Behold The Real Men In Black
This footage, and its lively voice over, is what I believe to be the first appearance of the Men in Black (MIBs) on camera. The MIBs of course are the sinister, omniscient silencers who show up to question UFO witnesses and intimidate them into keeping quiet about their sighting, made famous by Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith in the big budget film series. [For the record, John Lundberg has just told me that a third "MIB" film is due this year, so it's possible that this footage is viral advertising for that.]

I didn't get a chance to talk too much about MIBs in "Mirage Men", though they're one of the more entertaining ephemeral elements of the UFO lore and a great example of a smart prank that went viral. They're a demonisation of the real military interviewers (themselves, I suspect, occasionally members of the intelligence community disguised as Air Force or Navy employees) who would sometimes show up to ask UFO witnesses about what they had seen, and indeed advise them to keep silent about it, especially if the interviewee was already in the military.

From its origins in Gray Barker's 1950s flying saucer books like They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers, the MIB lore was developed by his friends and co-authors John "Mothman"Prophecies" Keel and Jim "Saucer Smear" Moseley, who enjoyed pranking each other as much as they did other UFO enthusiasts. [Note that Tommy Lee Jones and Will Smith are named 'J' and 'K' in the MIB films, for John Keel].

For those who aren't familiar with the MIBs origins in Gray Barker's imagination, here's a good, personal overview of the story:"Gray Barker: My Friend, the Myth-Maker".