Pop Goes the Cryptid: Explained

Here is an introduction to the world of Pop Cryptids, showing how cryptozoology, which was intended as a scientific discipline, has now lost that status and is instead a popular culture scene about any weird sentient thing of dubious existence. The scope of the definition of “cryptid” expanded very widely and people are using cryptid representations in all new social ways.

Transcript with images

This is Pop Goes the Cryptid
I’m Sharon A. Hill

In this presentation, I’ll argue that there has been an inevitable change in the cryptid landscape from its original intent as a scientific discipline to a modern general topic about any sentient thing of dubious existence. With that shift, we see the scope of the definition of “cryptid” expand very widely to include supernatural, fantastical, mythical or digitally generated creatures.

This shift in viewing cryptids is due to two main developments:
1. The collapse of the professional efforts of cryptozoology and
2. The impact of media of all kinds to bring about an explosion of content and commercialism related to mysterious creatures.

Together, these factors resulted in a proliferation of ideas about cryptids that strayed far from the original goal of identifying unknown creatures in a zoological framework. Instead we see the rapid diffusion and amplification of unnatural cryptids with fantastical characteristics as well as classic and new cryptids portrayed as supernatural, cute, social, or romantic, a very cultural framework.

Let’s start with an example of a modern media representation of popular cryptids. For Halloween 2023, the News media organization Axios conducted a tiered voting poll. It’s not clear how the authors chose the creatures to consider but the choices seemed… interesting.

There were obvious entries – Chupacabra, Jersey Devil, Mothman, Bigfoot, and Champ.
and then we have two admittedly spirit creatures – LaLlorona (a ghost legend) and the Wendigo. Two werewolf type creatures – the Rougarou and the Michigan Dogman. And the rest are a motley crew of legendary or pop cultural creatures. This voting poll by a general news site can be taken as a snapshot of what the general population thinks of as “cryptids” with only about a half of the 16 entries that might represent an arguably scientific zoological mystery, or a misinterpretation of a typical animal. The rest have decidedly non-zoological origins or characteristics.

The results were a bit of a confusing mix: Interestingly, traditional cryptids Champ and the Jersey Devil didn’t make it out of the first round! The final four were Bigfoot, Chupacabra, Mothman and (a bit of an outsider.. The Jackalope). In the finals, Chupacabra edged out Bigfoot 51 to 49%. Unfortunately, the poll wasn’t run again the following year. But all these entities are growing in cultural popularity.

To understand the evolution of cryptids and cryptozoology, we have to consider its original intent.
Solidified in the 1950s and 60s, the aim of cryptozoology was to be a sub-discipline of zoology where those specializing in cryptozoological methods could be the ones to bring to light some of the many large animals that remained to be discovered using the clues from local people. A key figure in the founding of this field, Bernard Heuvelmans, criticized established scientific institutions for not devoting attention to the stories of unidentified animals that may represent important new species.
He and others, intended it to be a serious endeavor led by zoologists and scholarly professionals. 

In the 1980s, cryptozoology reached the height of its scientific reputation, with participation of many prominent scientists in a professional society – the International Society of Cryptozoology – with its own journal.

From its inception, cultural stories of unusual creatures, some of which would become classic cryptids, had been imbued with unnatural or supernatural elements. A primary problem of scientific cryptozoology was how to manage those aspects.

The fantasy and fictional aspects inherent in many cryptid stories made them difficult for academic study. Selective filtering out of “weird” characteristics was encouraged. The scientific proponents deliberately diminished magical features of popular cryptids – depicting them instead as flesh, blood, pelts and paws. If the cryptid in question was associated with spirits, shamanistic magic, or witchcraft, or if it had supernatural abilities inherent in the local legends, these attributes were brushed aside in an effort to scientifically legitimize the being. This process was aptly termed “weird washing” – a term coined by modern author Tim Renner. If the stories were from indigenous lore, podcasters Trey the Explainer and Miles Greb called the process “whitetrofitting” to note the removal of important native meaning. Particularly unfortunate was that the critical social aspects and uses of folklore tales and legends were disregarded in order to try to legitimize the idea of a new zoological creature.

While the weird washing was intended to elevate the discourse on mysterious animals, it could not be effectively suppressed entirely and, coming up, we’ll see why.

By the early 1990s, cryptozoology as a scientific field was already in trouble. The scientific endeavors encouraged by the International Society of Cryptozoology hadn’t panned out. Several attempts to document Bigfoot the Yeti and Nessie, had not been successful.  Expeditions to seek out the Mokele-mbembe (which was suspected to be a living dinosaur in Central Africa, found nothing to support the legend but was a great example of the whitetrofitting habit previously mentioned.

Hoaxes were also rampant. What was successful, however, were the media products that emphasized mystery and exaggerated features of cryptids.

In 1999, Fortean writers Coleman and Clark said in their Cryptozoology A to Z that cryptozoology was an “integral part of our culture”. In terms of Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster and the Yeti, this was undeniably true.

It’s around the turn of the 21st century that we see the word “cryptid” begin to gain popular usage. First, just in the cryptozoology scene. But, with the growth of cable television and the realistic docu-drama genre, internet forums, and social media, cryptids leave the sphere of scientific speculation and grow in contemporary culture and lore in a huge way. One prominent example is Monster Quest in 2007 – a tv series that explored current thinking about cryptids. This program was influential in showcasing cryptids and that people were actively looking for them. Monster Quest inspired many to dive into the subject themselves.

Yet, such programming again tended to weird wash the history. According to Palaeozoological scientist Darren Naish, descriptions of cryptids always reflected the cultural (and scientific) beliefs of the era, changing over time. This was an aspect that was not explored in short tv episodes, but the ever-changing descriptions of cryptids with the times were a strong argument against that cryptid being a real biological animal. 

An argument for the decay of cryptozoology as a scientific term is supported by two examples that compare the usage of the words cryptozoology and cryptids. The concept of cryptozoology existed in the 1950s, but the term cryptid didn’t appear until 1983 as a suggestion in the Society’s newsletter.

Using the Google Books Ngram Viewer, the data shows how often the words cryptozoology and cryptid appear in a corpus of books over the selected years from 1960 to 2018. First, we notice the rise of cryptozoology in the 1980s, when the professional society and its standing rises. The concept of scientific study of unknown animals is becoming more culturally known. Around 2000, we see the start of the popularization of the word cryptid published. Note that the internet was well on its way to connecting the world by this time. The media boom lifted both terms. But in 2014, there was a sea change. The term cryptozoology stagnated as the term cryptid took off. This can be attributed to social media influence that encourage and spread content about strange creatures. Monster stories trended. People clicked on them and there was a proliferation of local monster tales and publications.

This trend was also evident in internet search habits.

This is a graph of Google queries for “Cryptozoology” and “Cryptid” in the US. Again, we see something about 2014 that signaled a shift in the popularity of cryptid that, unexpectedly seemed to reinforce the decline of cryptozoology search term, It was as if the “zoology” part was not longer deemed useful or interesting. Beginning around 2007, as with the Ngram data, we see cryptid start to rise.

What’s with that spike 2014? As far as I can tell, this was the mainly the result of the premier of the history channel show called Cryptid – The Swamp Beast. This was a fictional horror mockumentary dramatizing alleged encounters with mythical swamp creatures in the southern US. Perhaps we might argue that the title and premise of that show really cemented the idea of cryptids as exaggerated monsters in pop mainstream.

Starting around 2005, a wave of imaginative depictions of cryptids appeared. The term and the concept appeared on television, in fictional literature, games, all over the Internet and eventually in community festivals, on social media and as a part of personal identity. The mysterious and paranormal elements were emphasized because that proved to be enticing to audiences. So, the result was a fun but exaggerated depiction of cryptids in popular culture. Here are some examples of the early 21st century cryptid boom – from 2005 to 2013.

Roland Smith’s Cryptid Hunters young adult adventure series, the hugely popular Messin’ with sasquatch promotion for Jack Links jerky, the cryptid hunting cartoon family in the Secret Saturdays show, the discovery of and explosion of interest in the Montauk monster – a raccoon carcass discovered in New York, the 2009 fictional series Lost Tapes on Animal planet – which was at the time viewed as an educational channel, and the stunning childrens book on the Legend of the Jersey Devil in 2013 – one of many books that commercialized cryptids for young children. And in the center, symbolizing the importance of local cryptids tales to small communities, is the mothman statue of Point Pleasant west virginia.

The foundational characteristic of cryptids, their secretiveness, remained a key feature. But the answer to the mystery of what they really were became less important than the situations and tales that could be spun from them. The possibilities expanded far beyond the concept of an unknown animal. Now a cryptid could be any kind of entity, real or fantastical. The more important aspect was belief and the utility of that belief. Cryptid belief manifested in consumerism, tourism, personal and regional identity and even influenced people’s overall worldview.

There were few scientific voices now advocating for the zoological reality of cryptids.. Without a scientific society or official cryptid gatekeeper anymore, creation and manipulation of cryptids was an open process made easy by worldwide platforms for self-expression. The internet made existing ideas freshly available to a new generation. The options for sharing ideas was greatly expanded. New ideas sprung up, evolved and hybridized.

With no scientific documentation, cryptids are untethered to reality, existing outside the rules of biological evolution, and zoology. They can freely evolve culturally. And so they did. Popular culture rewarded the expansion and remixing of these ideas, the creation of new cryptids, and the repopularizing of past cryptids for present purposes.

Even though Cryptozoology failed as a scientific endeavor, there will always be a portion of cryptozoology proponents that consider it to be strictly zoological, who insist that unknown animals once called cryptids will still be found, and that occult and paranormal aspects should be excluded and disparaged. However, today, the zoological cryptid idea had left the barn, so to speak…

The fun in believing in the folklore aspects of cryptids, and as mysterious and magical creatures, is clearly winning out as shown in our modern popular culture. No more weird washing!

In the social media age, the word cryptid expanded to now incorporate all types of weird entities. This trend is often denigrated by those old school self-styled cryptozoologists who insist a cryptid is a potentially classifiable zoological animal. But the zoological aspect of cryptid is too narrow for today’s definition. Here are some modern examples of cryptid expanded.

Your cat can be a cryptid if he’s mysterious and rarely seen. LOAB, is a haunting creature in the form of a frightening woman said to have been created unexpectedly by an image algorithm, and called the first AI generated cryptid. The term cryptid is used to describe any weird sentient thing like an unexpected and surprising human form or, possibly in the oddest example, a machine that has unusual and bizarre features as well as a mysterious origin.

New in the 21st century are efforts people make to publicly construct a personal identity, sharing it with the world via social media. Known as “aesthetics”, these are a collection of core elements that form an overall theme and mood adopted by a person as part of their social identity. The Cryptidcore aesthetic focuses on interest in creatures from legends and folklore. Note how it does not strongly identify with scientific zoology. Cryptidcore is not highly focused on the biological reality of the animal, but the on the paranormal, mysterious, and quirky aspects of cryptids. Other core elements are interest in unexplained phenomena, conspiracy ideas, and attraction to mysterious or haunted places.

The origin of cryptidcore can be traced to 2014 on Tumblr, where it emerged from the fanbases of televisions shows of the 2010s. Once again, we see a clear outcome of how media content has been an indisputable heavy influence on the modern view of cryptids. Cryptidcore embraces the cute, funny, magical, romantic and spiritual characteristics of cryptids. And the merchandise flows from these favored themes.

Modern online efforts made in seeking and studying a cryptid are frequently less about solving a mystery and more about fashionably performing one’s values, beliefs, and identity. Today’s cryptid enthusiast readily admits to enjoying and enhancing the spooky, off-beat, and mysterious aspects of the subject. They embrace the unusual or paranormal aspects because it’s more popular than assuming the creature is just a regular animal.

This is the opposite of what I previously referred to as weird washing or whitetrofitting – instead of demythifying a cryptid with a purpose to catalogue it to fit into the biological tree of life, the unusual or supernatural aspects are EMPHASIZED. The cryptid enthusiast wants to take the legend trips, and cosplay, and enjoy the spooky tales. The cryptid scene is far more open to diversity and being the “other” or the outsider is a celebrated.

To wrap up this introduction to Pop Cryptids, we have to return to the initial intent of cryptozoology.

Can scientific cryptozoology return? And should it? The strict zoological approach was not successful; and there are many reasons why it failed. The modern world is simply not the same as that of 19th century colonialist explorers the influenced the ideas of the original International Society of Cryptozoology.

Considering the lack of any progress made in finding Bigfoot and other cryptids, there is no justification for a special scientific field of cryptozoology. But that does not mean that the field of study dies, just that it evolves to make sense in the present.

Modern cryptozoology still includes scientifical performing. That is, talking and acting like one imagines a scientist would in order to sound credible and convincing about cryptid. Interestingly, now the supernatural aspects are included right alongside the representation of authority.

We also have a resurgence in local folklore and town-specific cryptid festivals that are open to everyone.

We have ample evidence for the development of “paranormal” beliefs as a folk religion. A prime example of various ideas about the paranormal including cryptids all coming together is Skinwalker Ranch where it’s suggested that all the events occurring in one place possibly have a single hypothetical supernatural cause.

Will the paranormal trend collapse and the scientific view reemerge on top again? The current superstar of cryptids, the biologically impossible dogmen, would suggest not. It’s hard to predict what will trend in the coming decade. But, without the body of a genuine high profile cryptid being discovered and exposed for the world, we are in the age of post-cryptozoology cryptids.

Thanks for listening.
Find out more and follow the news about pop cryptids on my website sharonahill.com