Mockumentary Footage will be from 2009 Ohio Bigfoot Conference

In our post "Hart-less" written by Hermon Joyner, Leigh Hart is exposed as a prankster at a Bigfoot Conference in Ohio.

Leigh Hart (pictured left), aka “That Guy”—a humor columnist/comedian for the New Zealand Herald that seems to be a cross between Dave Barry and Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat), recently tweaked the noses and bruised the egos of the dedicated Bigfooters attending a Bigfoot conference in Ohio. Like “Borat,” Hart travels around misrepresenting himself while depending on the kindness and naiveté of strangers. He then writes or films humorous accounts of his exploits, mostly at the expense of the people he meets. Hart’s latest victims/subjects were the attendees at the 21st Annual Bigfoot Conference / EXPO at the Salt Fork State Park Lodge in Ohio at the beginning of this month...

...Hart even claimed to own the world’s largest feces analyzing machine, which might explain the distinct odor of BS that surrounded his appearance at the conference.

According to the New Zealand Herald some of the footage will be from his presentation at the 21st Ohio Bigfoot Conference. Heres is an excerpt from the column:

...It's this hard-nosed attitude which has seen Hart crucified by Bigfoot believers after filming the first episode of his upcoming TV One series Leigh Hart's Mysterious Planet at a Bigfoot conference in Ohio, where he introduced the world to the "Waitakere Yeti" and suggested the elusive Bigfoot was actually a hairy midget with enormous feet.

"I made the mistake of writing a column about it. Because it's all online they went nuts. They've been tearing me to bits and abusing me [since]. I'm public enemy number one. If I went back they'd probably lynch me."...

Then the article blah, blah blah's for the next few paragraphs and gets back to Bigfoot.

...But it was the Bigfoot conference where Hart faced possibly his greatest danger. Presenting his findings in front of an audience of mad-eyed, overweight (and possibly armed) monster-hunters was as perilous as venturing into an actual Sasquatch cave. If such a thing actually exists.

"That's the one where the subject matter is the people themselves, and they come across worse than in any other episode. They really are quite frightening and annoying. They're having arguments over something that doesn't exist, abusing each other, calling into doubt each other's credibility. Most of these people probably got into Bigfoot when they were 10 years old. They can't not believe it any more. They can't see the wood for the trees."

Even though the show has a website we cant seem to have access to the video due to copyright laws.



Fortunately You Tube Exist!



EXTERNAL LINKS
The New Zealand Herald Article
The Mysterious Planet Web Page
MoonTV YouTube Page

NZ's "Mysterious Planet" Mockumentary Searches for Bigfoot

In our post "Hart-less" written by Hermon Joyner, Leigh Hart is exposed as a prankster at a Bigfoot Conference in Ohio.

Leigh Hart (pictured left), aka “That Guy”—a humor columnist/comedian for the New Zealand Herald that seems to be a cross between Dave Barry and Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat), recently tweaked the noses and bruised the egos of the dedicated Bigfooters attending a Bigfoot conference in Ohio. Like “Borat,” Hart travels around misrepresenting himself while depending on the kindness and naiveté of strangers. He then writes or films humorous accounts of his exploits, mostly at the expense of the people he meets. Hart’s latest victims/subjects were the attendees at the 21st Annual Bigfoot Conference / EXPO at the Salt Fork State Park Lodge in Ohio at the beginning of this month...

...Hart even claimed to own the world’s largest feces analyzing machine, which might explain the distinct odor of BS that surrounded his appearance at the conference.

Hart is in the news again as he plans on hosting a travel show titled Mysterious Planet. The first episode is to focus on Bigfoot, as we know though, we will not take his show too seriously. It is being promoted as a mockumentary.

Leigh Hart's Mysterious Planet: The World's Greatest Unsolved Mysteries is not your average travel show, in fact the "mockumentary series", which starts this week, is more about mysteries, something that Hart has been fond of since he was young.

"I have more of a background knowledge than most people would have on the subject," Hart said.

The interest was reignited when he was going through his garage a year ago and came across a book his grandfather had given him when he was a child called – you guessed it – Mysterious Planet.

Hart got out a thick white pen, wrote his name on the top of the book, stepped back to have a look at his handiwork, and realised "that would make a good TV programme".

"I used the first six chapters of the book as the basis for the first six shows in the series."

The mysteries he chose are well-known: Bigfoot, the lost Inca, Loch Ness, UFOs in Roswell, the Bermuda Triangle and Egyptian mummies. Hart said the study of Big Foot, the first show in the six-part series, almost turned into a study of the strange habits of fanatics at a Big Foot conference in Ohio.

He says the Bigfoot fanatics spend most of their time blogging about the hairy creature, and "unless Bigfoot goes online, I don't think they are going to catch him".

With that last line, I think we know what to expect, even in the embedded video below, we can get a taste of what is to come from Mysterious Planet.



EXTERNAL LINKS
Hart's antics at the 21st Ohio Bigfoot Conference
NZ's Sunday Star Times "that Guy Goes in Search for Bigfoot"
Hart's "That Guy" Column at the NZ Herald

New Zealand Herald: Less Bigfoot, More Big Money

In our post "Hart-less" written by Hermon Joyner, Leigh Hart is exposed as a prankster at a Bigfoot Conference in Ohio.

Leigh Hart (pictured left), aka “That Guy”—a humor columnist/comedian for the New Zealand Herald that seems to be a cross between Dave Barry and Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat), recently tweaked the noses and bruised the egos of the dedicated Bigfooters attending a Bigfoot conference in Ohio. Like “Borat,” Hart travels around misrepresenting himself while depending on the kindness and naiveté of strangers. He then writes or films humorous accounts of his exploits, mostly at the expense of the people he meets. Hart’s latest victims/subjects were the attendees at the 21st Annual Bigfoot Conference / EXPO at the Salt Fork State Park Lodge in Ohio at the beginning of this month...

...Hart even claimed to own the world’s largest feces analyzing machine, which might explain the distinct odor of BS that surrounded his appearance at the conference.

Ahhh Hermon, ever the wordsmith!

Bigfoot, again, is the subject of Leigh Hart's New Zealand Herald column. Hart jokes that he has been asked to write "Less Bigfoot, more big money for new year"

...I was asked to "focus on things that actually interest people". Apparently a survey conducted in Morrinsville revealed that Bigfoot no longer qualifies as big news...

Thankfully Bigfoot will always be news to us. In case you missed Hart's brand of humor, watch the embedded video below.



We recommend reading the original Hart-less post.
You can read Leigh Hart's new column here.

Hart -less

Leigh Hart (pictured left), aka “That Guy”—a humor columnist/comedian for the New Zealand Herald that seems to be a cross between Dave Barry and Sacha Baron Cohen (Borat), recently tweaked the noses and bruised the egos of the dedicated Bigfooters attending a Bigfoot conference in Ohio. Like “Borat,” Hart travels around misrepresenting himself while depending on the kindness and naiveté of strangers. He then writes or films humorous accounts of his exploits, mostly at the expense of the people he meets. Hart’s latest victims/subjects were the attendees at the 21st Annual Bigfoot Conference / EXPO at the Salt Fork State Park Lodge in Ohio at the beginning of this month.

He attended the conference hoping for the chance to engage in his own brand of skullduggery, and he got a break when one of the featured speakers, Doug Hajicek (the man behind History Channel’s show Monster Quest) proved to be a no-show. According to Hart, “I saw an opportunity, and volunteered to speak.” At this point, it’s hard to know exactly what was said that earned Hart a spot on the program, he claimed to be a TV producer and an expert on the New Zealand variety of Bigfoot, but that’s exactly what happened. His talk was a carefully crafted web of absurdities designed to poke fun at the very concept of Bigfoot, not to mention the people who believe in them. Hart even claimed to own the world’s largest feces analyzing machine, which might explain the distinct odor of BS that surrounded his appearance at the conference.

In his apology, Hart claimed that his, “intention was never to insult anybody personally,” but honestly, his type of humor relies on insulting and demeaning innocent people by making them the butt of the joke. And Billy Willard, the Director of Sasquatch Watch of Virginia, wrote that Hart’s article was “the height of unprofessionalism.” Well, I beg to differ. In this time of reality TV shows and Borat-type humor—this genre of humor dates back at least to Candid Camera, though now it’s distinctly nastier in temperament—this type of “humorous” treatment is the professional norm.

But seriously, while I hate to blame the victim in this case, a simple Google search would have revealed Hart’s identity and his modus operandi, and this situation would have at least been minimized. Honestly, though, he still would have written his column no matter what, given that he was actually there at the conference. Well, when one of your major speakers cancels, you tend to grab whatever opportunity that comes your way, even if it is too good to be true. And in this case, it certainly was.

Hermon Joyner