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History's Weirdest Flexes, Part 1 · Ridiculous History

0:00
Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
0:27
Speaker 1: back to the show, folks. This is Ridiculous History. My
0:30
Speaker 1: name is Ben, my name is Nolan. It's not ridiculous Historians,
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Speaker 1: of content. Uh. Speaking of cavalcades of awesomeness, we want
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Speaker 1: to give a shout out to our super producer, Casey Pegram.
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Speaker 1: There he is, Look at him. Look at our boy, Casey,
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Speaker 1: glint in his eye as always. Oh, we should mention
1:00
Speaker 1: that today's episode is pretty fascinating to us. We started
1:05
Speaker 1: talking with some friends of ours off air about the
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Speaker 1: most petty or strangest flexes in human history. Ben, you're
1:13
Speaker 1: gonna have to you're gonna have to hit me to
1:15
Speaker 1: this lingo here? What what is a flex? Ah? Well,
1:19
Speaker 1: who better to explain that than our friends that we
1:21
Speaker 1: actually brought on the air for the episode today. Uh.
1:25
Speaker 1: The host of one of our favorite podcast, the Daily
1:29
Speaker 1: Zeitgeist Yeah, we have Miles and Jack from the Daily
1:32
Speaker 1: Zeitgeist joining us as we speak. Gentlemen. What's up guys, Jack?
1:37
Speaker 1: How are you so? So? These guys, Uh, Miles and
1:41
Speaker 1: Jack are the anchors of our Los Angeles operation. They
1:45
Speaker 1: do a lot of comedy. They have this amazing political
1:48
Speaker 1: comedy show that they do every day of the week. Uh.
1:51
Speaker 1: And they're kind of the the cooler versions of us. So,
1:54
Speaker 1: can you guys explain what a flex is? Um? Yes, flex? Uh.
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Speaker 1: If we go strictly by the Urban Dictionary, definition would
2:02
Speaker 1: be a verb in which someone would show off or
2:06
Speaker 1: gloat in a boastful display. Wow. That was very official, Miles,
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Speaker 1: Thank you so much. Yeah, so that's what a flexes.
2:14
Speaker 1: How is a flex different than a stunt? Um? I
2:16
Speaker 1: mean it's kind of the same thing. Stunt, you're still
2:19
Speaker 1: kind of showing out as you will, um. But sometimes
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Speaker 1: a flex, you know, it's really about, like you know,
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Speaker 1: I think, coming from flexing your muscles, like showing how
2:26
Speaker 1: strong you are, showing off that way. I feel like
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Speaker 1: a flex can come from within maybe where a stunt
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Speaker 1: can be. A stunt would be more like keep showing
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Speaker 1: off things. I don't know. You nailed it you, thank
2:40
Speaker 1: you so much. But yeah, I mean essentially it's all
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Speaker 1: the same thing. It's just sort of you know, And
2:43
Speaker 1: then the gave way to the weird flex phenomenon, which
2:46
Speaker 1: are just sort of like, uh, you know, just re
2:48
Speaker 1: contextualizing people's quotes or things to be boastful moments. But yeah,
2:53
Speaker 1: it's really just about showing off, really or yeah, unnecessarily
2:56
Speaker 1: showing your power or wealth or something like that. I
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Speaker 1: love weird flex because it has taken over for people
3:02
Speaker 1: used to say anytime they wanted to make fun of
3:04
Speaker 1: someone for bragging about something weird, they'd be like humble
3:07
Speaker 1: bragg and they just didn't know what humble brag meant.
3:11
Speaker 1: I think they misunderstood. So weird flex is actually an
3:14
Speaker 1: accurate way to make fun of somebody for bragging about
3:17
Speaker 1: something weird, and we're we're happier here weird flex, like,
3:21
Speaker 1: for example, setting the record for eating the largest amount
3:25
Speaker 1: of cheese in twenty four hours, that's a weird flex.
3:28
Speaker 1: That is a weird flex. Yeah, and then bragging about
3:31
Speaker 1: it and then bragging about it. Well, and since this
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Speaker 1: is a ridiculous history, today we're talking about weird historical flexes.
3:38
Speaker 1: Ben you brought this one to the table. Um, so
3:40
Speaker 1: I think maybe you should start Sure, Yeah, yeah, we're
3:43
Speaker 1: going to explore not all of but some of the
3:46
Speaker 1: weirdest flexes and maybe the most petty power moves throughout
3:50
Speaker 1: this ridiculous thing that we call human history. So I'm
3:53
Speaker 1: gonna lay one out just to set the tone here.
3:56
Speaker 1: We've all heard of garden gnomes, right, which is already
3:59
Speaker 1: a weird flex in and of itself. Yeah, it's a
4:01
Speaker 1: it's a yes, it's a strange choice landscaping. Fact that
4:05
Speaker 1: I have the second largest collection of garden gnomes on
4:08
Speaker 1: the East side of Los Angeles. I'm not going to
4:10
Speaker 1: brag about that that because that would be a weird flex, right,
4:14
Speaker 1: just leave it out there. But I know East l
4:16
Speaker 1: A Is pretty competitive and cutthroat in that regard, right. Yeah. Man,
4:21
Speaker 1: it's taking a lot of hard work, and I just
4:23
Speaker 1: get thanks to my parents for you know, raising me
4:25
Speaker 1: the way they did. And yeah, but go on with
4:27
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I mean, Jessica Sable is not recovered
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Speaker 1: since you retook the throne. Second second, yea garden O Prince,
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Speaker 1: the garden ome King. I'm never going to be at him.
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Speaker 1: Vice garden Ome President. Yes, so this should be this
4:41
Speaker 1: should be close to you personally, because it turns out
4:44
Speaker 1: that there is an historical precedent in the creation of
4:49
Speaker 1: this sort of garden gnome. Uh, well, I guess we
4:52
Speaker 1: can call it an industry now, at least in Los
4:54
Speaker 1: Angeles culture culture that I'm culture. So there was this
5:01
Speaker 1: moment primarily during the eighteenth century when wealthy landowners in
5:07
Speaker 1: Britain said, you know, how can I show my fellow
5:11
Speaker 1: landed aristocrats that I am somehow better than them, you know,
5:15
Speaker 1: without actually doing something to improve myself. And they decided
5:21
Speaker 1: that they would resurrect an old practice of paying someone
5:26
Speaker 1: to be a professional hermit and ornamental hermit in their garden.
5:32
Speaker 1: And these guys had a really weird gig. First off,
5:36
Speaker 1: they were expected to in some cases not bathe, not
5:40
Speaker 1: talk to anyone for seven years. Uh. They had to
5:43
Speaker 1: address like quote, a druid. But the problem was, these
5:48
Speaker 1: wealthy landowners had no clue what a druid actually looked like.
5:53
Speaker 1: So they looked more like the modern version of trained kids,
5:56
Speaker 1: you know, minus the stick and poke face tattoos. And
6:00
Speaker 1: the weird thing about it was it caught on. There's
6:04
Speaker 1: a great book called the hermit in the garden from
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Speaker 1: imperial room to ornamental gnome. Like the rhyme. There the tracy,
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Speaker 1: the traces the evolution of this from back in the
6:15
Speaker 1: fifteenth century when Francis of Paula was one of the
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Speaker 1: first paid hermits in a cave on his own dad's estate.
6:26
Speaker 1: So how's that for nepotism. Let me unpack this just briefly.
6:29
Speaker 1: I just want to make sure that I'm getting the
6:30
Speaker 1: right picture for it. So they're paying like smelly hobo
6:35
Speaker 1: types to hang around in their yard, yes, yep. And
6:39
Speaker 1: in some cases, and they have their own special kind
6:41
Speaker 1: of like hermit habitats. You know how if you have
6:47
Speaker 1: sort of like if you have fish, there's the fake
6:49
Speaker 1: ubiquitous sand castle that the fish quote unquote lives in
6:53
Speaker 1: a little diver helmet or whatever. They had a small yes,
6:58
Speaker 1: that has bubbles to come out us with the chest
7:00
Speaker 1: because otherwise, what the hell are you doing with this fish?
7:03
Speaker 1: So they I'm glad you guys have my back on this.
7:06
Speaker 1: So they have these different tiers of hermitage. Some of
7:11
Speaker 1: them are expected to come out when visitors walk by
7:16
Speaker 1: and then do things that you know, we would probably
7:19
Speaker 1: find offensive. In the modern day, like come up and
7:22
Speaker 1: recite spoken word without an invitation or solicitation. There's literally
7:26
Speaker 1: a dude that hangs out outside my neighborhood bar that
7:29
Speaker 1: does that. Every time I walk past him, and he
7:31
Speaker 1: thinks that I don't remember that I've already heard the
7:34
Speaker 1: one poem that he has. He's talking about ticket that's
7:36
Speaker 1: the guy, yeah, and it's like he's like, I got
7:38
Speaker 1: a new one. I'm like, bro, it's not a new one.
7:40
Speaker 1: I've heard. H literally had to memorized at this point,
7:43
Speaker 1: and I'm not giving you a dollar at this point.
7:45
Speaker 1: I can do his ad libs to flex on him.
7:47
Speaker 1: You should come up to him and say I have
7:49
Speaker 1: a poem for you, and tell him his own poem
7:51
Speaker 1: to his face. Wow. He might even say I love that.
7:56
Speaker 1: I've never heard that before. That's also true. So the
8:00
Speaker 1: thing that they were attempting to do with this was
8:04
Speaker 1: to recreate a sort of idealized time in history that
8:10
Speaker 1: never actually existed. The Hermits eventually became uh the inspiration
8:18
Speaker 1: for the gnome sculptures that were so uh prominent and
8:23
Speaker 1: prevalent today in Los Angeles. But the concept of these
8:28
Speaker 1: being a normal thing in ancient Roman villas and so on.
8:33
Speaker 1: Isn't that accurate? Like so many eighteenth century British beliefs,
8:38
Speaker 1: it was based on complete malarkey. It never actually happened
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Speaker 1: in a widespread fashion in ancient civilizations, but that didn't
8:49
Speaker 1: stop people. The facts will never stop you from having
8:52
Speaker 1: a good time with a weird flex uh. The last thing.
8:55
Speaker 1: The most famous of the ornamental hermits is a guy
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Speaker 1: named John Big with two g's. It's nice surname, the
9:03
Speaker 1: Denton Hermit. He was not himself a garden hermit, but
9:08
Speaker 1: in a lot of the publications of the time, he
9:11
Speaker 1: was called like the o g hermit, and they explore,
9:17
Speaker 1: like how you're supposed to interact with these people. You
9:21
Speaker 1: walk up to them, even if you're the owner of
9:23
Speaker 1: this garden. You walk up to the hermit's hideout or
9:27
Speaker 1: his hidie hole, or his treasure chest, and you know
9:30
Speaker 1: his equivalent of his treasure chest and his castle, and
9:32
Speaker 1: then you ring a bell or you knock, or you
9:35
Speaker 1: say a phrase, and then the hermit comes out. And
9:38
Speaker 1: depending upon uh what the owners want from this guy,
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Speaker 1: they either, of course uh start speaking in weird uh
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Speaker 1: riddles or spoken word, or they pretend not to see
9:51
Speaker 1: you and maybe silently pray to themselves or work on
9:55
Speaker 1: some like kid you not arrangement of shells in a
10:00
Speaker 1: way that is supposed to look purposeful and super deep.
10:04
Speaker 1: As you can tell, Yeah, as you can tell, this
10:07
Speaker 1: is a short lived trend. It died out in the
10:10
Speaker 1: early nineteen century or so when weirder flexes rose. The
10:16
Speaker 1: thing was, we can only imagine that this stuff was
10:19
Speaker 1: really a status symbol when not many people were doing it.
10:23
Speaker 1: So when the ornamental hermit became closer to being commonplace,
10:28
Speaker 1: it's social value decreased because people were like, oh, you've
10:32
Speaker 1: gotta you gotta hermit. You said, there was a hermit
10:35
Speaker 1: bubble basically, yeah, people started getting cheap, knockoff garden hermits.
10:42
Speaker 1: Then the whole thing just went. I mean, the hermit
10:45
Speaker 1: bubble really heard a lot of people. I remember someone
10:48
Speaker 1: I dated their family, they were they were upside down.
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Speaker 1: Yet I feel like this is really a testament to
11:02
Speaker 1: how like this is one of those pastimes from history
11:06
Speaker 1: that really is a testament to how boring life used
11:09
Speaker 1: to be. Like that that people would just go and
11:14
Speaker 1: see a guy who didn't want you to interact with
11:18
Speaker 1: him and like have play like a weird like troll
11:21
Speaker 1: password game with them, and it was yeah, it's just
11:26
Speaker 1: and it's also you know, the the economy was not
11:30
Speaker 1: overly diverse back in the day, so you know, you
11:33
Speaker 1: needed to create work for your weird son who didn't
11:37
Speaker 1: never wanted to leave the house. And so it sounds
11:39
Speaker 1: like that kind of got it started, was just having
11:42
Speaker 1: a kid at home who you couldn't get off the couch,
11:45
Speaker 1: and so you're like, what if we dressed him in
11:48
Speaker 1: weird clothes and made him live under a rock in
11:50
Speaker 1: the backyard, and then luckily that gave rise to art schools. Ornamentally,
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Speaker 1: I feel like there's another or analog here, you guys,
12:01
Speaker 1: in the in the whole Hollywood universe where you have
12:04
Speaker 1: these glitzy parties where people are kind of paid to
12:07
Speaker 1: just wander around dressed in costumes, whatever the theme is.
12:11
Speaker 1: I could see this being brought back for some sort
12:14
Speaker 1: of weird flex Hollywood party where you just have these
12:17
Speaker 1: oddly dressed kind of like court jester types just wandering
12:19
Speaker 1: around and reciting riddles to people. How do you guys
12:22
Speaker 1: feel about this? I mean, I think that makes sense.
12:25
Speaker 1: You know, it's we always it's always a flex even
12:28
Speaker 1: just to hire someone to do something that doesn't even
12:30
Speaker 1: seem like a job, and you're like, yeah, I'm paying
12:32
Speaker 1: somebody to do that. That's because that's where my wealth
12:34
Speaker 1: is act and it's the same thing reminds me of
12:37
Speaker 1: even like at bar Mitzvah's like pump up dancers that
12:40
Speaker 1: you hire for that. It's like they're just lightening up
12:42
Speaker 1: the mood. Oh, I don't know them, but I hired
12:44
Speaker 1: them because I can. My social life currently is mostly
12:48
Speaker 1: mostly involved going to two to three year old birthday parties. Uh,
12:53
Speaker 1: not involving my kids at all, just because that's what
12:55
Speaker 1: I'm into these days. But they there's always like a
12:59
Speaker 1: Disney princess or something, some some actor who came to
13:04
Speaker 1: Hollywood to chase their dreams who was uh playing usually
13:09
Speaker 1: at Elsa. Although I actually saw the bubble burst on
13:12
Speaker 1: Elsa in the past couple of weeks, people just stopped
13:15
Speaker 1: really caring about Elsa. Uh, and she was literally chasing
13:18
Speaker 1: the kids around because nobody would talk to her because
13:22
Speaker 1: they're like, oh, else is so three years yea. Yeah,
13:25
Speaker 1: She's like, I have to do something. This is too awkward.
13:28
Speaker 1: Kids are so cruel. Yeah, kids are very cruel. So
13:31
Speaker 1: it's not that different. I guess it's just that it's
13:34
Speaker 1: almost like creating, turning a little part of your garden
13:38
Speaker 1: into a historical reenactment town, which we also have a
13:45
Speaker 1: right right. Yeah, a bit of a step up from
13:47
Speaker 1: traditional slavery. It's like, Hi, I'll clothe you and like
13:52
Speaker 1: and you get to kind of just beat you or
13:54
Speaker 1: do some weird Okay, I'll be back here on food
13:56
Speaker 1: and a couple of shuckles. Yeah, where they just kind
13:59
Speaker 1: of paid or paid in food and the shelter, or
14:06
Speaker 1: they had room and board. They received a stipend. The
14:09
Speaker 1: usual contract was for seven years. The stipend though, you know,
14:13
Speaker 1: whenever somebody says stipend instead of a salary, you know,
14:17
Speaker 1: it's not a huge chunk of scratch. But the last
14:21
Speaker 1: thing that was fascinating about this to me, uh, and
14:24
Speaker 1: a very very uh damning comment on society at the time,
14:29
Speaker 1: is that Britain at the time was full of incredibly destitute,
14:35
Speaker 1: impoverished or homeless people. So of course someone would end
14:39
Speaker 1: up taking this job. And it's not surprising if someone's
14:41
Speaker 1: like telling their kids, all right, goodbye, you know, little
14:45
Speaker 1: Darren or whatever, Dad has to go off and uh,
14:48
Speaker 1: pretend to be homeless mystic for seven years so that
14:53
Speaker 1: we can get your leg fixed. You think his children
14:55
Speaker 1: are allowed to visit Little Tim? No, No, he don't
14:59
Speaker 1: have family, no contact, there's a no contact. Yeah, that
15:02
Speaker 1: is a very very weird flex. Just societally, I would
15:05
Speaker 1: say that's a weird flex, but I think it's kind
15:07
Speaker 1: of It could come back around right where even in
15:10
Speaker 1: this country, you have we have growing populations of just
15:13
Speaker 1: the destitute or people who are not faring well in
15:15
Speaker 1: the economy, and eventually people at the very top could
15:18
Speaker 1: be like, oh, yeah, I hired these five people to
15:20
Speaker 1: do paw patrol for my kids for three years, right
15:23
Speaker 1: right exactly. But that is that is my uh that
15:27
Speaker 1: that is my first entrigue into our weird flex show.
15:31
Speaker 1: And it sounds like we can we can all agree,
15:34
Speaker 1: Oh maybe that's what we can do at the end,
15:36
Speaker 1: we can we can vote on whether or not that's
15:38
Speaker 1: a weird flex. I think it is, obviously, I think
15:40
Speaker 1: it is too. And another thing that I think is
15:42
Speaker 1: I think this might have enough weird flex ammunition to
15:45
Speaker 1: make two weird flex episodes. This this alone, Yes, this alone.
15:49
Speaker 1: I'm just planning just putting that out there right now,
15:51
Speaker 1: fingers crossed. I could be proven wrong, but I would
15:54
Speaker 1: like to throw it to our guests. You talk amongst
15:56
Speaker 1: yourselves who would like to go next. I could go
16:00
Speaker 1: um by the way, if you guys are George Saunders fans.
16:04
Speaker 1: He's a fiction writer, and he has a short story
16:06
Speaker 1: I think in tenth of Decembers, like sort of a
16:09
Speaker 1: weird futuristic version of this um that, where it's like
16:14
Speaker 1: they there are people who are paid to re enact
16:19
Speaker 1: uh lynchings in people's gardens in the near future in
16:23
Speaker 1: the American South End. It's like this weird class consciousness
16:27
Speaker 1: thing that uh that I don't know goes off the rails,
16:30
Speaker 1: but it's very, very creepy and interesting story that makes
16:34
Speaker 1: me think he knew about this phenomenon when when he
16:38
Speaker 1: was writing it. Uh. So, I want to talk to
16:41
Speaker 1: you guys about a time when the human species was
16:48
Speaker 1: still a little bit insecure about our place on top
16:52
Speaker 1: of the food chain. UM. And this is back when
16:56
Speaker 1: Charles Darwin was kicking around and you know, he was
17:01
Speaker 1: actually discovering that we weren't all that different from our
17:05
Speaker 1: animal uh brethren, and that you know, we were all
17:09
Speaker 1: part of the same evolutionary stu as a lot of animals.
17:14
Speaker 1: A thing that a lot of people don't know about
17:16
Speaker 1: Darwin though, is that he basically ate every animal that
17:22
Speaker 1: he ever documented. Um like that that was his I
17:28
Speaker 1: and it's I mean, he kind of viewed it as
17:30
Speaker 1: part of the scientific process. But it seems to go
17:34
Speaker 1: deeper than that, because even when he was a kid
17:37
Speaker 1: at Cambridge, UM, you know Harvard, if you've seen the
17:40
Speaker 1: social network, you know that they have instead of like
17:44
Speaker 1: sorority and fraternity houses, they have like dining clubs and uh.
17:49
Speaker 1: At Cambridge they had something similar. But Darwin started something
17:54
Speaker 1: called the Glutton Club, which was a group of students
17:57
Speaker 1: devoted to devouring quote, birds and beasts which were before
18:02
Speaker 1: unknown to human palate. They toasted hawk, uh, they ate
18:09
Speaker 1: a heron like waiting bird called a bit turn uh.
18:13
Speaker 1: And they were dissolved after trying to eat a brown owl,
18:17
Speaker 1: which you're not supposed to eat those. Darwin said the
18:21
Speaker 1: taste was indescribable. Uh. So that that might seem strange
18:25
Speaker 1: for a guy who then went on to devote his
18:28
Speaker 1: life to, you know, documenting animals in that habitat, Does
18:32
Speaker 1: it seem strange. He might just have a thing. Yeah,
18:37
Speaker 1: so well so, I I kind of always associated him
18:41
Speaker 1: with you know, science and biology and you know, putting
18:45
Speaker 1: them putting humans in there in their place on the uh,
18:51
Speaker 1: you know, in in natural history. But he was more
18:55
Speaker 1: about putting us in our place, but then also reminding
18:59
Speaker 1: every animal he encountered, uh, that we could still eat
19:03
Speaker 1: them if we wanted to. Because during the course of
19:06
Speaker 1: his you know, journeys on the Beagle, he ate puma, uh,
19:12
Speaker 1: he ate iguanas, armadillo's um. He not only eight giant tortoises, uh,
19:18
Speaker 1: he ate like so many of the giant giant tortoises.
19:21
Speaker 1: He documented that there weren't any left when he got
19:24
Speaker 1: back to England. He had eaten like twenty something of them. Uh.
19:28
Speaker 1: And he tried He also tried drinking their bladder contents.
19:33
Speaker 1: He said the fluid was quite limpid, you know, silently
19:37
Speaker 1: bitter taste. You gotta drink bladder contents for sciencewhereus on
19:43
Speaker 1: my license plate? Uh. This is incredible because I think
19:46
Speaker 1: of him and this is obviously miss guy. But I've
19:48
Speaker 1: always thought of Darwin as like a conservationist. But that's
19:52
Speaker 1: never even right. He was pitched as honestly, I mean
19:54
Speaker 1: he was a documentary and he you know, wrote down
19:58
Speaker 1: detailed notes about all these things, but he wasn't exactly
20:01
Speaker 1: out there to like save the wildlife. And this just
20:04
Speaker 1: pushes that point home. Go On, man, this is fascinating
20:07
Speaker 1: and bizarre to me. It's all it's all cover, right.
20:10
Speaker 1: I think we have it all wrong thinking, oh he
20:12
Speaker 1: was some kind of scientist. His main goal was to
20:15
Speaker 1: eat as many animals as possible. I think of him
20:17
Speaker 1: as actually the first guy. Fieri really had nothing to
20:21
Speaker 1: a science. The science bit was just a cover to
20:23
Speaker 1: be like you see Chuck again. Yeah he's drinking. He's
20:26
Speaker 1: drinking turtle pah. I know he's talking about his evolution thing. Yeah,
20:32
Speaker 1: because even if we're being generous, we can say, okay,
20:36
Speaker 1: one turtle. You know, you might be in a situation
20:39
Speaker 1: when you're like where am I getting? When am I
20:40
Speaker 1: going to be here again? But twenty right, Yeah, look,
20:45
Speaker 1: we've all been to uh what's the Galapos Island and
20:50
Speaker 1: you know, tried to eat one of the turtles. When
20:53
Speaker 1: first you got you got to ride the turn and
20:57
Speaker 1: then in the head and then you eat it. That's
21:00
Speaker 1: just how you do that's the order of operation. They
21:03
Speaker 1: frown on that. In my experience, I mean, maybe you
21:05
Speaker 1: had a cooler guide. The first thing I do when
21:07
Speaker 1: I see a turtle is try and dump toxic uz
21:10
Speaker 1: on right, that it will then turn into some kind
21:12
Speaker 1: of hero Niza mutant. And it's a number. Miles is
21:16
Speaker 1: wearing a cheese shredder on his face, Like what do
21:20
Speaker 1: you guys have a guy for toxic ooze? That is
21:23
Speaker 1: my question because oh yeah, yeah, yeah, okay, yeah, la man,
21:30
Speaker 1: we'll talk off. Yeah, specialized to there's certain kinds for mammals,
21:34
Speaker 1: and there's other ones for reptiles and ones for insects. Yeah,
21:36
Speaker 1: as there should be. That makes sense. Did this ever
21:43
Speaker 1: become a matter of controversy in Darwin's life? Like did
21:47
Speaker 1: anybody ever say, hey, man, you can just eat run tortoise?
21:53
Speaker 1: I mean I think right, so, Uh, I think it
21:57
Speaker 1: was actually more common, and you would expect because there's
22:02
Speaker 1: also a great scientist named William Buckland. Uh. He was
22:07
Speaker 1: the first person to publish a scientific study of a dinosaur. Uh.
22:11
Speaker 1: And he made it his life's mission to eat everyone,
22:15
Speaker 1: or eat one of every animal uh that existed, and
22:20
Speaker 1: even at one point ate a human heart. So uh,
22:23
Speaker 1: and they exist, they were around at the same time,
22:26
Speaker 1: So apparently this was just a a way to kind
22:31
Speaker 1: of flex your scientific legitimacy to the world. Just be like, yo,
22:38
Speaker 1: this this is how I get down showing my superiority
22:42
Speaker 1: over the natural world by putting it in my stomach,
22:46
Speaker 1: you know it. Also, it also occurs to me that
22:48
Speaker 1: this is kind of a weird reverse Noah's Arc kind
22:51
Speaker 1: of scenario where instead of like saving one of every animal,
22:54
Speaker 1: you're gonna eat one of every animal just to show
22:58
Speaker 1: that you've got one over on these creatures and that
23:01
Speaker 1: you are, you know, the top of the food chain
23:03
Speaker 1: and they better know that. I mean, as a scientist,
23:06
Speaker 1: when you spend something that much time around the animals,
23:09
Speaker 1: you really come to understand that they think they're better
23:13
Speaker 1: than you, that they need to be put in their place. Um,
23:18
Speaker 1: but just two quick facts that I found particularly interesting.
23:22
Speaker 1: He ate a twenty pound rodent and said it was
23:26
Speaker 1: the very best meat he had ever tasted, So rodent
23:28
Speaker 1: meat is apparently underrated. And one at one point, his
23:35
Speaker 1: hunger came into contrast with his scientific drive because he
23:39
Speaker 1: had spent months trying to find this ostrich like bird
23:43
Speaker 1: called a lesser ria. Uh. And he was eating what
23:49
Speaker 1: he thought to be a greater ria. Uh and about
23:53
Speaker 1: halfway through the portion, or about halfway through his portion
23:57
Speaker 1: of greater ria, he realized, oh no, uh, that bone
24:01
Speaker 1: being there means this is actually a lesser rhea, the
24:04
Speaker 1: thing I've been looking for forever. So he had to
24:07
Speaker 1: basically send this animal he was hoping to scientifically document
24:11
Speaker 1: back to England as just a bunch of like chicken
24:15
Speaker 1: bones and skin and feathers because he he had eaten
24:19
Speaker 1: most of it, so he uh he sent them leftovers. Yes, yeah, exactly.
24:23
Speaker 1: He did send it in a styrofoam clamshell container. I
24:27
Speaker 1: have to do it, did he did? He then get
24:29
Speaker 1: dia rhea. Oh, you can only imagine. I had to.
24:35
Speaker 1: I had to had to. You are absolved, Thank you.
24:41
Speaker 1: Somebody had to say it. It had to be said.
24:43
Speaker 1: The guest was gonna feel on let for the judges
24:47
Speaker 1: and yes, we will accept it. Thanks for thanks for
24:50
Speaker 1: taking one for the team. You'll, of course glad to
24:52
Speaker 1: do it, so we really appreciate it. So so far
24:56
Speaker 1: we have two I would say legitimate flexes, uh, legitimately
25:01
Speaker 1: weird at least, and both are somewhat cruel when you
25:04
Speaker 1: think about it. Uh, you know, I think the gambit
25:07
Speaker 1: was correct in the beginning. I think this is a
25:10
Speaker 1: two part episode, and you know, I really hate it
25:13
Speaker 1: when Pete podcasters say, well, we're running out of time,
25:16
Speaker 1: so we're gonna make this a two parter shenanigans. No,
25:20
Speaker 1: that's our episodes gonna be as long as we want.
25:21
Speaker 1: We just are trying to get two episodes out of
25:23
Speaker 1: this because we're lazy. No. Well, I mean maybe that's
25:25
Speaker 1: where you're coming from, nol. I'm not gonna lie. I
25:28
Speaker 1: was gonna walk outside and see if there was some
25:30
Speaker 1: kind of rodent that I could eat for science, because
25:33
Speaker 1: apparently that's okay now, you know, well, Ben, we were
25:37
Speaker 1: very different people. Ben were very different, very different people.
25:40
Speaker 1: Lazy and hungry, lazy and hungry. That's it. That's the
25:43
Speaker 1: that's our combo before before we go on this episode, though,
25:47
Speaker 1: a very very important question that I know everybody listening
25:51
Speaker 1: is waiting to hear, which of the teenage mutant Ninja
25:55
Speaker 1: Turtles is your favorite or which one do you identify
25:58
Speaker 1: with the most. I could let it be unsaid. Um.
26:02
Speaker 1: I was more of a casual Turtles fan So I
26:06
Speaker 1: was more Michael Angelo, just the everybody's first choice when
26:09
Speaker 1: they're young and first getting to know it. Yeah, michel Angelo,
26:13
Speaker 1: he's like a rebel. Yeah, he's a rebel who likes pizza,
26:16
Speaker 1: just like me. I mean, they all love pizza, but
26:17
Speaker 1: he really loves he loves pizza. Um. Yeah for me,
26:21
Speaker 1: I was I liked Michelangelo for the swag, the confidence,
26:25
Speaker 1: the rebellious attitude, the weird flix. Um. But in the
26:28
Speaker 1: end I kind of said I was more of a
26:30
Speaker 1: Donna Tello guy, Okay, because I like blue. Donna Tello
26:33
Speaker 1: was a smart one, right, didn't Donna Tello Wasn't he
26:35
Speaker 1: the science he guy? Yeah? Donna Tello has inventions. I yeah,
26:38
Speaker 1: and the boast that bosta, which is which is admittedly
26:41
Speaker 1: the most boring of the Ninja Turtle's weapons, and in
26:43
Speaker 1: my opinion, really I think Michael Angelo. The nunchucks are
26:46
Speaker 1: obviously the most fun. He's got two of them. He
26:48
Speaker 1: can swing them around, do all kinds of crazy tricks.
26:50
Speaker 1: But he's got no reach. No, he's got no reach.
26:52
Speaker 1: What do you mean He's got no reach. He's got
26:53
Speaker 1: to reach with the nunchucks. You gotta be really active
26:55
Speaker 1: to well, okay, I'm just my bias is showing. I'm
26:58
Speaker 1: also teamed Donna. Tell You're on team don Tello. Yeah,
27:01
Speaker 1: I always like raptured. Actually I misspoke. I meant say Leonardo.
27:06
Speaker 1: Leonardo is the one who wars blue. Oh, that's right,
27:09
Speaker 1: Henna wear blue. Yes, but Donna Tello was still the
27:12
Speaker 1: science guy. Leonardo was sort of the de facto leader. Yeah,
27:15
Speaker 1: he's like the cyclops of Turtle. That's right, that's right.
27:19
Speaker 1: I was always Michael Angelo. I'm with that, and I
27:22
Speaker 1: was not a casual Turtles fan. I've seen both the
27:25
Speaker 1: original film and the Secret of the Use. I know
27:30
Speaker 1: the Ninja rap by heart, and I had the cassette
27:33
Speaker 1: called Coming Out of Our Shells that was distributed with
27:36
Speaker 1: Domino's pizzas back in the day. Did you did you?
27:41
Speaker 1: Do you remember that Sam Rockwell is in the first
27:43
Speaker 1: Teenage Yes, that's right. Isn't he in the Foot? Isn't
27:46
Speaker 1: he in the Foot Clan? Yeah, he's like the main
27:48
Speaker 1: sort of like forward facing foot guy. He's like he's
27:53
Speaker 1: like Fagan from Oliver. He's like recruiting little street urchin kids. Totally.
27:57
Speaker 1: I forgot that was still stand by that as his
28:00
Speaker 1: greatest work as an act. Oh, absolutely, he agrees, he agrees.
28:03
Speaker 1: I think he has gone on record with that. Yeah,
28:05
Speaker 1: it's that. And then Moon Moon would be number two
28:07
Speaker 1: for meant distant number two. Agreed. But so we we
28:12
Speaker 1: are going to pause for today's episode. We'll be back
28:15
Speaker 1: with the second part of Weirdest Historical Flexes in the meantime,
28:20
Speaker 1: Will will forego our usual This is where you can
28:23
Speaker 1: find us on the internet because we did that at
28:24
Speaker 1: the front. We still have to thank everybody though, Ye. Yes,
28:27
Speaker 1: we want to thank of course our super producer Casey Pegram,
28:30
Speaker 1: Alex Williams who composed our track. Yes, our fabulous research
28:33
Speaker 1: associate Gabe Luzier, our buddy Christopher Hasciots, who is due
28:37
Speaker 1: for an appearance. Actually had lunch with Christopher other day
28:40
Speaker 1: and he really misses us, and he's so happy to
28:42
Speaker 1: see the show doing well. It was in a different
28:45
Speaker 1: city school. I'm really sorry then next time, dude, I
28:49
Speaker 1: am not man, I'm not I'm a sweetheart. But we'd
28:52
Speaker 1: also like to thank our incredible guests who are going
28:55
Speaker 1: to stick around if you would, for part two of
28:57
Speaker 1: this kind of anthology episode on ridicul this history. Yeah. Thanks,
29:01
Speaker 1: so much for coming guys, where can people while they're
29:03
Speaker 1: waiting for this next episode, where can they hear more
29:06
Speaker 1: from you? Miles and Jack? Oh, you can find us
29:08
Speaker 1: every day on this network on our show The Daily Zeitgeist,
29:12
Speaker 1: every morning or whenever you want to listen to it.
29:15
Speaker 1: And if you're interested in social media, I mean, you
29:17
Speaker 1: can follow me at Miles of Gray wherever you wherever
29:20
Speaker 1: you get your social media. Yeah, and Jack underscore Obrian
29:23
Speaker 1: on Twitter. Uh, and yes, so much of us. You
29:27
Speaker 1: can find so much of us over at The Daily
29:30
Speaker 1: Zeitgeist wherever fine podcasts are given away for free. And
29:35
Speaker 1: I guess we can drop our little social media handles too.
29:38
Speaker 1: I on Instagram at Embryonic Insider you can see me
29:42
Speaker 1: get kicked into and out of various countries around the
29:45
Speaker 1: world at Ben Bolan on Instagram. So that's that's all
29:50
Speaker 1: for now. Everybody run off. I'm gonna hunt. I'm gonna
29:53
Speaker 1: hunt some rodents. We're gonna talk about the turtles and
29:56
Speaker 1: maybe rewatch Secret of the Use, and we'll be back
29:59
Speaker 1: very soon. We'll see you next time, Folix. For more
30:10
Speaker 1: podcasts from My Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,
30:12
Speaker 1: Apple podcast or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,