Retrospectacle: A Neuroscience Blog

MonsterPig A Fake, But Is There 700 lbs of Bacon or Not?

Posted by Shelley Batts on May 31, 2007
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By this time most people have heard about the “Monster Pig” shot by an 11-year old. Except, experts at StinkyJournalism have debunked the colossal pig as a hoax. Turns out the pig is big, but the photos were intentionally manipulated to make the hog appear much, much bigger than it actually is. Read the whole debunking here, with followups promised tomorrow.

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Specifically, researchers at NYU (and others) concluded that the boy was actually standing far behind the pig in this photo (above) but the perspective created an illusion that he was actually leaning on the pig. NBC, who had flown the family in for an exclusive interview about the pig, got wind of the hoax as their guests were in transit and canceled the interview at the last minute.

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Comments

  1. #1 toomanytribbles
    June 1, 2007

    it looks fake. the pig isn’t as focused as the 11-yr old.

    you can tell where the fur meets his arms.

  2. #2 df
    June 1, 2007

    Also, this guy isn’t *really* kicking over the leaning tower of Pisa:

    http://www.moillusions.com/2006/08/leaning-tower-of-pisa.html

  3. #3 Stephen
    June 1, 2007

    Also see this photo. If that pig really is 9’4″, then that is one very, very tall person driving the tractor. That’s the one photo they couldn’t force perspective on that gives an unambiguous account of the true size of the pig.

  4. #4 Jim
    June 1, 2007

    Ot turns out that the pig was a former pet, not a wild animal:

    http://www.ajc.com/news/content/news/stories/2007/06/01/0601monsterpig.html

  5. #5 bekim
    October 17, 2009

    bekimmijamikam 17vjettedu elaviju