What's with those ghost hunter shows?

[Dialon]

Now I haven't been watching these shows at all until about a week ago when I saw this random, two-hour marathon. Every episode seems to have quite a similar format: Small goup of guys explore "THE MOST HAUNTED PLACE IN ..." Next they get a Psychic Median of some sort with a very vague degree in the paranormal and spirituality to investigate to ensure that the place is haunted to the viewers, because they know what they'e talking about. They then spend the night with a shit ton of cool gadgets such as heat senory technology, high-tech cameras, sound filtering devices, night vision goggles, ect. . . . On a different ghost hunter type of show, I noticed one of them had a gun on him. How that would help against an intagible ghost, I could only imagine. So they spend the night in a spooky house with a whole bunch of spooky sounds and come out the next morning usually with one thing that could resemble evidence.

Okay, one problem I have is that these guys who do this just seem silly. They freak out over the smallest noise. I am not joking or exaggerating, they really do. They state areas of extreme cold and state uneasy feelings they get, which of courese couldn't be BIAS! They exclaim to see things out of the corner of their eyes. Also they hear "unexplainable noises" and actually manage to translate these into comprehensible sentences.

So many problems, one is bias. When you go into something SPECIFICALLY looking for ghost (for example), right off the bat you are biased. They point out anything that they find as an oddity (or even things that the viewer can easily recognize) as paranormal activity without even tying to investigate what other causes could pertain to it. That's just bad science. Next, there was an episode where they went to a Romanian castle. Yes, in another country, and guess what, they heard ghosts talking. But you know what's even more bizarre? Apparently these Romanian ghosts speak perfect English, because that's exactly what they translate to! What the hell? Not only do they have a device to translate inaudible sound to language, but can also translate that language to other languages. Seriously, every ghost speaks perfect, modern English!

Next is kind of just cherrypicking, but it has always bothered me. Why is every place the MOST HAUNTED PLACE EVER? Now okay, to be fair in one episode they stated "this is the most haunted place in Louisiana." Fair enough, then the next episode is "the most haunted place in Washington." Again, fine fine. Then the third episode, "the most haunted place in Louisiana!" Okay, what is going on here, a re-run perhaps? Nope, this is definitly a different buildling. So there are two most haunted places in Louisiana.

I have many, many other problems, but those are my major complaints to these shows. I mean, whether you believe in ghosts or not, these are just absurd XD Only reason I bring this up is because my family is extremely big on these ghost shows, and tend to refer to them a lot.

Have you ever watched a show that everyone around you was into, and you just utterly hated it or saw it as ridiculous?

 

[GEORGIATKLER]

For ghosts, press 1, for ghouls, press 2, for zombies.....

It reminds me of the "faith" healers that can "only" cure unseen diseases. Amputated limbs, missing eyes, ears, fingers, toes etc, not so much. 😉 Some of the "ghosts" are probably based on old fraudulent medium parlor tricks once debunked by Houdini and later by the Amazing Randi. Everything old is new again. It is funny too how some bed & breakfasts etc try to play the ghost card to drum up business. The ghost hunters do seem to be peddling self fulfilling ghosts at best. Any old house creaks etc especially if the wind is blowing or water is running through the pipes.

 

[chicago]

Ghost Adventures and Extreme Paranormal are the best shows ever. lol

 

[Jagermeistered]

Ghost Adventures is much more entertaining.

 

[Dialon]

Hmmm, what do they do on 'Ghost Adventure'? I'm guessing it's quite different than a ghost hunter show!

 

[Jagermeistered]

Hmmm, what do they do on 'Ghost Adventure'? I'm guessing it's quite different than a ghost hunter show!

Somewhat...

They are more dramatic, and are generally a bump up in technology(both, experimental equipment, and applied).

 

[Dave2112]

They now even have these stupid shows on Animal Planet...Ghost Pets or some shit. You'd think with 100 ghost hunter shows, with all that "technology" (think Frank Bannister in "The Frighteners"), someone would have one shred of evidence to show for it. I mean evidence...not "Oh! I heard something!" or "I felt it move!"

If there really were technology that could prove the existence of or detect ghosts...that could once and for all answer the question of life after death...wouldn't the scientific community or some government agency have it? Nope...the only people with it are reality show dudes.

Makes perfect sense. 🙄

 

[Ishaanshah]

I watch all those stuffs. I have fun watching the shows, though; they sometimes manage to bring the spooky, and it reminds me of being a teenager and cruising the woods at night with my friends, telling local "true" ghost stories and scaring the crap out of each other...

 

[Angel77]

I watch them from time to time. The hosts entertain me and I find myself thinking bad things.

Like, you know how the host always has to be a badass with the mean ghosts, calling him out saying shit like "Oh yeah? You think you're going to screw with me or these people anymore? You're so wrong buddy! I DARE you to come and get me! COWARD! Come out right now and get me!"

Right at that moment, I'd give anything for someone to run into the room covered in a white sheet screaming, "BWAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOHAAAAAAAHOOOOHOOOOHOOOO!!!!!!!!!"

I'm terrible.

 

[Dialon]

They now even have these stupid shows on Animal Planet...Ghost Pets or some shit. You'd think with 100 ghost hunter shows, with all that "technology" (think Frank Bannister in "The Frighteners"), someone would have one shred of evidence to show for it. I mean evidence...not "Oh! I heard something!" or "I felt it move!"

If there really were technology that could prove the existence of or detect ghosts...that could once and for all answer the question of life after death...wouldn't the scientific community or some government agency have it? Nope...the only people with it are reality show dudes.

Makes perfect sense. 🙄

Ghost pets? I guess that show came from all those people stating that animals can sense ghosts and such (seriously, i've read articles going into that).

And one piece of "evidence" i've seen on this show was a source of heat that was supposedly putting out heat, but when they but their 'heat-seeking goggles' on, they saw no such heat signature. So with that, they said "must be a ghost."

 

[Dialon]

I watch them from time to time. The hosts entertain me and I find myself thinking bad things.

Like, you know how the host always has to be a badass with the mean ghosts, calling him out saying shit like "Oh yeah? You think you're going to screw with me or these people anymore? You're so wrong buddy! I DARE you to come and get me! COWARD! Come out right now and get me!"

Right at that moment, I'd give anything for someone to run into the room covered in a white sheet screaming, "BWAAAAAAAAAAHOOOOOOOOOHAAAAAAAHOOOOHOOOOHOOOO!!!!!!!!!"

I'm terrible.

Ohh I've noticed that lol. It's like there's the tough guy in the group, the more sensitive one, the more rational one, ect . . . It's like a boy band of ghost hunters.

You know, that'd make a goof reality show wouldn't it? The people running the show go to a house and set up false clues to provide ghostly evidence, and when they get a ghost hunter team on the case, someone just goes in randomly and scares them. Sadly a show likethat would probably only get like 5 episodes XD

 

[Capnmad]

There's an episode of "Ghost Hunters" that sums up everything that ever needs to be said about these kinds of shows. Encountering a narrowing hallway, one member of the crew suggests it's like a scene out of "Willie Wonka and The Chocolate Factory" (Gene Wilder version). "Snozzberries" are referenced, and the two ghost hunters start debating whether, in fact, "snozzberries" are real. It ends in a $25 bet.

He's never seen a "snozzberry", never smelled one, never touched one, never tasted one (though he even begins to suggest qualities about what he imagines they taste like), but one of the ghost hunters is so convinced of the existence of "snozzberries" (by a movie that involves obviously fictional chocolate lakes, singing/dancing orange-faced little people, a boy who gets shrunk then stretched, a girl who turns blue and blows up like a giant blueberry, and lickable wallpaper) that he's willing to place $25 on his contention...

He's not only suspended disbelief about a clearly fictional object, but he starts the process of imposing his own beliefs upon what it tastes like. This is exactly the kind of nonsense that people engage in when hunting "ghosts".

To people who ask me if I believe in ghosts, I now ask in return if they believe in "snozzberries", and direct them here:

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But who knows? Maybe ghosts are from England, too.

 

[GEORGIATKLER]

What do you get when you goose a ghost? A handful of sheet..

Ok, Scooby Do and Friends was the real deal........... These other shows are real life cartoons. I enjoyed the technology comment by Dave 2112. Like the number of UFO sightings drops dramatically only AFTER practically everyone has still/video camera access. Duh!

 

[Doctor_D]

I watch Ghost Adventures. Yeah, it's totally ridiculous the way these guys act and it's an obvious gimmick to keep the masses tuned in. I don't buy the psychics either. It's (unintentionally) funny at times, but otherwise annoying. What I enjoy is the eerie atmosphere of these supposedly haunted locations and the dark legends/history associated with them.

Pseudo Science? Of course! Good, spooky fun? Hell yeah!