Thread by @likeitmatters3

UNSKINNY BOP: A THREAD about seeing what you want to see when what you see is fake.

A summary of research done mostly by Reddit users BrooklynRobot & RedDwarfBee last year. Check out this sub for tons of details:
reddit.com/r/skinnybob

Four videos of Skinny Bob were uploaded to YouTube by Ivan0135 in April-May 2011, supposedly KGB film footage from 1942-69 of alien visitors.

The videos are 5 min total - I’m focusing more on the 37 seconds depicting grey(s) in motion.
youtube.com/channel/UCC5Aj…

Provenance: The Skinny Bob videos on YT are the only evidence we have.
8mm/16mm film projected onto a screen and recorded with a video camera that also picks up the audio of the flickering projector.
The video has a timecode at lower left.

Like other “real deal!” UFO video out there, the Skinny Bob videos use tricks to hide the fact the footage is artificial: terrible quality, short scenes & choppy cuts, B&W, low resolution, motion blur, dirt filters added.
Skinny Bob himself doesn't manipulate objects or speak.

All these factors indicate, without even looking further, that the Skinny Bob footage is suspect.
But there are lots of good reasons to doubt it depicts anything resembling what Ivan0135 claims...

Video cameras that used an aspect ratio of 16:9 were rare prior to 2011, and all were digital. Yet the Skinny Bob video includes analog artefacts (horizontal grey lines, rainbow moire).

Goes without saying that added FX & audio can simulate a video of a filmed projection.

The timecode font is Consolas (Microsoft), released 1/1/2007. So the video was made after this date.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolas

The fades, ghosting, dirt & scratches look like old projected film - yet they affect the video timecode. Therefore they were added after 1/1/2007.

The film scratch overlay has been tracked down to a piece of stock footage (earliest upload found is 2009). It was probably created with a plug-in called Sapphire Film Damage for BorisFX.

Video comparing Skinny Bob footage & overlay:

https://twitter.com/likeitmatters3/status/1468447501019582468

What about Skinny Bob & friends? They're so cute! Are they living breathing aliens who crash landed on Earth last century to be captured by Russians, and who later formed a treaty and then got mad when they noticed someone filming them?

Probably not.

Meet the Martian: 15” tall, wire armature covered in foam latex, painstakingly airbrushed.
Multiple versions of the puppet were made, bankrolled by Warner Brothers, for Tim Burton’s movie Mars Attacks (1996).

Intended for stop motion, in the end they were used as CGI references.

Skinny Bob has the exact same hands and body/limb proportions as the Martian.

Remove the jaw, make a new face/head.

Let's leave that personable articulated brow though.

Take another look at the Martian’s and Skinny Bob’s hands.
What are the odds an ET has the exact same hands, right down to the long dark fingernails, of a wire-and-foam Hollywood puppet with an amputated pinkie?

The same company made the Corpse Bride puppets for Burton’s 2005 film, presumably using similar technology.
There are stop motion screen tests for this later movie that give the game away...
mackinnonandsaunders.com/puppets

BrooklynRobot did a comparison of the similarities between the Corpse Bride screen test and the Skinny Bobs: chromatic shift, similar wall spackle, table top (0:21) indicating the same studio set-up; similar gait (and Bob’s unnaturally swinging arms).
reddit.com/r/SkinnyBob/co…

So who was Skinny Bob, really?
A modified Mars Attacks stop-motion puppet filmed for
👽screen tests?
👽a film project?
👽fun?
Film overlays were added afterwards to hide animation flaws and tie together UFO footage from multiple sources.

Was it expensive?
Remember:
🛸Hollywood paid for the puppets.
🛸Dragonframe software (2008) made stop motion easy & affordable. dragonframe.com
🛸Only 37 seconds of Skinny Bob exists.

Want your very own original Skinny Bob? Google: mars attacks puppet for sale. A bargain at $5000 (cheaper if unpainted) but they go fast.
icollector.com/Mars-Attacks-S…

I conclude that Skinny Bob is a stop motion puppet.
Someone filmed it or acquired test footage. Ivan spliced it with UFO footage, added FX, timecode, narrative etc.

Thanks BrooklynRobot & RedDwarfBee. Evidence is laid out in this sub (see Nov-Dec 2020):
reddit.com/r/skinnybob

Sorry.

Ivan0135's videos of Skinny Bob are monetized.
I mean, I knew this because I had to wade through the *#^$% ads each time I went back to view them.
But the significance sort of just hit me.
And it's given me the chuckle I needed on this rainy summer evening.

And... I dunno, maybe it's the wine, but the chuckles have turned to giggles.

Skinny Bob is wearing a turtle neck.

Hot fashion tip: When you have a humongous head, don't go for the turtle neck.