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Tug of War · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:01
  Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Heart Radio. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: and there's Charles W Chuck Bryant and Jerry's even here.
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: Believe it or not, We're thrilled for that. And uh,
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: this is stuff you should know. Okay, stop asking, that's right. Uh.
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: I want to say this is part two of the
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: rudimentary games that there is seemingly more too than you
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: would think. Hm, starting with rochambo or almost a tick
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: tech toe again, what's my deal with that? I don't
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: know rock paper scissors, but I must admit there is
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: more to Rock paper Scissors than Tug of War. I
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: am very glad that I didn't have to get that
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: out of you. Yeah, I thought there would. I thought
• 0:56
  Speaker 1: there was more to it than this strategy wise, and
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: I think I was suckered at by Squid Game, which
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: we'll talk about a little bit later, uh, into thinking
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: that there could be some more depths to this. There's
• 1:10
  Speaker 1: not a whole lot. No. Apparently Squid Games like really
• 1:14
  Speaker 1: took something and and made something huge out of it,
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: because I mean it was even an Olympic support for
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: a little while in the Olympics were like, let's not
• 1:22
  Speaker 1: do that anymore. Yeah, although I have to say growing
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: up in this eighties and uh, there was it was
• 1:29
  Speaker 1: a lot more in the forefront because like Battle of
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: the Network Stars did it on TV. H do you
• 1:36
  Speaker 1: remember the Superstars? No, it was a sports competition show
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: on Sunday afternoons and it took, you know, prominent athletes
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: from all sports and pitted them against one another all
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: season long to to determine a champion. And there was
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: this great obstacle course it was. It was one of
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: the most sort of eighties you know, aside from uh
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: American American Gladiators kind of things that you could watch
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: and uh there was a tug of war, usually between
• 2:09
  Speaker 1: two teams comprised of like prominent football players versus prominent
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: baseball players, and that was always a big deal. In fact,
• 2:16
  Speaker 1: I just watched a a recap of the one hour
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: in fifteen minute epic battle from between members of the
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Kansas City Royals and uh, I don't know who the
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: other side was. I think it was a football team.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: Was George Brett on that team? Yet? You bet your
• 2:33
  Speaker 1: buddy was Was that his rookie year? No? Huh, But
• 2:38
  Speaker 1: it was right, no, no no, no Prebo Jackson yet, but
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: that was pretty epic. And on that one they were
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: I mean they were laying down in the sand and resting,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: some guys taking their hands off at times. It was
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: you know, all the rules, you know. They tied the
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: rope around their waist, as did Louferrigno in Battle of
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: the Network Stars was the anchor all kinds of things
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: that you don't do, which we'll talk about in true
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: competition Tug of War, but it was just sort of
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: I feel like we saw Tug of War a lot
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: more in the eighties than we do now. Yeah. That
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: and running under a giant parachute that your classmates were
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: billowing up for you. It's a second reference. I've heard
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: of that in a week. Oh really, yeah, I never
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: did that, but oh chuck, we're going to we're gonna
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: get some stuff. You should know. Listeners together and do
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: that because you have to experience it at least once.
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: You're like, it is thrilling, I need to. It was
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: on the Threedom podcast, So Paula Tompkins and Ackerman and
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Lauren Lapkins we're talking about that. It's a lot of fun.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: We're gonna I'm gonna like that is going to happen
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: before you die, all right, and I gets run under
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: you run under before it catches you. That's the key.
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: So there's like a certain amount of tention to it.
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: What if he catches you, like touches you, Yes, that
• 3:50
  Speaker 1: silky goodness. Don't you want that touch on you know?
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: Or else you you dissolve? Okay? Uh But anyway, I
• 3:58
  Speaker 1: just you know, in the field day in the eighties,
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: like there was tug of war all over the place,
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: but you don't see it much anymore until squid Game
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: came around, and I think that did sort of reignite
• 4:07
  Speaker 1: some interest, including myself totally. And it's from what from
• 4:11
  Speaker 1: this research that we've done on this um your experience
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: and my experience too at that age where you know,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: tug of war is like a big part of your life.
• 4:21
  Speaker 1: That's the most you can possibly experience or get out
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: of it. You got everything there was to get out
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: of it pretty much except for knowing that it was
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: an Olympic sport for twenty years, that's right. And squid
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: Games the TV show, by the way, and then we
• 4:32
  Speaker 1: often just talk about things, is that people know what
• 4:35
  Speaker 1: they are well. I mean, who hasn't heard of Squid Games?
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Did you watch it? Yeah? Of course yes, me and
• 4:43
  Speaker 1: everybody else on the planet. That's why you just mistitled it.
• 4:46
  Speaker 1: I just was curious what I call it squid Games?
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: Is it suid squid Game? Yeah? Okay, yeah, I really,
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: I really fumble down. Well, it's better than Squid's game
• 4:58
  Speaker 1: because that's all the pressure that sounds like how Hodgeman
• 5:01
  Speaker 1: would pronounce it. So yeah, if you haven't seen Squid Game, um, like,
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: go check it out. It's amazing and it's on Netflix
• 5:09
  Speaker 1: and actually it alone is worth getting a month's subscription
• 5:12
  Speaker 1: to Netflix if you don't have it. Yeah, but we'll
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: talk about the strategy they use, which made for great television,
• 5:18
  Speaker 1: but apparently it's not a thing, disappointingly. Yeah, but if
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: you haven't seen some good games, don't listen to that part.
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: Just put your fingers in your ears and shout Mimi
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Me at the top of your lungs and very high
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: pitched voice until we're done. So we're talking about Tug
• 5:32
  Speaker 1: of War, believe it or not, and um, I think
• 5:35
  Speaker 1: chuck just in the spirit of people who say stop
• 5:38
  Speaker 1: saying if you if unless you've been living under a rock.
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: You haven't heard of something we should explain with Tug
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: of war is okay, Yeah, let's do it. Okay. So,
• 5:47
  Speaker 1: in the modern sense of the word, tug of war
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: is a game that's played between It can be as
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: as few as two people. It can be as many
• 5:58
  Speaker 1: as your imagination can fit onto a rope. And um,
• 6:04
  Speaker 1: the people are on two sides. Uh, they're opposing sides,
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: and they're pulling in opposite directions on that rope. And
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: the point of the game is to pull your opponent
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: pass some line to where you've just won, or pull them,
• 6:20
  Speaker 1: knock them down, pull it until they let go of
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: the rope, or There's a few different ways to win,
• 6:26
  Speaker 1: but generally you're pulling your opponent past some line and
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: then you've won and you can run around shouting yes
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: and thrusting your fist in the air. That's right. I
• 6:36
  Speaker 1: think the most fun versions, especially on television, are when
• 6:40
  Speaker 1: there's a mud pit in the middle. Sure. Uh. In
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: the case of squid game, it is a battle to
• 6:46
  Speaker 1: the death, that's all we'll say. Uh. In elementary school,
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: it's usually on the gymnasium floor with some tape or
• 6:54
  Speaker 1: like a ribbon hanging down from the rope, or maybe
• 7:00
  Speaker 1: if um the phizz ed teacher hadn't pre planned, it's
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: just their whistle and their lanyard forming a line on
• 7:07
  Speaker 1: the floor. Uh. In the case of Revenge of the Nerds,
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: the nerds have no chance. I guess I should say
• 7:13
  Speaker 1: spoiler alert. Oh, I remember what happens there. They let go.
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: They did. They won by losing, that's right, They let
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: go and the jocks fell into the dusty dirt, and
• 7:25
  Speaker 1: the nerds just said, congratulations, you won, and boy Ogre
• 7:31
  Speaker 1: was so mad. Ogre was so mad. So. Um, that's it.
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: That's tug of war. And you've probably played it before,
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: and it is true, like I'm just giving you some
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: grief that like there's nothing more to it, there is
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: a surprising amount more to it, because it is a
• 7:46
  Speaker 1: ridiculously simple game. Um, but it's so simple. Chuck that
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: Ed who helped us out with this, makes a really
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: good point that basically, if you threw a dart at
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: any part of the globe, you would probably find some
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: his Doric tradition of some form of tug of war.
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: It's been it spans millennia, it um, it crosses geographic
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  Speaker 1: and cultural boundaries. It's just been invented multiple times in
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: multiple places because it's just such a simple concept, and
• 8:17
  Speaker 1: yet at the same time it still gives you that
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: thrill that any game or struggle should give you when
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: you win. Do you want to hit some history? Do
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: you want to save that? I think we should hit
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: some history. It just makes sense to put it at
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: the beginning if you ask me, Yeah, so, yeah, you're right.
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: I mean we're talking, Uh, Vikings did it, the Nordic
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: sports did it across streams. Uh. There have been various
• 8:42
  Speaker 1: versions of like man versus beast at times, or a
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: machine versus machine. The British Navy INTI they used a
• 8:51
  Speaker 1: tug of war to settle a debate on whether a
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: propeller driven ship was better than the old paddle wheel.
• 8:58
  Speaker 1: Of course, the propeller one. Yeah, so it's it's been
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: a way to settle disputes at times. Yeah, and I
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: think it's still is. It's not quite as good at
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: settling a spew to say, rock paper scissors. It takes longer,
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: and there's there's you know, potential injuries we'll see, but yes,
• 9:14
  Speaker 1: you can settle this potential amputation which scissors. Will never
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: do in rock paper scissors. Now, try as hard as
• 9:20
  Speaker 1: you can, you just can't do it. Uh, what about
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: this the rasa Kashi? Yeah, so apparently India has a
• 9:27
  Speaker 1: long tradition of um tug of war like games, and
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: I guess their their version of tug of war is
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: called rassakashi. And you can still tune into game shows
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: today where like that's part of the game show is
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: like a tug of war and there's not you know,
• 9:43
  Speaker 1: normally when you watch a game show, there's like a
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: there's just a certain amount of peppiness and like lightness
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: to the whole thing. Now, the one I saw this
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: rasakashi um competition, it looks it looked like a game
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: show was indoors in a stage and like the whole
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: was wearing a suit or whatever. But they were dead
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: serious about this, like they took it really seriously. UM.
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: And that's apparently out of the Punjab region of of India.
• 10:11
  Speaker 1: There's UH in an entirely different part of India called
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: Konark there's a Sun temple there that was built in
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: the century and there's a depiction of tug of war
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: on the wall there. So it's been around in India
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: for quite some time, hundreds and hundreds of years at least. Yeah,
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: And of course when Europeans came to the America's and
• 10:33
  Speaker 1: this is sort of unclear whether or not they brought
• 10:35
  Speaker 1: it with them or whether or not it uh existed
• 10:38
  Speaker 1: previously to indigenous people of the America's, which is very
• 10:42
  Speaker 1: possible because they had all kinds of kind of folky
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: sports that they played in tug of war. You know,
• 10:47
  Speaker 1: I think what piqued my interest from the beginning was
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: the rudimentary nature of it, which is, like you said,
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: sometimes just one person on one side and one person
• 10:57
  Speaker 1: another and can you pull them? Can you out either
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: maybe out with them or usually just out muscle them
• 11:04
  Speaker 1: to do so. So perhaps Native American tribes did this
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: to begin with, but at any rate, they uh, you know,
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: the colonizers would would play these games sometimes including tug
• 11:16
  Speaker 1: of war, and Ed points out sometimes it was a
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: friendlier way to say I can dominate you rather than
• 11:23
  Speaker 1: just killing someone, right right, yes, um, And and and again
• 11:27
  Speaker 1: that's a way to settle disputes or tension as well.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: It can be if we'll take these five thousand acres
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: because we want a tug of war as we pulled
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: you over the arbitrary line. Right. Um, there's there's tug
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: of war in China. Um, there's tug of war. There's
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: a long standing tug of war from that started in
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: the fourteenth century in Korea called the Jewel Darigi Festival.
• 11:55
  Speaker 1: I think he nailed it. They they have it uh
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: every year, and it's substantially different from most other tug
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: of war that you've ever seen, sorry tugs of war
• 12:07
  Speaker 1: that you've seen, and that the rope is enormous. Um.
• 12:12
  Speaker 1: Typically it's about two hundred meters long, the six hundred
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: feet for you American school kids a meter thick, weighing
• 12:19
  Speaker 1: forty tons, And you're like, well, how do you even
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: get your arms around a three ft circumference rope? Well
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: you don't. It has actual ropes, smaller ropes that you
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: can handle coming off of it, and hundreds of people
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: will participate in this and the whole town turns out
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: for it, and it's amazing to see UH. And I
• 12:39
  Speaker 1: was like, that certainly rings a bell because Humi has
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: told me many, many times that one of her fondest
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: childhood memories is the tug of war festival in Naha
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: and Okinawa, where she was born and raised. UM, and
• 12:52
  Speaker 1: they've been doing that since the seventeenth century, and it's
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: it bears such a striking resemblance to the one from
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: Korea that obviously the Koreans influenced them. But it's the
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: east of the town in the west of the town,
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: and they've their rope is even bigger and even more
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: people come. Apparently they set the world record. There were
• 13:10
  Speaker 1: two hundred and seventy thousand people in attendance and fifteen
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: thousand people participating on the east and the west side. Uh.
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: And I can't remember which one that year. It was
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: quite a party to see that video. And I imagine
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: the Japanese festival is much like the one in Korea,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: where the tug of war itself is really not the fun.
• 13:31
  Speaker 1: The fun is getting together building this rope together. I
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: imagine there's a little bit of drinking that goes on. Yeah,
• 13:37
  Speaker 1: it had and uh, everyone just has a good time.
• 13:40
  Speaker 1: It's sort of been the spirit of uh, of friendship
• 13:43
  Speaker 1: rather than let me try and dominate you, right exactly,
• 13:47
  Speaker 1: because I mean they're all from the same time. It's
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: just the east side of the town. On the west
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: side of the town, but the so I asked you
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: me about that because I hadn't heard about the rope
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: being constructed. Apparently at the Korean festival they make the
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: rope every year, and I was like, did did they
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: construct the rope every year? And she's like, well, I
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: don't think so. And I said, well, where did they
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: store this forty three ton si ft long rope? And
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: she's like a hanger, know, So I need to get
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: to the bottom of that of whether they made the
• 14:16
  Speaker 1: rope themselves. But she was a kid. They would go
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: every year and she just it was like the biggest
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: deal every year in in Okinawa. So she was the anchor,
• 14:25
  Speaker 1: she was, she was cheering them on. I think she
• 14:28
  Speaker 1: did participate at least one year. Yeah, that's cute. You
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: just grab a rope, you know, and pull. Yeah, exactly.
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: I think it's Some people say that it was one
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: of the original ancient Olympic sports, but there's not a
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: ton to back this up is being true. It may
• 14:43
  Speaker 1: have been, um but as Ed points out, it you know,
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: it didn't. It didn't get a lot of press even
• 14:49
  Speaker 1: if it was, so it was never that highly regarded.
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: Uh and when it was an official Olympic sport in
• 14:55
  Speaker 1: the modern Olympics, it was still in the early nineteen hundreds,
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: was still not super highly regarded in that you didn't field,
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: um like an American, an official American team. There were clubs,
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: teamed club teams that would show up and could uh
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: participate like multiple from one country, and then sometimes they
• 15:14
  Speaker 1: would just feel the team from people in other sports.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: But if you were like a shot putter, I would say,
• 15:20
  Speaker 1: now go do the shot put Like, I know, you're
• 15:23
  Speaker 1: on the anchor for the team, but the schedules conflict
• 15:26
  Speaker 1: and you should do the shot. But because that's a
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: real event, yeah, for sure, which is sad. It is
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: sort of sad, especially if you were like the one
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: guy on the tug aboard team who like really took
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: it seriously and all of a sudden your team dissolved
• 15:37
  Speaker 1: because the shot put her to go shot putt and
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: so on. That's right. Um, you want to take a
• 15:42
  Speaker 1: break and then come back and talk a little more
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: about the Olympic history of it. Yeah, let's do it. Okay, okay, Chuck,
• 16:13
  Speaker 1: so um, there's a lot of legend and laura around
• 16:16
  Speaker 1: this very short um period of Olympic history. Um, that
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: tug of war appeared in and a lot of it's wrong,
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: Like you were saying that it was an original, ancient
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: Games event and there's no real evidence of that. There's
• 16:30
  Speaker 1: also um a widely held fact that a guy named
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: Constantine Enriquez de Zubi Eira was the first black Olympic
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: athlete and that he won a silver and Tug of
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: War and gold and rugby in the nineteen Olympics. And
• 16:46
  Speaker 1: apparently that's partly true but not right. I think it
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: was a case of mistaken identity usually, which just one
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: of those Internet things where it keeps getting repeated anyway,
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: But there was a Lumbian name Francisco Enriquez the Siberia
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: that did win a silver medal for Tug of War,
• 17:08
  Speaker 1: but a Haitian Constantine Enriquez one rugby. Okay, So, so
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: Constantine Enriquez was the first black Olympic athlete. He just
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: had nothing to do with Tug of War. I think
• 17:20
  Speaker 1: that's the case. But I mean that's the kind of
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: depth that we have to get to to make Tug
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: of War interesting. Cases of mistaken identity. I wasn't even
• 17:31
  Speaker 1: going to mention it actually, but sure, okay, um so okay,
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: So there was a twenty year period from nine ninety
• 17:38
  Speaker 1: Olympics you could find tug of war unless your team
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: had gotten dissolved, and apparently that happened frequently enough that
• 17:46
  Speaker 1: I believe in the nineteen oh what Olympics was it
• 17:49
  Speaker 1: to where so many teams got dissolved that they only
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: gave out a golden a sil silver medal that year,
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: which means how many teams were there too. All the
• 18:03
  Speaker 1: other teams got dissolved and there were two teams left,
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: so you had a chance, I guess, of either coming
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: in silver or gold and a hundred percent chance of
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: medaling that year. Yeah, that's not bad at all. Uh.
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: In nine eight the there was a police team, the
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: Liverpool Police at the Olympics. Again you could field club
• 18:21
  Speaker 1: teams and that's what they did in England. They had
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: these big boots because, as we'll see later, one of
• 18:27
  Speaker 1: the biggest keys is the physics of feet on the
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: floor and having big heavy shoes. If you're uh, if
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: you're doing this on an outdoor like on the grass,
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: you can dig in with some big heavy boots. And
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: apparently the US team filed the protest because they wore
• 18:43
  Speaker 1: these big, giant doc Martins or something like that. I
• 18:46
  Speaker 1: guess right. So um that year actually the Liverpool Police
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: team medal, got a silver medal, and the the Brits
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: actually swept the podium. The City of London Police got gold,
• 19:00
  Speaker 1: Liverpool Police got silver and the Metropolitan Police K Division
• 19:04
  Speaker 1: got bronze. Here just like all these cops battling, all
• 19:08
  Speaker 1: these bobbies battling it out. It is and but the
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: reason why is apparently it was a big deal in Britain.
• 19:13
  Speaker 1: It was a big deal in um Ireland as well.
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: UM and your local police force probably had a tug
• 19:18
  Speaker 1: of war team because tug of war was part of
• 19:20
  Speaker 1: their training. And from what I saw, that actually originated
• 19:23
  Speaker 1: from the British Navy UM using Tug of Wars training
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: to kind of you know, hoist sales and all that stuff.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: You've got to basically do that in real life, so
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: they would use tug of war and then the cops
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: kind of picked it up as police forces came into
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: existence in the UK. And then because with the Olympics
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: there weren't national teams, you could have club teams. That's
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: how you could have three different police force tug of
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: war teams sweeping the podium for Great Britain in in
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: the nineteen o eight Olympics and it it uh, I
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: mean they still, I think still use it in the
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: American military because not only is it a good workout,
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: but it's a morale builder. You get these divisions or
• 20:04
  Speaker 1: platoons against one another, and uh, you know, it's a
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: good it's a good group sport, especially in the military,
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: like sort of just a brute strength thing to try
• 20:14
  Speaker 1: and rally your battalion. And keeps saying all these different
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: words because I don't know what they call each other, platoons, battalions, groups, uh, teams, um,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: book clubs, book clubs against one another. Uh. Nineteen twenty
• 20:29
  Speaker 1: was the last time it was at the Olympics because
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: they looked around in nineteen twenty and said, we have
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: way too many events and what gets cut. Of course,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: Tug of War was one of those. And you know
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: there is I don't know about a ground swell, but uh,
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: certainly after Squid Game there were a few people wondering
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: if it should come back in the Olympics, and I
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: doubt it ever will, but you never know. There were
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: some things that happened though. Apparently back in the Tug
• 20:56
  Speaker 1: of War International Federation who we'll talk a little bit
• 20:59
  Speaker 1: more about later. Um, it was recognized by the International
• 21:03
  Speaker 1: Olympic Committee. Um that's something. Yeah, which that's a huge
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: first step to ending up with your sport in the Olympics.
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: But then just two years later or three years later, Um,
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: the IOC told the media, like, you know, the t
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: w i F is going to really have to get
• 21:21
  Speaker 1: a lot better funding and a lot more international participation
• 21:24
  Speaker 1: before it's going to end up in the Olympics. Has
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: a long way to go, if ever, it will show
• 21:28
  Speaker 1: up again. Yeah, And you know, I hate to say it.
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Ed points it out. It's kind of true though it's
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: not the most exciting thing to watch when you watch
• 21:37
  Speaker 1: competition tug of war. Even watching that Superstars clip from
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: earlier in my childhood, it was an hour and fifteen
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: minutes long of these guys basically lying there in the sand, uh,
• 21:51
  Speaker 1: with an equal tautness on both sides of the rope,
• 21:54
  Speaker 1: like nothing was happening. They're exhausted that like I said,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: they're taking their hands off to like massad their hands
• 22:00
  Speaker 1: and and try and regain some bit of a grip.
• 22:03
  Speaker 1: But it ended in a draw. No one even one.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: It was really I know it's there's not even a
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: great ending to the story, like with Luferrigno and he
• 22:11
  Speaker 1: beat Billy Crystal. Um Billy Crystal, well they were on teams,
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: but Billy Crystal was on one side. Lufrigno was on
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: the other. Battle the Network Stars, I guess it was
• 22:21
  Speaker 1: soap okay at the time, was most of the show
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: Billy Crystal represented. But um, at least you know, Luferrigno
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: and and Daisy Duke and his team one but no
• 22:32
  Speaker 1: one even one in the in the sand that day,
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: they just dig in lay there and eventually they said,
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: we got to stop this madness, so let's set a
• 22:40
  Speaker 1: time limit, like as they were going, they set the
• 22:42
  Speaker 1: time limit when it was clear nothing was going on.
• 22:45
  Speaker 1: It was terrible television. And so they said it in
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: an hour and fifteen and it stopped and nobody won.
• 22:50
  Speaker 1: And that was kind of it. And sometimes that's how
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: it goes. Howard Coastell just comes on and goes, I'm sorry,
• 22:56
  Speaker 1: folks on Oh no, it was it Coastel. He did
• 22:58
  Speaker 1: the Battle of the Battle Network starts. Lufi Now that
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: was Katherine Hepburn. Now that was so um. We should
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: probably talk a little bit about the t W I
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: f we we Um revealed that there is an International
• 23:19
  Speaker 1: Federation of Tug of War UM. And they actually came
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: about from what I saw, Chuck Um, because after the Olympics,
• 23:26
  Speaker 1: people said after the MS I don't know if yeah,
• 23:29
  Speaker 1: you did say that. They finally said we're cutting these
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: are their tug of war is not making the cut.
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: That that didn't diminish interest in tug of war and
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: a lot of the countries where it was already popular.
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: So UM they actually started assembling national teams and some
• 23:45
  Speaker 1: some national teams have been assembled for the Olympics already anyway,
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: but they had no way to compete against one another.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: They can only compete within their countries. And so the
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: the guy named UM, George Hutton got together with the
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: Swedes and said, hey, let's form the Tug of War
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: International Federation back in nineteen sixty and the rest is history.
• 24:06
  Speaker 1: Known to half a dozen people. George E. F. Hutton.
• 24:16
  Speaker 1: Maybe I was thinking George Timothy Hutton because when he talks,
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: people listen, Oh is that who that was? Yeah? I
• 24:24
  Speaker 1: remember that commercial, sure, I remember, but I could never
• 24:26
  Speaker 1: remember what brokerage it was. Yeah, I mean this is
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: the show is just overflying with eighties references now all
• 24:32
  Speaker 1: of a sudden, Yeah, do you remember the Saturna Night
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: Live spoof of that? No? Oh? I think it was
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: Robert Smigel and they did. They just nailed the commercial.
• 24:42
  Speaker 1: It looked exactly like it. But he would just start
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: saying all these like bizarre things with like the the
• 24:50
  Speaker 1: the full attention of the rooms of these people just enwrapped.
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: I can't remember what he would say, but it's definitely
• 24:55
  Speaker 1: worth looking up. I'm sure did a documentary on Smigel.
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: They did one on The Dana Carvey Show. Have you
• 25:03
  Speaker 1: seen that? No? Oh? It was on Hulu and they
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: said like too Funny to Live is the name of
• 25:08
  Speaker 1: it or something like that, and it was about this
• 25:11
  Speaker 1: this show like Dana Carvey just basically gave Robert Smigel
• 25:15
  Speaker 1: like carte Blanc to make You're just the funniest show
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: of all time. No, I know what you're talking about.
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: I actually saw that you saw the show. No. I
• 25:23
  Speaker 1: saw the documentary about the Kana Carvey Show, and I
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: thought you met on the Dana Carvey Show. They did
• 25:27
  Speaker 1: a segment or something. I got. Oh. No, but I'm saying,
• 25:29
  Speaker 1: like that's probably the closest you can come to a
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: Smigle documentary right now. Unfortunately, you're right, and that's a
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: good doctor think it was. It was, but if you're
• 25:38
  Speaker 1: talking international tug of war competition, um, it is not
• 25:43
  Speaker 1: just uh you know, on on I hate to bring
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: it up again, but on on the Superstars, uh as
• 25:49
  Speaker 1: we'll see. Wait is a really obviously huge key factor
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: and whether or not you went a tug of war. So,
• 25:56
  Speaker 1: like boxing and like wrastling, you have to match weights.
• 26:01
  Speaker 1: So they actually had I think the baseball team had
• 26:04
  Speaker 1: one extra dude, even than the football side. This was
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: not official in any capacity from what you're just going. Well,
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: they had to match weight, you know, that was what
• 26:12
  Speaker 1: it was all about. Okay, you know what I mean.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: So the baseball players were lighter than the football team,
• 26:18
  Speaker 1: so they had one extra person. But an international competition,
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: there are eight people on a team. I don't even
• 26:27
  Speaker 1: know if there's a way in for for these is yes,
• 26:30
  Speaker 1: most decidedly, it's extremely important. Well then, I mean, what
• 26:34
  Speaker 1: do they say, like you just have to match weight
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: with the other team and like playing your team accordingly, Yes,
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: and I don't think it's down to like the pound
• 26:44
  Speaker 1: or maybe even the kilogram necessarily, but it's got to
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: be close enough. There's a class and your team has
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: to weigh within this weight class. Okay, I got you,
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: I got you. See what I'm saying. That makes not
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: pound for pound necessarily, but it has to be an
• 26:57
  Speaker 1: eight person team and they have to, like the bind
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: way of the team has to fall within this window
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: for the class. Okay, that makes sense, just like boxing
• 27:05
  Speaker 1: and wrestling in fact, right, but divided by eight people. Yeah,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: the rope itself is and we should note again, like
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: I said, you don't tie the rope around the anchor.
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: There are not knots in the rope like sometimes elementary
• 27:18
  Speaker 1: school versions you have knots to make it easier for
• 27:21
  Speaker 1: little kid hands to hold onto and stuff like that.
• 27:24
  Speaker 1: Not true at all in international competition or any real
• 27:28
  Speaker 1: you know, like genuine tug of war. You're not gonna
• 27:31
  Speaker 1: have knots in the rope. No, and supposedly um most
• 27:34
  Speaker 1: people recommend, although despite his best efforts could not find verification.
• 27:39
  Speaker 1: I couldn't either that the t W I F. It's
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: got to be twiff, right, That's what I call it.
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: That twiff mandates that the rope has to be a
• 27:50
  Speaker 1: natural fiber. But if you are, if you're doing anything
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: kind of pro or organized really even any tug of war,
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: you want to use an natural fiber rope because they're
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: less prone to snapping. They're also less prone to stretching,
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: and as we'll see, both of those are really bad
• 28:08
  Speaker 1: things that can happen, especially if you use a synthetic rope. So, um,
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: you're not supposed to use most likely a synthetic rope.
• 28:16
  Speaker 1: You want to use natural fiber, right. Uh. And in
• 28:19
  Speaker 1: this case, it's thirty three and a half meters long
• 28:23
  Speaker 1: and between ten and twelve and a half centimeters in circumference,
• 28:27
  Speaker 1: so it's ten feet long about four to five inches
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: in circumference. Yeah, and the anchor, like I said, they
• 28:34
  Speaker 1: don't tie the rope around their waist, but they are
• 28:36
  Speaker 1: the only people allowed to manipulate the rope in a
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: way other than just holding it palms up, which is
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: what everyone else has to do. Like you can't wrap
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: it around your wrists. That's a bad idea, like as
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: we'll see later, uh, your coding career, Yeah exactly, but
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: the anchor will um, they will pass the rope over
• 28:58
  Speaker 1: their shoulder and then around or back diagonally, then under
• 29:01
  Speaker 1: the opposite armpit, and then back over the front of
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: their body and then back under that armpit. So it's
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: sort of like a little figure eight that they wrap
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: around their body, but it's never tied right uh, And
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: from from what I've seen, it looks like it can
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: be released pretty easily and quickly too. It's not gonna
• 29:19
  Speaker 1: like tear the person into And also they're the ones
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: and the that are the furthest back, so they would
• 29:25
  Speaker 1: be least affected by a catastrophic break of the rope
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: right or fall into a pit of vipers. One thing
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: that I didn't notice or realize before that I thought
• 29:35
  Speaker 1: was pretty interesting, but it makes total sense, is that
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: if you are a poller, so like you said, the
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: anchor is the only one who can do anything like
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: wrapping the rope around even their hand. Um. You you
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: can grip the rope palms up and that's it. You
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: can't like move hand over hand to like gain length
• 29:54
  Speaker 1: on the rope. That's illegal. You can't walk up the
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: rope right, It's called I think climbing and quote um,
• 30:00
  Speaker 1: climbing the rope like you have to basically keep your
• 30:03
  Speaker 1: hands in roughly the same area, which means that all
• 30:06
  Speaker 1: of the pull on the rope, all the movement on
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: the rope is created by your leg power. Like you're
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: holding onto the rope with your with your arms to
• 30:16
  Speaker 1: keep it from being to keep yourself from being pulled back,
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: but you're also you're mostly using your leg power. Like
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: almost all of the strategy in the point of tug
• 30:25
  Speaker 1: of war is in the legs. Yeah, you're literally walking
• 30:29
  Speaker 1: the rope backwards. Lou Ferrigno and team they could. It
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: was It's like the Wild West. They were pulling that
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: thing hand over hand. You can't do that. Until Billy
• 30:39
  Speaker 1: Crystal was in that water pool. I didn't know you
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: can't do that, But now I understand. You can't do that. No,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: just for TV. Yeah, you gotta just dig in and
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: pull pull pull. Uh, you have a coach. Another name
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: for a coach is a driver. And the driver it's
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: a big deal. You know, the driver walks up and
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: down the line and you know there are, like I said,
• 31:02
  Speaker 1: great periods of rests where you have to just sort
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: of you aren't allowed to lay down though. Again, Uh,
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: like on TV, you can't do that. You have to
• 31:10
  Speaker 1: keep on your feet. But there are still periods of
• 31:13
  Speaker 1: what you would call rest, and then the driver will
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: will will mount a challenge, you know, a unison unified
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: in unison pull pull pull, and you know that's it's
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: sort of like being the who's the person my mom
• 31:29
  Speaker 1: does the dragon boat racing the person in the back
• 31:32
  Speaker 1: of the boat steers and like, yeah, that's yeah, that's
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: what I thought of. Two in the growing crew, But
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: I mean dragon boat, they actually steered a is the
• 31:42
  Speaker 1: Do they do that in the rowing team? No? The
• 31:44
  Speaker 1: coxswain doesn't do anything shouting to like a little boy
• 31:48
  Speaker 1: varsity we're gonna hear it. Probably the coxwayn Society, that's right.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: Who you've heard of unless you've been living under a rock,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: that's right. Hey, maybe speaking of rock, we should crawl
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: under one and take a quick break before we talk
• 32:05
  Speaker 1: about some of the supportive gear and footwear, which is
• 32:08
  Speaker 1: super exciting stuff. Okay, cool, all right, we'll be right back.
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: All right, I talked. I promised footwear and supportive gear. Yeah.
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: Supportive gear you can wear like belts and kneepads and
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: stuff like that. Or belt huh, like a weightlifting belt. Yeah,
• 32:49
  Speaker 1: do you ever have one of those? No, I've never
• 32:52
  Speaker 1: been quite that into it. Yeah, when you show up
• 32:55
  Speaker 1: to the gym and one of those you're you're sending
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: a statement, you definitely are. You say, I'm into lifting weights.
• 33:01
  Speaker 1: That's right, there's nothing wrong with that. I'm not making
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: fun of it, especially if you have like your name
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: burned into it in some like uh like steer horns
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: or something, yeah, like that filigree. But the footwear I
• 33:17
  Speaker 1: talked earlier about friction, I mean, tug of war is
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: all about feet meeting the ground and that friction and
• 33:23
  Speaker 1: being able to maintain your place and digging in and
• 33:27
  Speaker 1: you uh, if you're you know, indoors in a gymnasium,
• 33:31
  Speaker 1: you're probably just wearing some kind of good sneaker. But
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: outside you're allowed to wear these big boots and uh
• 33:37
  Speaker 1: with with big heels. And I guess they regulate this
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: for competition because you don't want to be like the
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: English police team, the Liverpool Police and overdo it. But
• 33:47
  Speaker 1: you are allowed to wear certain kinds of big boots.
• 33:50
  Speaker 1: You are and again it's like you that's the reason
• 33:53
  Speaker 1: why you're wearing boots is because that is where you're
• 33:56
  Speaker 1: winning or losing the game is in your your leg
• 33:59
  Speaker 1: power and how much contact you have with the ground,
• 34:02
  Speaker 1: and how much of that you can use to propel
• 34:04
  Speaker 1: yourself and your team backward, holding onto the rope and
• 34:07
  Speaker 1: then thus pulling the other team over that center line.
• 34:11
  Speaker 1: That's right. Should we talk about a match, Yeah, I
• 34:15
  Speaker 1: think we should. I think we've reached the point we've
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: laid it out enough, Chuck, that everybody's ready for a
• 34:19
  Speaker 1: match for us to describe through audio a tug of
• 34:23
  Speaker 1: war match. All right, So you got that rope slaying
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: on the ground may or may not be a mud
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: pit or water in the middle, But for competition, that's
• 34:32
  Speaker 1: usually like TV kind of stuff. I don't think they
• 34:34
  Speaker 1: really do that in legit competitions, No, they don't. It's
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: got to be on turf grass if it's outdoors, or
• 34:39
  Speaker 1: either a gym floor or a special pad that gives
• 34:42
  Speaker 1: you a little a lot more traction on an indoor match,
• 34:45
  Speaker 1: that's right. So there's a judge, I guess, like a referee.
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: They would say take up the rope. Everyone on each
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: side would pick up the rope. They would say take
• 34:55
  Speaker 1: the strain. And that just means you pull it tight
• 34:59
  Speaker 1: and taught, but you're not like actually pulling on each
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: other yet and then you have that thing you gotta
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: they get they center it right in the middle. You've
• 35:06
  Speaker 1: probably got like something hanging down or some tape in
• 35:09
  Speaker 1: the center of the rope. He's got to line up
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: with the center of the of the match floor. And
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: then on either side, and in true competition, I think
• 35:17
  Speaker 1: it's actually marked out four meters on either side of center.
• 35:22
  Speaker 1: But depending on if you're doing playground versions or about
• 35:25
  Speaker 1: all the network stars, that number can vary. But this
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: is the official Twiff style. Is four meters is where
• 35:31
  Speaker 1: you want to pull your opponent. Yes, so that that
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: center line that's marked on the rope has to be
• 35:40
  Speaker 1: pulled over either of those other lines on either side.
• 35:44
  Speaker 1: The sideline marking is what it's called. So if you
• 35:47
  Speaker 1: pull that center line onto the over the sideline, it's
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: closest to you, you just want and vice versa. That's right,
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: I think, Yeah, I think we're doing a great job
• 35:56
  Speaker 1: here at Chuck. I think so the judge obviously is
• 35:59
  Speaker 1: going to shout ready, pull and then that's when you start. Yeah,
• 36:04
  Speaker 1: they shoot a shotgun in the air. Uh, And then
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: these are actually scored though their matches. Each match has
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: two tugs or two poles and if you win two
• 36:15
  Speaker 1: to nothing, if you win both, you get three points.
• 36:19
  Speaker 1: If you each win one, you each get one point,
• 36:22
  Speaker 1: and then you just progress sort of in a round
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: robin kind of way tournament style. Yeah, and then sudden
• 36:27
  Speaker 1: death is best two poles out of three, I believe, right.
• 36:31
  Speaker 1: And if you do dig in superstars way, then you're
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: there for an hour and fifteen minutes. Uh, and nothing's
• 36:38
  Speaker 1: going on. The judge can say call a no poll,
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: which I guess is just like a tie. Or if
• 36:44
  Speaker 1: one team is just really not doing anything, Uh, you
• 36:47
  Speaker 1: can actually be disqualified. Yes, I think that would be
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: the no a no poll call if you're not doing anything.
• 36:54
  Speaker 1: Or I think both teams can get a no poll
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: call if they both wear each other out and they
• 36:58
  Speaker 1: both just kind of stop, if they both start laying
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: around like the seventy eight Royals and whatever football team
• 37:03
  Speaker 1: they're playing, that would be a clear no pole against
• 37:06
  Speaker 1: both teams. So they is qualified. Yeah, well I guess
• 37:10
  Speaker 1: it's I you're both kicked out and both lost. You
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: all are thrown into the mud pit. That's right by
• 37:16
  Speaker 1: the judge. So this is this is still going on,
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: like this is UM. These rules are still being followed
• 37:21
  Speaker 1: in national and international competition. September of the World Championships
• 37:29
  Speaker 1: will be in the Netherlands. UM. And there's yeah, there's
• 37:33
  Speaker 1: plenty of like national and UM and local polls, tug
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: of war poles um that go on every Sunday. I
• 37:42
  Speaker 1: believe starting at eleven is the official time wherever your
• 37:45
  Speaker 1: local time is. If there's a tug of war competition
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: and they're doing it at eleven am on Sunday, it's
• 37:51
  Speaker 1: probably official. Yeah, this smacks of the kind of thing
• 37:54
  Speaker 1: like you know how there's well, I know, you know
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: there's kickball teams, recreational kickball leagues because you and Arey
• 38:00
  Speaker 1: famously played on a kickball team together many years ago.
• 38:03
  Speaker 1: It seems like a hundred years ago, doesn't it a thousand? Maybe? Uh,
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: there's dart teams, there's Bocci leagues, softball, a bunch of
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: their local tug of war leagues. Surely there's just no way,
• 38:15
  Speaker 1: especially after squids games. Yeah, you just get drunk on
• 38:20
  Speaker 1: on liquor and pull each other into the mud, that's right.
• 38:24
  Speaker 1: But officially, I think there's seven seventy three countries that
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: are members of the twit of TWI how many seventy
• 38:32
  Speaker 1: three by my account according to the rules that were
• 38:35
  Speaker 1: published in high your account one to right. And then
• 38:40
  Speaker 1: I keep getting messed up around seventeen or eighteen. And
• 38:44
  Speaker 1: here's what you do. You copy paste that into the
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: word die. That's good, just hit number. Yeah, that's a
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: great idea. But then it does the thing where it
• 38:52
  Speaker 1: goes one, A and B and you're like, what are
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: you even doing? Word formatting? And I want it formatted
• 38:59
  Speaker 1: like that? Right? That program hate word. Yeah, there's a
• 39:06
  Speaker 1: big word anti word backlash. I suspect this really an
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: anti Microsoft backlash. I think so. Right, alright, so we're
• 39:18
  Speaker 1: talking about how to be good at tug of War.
• 39:21
  Speaker 1: I think, sure, you've got to be strong and have
• 39:24
  Speaker 1: big shoes, which I'm I realized just now as I'm
• 39:27
  Speaker 1: looking through my notes, I'm missing that page. But it
• 39:31
  Speaker 1: also doesn't matter because you basically said what you have
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: to do, UM, that that you need to wear like
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: really good shoes that are heavy. You need to have
• 39:41
  Speaker 1: explosively powerful legs. You need to have arm strength, which
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: is something that I hope, um, which is something I
• 39:48
  Speaker 1: think we is worth pointing out. If you are actually
• 39:51
  Speaker 1: good at Tug of War, and you compete in in
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: Tug of War competitions and you are doing stuff like
• 39:56
  Speaker 1: like like world competitions through twift you are an extraordinarily
• 40:02
  Speaker 1: all around fit person and very strong person because playing
• 40:08
  Speaker 1: Tug of War in any kind of competitive level requires
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: a lot of different muscle groups, and all of those
• 40:13
  Speaker 1: muscle groups have to be really, really strong. That's right.
• 40:17
  Speaker 1: I guess we could talk a little bit about squid
• 40:19
  Speaker 1: Game here. If you have not seen it and you
• 40:22
  Speaker 1: want to, or you don't want something spoiled, just don't
• 40:24
  Speaker 1: listen for the next couple of minutes. But there's a great,
• 40:27
  Speaker 1: great pivotal scene in that great show where Um and
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: the concept of the show is that they're these people
• 40:34
  Speaker 1: that have been gathered together who are all very desperate,
• 40:37
  Speaker 1: usually because of money and financial woes, who are pitted
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: against one another in these childhood games Um to the
• 40:44
  Speaker 1: death and the winner gets a lot of money here
• 40:48
  Speaker 1: at the end, and Tug of War is one of them.
• 40:50
  Speaker 1: And this is a tug of war though that is
• 40:52
  Speaker 1: stage many many floors up and you fall to your
• 40:56
  Speaker 1: death and the and you lose like forever as in
• 41:01
  Speaker 1: your your life has gone that the ultimate loss. So
• 41:06
  Speaker 1: in squid game, the weaker team pulls out a victory
• 41:09
  Speaker 1: against a stronger team because of a very brilliant strategy
• 41:13
  Speaker 1: employed by the elder statesman of the weak team, wherein
• 41:16
  Speaker 1: they all start out uh with their feet um parallel
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: to one another dug in and they all the first
• 41:25
  Speaker 1: thing they do is lean all the way back and
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: look up at the sky and just set there and
• 41:29
  Speaker 1: don't move. And then their strategy, I believe was too
• 41:33
  Speaker 1: at a certain point when one person says so, is
• 41:36
  Speaker 1: to release the ropes on to get the other team
• 41:39
  Speaker 1: off balance and then grab it again and start this
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: hoo hoo hoo, all pulling in these big unified tugs.
• 41:49
  Speaker 1: And they won. They did when yeah, they this other stronger, heavier,
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: more fit team um fell to their death because you
• 41:59
  Speaker 1: left out that you're you're connected to that rope. So
• 42:02
  Speaker 1: when when one guy goes down there there, they take
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: the rope with them and thus comes the rest of
• 42:07
  Speaker 1: the team too. It's pretty pretty brutal, um. But there
• 42:11
  Speaker 1: was a study that you found Us magazine of all places,
• 42:17
  Speaker 1: um that that some some people basically experimented with it.
• 42:21
  Speaker 1: They got a group of like smaller, weaker people compared
• 42:25
  Speaker 1: to the other team and and use that strategy and
• 42:29
  Speaker 1: how did it pan out? Well, it didn't pan out
• 42:32
  Speaker 1: like the TV show. Obviously the TV show was dramatized
• 42:36
  Speaker 1: for great effect. But I did read and another article
• 42:40
  Speaker 1: about that same quote unquote study that um, in theory
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: it could work and this wasn't the best test of it, uh,
• 42:49
  Speaker 1: and that there was something to that initial a stance
• 42:53
  Speaker 1: and dig in at least. Okay, So I think we
• 42:57
  Speaker 1: finally reached like far and away that the absolute the
• 43:00
  Speaker 1: most interesting part of Tug of war. Yeah, that you
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: can suffer serious injury and potentially even death from playing
• 43:09
  Speaker 1: Tug of war if you don't know what you're doing
• 43:11
  Speaker 1: and you don't do it right. Because people have before. Yeah,
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: I mean there have been amputations. Obviously, some really awful
• 43:19
  Speaker 1: accidents with kids when they would wrap their hands around
• 43:23
  Speaker 1: you know, the rope around their wrists and stuff like that,
• 43:25
  Speaker 1: little little digits that were had to be amputated. Um.
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: A lot of the injuries come from the rope snap
• 43:31
  Speaker 1: that we talked about. Using a nylon rope, it'll pull
• 43:34
  Speaker 1: like a rubber band and then snap, and that can
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: has killed people. Yeah, because teams of people, and the
• 43:40
  Speaker 1: more people you add to a team, the more dangerous
• 43:42
  Speaker 1: the game becomes for a couple of reasons. One is
• 43:45
  Speaker 1: the likelihood of snapping a rope is increases. And then
• 43:49
  Speaker 1: also when that rope snaps, all those people fall back
• 43:52
  Speaker 1: where all of a sudden, and so people can get
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: crushed and trampled, and that happens as well. But when
• 43:58
  Speaker 1: you're when you have two teams of people, even like
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: little kids, as long as there's enough little kids, they're
• 44:04
  Speaker 1: exerting tons and tons of force on that rope that's
• 44:08
  Speaker 1: being stored in the rope. And as I was saying earlier,
• 44:11
  Speaker 1: with synthetic ropes, they stretch more, which means that more
• 44:16
  Speaker 1: tension is being stored, more energy is being stored in
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: that rope, so that when it does finally snap, more
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: energy is suddenly released. And when it when it's released, chuck.
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: When that rope snaps backward, it snaps back where it
• 44:30
  Speaker 1: was so much force depending on how much force is
• 44:32
  Speaker 1: stored in it, that it is torn people's arms off
• 44:36
  Speaker 1: like they didn't let go fast enough and their arms
• 44:39
  Speaker 1: still holding onto the rope flew away from them. That's
• 44:43
  Speaker 1: like something out of squid game. But it's real. Yeah,
• 44:46
  Speaker 1: that happened, and I think Taiwan in the in the nineties.
• 44:50
  Speaker 1: I believe in Taipei happened to not one but two
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: people who were um playing tug of war. They were
• 44:57
  Speaker 1: the first people closest to the opposing side on either side.
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: That's who had their their arms torn off. Yeah. And
• 45:04
  Speaker 1: here's the word of advice. If you ever see an
• 45:07
  Speaker 1: ad that says, hey, come down and be a part
• 45:09
  Speaker 1: of this Guinness World Record tug of war, don't do it. No,
• 45:13
  Speaker 1: that's a bad idea. Accidents happen there as well. And
• 45:18
  Speaker 1: like you said, also when if you loop, like do
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: not ever even even like fun recreation um tug of war,
• 45:25
  Speaker 1: don't don't loop the rope around your hand because you're
• 45:29
  Speaker 1: like the force that's being exerted on the rope finds
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: its way into that loop which wants to close, and
• 45:35
  Speaker 1: it's closing around your fingers. And like like you said,
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: not only have people had their fingers amputated later because
• 45:41
  Speaker 1: they got so torn off, the rope itself can amputate
• 45:44
  Speaker 1: your fingers, like like you can just lose some fingers
• 45:47
  Speaker 1: messing around at a local tug of war competition. That's
• 45:51
  Speaker 1: for charity. It happened, has happened before too, so be
• 45:55
  Speaker 1: safe everyone. I got one more thing on squid Games,
• 45:57
  Speaker 1: so again, big spoiler. Come, Okay, don't listen. I'll give
• 46:01
  Speaker 1: you a few seconds. Okay. The thing I didn't think about,
• 46:05
  Speaker 1: you saw it through the end of the show. Yeah.
• 46:09
  Speaker 1: The thing I didn't think about until today was that
• 46:12
  Speaker 1: that Tug of War game had to be rigged because
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: the old man was the organizer of the whole thing,
• 46:17
  Speaker 1: so he wasn't gonna fall to his death, so that
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: it was rigged. The Tugg of War had to be rigged. Yeah,
• 46:22
  Speaker 1: but I'm not sure how. And and you might have
• 46:25
  Speaker 1: found like a plot hole more than anything. Well, I
• 46:28
  Speaker 1: read online and some people say that like it was
• 46:31
  Speaker 1: a genuine win. But there were the people up there watching,
• 46:35
  Speaker 1: like the guards were like ready to step in in
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: case it looked like that he was gonna get pulled
• 46:40
  Speaker 1: in or something. I got you, So it was, uh,
• 46:44
  Speaker 1: they could have cut the rope or something to prevent
• 46:46
  Speaker 1: that from happening, but then the jig would have been up. Yeah,
• 46:51
  Speaker 1: or they could have think maybe they had a plan
• 46:53
  Speaker 1: to make it seem like, you know, there was something
• 46:56
  Speaker 1: that some however, but those guards, man, how well done?
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: Was there uniform just to make them just creepy? Anonymous?
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: Yeah it was. It was awesome. I really love the show.
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: I can't wait for what's coming in season two? Me whoa,
• 47:09
  Speaker 1: Is there gonna be a season two? Yeah? I mean
• 47:11
  Speaker 1: it ends with dude coming back as a genuine tough dude,
• 47:15
  Speaker 1: like going back. Remember he could have left and he
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: went back. Yes, but I didn't know that there was
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: definitely going to be a season two. Yeah. Yeah, he's
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: gonna go back there like like uh Jack Black and
• 47:28
  Speaker 1: Kung Fu Panda Terminator two. Yeah, they're okay, there you go.
• 47:32
  Speaker 1: I think that's a more apt and let her name
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: Linda Hamilton's Yeah, okay, I thought I got it wrong. No,
• 47:38
  Speaker 1: you got it right, man, just like you got a
• 47:40
  Speaker 1: tug of war? Right? But did we did? We? Did? We? Did?
• 47:45
  Speaker 1: You got anything else? No? No tic tac to. I
• 47:49
  Speaker 1: promise we're done with this two part series. All right? Uh? Well,
• 47:53
  Speaker 1: since Chuck said we're done, that means we're done, and
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: that means, of course, everybody, it's time for listener mail.
• 48:00
  Speaker 1: Unless we do thumb wrestling. If there's something to it, sure,
• 48:06
  Speaker 1: maybe a shorty. I'm always down with with interesting stuff
• 48:09
  Speaker 1: like that as long as there's something to it, you know.
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: All Right, I'm gonna call this eagle versus Hawk and
• 48:13
  Speaker 1: another chance to poke fun at Jerry a little bit.
• 48:16
  Speaker 1: This this goes down in history alongside the Billhelms scream. Oh,
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: I don't forget same old lang sign. Oh that's right.
• 48:26
  Speaker 1: So yeah, our beloved sister and producer Jerry, who we
• 48:30
  Speaker 1: like to tease. Occasionally we will call for a special
• 48:32
  Speaker 1: effect here and there, and she sometimes she has in
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: that for getting them wrong. And that's the case with
• 48:37
  Speaker 1: eagle versus Hawk. Hey, guys, just listen to the Cookies
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: episode and heard the eagle cry quote unquote denoting the
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: golden age of cookies. I want to let you know
• 48:46
  Speaker 1: that bird cry use was probably a red tailed hawk.
• 48:49
  Speaker 1: Hollywood prefers the red tailed hawk cry to the actual
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: eagle cry because it sounds much more majestic. The first
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: time I ever heard an eagle make a noise, I
• 48:56
  Speaker 1: thought for sure it was a giant mutant chicken. Uh,
• 48:59
  Speaker 1: much more of an aggressive cluck. Definitely understand why Hollywood
• 49:03
  Speaker 1: makes his choice, but I remember being gooped by this fact.
• 49:07
  Speaker 1: I never heard that use that way, so I wanted
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: to share it with you all. Thanks and heavy, happy,
• 49:12
  Speaker 1: have a happy New Year. In my defense, I knew
• 49:14
  Speaker 1: that was a hawk, but the eagles sound was so
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: pitiful I didn't use it. Hey, there's Jerry. Guys. She
• 49:22
  Speaker 1: actually stepped in to defend herself. There she is, Chuck.
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: I feel like an error has just ended. Well, she's
• 49:29
  Speaker 1: been on before, but that was the most blatant Jerry.
• 49:32
  Speaker 1: It was yet pretty blatant, but I think that was
• 49:34
  Speaker 1: a good one. Jerry's way to step in. Uh ps,
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: is your board game sold out? I was sad to
• 49:39
  Speaker 1: not see it under the Christmas tree this year. Cordially
• 49:42
  Speaker 1: your resident Burdenard Katie Rose Souder Katie. The board game
• 49:47
  Speaker 1: did sell out in some and a lot of online retailers,
• 49:50
  Speaker 1: but it's verywhere be back soon, right, I actually, Chuck,
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: I think that there. I don't know if they're sold
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: out or not. That they were sold out everywhere in
• 49:59
  Speaker 1: the world except for Indigo, which is Canada's largest bookstore.
• 50:03
  Speaker 1: They had some as of the beginning of the holiday
• 50:06
  Speaker 1: season earlier, but they may be out. But from what
• 50:10
  Speaker 1: are our friends at Hasbro tell us they should be
• 50:13
  Speaker 1: back in stock at the end of this month, end
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: of January. That's right. But anyway, thank you Katie Rose
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: Sounder for that email. Yes, thank you Katie Rose. Uh.
• 50:22
  Speaker 1: And if you want to be like Katie Rose and
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: uh send us an email you can. You can wrap
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: it up, spank it on the eagles butt and send
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: it off to Stuff podcast at iHeart radio dot com.
• 50:38
  Speaker 1: Stuff you Should Know is a production of iHeart Radio.
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: For more podcasts my heart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app,
• 50:44
  Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.