How can people claim this with a straight face?

[Baker]

I chanced on a show on the Discovery Channel. It’s about mermaids, for crying out loud, and titled Mermaids: the Body Found. It’s synopsis runs like this A team of scientists testifies that they found the remains of a sea creature with ties to human origins - a modern day mermaid. They claim a massive government cover-up is currenly hiding the creature’s existence from the general public.

With absolutely no hard evidence(the eeeeevil government confiscated/stole it all), and only circumstantial evidence, this “team of scientist” claims there is a ocean going humanoid. And they are perfectly straight faced when they claim this. It’s sillier than bigfoot.

I’d say their credibility is shot to heck.

[Ethilrist]

Well, the government would certainly like you to think so.

[Baker]

@Ethilrist

Well, the government would certainly like you to think so.

[running_coach]

Snopes.

Mermaids: The Body Found was a purely fictional work, dealing with a purported military coverup of the discovery of a remnant population of mermaids described as an evolutionary offshoot of the “aquatic ape” hypothesis (a generally discounted idea that early Hominid species went through an aquatic phase in their evolution). The program was not fact but rather speculative science fiction, and it included obvious CGI-produced video sequences like the one displayed above.

[Lanzy]

I liked the show, was I supposed to believe it?

[lieu]

Only what, 2 - 5% of the ocean’s been explored so far? Just saying’.

[Chronos]

And when was the most inaccessible part last visited, and how many times? How long did they stay?

[Joey_P]

@Ethilrist

Well, the government would certainly like you to think so.

The greatest trick the devil ever played…

[Joey_P]

@Chronos

And when was the most inaccessible part last visited, and how many times? How long did they stay?

Two manned missions, most recently in 2012, staying at the bottom for about two and half hours. What?

[Cicero]

1960’s… oh, next you’ll say a ducks quack does echo.

[Baker]

runner pat, thanks for your post. I came in on the show after it started and didn’t even watch it all, so I missed whatever disclaimers there were. As fiction then it wasn’t bad.

[chappachula]

@Chronos

And when was the most inaccessible part last visited, and how many times? How long did they stay?

I dunno, but I think there’s a treadmill involved, too. Oh, and something from the 1920’s.

[psiekier]

@chappachula

I dunno, but I think there’s a treadmill involved, too. Oh, and something from the 1920’s.

No, dude! It’s Rio by Duran Duran!

[Push_You_Down]

I watched it…I didn’t believe anything they said for a moment. Apparently they aired a disclaimer at the beginning of the show stating that it was fiction. It’s weird to me that Discovery Channel would air it at all.
Why not make a speculative biology doc about what a merperson WOULD look/act like if they existed, rather than something that was not only just pure fiction in story but also in science.

[gytalf2000]

I thought that it was quite fun as a “mockumentary” – very entertaining. They played up the discredited “Aquatic Ape Theory” of alternative evolution, if I am recalling correctly. I don’t think that any one took it that seriously. Still, it was seafood for thought…