Review: Leigh Hart's Mysterious Planet

I just finished watching the first episode of Leigh Hart's Mysterious Planet which was supplied to me by an anonymous source.  I recommend everyone watch it when they get the chance.

Leigh Hart (a.k.a. "That Guy") is a comedian from New Zealand and in this show, he directly takes on "documentary" shows like MonsterQuest.  You see, Leigh Hart's Mysterious Planet is a mockumentary and it is heavy on the mock.  Both Leigh and his subjects get it.  While Hart is obviously being ridiculous, his subjects are obviously misguided, ignorant, self-deceived, or all the above -- making them ridiculous as well.

In this episode (hopefully there are more) Hart takes his film crew to cover the 2009 bigfoot conference held by Don Keating.  While the comedy really is funny, Hart is taking on a woo woo belief and I thought he did an excellent job.

Most of the show is along the lines of "This is Spinal Tap" and it uses a number of sight gags as well as pointing out the gratuitous usage of stock film scenes in low-budget "documentaries" about bigfoot.  While it is obvious Hart is skeptical of the bigfooters' claims he allows them enough rope to hang themselves.  Then he edits the footage and makes them look like complete loons.  Also, I was particularly amused by the repeated mispronunciation of "sasquash" for "sasquatch" by the narrator.  If and when Loren Coleman views this show he'll probably go into one of his whiny, neurotic word-conniptions like he does with Ben Radford's spelling of chupacabra and the appropriate usage of the term "proverb".

Yes, this show is a comedy but it contains just as much pertinent information any episode of MonsterQuest has ever presented.  He effectively (albeit funnily) exposes just how amateur and non-scientific the "study" of bigfoot really is and I applaud this effort.  I only wish Hart had an opportunity to interview Jeff Meldrum.

At the end of the show Hart has a brief dialogue which really sums up the evidence of bigfoot in a goofy but effective way -- where's the evidence?

photo by Balakov