The other day while at the gym, the TV was showing CNN. I couldn’t see the screen clearly, but the segment was about unusual clouds in New York… and how some people saw Michael Jackson’s face in them. At the time I thought the segment was serious, but in fact it was Jeanne Moos doing her gag schtick, as you can see on You Tube:
If you’re wondering about the actual MJ shot, here you go:
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That’s a screen grab from the video. I suppose it looks a bit like Jackson, though, like most examples of faces in the clouds, it looks more like Lou Ferrigno. Or maybe a zombie. Take your pick.
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Incidentally, the clouds in question here are called mammatus, and are actually quite common here in Colorado, and I’ve taken a lot of pictures of them, like the one shown here. I remember the first time I ever saw mammatus clouds; I was in Maryland and the remnants of a hurricane had swept through. The clouds were like little bulbs hanging down, and I had never seen anything like it before… so I’m not surprised that people freaked out a little.
But I wonder, just how many people really did think this was a sign of some sort?
Sham-on!
Tip o’ the sequined fedora to Skeptical Teacher.
July 3rd, 2009 at 2:42 pm
I don’t see any faces in those clouds!
July 3rd, 2009 at 3:08 pm
It looks more like Sloth from “The Goonies” if you ask me…
July 3rd, 2009 at 3:10 pm
My pattern recognition software must be faulty:(. I don’t see any face in that screenie either.
July 3rd, 2009 at 3:15 pm
Kind of looks like the kid in “The Exorcist” to me… But then, I saw The Buddha in my throw pillow this morning, so maybe I’m biased today.
July 3rd, 2009 at 3:17 pm
It looks more like Michael J when you think of him with his original nose.
July 3rd, 2009 at 3:19 pm
You must avenge me Kimba — I mean — Simba.
July 3rd, 2009 at 3:34 pm
I’m going with Frankenstein…’s monster.
July 3rd, 2009 at 3:54 pm
Get help, Phil.
July 3rd, 2009 at 4:16 pm
Darn it, for the kids sake can we just let Michael Jackson die.
July 3rd, 2009 at 4:22 pm
I think I see Santa Claus, or maybe Snarf.
But the most unbelievable part of this story?:
“The other day while at the gym”
C’mon, Phil, this is a room full of skeptics!
July 3rd, 2009 at 4:40 pm
Am I the only one that found it funny that a a women with the last name Moos was covering a “story” on mammatus clouds.
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:04 pm
There is no face. I just see lots of boobies …
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Well, at a guess that is why they are named “mammatus”.
But it makes me wonder why thunder clouds are “cumulonimbus” instead of “papatus”. No, not from the EMissions, but from the generic limp resting form.
July 3rd, 2009 at 5:44 pm
The first thing that came to my mind was Martin Landau’s character Andro in The Outer Limits episode ‘The Man Who Was Never Born’
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:13 pm
I took some photos of those clouds, too. No Michael Jackson, just lots of coppery cotton balls suspended over NYC. http://bit.ly/DuNKN
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:13 pm
14. greg Says: “The first thing that came to my mind was Martin Landau’s character Andro in The Outer Limits episode ‘The Man Who Was Never Born’ ”
Or John Merrick (the “Elephant Man”) for another MJ connection.
In the freeze frame on the video link, I see a really buffed-up Gort. His head/helmet is immediately to the right of the click-arrow, and his body extends diagonally to the right and down. His muscular right arm is folded across his ripped abdomen and he’s got huuuUUUuuge tracts of land, uh, pectorals.
- Jack
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:15 pm
…Looks more like a Street Fighter dude to me.
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:32 pm
They must have thought it looked like Michael because its pale color.
July 3rd, 2009 at 6:56 pm
Ahh…Zombie Lou Ferigno! Run.
July 3rd, 2009 at 7:15 pm
Can we stop calling him Jacko ?
July 3rd, 2009 at 10:12 pm
It’s totally the doctor from the Twilight Zone episode “Eye of the Beholder”. Go watch that one again, you’ll see I’m right.
July 4th, 2009 at 1:11 am
Seems it never rains in Southern Pareidolia.
July 4th, 2009 at 1:14 am
Phil, what in Halakeala’s name were you doing in the gym??!! I thought you’re a nerd??!!
July 4th, 2009 at 1:55 am
The shopping malls seem to play nothing but Jackson these days. “I’m bad! I’m bad.” Hasn’t anyone done a remix yet:
“I’m dead! I’m dead – you know it, yeah!”
Why the obsession with these clouds? Why are some people so titillated by the mere mention of “mammatus”? Do you feel like a giggle … when I mention the name … Biggus …
July 4th, 2009 at 4:44 am
I kinda see it, but then if I look at it upside-down it looks like a gorilla.
July 4th, 2009 at 7:38 am
Yes, and then there’s always Gluteus Maximus, the great one of de SITTER space,,,
Gee, those clouds, they remind me of,,,MOM??? AH, yes, now I see,,,messages from the beyond,,,
GAry 7
July 4th, 2009 at 8:32 am
Mammatus…mammatus…
Wait a second, are these things really named “boobie clouds”?
July 4th, 2009 at 11:58 am
>27
Wait a second, are these things really named “boobie clouds”?
Well, given that we’re called “boobie animals”, it doesn’t seem so outrageous …
But anyway … I hear people talking about seeing all sorts of stuff in the clouds – when I look, all I see is clouds.
Makes me wonder … might the same thing that lets people see sheep in clouds and bulls in stars, be responsible for them being susceptible to woo?
July 4th, 2009 at 12:59 pm
21. dre Says:
It’s totally the doctor from the Twilight Zone episode “Eye of the Beholder”. Go watch that one again, you’ll see I’m right.
Submitted for your consideration….
Dee-dah-dee-dee….
J/P=?
July 4th, 2009 at 1:31 pm
I saw Richard Nixon as drawn by political cartoonists everywhere.
July 4th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Phil, I’m surprised you haven’t posted this bit of atheist paridolia, courtesy of That Mitchell and Webb Look.
July 4th, 2009 at 5:53 pm
@Merle: Yeah, things get names like that when guys name ‘em. Canada for example is proud of its “Les Grandes Tetons” while puritanical USA can only name mountains “Twin Peaks”. Birds have names like “booby”, “tit”, “shag” and there are a few more I can’t recall offhand.
July 4th, 2009 at 6:28 pm
Thanks, John Paradox! I feel that this new evidence will convince unbelievers of my hypothesis.
July 4th, 2009 at 8:53 pm
arensb @ #31, that video is funny.
July 4th, 2009 at 11:42 pm
Personally I think that cloud looks like the old geezer from the current animated movie UP, not Michael Jackson.
July 5th, 2009 at 12:07 am
In the central U.S., these clouds are often (although by no means always) associated with tornadoes, so they actually can be a sign in some cases. As for the “face”, I also see the resemblance to Nixon.
July 5th, 2009 at 3:56 am
Obviously my ability to detect patterns is defective, I cant see a face, nevermind that of Michael Jackson, even after watching the video that overlays his face over clouds, presumably to show you where to look
July 5th, 2009 at 10:01 pm
Wow, that is truly a beautiful display of mammatus clouds. We once had a similar bank here in NE Kansas after a thunderstorm, but they weren’t nearly as populous or colorful.
July 6th, 2009 at 2:09 am
From “Peanuts” by the late Charles M. Schulz –
Linus: …and those clouds over there remind me of the Stoning of Stephen – I can see the Apostle Paul standing to one side.
Charlie Brown: I was going to say I saw a duckie and a horsie… but I changed my mind.
July 6th, 2009 at 11:33 am
Michael Jackson sighting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj9DgeLmzac&eurl
J/P=?
Just thinking how many months/years Weekly World News will have with MJ.
July 7th, 2009 at 12:28 am
40. John Paradox Says: “Michael Jackson sighting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj9DgeLmzac&eurl”
It’s obviously the shadow of someone walking in front of a movie light of some kind. There’s a light right there in the open doorway. The “ghost” wasn’t walking across the hallway in front of the door, but is on the back wall. You can see it move across the fireplace and it’s reflected in the floor.
“Just thinking how many months/years Weekly World News will have with MJ.”
I made the same sort of prediction when Princess Di was killed. Sad to say, I was correct.
- Jack
July 7th, 2009 at 8:13 am
@ John Paradox:
But … but … I thought the Weekly World News stopped being published a couple of years ago!
July 8th, 2009 at 7:45 pm
I think that it looks kind of like Hellboy.
July 18th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
Hmmmmm doesn’t look like mj to me..
July 19th, 2009 at 9:14 pm
Michael Jackson’s Ghost reflected in a car:
http://tinyurl.com/m4adqe