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Short Stuff: The Sandman · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome to the short stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck, and there's Jerry. Let's get busy. Bring me
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: a dream, Josh. That's a good song. It's catchy. It is.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: It's been in some movies, including Halloween. Right, played during
• 0:22
  Speaker 1: the end credits of Halloween, and I can't remember for
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: the life of me, I know that there's an even
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: better example of it. I can't remember, Chuck, I'm sorry.
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: Back to the future. Oh really, yeah? Was it the credits?
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: Uh no, it was night you can only be used
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: in the credits. Uh no. Marty goes back to and
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: I believe it's one of the first songs he hears.
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: He goes into Hill Valley and um, that song very famously,
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: Mr Sandman is what we're talking about. Everyone was a big,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: big hit in the year nineteen fifty five from the coredets.
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: Nice that's a great band name to the cordette. Yeah, acapello, ladies.
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: What more do you want in the nineteen fifties? Uh? Nothing? Um,
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: maybe civil rights that kind of thing, but at least
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: you could hear that song while you're fighting for right. Um.
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: So this this Sandman that's mentioned in the Mr Sandman
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: is actually not a fifties um uh a character. It
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: was actually from way earlier, probably out of Central and
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Eastern Europe, and it was one of those very famous
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: characters that arose from Central and Eastern Europe's preoccupation with
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: the duality of darkness and light in the same human being,
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: just like in Santa Claus. That's right, when you wake
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: up in the morning and uh, you have we call
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: them eye buggers in our house. What do you call him? Sleep?
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: I guess you have sleep in your eye crusties. We
• 1:53
  Speaker 1: don't have an official house name for it, but that's
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: these are names have always called it. Yeah, sleep, that's
• 1:58
  Speaker 1: what we called it in our house growing up. Have
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: sleep in your eye? I spink. That's the last time
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: I had a house name for it. Yeah, so I've
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: called the eye bogogers. I don't know where I got that,
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: but that's technically that's different. Huh. An eye booger occurs
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: during the daytime. Sleep is like the crusty stuff that
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: you wake up with, But not in my house. Oh hey, Chuck,
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: let me ask you this. Have you ever woken up
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: with such a copious amount of sleep um or eye
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: boogers whatever you want. I don't say what you're about
• 2:26
  Speaker 1: to say that, like your your your eyes crusted shut
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: like that? Has that ever happened to you? No, it's atrocious.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: You've had that happen. You have to be very sick.
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: But yes, it has happened to me before where I'm like,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: I can't I can't open my eye. Oh that's so gross.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: Well there's a name for it. There's a real scientific
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: name of that. Crust. Uh r h e u M.
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: Is that pronounced room? I think room? Yeah, all right, um,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: that's the scientific name. It's a discharge that dries up,
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: you know, it comes out of your eyes. It dries
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: up when you're asleep. And if you are from northern
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: Europe and it was you know, a few hundred years ago,
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: you might be told, it might have been told that
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: the sandman had come and visited you and sprinkled sand
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: in your eyes while you slept, or magic dust at least,
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: then that's that's what it was. And you would think,
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: maybe as a child, like why would a sandman want
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: to come and sprinkle magic sand in my eyes to
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: make my eyes crusted? It doesn't make any sense. Well,
• 3:30
  Speaker 1: apparently this is a byproduct of the mechanism by which
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: the Sandman spun your dreams. It was the Sandman who
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: is responsible for your dreams, which is why the Cordets
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: asked the sand Man to bring them a dream, because
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: that's where your dreams came from, the Sandman. That's right. Uh,
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: we don't know exactly where the Sandman comes from, but
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: we do have some ideas, uh, and we're going to
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: talk about those right after this break. Oh alright, so
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: I promised the origin of the Sandman. We don't know
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: for positives, it was not metallica, but UM. In eighteenth
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: century German dictionaries that was UM. Like this is the
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: first time I believe it was on the paper, on paper,
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: On the paper, I just turned into a German. What's
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: wrong with Todd? He's on the paper, dear sanmun coompt
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: means Sandman is coming. And the whole idea was that
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: the Sandman would come along and parents would tell the
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: story UM in dur Many. Although that one woman says
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: she didn't think it was German folklore, right, she thinks
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: that it kind of became popularized in Germany much like UM.
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: You know, like our conception of Santa Clause probably came
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: from that area, but it was maybe from a different
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: area altogether, like maybe Norway or Finland or something. But
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: it was just, you know, it was the Germans, the
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: German immigrants who really brought the concept to America. All right,
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: well that's what she means, gotcha, because that didn't make
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: sense to me, um regardless. In eighteen it was a
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: writer named E. T. A. Hoffman UM that wrote Dear Sun,
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: Dr Sondman with two ends, Um, and it's you know,
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: it's just like the Grimm's Brothers stuff. It's this horrifying
• 5:39
  Speaker 1: nursery rhyme, or not nursery rhyme, but sort of a story,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: a kid's story, um, about a nurse telling a story
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: about this creature who throws sand in your eyes of
• 5:51
  Speaker 1: little kids who don't go to sleep, and your eyes
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: fall out of your sockets. Then the sandman collects those eyeballs,
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: but some men a bag and lives on the dark
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: side of the moon, goes home and carries them there
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: and then feeds those eyeballs to his children. There you go,
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: that's what happens with the sand man. And it makes
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: at It makes a lot of sense because especially if
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: you were eighteenth or early nineteenth century German um one
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: good way to get kids to go to sleep was
• 6:21
  Speaker 1: to just terrify them with the story. But it also
• 6:24
  Speaker 1: it provides a physical function too, because what is the
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: appropriate reaction when somebody tells you something like that that
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: that person exists and is going to come to your
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: bedside soon. It's to shut your eyes tightly and to
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: keep them shut ostensibly until you wake up in the morning.
• 6:39
  Speaker 1: So it's pretty clever if you really think about it. Sure,
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: But the dark side of the moon thing, that just
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: that's I mean, like icing on the cake. You know.
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: It just makes me feel good knowing that in like
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: eighteen parents were struggling with putting their kids to bed.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: I think they always have. I think so you don't
• 6:56
  Speaker 1: think about that though. I think that from the time
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: that it be aim not okay socially to lay on
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: your kid until they were unconscious and then went to sleep,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: from that moment on it became a struggle to get
• 7:08
  Speaker 1: your kid to go to sleep. Yeah, very interesting. Uh,
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: flash forward a bit to one when none other than
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: Hans Christian Anderson put out a fairy tale. Do you
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: want to pronounce this? I can Are you ready for this?
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: I was practicing. I looked it up. Really, Ula lukey wow,
• 7:27
  Speaker 1: and it's not dead on, but it's it's okay. Yeah.
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: Anytime I see uh one of those letters that looks
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: like the null set, yeah, I have no idea what
• 7:37
  Speaker 1: to do with it. But we finally know how to
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: pronounce ola ula. So yeah, you remember in the Lego
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: episode we call them old Kirk Christiansen. Oh, that's right,
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: it was Ula Kirk Christensen. Yep. That's so finally, after
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: basically a decade, we have corrected ourselves that that is
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: the inventor of Lego's name pronounced correctly. Uh. Yeah, because
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: I remember joking like, oh Kirk Christensen. Yeah, and we
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: met a guy wanted um, I can't remember, some telecommunications
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: company and he was the president and we call them
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: oh Andy. They corrected us, but it was just lost
• 8:12
  Speaker 1: on us that that was not right. And I think
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: we up to this point, up to this moment, we've
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: called everybody Ohl. All right, So what is it again? La?
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: Uh Ula Luke? Are you okay? So that's the story,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: that's the fairy tale. It means old shut your eye. Yeah,
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: that's a good title. I think so too. But it's
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: weird that CON's Christian Anderson doesn't just call him the Sandman.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: He does everything but call him the Sandman. Well because
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: while accounts he got it from der son Man, right, yeah,
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: for sure. But I mean, was he worried he was
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: ripping off their son man or something. I'm not sure
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: why he didn't just call it theirs mine if if
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: the san mon or Sandman was already a widely recognized figure,
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: I don't know, uh, at any rate. In the story,
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: um or luking Good very good said with dress and silk, Jamie,
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: very nice, stylish, and would carry an umbrella, colorful umbrella.
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: Um And I guess, I mean it doesn't really say
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: what do you do the same thing? Basically, he would
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: not he would squirt milk in your yes, rather than
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: sand which is another It's like, come on, Anderson, your
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: beloved children's author, you can just go with the original. Yeah.
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: And he also it says in here that he introduces
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: a boy in the story to death and Sexuality. Right.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: It is a little odd, but it is typical like
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: children's fairy tale, nursery rhyme, children's story kind of thing
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: where there's this weird duality between people who are really
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: really kind, they also have a shadow side, or it
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: can be a shadow alter ego, like with Santa Um
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: And I think what was Santa's alter ego was a
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: black Peter. I don't remember at the very least it
• 10:05
  Speaker 1: was Crampus, but I know that some of those traditions
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: there was like a dark figure Um that would like
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: that was the guy who would steal the children who
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: had been naughty, and then it eventually translated into Santa
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: leaving Cole and your stocking. If you've been naughty prior
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: to that, it was like you'd just be kidnapped and
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: eaten by Santa's like heavy hitter. This is the same thing.
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: The Sandman has the same thing. And in this Hans
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: Christian Andersen's story, uh Ula has an alter ego, a
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: brother who, rather than visiting the kid's bedsides to bring
• 10:36
  Speaker 1: their dreams, visits everybody's bedside once to bring death. And
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: his name is also Ula Luke a. Yeah, he would
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: walk in say exit light, inter night forever and take
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: your stand. It's often never never land forever kid. Oh,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: I always thought it was take my hand. Well, I
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: think there that's a different verse. Right. Okay, I'm I
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: got in trouble last time I talked about Metallica on
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: the show. So the one of the one of the
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: you did for what? I think I said that that
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: album stunk or something. It probably did depending on the
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: album we were talking about, unless it was Injustice for
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: All or any preceding album. Yeah, Ride the Lightning. That
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: was a good one, still holds up. Agreed. The another
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: verse goes, don't steal singles from our band. But in
• 11:32
  Speaker 1: the end, the story of Hans Christian Anderson wrote was
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: just like all the Grim's fairy tales. There's always this dark,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: awful thing and it's usually embedded in a lesson to
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: teach your children. And in this case, the lesson is
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: go to sleep now because I'm tired and we're both tired,
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: so we're gonna end this short stuff right here. That's right.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: For more on this and thousands of other topics, is
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: it how stuff works dot Com