Re-reading The X-Files: The trickster in contemporary conspiracy myth

Mulder: I want the Smoking Man smoked out. I want him exposed to be the murdering son of a bitch that he is .... I want his name ....

Skinner: These men don't have names.

-From The X-Files episode, "Talitha Cumi"

FOR MUCH OF its nine-season run, The X-Files achieved both cult

and mainstream success with tens of millions of viewers each week, hundreds of websites devoted to it, and millions in revenue from merchandising.1 Despite the fall in ratings over the last two seasons, the show has always generated much scrutiny.2 This is understandable given the unusual premise of the show. For several seasons, FBI agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully tracked down mutant serial killers, other-dimensional monsters, supernatural horrors and, most frequently, investigate cases that may involve extraterrestrial visitations and a government conspiracy to hide that fact. Critiques consistently note that the show's bizarre story lines resonate with audiences of all ages because it instills what The New York Times calls a "vague, insidious paranoia" into our daily relationships, especially with the government (James, 1998, p.9). The Chronicle of Higher Education echoes that sentiment, writing that the show's popularity comes from the challenge viewers have to "seek that fine line separating informed skepticism and suspicion from full-blown political paranoia" (Rosen, 1997, p. 137). "The beauty of "The X-Files" is the seamlessness with which it unites the two strains" of the political and the paranormal, notes The Washington Post, revolving around the belief that the "government has concealed a major alien appearance" (Powers, 1995, p. G01 ).