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Short Stuff: Animal Politicians · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's Chuck, and this is short stuff. Dave's here, he says, hi, Um,
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: he's not really Harry. Jerry's here, she says, hi to
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: at any rate this short stuff. And I've just wasted
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: a terrible amount of time, that's right. And this, uh
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: episode makes me think of the great song pet Politics
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: by Silver Jews R I P. Dave Burman full stop. Okay.
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Uh so it makes me think, Chuck, of animals that
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: have been elected to office, because that's what we're talking about. Yeah,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: we are. It's there's apparently a long tradition, not just
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: in the United States, where it's surprisingly prevalent, but around
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: the world. People have elected animals to office, sometimes to
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: make a point, sometimes to raise money for the local whatever, um,
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: sometimes to insult people, usually other politicians. But there's like
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: a pretty lengthy history of it, there is. And it's
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: funny when you sent me the sources for this, uh photoors,
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: how do you pronounce that? I think you just said it.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: Photors was one of them, and then I was like,
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Reader's Digests has got to be one of these, and
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: sure enough, Reader's Digests was one of those sources. Yeah, totally.
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: Um so one of the one of the first UM
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: examples that came across as UM of a guy who
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: was a mayor. He was a human. His name was
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: Kenneth Simmons and he was the mayor of Milton Washington
• 1:27
  Speaker 1: back in night and he put up a donkey. Uh
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: he nominated a donkey as a committee committeeman, a precinct committeeman.
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: Uh too, I guess work with the donkey. And the
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: donkey's name was Boston Curtis. But the thing was, Milton
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: Washington didn't tell anybody that Boston Curtis was a donkey.
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: He just nominated him and added him to the ballot.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: That's right. And this was clearly one of those cases
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: where someone was like, our constituents don't even do their
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: due diligence, they don't do their homework, they don't even care.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: They would just assume vote for a donkey. Is how
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: the movie scene would go. And even though this mule
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: ran unopposed, I think it was a mule. Is that
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: there's a difference, right, Oh yeah, there is. Please God
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: tell me it wasn't a mule, because I've been saying donkey.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: This whole time. Well, the photors says it was a mule. Okay,
• 2:20
  Speaker 1: I'll take it, I'll take the hit. Uh So the
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: mule did run unopposed. But still I think the point
• 2:27
  Speaker 1: was made that these the constituents still did not do
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: their due diligence, because it's not that they didn't think
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: he was gonna win because it was uncontested, but the
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: fact that it got so many votes clearly indicated that
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: no one was doing their homework, right. Yeah, I mean,
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: even if it is uncontested, if you know it's a donkey,
• 2:44
  Speaker 1: you don't just vote for the donkey, exactly, unless it's
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: possible that all those voters were like, yeah, I'm I'm tired,
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: I'm ready for a change. Yeah. So that's a pretty
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: good example. That's an unusual example. More often than not,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: if an animal is elected to office, it is out
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: improud as an animal, you know what I mean, Like, um,
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: there's there's a there, like everybody's everyone knows that they're
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: voting for an animal, like there's And it usually takes
• 3:10
  Speaker 1: place in a town that's unincorporated, so there's not an
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: actual official mayoral position. And then usually they're trying to
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: raise money for that town. Yeah, and it works too.
• 3:22
  Speaker 1: It's a fun thing, so they will put up. Here's
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: an example in Michigan. In Omena, Michigan, there'll be seven
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: grand for their historical society. And this is just a
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: few years ago in uh when a cat named sweet Tart,
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: which I love, a great name for a cat, uh,
• 3:40
  Speaker 1: one as mayor and then they just filled up the
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: town's government with other pets. I think there was the
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: vice mayor was a puppy named Punkin Anderson Harder. Uh.
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Special assistant for foul affairs was Penning the Chicken, and
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: then press it secretary was Harvey the Goat. Am sorry,
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: Harley the Goat. Hardly right, not hard that would not
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: have worked out, um so me and Michigan is actually
• 4:05
  Speaker 1: fairly uh um well known for that. Uh. And there's
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: another town that's pretty well known for it called rabbit Hash, Kentucky.
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: Let that one sink in for a second. And in
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: rabbit Hash they had a long standing mayor dog named
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: Lucy Lou who was mayored for eight years and then
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: I think Lucy Lou resigned or retired, I guess, not
• 4:25
  Speaker 1: resigned in disgrace or anything like Richard Nixon, but instead
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: said I'm going to go, you know, enjoy my retirement.
• 4:33
  Speaker 1: And so Lucy Lee was succeeded by a dog named Brenneth.
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: Paul Trow and Brenneth I found out or in on
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: a platform, Chuck of restoring the general store. It's a
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: pretty good platform in a town like rabbit Hash and
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: then quote to bring the yokels of rabbit Hash and
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: beyond plenty of peace and love and quote. I thought
• 4:56
  Speaker 1: the platform you were going to say was that they
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: ran on? Was usin together? All right? Man? You just
• 5:04
  Speaker 1: triggered me. Oh, I'm sorry. Thanks. Uh should we take
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: a break and talk about more of this silliness afterward?
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: I think so? All right, we'll be right back. So remember,
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: way back, probably a week or so ago, in the
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: a choir that escaped that explosion episode like five minutes
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: for us, and you said that you were glad there
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: wasn't some like dark part to the whole thing. Well,
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: this one does kind of have a dark part. And
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: we're about to enter. Yeah, this was believe you're probably
• 6:00
  Speaker 1: talking about Lahitas, Texas, uh and on a unincorporated town
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: and they have another symbolic cameral seat that they do
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: for animals, and this one involved, uh, I guess what
• 6:13
  Speaker 1: you would call it a dynasty, a family of goats.
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: The first one was Clay Henry, not Henry Clay elected
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: in nineteen six, and then Henry was and this is
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: all just like shameful. They fed Henry beer and I
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: was like, look, let's go drink beer and get like
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: wasted drunk. From accounts that I read, yeah, it said
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: like up to thirty five beers in a single day,
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: which you should not give an animal alcohol. This is
• 6:42
  Speaker 1: all very shameful. And uh, this animal, Clay Henry, lived
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: at the general store there where it would lap up
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: this beer, and was succeeded by Clay Henry Jr. Who
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: it looks like killed Clay Henry Sr. Yes, allege they
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: were both drunk, and Clay Henry Jr. Head budded Clay
• 7:03
  Speaker 1: Henry sor and killed him, oh my lord, and then
• 7:06
  Speaker 1: took over his mayor or was appointed mayor I guess
• 7:09
  Speaker 1: by the human who runs the general store by divine right, right.
• 7:15
  Speaker 1: And then there was a third two right, yeah, you
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: talk about the third alright, Clay. The third was also
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: a beer drinker, because these people in Texas just kept
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: giving these goats beer, not just any beer to lone
• 7:29
  Speaker 1: star beer, of course, it was uh. And this goat
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: was castrated by a local man who was upset that
• 7:39
  Speaker 1: the goat mayor was drinking on Sunday. And as I
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: was about to crawl out of my skin with anger,
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: I read the next line that this person did face
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: animal cruelty charges. Yes, so that's according to Roadside America.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: I couldn't couldn't find it anywhere else, but it's a
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: heck of a story either way, it is. And thank
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: you for putting that last part on me. Welcome. And
• 8:01
  Speaker 1: and then also another long tradition of animals becoming elected
• 8:05
  Speaker 1: to office, Chuck is uh to basically shame politicians, to
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: basically say, you stink, we think you're terrible. In animals
• 8:14
  Speaker 1: better than you and as a matter of fact, you know,
• 8:16
  Speaker 1: we think you're rats, so we're gonna elect a cat.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Or we think you're um uh lazy, so we're going
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: to elect a cat or you know, so on and
• 8:26
  Speaker 1: so forth. I'd say a sloth. But sure, yeah, so
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: that's kind of a tradition as well. Right, Yeah, there
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: was one actually happened in Mexico not too long ago
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: in uh, and they were upset about the rats in
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: the town. Are you know, rats in the political sense
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: and maybe rats period, who knows. And they elected a
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: cat named Morris, who was not orange tabby, but a
• 8:49
  Speaker 1: black and white cat named Morris a tuxedo, I guess.
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: And Morris was nominated for mayor of uh Lahappa Wapa
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: what Hallapa? I think it's Wahapa, probably Wallapa Hualapa. I
• 9:06
  Speaker 1: nailed it that last time. Uh. And then there was
• 9:09
  Speaker 1: a couple of students, and as you'll see with a
• 9:11
  Speaker 1: lot of these, sometimes it's the younger generation who would
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: do it as a joke, but then it caught on
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: on social media. This cat gets about a hundred and
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: fifty thousand likes on Facebook and then got seven thousand,
• 9:22
  Speaker 1: five d actual votes on election day, which in the
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: twenty one century, if you get the most votes on Facebook,
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: you automatically are elected to political office. Um. There's another cat,
• 9:33
  Speaker 1: this this one in Alaska was elected because he was
• 9:36
  Speaker 1: a write in. I believe the town's nine hundred residents
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: wrote him in even though there are humans on the ballot,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: to basically just show their disgust that how bad the
• 9:45
  Speaker 1: human candidates were. And a similar thing also happened way
• 9:49
  Speaker 1: back in nineteen fifty nine and Sal Paulo, Brazil, where
• 9:52
  Speaker 1: there was a rhinoceros called Cacareco which means garbage. Um,
• 9:59
  Speaker 1: and he beat five hundred other city city council candidates,
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: garnering a hundred thousand votes, which is pretty pretty great
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: for a rhino, that's right. And then about ten years
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: later in Canada there was an actual rhinoceros party, um
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: and I don't know what's it literally inspired by the
• 10:19
  Speaker 1: Brazilian rhino. I couldn't tell. Okay, I could not tell,
• 10:23
  Speaker 1: but it's obviously a satirical political party. And the argument
• 10:28
  Speaker 1: that was being made was, uh, these they're perfect politicians
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: because their quote thick skin, slow moving, not too bright,
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: but can still move fast when in danger. Uh and
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: not not the rhino that you hear these days bandied
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: about an American politics, different kind of thing. What's the
• 10:46
  Speaker 1: rhino these days? Are a Republican in name only? Yeah?
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: Man I, As I was asking, I was like, shut up, Josh,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: if you know this, that's dumb. There's another legendary one
• 10:59
  Speaker 1: too that I had not heard about. But when I
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: started researching, I was like, oh, this is a thing.
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: There was a pig called Pegasus the Immortal, that was
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: nominated as president for president by the Yippies back in
• 11:11
  Speaker 1: the nineteen sixty eight Democratic Convention, and that was an
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: enormously turbulent, brutal convention. It took place in Chicago. The
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: CPD showed up and beat everybody up every night, arrested
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: everybody for protesting the Vietnam War and all sorts of stuff.
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: Um and the Yippies where the Youth International Party UH
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: co founded by Abby Hoffman and eventually became the Chicago
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: Eight and then the Chicago Seven. So that whole jam,
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: and that's right, and then and then just Peter Satera
• 11:43
  Speaker 1: and then so in the midst of this crazy chaotic event,
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: this the Democratic Convention in Chicago in night, the Yippies
• 11:51
  Speaker 1: nominated Pigasus, and they brought this hundred forty five pound
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: pig to a press conference to dominate him, basically saying like,
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: we're just going with a will pick because all the
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: other politicians are pretend pigs were why why not just
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: elect a real pig this time? And they got about
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: half of that out into the microphone before the Chicago
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: police arrested him. For breathing in public and confiscated poor Pegasus.
• 12:14
  Speaker 1: They arrested a pig. Yeah, technically they confiscated it, but
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: we like to say it arrested the pig along with
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: the seven yippies that we're you know, protesting, and I
• 12:24
  Speaker 1: guess caring for this pig. And I believe that Pegasus
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: was handed over eventually to the Anti Cruelty Society and
• 12:33
  Speaker 1: the Yippies would go and visit and then was like,
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: you got a free Pegasus. I'm sorry Pegasus, and let
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: Pegasus fly, and they did so eventually in Pegasus if
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: you if you believe the story that you tell every
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: kid when you actually put an animal down, they went
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: to live on a farm outside the city for the
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: rest of its life. I saw in the Chicago Tribune,
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: so hopefully it was. Yeah, and then we really can't
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: talk about and was in politics if we don't talk
• 13:01
  Speaker 1: about the o g right, Caligula's horse, Yeah, what was
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: uh Insatatus? That's yeah, that's what I think too, all right,
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: So this was big Instatus. This is Caligula's favorite horse
• 13:15
  Speaker 1: and was appointed to serve as uh consul to the
• 13:19
  Speaker 1: Roman Senate and uh, but aren't people saying that, like,
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: this isn't true. Actually this didn't happen. Yeah, they think
• 13:26
  Speaker 1: that it was part of a smear campaign by some
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: of his contemporary or shortly after him, like political enemies,
• 13:33
  Speaker 1: who were smearing him, and they're saying that it's probably
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: like not true. But they also caveat that, which is
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: another kind of Roman thing um with the idea that
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: if Caligula did do that, he didn't do it because
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: he was mad or insane. He would have done it
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: as an act of humiliating the senators, saying like, my
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: horse is a better senator than you guys are, which
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: is sort of in the tradition we see today. Yeah, exactly,
• 14:02
  Speaker 1: it's a long standing tradition. I love it all the
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: way back to Roman times. Yeah, So get out there
• 14:07
  Speaker 1: and vote, everybody. Rock the vote by rocking your favorite
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: animal candidate next time you go to the polls. The
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: short Stuff is out. Stuff You Should Know is a
• 14:20
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• 14:24
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• 14:27
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