WELCOME TRAVELERS OF THE HALLOW WOODS (February 15, 2025)— Squonks and other fearsome critters are often likened in online discourse to cryptids. I understand, of course, both cryptids and fearsome critters are classes of fabulous beasts, so many folks see no harm in equating the two; figuring they are both a lot alike. But, y'know, what else is also a lot alike? A table and a chair; however, much like a deacon's seat, where one parks their butt, well, that's an important distinction.
And so we arrive to a problem. Squonks, like other fearsome critters, were devised as a form of entertainment in tall tales and practical jokes. They were never devised to inspire any serious convictions apart from momentary jests played on unsuspecting strangers and gullible greenhorns. If you are going to call a squonk a cryptid you might as well add heffalumps, cousin its, questing beasts, grouches, loraxes (loraxi?), gnomes, and vermicious knids to that list. Squonks are and always have been fictional animals.
Not to mention, likening a squonk to a cryptid in the first sentence of a podcast or video (or worst the title) immediately conveys to your audience, "Hey gang, I do not know three collective hoots of a holler what I'm talkin’ about!"
