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The Earliest Recorded Mooning Killed Thousands · Ridiculous History

• 0:24
  Speaker 1: Well, well, well, thanks for tuning in Ridiculous Historians. Today,
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: we have a rather cheeky episode for you, Ben, you
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: cheeky bastard. Well, I want to be uh, I want
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: to be bare faced about what we're getting into here today.
• 0:40
  Speaker 1: Noel her over here right, we uh. We do want
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: to say that we hope you enjoy the occasional dad
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: joke and pun that happens here on Ridiculous History, but
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: we do want to warn you these puns have not
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: been approved by our super producer, Casey Pegram. Yeah. In fact,
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: sometimes he'll make a face, yes, but sometimes it's a
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: good face. Yeah. Yeah. You know, we spend a lot
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: of time during recording saying stuff to make each other
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: laugh and then hopefully you can see it one day
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: friends neighbors, Nolan and I will make a joke trying
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: to crack the other one up, and then we'll both turn.
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: We can probably hear the sounds of our next whipping
• 1:20
  Speaker 1: around over to Casey approve of us for a nod,
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: just any kind of errant glance, Yeah, we we hinge
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: on it, uh, And we do so in the spirit
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: of decorum conversations between gentlemen. This episode is about something
• 1:40
  Speaker 1: that's very under chorous, and I wanted to open with
• 1:45
  Speaker 1: a question. Don't have to answer, don't fill obligator. I
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: was hoping it was going to be a song. No
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: question in the form of a song. Give it to me.
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: Have you ever moons someone? No, you haven't, not that
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: I recall. Okay, yeah, that's that's incriminating. I mean no,
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: I don't have a distinct memory of I mean yeah, okay, yeah,
• 2:10
  Speaker 1: I mean you know a girlfriend. Now I'm getting too personal.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: That sounds weird. You know, a little cheeky flash, you know,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: a little flash of the cheek, but not as an insult, right, not,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: not as not to degrade someone. No, sir, I will
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: tell you a true story that stays just between you, Casey,
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: me and everyone listening to this show. Hey, we're all
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: friends here. I did. I did moon someone once as
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: an insult. In high school. Yeah, it was my junior year.
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: There was a a villain, a bully in my high school.
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: He was the year above me, and the kid was
• 2:52
  Speaker 1: a sack of bricks from the neck up. Not the
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: not the brightest crayon in the box. Oh, I thought
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: you meant like he was built like a brick. Ship house.
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: He was also a big dude, and he made life
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: miserable for my friends and I. And there was a
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: gas station that people would go to every day after
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: school to hang, to pick up sodas, to try to
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: mack on each other and whatnot. And this guy was advertising.
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: One day near the end of the school year, he
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: was advertising a house party at his place, and he
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: drove a jeep. He thought of yeah, an open air jeep,
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: and he thought it would be a great idea for
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: him to stripped down to his skivs, put on a
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: sandwich board sign advertising his house party, and walk up
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: and down the street between the school and the gas
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: station punishment. We really didn't like this guy, me and
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: my posse, and so while we were at the gas station,
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: spur the moment, terrible impulse. Don't try this at home, kids.
• 3:54
  Speaker 1: We took his clothes out of his jeep and then
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: we drove by in my car and stopped and then
• 4:03
  Speaker 1: mooned him and drove away waving his clothes. He ran
• 4:09
  Speaker 1: in his underwear to his jeep reared off, chasing after us.
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: And it was also the first day I mooned someone
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: as an insult. Was also the first day I got
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: involved in a car chase. The bully didn't you know,
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: murder anybody? He chased you a little high speed car shade.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: It's a little bit of fist shaking, but you know,
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: no lives were lost in this particular mooning incident. Right, Well,
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: we don't have to go to the rest of the
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: story too, but but yeah, it's just just the mooning
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: part is is pertinent for today's episode because you are right,
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: Mooning for some reason, is universally acknowledged as an insult
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: to someone. Right, It's not. It's not like a another
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: form of a wave. Right, And in today's episode, you
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: and I discovered a story about just how far back
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: the practice known as mooning goes. And maybe this is
• 5:05
  Speaker 1: over explaining it, but what do you think do you
• 5:07
  Speaker 1: think we should tell people, just in case they're hearing this,
• 5:10
  Speaker 1: tell people what mooning actually is. Yeah, I mean I
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: if they haven't figured it out by now or didn't
• 5:16
  Speaker 1: already know, I'm worried about them. But why don't we
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: do it? Mooning The act of mooning bearing your moon,
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: your hind quarters, your your backside, dropping trout or lifting
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: the kilter or skirts, etcetera. And lifting the kilter the
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: skirt like in Braveheart, remember that. Yeah, apparently some historical
• 5:36
  Speaker 1: truth to that, But it was actually flipped around the
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: other way. It was it was the English mooning the Scots,
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: because I believe in the film the Scottish forces show
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: their backside but then also show their front side. That's
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: right what they do in about face or that. It
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: was the double the moon and the sun. It was
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: very choreographed as well, So that's interesting. I didn't know
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: that that was the English. That's what. Yeah, apparently in
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: real real life. Skis um. But we're going back to
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: what some have dubbed the original moon. Yes, the earliest
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: recorded mooning. According to many sources, it goes all the
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: way back to the first century a d. The very
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: first one, the very first one. And to tell the story,
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: we're relying on an author named Josephus Boy Josephus man
• 6:31
  Speaker 1: young feesus himself. I know he's got an interesting story
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: all of his own, but let's um, let's start with
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: the initial story that Josephus has to tell us about
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: this historical display of ours. Yes, yes, okay. So Josephus
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: wrote a book called the Jewish War, and in this book,
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: he tells h a story of a very strange event
• 6:58
  Speaker 1: that occurred between the Jewish people and the occupying Roman soldiers,
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: so Roman forces during what's dubbed the Pox Romana, which
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: is kind of interesting considering that means peace of Rome.
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: It wasn't so peaceful. There was there were outright rebels,
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: and there were revolts brewing in this land against these
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: occupying forces. And there were a lot of factors at
• 7:24
  Speaker 1: play because they were religious zealots who wanted to purify
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: the Jewish faith, and then there were ones that were
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: a little more amenable to their invaders, you know, and
• 7:35
  Speaker 1: when we're we're kind of okay with continuing with this
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: way of life as long as they were able to
• 7:41
  Speaker 1: maintain some of the tenets of their Jewish faith. So
• 7:45
  Speaker 1: we're seeing here in Joceva's story is a clash involving
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: some of those more zealous forces. Yeah. Yeah, because whenever
• 7:54
  Speaker 1: there is an occupying force, there is inevitably going to
• 7:58
  Speaker 1: be some sort of tension, and this situation was no different.
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: Imagine if you can living in a city wherein you
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: and your entire community are under the thumb, whether benevolent
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: or whether brutal. You're under the thumb of foreign forces,
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: an alien culture that doesn't hold the values you hold,
• 8:24
  Speaker 1: that doesn't believe in the traditions that you have practiced
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: since time immemorial. Obviously there's going to be some tension. No,
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: I think you did a fantastic job laying out the
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: differences between these groups. And we're not going to go
• 8:40
  Speaker 1: all the way into every nuance of this, but there's
• 8:43
  Speaker 1: a lot of back and forth in this conflict between
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: Rome and the people of Israel, ultimately resulting in the
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: Romans being expelled and largely massacred um. But that's almost
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: a whole episode unto itself. That is is pretty heavy,
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: full of bloodshed. We're talking about moonings today, that's right,
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: that's right. So the situation becomes incredibly tense during the
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: Passover season because crowds and crowds of people are flocking
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: to Jerusalem, and this is a powder keg. Any small
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: excuse could become the feather that breaks the camels back
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: in terms of war. And there's an excellent recount of
• 9:29
  Speaker 1: this in a book called the Jewish Revolts against Rome
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: a d. Sixty to one thirty five. A military analysis
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: by James J. Bloom. So here's the situation. The Roman prefect,
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: who is in charge of these occupying forces, would routinely
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: post soldiers a top battlements so that they could have
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: an unparalleled or superior view of the proceedings of the pilgrimages.
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: The visitor was the passover to make sure no one
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: was stern, any string, any mess Yeah, no domestic unrest, right,
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: and they was in charge at this point. Do you
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: remember Cestius Gallus, Yes, sir, that's the one. Yes. So
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: he uh, he had these soldiers looking for any sign
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: of agitation because, at least from the prefects perspective, no
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: one wanted to quote Michael Jackson, no one wanted to
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: be starting something. But unfortunately those plans went awry because
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: of a single Roman soldier. Yeah, this unnamed soldier. UM
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: thought it'd be real cute if he um did the
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: thing in question here, pulled down as his what did
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: he have like a skirt? Yeah, he was like one
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: of those battle skirts. He had something covering his took
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: his and he removed it. And I'm guessing no, he
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: was commando because you know, he was kind of a soldier.
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: I guess, um, where's that term coming from Ben, going commando.
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: Do you really think commandos didn't wear underpants? That that
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: that seems to be a bad idea. Seems like you'd
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: get swamp ass. Yeah, it seems like, especially if you're
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: on a commando mission, um, you would want all the
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: protection you can have us. So I think going commando
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: dates back to the Vietnam War, at least that's when
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: it got popular because people would say that these folks,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: these commandos went without underwear to increase ventilation and reduce moisture,
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: so they dried out the Yeah, but it still doesn't
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: make sense. No, it's fine, anyway, we digress. This particular
• 11:38
  Speaker 1: fellow sure seems like he had easy access to his bits,
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: right because he didn't you know, if you don't see
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: it written that he you know, gingerly removed his breeches.
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: Now it's he like pulled up something and let it fly. Um.
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: And to quote the account, you want to do this, Ben,
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: I think I think if if you care to this,
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: is you sure, sorry, I'll do it. I'll do it, Um.
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: Josephus and I realized why. I think that's funny. I
• 12:05
  Speaker 1: think of Bocephus, which is the nickname for I believe
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: Hank Williams Bocephus, so that's I can never separate this two.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: But yeah, Josephus describes the historical mooning as such, one
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: of the soldiers raising his robe, stooped in an indecent
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: attitude so as to turn his backside to the Jews,
• 12:27
  Speaker 1: and made a noise in keeping with his posture. Does
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: that mean he let fly at a tute? That means
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: he either either he actually flatellated or the version that
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: I think is for some reason much funnier is he
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: leads over and made the noise with his mouth. Yeah, oh,
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: yours is better. There's there's there's different no but I
• 12:49
  Speaker 1: put my hands on my face. He couldn't have done that.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: He definitely couldn't because he was holding his his skirts,
• 12:55
  Speaker 1: skirt whatever. Yeah, and this, this did not go over well,
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: my friend, because these were pilgrims on a during an
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: uh a very high holy time. Right, yeah, it's a
• 13:07
  Speaker 1: holy day, it's it's a very serious, somber, thankful time.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: And they're already beefed up with these Roman jerks, you know,
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: who are just hanging around when they're skirts Boston people
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: around spears. Well, yeah, Honestly, it's tremendously offensive to deride
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: somebody's religion at any point, but especially when they're in
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: the middle of one of the most important celebrations they have.
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to picture this too. Can you picture this scene? Like? What?
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: How is this guy able to make himself such a
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: such a display because he was on that battle, he
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: was on raised ground. But the other thing that's weird
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: about this is that we know very little about his
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: motivation other than that he was, as Josepha says, contemptuous.
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: You know. So was it some thing where he had
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: had some strong wine and had one of those hold
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: my beer moments he had drained his wine skin, yes,
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: you know, up on the up on the battlements in
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: the hot sun. Or was he really just a sober,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: bad tempered person. Yeah, because Ben, I mean, it's pretty
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: clear from the history here that neither side cared much
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: for the other. Right, Well, why would you if you
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: were if you were a Jerusalem native, why would you
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: be buddy buddy with these people? There was some weird
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: side switching though, um and our boy Josephus was one
• 14:37
  Speaker 1: of these defectors. He he initially was actually put in
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: command of a force of rebels on the Jewish side
• 14:48
  Speaker 1: and then hop sides over to the Roman side, and
• 14:51
  Speaker 1: he ended up becoming the historian that told these accounts.
• 14:54
  Speaker 1: And he is considered by many historians to be particularly
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: manipulative and untrustworth. So he's kind of an unreliable narrator here,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: but it's all we've got, and it's now a primary
• 15:06
  Speaker 1: source because he was there. But he also may well
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: have been a a bit of a self aggrandizing liar, right, Yeah,
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: that's that's the thing. So his his lifetime, he was
• 15:18
  Speaker 1: born in thirty seven C or thirty seven eight D
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: see for common era a d for after the death
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: of Jesus Christ dominant yes, nail on the head nal.
• 15:30
  Speaker 1: And he died around one hundred c E. And so
• 15:34
  Speaker 1: when we go to this record of this earliest recorded mooning,
• 15:39
  Speaker 1: it's him writing about this event far after the fact.
• 15:43
  Speaker 1: But he was definitely involved in the political and military
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: conflicts of the time. He was, you know, as as
• 15:51
  Speaker 1: you said, the head of Jewish forces in Galilee until
• 15:54
  Speaker 1: he surrendered in sixties seven to Roman forces, and then
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: he decided to stay on. He had been a slave,
• 16:02
  Speaker 1: he had been an interpreter, very fascinating life. Yeah, yeah, absolutely,
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: we have to take it with a grain assault when
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: we hear the stories as told primarily by Josephus. Is
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: he writing too sort of polish his own image. Is
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: he factually reporting and if so, to what degree he
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: is held up in the Jewish community. It seems as
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: being at least an important chronicler of some of these battles,
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: because he was there. But even in this article I
• 16:38
  Speaker 1: found from a beautifully named website called the Juniverse. Um,
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: they describe him as a famously self aggrandizing ancient historian. Um.
• 16:48
  Speaker 1: But he wrote such works as the Jewish War, which
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: is what this account is, from Jewish Antiquities and against Apion. Yeah,
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: that's a two volume defense of Judaism as classical region
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: and philosophy. Is very well written, prolific man. Yes, And
• 17:04
  Speaker 1: speaking of that, and I actually found a translation of
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: the incident, we will call it that. I much prefer
• 17:10
  Speaker 1: this is just the wording is which one is this?
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: It's just it's in this article in the Juniverse, and
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: it's just it's the same. It's obviously the same text
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: as what we read a minute ago. I just think
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: this particular translation is way more fun um this. This
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: one describes the soldier as that he pulled back his
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: garment and cowering down after an indecent manner, turned his
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: breach to the Jews and spake such words as you
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: might expect upon such a posture. I love the idea
• 17:36
  Speaker 1: of that he spake. Yes. Now this makes us think
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: whether there is a difference in translation. Was he making
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: a farting noise with his mouth? Was he saying something
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: offensive like, you know, uh, snarf my butt? People? I
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: don't know, Ben, Never did I think those words would
• 17:54
  Speaker 1: let fly from those luxurious lips of yours. Thank you,
• 17:58
  Speaker 1: thank you. It's called a cupid's bow that's up like so,
• 18:01
  Speaker 1: so I don't we don't think they said SNAr if
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: we're speculating there. But despite the fact that many people
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: nowadays love a good bit of crass but oriented humor,
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: there's a time and a place for it. And that
• 18:18
  Speaker 1: was true in this instance, because the crowd did not
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: react well to this. No one was like, look at that,
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: but yeah there, yeah, you know, I I started going
• 18:29
  Speaker 1: down that path earlier. I think we got distracted with
• 18:31
  Speaker 1: more but related uh lore. But yeah, no, this did
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: not go, well, this did not go well. Um. And
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: also that that commander we were talking about, Gallus, he
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: was kind of considered, um, a bit of a dunder
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: head or like a bit of kind of an overreacting
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: adult when it came to being a military superior. And
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: there have been a lot of incidents leading up to
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: this that were already causing a lot of divisive feelings
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: between the US and their occupiers. I believe there was
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: some destruction of some sacred scrolls and just just in
• 19:06
  Speaker 1: general bad behavior on the part of these occupying forces
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: toward the religion of the natives. Yeah. So you can
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: read an excellent article about this from History net uh
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: The Great Siege of Jerusalem by Ralph Peters, which details
• 19:22
  Speaker 1: some of the context leading up to this. And we
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: have to establish that because it's easy to look at
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: this single incident in a vacuum and say, sure, mooning
• 19:37
  Speaker 1: someone may be impolite, but it's not a cause for
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: citywide pandemonium. So this was something that was happening in
• 19:49
  Speaker 1: addition to many profoundly offensive and disrespectful things burning sacred scrolls,
• 19:56
  Speaker 1: that's a huge one. But also there were recent crises
• 19:59
  Speaker 1: that had occurred in Afghanistan at the time. And they
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: also strong armed to the temple priest into making a
• 20:07
  Speaker 1: massive payment to Rome, So they were stealing from the
• 20:10
  Speaker 1: people as well. That's right. Was that the Pharisees, they
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: were all these different classes, and I believe that Josephus
• 20:16
  Speaker 1: was initially part of the Pharisees, and they were a
• 20:18
  Speaker 1: sect of priests. Um. That gets sort of a bad
• 20:23
  Speaker 1: rap because of their place in the Bible and their
• 20:27
  Speaker 1: interactions with Jesus and the idea of the Pharisees and
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: the money changers and all that of being the sign
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: of greed and hypocrisy. Um. But they were largely responsible
• 20:37
  Speaker 1: for preserving some of the important religious texts of this faith.
• 20:42
  Speaker 1: So there's a lot of interesting stuff in the in
• 20:44
  Speaker 1: the history of of of the Jewish people, really really
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: fascinating stuff. I mean, they were a kingdom, you know,
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: the Kingdom of Judea, and like the Maccabees, and you know,
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: they were always able to fight off their occupiers and
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: they were constantly being jackt with, right. Yeah. Rome was
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: one in a series. Yeah, I mean, initially there was
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: the Persian conquest and there was the Hellenistic period with
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: Alexander the great, and there was even this sense of
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: a lot of the a lot of Jews, parts of
• 21:09
  Speaker 1: sects of the society wanted to become Hellenized, where they
• 21:13
  Speaker 1: wanted to become more Greek and kind of abandon the
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: old ways. So there's always the struggle between um religious
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: Zeala's people that want to like keep the faith pure
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: and you know, more fair weather Jews that I think
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: want to be more assimilated into their invading culture. Right,
• 21:30
  Speaker 1: assimilation is the word, and the threat of assimilation looms large, right,
• 21:36
  Speaker 1: and not just in this situation, but in situations throughout history.
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: And so it is within this rich and dangerous cultural
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: soil that this seed of discord, this active mooning by
• 21:50
  Speaker 1: an unidentified Roman soldier of mooning, sprouts and spreads because
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: not only do the people not like it, not only
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: does no one go, but stuff, no, the people riot.
• 22:04
  Speaker 1: Oh yeah, no, they they they asked out that. Okay,
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: I think that's fine, I think it's it's appropriate. But no,
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: I mean they're you know, this assembled crowd of thousands,
• 22:14
  Speaker 1: I mean upwards of over thirty thousand, because that is
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: the number reported that we're killed by Josephus. Yeah, he
• 22:23
  Speaker 1: says that the riot occurs, and all told, when the
• 22:27
  Speaker 1: dust settles, thirty thousand people Jewish hand Rooman lost their lives.
• 22:34
  Speaker 1: And part of this, this is a little bit maybe
• 22:37
  Speaker 1: outside of the documented facts here, but part of this
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: we can assume would be due to Gallus is incredibly
• 22:46
  Speaker 1: belligerent and bellicose nature and just utter skittishness, because he
• 22:51
  Speaker 1: called in the troops big time, overcorrected, and then gave
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: the order to you know, fire Adam boys sticking with
• 23:02
  Speaker 1: spears right right, an over response. He sent in Roman
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: soldiers not just to quell the riot or call them
• 23:12
  Speaker 1: the people, but to punish and injure them, and that
• 23:17
  Speaker 1: is what sprouted the seat. Now we we don't have
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: any information of what that unknown Roman soldier was doing
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: as he was on the battlement watching this riot occur.
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: Did he go down to attack some of these innocent men,
• 23:31
  Speaker 1: women and children. Did he just stay up there thinking
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: that he had discovered one of the world's most amazing
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: and dangerous insults, the Adam bomb of rude physical gestures,
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: the Adam bum. There we go. So we don't know
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: what happened to him, but we do know that this
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: is the earliest recorded mooning. So if you have ever
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: been mooned, or if you like, your bullying, probably broke
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: his mind. He probably drove him mad man, you know, okay, okay, lastly,
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: I'll say about that doll. It was a car of us.
• 24:11
  Speaker 1: Were you doing pheasant underglass? What's what's that? Are you
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: pressing your bare butts against the window? I mean one
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: guy definitely was one of the guys in the back.
• 24:19
  Speaker 1: That's pheasant underglass. I had no idea that is such
• 24:22
  Speaker 1: a classyness, such a class so I guess, so I
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: guess so peasant under glass. Well, that's an advanced moon
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: that's like the next level mooning. So whether you have
• 24:36
  Speaker 1: moon someone who been mooned before, we hope that this
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: episode helps you be aware that you are either the
• 24:43
  Speaker 1: victim of or the practitioner of an ancient form of derision.
• 24:49
  Speaker 1: But then I want to talk about more historical mooning.
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: So glad you do know off air, we were looking
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: into some really unusual and fascinating ones. What are you out?
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: What you got? Ben? I really appreciate you letting me
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: go first. You know how much how much I love
• 25:05
  Speaker 1: this topic. We both found and have been really enjoying
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: a fantastic article on slate dot com the very classy
• 25:13
  Speaker 1: name mooning, a history by Forrest wickman Um mentioned briefly earlier,
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: the whole brave heart sun and moon gesture thing was
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: actually flipped the other way around. It was the English
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: taunting the Scottish with their their butts. Um. I think
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: this article was a good way to start here is
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: just let's talk about let's get back to the the
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: coinage of the term mooning, because you see, Ben, while
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: this act was ancient, it didn't really get a proper
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: name until the nineteen sixties, when the Oxford English Dictionary
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: got an entry for the word that attributed it to
• 25:53
  Speaker 1: student slang of the sixties, because it became a really
• 25:57
  Speaker 1: popular thing to do in university in America specific And
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: that's that's important because I believe that the description the
• 26:07
  Speaker 1: use of the word moon as a euphemism for but
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: or buttocks dates back to the seventeen hundreds or the
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: eighteenth century. But the reason I think it's interesting that
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: it's traced to American or US student slang is because
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: American English is notorious for the practice of turning every
• 26:29
  Speaker 1: single word into a verb. You and I have done
• 26:32
  Speaker 1: it on multiple shows. Yeah, like squatching, Yeah, examsode, Yeah, exactly.
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: So it's it's nice to know that that linguistic tradition
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: precedes us. But I am so fascinated by the fact
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: that this this act has been described multiple times in literature,
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: in fiction and nonfiction, and they didn't come up with
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: a convenient term for it for centuries, for heck, for millennia.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: We know that, we know that during the Fourth Crusade
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: and twelve oh three, Western Europeans were attempting to take Constantinople,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: but they failed and they sailed away and defeat. And
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: as they were sailing away, the Byzantine forces who did
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: at them hollered at them and quote showed their bare
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: buttocks in derision to the fleeing foe. Derision. You say, yeah,
• 27:27
  Speaker 1: because this act, you're essentially like sexually harassing someone from afar.
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: And then I guess, I guess it is somewhat counterintuitive
• 27:37
  Speaker 1: because in the animal world often when other mammals show
• 27:42
  Speaker 1: their posterior to a creature, it's an active submission, right,
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: It's like, hey, come, come get you some of this.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: But yeah, so now it's it's clearly it insult of course,
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: where would we be if we not mentioned one of
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: the most well known retellings or depictions of mooning in
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: the English language, And that is, of course the Miller's
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: tale from Chaucer's The Canterbury Tales, old saucy chausey and
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: there's Baldi. Baldi Canterbury Tales chose the sauce, that's him.
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: So in the frame story of the Canterbury Tales, a
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: group of people who are traveling decided to travel together
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: and to pass the time in their travels, they tell
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: each other's stories. There these people are described often by
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: like their occupations. So there's a partner, for instance, who
• 28:38
  Speaker 1: carries relics and charges people to get close to these
• 28:42
  Speaker 1: religious artifacts. And then there is the miller, who is
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: in a wild plot twist the miller. But we have
• 28:49
  Speaker 1: a very saucy tale from the miller himself. We're not
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: going to read the whole thing, but there are some
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: parts that we think you will find. Choice, Ben, can
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: we do the back and forth for one of us
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: as the old Englishman and the other is the translator?
• 29:03
  Speaker 1: For sure? Which one do you want to do? Um?
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: Can I be the translator? I feel like you have
• 29:06
  Speaker 1: a little more expertise when it comes to this work.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: I believe he studied it in school. I did, but
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: my pronunciation is going to be terrible. God. I wish
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: Jonathan Strickland, the quister was here and his uh Renaissance
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: fair regalia he would lean into this hard to tell
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: you what he might be here. We never know. Channel, So,
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: just so we don't have to read the whole thing,
• 29:27
  Speaker 1: can you give us a little quick and dirty of
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: how we get to the part that we're about to start? Yeah? Yeah, yeah,
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: So the miller's tale is this story about a carpenter
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: and his wife and these two students or clerks that
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: are trying to get her into bed. The carpenter is
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: a guy named John and he lives Knox for his
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: wife is a lot younger than him, and she is
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: known as a the local hottie. Right. Isn't this like
• 29:55
  Speaker 1: a cuckolding story kind of, isn't there? Yeah? Yeah? And uh,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: what we'll do without going into the without going into
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: the entire set up to the story, will read you
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: the juicy bit wherein a character named Absalon attempts to
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: pursue this wife romantically, and there's some climbing up a
• 30:20
  Speaker 1: ladder into a window. Kind of action going on here,
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: So let us begin lemon thy grace and sweet bird then,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: or sweetheart your favor, and sweet bird your kindness. The
• 30:31
  Speaker 1: window she untooth, and that in haste she unlatched the window.
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: Quickly have do quote, she come all, then speed thee fast,
• 30:41
  Speaker 1: go ahead, she said, come on and do it quickly.
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: Let's that our neighbors the spy. In case our neighbors
• 30:47
  Speaker 1: see us. This Absalon gun wipe his mouth full dry.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: This Absalon began to wipe his mouth dry. Dirk was
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: the nightest pitch or as the cool The night was dark,
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: you know, like picture coal. And at the window, out
• 31:04
  Speaker 1: she puts her whole, And out the window she put
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: her whole. We're a family show, okay, okay, okay, And
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: Absalon him feel no better new wars. This park confuses me.
• 31:19
  Speaker 1: And as for Absalom, it happened no better nor worse.
• 31:23
  Speaker 1: But with his mouth he kissed her naked rs. So
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: body they teached this in school, man, this is We're
• 31:34
  Speaker 1: still a family show. Um translation. If he couldn't use
• 31:38
  Speaker 1: your imagination there but with his mouth, but with his
• 31:43
  Speaker 1: mouth he kissed her naked arts full savory are He
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: was war of this most enjoyable before he realized what
• 31:52
  Speaker 1: he was kissing. Back his start and thought it was
• 31:56
  Speaker 1: a mess. Back he started and thought something was raw.
• 32:00
  Speaker 1: Here we go for well he whist a woman hath
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: no bird? For he well knew women have no beards.
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: I'm I'm applauding for Chaucer and also for Ben Boland.
• 32:19
  Speaker 1: And you're fantastic Old English brugue. What do you call
• 32:23
  Speaker 1: that was good? That wasn't even old English? It whatever? Whatever,
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: Brown ladies and gentlemen, and you're two kinds. Let's hear
• 32:31
  Speaker 1: it for super producer Casey Peggy. Yeah, we're making this alive.
• 32:34
  Speaker 1: Can we also hear it for a regular contributor, Laurel Dove.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: She didn't really contribute anything to this episode, but I
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: just don't want to hear it just like that sound.
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: It's delight. And while we're thanking everyone, let's give it up,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: friends and neighbors, for Alex Williams, who composed our track,
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: and for our research associate Christopher Hasiotis, who spoiler alert,
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: may end up on this show and who spoiler alert
• 33:02
  Speaker 1: and needs a sound effect. Yeah, yeah, Casey, we defer
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: to you give me later. We'll just you know, put
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: it on the back burner. We'll work you know what
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: right to us and let us know what you think
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: is what do you think when you're here? Has I
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: think about the infamous club, the hacienda owned by the
• 33:21
  Speaker 1: guy that you know discovered joy Division and New Order
• 33:25
  Speaker 1: and all that stuff. I remember, have you seen the
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: movie twenty four Party people? Oh? Yeah, that's great that
• 33:30
  Speaker 1: come out? It was like the yeah, yeah oh. And
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: most importantly, give it up for yourself, Ken, if you
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: want to pat yourself on the back, give yourself a handshake,
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: don't be weirded out if people are looking at you.
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: You are self affirming. Play rock paper scissors with yourself.
• 33:46
  Speaker 1: See see what happened? Tell us who wins. Please. In
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: the meantime, we hope that you enjoyed our exploration of
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: the history of mooning at least of a fraction as
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: much as we have clearly enjoyed diving into it. I'm
• 34:00
  Speaker 1: just tipsy with delight, and so our our journey ends
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: for today. That's the end of our episode, but not
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: our show. Tune in again very soon for more ridiculous
• 34:12
  Speaker 1: history and last, but certainly not least, and we promise
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: not bare but related. We're going on tour. If you
• 34:22
  Speaker 1: happen to be in Philadelphia, I would like a little
• 34:25
  Speaker 1: bit of historical what would you call it? A historical
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: entertainment Shenanigan. Yeah, we bring the pain, the historical pain.
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: That sounds not not fun, you know what I mean? Yeah,
• 34:37
  Speaker 1: I bring the fun, the fun pain. It's and we're
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: gonna bring our butts, yes, which which will remain squarely
• 34:43
  Speaker 1: covered with Yeah, that is the ridiculous history guarantee of quality.
• 34:50
  Speaker 1: We will have our pants on the whole time. But yes,
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: the rumors are true. You can find us on towards
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: July first in Philadelphia along with our long time pals
• 35:00
  Speaker 1: and founders of mental Philosophy, Mango and Will. It's true.
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: They are the host of part Time Genius. Won't you
• 35:07
  Speaker 1: join us if you happen to be in town. You
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: can find ticket information at Phillypodfest dot com. Um They
• 35:13
  Speaker 1: are on sale right now and it's at four o'clock
• 35:16
  Speaker 1: on Sunday, July one at the Trocadero Theater. So come
• 35:20
  Speaker 1: get ridiculous with us in a in a live setting,