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In April 2021, a TikTok video that supposedly showed a living mermaid on a rock racked up more than 8 million views: The narrator says: Look at how fast this mermaid swims back into the water after she realizes she was being recorded. There's no way a human could swim that fast over a rock. This is not a genuine video of a mermaid. This footage comes from a spoof documentary called Mermaid: The Body Found that aired on Animal Planet in 2012. With the exception of a brief disclaimer, this piece of speculative fiction played out like a genuine documentary, complete with interviews with scientists (played by actors), footage of various mermaid discoveries (featuring computer-generated images), and reports of a government cover-up (despite there being nothing to cover up). The documentary fooled so many viewers at the time that the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) published a statement clarifying that no evidence of aquatic humanoids has ever been found. NOAA writes: Here's a CNN news report about Discovery Channel's fake documentary Mermaids: The Body Found and its sequel Mermaids: The Evidence: You can read more about Mermaids: The Body Found here, or check out this article exploring the origins of mermaid folklore here.
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