Here in Part 3 (our final part), I’ll list our most popular stories from 2015, but only stories from 2015. Some older stories are still filling up high spots, including Thoughts on Grant Wilson Leaving TAPS/”Ghost Hunters” and Cropsey: Staten Island’s Boogeyman?, which are two of our most popular stories of all time. So what were the top stories from 2015?
1. Mountain Monsters: Fakest of the Fake Paranormal Shows?: This has become our second all-time most popular post, right behind Thoughts on Grant Wilson Leaving TAPS/”Ghost Hunters”, and this story alone has well over 37,000 hits now. The Grant Wilson story didn’t surprise me with it’s popularity, but this Mountain Monsters post sure did. Who would have guessed that this little show about hillbillies hunting Bigfoot and other cryptozoological creatures was so popular? Very few cable providers even carry Destination America, and the network is sort of a laughing stock because of its silly “reality” paranormal programming that stretches credulity even more than most. I guess Mountain Monsters is their prize pig. Or Mega-monster pig.
2. Guilty Pleasures: Survivorman Bigfoot: One of my favorite shows, Survivorman Bigfoot is not too guilty of a pleasure, as this Survivorman spinoff from survival expert Les Stroud is actually very good. No real cheese factor here like my other Guilty Pleasures shows, as Les takes a pretty balanced and skeptical look at the Bigfoot phenomenon. Not too crazy about the fact that he includes highly-questionable Bigfoot enthusiast Todd Standing on many of his expeditions, but overall, a great show. The sad part is, the realistic Survivorman Bigfoot seems a lot less popular than absurd Mountain Monsters.
3. Paranormal Event Planner Scams Town: Brian Harnois, Ryan Buell, and now…this…lady…who nobody ever heard of….Carol Malone? What do they all have in common? They are all involved in scamming fans of the paranormal. Just one more lesson, in a slew of lessons, that when it comes to paranormal conventions and para-celebs, the buyer really should beware. I still don’t know why anyone in their right mind would ever trust Brian Harnois with their money, but people keep doing these things, and they keep getting burned.
4. Samurai Ghost Boots Photo: Most alleged ghost photos end up being laughably bad hoaxes or misinterpretations, but this photo even made me think twice. I still don’t think it’s actually the ghost of a samurai, but it’s still a very interesting photo in its own right. People love ghost photos, and this story was very popular this year.
5. Kylie Jenner on Chemtrails: “Who is responcible?”: The nitwit half-sister of the even bigger nitwit Kardashians made her voice known regarding the conspiracy theories surrounding chemtrails, and asked the question on everyone’s minds: “who is responcible?” That’s her spelling, not mine, in case you were curious. Who said rich, spoiled socialites needed an education?
I’m going to keep this list at 5, since I didn’t do a lot of blogging this year and these really blew any other stories I did away as far as popularity. Most of the other good stuff was from like 2010-2012. So staying power? I’ll take it.