Were you fooled by Animal Planet's mermaid special?

[Barbara]

Urban legends site Snopes.com added the "Mermaids" hoax to its site on Tuesday. The site began its posting by quoting an email reading, in part, "In this documentary they showed a video that was taken from a boy's phone on the beach it shows a live mermaid. Now my father and I would like to know if this video is real. I don't like to say that we are suckers to everything we hear, but I am open to new ideas."

Snopes.com creators Barbara and David P. Mikkelson quickly debunk the hoax, pointing out that "the program was not fact but rather speculative science fiction, and it included obvious CGI-produced video sequences."

http://theclicker.today.msnbc.msn.co...ermaid-special

[Brad from Georgia]

Originally Posted by Barbara

Urban legends site Snopes.com added the "Mermaids" hoax to its site on Tuesday. ...

http://theclicker.today.msnbc.msn.co...ermaid-special

Didn't fool me. REAL mermaids would have much, much larger, more shapely, and perkier fins.

[Andrew of Ware]

It's official. Mermaids (or 'aquatic humanoids') don't exist - if you believe the US Government, that is.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18692830

Originally Posted by Brad from Georgia

Didn't fool me. REAL mermaids would have much, much larger, more shapely, and perkier fins.

Like the one in the photograph?

[Psihala]

"People love that sort of stuff, I get it. But it belongs on more tabloid channels that don't have any pretensions of scientific or historical credibility."

That doesn't stop people from lecturing me on what they should look like.

~Psihala

[Assilem Brandywine]

The trailer should've come with a screamer warning! (But then, I guess, it wouldn't be a screamer.)

Saw the whole special. Fairly entertaining, though not convincing. Would the govt. really be OK with having someone film them while confiscating info? You think someone would say "Turn that camera off!"


On a personal note, I was once drawing a merperson as part of an art project. I asked my teacher if merpeople had fingernails. He was like "Why are you asking me this?"

[GenYus234]

Merpeople have a hard growth at the tips of their fingers, but it resembles the chitin of a mollusk shell more than a human's fingernail.

Psihala, did you leave off the caudal and sub-dorsal fins? Most popular images forget to include these.

[Psihala]

As a general rule, no, but it depends on the mermaid. For simplification, my cartoon character, Mersea, has a dorsal but no other extra fins or even webbed fingers. The "more serious" mermaids have webbed fingers, dorsals, what would be pectoral fins (though they're located near the hips), larger eyes, narrower nostrils, and no sharp bend at the knees.

The largest complaints come from the eyes because they don't make the face look "human enough", but I've had complaints over just about every other aspect of the anatomy as well in ways that have nothing whatsoever to do with proportions or artistic ability. Nevertheless, the objections are almost always some variation of "But a REAL mermaid wouldn't have..."

A friend of mine made the 'mistake' of putting gills around the area of the rib-cage in a few of her images and got a lecture from someone who identified themselves as "a naturalist" who argued, seriously, that nature would never put them there. Maybe nature wouldn't, but evolutionary accuracy was never the intent of the image.

Not surprisingly, the same complaints come up with centaurs, faeries, elves, and just about anything other fantasy creature that possesses human-like features.

~Psihala
(*And don't get me started on what a mer should or should not be wearing in polite company.)

[GenYus234]

What should a mer wear in polite company?

[Psihala]

Mine don't wear anything, but that's just a personal preference.

Although, I did once post a poll on my deviantArt account asking people if they were a real mer/centaur/fae/elf would they feel obligated to "cover up" in public (with a huge implication that such creatures would co-exist with humans.)

Most said they wouldn't, but it was difficult to get them to elaborate as to why in the comments.

~Psihala

[Mr. Billion]

I just talked to somebody yesterday who saw a re-run of the Animal Planet mermaid special and she swallowed it hook, line, and sinker. She's convinced the government is covering up the existence of mermaids. The reason for the coverup: They accidentally killed one while testing a Sonar system, and were too embarrassed about having killed a mermaid to let it be public.

[GenYus234]

Originally Posted by Psihala

Although, I did once post a poll on my deviantArt account asking people if they were a real mer/centaur/fae/elf would they feel obligated to "cover up" in public (with a huge implication that such creatures would co-exist with humans.)

Most said they wouldn't, but it was difficult to get them to elaborate as to why in the comments.

I could see why not for mer/centaurs as they generally aren't clothed (except maybe a seashell bra or Lady Godiva hair for the females) in literature. But elves are usually clothed (generally much fancier and elaborate) in most literature, so there isn't the accepted norm of not wearing clothing as there would be for mer/centaurs. Fae is sort of hit or miss as to clothing, depending on type and what literature the person read.

[Mama Duck]

Originally Posted by Brad from Georgia

Didn't fool me. REAL mermaids would have much, much larger, more shapely, and perkier fins.

What Brad said.

[Mama Duck]

I was rather pissed off at the Discovery Channel for running it with only tiny disclaimers at the very end.

[TallGeekyGirl]

"People love that sort of stuff, I get it. But it belongs on more tabloid channels that don't have any pretensions of scientific or historical credibility."

Yeah! Like the History Channel!