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Transcript

Short Stuff: Knock on Wood · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: Jerry's here again sitting in for Dave and this is
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: short stuff. Come in.
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: Oh no, I was just wishing myself good luck.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Oh well that should sound like this.
• 0:23
  Speaker 2: We're talking about knocking on wood, and it's actually not
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: for good luck. Knocking on wood is more to avoid
• 0:28
  Speaker 2: tempting fate.
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: It depends on who you're talking to. Are you an
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: ancient celt or a modern day Chuck.
• 0:36
  Speaker 2: I'm a modern day Kilt.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Oh god, no, no, no, I'm an ancient Chuck.
• 0:40
  Speaker 2: That's what I am.
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: My brain's busted. Now you're gonna have to take over
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: the rest of this episode, now, all right, So yeah,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: you're right. These days we knock on wood to ward
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: off bad luck. Usually it's when we're saying something like
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: a boast, or we're saying something that we don't want
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: the opposite to happen.
• 1:01
  Speaker 2: Thanks, you're going so great for this podcast. Nothing will
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: ever stop it from being successful.
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: Knock on wood. That's another thing you have to do too.
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: You you're doing it too many times, by the way,
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: you might actually be undoing the charm. I also say
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: knock on wood when I knock on wood, I guess
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: just to double up.
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: Yeah, Emily always says she's very a big wood knocker,
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: so she's always like, you better find some wood to knock.
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, you can't. You can't mess around with like plastic
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: or metal.
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: It has to be fake wood even.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So the the there's been all like this is
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: just a whole episode on Weird Little Luck Rituals. We
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: talked about throwing salt over your shoulder before, and I
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: think we've talked about knocking on wood at some point before,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: because it seems familiar that it can be traced back
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: to the ancient Celts and essentially based on their belief
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: that trees, particularly oak trees, harbored spirits and that if
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: you came in contact with the tree, you were coming
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: in contact essentially with the spirits.
• 2:05
  Speaker 2: Yeah, and trees were a big deal. And you know,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: if you've built your house out of a tree, you
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: may knock on that wood is sort of saying like, hey,
• 2:14
  Speaker 2: I believe if you'd knocked once it was like hey,
• 2:16
  Speaker 2: thanks for the good luck, and a second knock was
• 2:19
  Speaker 2: saying like thank you, I guess for your wood. All
• 2:23
  Speaker 2: of these things are action based, though, and there's something
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: around that, like most of these good luck things, like
• 2:30
  Speaker 2: you can't and it's not like good luck is even
• 2:33
  Speaker 2: a real thing anyway, but in order to feel like
• 2:38
  Speaker 2: you're achieving that desired outcome of luck, you can't just
• 2:42
  Speaker 2: think it with kind of any of these things that
• 2:45
  Speaker 2: we're going to be talking about. And they've even done
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: research that was a study not a great one, but
• 2:50
  Speaker 2: a study from the University of Chicago in twenty thirteen
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: where they would have someone say something that like tempted
• 2:57
  Speaker 2: fate like our podcast will never you know, go down
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: the tubes or whatever, and then you could either knock wood,
• 3:03
  Speaker 2: throw a ball of course, which is not part of
• 3:06
  Speaker 2: any ritual that we that I know of, or just
• 3:08
  Speaker 2: hold on to a ball. And they found that the
• 3:11
  Speaker 2: people who felt like, all right, I think this worked
• 3:15
  Speaker 2: is the ones who actually did something, whether even if
• 3:20
  Speaker 2: it was throwing the ball, because it was an action.
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: Yeah, they went to some effort to secure their good
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: luck or stave off the bad luck.
• 3:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah exactly.
• 3:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah. So apparently that again people trace this back to
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: the ancient Celts and their love of oak trees and
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: their belief that the spirits are in the oak trees,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: so I think Also one of the things I saw
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: is that when you knock, you're essentially waking them up, like,
• 3:45
  Speaker 1: wake up, spirits, I need your help to secure this
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: good luck. Pretty interesting. And then other people are like, no,
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: you're knocking to basically to make a sound over your talking,
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: so the bad spirits can't hear you. That makes a
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: lot of sense too, But also, isn't it a little
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: too neat? Isn't it a little too tidy? Doesn't it
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: seem like there would be a much more recent, much
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: less Celtic pagany explanation than that.
• 4:11
  Speaker 2: Well there may be in the Brits, say touchwood instead
• 4:15
  Speaker 2: of knockwood, and apparently that was a game when was
• 4:20
  Speaker 2: this like the night in the nineteenth century, so much
• 4:22
  Speaker 2: more recent called tig touch wood. I've also seen tiggy
• 4:26
  Speaker 2: touch wood where it's basically tag where different trees are
• 4:30
  Speaker 2: assigned as bases, and if you were touching wood then
• 4:34
  Speaker 2: you were safe from being tagged it.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Yeah. A folklorist named Steve Rowd traced it back to
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: an eighteen ninety one book called The Boy's Modern Playmate.
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: That's fun sure, So yeah, he thinks that this is
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: actually where this idea of touching wood and being safe
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: and then eventually evolving into knocking wood for good luck
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: came from that. It's as recent as one hundred or
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: so years ago.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I think if you're in their variations, if you're
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: in Turkey, you do the knock wood twice, but you
• 5:06
  Speaker 2: also pull on your ear lobe one time.
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: I like that one. I'm going to start doing that.
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: And I thing in Italy they say touch iron, and
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: people say why, I have no comeback for that, trying
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: to think of something Italian.
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: There's nothing to say other than because there's no good answer.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: They're supposed to be touching what they just have it wrong. Essentially,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Sorry Italy, I say we take a break and come
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: back and talk about some other lucky practices around the world.
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: How about that?
• 5:33
  Speaker 2: Sure? No, sevision, No.
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: Okay, Chuck. Let's say that we're in Greece and I've
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: seen you across the street and I'm like, that guy
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: looks really good in those pants, so I'm jealous of them.
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: You might look over and see me go and like
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: kind of wave my hand at you, And what I've
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: just done is basically given you the evil eye of envy,
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: and so to erase that I've spat three times and
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: waved off my envy.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: Okay, what culture is at grease?
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Grease? But spitting it's also big in Jewish culture too, too,
• 6:28
  Speaker 1: is I think three times usually is the way you
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: do it for good luck or to ward off bad
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: luck more more usually.
• 6:35
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I've also seen spitting over your shoulder, which that's hard.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: That is hard. I mean you can sort of spit, just.
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: Spit right on your shoulders. I do.
• 6:47
  Speaker 2: I got one Denmark. This is very interesting. They save
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: their broken dishes. I like sort of elaborate ones like these.
• 6:55
  Speaker 2: So if you break a dish in Denmark, you just
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: save it all year long and you collect it, I guess,
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: and your little broken dish bin, and you save it
• 7:02
  Speaker 2: till New Year's Eve. And they will they will chuck
• 7:06
  Speaker 2: their broken plates toward people that they want to have
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: good luck, toward their houses, like a friend or a
• 7:11
  Speaker 2: family or whatever, to wish them good luck. And I
• 7:14
  Speaker 2: think the children can even just leave a little pile
• 7:17
  Speaker 2: on their friend's doorstep if they want them to, like,
• 7:21
  Speaker 2: instead of throwing it, they can just say, like, I
• 7:24
  Speaker 2: don't even know how to do a Danish accent, but
• 7:25
  Speaker 2: here's a little pile of broken dishes.
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: Do it like bew York even though she's Icelandic. I
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: think it'll.
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: Cover Oh man, I wish I could do be York.
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: So yeah, I like that. I also like leaving it
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: as a pile, whether than throwing your broken dishes at
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: someone's house because somebody's got to clean that up. Yeah.
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: One of my favorites is crossing fingers. Like, not only
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: do I like to cross fingers myself, I like using
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: the emoji crossing fingers is huge with me.
• 7:51
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: You would think that it probably dates back quite a ways,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: and there's a story that it actually was originated by
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: the early Christians who were persecuted by the Romans at
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: the time, so they would cross fingers to basically signify
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: it at one another, to make a symbol of the cross,
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: almost like hey, I'm with you, buddy, I'm a Christian.
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: And I read I think in an Oxford explanatory article
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: on that that basically this is how they put it.
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: So they found that they can only date it back
• 8:22
  Speaker 1: to nineteen twelve and said given its late appearance, restricted
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: distribution most of the UK and colonies, and the fact
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: that crossed fingers bear no relation to the shape of
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: a cross. This explanation is completely unfounded.
• 8:36
  Speaker 2: My buddy Brett and I have always done we go
• 8:38
  Speaker 2: double hope hope, and we each cross both of our fingers.
• 8:41
  Speaker 2: I go and kiss each one, not each other's. Wow,
• 8:44
  Speaker 2: though we probably should.
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: That's got to work really well.
• 8:48
  Speaker 2: Yeah, I'm not. I mean, I think we got that
• 8:50
  Speaker 2: from Why do I want to say we got that
• 8:51
  Speaker 2: from a movie like True Romance or something. I have
• 8:54
  Speaker 2: no idea.
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: I don't. It doesn't really always.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Done it, so I have no idea where it came from.
• 9:00
  Speaker 2: I know. In China, what they do is they believe
• 9:04
  Speaker 2: that your good luck comes through the front of the house. Yes,
• 9:08
  Speaker 2: and so before Chinese New Year, which is not the
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: same as our New Year, they clean their houses. But
• 9:13
  Speaker 2: they don't sweep out the dirt or the quote unquote
• 9:17
  Speaker 2: bad They sweep it all in in a little pile
• 9:20
  Speaker 2: and they collect it because they have to put it
• 9:22
  Speaker 2: out the back door. You never want to if you
• 9:24
  Speaker 2: want to bring in good luck, you don't want to
• 9:26
  Speaker 2: sweep that stuff out of the front door.
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and then you don't do any cleaning at all.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: The first couple of days after Chinese New Year because
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: you're letting that good luck accumulate, you know. Yeah, I
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: actually adopted that one for our New Year Western New Year.
• 9:40
  Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, nice out.
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: The bront door. I just don't clean for a couple
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: of days. I cleaned first, and I don't think I
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: was ticking out the back door, but the side door,
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: I guess counts. It's not the front door, all right.
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: But then after, like so New Year's Eve you can
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: do that, but on New Year's Day there's no cleaning
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: or anything like that.
• 10:01
  Speaker 2: Well, what about Thailand? This is interesting?
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: Yeah, why don't you take it? All right?
• 10:07
  Speaker 2: Little boys and men in Thailand think that if you
• 10:09
  Speaker 2: wear I'm not sure what's to pronounced palade kiek is
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: how I would say it, p l A p A
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: l A d k h i k, which is a
• 10:20
  Speaker 2: penis amulet. If you wear that in your pants, then
• 10:24
  Speaker 2: that's going to bring you luck. And this is just
• 10:26
  Speaker 2: a you know, it's a little If you look them up,
• 10:29
  Speaker 2: they look like very ornate of different design, but they're
• 10:32
  Speaker 2: all different versions of little car penises. They're usually pretty
• 10:36
  Speaker 2: small couple of inches, and they think that that will
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: bring you good luck and lessen like the severity of
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: an injury maybe, and I think just overall good luck.
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: Yeah, pretty great?
• 10:47
  Speaker 2: Huh sure, why not?
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: I don't have anything else? Do you have anything else?
• 10:53
  Speaker 2: Yeah?
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: Well, Chuck, I wish you the best of luck in
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: all of your endeavors.
• 10:57
  Speaker 2: Right back at you, I hold my penis amulet up
• 11:00
  Speaker 2: in your honor.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: Thank you same to you. That means, of course, short
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: stuff is that.
• 11:09
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• 11:12
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• 11:16
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