An enthusiast of the UFO phenomenon has reportedly submitted plans about a UFO refueling station to city planners in Colorado Springs that would not only bring in tourist dollars but interested extraterrestrials. But if that sounded like a fun project for community planners when they first heard it, when they heard of the actual plans they no doubt were horrified by the scale of the project. It calls for a structure roughly the size of the pyramids at Giza to be constructed. But who would propose such an idea?
UFO Phil, who frequently contributes as a caller and has provided songs to the popular paranormal radio talk show Coast to Coast AM is the brains behind the project, which he says will attract both extraterrestrial visitors and visiting tourist dollars.
The proposal is to construct a pyramid the size of the massive structures found in Giza. But if it seems like a joke to some, there may be some reason behind it. UFO Phil, though he may call himself a contactee has been called by many sources as a “comedian by trade.” But it’s strange when he enters into conversation with media outlets such as KRDO which recently interviewed him over his proposal and they try to give him the same well intentioned suspension of disbelief they would allow anyone else essentially making his self promotion which could be considered “shameless” if good natured, seem completely deadpan.
So if his proposal seems monumental – with no pun intended – that’s likely just how he means it to be. But why all the attention? The proposal is nothing short of knocking over the visitor’s center and converting Pike’s Peak into a superhighway to the stars and all the aliens (both good and bad) you can meet. The image of a massive tower rising up from the mountain so UFOs can come down and meet human beings seems like something right out of Close Encounters of the Third Kind, but even though the mountain has changed from Devil’s Tower to Pike’s Peak it’s still most likely well within the realm of fiction.
The truth is, UFO Phil recently had a movie made about him as a “cinematic documentary,” but is advertised as a comedy. Phil’s recordings have appeared everywhere including the aforementioned Coast to Coast radio show where he even wrote an outtro (the video link is fairly representative of Phil’s style) and the Tom Green internet show and others. Videos of Phil on Youtube show – for example – the character going into a hardware store to buy supplies for contacting aliens via radio.
The team from KRDO covering UFO Phil’s proposal contacted the Colorado Springs city council and asked what they thought of Phil’s project, though the council said he had never contacted him.
When the line is blurred between entertainment and actual coverage of a sensational topic, is there room for a figure such as UFO Phil? And can the two coexist in a highly emotional speculative subject attempting to gain recognition while mixing humor and reality (or speculative reality at the very least?) Or will UFO Phil as he accumulates fame become the target of derision if the UFO field tries to break away from the more humorous interpretations of yesterday?
Perhaps a bit of perspective would be to suggest that despite being parodied quite a bit throughout its many years of attention, other forms of paranormal phenomena not only survived but thrived on humor. Children growing up on Casper the friendly ghost and Dan Aykroyd’s Ghostbusters would eventually become seriously interested and even academic ghost hunters. If cryptozoology can survive Richard Gere’s Mothman Prophecies, the UFO field can survive and possibly even enjoy UFO Phil’s parody. And if not, maybe we’ll end up with a massive UFO space port.