Bat Boy is a fictional creature who made several appearances in the defunct
supermarket tabloidSupermarket tabloids are national weekly magazines printed on newsprint in tabloid format, specializing in celebrity news, gossip, astrology, and bizarre stories about ordinary people. Supermarket tabloids are particularly notorious for the over-the-top sensationalizing of stories, the facts of...
Weekly World NewsThe Weekly World News was a supermarket tabloid published in the United States from 1979 to 2007, renowned for its outlandish cover stories often based on supernatural or paranormal themes and an approach to news that verged on the satirical...
.
The Weekly World News published patently fabricated stories which were purported to be factual. Within the pages of the paper, Bat Boy is described as a creature who is 'half human and half bat'. His pursuers, according to
Weekly World News are scientists and United States government officials; he is frequently captured, then later makes a daring escape.
Bat Boy was created by former
Weekly World News Editor
Dick KulpaDick Kulpa is an American cartoonist best known for his work for Cracked and Weekly World News.-Early career:Dick Kulpa got his start in the cartooning business on Christmas day in 1969 when his hometown Illinois weekly newspaper, the Loves Park Post, published his first cartoon strip, Double Eagle...
.
| Weekly World News The Weekly World News was a supermarket tabloid published in the United States from 1979 to 2007, renowned for its outlandish cover stories often based on supernatural or paranormal themes and an approach to news that verged on the satirical...
character |
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| Bat Boy |
| Gender: |
MaleMale refers to the sex of an organism, or part of an organism, which produces small mobile gametes, called spermatozoa. Each spermatozoon can fuse with a larger female gamete or ovum, in the process of fertilization...
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| Race: |
Chiropteran Bats are flying mammals in the order Chiroptera . The forelimbs of bats are webbed and developed as wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums and colugos, glide rather than...
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| Born: |
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Bat Boy is a fictional creature who made several appearances in the defunct
supermarket tabloidSupermarket tabloids are national weekly magazines printed on newsprint in tabloid format, specializing in celebrity news, gossip, astrology, and bizarre stories about ordinary people. Supermarket tabloids are particularly notorious for the over-the-top sensationalizing of stories, the facts of...
Weekly World NewsThe Weekly World News was a supermarket tabloid published in the United States from 1979 to 2007, renowned for its outlandish cover stories often based on supernatural or paranormal themes and an approach to news that verged on the satirical...
.
The Weekly World News published patently fabricated stories which were purported to be factual. Within the pages of the paper, Bat Boy is described as a creature who is 'half human and half bat'. His pursuers, according to
Weekly World News are scientists and United States government officials; he is frequently captured, then later makes a daring escape.
Bat Boy was created by former
Weekly World News Editor
Dick KulpaDick Kulpa is an American cartoonist best known for his work for Cracked and Weekly World News.-Early career:Dick Kulpa got his start in the cartooning business on Christmas day in 1969 when his hometown Illinois weekly newspaper, the Loves Park Post, published his first cartoon strip, Double Eagle...
. He debuted as a cover story on June 23, 1992. The original front-page photo of Bat Boy, showing his grotesque screaming face, was the second-best selling issue in the tabloid's history, and he has since evolved into a pop-culture icon. He became the tabloid's
de facto mascotThe term mascot – defined as a term for any person, animal, or object thought to bring luck – colloquially includes anything used to represent a group with a common public identity, such as a school, professional sports team, society, military unit, or brand name...
of sorts. The story of Bat Boy was turned into an acclaimed off-Broadway musical,
Bat Boy: The MusicalBat Boy: The Musical is a musical with a book by Keythe Farley and Brian Flemming and music and lyrics by Laurence O'Keefe, based on a June 23, 1992 Weekly World News story about a half-boy, half-bat, dubbed "Bat Boy", found living in a cave....
.
Fictional Background
According to
Weekly World News, Bat Boy has a chaotic sense of
moralityMorality has three principal meanings.In its first, descriptive usage, morality means a code of conduct or belief concerning matters of what is moral or immoral...
. He has been said to steal cars and not to come to the aid of the needy. According to the
mythosMythos is a Greek word meaning "story, legend, plot" and may refer to:* Myth or Mythology** The shared elements, characters, settings and themes in a set of works, e.g...
, the only person who cares about the chiropteran child is Dr. Ron Dillon, who discovered him in a
West VirginiaWest Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland to the northeast...
cave (
Lost World CavernsLost World Caverns, located just outside of Lewisburg, West Virginia, is an underground natural series of caverns. In November 1973, the Caverns were registered as a National Natural Landmark as they "feature terraced pedestal-like stalagmites, flowstone, curtains, rimstone, domepits, and...
). At the time of capture, he was two feet tall and weighed nineteen pounds. By February 2001, he was 2' 6". In 2004, he was five feet tall and his weight was unknown. He sheds his wings every three years, and regenerates a new pair.
On February 27, 2001, he allegedly attacked a fifth-grader in an
Orlando, FloridaOrlando is a major city in the central region of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of Orange County and the center of the Greater Orlando metropolitan region...
, park. The girl was nearly ripped to shreds. In October 2006, Bat Boy was captured on film riding on top of a New York City subway car. Bat Boy was said to be living in the subway system's tunnels during this time. This story was converted into a "documentary" video on the Weekly World News web site. The next day, he endorsed presidential candidate
Al GoreAlbert Arnold "Al" Gore, Jr. is an American environmental activist and former politician who served as the 45th Vice President of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. He is an author, businessperson, former U.S. Senator and former journalist...
. Then in October 2008, Bat Boy endorsed
John McCainJohn Sidney McCain III is the senior United States Senator from Arizona. He was the Republican nominee for president in the 2008 United States election....
but switched to
Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama II is the 44th and current President of the United States. He is the first African American to hold the office, as well as the first president born in Hawaii...
soon after. On August 14, 2003, he announced he was running in the
California gubernatorial electionThe 2003 California gubernatorial recall election was a special election permitted under California state law. It resulted in voters replacing incumbent Democratic Governor Gray Davis with Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. The recall effort spanned the latter half of 2003...
.
In November 2008, Bat Boy was seen protesting the passing of
Proposition 8Proposition 8 was a California ballot proposition passed in the November 2008, general election. The measure added a new section to Article I of the California Constitution...
.
Genealogy
According to the
Weekly World News, the discovery of Bat Boy's
family treeA family tree is a chart representing family relationships in a conventional tree structure. The more detailed family trees used in medicine, genealogy, and social work are known as genograms.-Family tree representations:...
on a
genealogyGenealogy is the study of families and the tracing of their lineages and history. Genealogists use oral traditions, historical records, genetic analysis, and other records to obtain information about a family and to demonstrate kinship and pedigrees of its members...
chart recently stunned evolutionary scientists who used to think the famed
impAn imp is a mythological being similar to a fairy or demon, frequently described in folklore and superstition. The word may perhaps derive from the term ympe, used to denote a young grafted tree....
was a pitiful, one-of-a-kind
mutantA mutant is an individual, organism, or new genetic character arising or resulting from an instance of mutation, which is a base-pair sequence change within the DNA of a gene or chromosome of an organism resulting in the creation of a new character or trait not found in the wild type. The natural...
- but now believe he belongs to a race of creatures who have interacted with humans for at least 400 years. In the tabloid's account, the chart itself was written on
vellumVellum is mammal skin prepared for writing or printing on, to produce single pages, scrolls, codices or books. It is generally smooth and durable, although there are great variations depending on preparation, the quality of the skin and the type of animal used...
and found in the same Ozark Mountains cave where Dr. Ron Dillon, a biologist, rescued Bat Boy after he was trapped by a falling rock in 1992 (it should be noted, however, that the Ozark Mountains are nowhere near
West VirginiaWest Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland to the northeast...
). Carbon dating revealed the chart to be over a hundred years old.
| Name |
Lifespan |
Background |
| Artemis "Pip" Boee |
1591-1622 |
Little is known of his life. Arrived in the New WorldThe New World is one of the names used for the non-Afro-Eurasian parts of the Earth, specifically the Americas and possibly Australia. When the term originated in the late 15th century, the Americas were new to the Europeans, who previously thought of the world as consisting only of Europe, Asia,...
days after the landing of the MayflowerThe Mayflower was the famous ship that transported the English Separatists, better known as the Pilgrims, from Southampton, England, to Plymouth, Massachusetts , in 1620...
at Plymouth Rock on the lesser known vessel, The June Bug. |
| Charles Alexander "Cotton" Boee |
1612-1691 |
The son of Artemis, he was a prosperous farmer in MassachusettsThe Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. Most of its population of...
. |
| John "Little Cotton" Boee |
1658-1722 |
The deeply religious firstborn of Charles who was devoted to his wife Rebecca. It is noted that her own birth was hard and long, resulting in slightly elongated ears. |
| Susannah Boee |
1661-1692 |
John and Rebecca's daughter; she gave birth to two children, Alexander and David. The townspeople, perhaps frightened by her pointy ears, accused the woman of "consorting with Satan" during the Salem witch trialsThe Salem witch trials were a series of hearings before local magistrates followed by county court trials to prosecute people accused of witchcraft in Essex, Suffolk and Middlesex counties of colonial Massachusetts, between February 1692 and May 1693...
. She was burned at the stake; however, her children were not (it should be noted that in Salem, no witches were burned at the stake). |
| Alexander Boee |
1679-1769 |
The shortest family member on record, standing at twenty-eight inches tall. Remembered for having changed the spelling of his last name to "Boie" ("because he wanted people to think he was French"). |
| David Boee |
1682-1776 |
The younger brother of Alexander Boee. He is revered as the oldest soldier to fight for American independenceThe American Revolutionary War , also sometimes known as the American War of Independence, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen united former British colonies in North America, and concluded in a global war between several European great powers...
. Tragically, he was killed the day the BritishThe Kingdom of Great Britain, also known as the United Kingdom of Great Britain, was a sovereign state in northwest Europe, in existence from 1707 to 1801...
surrendered. |
| Catherine Boie |
1735-1815 |
Alexander's daughter who was best known for her work with wildlifeWildlife includes all non-domesticated plants, animals, and other organisms. Domesticating wild plant and animal species for human benefit has occurred many times all over the planet, and has a major impact on the environment, both positive and negative....
. She studied animals and kept many unusual species as pets, including batBats are flying mammals in the order Chiroptera . The forelimbs of bats are webbed and developed as wings, making them the only mammals naturally capable of true and sustained flight. By contrast, other mammals said to fly, such as flying squirrels, gliding possums and colugos, glide rather than...
s. Her oldest child, Andrew, was fascinated with the nocturnal critters. |
| Andrew Jackson Boie |
1785-1866 |
Made the study of bats, owlThe Owls are the order Strigiformes, comprising 200 birds of prey, species. Most are solitary, and nocturnal, with some exceptions . Owls hunt mostly small mammals, insects, and other birds, though a few species specialize in hunting fish. They are found in all regions of the Earth except...
s and other nighttime animals his life's work. |
| Rodney Boe |
1787-1869 |
Was Catherine's youngest child, an inattentive speller who inadvertently dropped the "i" from the family name. Family friends presume Rodney's poor scholarship A scholarship is an award of access to an institution, or a financial aid award for a student to further education. Scholarships are awarded on various criteria usually reflecting the values and purposes of the donor or founder of the award.-Types:...
was an attempt to focus attention on his smarter siblings, to divert eyes from his short stature, oversized eyes and pointed ears. |
| Archibald Boe |
1825-1911 |
Rodney's firstborn, he left the family's ancestral home in Massachusetts and moved to CaliforniaCalifornia is the most populous state in the United States, and the third largest by area. California is the second most populous sub-national entity in the Americas, behind only São Paulo, Brazil...
, where people were "more tolerant" of unusual looking people. |
| Marcus Boe |
1875-1930 |
Eldest son of Archibald, he established himself as respected "bug man" with a successful exterminating business. There were rumors that he didn't use flypaper or traps, but caught them with his mouth. |
| Horace "Joe Ears" Boe |
1890-1931 |
Archibald's youngest son who left California at age thirteen, hopping an eastbound train to Chicago. Horace was shot dead in a shootout with famed federal agent Eliot NessEliot Ness was an American Prohibition agent, famous for his efforts to enforce Prohibition in Chicago, Illinois, as the leader of a legendary team of law enforcement agents nicknamed The Untouchables.- Early life :...
in 1931. |
| Margaret Boy |
1910-1983 |
Horace's only child. She dropped the "e" from the family name and added a "y" so people wouldn't associate her with her mobster dad. She left Chicago and moved to West VirginiaWest Virginia is a state in the Appalachian and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States, bordered by Virginia to the southeast, Kentucky to the southwest, Ohio to the northwest, and Pennsylvania and Maryland to the northeast...
. |
| Herbert Hoover Boy |
1944-1972 |
Worked in the coal mines of West Virginia as a child of 12, not of financial need, but because he liked cave A cave or cavern is a natural underground void large enough for a human to enter. Some people suggest that the term cave should only apply to cavities that have some part that does not receive daylight; however, in popular usage, the term includes smaller spaces like sea caves, rock shelters, and...
s and the job. |
| Susan Boy |
1954-? |
Herbert Sr.'s daughter. She achieved regional success as a country singer with a persona that has been likened to that of mountain songbird Dolly PartonDolly Rebecca Parton is an American singer-songwriter, author, multi-instrumentalist, actress and philanthropist, best-known for her work in country music....
. Susan's liaisons with an unnamed country legend produced two children: Ruth Carter Cash Boy and "the one they call Bat". |
| Ruth Carter Cash Boy |
1972-? |
"a quick learner who was able to quit school after the sixth grade Sixth grade is a year of education in the United States and many other nations. The sixth grade is the sixth school year after kindergarten. Students are usually 11 - 12 years old...
." It is unclear where she is today. |
| Bat Boy |
1982-? |
The brother of Ruth Carter Cash Boy. He is a decorated U.S. Marine who has confounded the authorities by stealing cars and biting children after serving his country as a "super patriot" on the front lines in AfghanistanThe Islamic Republic of Afghanistan is a landlocked country in south central Asia. It is variously described as being located within Central Asia, South Asia, or the Middle East...
and IraqIraq , officially the Republic of Iraq , also known as Mesopotamia, is a country in Western Asia spanning most of the northwestern end of the Zagros mountain range, the eastern part of the Syrian Desert and the northern part of the Arabian Desert.Iraq shares borders with Jordan to the west, Syria...
. |
Adventures of Batboy
CartoonistA cartoonist is a person who specializes in drawing cartoons. Traditionally much of this work was, and still is, humorous, and is intended primarily for entertainment purposes...
Peter BaggePeter Bagge is an award-winning American comics artist and creator of Buddy Bradley, Hate, Neat Stuff, Martini Baton, and Sweatshop. His stories often use black humor and exaggerated cartooning to dramatize the reduced expectations of middle-class American youth...
originally penned the "Adventures of Batboy" for the
Weekly World News. According to the cartoon, Bat Boy is currently hitchhiking with a typical American family after resigning from being the
President of the United StatesThe President of the United States is the head of state and head of government of the United States and is the highest political official in the United States by influence and recognition...
(and King), has placed
Weekly World News columnist
Ed AngerEd Anger is a pseudonymous opinion columnist in the Weekly World News, a former U.S. tabloid, now a web site. In addition to weekly columns, a collected book of his writings, Let's Pave the Stupid Rainforests & Give School Teachers Stun Guns: And Other Ways to Save America was published in 1996.-...
under arrest and saying goodbyes to
Beyoncé KnowlesBeyoncé Giselle Knowles , often referred to mononymously as Beyoncé , is an American R&B singer, songwriter, record producer, actress and model. Born and raised in Houston, Texas, she enrolled in various performing arts schools and was first exposed to singing and dancing competitions as a child...
, a half sasquatch (with whom he was romantically involved), and Dr. Ron. According to past issues of WWN, Bat Boy has joined a death metal/thrash metal band as their lead singer.
On 2006-01-16, artist Danielle Corsetto of
Girls with Slingshots took over for
Peter BaggePeter Bagge is an award-winning American comics artist and creator of Buddy Bradley, Hate, Neat Stuff, Martini Baton, and Sweatshop. His stories often use black humor and exaggerated cartooning to dramatize the reduced expectations of middle-class American youth...
on the weekly strip.
Bat Boy: The Musical
A musical based on the Bat Boy character premiered at
Tim RobbinsTimothy Francis "Tim" Robbins is an American actor, screenwriter, director, producer, activist and musician. He is the longtime partner of actress Susan Sarandon...
' Actors Gang Theatre on
HalloweenHalloween is an annual holiday celebrated on October 31. It has roots in the Gaelic pagan festival of Samhain and the Christian holy day of All Saints. It is largely a secular celebration but some have expressed strong feelings about perceived religious overtones...
, 1997 and has since been produced
Off-BroadwayOff Broadway theater is an umbrella term for a defined set of plays, musicals or revues performed in New York City. Originally referring to the location of a venue and its productions on a street intersecting Broadway in Manhattan's Theatre District, the hub of the theater industry in the United...
, in London's
West EndWest End theatre is a popular term for mainstream professional theatre staged in the large theatres of London's "Theatreland". Along with New York's Broadway theatre, West End theatre is usually considered to represent the highest level of commercial theatre in the English speaking world...
, and in scores of productions throughout the world. Music and lyrics are by
Laurence O'KeefeLaurence O'Keefe, also known as Larry, is a composer and lyricist for Broadway musicals, film and television.Until recently he was best known for writing the score for Bat Boy: The Musical, which ran off-Broadway from March 3 to December 2, 2001, followed by over 200 regional and amateur...
, with a book by
Brian FlemmingBrian Flemming is an American film director and playwright. His sometimes controversial work has been called "jaggedly imaginative" by The New York Times, "a parallel universe" by the BBC and "immensely satisfying" by USA Today.- Early career :...
and Keythe Farley.
Cultural references
- In Twelve Monkeys
12 Monkeys is a 1995 science fiction film directed by Terry Gilliam and inspired by the French short film La Jetée . 12 Monkeys stars Bruce Willis, Madeleine Stowe, Brad Pitt and Christopher Plummer. The film depicts a future world in 2035 devastated by disease, forcing the human population to live...
, as James Cole (the protagonist) is escaping from an asylum, a security guard can be seen reading the original Bat Boy issue of the Weekly World News.
- In Trapped in Paradise
Trapped in Paradise is a 1994 crime comedy film written and directed by George Gallo, and starring Nicolas Cage, Jon Lovitz and Dana Carvey.-Plot:...
, as the Firpo brothers (Nicolas Cage,John Lovitz and Dana Carvey) are escaping from the police at the beginning of the movie, one of them shows to the others the newspaper with Bat Boy as cover story, while having a stop by a public telephone.
- In an episode of Roseanne
Roseanne is an American sitcom broadcast on ABC from 1988 to 1997 starring Roseanne Barr.The series reached #1 in the Nielsen Ratings becoming the most watched television show in the United States from 1989 to 1990, and remained in the top four for six of its nine seasons, and in the top twenty for...
, Roseanne mentions stopping off to buy a copy of the "Weekly World News" to see how the Bat Boy did on his SAT's.
- Southern Californian radio station KROQ 106.7
KROQ-FM is a commercial radio station located in Los Angeles, California, broadcasting on 106.7 FM to the greater Los Angeles area. KROQ-FM airs a modern rock music format branded as "106.7 K-Rock". The call sign is pronounced "kay rock." It is the flagship station of the popular, long running...
frequently has Bat Boy on as a special guest.
- In an episode of Weird Science
Weird Science is a mid-1990s American comedy series made for television, based on the 1985 movie of the same name.-Plot:The show follows the adventures of Gary Wallace and Wyatt Donnelly , two socially inept high school students in an unspecified town in California...
, Bat Boy is seen on the cover of a tabloid.