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The Great Goldfish Gulping Craze That (For Some Reason) Swept America · Ridiculous History

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
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Speaker 1: back to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you
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Speaker 1: so much for tuning in. This is this is a
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Speaker 1: this is a story that is uncomfortably close to me.
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Speaker 1: Dudes and do debts. Why why? Yeah, well I'll tell
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Speaker 1: you no. Um, we were all kids, including our illustrious
0:48
Speaker 1: super producer Casey Pegram, and we've all done kind of
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Speaker 1: dumb stuff growing up, for stunts and such. Yeah. Where
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Speaker 1: you going with this? Man, I'm not proud of it.
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Speaker 1: But I swallowed some goldfish at my time. Some goldfish. Yeah, yeah,
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Speaker 1: multiple goldfish. Not not like it once, No, not not
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Speaker 1: nothing crazy. Oh my goodness. What led to this? Uh?
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Speaker 1: This currents? Ben? And did you poop it out? Oh? Man,
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Speaker 1: this is never mind. Don't answer that answer the first one. Sure, sure,
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Speaker 1: Uh so it was a dare situation, not the anti
1:26
Speaker 1: drug program so popular in Georgia, but it was it
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Speaker 1: was like a my dumb friends dared me, and dumb me,
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Speaker 1: I thought, well, I'll do it. I've eaten a lot
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Speaker 1: of strange things in my time. That's sort of your thing.
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Speaker 1: It's one of those things. Yeah, well, yeah, it's good
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Speaker 1: to have things. Ben, It's good to have hobbies and
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Speaker 1: things you care about. So, Ben, were these like um
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Speaker 1: goldfish and bags sort of like a county fair style
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Speaker 1: or did they come out of someone's beloved collection of
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Speaker 1: fish in an aquarium? Uh? These these were It's even worse, Man,
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Speaker 1: these were purposely purchased sacrifices. You're a monster, Ben, I
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Speaker 1: never knew this about Chad person. You're not Bennett's okay,
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Speaker 1: because it turns out this was an absolute craze. It
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Speaker 1: was a fat I'm not sure if that's if that
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Speaker 1: completely absolves you, but at least you're not the first
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Speaker 1: person to have this idea. It turns out it was
2:17
Speaker 1: practically institutionalized thanks to an organization that's probably responsible for
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Speaker 1: a lot of idiotic, weird culti behavior, the Harvard Union. Yeah,
2:27
Speaker 1: and the Harvard Union. Uh. In March third, nine thirty nine,
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Speaker 1: a freshman with the brilliant name Lowthrop. I bet he
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Speaker 1: was really grew up really poor. Yeah, Lowthrop Withington Jr.
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Speaker 1: Class of forty two. Yeah, you know what, he had
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Speaker 1: a lot, he had a lot to work against with
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Speaker 1: that name. Anyway, he had a bet with his roommates
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Speaker 1: that involved swallowing goldfish, and he swallowed alive goldfish. He
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Speaker 1: got ten bucks for doing this, which was actually more
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Speaker 1: than I got years later. And let's not forget this
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Speaker 1: is a ninety nine So ten bucks in nine dollars,
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Speaker 1: that's all I scratched? Should we handy dandy inflation calculator?
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Speaker 1: That beast? Yeah? I want to get a sense of
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Speaker 1: the market price here and the results are in ten
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Speaker 1: dollars in nineteen thirty nine. Is worth casey? If we
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Speaker 1: could have the drum roll perfect one hundred and eighty
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Speaker 1: two dollars and ninety three cents a decent living down
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Speaker 1: in Goldfish in those days, I guess yeah, yeah, is
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Speaker 1: your opinion changeing? No? No, I didn't think so. Uh
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Speaker 1: So he gets this money, but he also starts a craze,
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Speaker 1: and over a two month period, this fad is blowing
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Speaker 1: up in colleges across the land. People are swallowing goldfish
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Speaker 1: left and right, and with intent. By the way, does
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Speaker 1: talk about this, but he doesn't. He doesn't sound like
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Speaker 1: the nicest guy. Yeah. He was quoted as saying it
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Speaker 1: was purely a case of mind over matter. I don't mind,
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Speaker 1: and the fish don't matter. See you at least probably
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Speaker 1: had a little bit of empathy for for the for
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Speaker 1: the fish man, right. I know I still eat seafood,
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Speaker 1: of course he eats seafood. But this is a live goldfish.
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Speaker 1: We're talking about. Fish have feelings, right, probably yea, I
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Speaker 1: was a kid at the time. That's that's a very
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Speaker 1: good point. I do want to point out to that
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Speaker 1: this became such a thing um that Time magazine referred
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Speaker 1: to it as among the maddest in the annals of
4:39
Speaker 1: us undergrad It was literally, this is my words, not Times. Uh,
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Speaker 1: the butt chugging of nineteen thirty nine, the boofing. So
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Speaker 1: people do react diversely to this. The Animal Rescue League
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Speaker 1: thinks this is terrible, and then the criticism grows in
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Speaker 1: line with the craze, such that Massachusetts state Senator at
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Speaker 1: the time, George Crapp k r apf filed this bill
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Speaker 1: might be silent, though I would love that if that
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Speaker 1: were the yes. Uh, he filed a bill to preserve
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Speaker 1: the fish from cruel and wanton consumption. Lo Thor, in
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Speaker 1: a letter to The New York Times in nine says
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Speaker 1: that he actually did this because his quote unquote campaign
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Speaker 1: managers advised him to do it as a publicity stunt
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Speaker 1: when he was running for class president, because once upon
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Speaker 1: a time he said that he had eaten a live
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Speaker 1: goldfish before. Prove it. Yeah, prove it. Put your goldfish
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Speaker 1: where your mouth is and then stick it in there
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Speaker 1: and swallow it. And then he said, this is what
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Speaker 1: a class president needs. Um. He did take a toothbrush
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Speaker 1: out and brush his teeth afterwards, because he said the
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Speaker 1: scales caught a bit on his throat when they went down.
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Speaker 1: And one of the reasons this became so well known
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Speaker 1: is that there were reporters and photographers in attendance at
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Speaker 1: the time when Whittington swallowed this live cold fish. Also, apparently,
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Speaker 1: I'm not super clear on this, Apparently he ate mashed
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Speaker 1: potatoes afterwards for some reason as a cleanser. I don't know. Yeah,
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Speaker 1: just you know clear, you know, I mean, fish are sharp,
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Speaker 1: fish have weird little spiny edges. Maybe it like scratched
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Speaker 1: up his throat a little bit. I mean, I don't know.
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Speaker 1: That's probably not sure. Goldfish probably goes down real smooth. Well, no,
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Speaker 1: I I'm surprised that you would say that. Sadly, from experience,
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Speaker 1: I can tell you that's not always the case. But
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Speaker 1: also you, in particular, my friend, you have a dare
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Speaker 1: I call it a very specific phobia that involves the
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Speaker 1: idea of swallowing fish. Okay, first of all, Ben, I
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Speaker 1: know what you're talking about here. I don't want to
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Speaker 1: put out no no, no, no no, no, no, it's fine.
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Speaker 1: I'll put myself on the spot man. I will shine
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Speaker 1: the spotlight squarely in in in my own face. Um. Yeah.
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Speaker 1: We were on a trip one time doing doing some
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Speaker 1: shows and we went to a really nice tig restaurant
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Speaker 1: and got a whole fish that we were ring between
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Speaker 1: you and me and our compatriot Matt Frederick. And it
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Speaker 1: was one of those fish that have all the little
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Speaker 1: spiny bones in and I caught one in my throat
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Speaker 1: and I thought I was having a panic attack, and
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Speaker 1: then I was never it was never gonna gonna leave
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Speaker 1: my throat. I thought it was just in there for life,
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Speaker 1: and I could feel the scratchiness of it for weeks
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Speaker 1: to come. Uh, pretty sure. I got rid of it
7:19
Speaker 1: much quicker than that. But um, I tried swallowing bread.
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Speaker 1: I tried, uh, you know, like changing your posture, my
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Speaker 1: posture in the whole kind of thing, you know, And uh,
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Speaker 1: swallowing ice cubes and nothing did the trick um, So
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Speaker 1: that sensation is really more what did it for me
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Speaker 1: than you know, actually something being lodged in my throat.
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Speaker 1: But this is different, man, This is a tiny goldfish
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Speaker 1: that's presumably quite slippery and not to go right on
7:44
Speaker 1: down the hatch, right. Yeah, and uh for the regor bed,
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Speaker 1: I'm so glad you're okay. That did seem quite traumatic.
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Speaker 1: Uh my mind. I was like, this is just my
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Speaker 1: life now. Yeah, this bonus never going And you said
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Speaker 1: that out loud several times. Sure did. We almost did
8:00
Speaker 1: do the show, but we did. We did a great show,
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Speaker 1: and we we we learned our lesson here. You are right,
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Speaker 1: live fish, A live goldfish would be a very different case.
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Speaker 1: So we mentioned that there was a media presence. There
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Speaker 1: were Papa Rozzi in the in the audience when Wentthington
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Speaker 1: did this, And most of the reaction to this story
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Speaker 1: was favorable. As a wacky story. It was kind of
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Speaker 1: like in America's Funniest Home Videos anecdote of its time.
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Speaker 1: He got job offers, he got fan letters, newspaper clippings
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Speaker 1: and Boston papers played a huge role in spreading this
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Speaker 1: story in the Boston Harold. A writer named Eva Williams
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Speaker 1: Raymond wrote rotor response to the goldfish swallowing craze. In verse,
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Speaker 1: she said, to end this paranoiac prank, Oh, Harvard, how
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Speaker 1: I wish you'd put the students in the tank and
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Speaker 1: graduate the fish. That's cute. That's well, that's that's all Eva, man.
9:03
Speaker 1: I know, but it's like it's the perfect most basic,
9:06
Speaker 1: kind of absurdest concept. You know. It's like, what if
9:09
Speaker 1: bicycles road people? I love ideas, Like, that's so funny.
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Speaker 1: So this publicity inspires a bunch of other people to
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Speaker 1: write into a bunch of other papers, and these papers
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Speaker 1: run letters they like, and they rerun other stories. And
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Speaker 1: one letter to the editor had a point about about
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Speaker 1: classism that I thought was cutting. I think it is
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Speaker 1: wonderful the advantages boys have who go to Harvard with
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Speaker 1: its background of three hundred years of educational pre eminence.
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Speaker 1: Those of us who for financial reasons have to send
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Speaker 1: our children to Wesley into other places, just can't hope
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Speaker 1: to give them an opportunity to learn how to swallow
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Speaker 1: a live goldfish. Well, if you think about it, I
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Speaker 1: mean it's sort of like a junior version of like
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Speaker 1: the orderl on, you know, which is like that songbird
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Speaker 1: that the uber rich would eat whole d fried bones
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Speaker 1: and all and put like a cloth over their high
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Speaker 1: eyes in their head to hide their shame from God. Uh.
10:07
Speaker 1: There's a really great scene totally illegal to do now, um,
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Speaker 1: but they still I'm saying. There's a scene in the
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Speaker 1: fantastic HBO series Succession, Um where one of the characters
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Speaker 1: take sort of an underling to this very secret exclusive
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Speaker 1: supper club and they do the Order lan and he
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Speaker 1: sort of explains to him the tradition of it and
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Speaker 1: how it represents complete and utter opulence and depravity. Yeah. Also,
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Speaker 1: for the record, you know how there's that controversy criticism
10:35
Speaker 1: about FOI graw because you're essentially torturing the animal. I've
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Speaker 1: seen videos it is, it is is more than essentially.
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Speaker 1: It's absolutely torturing me. It's past the line for me, honestly. Uh.
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Speaker 1: The order law isn't just caught and cooked. They're kept
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Speaker 1: in cages where they can't move and their fat like
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Speaker 1: veal like veal. But back to the publicity, right, the
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Speaker 1: goldfish swallowing craze isn't just a whoa look at us
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Speaker 1: wild and crazy guys hanging out swallowing fish. It's also competitive,
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Speaker 1: and so people start trying to set records. Three weeks
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Speaker 1: after Lawthrop does his goldfish swallowing stuff, a guy named
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Speaker 1: Frank Hope Jr. Tries to one up him or double
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Speaker 1: up him by swallowing three goldfish and saying that Lawthrop
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Speaker 1: is quote a sissy, which is as you know. I'm
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Speaker 1: sure everybody's nodding in agreement. Um, the measure of masculinity
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Speaker 1: is clearly how many fish you can how many live
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Speaker 1: fish you can put in your mouth at once? I
11:35
Speaker 1: don't I don't know again at a different times. A
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Speaker 1: lot of this is coming from the National Museum of
11:40
Speaker 1: American History, too, and you have to wonder what actual
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Speaker 1: educational sites right about these kinds of stories. I like
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Speaker 1: to think the author is having fun with it. I would.
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Speaker 1: I would also like to think that then you have
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Speaker 1: David Blaine, you know, in modern times, where you swallowing
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Speaker 1: baby frogs and then puking them back up into a
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Speaker 1: glass of water. I believe it was on uh, what's
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Speaker 1: his name, James Cordon. It sounds like something David Blaine
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Speaker 1: would do, and he probably was conscious of the goldfish craze.
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Speaker 1: He would be right at home actually in this intense competition,
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Speaker 1: because how long do you think Frank Hope's three fish
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Speaker 1: record lasted. I would imagine not long. I mean this
12:18
Speaker 1: required too much of a skill swallowing, and I mean
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Speaker 1: David Blaine swallowed a man puked them back up. The
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Speaker 1: swallowing parts the easy part, So I would imagine somebody
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Speaker 1: bested him pretty quickly. Yeah, you're right, within twenty four hours,
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Speaker 1: less than twenty four hours. Another student in Frank's college,
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Speaker 1: guy named George Rabb, swallows six fish. And now we've
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Speaker 1: got three different schools battling to be the I don't know,
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Speaker 1: the premier fish swallowers. And when you hear this next story,
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Speaker 1: everyone keep in mind that these are college students. And
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Speaker 1: they're not just college students. They are some of the
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Speaker 1: most privileged colleges in the world. I just want you
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Speaker 1: to remember that when you hear about Irving Clark Jr.
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Speaker 1: Was student at Harvard. He swallowed not only gay swallowed
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Speaker 1: two dozen goldfish, but he furthermore promised publicly to eat
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Speaker 1: quote any bug for a nickel, an angle worm for
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Speaker 1: a dime, and he said, if you give me a quarter.
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Speaker 1: I will eat a beetle. He just sounds like that
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Speaker 1: gross kid in the neighborhood. You know, it's like a
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Speaker 1: glue eater. Exactly did we talk about the way Life
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Speaker 1: magazine characterized this in the thirties, this whole craze. I
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Speaker 1: don't think I love this because it's just really fun
13:28
Speaker 1: to read in that like mid Atlantic accent um. Actually,
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Speaker 1: now here we go. Time magazine wrote about this craze
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Speaker 1: in nine. Last week, Joe College was busy gulp and goldfish.
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Speaker 1: He garnished it with salt, with mayonnaise, all with ketchup,
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Speaker 1: and he chased it with milk, Cotton's juice, all soda pop.
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Speaker 1: But one routine did not vary. Each goldfish was gulped alive. See,
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Speaker 1: that's the kind of thing you'd love to read Domand
13:52
Speaker 1: that's a lot of fun. And the headline was crazy
13:54
Speaker 1: co ed gulps a guppy. Oh that made my day. Uh.
13:59
Speaker 1: I love the alliteration. It's like a cognit of tickle.
14:02
Speaker 1: Writing a headline really is a skill I don't of itself.
14:05
Speaker 1: You can tell when people in especially in British press,
14:10
Speaker 1: are happy or that you know, you can tell when
14:12
Speaker 1: they've had a back pocket pun they've been waiting to unleash.
14:15
Speaker 1: I always wonder how they get away with it. By
14:17
Speaker 1: the way, send us your favorite weird headlines for for crazes,
14:21
Speaker 1: just anything with some arresting or whimsical language. So the
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Speaker 1: goldfish competition doesn't stop there, other colleges get involved. There's
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Speaker 1: this guy from the University of Pennsylvania. His name is
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Speaker 1: Gilbert Hollanderski. He downs goldfish. He doesn't down one, he
14:43
Speaker 1: doesn't down three, he doesn't down six, doesn't down two, dozen,
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Speaker 1: he downs twenty five and then he eats a steak
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Speaker 1: dinner and from then he earned he worked for that way.
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Speaker 1: The steak might not have tasted did that great? But
15:01
Speaker 1: you know it's it's it's about the message. It's good.
15:04
Speaker 1: Steak will wipe away any foul taste from your mouth
15:07
Speaker 1: if you ask me. Yeah, oh man, I've been going
15:09
Speaker 1: through a steak phase. I don't know if I told you.
15:12
Speaker 1: The only meat I've been eating recently got of It's
15:15
Speaker 1: all vegets good stuff. Apologies to any vegans out there.
15:17
Speaker 1: I'm a fan of a steak. I'm not going to
15:19
Speaker 1: apologize for that, even though I kind of just did
15:21
Speaker 1: I send my apology suck at vegans, just kidding. So
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Speaker 1: we know that after Gilbert, more and more people from
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Speaker 1: around the country again overwhelming, and college students are swallowing
15:35
Speaker 1: more and more fish to try to set the record.
15:38
Speaker 1: There's an escalation of fish swallowing. The sure is yeah, yeah,
15:44
Speaker 1: there's for instance, Julius Aisner from University of Michigan swallowed
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Speaker 1: twenty nine and then Michael Bonner, Albright College football captain
15:53
Speaker 1: eight thirty three. Yeah. Then we've got our boy, Albert
15:56
Speaker 1: Hayes from m I t no less um. He downed
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Speaker 1: forty two goldfish um. And actually there was became such
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Speaker 1: a like a like almost like a spectator sport or
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Speaker 1: a competitive thing. There became an intercollegiate goldfish swallowing competition
16:14
Speaker 1: of which he was the champion. That's so wild. And
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Speaker 1: then people, as you said, began performing it right in
16:21
Speaker 1: front of crowds. A lot of good names in this
16:23
Speaker 1: in this episode, this might be my favorite. We've got
16:25
Speaker 1: Jack Smuckler from Northeaster and he swallowed thirty eight fish
16:30
Speaker 1: in front of a crowdser really is becoming kind of
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Speaker 1: a spectator sport. Then we have Gordon Southworth who ate
16:36
Speaker 1: sixty seven of of the of those regularly little guys. Uh,
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Speaker 1: he did that in just fourteen minutes. Sixty seven fish
16:43
Speaker 1: and fourteen minutes that that received. Now, now we're starting
16:46
Speaker 1: to inch into the like that first guy that came
16:48
Speaker 1: up with this, wait, like what to one? Yeah, that
16:52
Speaker 1: goes too over the course of his life, over the
16:54
Speaker 1: course of his life. Um, you know, but I bet
16:56
Speaker 1: he was kind of like, my work is done here.
16:58
Speaker 1: I made something that bib will remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly.
17:02
Speaker 1: I mean, I don't think he imagined that someone like
17:06
Speaker 1: Gordon would come along and be a competitive eat er.
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Speaker 1: Sixties seven goldfish in just fourteen minutes. And then there's
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Speaker 1: there's another record. There are a couple other records that
17:17
Speaker 1: gave him more egregious Like at this point is just protuitous,
17:20
Speaker 1: you know what I mean? At this point, I'm worried
17:21
Speaker 1: about goldfish population. I went to Clark University's name is
17:25
Speaker 1: Joseph Deliberato. He swallowed eighty nine goldfish and he is uh,
17:33
Speaker 1: he is still not the record holder. We also know
17:37
Speaker 1: that this wasn't just the domain of dudes. There was
17:40
Speaker 1: Mary Hanson of the University Missouri, famously known as the
17:43
Speaker 1: first female student to swallow alive goldfish, but a professor
17:48
Speaker 1: of anatomy the u c l A Got involved, and
17:51
Speaker 1: this professor said with this actually entry on encyclopedia dot com,
17:55
Speaker 1: this professor said, an average size human male can safely
18:01
Speaker 1: eat a hundred and fifty live goldfish. I'm sorry, the
18:05
Speaker 1: average mail can say, oh so they needed to weigh in.
18:08
Speaker 1: Uh less, somebody eats one more than that number and
18:13
Speaker 1: uh and die right right. I wonder what that? Do
18:16
Speaker 1: you think it's a toxicity thing or it's just like
18:18
Speaker 1: a stomach capacity thing. Might be just the stomach capacity thing,
18:22
Speaker 1: because what's interesting about this is, uh, there's something called
18:26
Speaker 1: the satity response, and it means that it takes your
18:30
Speaker 1: It takes your stomach anywhere between seventeen to twenty three
18:34
Speaker 1: minutes to successfully send a message to your brain that
18:37
Speaker 1: says I'm full. So that's why when you're doing competitive eating,
18:41
Speaker 1: you really want to go for as much as you
18:43
Speaker 1: can in fourteen minutes, and because otherwise your brain will
18:46
Speaker 1: shut you down and then just hold off as as
18:48
Speaker 1: well as should because it seems like that's a really
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Speaker 1: bad idea. Yeah, I gotta wonder too, how long you
18:52
Speaker 1: think it takes the poor little guys to die once
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Speaker 1: they get into your stomach and hit all that acid.
18:57
Speaker 1: I don't like to think about it. Yeah, you monster,
19:02
Speaker 1: God seeing a whole new side of you today. I've
19:04
Speaker 1: done a lot of good things. I know you have
19:06
Speaker 1: your your Ultimately, that was a long time ago, Ben,
19:08
Speaker 1: you were but a child. You didn't know any better. Well,
19:10
Speaker 1: Whitman said, we were vast. We contain multitudes. Yeah, you
19:13
Speaker 1: contained multitudes of goldfish. So we have one last record
19:18
Speaker 1: that seems to take the cake. An anonymous student at St.
19:23
Speaker 1: Mary's down two and ten fish in one city and
19:28
Speaker 1: then promptly dropped dead because that's clearly over the lemon.
19:31
Speaker 1: And then he died of goldfish, yes consumption right, Oh boy, Uh,
19:37
Speaker 1: that's that's insane. That that seems like, I mean, what
19:40
Speaker 1: must that feel like there? If? Again, like, I don't
19:42
Speaker 1: want to get too grisly with it. But they wouldn't
19:44
Speaker 1: die immediately. They'd be swimming around in your stomach for
19:46
Speaker 1: a second. Or do you think they would die before
19:48
Speaker 1: they hit your hit your stomach because of the squeezing
19:51
Speaker 1: nous of the of the esophagus and all that sez
19:55
Speaker 1: that is made up that word. Yeah. I don't know
19:57
Speaker 1: exactly when they would expire. Yeah, but I imagine it's
20:00
Speaker 1: even more horrific for the fish if you're eating so
20:03
Speaker 1: many at one time, because they're being crushed under their brethren.
20:08
Speaker 1: We went a little too dark with this one, but
20:10
Speaker 1: we were gonna come back because this thing eventually went international.
20:15
Speaker 1: UM didn't take off internationally quite as as much as
20:18
Speaker 1: it did in in the States, but it did make
20:22
Speaker 1: its way to Belgium. Yeah. Yeah. Citizens in Belgium, in
20:27
Speaker 1: a town called Grammont Groman said that they consume fifty
20:31
Speaker 1: goldfish at their annual see how would you pronounce it? Oh,
20:36
Speaker 1: let's call it feast of der kraka Linga. I like
20:40
Speaker 1: it when you do German. Thanks man, But I misspoke.
20:43
Speaker 1: This was not them just copying the the the new
20:46
Speaker 1: American fad. No, no, no, this was actually a tradition
20:52
Speaker 1: dating back to the fourteenth century. Pretty crazy, right, Yeah,
20:55
Speaker 1: and also pretty sure that UM our original Uh college
20:59
Speaker 1: boy did didn't know about that? It wasn't. It wasn't
21:01
Speaker 1: some kind of like, you know, cultural appropriation, but who knows,
21:05
Speaker 1: who knows? Uh, it's weird because back over the pond
21:08
Speaker 1: in the US, there's the rise of an institution called
21:12
Speaker 1: the Intercollegiate Goldfish gold Being Association. They were trying to
21:16
Speaker 1: be the authoritative source for people reporting in the number
21:21
Speaker 1: of fish they swallowed, and they started doing regulations. They
21:23
Speaker 1: said the fish have to be three inches long, and
21:26
Speaker 1: they have to be retained by the participants for at
21:29
Speaker 1: least twelve hours. Since we're a family show, let's just
21:33
Speaker 1: say what that means is that they can't put the
21:35
Speaker 1: fish in their mouth and then spit it up right
21:38
Speaker 1: or poop it out right. That would take a little longer, though.
21:42
Speaker 1: Can you imagine what that movement would look like? I'd
21:46
Speaker 1: rather not? Okay, same, so sorry I even brought it up. Well,
21:50
Speaker 1: you know, case he's making a disgusted face over there,
21:53
Speaker 1: by the way, he should you should be disgusted. If
21:55
Speaker 1: he were licking his lips, it would be worried. Casey,
21:59
Speaker 1: you will joy this part because other people wanted to
22:03
Speaker 1: get into the swallowing live animals game, but they wanted
22:06
Speaker 1: to have their own twist on it. They didn't want
22:08
Speaker 1: to just be uh guppies. Following the goldfish goal being heard,
22:13
Speaker 1: So one guy, John Poopla writer, this is over the
22:18
Speaker 1: line even for me, he swallowed five white mice. That
22:22
Speaker 1: seems dangerous, doesn't it, The claws, the teeth. Yeah, it's
22:25
Speaker 1: like some Richard gear Gerbil stuff right there. Yeah, it's
22:27
Speaker 1: like some some like G. G Allen unwinding in the
22:30
Speaker 1: green room stuff. No, thank you, I don't and again
22:34
Speaker 1: not to mention that it's just absolutely cruel and inhumane.
22:37
Speaker 1: You know, we think of fish is being you know,
22:40
Speaker 1: not exactly as feeling and anthropomorphizable as uh, you know, mammals.
22:46
Speaker 1: I guess, but I got your finding memo. I guess
22:50
Speaker 1: it's been fishing, but anthropomorphies plenty. What am I talking about?
22:52
Speaker 1: For some reason, it seems like people draw a line,
22:55
Speaker 1: you know, like, oh, we can swallow goldfish all day long,
22:57
Speaker 1: but not but not mammals. Yeah, so this really really
23:00
Speaker 1: is over the line. You're right, then, well, it's to
23:04
Speaker 1: each their own. I guess, but I I don't know.
23:07
Speaker 1: Swallow a live mouse seems like maybe a survival situation,
23:11
Speaker 1: you know, if you're if you're stuck and you're starving
23:14
Speaker 1: and you have to eat something, then I can see it.
23:16
Speaker 1: But doing it for fun because you're in college, that's
23:18
Speaker 1: wild of the guys. Okay, at Gregg and State student
23:27
Speaker 1: decided to swallow a hundred and thirty nine angle worms?
23:31
Speaker 1: What is what is an angle worm? What do they
23:34
Speaker 1: look like? What's their what's their thing? I'm assuming they
23:37
Speaker 1: are angular? There we go. They're like a right the thing.
23:41
Speaker 1: They're a right angle and I'm two single now, just
23:45
Speaker 1: like regular worms. Pretty pretty underwhelming angle. Yeah, just looks
23:48
Speaker 1: like an earthworm to me. I'm pulling up when as well.
23:51
Speaker 1: Uh oh man, No, I would if I had to
23:55
Speaker 1: do something like this again, which I don't and I
23:58
Speaker 1: don't condone it. I know we have some teachers and
24:01
Speaker 1: children listening to this show. Kids, if you're listening, no
24:05
Speaker 1: one here is condoning swallowing live goldfish. Don't do it.
24:09
Speaker 1: And I'm also sorry I told Vegan to suck it.
24:12
Speaker 1: Where we have made our peace, we have mayor a piece.
24:15
Speaker 1: But we have also seen the tide turn on goldfish
24:19
Speaker 1: gulping because people also did their own spins on on
24:24
Speaker 1: the goldfish phenomenon. There was, for instance, a college student
24:28
Speaker 1: back at Harvard who decided to instead of swallowing fish,
24:32
Speaker 1: kissed them, and he kissed a hundred and thirty three fish.
24:36
Speaker 1: It was it was kind of like a childish prank,
24:38
Speaker 1: but the tide eventually turned, the sun eventually set on
24:42
Speaker 1: the practice of eating goldfish while they were still alive.
24:45
Speaker 1: And it had something to do with that bill that
24:47
Speaker 1: we mentioned by Senator George crap Um, you know, the
24:52
Speaker 1: Preserving the Fish from cruel and wanton consumption. And then
24:55
Speaker 1: this predecessor to like a Ethical Treatment of Animals organization
25:00
Speaker 1: came into play animal rescue legion and the president of
25:05
Speaker 1: Boston's Animal League even threatened legal action right like that,
25:10
Speaker 1: several things going against them, and they really did as
25:12
Speaker 1: they should have it. And And just a really quick aside,
25:13
Speaker 1: I just want to point out that on Amazon you
25:15
Speaker 1: can get angle worm um fishing bait kind of lures
25:20
Speaker 1: sort of like you know, rubber or whatever. And the
25:23
Speaker 1: brand or the name of the model, I guess the
25:25
Speaker 1: companies called Berkeley. You'll never believe what it's called them.
25:28
Speaker 1: It's called gulp exclamation mark. That's what you want the
25:31
Speaker 1: fish to do, and I guess it is it is. Well,
25:38
Speaker 1: Boston's Animal League they said that if you were caught
25:41
Speaker 1: swallowing goldfish on campus, you will be arrested. M hmm.
25:47
Speaker 1: Interesting if if the campus officials don't step in and
25:50
Speaker 1: stop this. So goldfish swallowing went underground, like with cock
25:53
Speaker 1: fighting or fight club fight all that stuff. Yeah. Additionally,
25:58
Speaker 1: the US public helcer Iss said that goldfish may contain
26:01
Speaker 1: tape worms or harbor disease. Well, I would hope. So
26:04
Speaker 1: these guys haven't coming, and so we see the demise
26:08
Speaker 1: of the era, the end of the age of swallowing
26:11
Speaker 1: goldfish but low through Withington Jr. Was known as a
26:16
Speaker 1: goldfish swallower for the rest of his life, and he
26:18
Speaker 1: didn't ever apologize for it. He made appearances on different
26:22
Speaker 1: shows like to Tell the Truth, What's My Line? And
26:24
Speaker 1: I've Got a Secret, and he lived a long, healthy life.
26:30
Speaker 1: When he passed away at nineties six, he was still
26:33
Speaker 1: driving around town and using his exercise bike, so it
26:37
Speaker 1: wasn't fatal for him. Gave him some celebrity, though. I
26:40
Speaker 1: don't think he needed the money. I'm just gonna say,
26:42
Speaker 1: I don't think he needed the ten bucks. Pretty sure
26:45
Speaker 1: you're right there, I'm pretty sure you're right. So what's
26:48
Speaker 1: the weirdest thing that you have ever eaten? Let us know.
26:51
Speaker 1: You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. I once
26:54
Speaker 1: accidentally swallowed an entire lossenge with the rapper on and everything.
26:58
Speaker 1: What happened? What happened? I didn't die, I didn't die.
27:01
Speaker 1: What what flavor was the loss? It was a ricola?
27:04
Speaker 1: Oh yeah, those were great, though, you had to choose one. Now,
27:09
Speaker 1: when I say the entire rapper on, I mean you
27:10
Speaker 1: know ricola has an outer wrapper and then it also
27:13
Speaker 1: has a little piece of wax paper around. Yeah. Yeah,
27:15
Speaker 1: that's what happened. Oh okay, Well you you could digest
27:18
Speaker 1: that stuff, and you're supposed to swallow rico laws home,
27:21
Speaker 1: and they're not like horse pills. You know, you're supposed
27:23
Speaker 1: to suck on them so they can give you relief
27:25
Speaker 1: from Europe, you know, from what ails you from your
27:27
Speaker 1: little your little cough. Maybe we're in a hurry. I
27:30
Speaker 1: usually am. We're hurry. Uh. We do want to hear.
27:34
Speaker 1: We do want to hear some of the weirdest stuff
27:36
Speaker 1: you've eat and tell us tell our favorite part of
27:38
Speaker 1: the show your fellow listeners on Facebook. We particularly like
27:41
Speaker 1: to recommend our community page, Ridiculous Historians. You can also
27:45
Speaker 1: find us as individuals. I am at then Bulling on
27:48
Speaker 1: Instagram and at den bull in h s W one Twitter.
27:51
Speaker 1: You can find me exclusively on Instagram at how Now
27:54
Speaker 1: Noel Brown huge thanks to super producer Casey Pegram, Alex
27:57
Speaker 1: Williams who composed our theme an associated Gabe Loser, and
28:02
Speaker 1: of course, as always, thanks to Strat. It's time, gentleman,
28:10
Speaker 1: What time is it? Jonathan's time? Jonathan Jonathan Strickland a
28:16
Speaker 1: k a. The Quister? Uh? First number one is always
28:20
Speaker 1: how dare you? Uh? Number two? Happy New Year? Year?
28:24
Speaker 1: Is the first time we've been hanging out? Is that
28:26
Speaker 1: what you call this hanging out? It's more like getting
28:29
Speaker 1: attacked in an alley. Just wait, listen you to, I've
28:33
Speaker 1: got beef with both of you. What happened to your accent? Listen? Beef?
28:38
Speaker 1: Beef supersedes accent affectation. My beef is that for too
28:43
Speaker 1: long you guys have been doing your paper rock scissors,
28:46
Speaker 1: which means you might as well flip a coin before
28:48
Speaker 1: I even say anything and just go with that, and
28:50
Speaker 1: you'll be just as likely to get the right answer
28:53
Speaker 1: or the wrong answer. That takes all the glee out
28:55
Speaker 1: of victory and all the sting out defeats. So now
28:57
Speaker 1: we have changed the game, gentlemen. Now you will be
29:04
Speaker 1: presented with three short stories. You have to choose which
29:09
Speaker 1: of the three is fake. So I will give you
29:13
Speaker 1: three stories. We can just payper rock scissors for each
29:16
Speaker 1: of them. Right, But then you're going to have to
29:18
Speaker 1: decide if you get two that are right. So you
29:22
Speaker 1: still it decreases your odds by by I don't have
29:26
Speaker 1: time to get into statistical analysis. I love it. I'm
29:28
Speaker 1: glad you thought about it. This is by far the
29:30
Speaker 1: most diabolical thing you've done yet. Yes, well you know
29:34
Speaker 1: it's one of my resolutions increase my diabolical nous. I
29:39
Speaker 1: like that, lean into it to a strong start. Here
29:43
Speaker 1: are your three scenarios, and of course we will start
29:46
Speaker 1: the time. I will not be answering any questions so
29:49
Speaker 1: that there'll be no need for any arbitrary rules. Wow,
29:51
Speaker 1: you're serious, Okay, okay, I just want to hear you scramble.
29:55
Speaker 1: So here are your three three scenarios. Now, if I
29:59
Speaker 1: recall correctly, we're talking about swallowing goldfish. These are three
30:05
Speaker 1: fisherman related stories, all three taking place in the distant
30:12
Speaker 1: year of two thousand eighteen. March two thousand eighteen, a
30:19
Speaker 1: fisherman near Siberia noticed something odd poking out of the
30:22
Speaker 1: snow while walking along the shore. It was a human hand.
30:26
Speaker 1: Upon further investigation, it turned out it wasn't just a
30:29
Speaker 1: human hand, it was a whole bag of human hands,
30:33
Speaker 1: fifty four of them in total. September two thousand eighteen,
30:37
Speaker 1: an Irish fisherman pulled in his fishing nets and got
30:40
Speaker 1: more than what he bargained for. Rather than a hall
30:43
Speaker 1: of fishes, he discovered his net had captured the skull
30:46
Speaker 1: and antlers of a giant Irish elk, an animal that
30:49
Speaker 1: had gone extinct more than ten thousand years ago. November
30:54
Speaker 1: two thousand eighteen, a fisherman in Okinawa discovered something odd
30:58
Speaker 1: in his nets that caused a bit of a stirred
31:00
Speaker 1: a nearby American military base. It was an unexploded torpedo,
31:06
Speaker 1: one that clearly belonged to the American military, but, according
31:09
Speaker 1: to every manifest on the base, should have been sitting
31:13
Speaker 1: safely in storage. Begin okay, I'm running for the clock,
31:18
Speaker 1: and go okay, I'm not into this. And those are
31:22
Speaker 1: all you know what I'm gonna give the You know,
31:24
Speaker 1: every quisitor deserves his day, I'm gonna give him. Propsies
31:26
Speaker 1: are all pretty well crafted. I think it's number one.
31:29
Speaker 1: I think it's number one. Well, my only thing my
31:31
Speaker 1: number was he here. Here's the reason why I do
31:32
Speaker 1: think it's number one. You why do you think it's fake?
31:34
Speaker 1: Are you think the number one's fake? Yeah, we're supposed
31:37
Speaker 1: to find the one that's face. I know. I'll tell
31:38
Speaker 1: you why. I's okay. And this is why you think
31:40
Speaker 1: it's true. I think it's true because there's a detail
31:44
Speaker 1: in it that doesn't make sense. Uh that that the
31:47
Speaker 1: Jonathan is is excuse me for giving them a compliment
31:50
Speaker 1: too smart to have missed. Why would a hand be
31:53
Speaker 1: sticking up if it was a bag of hands. Why
31:55
Speaker 1: wouldn't they have discovered a bag right unless the bag
31:59
Speaker 1: was overflowing? This is this is interesting because we're getting
32:02
Speaker 1: into the Quister psychology a little bit now, because if
32:06
Speaker 1: you think about it in the past, when do you
32:09
Speaker 1: like how we're talking like you're not actually here with
32:13
Speaker 1: his arms crossed? Ah? God, that was a question, alright, fine,
32:18
Speaker 1: leave it in. No casey leave it in. So when
32:21
Speaker 1: Jonathan was creating fake stories in the past, he would
32:25
Speaker 1: tend to no offense. Here, he would tend to add
32:29
Speaker 1: more details than were necessary to flesh out the credibilities.
32:33
Speaker 1: Fatal flaw, so the fact, But but did he anticipate
32:37
Speaker 1: us knowing that, because we've all all four of us
32:39
Speaker 1: have talked about that before. So clearly you can't choose
32:42
Speaker 1: the cup in front of you, right, yeah? Is that
32:45
Speaker 1: a princess? You can't ask me any questions? No? Okay, sorry,
32:50
Speaker 1: it's weird that we can't ask you questions. But but
32:53
Speaker 1: you're leading. Hold on a second, there's still away for
32:56
Speaker 1: us to rock paper sisn't we can just rock paper
32:59
Speaker 1: scissors to weather. We're gonna choose one as being fair, right, right,
33:03
Speaker 1: But then let's say that you agree on two of them.
33:06
Speaker 1: Does that mean the third one out is the fake? Will? Well?
33:09
Speaker 1: I see? So okay, okay, it complicates it slightly, but
33:13
Speaker 1: not not that. Let's let's shift to Let's shift to
33:16
Speaker 1: the other two stories. So the second story is about
33:20
Speaker 1: that skull and antlers of a giant elk that went
33:23
Speaker 1: extinct ten thousand years ago, and that would bet would
33:26
Speaker 1: there be a fully intact it would be fossilized somewhere,
33:29
Speaker 1: it would be buried. We wouldn't just have that sitting
33:31
Speaker 1: on the seafloor. Erosion and things would have buried it.
33:34
Speaker 1: It wouldn't just get dug up. So that's what's that's
33:37
Speaker 1: what's persuading me that maybe number two is the answer.
33:39
Speaker 1: Number three. I'm gonna see. That seems legit. It seems
33:42
Speaker 1: like that actually happened, because there there's military grade weaponry
33:47
Speaker 1: off the coast of Savannah right now. You know. The
33:50
Speaker 1: detail of that it should have been safely in storage
33:52
Speaker 1: is interesting. But I don't know, Ben, I tend to
33:55
Speaker 1: go with the I think, yeah, I'm thinking to all right,
33:59
Speaker 1: we're locked in it. In two twenty games quiz to
34:05
Speaker 1: one you chumps zero. That was a completely true story.
34:11
Speaker 1: It really did have Yes Irish fisherman actually did pulling
34:15
Speaker 1: his nets. He thought at first that it was a log.
34:17
Speaker 1: Realized then it was a skull of an Irish elk.
34:20
Speaker 1: Was a bag of hands that was fake. Bag of
34:22
Speaker 1: hands was also true, the one that you were because
34:24
Speaker 1: the one we thought that only counts as one. I know,
34:29
Speaker 1: I know, but I'm I'm enjoying it anyway. You know,
34:32
Speaker 1: I can't even be meld And I gotta say, I
34:35
Speaker 1: like this new way. I like this new Methodist the
34:38
Speaker 1: hands thing. By the way, everyone was scared that it
34:40
Speaker 1: was perhaps some sort of hand seeking psychopathic killer kiss.
34:46
Speaker 1: But it was not. It turns out that it was
34:49
Speaker 1: a forensic slap that had misplaced a bag of hands.
34:52
Speaker 1: As you do, you know they got away. I mean,
34:56
Speaker 1: it's like red handed, there's a bag of hands is
35:00
Speaker 1: falling sparrow of the forensic world. Indeed, can't keep your
35:03
Speaker 1: eye indeed, so so, yes, well, well played. Unfortunately you
35:07
Speaker 1: came up short this time. But who knows what next
35:10
Speaker 1: time we'll bring. I mean, I do, I've got it
35:12
Speaker 1: written right in front of me, but we're not ready
35:13
Speaker 1: to do that one yet. I can just I can
35:15
Speaker 1: feel the smugness emanating. It's pretty good, comes off like
35:19
Speaker 1: stink lines in a cartoon. But now, when you get
35:21
Speaker 1: them right, and you will when you get them right, uh,
35:24
Speaker 1: it is going to hurt so much more when you
35:27
Speaker 1: get them well. Okay, first, hang on, man, I played
35:30
Speaker 1: games with children before, and that's how I talked to
35:32
Speaker 1: children when I'm playing games, like, hey, buddy, when you win,
35:36
Speaker 1: imagine how cool that'll be. Keep playing. Congratulations, Ben, your
35:41
Speaker 1: resolution to get a little bit more into the psyche
35:44
Speaker 1: of Jonathan has somewhat paid off. I also, like, I
35:47
Speaker 1: want to say, the the legalistic into d Emmy is
35:51
Speaker 1: noting that you officially reset our score. So it's one zero.
35:55
Speaker 1: Now wait a minute, so where do we where did
35:58
Speaker 1: we shake out one behind? Got real close? Well, that's
36:04
Speaker 1: I mean, that's endearing, right, I think so, I think.
36:07
Speaker 1: So we're not in it to win it or just
36:09
Speaker 1: in it for fun. That's so we tell ourselves when
36:11
Speaker 1: we lose, well and to be there. These three were
36:13
Speaker 1: very odd stories, and they were all very recent, but
36:17
Speaker 1: they had to do with things from the past. I'm
36:19
Speaker 1: just so impressed that the Okinawa story completely got past this. Well,
36:23
Speaker 1: that was the one that, like we both agree, seemed
36:24
Speaker 1: pretty legit. So again, you know, um, not to belittle
36:28
Speaker 1: my seething hatred for you, but I do commend you
36:31
Speaker 1: for for this this round. Thank you. Oh. I want
36:34
Speaker 1: to give you one more insight, just so that you
36:35
Speaker 1: know this going in, because I know that's going to
36:37
Speaker 1: come up. You're going to sit there and say, well,
36:39
Speaker 1: he chose three last time, so why would he put
36:41
Speaker 1: it in the third place. I am going to put
36:44
Speaker 1: these in chronological order every single week, so if you
36:47
Speaker 1: had noticed in that case, it was March, September November,
36:50
Speaker 1: so it will always be in chronological order. Of story
36:54
Speaker 1: that will determine which one you know. Whenever you guess
36:57
Speaker 1: which one's fake, it's not. I've decided to try and
36:59
Speaker 1: full will you by putting it in position two instead
37:01
Speaker 1: of position one based on the year or the month
37:05
Speaker 1: or whatever. Well, you were definitely I've always respected that
37:08
Speaker 1: if we were D and D characters, you would be lawful.
37:10
Speaker 1: Even that's very rules are very important, and you really
37:14
Speaker 1: have given this some thought and I can't. I can't
37:17
Speaker 1: hold that against you, so be grudging thanks to Jonathan Strickland,
37:21
Speaker 1: the Notorious Quister. Anyway, I want everyone to know how
37:24
Speaker 1: slowly clapping, because you could definitely clap slower than that.
37:28
Speaker 1: Come on, we all know it was a matter of
37:30
Speaker 1: time before Benny gave me the Claph Family show. Yes,
37:35
Speaker 1: thanks thanks to Jonathan Strickland, the Quister. Thanks to super
37:38
Speaker 1: producer Casey Peg. That's true. Alex Williams, a composed our
37:41
Speaker 1: theme research associated Gabe Loser. Christopher Hasciota is here in
37:45
Speaker 1: spirit as always, eaves Jeff Coach. Check out her shows
37:48
Speaker 1: um this day in History class. But I do believe
37:51
Speaker 1: we're going to be guesting on at some point in
37:52
Speaker 1: the near future. And also solution sessions, the Afro pun Podcast,
37:56
Speaker 1: which is really great. Yeah, it's fantastic. Thanks, of course
38:00
Speaker 1: to all the brave, innocent goldfish who in a way
38:04
Speaker 1: gave their lives so that we can make this show.
38:07
Speaker 1: And uh no, thanks to you. Thanks to you, Buddy
38:10
Speaker 1: Happy tow here. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
38:24
Speaker 1: visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
38:27
Speaker 1: you listen to your favorite shows.