An unreliable narrator does the opposite--presents a story contrary to what actually happened (though this character may take his version of events to be his truth). He lacks credibility. In "Bigfoot Stole My Wife," the speaker functions as an unreliable narrator: he begins his story with the admission that he lacks basic credibility, that when he tells people that Bigfoot stole his wife, there is a "look of disbelief in each person's eye." Because we are a reader, we expect to trust this narrator and take his story at face value, no matter how ludicrous it is. However, it becomes clear that this character has a certain disconnect from reality. The proof he gives for Bigfoot taking his wife is lacking and not concrete: there is a smell, his wife is gone along with half (not all of) her clothes, and there is a "little" sign of a struggle. However, his wife's dog is also gone, and his wife had been saying, by Rick's own admission, things like "One of these days I'm not going to be here when you get home." It becomes clear that Rick's wife has left him, and that he has repressed this truth and emotional reactions that become part of it by inventing his own truth: that his wife was stolen by Bigfoot.
To improve his credibility, Rick offers another unbelievable story--the story of his trailer being carried thirty-one miles in a flood. This story is told with Rick's characteristic simple speech, mix together with conversational speaking, all which create a sort of immature and childlike tone that I found almost painful to read. This immaturity may have contributed to Trudy's leaving of Rick, as well as his lack of credibility among his friend group. Rick's status as a childish, unreliable narrator is solidified with his last line, which shows that Rick's tale of Bigfoot stealing his wife is a method of repression, and that he cannot stomach his actual reality--"I gotta believe it."