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Skeptoid

Skeptoid #367: Who Is the Grinning Man?

Skeptoid

Brian Dunning

Skeptic, Social Sciences, Skepticism, Paranormal, Conspiracy Theories, Urban Legends, Science, History

4.63K Ratings

🗓️ 18 June 2013

⏱️ 16 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A mysterious "grinning man" is said to appear and terrorize UFO witnesses.

Transcript

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0:00.0

You've heard of the men in black, you may have heard of the slender man, or of the black

0:07.5

eyed kids. Usually these characters from pop fiction are referenced in the context

0:12.7

of UFOs, as if they are the aliens assuming some semi-human form in an effort to communicate

0:19.2

or frighten us. Today we've got another such character for you, known for his unearthly

0:24.5

wide grin. The grinning man is today unskeptoid.

0:35.5

Hey everyone, Brian here. A quick favor. We are conducting an audience survey. We'd

0:41.1

be really grateful if you could take just a few minutes and answer our survey. This

0:45.4

is the kind of thing that's sort of an engineering and marketing necessity to make the whole

0:49.4

free podcast ecosystem flourish. So please check it out. Also, surveys are fun. You get

0:55.4

to talk about yourself. Please visit survey.prx.org slash scaptoid to take the survey today.

1:04.4

That's survey.prx.org slash SKEPTOID. Thanks.

1:13.4

You're listening to Skeptoid. I'm Brian Dunning from Skeptoid.com. Who is the grinning

1:24.4

man? Should a bright UFO ever streak across the night sky in front of you? Don't be so quick

1:31.0

to think the show might already be over. For throughout the 1960s, some who had that

1:37.9

very experience found there was more to come. It came in the figure of a man, unnaturally

1:43.9

tall, strangely dressed in a long shiny green metallic jacket, bald-headed and eerie-looking.

1:49.9

But his most distinctive feature is that from which his name comes, his bizarre ear to

1:55.9

ear grin, like a silent shriek dashed across his face. The grinning man frightened UFO

2:02.9

witnesses for many years, and some say his visitations are not yet finished. The original

2:10.9

grinning man report to make it into print, so far as anyone knows, was published in UFO

2:15.9

researcher John Keill's 1970 book, The Complete Guide to Mysterious Beings. He devotes

2:22.9

an entire chapter to the grinning man. This original incident concerned two boys walking

...

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