract the supposedly curious animals.  But even with Ranae yodeling bigfoot calls, no luck.  So, they move on and show video of a "bigfoot" watching a ridge line, but only Ranae seems to think it's a person.  The video also shows a 'bigfoot hut" (nest) and supposed tree damage, but the videographers are all laughing at the time, and the entire thing could possibly be a joke.  An actual witness doesn't think so, and Bobo stands in on a ridge for a reasonable recreation.  "I see no reason to discount that (original film) as a sasquatch," Cliff says, and Matt and Bobo agree.  Ranae sensibly points out there's no reason it couldn't be a hiker.  Believers vs. skeptic again, but the cast is not tilted in Ranae's favor.

Now they hire a chopper to do a thermal sweep on the Hoopa Indian Reservation in a nighttime investigation.  Matt & Bobo spot something on a road below, while Ranae and Cliff walk nearby.  Ranae hears a strange whistle and spots eye-shine nearby.  "Oh my God, that was ... there is something standing to your right, there," she declares.  They hear more strange noises (perhaps a rock hitting a tree), but they can't locate the thing they're seeing and hearing.  Bobo and Matt, now on the ground -- with no mention of what the figure on the road was -- check their sighting area and then converge on the other two.  They "smell animals," and hear a yell (which sounded like a person to me), but....  At the end of teh night, Ranae admits that events have decreased her skepticism.  "I had a rock thrown at me.  Definitely," she says.  "Maybe there really is a small possibility that there is something out in the woods of Northern California."

Maybe.  But like Ranae, I'm going to need a lot more evidence -- and a lot less belief on the part of investigators -- before I'm convinced.

FACT OR FAKED: Area 51; Cajun Apparition

SyFy - Original Air Date: 10/26/11

The videos that fail the test to be worth investigating this week are Utah Sun Halo, which could be UFO stargate technology, but is actually a "sun dog" halo, an atmospheric condition created by ice crystals (great diagram of this, guys).    Goodyear Chupacabra looks almost identical to the one in their previous Texas chupacabra invstigation, likely a mangy dog or coyote.  Which leaves the new team to investigate this week's posers;

Cajun Ghost is a mysterious shape-shifting mist at The Myrtles Plantation, (supposedly) "America's Most-Haunted" in St. Francisville, Louisiana.  This place has a history that would do a horror film proud: abused slaves, murder, inter-racial affairs, a supposed Indian burial ground, etc., and they're clearly doing good business on their haunting.  The team tests whether the mist could be condensation on the video lens, but there's too much condensation, and you can't see anything.  They next text a windy fog vortex, but the fog diffuses too quickly.  The industrial fogger and flashlights also don't work, but using the IR light on the video camera in fog proves just right; a near-perfect match.  Naturally, despite having debunked this video, they have to do a ghost hunt as well.  And naturally the equipment does weird things and they catch "laughter" on their EVP session.  But they do figure out that a mirror casts strange, face-like shadows on a nearby wall.  Good catch there, though I'd have just skipped the ghost hunt and stuck to the facts.  (During a walk on the chilly night I saw this show, my breath produced a similar "ghost" on my glasses.)

Area 51 is a shape-changing UFO moving through the sky (supposedly) over Area 51, the secret government test facility which Ben admits he's wanted to go to for most of his life.  While there, the team is watched almost constantly by government agents at the edges of the secret base -- which I gotta admit is spooky.  First Ben, Jael, and Austin test a military heli-kite, a combination of winged kite and balloon used to check wind speed.  (Good idea, and they should have gone further down this line of reasoning.)  It doesn't look or behave right (because of its tether).  Then, they check a payload slung beneath a helicopter -- but the suspension sling is clearly visible, and keeping the helicopter out of the picture would require a dedicated hoaxer. 

So, they tromp around at night, trying to check out the forbidden area with telephoto lenses, during which time they're under constant security surveillance.  Momentarily, the base landing lights go on, and, almost simultaneously, something that looks exactly like a shooting star to me, streaks across the sky.  Coincidence, or something more?  On later analysis, Bill doesn't think it's a shooting star -- which makes me wonder how many shooting stars he's seen.  (I've seen dozens, more than 30 in one night alone.) Sadly, having failed to replicate the video, the show seems to buy into the "mysterious (alien) craft in Area 51" mythology.  Bill says, "Good work," but I say...

This "UFO" looks like a balloon cluster caught in high altitude winds to me.  In fact, it looks almost exactly like the simple balloon cluster from UFOS OVER EARTH: Mass Sightings in Mexico show.  The investigators on Fact or Faked should have checked that out before jumping to their own erroneous conclusions.  They got close with their heli-kite, but then stopped too soon.  Personally, I saw three UFOs this summer, and I suspect that one was just such a balloon.  (The other two were likely Chinese lanterns.)  Further, there's nothing I saw in the "Fact" video to indicate it was taken at Area 51.  The sky looks the same everywhere; where are the landmarks?  I also think a hoaxer designed this balloon to be a convincing UFO for his/her film.  I'm calling "Bullshit!" on the conclusion of this investigation.  I expect better from the Fact or Faked team; they haven't failed this spectacularly in quite some time.  I'm hoping in future that the show's need for ratings (by pandering to believers) won't outweigh their need to find the truth.

This week's quiz is of a supposed mythical beast sighting: Ontario Unicorn, which turns out to be CGI perpetrated to boost a local museum exhibit.  Glad they set the record straight on that, otherwise people might have been seeing unicorns in their gardens.

FACT OR FAKED: UFO Crash Landing; Graveyard Ghost

SyFy - Original Air Date: 10/19/11

Fact or Faked is back for its third "season" with crew regulars Ben, Bill, Jael, Devin, Austin, and new member Lanisha (replacing fab photographer Chu Lan).  Videos not investigated are Alien Plant by a garden pool (obvious CGI) and Habitat for Humanity Ghost (likely spider inside the security camera housing).  That leaves the two they will investigate, which turn out to be a ghost case and a non-ghost case, a developing trend.

White Sands UFO seems to show a saucer-shaped object which comes down, ricochets off the ground, and then zooms back up before finally falling to the ground and exploding.  White sands is only 200 miles from Roswell, so there's a UFO connection there, too, and possible "back-engineered alien technology."  Ben, Devin, and Jael head to White Sands to talk to the filmmaker and observe the local area before setting up their experiments.  First they try a rocket engine alone, but it's way too wild for the controlled trajectory seen in the film.  Then they create a fake saucer and run it on guide wires with a special effects explosion to finish it.  Looks great, but the speed is too slow, and the bounce is pretty wobbly, because of the cable guiding system.  They then suggest the shape is merely the exhaust plume from a rocket hidden by speed and poor film quality -- and that ends up being a perfect match.  (It's amazing what blurry video/film will conceal.)  Maybe it's just me, with more than a half century of life experience, but that would have been my first guess.  Though I suppose they have to walk through the others to help convince non-believers (or, in this case, UFO believers).

Cemetery Ghost seems to show an white shape floating over the landscape near Tonopah Cemetary, an area reputedly haunted by miners slain in a nearby disaster.  Bill, Lanisha, and Austin head to the area to check it out, hear the legend of "Big Bill Murphy," who rescued miners before dying himself, and talk to the videographer.  Then they set up experiments, and, as a capper, do some "night investigation."  Naturally, during the investigation, their paranormal-catching equipment does strange things.  (You'd almost think it was designed to do so.)  And of course there are mysterious EVPs.  (Aren't there always?)  But disproving the video proves easy.  It's not a person with a light, their first guess, but their lens flare from highway traffic lights theory proves dead on the mark.  Of course, the show notes, this doesn't mean there are no ghosts, just as the first segment doesn't prove there are no UFOs.

And therein lies what I think is one of the show's innate faults: its audience is composed largely of people who want to believe.   So, if you want to keep them tuning in week after week, you can't constantly dash their hopes.  This, I think, sometimes hurts the show's investigative qualities, which can be quite good.  I wish they'd cut back on the ghost segments (Don't we have enough ghost hunt shows?) and concentrate on other weirdness.  Or, alternately, just be willing to stand up and call "Bullshit!" more of the time.  A new feature this season is a short "quiz" -- at a middle commercial break -- debunking popular videos.  This week the short is walking slippers in a cemetery. which was done with invisible wires or strings.  I like the short addition, as I miss when they debunked more videos at the start of the show.