This Paranormal Life - #296 The Jackalope - Wyoming's Most Disturbing Cryptid

Episode Date: January 3, 2023

Remember in Toy Story when Sid sewed those toys together like Frankenstein? Disturbing, I know. Unfortunately that's exactly what Mother Nature has been up to over in Wyoming, and I'm not talking about the locals. The Jackalope is such a famous cryptid it's assumed to be a real animal by countless people, but the full story is much wilder and more paranormal than that. Time for Kit and Rory to investigate.This Paranormal Life is sponsored by BetterHelp.Go to betterhelp.com/paranormallife to get started today using code "paranormallife".Support us on Patreon.com/ThisParanormalLife to get access to weekly bonus episodes!Buy Official TPL Merch! - thisparanormallife.com/storeFollow us on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTubeJoin our Secret Society Facebook CommunityIntro music by www.purple-planet.comResearch by Amy GrisdaleEdited by Louis Blatherwick Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

If time is the fourth dimension, what's the fifth dimension? Did Dr. Frankenstein make more monsters or did he just knock it out of the park that one time? Answers to these questions and more on this episode of This Paranormal Life! Hello! And Happy New Year! Whoa! Oh my god! A whole new year, 2023. I don't like it. The number seems scary to me.

Isn't that when they set Blade Runner or something? 2020, no. No, I think it was 20, was that like 2019 or something? Was it? I think it's passed already. Oh my god! Anyway, we're living in the future. Welcome back everyone to a brand new year, brand new episode of This Paranormal Life, the weekly comedy podcast where two idiots get to the bottom of a paranormal case and decide at the end whether it's true or not. Rory, happy new year. Yeah, I'm excited to be back here, excited to be spending another year investigating the paranormal with you. Kit, do you have any New Year's resolutions you want to bring into the 2023 season? It's a great question, Rory. And I would say I would get ripped, but I already am. I would say get in the best shape of my life. Hard to do when you already are. I would say be a kinder

person, more forgiving person. But honestly, it's hard to improve on perfection so no you also said you wanted to be more humble um but you're already as humble as it gets more than anyone else so that's already taken care of that's what that's what i always say more than anyone else there's something quite healthy about that going into the new year and being like i don't need to change a goddamn thing i like who i am i'm just gonna be me to the fullest percent even if me is a bad person i gotta be i gotta stay stay true to me and keep it 100 uh what about you rory uh you know a little different for me uh be a better person in general you know that's kind of a nice one uh spend more time with my family sorry i just would have imagined you might have had a couple of goals around like i don't know like reading more like becoming more educated or why or like

um maybe just like trying to step it up in the gym or nothing no no no it's not really like it's not really like a resolution as much but um there's a box of snakes in my basement so i guess maybe my resolution is like kill the snakes or something figure out figure out what to do about the snakes i don't maybe not kill maybe we won't get there years okay that that was not where i was expecting this to go but let's let's get into it i don't want this to become like the moth story yeah i kind of took over the podcast for a while so i just want to actually it would be great to nip it in the bud at the top of a new year it's a normal resolution it's one of those things where it's like i want to stop eating chocolate i want to ride my bike more i need

to figure out what to do with the snakes in the basement how did the snakes get there that's a question for rory in 2022 it's a new year new me it doesn't matter who's responsible for the snakes being there in the first place what matters is they're here now what matters is the now okay we're gonna gloss over that one then and just get straight to you said you're gonna kill hire someone please hire someone to do to do to get rid of them to do the dirty work for me so i don't have to get my hands and say killing them because i think i hear you loud and proud brother don't worry not at all not at all no i don't wait in there on your own is all I would say. Okay.

I can take that advice at least. So whether you've decided that you're perfect like me, or you too have either a literal or metaphorical box of poisonous snakes in either your basement or the attic of your mind that you are going to get rid of, this new year, I hope, we hope that you are out there living your best life, enjoying the new year and all that it has to offer. But this is still this paranormal life. A new year might come and go, but the show is here.

We have to get to the bottom of a new paranormal case. I think we should get into it, Rory. Let's do it. Right after some quick words from today's sponsors. some quick words from today's sponsors. Rory, today's story starts in Douglas, Wyoming. The year was 1932, and a man called Roy Hall owned and operated a saloon called the Hotel La Bonti.

Have you ever been to Wyoming, Rory? Never, never in my life. Where is it? I don't know. I have no idea. I think Kanye moved there. I think that put it on the map in my head. Wyoming is a state in America, yeah. I believe that's where the rapper who shall not be named moved to live a kind of rural lifestyle. And it really did look quite beautiful.

Rory, maybe as an American, we should just put your patriotism to a quick geographical test. Sure. I'm looking at where Wyoming is on a map. Do you want to guess what the neighboring states are? I don't know. Colorado. Really? Yeah. What? Keep going.

I don't know what neighbor's colorado i can guess that's wild let's see if you can get one more i think there's like texas no it's too low i don't know enough states i thought you could sing the song that names all the states that's the problem with the song alphabetical yeah it's alphabetical uh no i have no clue you weren't a million miles away because i guess there are states that border texas and colorado but it is there it's a bit more north than i thought actually yeah that is more north so we're bordering idaho utah south dakota etc etc etc okay got it you know what i really respect Idaho, Utah, South Dakota, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Okay. Got it.

You know what I really respect about America? Square states. Just a completely square. It's great, isn't it? There's some, you know, I'm looking at you, North Dakota, where it's almost a square. Don't get me wrong, but there is a wiggly side. Yeah. To at least just give a little bit of, you know,

that's nodding the cap to nature and humanity. Right. To be like, I understand that there are rivers and ancient habitats. Wyoming, they were like, f*** that. Well, all I know is we're in 1932 and we're in Wyoming and we're in a saloon. So I don't give a f*** what anyone says.

This is the Wild West to me. Got it. Well, Roy Hall's saloon, the building itself has been standing for two decades at this point. And Roy was beginning to be worried that business might dry up. Roy was always keeping an eye out for some new and exciting furnishings to attract patrons he figured if he put something strange and interesting in the window passers-by might

stop to have a look maybe they get thirsty and order themselves one of his top shelf liquors he could be raking in big bucks by next week this is the kind of like old school logic that i'm not sure actually works anymore where you like put a lion's head on the wall right to get people talking yeah yeah that kind of decor or if you're like the hard rock hotel you like crash this is the ultimate example is like you make it look like a cadillac has crashed through the building it works it gets the people talking but uh i'm not sure that's like if you're pitching a new restaurant in 2022 that's really something people do anymore yeah a lot of people will still put like plastic versions of their food in the windows i guess that's kind of

a version of it where you're like hey i got all the sick food we got in here that's actually very true i'm sure you've seen that in japan they're still quite big into that in japan yeah and in korea as well and it's like they're quite good at it too. It looks, that plastic looks pretty delicious after a couple of seconds. Sometimes it looks better than the food. Let me tell you. Very often.

I once ate a wax apple. I was so hungry because it looked damn delicious and it smelled like cinnamon and it was worth it. Well, on this fateful day, a pair of young hunters were in town with some of their mounted kills. They wandered into Roy's saloon. Hey, Jack. Hey, Zach. What you got there? Oh, no, don't take a step further unless you've come to drink. I'm not interested. I've spent thousands of dollars

buying your trophies. And let me tell you something. I'm starting to think they're not going to save this business. Hell, I spent so much on that moose skull last month, I forgot to buy my damn shoes. I've been walking around with no shoes for a month. Is that funny to you? My feet hurt because I got no shoes? I'd like to see you walk around with no shoes. Can it, Roy.

I promise this is different. You're going to want to see this one. Roy relented and the men walked in and on the counter laid down the head of an animal Roy had never seen before. Just buy more beer. Buy more beer and put up a new sign. You don't have to decapitate

a moose and hang it on the wall. Start a ladies night. Tuesday's ladies night. Get a karaoke machine. I don't know if they exist yet. Pay someone to invent it. As they say, this was the head of an animal Roy had never seen before. Kind of. It was familiar, but also completely different.

Okay. The thing was clearly a rabbit, but somehow also had horns like a deer. Ooh. More than anything, it was just so goddamn cute. Well, what do you know? What's this little fella's story? Is it a jackrabbit or an antelope? The young hunters looked at one another and answered in unison. It's a jackalope!

Roy was charmed beyond belief by the odd little creature. He opened up the till and pulled out his last ten dollar bill and traded it for the jackalope. Wow. He put it on the wall in pride of place so that it would catch the eye

of every patron that stepped inside. It began to garner attention that very inside. It began to garner attention that very afternoon. Excuse me, I say, I was minding my own business when I couldn't help noticing that strange and interesting animal on the wall. Oh, what is it? It's a jackalope. I've never seen anything like it before.

Where'd you get it? This guy is hired. He was obviously hired by the hunters. The second they leave, he walks in and goes, Well, I wasn't thirsty until I saw that there jackalope. You should buy more jackalopes. Cover the place in jackalopes. It's an elaborate scheme.

They cut the $10, gave this guy $3 to go in and say it was such an amazing idea. gave this guy three to go in and say it was such an amazing idea. Roy explained that a couple of lads from the area had caught it and mounted it by hand. The customer was impressed. Yes, sir, that is an unusual story. And a fascinating creature. So weird. Are you going to buy a drink? Are you going to buy a drink?

Because I don't want to have to start charging to see the jackalope. He turned to leave, but stopped in his tracks on his way to the door. You know what? While I'm here, I might as well have a $50 whiskey. Can you break $100? Roy shook his head in astonishment.

Well then, we'll just have to make it a double, won't we? The jackalope quickly became a permanent feature of the inn, and people came from miles around to see it. What is a jackalope? I should get that out of the way right now. I don't know what a jackalope is. At this point, brother, you're in the same camp as Roy. All he's got is the head of a rabbit, but it's got horns. But a jackalope is at this point brother you're in the same camp as roy all he's got is the head of

a rabbit but it's got horns but a jackalope is a real creature right oh god it isn't if you want to say if you want to give a double yes right now we can do it no but is it a cryptid or is there an actual creature called a jack you might have to listen further okay hey i'm loving the enthusiasm i'm loving that you're that you're so on board that you're willing to say it's real right here and now i just thought it was a lot of a lot of story to be honest if we could just go straight to conclusion now i'm worried that i'm gonna say something wrong so like let's continue with this story that's what makes this story hard to tell is that like i think a lot of people do think it's real. Right. That beast in the window, it's simply amazing.

Look, there it is, Debbie. Oh my gosh, it's peculiar. That head on the wall, wherever'd you get it? Roy loved telling his patrons about the jackalope, almost as much as he loved the sweet, sweet cash they were dropping at the bar. But he actually wasn't too sure about the creature itself. Its biology, its natural history, and wild behavior were a complete mystery to him. He couldn't deflect their questions forever and had to figure out the history and origin of the beast.

Now, Rory, you just asked a question of your own. It might be a good time for us to talk a little bit about the creature and give you an idea of what it looks like. Have you heard of the jackalope before? I thought I had, but now I'm worried that I'm thinking of a different creature

and this thing is some sort of paranormal monster. Like deer horns on a rabbit's head? That doesn't sound like anything real okay so here's a replica of what roy was probably dealing with we're talking head mounted on the wall all right yeah bunny rabbit ears on a creature that looks like a deer including deer horns yeah funny you say that too because i think it's it's really supposed to be just a bunny or a hare yeah full stop but with horns of a deer but i think it's kind of like we can't get the scale obviously of this picture this this is like in a restaurant somewhere um so it's probably

smaller than what it feels like like you say it looks like a deer in that image. Yeah. And lastly, here is like an old timey photo supposedly of a jackalope. Okay. Like a rabbit, kind of bigger than a rabbit with deer horns. It's what you're picturing in your head, people. So was that what you were kind of thinking of when you heard the word jackalope? don't know man i don't know what i was picturing some kind of foresty creature that's on four legs uh i guess so uh yeah some kind of deer like creature but i know that this is our first investigation of the entire year you know so what we do today is like setting the bar for every investigation this year so with that in mind i know this little f***er isn't just a deer because you wouldn't just bring a deer to the case. So he might look like a deer.

He might look like a normal little bunny rabbit with horns, but we both know, you and me, brother, what can he do? Can he f***ing teleport or something, right? Or he eats the souls of little children. Oh, I'm just going to rule that out right now. Or maybe he takes off his hooves and he has hands underneath.

Human hands that he could use to strangle the souls of children. He's an animal. He's an animal. He's a cryptid. He's an animal that we don't know whether it really exists or not. But he has some sort of ability,

some sort of paranormal ability. Time travel, perhaps? If he exists, that's paranormal. So he's just kind of like a deer he's just a bit of a rabbit okay all right we we don't know we don't know i just don't want you to put the pressure on me to make this into like like he is from another planet because that might be tough because we're in wyoming and let me just uh--oh, check notes. We're staying in Wyoming. All right. Can he fly or laser vision or some sort of, is he transparent?

Which of those will get it across the line to a double yes? Because I'll take five to rewrite the script right here and now. To throw in a couple theories. No, Roy, it's really interesting to hear that you have some kind of mental familiarity that you can't quite pin down to do with the jackalope because i do too and i'm sure many of our listeners do they've maybe heard the name maybe i have to say even when i saw the images of the jackalope i was like i'm pretty sure i've seen this before yeah um it seems familiar and let's bear that in mind as we go on, because we're basically in the same situation as Roy being like, why do I know this? But why have I also never seen this before?

Right. OK. Because everyone's coming into his establishment being like, what the fuck is that? And he's like, it's a jackalope. And they're like, what is that? And he's like, I actually don't know. I actually don't know. What a weird situation to be in. Well, you don't know a jackalope when you see one. Do you?

No, but I thought you would. It's so crazy. Someday after getting too many questions, Roy's just going to snap you. Be like, I bought it because I thought it looked cool. I don't care. I don't care. Just drink and shut up and leave.

But no, Roy didn't say drink, shut up, leave. He wanted to get to the bottom of it. So there was nothing else for it. He had to go back to the original source to find out more. The two hunters who sold Roy the stuffed head in the first place. He knew where they lived, so he paid Douglas and Ralph a visit. He knew where they lived, so he paid Douglas and Ralph a visit. Rory, the time has come to acknowledge the fact that earlier I described these two as rugged hunters in the Wild West of 1930s Wyoming.

Sure. But Ralph and Douglas were 10 and 12 years old. What? Howdy, mister. How can we help you, sir? Hey, boys. It's about the jackalope. My customers love it and I was hoping you could tell me some more about it. They must have been very rare. Have I got the only one? Suddenly, the boys looked nervous.

Oh, jeez. All right, Roy. We got something to show you. They brought Roy through to their workshop. Why do they have a workshop? Why do these children have a workshop? They're not hunters. They're just two boys who kill local animals. I don't know why they're 10 years old, man. I think back then you were just hard as nails at that age.

Right. You had already been working full-time for at least eight years but apparently they were uh very skilled at taxidermy because they just started when they were like four so they were like skilled craftsmen fine by 11 sure yeah inventing monsters in their frankenstein workshop gluing rats and pigeons together roy gasped when he entered the workshop there were jackalopes as far as the eye could see people are desperate for them sir we're struggling to keep up with demand can't make them quick enough as much as it pains me to say rory the boys were cutting off deer antlers and gluing them to rabbit heads yeah of course they were hanging them on people's walls i mean i don't know i don't know if i need to spell

it out for the listeners at home well that's what was happening these kids were the original uh sid from toy story basically just gluing shit together and selling it on etsy they're going door to door selling various animals like hey mister you want a crockaroo it's a crocodile mixed with a kangaroo no i'm not interested in that one are you sure what about a koala snake you're just you're just you didn't even mix those together you just said the names of two animals you're just coming up with them in your mind. And then I'm worried that whatever I say yes to, you're going to go and find those animals, kill them and make this. Now we got crockeroos for days, sir.

This is wild. It turned out these boys had been and would go on to sell thousands and thousands of, quote, jackalope trophies that's a crime surely against mother nature for sure but also should be a regular crime it's a good point i don't know if anyone was keeping track of that kind of thing back in the day just arrest the children now because even if they haven't done something wrong they're gonna they're gonna eventually signs are there i probably did a lot of bad stuff when i was growing up i never made my own animal i never pieced an animal together with bits of other animals sometimes i'd use lego to help build

a bionicle set maybe that was as f***ed up as i got right you mix the duplo with the lego yeah that's that's that's some pretty twisted stuff um yeah i sometimes had applesauce with my oreo as like a weird that was my weird concoction look mom i made a spaghetti sandwich that's as crazy as i got i seem to remember um maybe the most insane kid at our school he he would put like his cat in the fridge sometimes. Yeah. Which is definitely animal abuse. But even that pales in comparison to these sick, twisted psychos, Douglas and whatever his name was.

That being said, you never did try my spaghetti sandwich. That thing was pretty messed up. What, in a good way? No. No, it was not. I call it a noodle crunch. I will tell you about one of our mutual friends at primary school growing up. He made a culinary concoction that haunts me to this day. Oh, God. Whenever he would eat spaghetti, he wouldn't eat

like tomato spaghetti or bolognese spaghetti. Okay, what? He would just have plain spaghetti with Heinz ketchup, like poured all over the plain spaghetti. Okay, what? He would just have plain spaghetti with Heinz ketchup like poured all over the plain spaghetti. I've done that before, yeah. Or just butter sometimes. There's a ton of butter. It's really good, I'm not gonna lie. You're like, I did that this morning as a hungover snack.

It was delicious. So Rory, the jackalope must surely be a hoax. But if that's the case, why is Reddit teeming with jackalope sightings? Okay, maybe not teeming, but there's a few on there. For example, Reddit user Misfits and Mysteries wrote, I swear to God, I saw one when I was a child in a ghost town in Utah. They're probably fake because a jackrabbit and an antelope cannot have babies together, but I still saw one. And that's not

all. If it's all a hoax, why is there a 16th century European painting depicting a jackalope, Roy? I don't know. He's throwing a lot of weird stuff at me. The first one was just like, if that's true, this person says they saw one. Moving on. Well, no, let's not move on.

I've sent you the 16th century painting. It's a bunny rabbit with horns. It's a tiny little painting of a bunny rabbit with horns in between some regular bunny rabbits. And a lot of Latin writing. It's definitely a 500-year-old painting. Yeah.

This thing, it does not look like a jackalope. It looks like just a rabbit with horns. That's what a jackalope is rory no we've been talking for 40 minutes about how that's exactly what it is we said the head of a bunny rabbit with horns it was only a head because they'd cut off the head from the rest of the body for the rest of the bunny it's a rabbit that's right um okay so so that's so it's literally just a bunny rabbit with horns. That's the creature we're talking about today.

Yes! Clearly, this jackrabbit hole goes much, much deeper. And it might get pretty f***ed up. I don't know. Did you just call it a jackrabbit? I was making a pun! Because it's, yes, a mixture of a jackrabbit and a deer. We're going to get to the bottom of this after some quick words from today's sponsors.

Calm down, though. Calm down. Rory, what the hell's going on here? I thought you would have calmed down after the ads. It turns out that before Roy talked to our child laborers in the woods who made the jackalope head, he had tried to research it. Roy and a couple of his drinking buddies made their way to a library one morning to comb the shelves for information about the jackalope. Oh, this is good. Roy, get a load of this. It says here a fur trapper spotted one of these things nearby all the way back in 1829. Have you got anything? Yeah, apparently the Buddha talked about horned rabbits. I can't make head nor tails of it.

They were finding stacks of medieval manuscripts from Europe describing mysterious horned rabbits, and of course even our 16th century painting of one, but no modern mentions or proof that they exist in books of biology or encyclopedias. It's as if this thing was running around America and Europe for hundreds of years before dropping off the face of the earth to be forgotten almost instantly. Forgotten everywhere except for Wyoming. In Wyoming, despite zero live specimens for proof or living in zoos, they love this little guy and have tried many times to make it the state's official animal, failing every time. Who decides? A jackalope hater. The state trademarked the name jackalope back in 1965.

And in 1985, Governor Ed Hershler wrote it in the history books that our young 10-year-old hunter Douglas officially discovered the creature and that Wyoming is its native habitat. He's claiming that as fact? Does he actually believe it? I think so. Thank you for bearing with me.

I think you're starting to understand what a strange cryptid case this is yeah this is an animal that i like i say even over on reddit people are like i don't know man like i saw them in an episode of scooby-doo i just thought it was a real animal right and then other people are like no of course what are you talking about of course it was a real animal they're not in zoos they're not in the wild they're like not in textbooks but they're so interwoven with art and history and life in the wild west and the countryside in america that they seem to kind of dance around the world of the real and regular animals and the world of cryptids. Well, they're just also not that crazy.

Just a rabbit with horns, really. As I said, he's not able to teleport or fly or possess any capabilities that a lot of the other cryptids can do. We don't know that yet. He's kind of just a bunny with horns. Well, Bigfoot is just a monkey. He really isn't. He's an eight-foot gorilla man. I think people say he might be interdimensional as well,

which is a pretty crazy ability. But my point being, you know, it's because these little f***ers are so normal that they seem like they could be real creatures. You know who else appears in a lot of books and folklore? Oompa Loompas. But no one is saying those little guys are real. Because they're too weird.

Like, I'm not going to the zoo being like, where are the Oompa Loompas? I want to see them and feed them. I know they're not real because there are no tiny orange men from the planet Oompa being hunted by snozzgobblers or whoever the hell eats them.

You're right. This is the heart of this case, is we need to get to the bottom of whether these things really exist or not, because it so happens that they are easy to hoax. But that doesn't mean they're not real necessarily. It just means that some kids glued some antlers to a bunny.

Also easy to get confused for regular animals. If you either see a bunny with pointy ears or a very small deer, it's going to look like one of these creatures. Now, because no one else in the world seems to care about this creature, except the good people of Wyoming, it means that this state is a treasure trove of information about this particular cryptid. Researcher Amy found this next piece of evidence and i really love it so much this is a douglas county wyoming jackalope hunting license because if this thing isn't real rory why are they making licenses to hunt them yeah there's a lot of

contradiction here where they're trying to prove to the world that this thing is real. They're trying to make it their mascot. Also, we're legally allowed to kill and eat them. Because even though they're small and elusive, I bet they're delicious. I thought they would have signed a petition to protect all jackalopes. Right. But instead they're allowing their locals to kill them. There you go. A limited non-resident jackalope license limited to one pronghorn jackalope of either sex. And then a bunch of terms and conditions signed by the sheriff or whatever the f***. But then on the back, helpfully, a ton22 because anyone who believes the jackalope is real

shouldn't be allowed a gun. You shouldn't be allowed to have a reason to hunt it in the first place. As license says, before 1829, the jackalope was only known through Native American legends. It was said that jackalopes mated during flashes of lightning in violent thunderstorms oh which is pretty heavy metal and i do appreciate pretty intense they also say

this is also yet to be confirmed by scientists okay it could also be uh for the same reason that the vampires from twilight can only play baseball in a thunderstorm because they just make too much noise. So two jackrabbit, jack, what are these f***ers called? Jackanapes? Jackapes? Do you have some respect for the jackalope? The jackalopes. If two of these jackalopes are going at it, maybe you have to do it in a thunderstorm if it's too loud.

Right. Have you heard foxes having sex? You make a good point, actually. It's crazy crazy it's worse than the cry it probably honestly inspired the cry of the banshee i i low-key think that's what the banshee is i assumed i was living next to some sort of fox terrorist interrogation center when i first moved to south london fox guantan. I was like, what are they doing to these foxes out there? Like, ah, ah, ah.

And I was like, just tell him whatever he wants. Give him all the info. Leak the location of your buddies. I don't know what you're doing, but it sounds horrible. But apparently that's just foxes having sex. They're just loud lovers. Right, that's how you know they're into it, I think. This thing says how

oral western folklore from throughout the ages was filled with stories of the vicious characteristics of the giant saber-toothed jackalope they would attack windmills barbed wire fences and wagon trains and we're not even going to get into the fact that jackalopes have been borderline censored from world history. They point out that the original version of the song Home on the Range had a line about jackalopes in it that got taken out. It didn't. It did. It definitely didn't. What was the line?

It was a line about deers and rabbits going at it. What? Look it up. You don't even have the line? Google's not being, like, especially forthcoming about this piece of information. Right. Must be super classified. You can take my word for it.

All right. If you didn't like that bit, you're not going to like this next bit of information. all right if you didn't like that bit you're not gonna like this next bit of information i just like before i tell you the next bit i just need you to like because i'm starting to feel a little bit of animosity towards the the jackalope so i just need you to keep an open mind yeah always the jackalope is known for its imitation of human voices and its ability to hold a tune it can sing many cowboys reported that as they would sing to their herds, they would often hear jackalopes singing in perfect harmony. All right.

Well, hey, I guess that's pretty paranormal. I was looking for something this thing could do that was beyond the abilities of just an animal. And harmonies, yeah, I don't know. Creatures that really nail those. And harmonies, yeah, I don't know creatures that really nail those. There is too much information to go through. You'll be glad to know everything that it says about the jackalope.

But it is worth noting that it does say they are extremely vicious. The largest specimens have footlong fangs. And whilst the best thing to use to bait a jackalope is whiskey hunters are forbidden from using intoxicating beverages to bait the animals why what what a weird complicated relationship they have with this animal they are like it is our mascot it is our home it is our heart it is brutal ruthless we must kill them but whiskey is too They must die, but whiskey is truly too far. We love the little sons of bitches. They are sacred and they must die with honor. You cannot intoxicate them.

As I say, there is a ton of information about kind of the different subspecies of jackalope. They also leave you with a bit of what I assume is Wild West cowboyboy Hunter Wyoming Wisdom with the saying leaves of three, let it be. Horns of two will mess with you. Okay, so that's just an old timey saying to warn people. Something about the jackalope.

I don't actually, me and Research Remy could not for the life of us figure out what that means. Yeah. If you can. Wait, horns of two will mess with you it'll mess you up is that what they're saying that's the idea okay i mean that could be applied to most animals with two horns i would say they'll mess you up that's very yeah generally evolutionarily speaking they they have horns for a reason yeah which is to people up i was headbutted by a goat once really they do not mess around yeah and i was not a man i was a boy i became a man that day

after the goat hit me because you don't know what i want to know what it did to me while i was done because you that's all i'm saying i tell you you, once you, as a human, have your first interaction with an animal that goes wrong, you learn a lot in that day. I remember getting headbutted by that goat and realizing that there's a barrier between man and beast, and that line must be respected. AKA, don't grab his billy goat and yank it down in front of him. The f***ed up thing is that was only two weeks

after rory saw the dublin gorilla man he was in therapy for six months after both of those incidents i've only had three bad interactions with animals in my life before i think one was the goat two a crab nipped my thumb at the beach and three a swan nipped my thumb at the park when i was trying to feed it bread so you know in the uk we don't have a lot of dangerous animals that's about as wild as a god a goat a crab and a duck all attacked me yeah you're lucky you're not from kenya where an actual dangerous animal could like you could have pissed off a hippo or something right yeah so i learned that lesson early on uh and it seems like people have to

also respect the jackalope. Listen, Mother Nature doesn't give a shit about you. And if you get in the way of a jackalope, she will mess you up. Allegedly. They're very small.

Not the saber-toothed jackalope. Sometimes the tinier the animal, the more vicious though as well. Because sometimes the big animals, they haven't had to worry or fight in their lives because they're so enormous. They're top of the the food chain but then you'll just go to a park and like a goose will try and kill a grown man aka me when i was at the park what what are you doing to

these animals i don't know if i've ever been attacked by an animal in my entire life i just want to see what they look like with my sunglasses on. Like, why is that such a weird, wild thing? They're trying to put sunglasses on a goose. Thought they'd be into it. I mean, to be fair, there's nothing I love more than videos of monkeys doing human things. Right. Monkey smoking a cigarette. Classic.

Really funny. Probably not good for the monkey. Monkey wearing sunglasses. Classic. Great. Monkey pouring an entire can of Diet Coke into their mouth at the zoo. Amazing. funny probably not good for the monkey monkey wearing sunglasses classic great monkey uh pouring an entire can of diet coke into their mouth at the zoo amazing he's gonna have a great time with that sugar ikea monkey just wearing a human coat tremendous great but then all of a sudden i try

and put sunglasses on a goose and i'm the bad guy right i understand that what we need at this point what we must have in order to bring this case home and prove that let's face it what should be pretty low-hanging fruit for a double yes if this thing is real you know i mean this is the this is the ideal right here is like a cryptid that doesn't teleport a cryptid that doesn't come from the moon uh this thing well you said he could sing if we can just pin it well yeah it can. And don't get it twisted. It's like Shawn Mendes. It's like, it sounds gorgeous.

But we still need photos and videos and so on. We need something. Not gonna lie, photos, thin on the ground. There are lots of photos. Okay. But it turns out that Jackalope is just about the easiest cryptid to photoshop in history right because you're just taking horns and putting them on a it's also a very easy creature to just fake in real life because that's how this whole thing got started was just putting deer horns on

a rabbit right you could just put them on a rabbit and let the rabbit run around and film it yeah and is that what's happened is that the evidence today today? What I do have is a video shot on Santa Fe University campus in 2016 after a disturbing jackalope sighting on campus. All right. I'm ready to see it. We're talking multiple witnesses, nail-biting encounters, and sightings. Well, this is a dangerous creature as well, so it's a miracle they got so close. and sightings. Well, this is a dangerous creature as well,

so it's a miracle they got so close. I saw a jackalope last night. All of a sudden, I looked to my up, and there it is. Brian's like, oh my God, what is that? I'm like, it's a jackalope. I'm like, what? A jackalope, bro.

It was a nice rabbit. It was like a nice rabbit, but it had horns. They were just little nubs. It's like bigger than an avocado. They were pretty beefy animals, you know? I was just walking and it was like, wah, wah, wah, wah, wah. Took a little step. The thing like turned at me. I see the eyes. I just grabbed the stick, started punching it out. The thing started jumping at me. My glasses fell. I couldn't see so it was attacking me. The jackalopes did not do that. They're actually very friendly. Jackalopes are good,

good rabbits. They smell like unicorn unicorns i think it had good intentions maybe it was like a sign you know i was like like i'm there for you that jackalope saying to me they said you're gonna be awesome sam and then it was like no you a pretty good look for like you know anything that you're trying to achieve in the future. So I'm excited. That's such a nice jackalope. All right, I know you couldn't see that, guys, but that was a news report called Jackalope Watch. I think a section dedicated just to trying to see jackalopes. Wasn't it Stinger?

I thought that was like... No, I think that's Royalty 3, actually. You can just download that on the internet. Word? This is the end of the podcast. That's the end. I'm done. This is as far as the jackalope will go. Who were those people?

Any of those people? They were witnesses. They never showed a video, by the way, or a picture of the jackalope. I'm pretty sure there was actually fleeting images of a jackalope uh someone said their horns were nubs and then it showed just a picture of a full jackalope yeah some girl said uh i looked to my up and then she said it was bigger than an avocado one of them said it smells like unicorns uh that was the final straw for me personally look we can't if we're gonna like go through paranormal witnesses with a fine-tooth

comb like uh there's not gonna be any at the end of that we have to keep an open mind i'm a professional i'm a professional paranormal investigator that studied this at university for many years have some respect for my time have some respect do you know how many cases i turned down to be here because i said they were like hey're actually going to go up to the Himalayas and see if we can actually track down Skeleton Lake. I didn't get that email. Yeah, well, it's just a couple of the guys from Paranormal Harvard. Sometimes we do like our own investigations. We don't even make it public.

It's just like guys hanging out investigating the paranormal. Anyway, that's irrelevant. The point is, I said no to them. I said no to them because I said it's the first podcast of the month and I know my boy Kit is going to bring a 10 to the table. I email them sometimes, see if I could get both of us to hop on investigation, but they're like, no, we're stacked. Craig and Sarah and Steve, yeah, they're slammed mostly.

But I emailed them this month, but you got the invite? Yeah, well, it's a reoccurring calendar event, so it's not really an invite, but I guess, yeah, I but you got the invite? Yeah, well, it's a reoccurring calendar event, so it's not really an invite. But I guess, yeah, I did go. You went? Yeah, I went to the one earlier in the month. Let's not do this publicly or anything like that. You wouldn't even have liked the jackalope hunt.

We were barely there for like three days. So, yeah, we saw a couple jackalopes. Yeah. You what? You kept this quiet until the end of the podcast? I didn't think you'd be interested. You know how many jackalope hunts I turned down to sit here and listen to you talk about the jackalope? Okay, Rory.

Now might be a sensible time to talk about one of the more scientific reasons for potentially why people have seen jackalopes okay because let's face it we could argue that this thing's a hoax but okay that benefits ralph and douglas who are literally selling them for cash but what about all the people posting on reddit who are just like i saw one like what do they stand to gain from this? Yeah. Surely it's coming from a place of honesty. It turns out that there is a weird viral condition or some kind of virus, bacteria, f***ing infection that rabbits can get called papilloma, which causes them to grow horns, or at least look like they're growing horns.

Ugh, that sounds awful. This is the dark twisted reality, potentially, of the jackalope. Oh my god, this is horrible looking. Yeah, these are not... Well, they are kind of horns, but... It's kind of amazing how much they do look like horns. Yeah, this is gross. Imagine a bunny rabbit could grow like a beard

of bone. It's, it's, it's a disgusting look. Yeah. When you kind of go through all the images, you see some where they're coming out of like all over their, their little heads, some where they're coming out in other places in their body. And then there are some images where they are coming out just of the top, which would lead one to believe they are horns i will say for all our animal lover friends out there um as disturbing as it is to look at apparently the virus um is not really too much of a threat to them they pretty much get to live out their lives okay fine it just looks quite upsetting yeah but i don, Rory, what do you think? Is that the probable cause of the sightings of bunny rabbits with horns? I mean, it could be also just baby deers,

like baby deers look a lot like little rabbits and they do have horns. There's probably a lot of creatures that kind of resemble this monster. Also just bunny rabbits. If you're just seeing bunny rabbits in the dark with like twisted tree branches all around them there's also possibility you might just think that those are horns there's enough plausible explanations that without any real photographic or video evidence there's not really much to go on yeah look we all wanted this to be a big send-off the first episode of the year let's bring it home rory was giving me a pep talk weeks in advance of this really excited about it yeah i see you've got the first episode this year

we want to really send a big statement to the fans that we're putting in a lot of effort this year you know send a send a message to the british podcast awards that we're bringing our A game this year. I blew it. I blew it. You know, you do an episode in the Jackalope, you think it's going to be a 10 out of 10, and it's not. No one thought it was going to be a 10 out of 10. You look into it and you think it's borderline an Oscar winning feature film about a cryptid. That's a guaranteed double yes.

The creature's just two normal creatures mashed together. It's just a bunny with horns. That's it. I thought it was an absolute shoo-in double yes cryptid. I think it's fair to say we do not have enough evidence to say that this thing's real. People have been believing in it for hundreds of years, and yet there's still none.

They shouldn't have. There's still none in zoos. There's no examples that weren't made by 10 year old children uh i think it's a no today it's a no it is a no yeah all right well let's not try and be a dick about it we're gonna try and keep the energy up because it's the new year yeah oh what a year of cases we have lined up. We got the crockaroo next week. Then we got the duck-billed bugapus. It's a bug mixed with a platypus. I hope you like this week because we blew our load early.

That was the best there really is, and it's going to be downhill from here. Guys, if you enjoyed this, there are so many better episodes of this paranormal life to listen to you know just check out the archives or you can check out um all the bonus content we make man we make as you guys know a new paranormal investigation every week but we also make tons of bonus content too we do an extra full-length bonus episode a month we do weekly after parties all over on patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life so there's truly something for everyone this year roy we have tons of cryptid cases like this and a little bit better uh going all the way from ghost investigations to ufos yeah this was borderline not even a

cryptid case it was just kind of like talking about a rabbit that's where i draw the line that's where i draw the line because it is a. It is encrypted. And maybe I'm defensive about it. I'm going to just investigate jellyfish next week. They're kind of weird. I'm going to throttle roaring after this recording ends. So we hope you enjoyed this investigation. Nonetheless, we've had a laugh. We are looking forward to a fantastic year in 2023 of paranormal investigations and all kinds of fun

stuff so make sure you're following us on socials you can find the links in the description of this podcast to hear about everything that we're up to hell yeah thank you so much also to amy grisdale for researching today's episode and to louis blatherwick for editing today's episode and like i say all the bonus content available over on patreon.com forward slash this paranormal life a place where we also like to give shout outs to those who support us on the 20 or higher tier i'd say we get into it right now let's do it all right special thank you to chrissy Lang. Chrissy Lang actually had a similar upbringing to Douglas, who we heard about earlier, kind of growing up fusing animals together. They ended up in prison.

That's what happens if you do it today. Yeah, that should have been done to the kids, to be fair. Thanks to Rico Roo. Rico Roo is what you get when you combine Rico with a kangaroo. This was actually an experiment that we did. And yes, that does make us kind of a hypocrite because we're saying it's fine. But Rico said he wanted to jump higher

and who are we to take that away from him? Thanks to that lady, herder of cats, all of whom now wear tinfoil hats from listening to this podcast. Glad to hear you got yourself a tinfoil hat. We don't talk about it often on This Paranormal Life, but me and Roy are exclusively wearing tinfoil hats when we record. I yourself a tinfoil hat we don't talk about it often on on this paranormal life but me and rory are exclusively wearing tinfoil hats when we record i got a tinfoil snapback it's pretty cool i'm not gonna lie i'm rocking tinfoil sweats this winter thanks to

simon crowe well with a name like that you knew we had to merge him with a bird all right and it's not our fault that it didn't turn out that great because Simon's head is much too large to be carried by tiny bird wings. But, you know, he's doing all right. Loves seeds and peanuts. He's not. You know? He lost the use of his arms, and he can't fly, so the wings are not much consolation.

You knew what you were getting into, Simon. Thanks to Michael Shelby. That's right, we fused Michael with both a shell and a bee. To have some kind of f***ed up marine bug human. Utter failure. Utter, utter failure. Oh boy. We probably

should stop, but um... We need to make like a reversal procedure of some kind. Yeah, or like dig a big hole. Either one, you know, because it solves both of our problems either way. Thanks to Darlene Cuttance. Darlene Cuttance only had a tuppence and she donated it to her paranormal pals. That's nice.

It's really sweet. Honestly, though, a tuppence, that's really not that much. I don't know, with the exchange rate, that's like a penny. Yeah, Incotacutts. So we're gonna need some more cash when you get in when you get a sec thanks to jacob barnafi jacob barnafi fused with a banoffee pie um you ever love a dessert so much you want to become a cryptid of it i've definitely fused some dessert to my face uh before uh i mean if that was a dessert i had to pick i would

probably go for that too thanks to drive daddy welcome to drive daddies it's a service where you can call a daddy to come drive you home oh that's cool so if you ever need a lift from a dad and they get you can they can just come in and be like hey how was your day how was school today what what do you want for dinner tonight? You know, they give you like the dad experience. But you also get a lift from a stranger. It's weird, though, when they kind of get into the role too much and they're like, have you been drinking? Yeah.

You're like, well, yeah, I'm a grown man. It's like, we can't tell your mother about this. You're not my real dad, sir. I just wanted to be sure. You've been hanging out with Craig again? Craig's a bad influence. You can't be hanging out with Craig. He's a pothead

Thanks to Madeline Maddie the baddie Madeline just does kind of low-key bad shit to people Cool, that's hot Like bad girl kind of persona, right? Not really Like tax fraud Identity fraud

Stealing? Does she steal? She's stolen my heart. And your wallet when you weren't looking. Thanks to Weirdly Bearded. Weirdly Bearded is also Weirdly Feareded. Might be on account of the machete.

Weirdly Bearded. If you just carry that around, that's like bad enough to have a machete, but to have a beard and a machete, you know, it's... You can only choose one. It's giving axe murderer. Yeah, not a good vibe. Thanks to Thor call. If your real name is Thor, that is ridiculous.

Pretty badass. And he's so selfless as well. Anytime you have to make a decision, he's always like, I don't know, Thor call. It's Thor call. Thor call, dude. Whatever you have to make a decision he's always like i don't know thor call it's your call your call dude whatever you want to do i don't know if any guy called thor talks like that well just like whatever dude i think he'd be like it is decided yeah i have chosen thor thanks to sia osterhaus sia osterhaus lost her house. Uh-oh. Not hard to do when you live in a barrel.

The barrel simply rolled away and she was left sadly homeless until she found another barrel later that day. Oh, that's nice. Well, hey, there's always a barrel empty in the paranormal commune. When you like living in a barrel, I mean, life's a dream. Thanks lastly today to

Aria Guglielmina. Aria, I'm sorry you couldn't be merged with anybody. We had to call off the merging program because there were too many failures. I know you wanted to be merged with a kestrel, but as we said earlier, our bird operations hadn't gone

well, so we just can't recommend it. Yeah. Still working in land mammals though so if there is any that kind of pique your interest, maybe you'd like to be part cheetah or part lion, just do get in touch because we can make it happen. Thank you, Arian. Thank you to everyone else we've shouted out on today's episode.

We'll be back with more shoutouts from next week. Rory, it's time to honestly rewrite next week's episode because the quality really needs to go up, mate. So come on, chop, chop. We are going to see you on Tuesday for a brand new Paranormal Tale

and over on Patreon every week with bonus content. See you then, and thank you for tuning in. See you next week for Jackalope Part 2. Happy New Year!