In the era of digital world it is difficult to find trust between computer generated images and real images.
It takes effort to distinguish true photographic evidence. When talking about UFO phenomena, many fakes are shared on the Internet, which are major obstacles in solving the mystery behind unidentified objects flying in the sky. Furthermore, some videos include not only objects, but also their non-human-looking occupants.
Obviously from current human perception these videos are called fake, but are there any videos showing real aliens? There is no solid evidence to back this up. However, the infamous “Skinny Bob” footage has yet to be debunked. Although many people call it “obviously false” it is just an assumption as they don’t have a proper explanation to prove it.
What is Skinny Bob’s story?
In 2011 a video that circulated on the internet generated a lot of curiosity and debate. The video was uploaded to YouTube by a user named “ivan0135” and appears to be leaked footage of a government agency, allegedly the KGB, interrogating an alien being. The being in the video resembles the typical Gray alien and is said to be from the Zeta Reticuli star system. YouTube user ivan0135 only uploaded four videos which together add up to over 1.9 million views.
Skinny Bob alien video
According to the video, the extraterrestrial was part of an envoy to discuss “matters of mutual interest” with the government agency. The video states that the aliens were only allowed to meet with high-ranking officials and were escorted by special officers. Although several aliens were present, the one that stood out the most was an alien nicknamed “Skinny Bob”, which became a viral sensation. The video generated much debate within the UFO community.
The video shows an alien resembling a typical “grey” type with a massive bald head, slit-shaped mouth, large expressive eyes, and claw-like hands. The supposedly leaked footage is a series of interviews taken between 1942 and 1969 only a few clips have leaked. The best-known clip shows the alien dubbed “Skinny Bob” sitting in a telepathic interview and footage of the alien from head to toe and in the puddle of liquid where he supposedly sleeps.
These videos purport to show aliens being filmed without their knowledge or permission. One document, 072/E, describes an event in 1961 where aliens discovered that a hidden camera was secretly recording them. This was considered a violation of the treaty between the aliens and the government body which stated that filming of the entities should only take place with their permission. The footage shows the aliens outside on a lawn and the discovery of the hidden camera led to treaty changes but it is not specified what those changes were.
Forensics on Skinny Bob
Before drawing any conclusions, it is true that the user has tampered with the videos, but that does not mean that the entire video is faked. An entire site is devoted to analyzing Skinny Bob’s video frame by frame. Skinnybob.info has done a tremendous job of uncovering the truth behind these sensational videos. Special effects have been added along with text frames taken from other places to make it look authentic.
Real or fake?
Uploaded by an unknown, 0 subscriber (at the time) YouTube channel (Ivan0135) over a decade ago, nobody has ever come forward and claimed responsibility, the YouTube channel never uploaded additional footage beyond the original uploads. pic.twitter.com/rTVYAk1SpA
— Project Unity (@TheProjectUnity) January 12, 2023
The first video Ivan uploaded begins with an image showing the insignia of the KGB, the Soviet Union’s top security agency. Above and below there are black bars apparently censoring something taken from the documentary The Secret KGB UFO Files released in 1998. Thus, the site’s experts unveiled several scenes that are added to these videos.
The experts write: “After extensive investigation and observation of people’s reactions we can say that fake is certainly not ‘obviously’. Some propose authenticity because of a combination of supportive aspects and lack of direct evidence for fabrication. Usually people judge based on personal and superficial opinions formed after looking at the two close-ups of skinny Bob representing only 29% of all material. CG being ubiquitous in film productions today also gives people a distorted view of what it takes in terms of effort, time and money to create such a hoax.
Wasn’t the material unmasked with the discovery of post-processing effects and overlays?
Not because what matters is the underlying footage to which the effects and overlays were applied. Video editing software allows effects to be applied by drag and drop in seconds, while creating the footage is a completely different category in terms of effort, time and money. It doesn’t matter if it’s fake or real in either case it seems unlikely that the same person(s) responsible for producing the footage also decided to put cheap stock effects on the video track to finish off their precious work. We assume that decision was made by someone else in the chain.”
A visual effects artist Ben Phillips was already interested in Skinny Bob in 2011. He kept an eye on Ivan’s channel for 3 years and noticed that the user never came back in. to your YouTube channel as one long video. (Source)
Phillips praised the work if it was fake: “If it’s animation… it’s some of the best I’ve seen… and I work in cinematic effects.” For me…. as a professional special effects technician and creature effects creator…it feels real. More real than any other video. Usually when we look at good fakes they are impressive at first sight, but something is not right and under scrutiny, it breaks. It worked in the sense that it was a ‘wow’ moment… a little uncomfortable… excited… and upon careful examination it seems to get better.
Phillips proposed the theory that it would take a whole team at a cost of £220,000 to create these videos. “It’s very rare for someone with talent to be able to create Skinny Bob videos and not own up to it. It’s extremely convincing work… Someone so good has a creative ego that he couldn’t resist claiming his work simply to get noticed… It’s becoming more popular lately because it’s starting to stand the tests of time. Nobody I know would try to recreate it because of the time and effort,” he said.
Adam Wells, director of the short film Shemira, told the Daily Star that he had seen a lot of gross hoaxes, but the Skinny Bob clip “seemed to have spent time on it”. He also noticed that something about the eyebrow movement felt animatronic.
UFO expert Nigel Watson has stated that Skinny Bob’s appearance is similar to typical depictions of aliens one might expect to see in flying saucer sightings or the Roswell incident. He also mentioned that he resembles the Mekon from the 1950s cartoon Dan Dare.
Furthermore Watson noted that the alien depicted in the footage resembles a drawing sent to him by an alien abduction victim in the 1970s. ”, he continued.
Charley Henley, a visual effects supervisor who worked on Ridley Scott’s Alien series, says there are good reasons why the aliens in our imaginations look so human: “A lot of the designs are tied to human anatomy and I think that’s the common theme. We put a lot of humans into the aliens.”
