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CLASSIC: History's Weirdest Flexes, Part One · Ridiculous History

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