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CLASSIC: What's the Deal with Smashing Cake at Weddings? · Ridiculous History

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, and welcome back to the show, fellow Ridiculous historians.
0:03
Speaker 1: As we remarked earlier, our crew is on the road
0:07
Speaker 1: right now. We wanted to share some classic episodes with you.
0:13
Speaker 1: Shout out to our super producer, mister Max Williams. Also,
0:19
Speaker 1: you're Noel, I've been. We've both been to weddings. As
0:23
Speaker 1: a matter of fact, dude, both of us are going
0:25
Speaker 1: to friends' weddings later this year. It's true. Friends do
0:31
Speaker 1: occasionally get married, sometimes to each other. That's always tripping.
0:34
Speaker 1: It happens, but it is an ancient tradition, as we know,
0:38
Speaker 1: and oftentimes ancient traditions carry with them ritualistic behavior and
0:44
Speaker 1: not necessarily like blood sacrifices, although you know, certainly, certainly
0:48
Speaker 1: the wedding is in and of itself a sort of
0:50
Speaker 1: psychological blood sacrifice. No weddings are great. Everyone should be
0:54
Speaker 1: in love. I love that for all of you married
0:57
Speaker 1: couples out there. But there are some weird wedding traditions,
1:02
Speaker 1: some you may be, you know, intimately familiar with, like
1:04
Speaker 1: the old throwing of the bouquet, and that weird one
1:07
Speaker 1: with the garter. Never fully understood that one. We may
1:10
Speaker 1: discuss some of those in this episode was specifically, I
1:14
Speaker 1: think we've all sort of looked askance a bit at
1:16
Speaker 1: that tradition of smashing cake into each other's faces at weddings. Yeah, man, Like, okay,
1:24
Speaker 1: so full disclosure. I've officiated a number of weddings and
1:29
Speaker 1: the cake thing stood out to both of us because again,
1:36
Speaker 1: we actually Noel and I actually hang out on the
1:39
Speaker 1: regular pretty often and we have these moments where one
1:43
Speaker 1: of us says, you know, what's the deal with that?
1:46
Speaker 1: And then I know, man, when we make eye contact
1:50
Speaker 1: and we have like the silent nod. We want to
1:55
Speaker 1: figure it out. So back in twenty seventeen, Noel and
2:00
Speaker 1: Casey and now Max you're part of this, bro, we
2:03
Speaker 1: asked ourselves, why do people smash cake on each other's
2:08
Speaker 1: faces during weddings? Yeah? Why? Indeed, we're gonna find that
2:14
Speaker 1: out together. Here it goes ridiculous. History is a production
2:19
Speaker 1: of iHeartRadio. Welcome to the show, Friends and neighbors, ladies
2:59
Speaker 1: and gentlemen. And you know what that music means. I'm Ben,
3:03
Speaker 1: I'm Nolan. Apparently it's a nice day for a white wedding. Yeah,
3:08
Speaker 1: as we speak, given the just the raw numbers, odds
3:13
Speaker 1: are that there are thousands of couples getting married today,
3:16
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands, even, it's very true. It is a
3:19
Speaker 1: popular pastime. And of course we are joined by our
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Speaker 1: super producer, Casey Pegram here and today we are looking
3:31
Speaker 1: at one of the world's most universal traditions, the tradition
3:36
Speaker 1: of matrimony. I like to call it nuptials. Nuptials is
3:39
Speaker 1: cool too, it just sounds cute. And we know whether
3:44
Speaker 1: or not you have been married, or whether or not
3:48
Speaker 1: you've actually been to a wedding. It's impossible not to
3:51
Speaker 1: know a little bit about it because it's such a
3:53
Speaker 1: fundamental part of so much fiction. It's in so many films,
3:56
Speaker 1: not just rom comms, yeah, but definitely in rom coms. Definitely,
4:00
Speaker 1: definitely big in romcoms. So everybody is aware on some
4:04
Speaker 1: level of the basic idea that typically it's going to
4:09
Speaker 1: be two people who decide that they're going to in
4:14
Speaker 1: front of members of their society and in the eyes
4:17
Speaker 1: of the law usually as well, and the Lord and
4:20
Speaker 1: the Lord right, whatever lord that may be. Precisely, they're
4:24
Speaker 1: going to be an official item till death do they part,
4:28
Speaker 1: unless it's a shotgun wedding, unless it's a shotgun wedding,
4:32
Speaker 1: in which case you're sort of out of luck. You
4:33
Speaker 1: guy's got to kind of bite the bullet, or you
4:37
Speaker 1: have to bite the bullet daddy's bullet. So at some
4:41
Speaker 1: point you and I have looked into weird traditions before traditions,
4:47
Speaker 1: I want to be fair, traditions that might seem unusual
4:50
Speaker 1: to outsiders. We've looked into this sort of thing before tradition.
4:56
Speaker 1: Do you know that you've seen The Fiddler on the Roof?
4:58
Speaker 1: I have a long time ago all about tradition. In fact,
5:01
Speaker 1: one of the most popular songs from it is the
5:03
Speaker 1: song tradition, Oh really that goes like I just say,
5:07
Speaker 1: was that an excerpt? Is that the whole thing? That
5:09
Speaker 1: was just my my bit. That's really the only the
5:11
Speaker 1: only lyric I remember, But there's a whole song around it.
5:14
Speaker 1: You guys can check it out in your own time, Yes,
5:17
Speaker 1: please do. And while you are checking things out, you
5:20
Speaker 1: may also run into other strange traditions. We're familiar with
5:25
Speaker 1: some wedding traditions like uh, tossing the garter belts? What's
5:29
Speaker 1: that one about? Always that seems so ascay. It's like
5:31
Speaker 1: the person who catches the garter belt traditionally is amongst
5:36
Speaker 1: like the male folk or the grooms and they're gonna
5:39
Speaker 1: get married next. But then and then the bouquet is
5:42
Speaker 1: the female who's gonna get married next. Yeah, yeah, at
5:45
Speaker 1: least traditionally, And I know there's some problematic gender norms
5:50
Speaker 1: in there, but sometimes tradition has problems, right, Yeah, And
5:54
Speaker 1: you know, these traditions range from the you know, innocuous,
5:58
Speaker 1: to the bizarre, and the one we're talking about today
6:01
Speaker 1: I find pretty intensely bizarre because at some point in
6:05
Speaker 1: history it became a thing for the happy couple to
6:11
Speaker 1: shove wedding cake into each other's face holes, to have
6:16
Speaker 1: a miniature and intimate food fight in front of everybody
6:21
Speaker 1: else at the wedding because other wedding members don't do
6:24
Speaker 1: this a ritualistic force feeding. Yes, and we do know
6:29
Speaker 1: that newly weds beforehand would feed the first slice of
6:34
Speaker 1: wedding cake to one another and it was a symbol
6:36
Speaker 1: of their commitment right to provide for one another. And
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Speaker 1: this comes from Rachel Sylvester, associate Real Weddings editor with
6:44
Speaker 1: the Knot. However, says Sylvester, the symbolisms often lost and
6:49
Speaker 1: it's been replaced increasingly now with this tradition that Noel
6:53
Speaker 1: just described. There is a fantastic Dear Abbey letter from
6:57
Speaker 1: June of twenty eleven, where Faithful writes into Abby and says,
7:03
Speaker 1: Dear Abbe, I'm writing you about a disgusting, rude and
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Speaker 1: obscene habit the bride and groom shoving wedding cake into
7:11
Speaker 1: each other's faces. How rude and insensitive to the person
7:15
Speaker 1: he or she just promised to love, honor and cherish,
7:17
Speaker 1: not to mention disrespectful? What do you think of this custom?
7:21
Speaker 1: And dear Abbey has okay, so no mention words on
7:25
Speaker 1: Faithful spart and Dear Abbey seems to agree, saying, Dear Faithful,
7:29
Speaker 1: the customs should have been retired at least fifty years ago.
7:32
Speaker 1: The significance of this quote unquote ritual is demeaning to women,
7:37
Speaker 1: right because dear Abbey says, according to curious customs by
7:41
Speaker 1: Tad Tuleja, the cake cutting at modern weddings is a
7:45
Speaker 1: fourth step comedic ritual that sustains masculine prerogatives in the
7:49
Speaker 1: very act of supposedly subverting them. So Abby goes on
7:52
Speaker 1: in the first step of the comedy, the groom helps
7:56
Speaker 1: direct the hand of the bride in a symbolic demonstration
8:01
Speaker 1: of male control that was unnecessary in the days of
8:05
Speaker 1: more tractable women. And what I love about this is
8:09
Speaker 1: it really pushes home the kind of inherent misogyny in
8:14
Speaker 1: This makes a little bit of a stretch to me,
8:15
Speaker 1: but I'm going to go with it. I think it's interesting.
8:17
Speaker 1: So the female, the bride, she accepts this gesture and
8:21
Speaker 1: according to Abby, this serves as further proof of her submissiveness,
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Speaker 1: and then performing the second step of the ritual, which
8:30
Speaker 1: seems to be a twist where she offers him the
8:33
Speaker 1: first bite of cake, but then playfully in the third step,
8:37
Speaker 1: she subverts this trope by shoving it in his face
8:41
Speaker 1: playfully right. And then Abby goes on that this act
8:44
Speaker 1: of revolt is performed in a childish fashion, and the
8:48
Speaker 1: groom is able to endure it without losing face because
8:51
Speaker 1: it ironically demonstrates his superiority. His bride is an imp
8:55
Speaker 1: needing supervision, and the idea hears that the bride is
9:00
Speaker 1: being infantilized to a degree. I would tend to describe
9:05
Speaker 1: this argument as based in patriarchy, even more so than misogyny.
9:11
Speaker 1: But they're both present there if you believe this, And
9:15
Speaker 1: the idea here is almost it's depicted, at least in
9:18
Speaker 1: this quotation, as a ritualistic theater of sorts, as a play,
9:26
Speaker 1: almost and with clear beats to the story. And then
9:30
Speaker 1: the bride has apologetically wiped clean the groom's face and
9:35
Speaker 1: is now obedient to his dignified, somehow inherently wiser self.
9:42
Speaker 1: So you have to wonder how far back does this go.
9:46
Speaker 1: We know in ancient room the bride could expect to
9:49
Speaker 1: conclude festivities by having a barley cake smashed upside her head.
9:53
Speaker 1: So in this case, back in Rome, it was the
9:58
Speaker 1: bride who got cakes mashed. Yeah, And then I found
10:01
Speaker 1: this great Smithsonian article that the details some other early
10:07
Speaker 1: cake traditions, and it says that in medieval England the
10:11
Speaker 1: bride and groom would kiss each other on top of
10:15
Speaker 1: a pile of buns, and this act was meant to
10:19
Speaker 1: demonstrate and ensure even their prosperity in the years to come.
10:25
Speaker 1: But there's another weird part about that one, Yeah, they're sure,
10:28
Speaker 1: is the unmarried guests. A lot of these things seemed
10:31
Speaker 1: to before the unmarried guests in general, with the garter
10:35
Speaker 1: and the bouquet and the whole taking home a piece
10:38
Speaker 1: of cake, because in this ritual the guests would sometimes
10:41
Speaker 1: take a little piece as a souvenir of this cake
10:44
Speaker 1: that they would tuck under their pillow like the tooth fairy,
10:48
Speaker 1: despite the fact that they were very well aware of
10:52
Speaker 1: all the things that happened to it. And as it
10:54
Speaker 1: turns out, this particular recipe in these early British traditions
11:00
Speaker 1: was something called bride's pie pye, which mixed something called coxcombs,
11:06
Speaker 1: which I believe is the frill, the little hand looking
11:09
Speaker 1: thing on top of a of a male chicken. Mixed
11:13
Speaker 1: that with lamb testicles, sweetbreads, which if for my money,
11:18
Speaker 1: I quite enjoy sweetbreads if they're prepared well, oysters which
11:21
Speaker 1: are also good, and a lot of spices. And then
11:24
Speaker 1: there was another version of this recipe that included boiled
11:28
Speaker 1: calf's feet, and this did change in the sixteenth century. Oh,
11:33
Speaker 1: I want to not forget another note about Rome. There
11:38
Speaker 1: in ancient Rome, it's also argued that this tradition of
11:42
Speaker 1: barley caking was which I've just made a verb. I
11:44
Speaker 1: like it. Oh, thanks man. This tradition of barley caking
11:49
Speaker 1: was also done to symbolize male dominance and to encourage fertility,
11:53
Speaker 1: and this practice stayed with us today. When did things
11:56
Speaker 1: change We can date it to around the mid sixteenth entry,
12:00
Speaker 1: because sugar was becoming more plentiful and affordable in England. Yeah,
12:04
Speaker 1: and sugar became a really important ingredient in cakes, not
12:08
Speaker 1: only because it tastes way better than lamb's testicles, one
12:11
Speaker 1: would assume, but also it symbolized the purity and virginity
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Speaker 1: of the bride to be and also it was a
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Speaker 1: serious status symbol, right Ben, Yeah, it was absolutely serious
12:24
Speaker 1: status symbol because it goes back to the color of
12:28
Speaker 1: it as well as the show of wealth and opulence
12:33
Speaker 1: for the wedding party and the wedding goers. Look at
12:36
Speaker 1: this tremendous cake. And even now we see this. I
12:39
Speaker 1: believe it was during Princess Diana's wedding that the cake
12:42
Speaker 1: was five feet tall and they had a stunt double
12:45
Speaker 1: cake in case something happened to the first one. Yeah,
12:56
Speaker 1: and wedding cakes are big business these days, is all
13:00
Speaker 1: the you know, the wedding reality shows and the cooking
13:04
Speaker 1: shows and cake Boss and all of the fondunt and
13:07
Speaker 1: the different versions of these absurd cakes that you can
13:11
Speaker 1: get in all kinds of shapes and sizes. They can
13:14
Speaker 1: be you know, like a race car or a volcano
13:19
Speaker 1: that spews fourth lava even or you know, something like
13:23
Speaker 1: your your favorite sports car perhaps, or if you're, you know,
13:27
Speaker 1: having a Star Wars wedding, it could be at a
13:29
Speaker 1: moscale model of tattooing. And one person doubled down, right,
13:33
Speaker 1: We read about a We read about one bride who
13:36
Speaker 1: had a full sized replica of herself. Is the cake,
13:39
Speaker 1: which to me is weird. It's a little vain maybe,
13:43
Speaker 1: you know, it's very eat of my flesh. Typically you
13:46
Speaker 1: have the tiny bride and groom as the topper of
13:49
Speaker 1: the cake. But that's that's a real stretch to have
13:51
Speaker 1: an entire cake that appears to be a facsimile of
13:56
Speaker 1: just one member of the wedding party. Well, if both
13:59
Speaker 1: the bride and her spouse are into it, then it's
14:04
Speaker 1: their call. I would just personally feel kind of weird
14:07
Speaker 1: eating it, you know what I mean? Oh totally. And
14:09
Speaker 1: in the Smithsonian article by Abigail Tucker, she also talks
14:12
Speaker 1: about how as a cost saving measure. And I've never
14:16
Speaker 1: heard of this before, but I think this is pretty
14:17
Speaker 1: smart because obviously this big, giant, showy cake is less
14:21
Speaker 1: about a delicious, delectable treat and more about a show
14:24
Speaker 1: of opulence. But you could actually get a kind of
14:27
Speaker 1: a dummy cake that's made of styrofoam, that has a
14:30
Speaker 1: single kind of decoy piece of cake that you can
14:33
Speaker 1: cut out and use for the ceremony, and then the
14:38
Speaker 1: guests just get, you know, a regular old Walmart sheet
14:42
Speaker 1: cake or what have you, right, right, which does make sense.
14:45
Speaker 1: And the problem with the styrofoam cake is, you know,
14:48
Speaker 1: you have to be very careful about how you do
14:51
Speaker 1: the cake smashing thing. If you choose to do it,
14:54
Speaker 1: you got to pick the one real slice. And it's
14:57
Speaker 1: tough for us to us being human beings, not just
15:01
Speaker 1: Casey Nolan I, it's tough for us to collectively figure
15:05
Speaker 1: out exactly when this cake serving thing became a cake
15:09
Speaker 1: smashing thing. We know what's been around for several decades,
15:13
Speaker 1: but probably not several centuries in this current form. We
15:18
Speaker 1: just know there was stuff like it, and we've walked
15:21
Speaker 1: through the perspective that this is in some ways a
15:26
Speaker 1: folkloric drama right acted out. But most people, according to
15:31
Speaker 1: experts are probably unaware of what this ritual is supposed
15:35
Speaker 1: to signify, seeing it either as a fun riff on
15:38
Speaker 1: cake cutting, you know, because everybody wants their wedding to
15:40
Speaker 1: be fun, right, Everybody has like a little goofy joke
15:44
Speaker 1: of some sort at some point they're like, oh, let's
15:46
Speaker 1: play this as our first song, or they think it's
15:49
Speaker 1: a silly custom that just needs to go away, and
15:52
Speaker 1: it's levity, right. It adds a little fun, a little
15:56
Speaker 1: lighthearted lark to the eatings. You know. I've been at
16:03
Speaker 1: weddings where people do that, but it doesn't ever seem
16:06
Speaker 1: to be a squabble, you know. It just seems to
16:10
Speaker 1: be like they're both you know, we've had to be
16:12
Speaker 1: serious for a little while and then, as you said,
16:15
Speaker 1: let's have some levity. But it turns out noll that again.
16:19
Speaker 1: According to Sylvester, this cake smashing tradition is in decline.
16:24
Speaker 1: I can see why. I mean, it's gross. It's a wedding.
16:27
Speaker 1: It's not like an episode of Double Dare, you know,
16:29
Speaker 1: and you're not wearing smocks. And although I will say
16:32
Speaker 1: I found a great page with a whole bunch of
16:36
Speaker 1: different photos of various versions of this, and it goes
16:40
Speaker 1: from you know, bride and groom with their hands in
16:44
Speaker 1: each other's faces literally rubbing the cake in, to one
16:48
Speaker 1: being a little more aggressive than the other. I've got
16:51
Speaker 1: one here where the bride is pretty much pouncing on
16:54
Speaker 1: the groom and just shoving this face. And then I've
16:56
Speaker 1: got another one where the groom is actually wearing a
16:59
Speaker 1: garbage bag, which seemed like probably the smart move, you
17:04
Speaker 1: know it is to save that tuxedo. Those things are
17:06
Speaker 1: not cheap, right, no kidding. And you know what else
17:09
Speaker 1: I found. This is an unsubstantiated thing, but apparently it's
17:12
Speaker 1: a pretty widespread rumor people believe with again no solid
17:17
Speaker 1: proof that couples who do the wedding cake smashing thing
17:22
Speaker 1: are more likely to be divorced later in life. Well,
17:24
Speaker 1: as it turns out, Ben, I can speak to that.
17:28
Speaker 1: I am, in fact divorced. I'm what they call a divorcee,
17:31
Speaker 1: as am I. Yes, but I did not do the
17:34
Speaker 1: cake smashing so and we did not marry each other.
17:36
Speaker 1: This is true. Just for the record, We're just pals,
17:38
Speaker 1: we're just buddies, but the work wives kind of we
17:42
Speaker 1: do hang out a lot. We're hanging out after this
17:45
Speaker 1: as well. So I was in a one way cake
17:48
Speaker 1: smashing thing. I just the person I married. She just
17:53
Speaker 1: smashed the cake kids my face. I thought it was funny.
17:56
Speaker 1: You know, it's your good sport. Thanks man, I try
17:58
Speaker 1: to be Also, it did get all over the tucks,
18:01
Speaker 1: but that made it funnier and there's more risky business.
18:06
Speaker 1: According to the wedding experts when you talk about cake smashing,
18:10
Speaker 1: first cake fans or champion at the bit to point
18:14
Speaker 1: out it is a waste of good cake. Yeah, no joke.
18:17
Speaker 1: I mean some of these absurdly fancy cakes can equal
18:22
Speaker 1: somewhere in the neighborhood of like twelve to thirteen bucks
18:24
Speaker 1: a slice, and even just like an average kind of
18:27
Speaker 1: front of the mill wedding cake can be at least
18:28
Speaker 1: two or three bucks a slice. And you know, I'm
18:30
Speaker 1: not one to waste good cake, Ben You know me
18:33
Speaker 1: to be a fan of pastry, and I just feel
18:36
Speaker 1: like this is a tradition that needs to go the
18:39
Speaker 1: way of the bronte Sare you think so? Yes, So
18:44
Speaker 1: you say nay to cake wasters? Huh Yeah, I have
18:48
Speaker 1: a real problem with them. So it's interesting that even
19:00
Speaker 1: the modern day some people see it as just all
19:03
Speaker 1: in good fun, and then other people see it as
19:06
Speaker 1: disrespectful and demeaning. And the tradition seems to evolved somewhat organically.
19:14
Speaker 1: You know. There wasn't a There wasn't an article in
19:18
Speaker 1: Vanity Fair or some sort of etiquette guide to weddings
19:21
Speaker 1: that said, and at this point, the bride shall stuff
19:25
Speaker 1: hug room's face with cake, rubbing it hither and fro
19:28
Speaker 1: and or thither or thither. You know what. This also
19:33
Speaker 1: made me think of the world is full of these
19:37
Speaker 1: very specific wedding traditions, you know, And I found just
19:42
Speaker 1: a couple. If you want a laundry list, I want
19:44
Speaker 1: to hear what you think of the shoot. So in
19:47
Speaker 1: weaker culture in China, grooms shoot their future bride with
19:51
Speaker 1: a bow and arrow minus the arrowheads three times and
19:55
Speaker 1: then they what's on the tip of the era just
19:58
Speaker 1: it's just the shaft a that would still hurt, though
20:01
Speaker 1: WEE would hope. Then they break the arrows to ensure
20:05
Speaker 1: that the couple stays in love forever. See, I think
20:08
Speaker 1: I would prefer the cake smashing to getting shot with
20:11
Speaker 1: a projectile. Yeah, you can put an eye out with
20:14
Speaker 1: one of those man right, And here's another one that
20:17
Speaker 1: I thought, this is one that would be the line
20:19
Speaker 1: for me. And you know, I really appreciated when you
20:21
Speaker 1: said that I was in general a good sport. I
20:23
Speaker 1: don't know if I could go with this one. In Scotland,
20:26
Speaker 1: there's something called the blackening of the bride? Have you
20:30
Speaker 1: heard of? This go on? So traditionally Scottish brides to
20:35
Speaker 1: be are taken by surprise. Their friends kind of jump
20:39
Speaker 1: them and they pelt them with stuff like curdled milk, deadfish,
20:43
Speaker 1: spoiled food, tar and feathers, and then they're tied to
20:46
Speaker 1: a tree and then after that they go out for
20:49
Speaker 1: a night of drinking. And the idea here, the belief
20:53
Speaker 1: is that if the bride can withstand that kind of treatment,
20:56
Speaker 1: she can handle anything that comes her way in marriage.
20:59
Speaker 1: Can we just up to the drinking? I mean, yeah,
21:01
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't understand that's like some serious like
21:05
Speaker 1: military hazing type stuff there. Yeah, yeah, when we're talking,
21:09
Speaker 1: you know, it came to mind when we're talking about
21:11
Speaker 1: the cultural implications right of smashing cake on someone, and
21:16
Speaker 1: we've seen how it could become aggressive. But I don't
21:18
Speaker 1: think that has anything on this throwing trash at people
21:21
Speaker 1: and tying them to trees. Now that is not on,
21:24
Speaker 1: my friend, not on one bit. Okay, just a couple
21:28
Speaker 1: more of these if I want to gauge you on
21:31
Speaker 1: this and see which ones you think are like understandable.
21:35
Speaker 1: Gauge me up, all right. So in Mauritania, girls aged
21:40
Speaker 1: between five and fifteen are sent to fat farms before
21:43
Speaker 1: their wedding to pile on the pounds because it's also
21:47
Speaker 1: seen as a status symbol. It's seen as a signal
21:50
Speaker 1: that the groom is wealthy enough to keep the bride
21:53
Speaker 1: satisfied in a very physical way. And then in another
21:58
Speaker 1: part of China, brides of the Tujia people are required
22:02
Speaker 1: to cry for an hour a day every day for
22:05
Speaker 1: the month before their wedding. Well, that's that's just like
22:08
Speaker 1: how I live. I have my daily cry. Sometimes it
22:12
Speaker 1: lasts longer than an hour, though, it just depends. Is
22:14
Speaker 1: it like meditative or no? You don't plan it, No,
22:17
Speaker 1: it just comes upon me. Well, if you were doing
22:20
Speaker 1: this in preparation for a wedding ten days before the wedding,
22:24
Speaker 1: your mother would join you. The mother joins the bride
22:27
Speaker 1: and they cry together, and then the grandmother joins as well, yeah,
22:31
Speaker 1: I cry with my mom too, at least one day
22:33
Speaker 1: out of the week. Well you know, I mean, whatever
22:36
Speaker 1: it takes, man. Yeah, nothing like a good phone cry
22:39
Speaker 1: with your mom, just to you know. We saw the
22:41
Speaker 1: movie Coco the other week and we cried in tandem
22:46
Speaker 1: during that film with my eight year old daughter, who
22:48
Speaker 1: also cries. It was a three way cry, Catharde, it
22:51
Speaker 1: really was. Is that a Pixar film? Oh boy? Was
22:53
Speaker 1: it ever? The Pixar cry that's where it's at. I
22:56
Speaker 1: have some friends who refuse to watch Pixar because they
22:59
Speaker 1: feel that it's a socially manipulates a little bit. But I,
23:01
Speaker 1: you know, bend me, break me, Pixar. It's fine. Yeah,
23:05
Speaker 1: they're fantastic stories. Honestly, here's another weird story. And I
23:11
Speaker 1: guess this can be the last unusual tradition. And by
23:14
Speaker 1: the way, Nolan and I are not dinging any of these.
23:17
Speaker 1: They're just strange and they were news to us newly
23:20
Speaker 1: weds in France. For a while, we're forced to drink
23:23
Speaker 1: leftovers from their wedding out of a toilet bowl. Nowadays
23:27
Speaker 1: we're kind of leftovers stuff food from the wedding. Yeah,
23:33
Speaker 1: Noel's making a very distasteful, sneer. Yeah, I agree with
23:38
Speaker 1: you there, man. Nowadays, thankfully chocolate and champagne are repeatedly
23:42
Speaker 1: used as a substitute, but still served out of a toilet. Okay,
23:47
Speaker 1: then viva lace. I think we have run the gamut
23:50
Speaker 1: of odd wedding customs in today's ridiculous history. Nugget a
23:56
Speaker 1: little bit of a shorter one. So I think we're
23:57
Speaker 1: going to wrap up today with a couple of cool,
24:00
Speaker 1: fun listener males. Our first listener mail today comes from
24:08
Speaker 1: Michelle and the subject is Butter episode, and she goes,
24:13
Speaker 1: I know I'm late to the party with responni of
24:15
Speaker 1: this episode, but I can't leave my feedback onset. I
24:17
Speaker 1: love the Butter podcast. It was so interesting that this
24:20
Speaker 1: had such a huge effect on how we practice religion
24:22
Speaker 1: and spirituality and how that has evolved. However, I think
24:25
Speaker 1: you guys missed a critical point with butter itself, which
24:28
Speaker 1: is important in crafting the lens through which you view
24:31
Speaker 1: the issue. You refer to butter as a spread, a seasoning,
24:34
Speaker 1: and a stir fry agent. If this is all butter is,
24:36
Speaker 1: then by nature it's a luxury, not a necessity. Also,
24:38
Speaker 1: really stir fry in medieval Europe. Look, I wasn't saying
24:41
Speaker 1: stir fry, as we know. I just meant, you know,
24:43
Speaker 1: cooking different ingredients with some sort of cooking agents and
24:47
Speaker 1: combining them. Surely that was a thing like a stew right,
24:50
Speaker 1: come on, I don't know, I hear you, Michelle, though
24:53
Speaker 1: you got me ding noted. But she goes on. However,
24:57
Speaker 1: the piece you missed is that fat is a crucial
24:59
Speaker 1: ingredient in aching bread, which even your vegan monks would
25:03
Speaker 1: have been eating. Bread was the main dietary staple of
25:05
Speaker 1: the time, and most of the world peasants would not
25:08
Speaker 1: have been able to survive without bread because of, as
25:10
Speaker 1: you mentioned, of the scarcity of food in that part
25:12
Speaker 1: of the world. So these people without butter, the only
25:15
Speaker 1: fat available to them, would have to choose between their
25:17
Speaker 1: family starvation and their immortal soul. I think this changes
25:20
Speaker 1: the lens fundamentally. You know, I'm tempted to agree, and
25:23
Speaker 1: I really appreciate you pointing that out. Michelle. We've been
25:26
Speaker 1: getting a lot of feedback about the butter episode in particular. Yeah,
25:29
Speaker 1: most of it quite good, and this one, you know,
25:31
Speaker 1: she's not being me, and she's got a really good point.
25:33
Speaker 1: We definitely mentioned Bread, but I don't think we gave
25:36
Speaker 1: it the weight that it probably deserved. So Michelle duly
25:39
Speaker 1: noted and thank you for writing in and listening to
25:41
Speaker 1: the show, and no spoilers, but stay tuned Bread fans.
25:47
Speaker 1: So we have one more listener mail for today and
25:52
Speaker 1: it pertains to our Antarctica episode. Sarah P. Writes in
25:57
Speaker 1: to say Ben aol and superproducer Case. I found your
26:00
Speaker 1: podcast yesterday and have quickly gone through every episode, thoroughly
26:04
Speaker 1: enjoying it, as well as your thoughts on whether or
26:08
Speaker 1: not to start a Pinterest account. Sarah side note here
26:11
Speaker 1: you'll be glad to know that we have a meeting
26:13
Speaker 1: about it every week. I really enjoyed all of them,
26:16
Speaker 1: says Sarah, and had a question to ask in regards
26:19
Speaker 1: the episode about who would have jurisdiction on a case
26:21
Speaker 1: in Antarctica if an instant occurs on a country base
26:24
Speaker 1: that is not the same country as the persons involved.
26:27
Speaker 1: My initial reaction was why not have interpoll take care
26:30
Speaker 1: of the incident? Granted I am not by any means
26:32
Speaker 1: an expert on the organization, but I feel as an
26:35
Speaker 1: organization that routinely assists multiple nations. They would be the
26:38
Speaker 1: perfect organization to assist a continent that no nation can claim,
26:42
Speaker 1: whether as a mediator between two countries or as the
26:45
Speaker 1: lead in an investigation, they could be a useful asset
26:48
Speaker 1: on Antarctica. On a side note, as a Philly girl,
26:52
Speaker 1: I must recommend that if you want a good Philly
26:54
Speaker 1: chee steak, you have to go to Gym's on South Street.
26:57
Speaker 1: They have the best. No matter what anyone may say,
27:01
Speaker 1: shots fired. I'm sure that's a serious point of contention
27:04
Speaker 1: in Philly, and that's who has the best cheese steak.
27:07
Speaker 1: And I'm sure there are many varying opinions on it,
27:09
Speaker 1: but I am all about trying nixt If we ever
27:12
Speaker 1: make it to the City of Brotherly Love, let's go.
27:16
Speaker 1: Let's take Ridiculous History on the road, do a live
27:19
Speaker 1: show sponsored by just the idea of Philly cheese steaks.
27:22
Speaker 1: I am all about it, and thanks so much for
27:24
Speaker 1: writing in Michelle and Sarah, and we hope that you
27:27
Speaker 1: will write into us too at Ridiculous At HowStuffWorks dot com.
27:30
Speaker 1: We're still plugging away at that Pinterest vision board getting there,
27:34
Speaker 1: but you know we're going to debut it when the
27:37
Speaker 1: time is right. We're taking a Hines fifty seven approach
27:40
Speaker 1: to it. Good things come to those who debate Pinterest boards.
27:44
Speaker 1: I love it. But you can also find us in
27:46
Speaker 1: the meantime on various other Internet platforms. A Twitter now, yes,
27:51
Speaker 1: we do have a Twitter account. Now we're going legit
27:54
Speaker 1: by man man. It's a brave new world. And we
27:56
Speaker 1: also have an Instagram and a Facebook. You can find
28:00
Speaker 1: Nolan I on several other shows. But as it turns out,
28:03
Speaker 1: we have a lot of things cooking here and we
28:06
Speaker 1: have some new House of Work shows coming out. Now. Yeah,
28:09
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys know our buddy Ken
28:12
Speaker 1: Jennings of Jeopardy fame. I think he's the the winning
28:15
Speaker 1: ist Jeopardy contestant, and I think he only was finally
28:19
Speaker 1: dethroned by the notorious Watson computer that bested him. But
28:25
Speaker 1: you know, it's it's hard to fight back against our
28:28
Speaker 1: robot overlord. So I still love you Ken. And Ken
28:31
Speaker 1: and his buddy John Roderick, who was in a real
28:33
Speaker 1: cool band called The Long Winters, have a new show
28:35
Speaker 1: that will be available anywhere you get your podcasts by
28:38
Speaker 1: the time you hear this episode called Omnibus where the
28:42
Speaker 1: whole concept is their podcasting from the present for the
28:45
Speaker 1: people of the distant future given some sort of monumental
28:50
Speaker 1: catastrophe that would decimate our society, and they want to
28:54
Speaker 1: preserve all kinds of weird esoteric bits of knowledge and
28:58
Speaker 1: curio and do so with a plum. And they're quite
29:02
Speaker 1: funny and charming, and it's got kind of a fun
29:05
Speaker 1: sci fi quality to it. Actually was lucky enough I
29:08
Speaker 1: got to do all the music for it and the
29:10
Speaker 1: sound design. So give Omnibus a listen whenever you get
29:14
Speaker 1: a chance, and right to them. Tell them Ben and
29:17
Speaker 1: Noel sent you. Maybe that'll will that give him some creditor?
29:20
Speaker 1: Will that be a ding? I don't know. I think
29:22
Speaker 1: we might need to get credit from them, because this
29:24
Speaker 1: show is going to be a hit. Yes, agreed. And
29:27
Speaker 1: while you are looking for Omnibus, of course we want
29:29
Speaker 1: to end on the question. Please write to us, let
29:32
Speaker 1: us know what strange wedding traditions you have encountered or
29:36
Speaker 1: taken part in, and most importantly, join us next time
29:40
Speaker 1: for another episode of ridiculous history. Goodbye everyone. For more
29:51
Speaker 1: podcasts from my Heart Radio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple
29:54
Speaker 1: Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,