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Short Stuff: SINA · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, welcome to short stuff. I'm Josh, and there's Chuck
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: and this is short stuff. And as I say, sometimes
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: getty up, but in this case it'd be getty up,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: you horse with pants on that was smooth as sandpaper.
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: Oh that hurts, Chuck. Uh, this is pretty good. You
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: dug this one up. The Society for indecent indecency to
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: naked animals, that's right, which is kind of which is
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: kind of like the the finest example of the the
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: stodgy kind of morality. Um that that was characteristic of
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: the nineteen fifties. Like, this is the apex of that.
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: That's right. It was a group of people that got
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: together and said, you know what, we can't have anymore
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: in our society. Are these naked animals walking around in
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: their disgusting parts. We need to put clothing on animals
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: on anything over four inches tall or six inches long.
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: Our children are at steak. Get the clothed. Yes, they
• 1:12
  Speaker 1: were offended by naked animals, this group, and they wanted
• 1:17
  Speaker 1: to clothe animals. That was their purpose, that was their drive.
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: And at first it was a very little known group.
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  Speaker 1: But then in May of nineteen nine, the president of
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  Speaker 1: Sina ge Clifford Pruite, Jr. Uh appeared on the Today
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Show and basically explaining what SINA was all about and
• 1:35
  Speaker 1: calling for all animals to be clothed um and he
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: said a lot of weird things, not just in this interview,
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: but in multiple interviews that came over the following years,
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: where he said things like um zoos were peep shows
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: for kids. One of his favorite phrases was a nude
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  Speaker 1: horse is a rude horse, m hmm. And basically called
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: for support and membership. And after that Today Show appearance
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  Speaker 1: in nineteen nine, membership swelled like almost overnight. Yes, believe
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: it or not, there were more than fifty thousand people
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: in the United States. They said, I agree, we need
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: to get clothing on all animals. Here's some money. I
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: was a woman in Santa Barbara, California. You sent a
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: forty thousand dollar check in nine in the nineteen fifties.
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: This was about three fifty dollars today to help fund
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: clothing for animals. And they basically said, all right, get involved.
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: To get your community involved issue UH sign us sub
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: summons is to your neighbors, if you see them walking
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: their dog without pants on, you need to give them
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: a summons, They picketed the White House. They sent letters
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: to President Kennedy that said, you need to get pants
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: on your horses, sir, cover private parts. Yeah, cover those
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: horse penises. And it was kind of see that one.
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah have you seen? Have you seen? Um? What's it called?
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: I think you should leave? What is that? How do
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: I know that? I can't remember? The guy's name is hilarious.
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: He's like best friends with Andy Samberg's Tim something sounds
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: really familiar. Anyway, It's on Netflix and they have this
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: one kind of fake ad and it was for a
• 3:23
  Speaker 1: ranch um where they bred horses to have very very
• 3:28
  Speaker 1: small penises so that men don't have to be ashamed
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  Speaker 1: of their own penis size when they ride these horses
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: around this dude ranch. Oh and that that guy Tim Robinson. Yes, yes,
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: because I have not seen that though. It's wonderful. Uh,
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: but I am seeing now that Adie Bryant's husband, Connor
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: O'Malley is on their Connor Listen to Stuff you Should
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: Know at one point, and he is one of the
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: great weirdo comedians ever. Yeah, it's like a magnet for
• 3:51
  Speaker 1: weirdo comedians. This year was Uh, that's pretty funny. So
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: Americans are getting involved, like I said, they're petitioning the
• 3:59
  Speaker 1: president there uh um picketting the White House, and then
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: it culminates in eighteen I'm sorry, in nineteen sixty two. Uh,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: it feels like it should be eighteen sixty two when
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  Speaker 1: ge Clifford Prut appears with none other than Walter Cronkite,
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: most trusted news person in the country, and he was
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: interviewed on CBS News Prime Time. He sang the Sena's
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: anthem called Wings of Decency with a ukulele, and it
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: was a very very big deal and sort of the
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: apex of this movement. Can we sing the wings of decency?
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  Speaker 1: Um sign an anthem? You can high on the wings
• 4:40
  Speaker 1: of sign Uh we fight for the future. Now let's
• 4:44
  Speaker 1: close every pet and and um mole weather, dog, cat,
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  Speaker 1: horse or cow. Ge Clifford Prue our president. He works
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: for you and me, so clothed all your pets in
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  Speaker 1: joined the march for worldwide decency. So he's playing this
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: anna ukulele on uh CBS News with Walter Cronkite interviewing him.
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  Speaker 1: Ge Clifford Prout Jr. Is the president of SIGNA and
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: there's a There's a guy who is operating the camera
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  Speaker 1: for CBS News that says, hey, wait a minute, that
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: guy looks awfully familiar, doesn't n Chuck, that's right, and
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: perhaps here's where we should take our break. Right, that's right, agreed.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: If you want to know, then you're in luck. Just
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: listen to Chuck. Alright, we're back. Cameraman at CBS News
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: sits up and says, wait a minute, I recognized that guy,
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: and what did he say? He said, that's no g
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: Clifford Prute. That man's name is Buck Henry and in
• 6:07
  Speaker 1: the future he's going to be a very famous screenwriter
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: and actor for comedy. That's right. There was no g
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: Clifford Prute. There was no Society for Indecency to Naked
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: Animals tally Well, technically there was, but it was just
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: a big put on. It was just a big joke. Yeah,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: there's a guy named Alan Abel who would go on
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: to become one of America's most famous and prolific and
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: successful hoaxters. And I think like he's got half a
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: dozen short stuffs coming down the pike himself. He was
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: just that prolific. But this was the first time America
• 6:44
  Speaker 1: was introduced to alan Abel, and they had been had
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: that for four years. I saw in some places six years.
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: Buck Henry kept up this this ruse at the behest
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: of alan Abel and went on Cronkite, went on The
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: Today Show, went on tons of national interview shows, and
• 7:02
  Speaker 1: earnestly professed a need for animals to be clothed. So
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: he must not have been known by face at all
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: at that point. Hard but Henry, Yeah, no, his crew
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: is just starting out. It's astounding that he was ever
• 7:16
  Speaker 1: recognized at all. And even when he was, it was
• 7:19
  Speaker 1: a good three years into the hoax to that cameraman.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: Cameraman was deep on the independent comedy circuit. I think exactly.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: That's how I take it. That's pretty great. So, yeah,
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: it was all a hoax, um he you know, And
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: as is many times with hoaxes like this, there is
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: a a statement being made. And the statement here was
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: Able was really turned off by the moral, uh the
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: moral majority of the United States in the nineteen fifties,
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: and how put off they would be about everything. And
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: he said, maybe a good way to to take the
• 7:53
  Speaker 1: the p out of this thing would would be two
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: become one of them. And he said he's been hired
• 8:00
  Speaker 1: by uh. Something he saw in Texas in the nineteen fifties.
• 8:03
  Speaker 1: He was driving on a highway and saw like traffic
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: was stopped and everyone was kind of standing around. And
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: when he got out, he saw that traffic had stopped
• 8:11
  Speaker 1: because two cows were having sex in the middle of
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: the highway. And he said he he just saw the
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: looks on these piece faces, at these people's faces. Some
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: of them were clearly disgusted. Some of them wouldn't couldn't
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: even bear to look at it and cover their eyes.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: One woman was angry, and he he was just like,
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: what is going on? These cows? They don't know morality,
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  Speaker 1: They're just doing what cows do. And these Americans are
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: so stuffy that they're literally upset about this, right, they're
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: offended by this. It's yeah. So he at first tried
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: out some low hanging fruit and he um wrote a
• 8:47
  Speaker 1: letter to the editor of the Saturday Evening Post, um,
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: you know, professing for the first time signa and the
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: it's it's goals and aims as a joke um And
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: he got a rejection like her, but the tone of
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: the rejection letter kind of spurred him to keep going.
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  Speaker 1: The editor you know, wrote indignantly that he really disagreed
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  Speaker 1: with this and he thought it was a terrible idea.
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  Speaker 1: And Um alan Able realized that this guy had had
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: failed to take it as a joke that he thought
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: was really and he's like, well, who else can I fool?
• 9:19
  Speaker 1: Let's see where else we can take this. And he
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: went to his friend Buck Henry and said, hey, no
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: one knows what you look like yet or who you are.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: Will you pose as G. Clifford Prute, the president of Sina?
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: And this was right up Buck Henry's alley. He said,
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: oh yeah. And they kept this up for four to
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: six years, Chuck, not secretly, not quietly, as loudly and
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: nationally as they possibly could. They kept this hoax going. Yeah,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: I get the feeling this was had more legs than
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: he ever dreamed it would. Yes, and just decided, as
• 9:51
  Speaker 1: any great um sort of Andy Kaufman like comedian like,
• 9:55
  Speaker 1: to keep rolling with it once once it's going, if
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: everyone is fooled. And even after it was exposed in
• 10:01
  Speaker 1: nineteen sixty four by Time magazine, UM, people like Walter
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: Cronkite was still really mad. He felt he had been
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: made a full of obviously Uh, it's important to point
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: out that he did not take any of this money.
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: He wasn't drifting people, So that forty grand that check
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: was never cashed or anything. Yeah, that's yeah, Like people
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: would be angry. There's listeners right now, they're like, wait
• 10:22
  Speaker 1: a minute, this guy stole all this money, right, and
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: he was a comedian, right, So that never happened, thankfully,
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: no hum. But the thing that was most astounding was
• 10:32
  Speaker 1: that they accidentally inadvertently created a moral movement to clothe animals.
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  Speaker 1: Those fifty thousand people that joined SINA were earnest, like,
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: they were passionately supportive of clothing animals because it was
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: indecent to have naked animals running around. A joke became reality,
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: and that is about the best you could possibly hope
• 10:54
  Speaker 1: for from a hoax. That's a cultural criticism. Yeah, I'm
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: not a big fan of clothing on animals at all.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: I'm not either lead the animals alone everybody, Like if
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: if your dog needs a sweater in the winter or something,
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: that's okay to me. But like these people that dress
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: up their animals and take pictures of I don't know,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: I feel it's not very respectful. Oh I see what
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: you mean. Yeah, we dressed moment, but it's just for warmth. Yeah,
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: then that's different if, like I said, if your dog
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: needs a sweater or a thunderbuddy, which is what we
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: called the thundercoats the vests. What about ThunderCats, I don't
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: know anything about ThunderCats. You don't know the ThunderCats that
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: cartoon from the eighties. I've heard of it, but it
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: was a little after my time. Oh I could see that,
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: but it was directly in my wheelhouse. And that is
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: one of the all time greats. All right. Uh So, obviously,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: since we started talking about ThunderCats, that signals that this
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: episode of short Stuff is over right, that's right. Before
• 11:52
  Speaker 1: we go, Chuck, I want to say thank you very
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: much as Zachary Crockett and Priceonomics, the Museum of Hoaxes
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: and Ripley's believe it or not, believe it or not
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: for being sources about this. So keep an ear out
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: for alan Able short Stuffs in the future, because he's
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: got plenty more coming. In the meantime, everybody, short Stuff
• 12:11
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• 12:17
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• 12:23
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