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That Time Chewbacca Needed Bodyguards · Ridiculous History

0:23
Speaker 1: We spent a little bit of time before we went
0:26
Speaker 1: on air in search of the perfect song to open
0:29
Speaker 1: today's episode with and by Golly by Gum. I think
0:33
Speaker 1: we got it. Let's let's let's roll it. Just a
0:36
Speaker 1: clip of it. There was some scientists trying to figure
0:40
Speaker 1: out the Sasquatch. Ridd All didn't figure it out. It
0:44
Speaker 1: was a missing leak. Is that the D? It is
0:50
Speaker 1: the D man, I love the D miss the D.
0:53
Speaker 1: They're back though, that's uh. What could be more appropriate
0:57
Speaker 1: than the Tenacious D song about big Foot about the Sasquatch. Hello,
1:02
Speaker 1: I'm Ben, I am nol and no, you found that
1:06
Speaker 1: perfect song as we were, as we were looking through
1:09
Speaker 1: the internets to find a cool, fun song. What had
1:13
Speaker 1: to be the one, Ben, because there is really no
1:16
Speaker 1: finer song of the mystery of the big Foot the Sasquatch.
1:21
Speaker 1: Then in Search of Sasquatch by Tenacious D. That was
1:25
Speaker 1: also the TV show version. I don't think it was
1:28
Speaker 1: actually on the record. It doesn't matter, but they made
1:31
Speaker 1: the Only way that song could be topped is if
1:34
Speaker 1: Tenacious D when they return, if they put out a
1:37
Speaker 1: reprised version, or they have the discovery of the Sasquatch.
1:43
Speaker 1: We want to, of course bid a distance hello to
1:47
Speaker 1: our super producer Casey Pegram and a very close hello
1:53
Speaker 1: to our guest super producer, Paul Deckett. He's seated right
1:58
Speaker 1: outside of the shipping container. Were looking at him right now.
2:05
Speaker 1: And our story today begins in the far West, Northern
2:12
Speaker 1: California specifically, it also incorporates not just Tenacious D, but
2:17
Speaker 1: a another pop culture phenomenon, Star Wars. Where do you
2:22
Speaker 1: Where do you come down on the Star Wars? Ben
2:26
Speaker 1: for it again? I'm for it. I'm a fan. I'm
2:29
Speaker 1: not one of those people who feels that you must
2:33
Speaker 1: choose between either Star Trek or Star Wars. I think
2:36
Speaker 1: they both have their merits and they're totally different because
2:39
Speaker 1: they're in space and they have Star in the name.
2:42
Speaker 1: We have to make a choice, We have to choose allegiances.
2:45
Speaker 1: That's ridiculous. It feels a little uh, it feels a
2:47
Speaker 1: little bit uh, falsely dichotomous to me. Are you rebel
2:50
Speaker 1: or empire? You know, it's tough to make that call
2:55
Speaker 1: because having watched the films, the rebels are always the protagonists,
3:00
Speaker 1: so an empire, they're basically a bunch of fascists. Yeah,
3:03
Speaker 1: man very much into uniforms and conformity. So I guess
3:07
Speaker 1: I would say rebel. But really, if I were existing
3:11
Speaker 1: in the Star Wars universe, all I would want to
3:14
Speaker 1: do is use the force, get my medicalorian's up. You
3:17
Speaker 1: know what about what? What about you? Where? Would you?
3:20
Speaker 1: Obviously rebel? It seems like a very unpopular decision to
3:23
Speaker 1: be uh empire, but people do choose that allegiance. And
3:28
Speaker 1: in the fan community, Um, many of you may know
3:31
Speaker 1: our compatriot Holly Fry from stuff he was in history class. Also,
3:34
Speaker 1: by the way, plug host of a cool show I'm
3:37
Speaker 1: working on with her called Drawn the Story of Animation,
3:39
Speaker 1: which is a partnership with Cartoon Network and it's a
3:42
Speaker 1: really fun kind of love letter to all things animation. Anyway,
3:45
Speaker 1: Holly the biggest Star Wars fan you could ever imagine.
3:50
Speaker 1: I'm serious, use your imagination, think of the biggest Star
3:52
Speaker 1: Wars fans. Take it up. A couple of clicks from there,
3:54
Speaker 1: you got Holly Fry. She has a rebel tattoo. She
3:58
Speaker 1: makes all her own clothes, pretty much all of it
4:00
Speaker 1: is Star Wars themed. Um, and when she overheard Ben
4:03
Speaker 1: you and I talking about the connection between Sasquatch and
4:08
Speaker 1: a certain Wookie. Her eyes lit right up. It's true,
4:12
Speaker 1: there is a connection. Now, fans of Star Wars, you
4:16
Speaker 1: will recall Chewbacca. Of course he is that or in
4:22
Speaker 1: the throat. Really you can go that was close. Let's
4:25
Speaker 1: let's play a clip. It's better as I was saying.
4:29
Speaker 1: Chewbacca is a Wookie, a tall, harry biped and also
4:35
Speaker 1: intelligent essentient being. He is best known as the friend
4:40
Speaker 1: first mate, cosmic road trip buddy of Hands Solo, and
4:44
Speaker 1: he is the co pilot on the famous spaceship the
4:48
Speaker 1: Millennium Falcon. He's also super duper tall, very tall, like
4:53
Speaker 1: seven ft plus. Yeah, and you know it took a
4:56
Speaker 1: super duper tall human to fill that super du tall costume,
5:01
Speaker 1: a British man by the name of Peter Mayhew. Yes,
5:04
Speaker 1: Peter Mayhew, who might be unfamiliar to people who are
5:09
Speaker 1: casual Star Wars fans. I wouldn't say that either of
5:13
Speaker 1: us or super producer Paul are people who can quote
5:19
Speaker 1: exact moments and know all the cannon. I wouldn't say
5:22
Speaker 1: we're super fans, but but we're fans, right. You like
5:24
Speaker 1: Star Wars seeing all the move I'll see I've seen
5:26
Speaker 1: all of them. Yeah, and I'll probably watch them again.
5:28
Speaker 1: And I'll say it in real life. I'm a very nice,
5:32
Speaker 1: compassionate person with a lot of empathy. But I think
5:36
Speaker 1: the Scith are cool. Wow, don't you dude, The Sith
5:40
Speaker 1: They're cool. Darth Vader is like the most memorable part
5:43
Speaker 1: of the first few movies. It's true. Also played by
5:46
Speaker 1: a very tall man. It's actually quite appropriate for today's episode.
5:50
Speaker 1: How Mayhew found himself um in this role in London
5:57
Speaker 1: back around the time that Star Wars was going into
5:59
Speaker 1: pre production. And uh, he was part of a profile
6:03
Speaker 1: um that a London reporter did on people with big feet,
6:09
Speaker 1: which is insane when you think about it. Funny. Originally
6:12
Speaker 1: he wasn't supposed to be Chebacca. Originally, I believe George
6:16
Speaker 1: Lucas was hoping to get a bodybuilder named David Prowse
6:20
Speaker 1: to play the role. But Prowse chose to play Darth Vader,
6:23
Speaker 1: and we should say, uh, Peter Mayhew, despite having a
6:27
Speaker 1: peak height of seven ft three inches or two centimes,
6:32
Speaker 1: he does not suffer from gigantism, you know, like Wadlow had. Yeah,
6:37
Speaker 1: he's just he's just a big fella. He does, however,
6:40
Speaker 1: have a condition called Marfan syndrome, which is a genetic
6:45
Speaker 1: disorder of connective tissue and often that can lead to
6:49
Speaker 1: people having extraordinary heights. Yeah, and often very skinny. Um.
6:53
Speaker 1: You know the band Deer Hunter, the singer Atlanta Bands Fantastic.
6:56
Speaker 1: The singer Bradford Cox has Marfan syndrome, and he's quite
6:59
Speaker 1: tall and lanky. The other guy you're talking about who
7:02
Speaker 1: played Darth Vader, he said he wanted to play Darth
7:05
Speaker 1: Vader because he thought villains were more memorable. Um. And
7:09
Speaker 1: the funny thing is too, he didn't realize his voice
7:12
Speaker 1: wasn't gonna be ised that it was. Jones did a
7:15
Speaker 1: little bit and switch on him. And Mayhew also not
7:17
Speaker 1: his voice. The voice of Chewbacca, that sound we heard
7:20
Speaker 1: a minute ago is comprised of like a bear, walrus
7:25
Speaker 1: uh and several other animals combined to make that super
7:29
Speaker 1: cool sound. But today's story didn't take place until the
7:33
Speaker 1: third I don't know. I don't know how you count
7:35
Speaker 1: him that you're supposed to. It's like episode in order
7:38
Speaker 1: of let's do it in order of release. That's let's
7:40
Speaker 1: do it that way, just to keep it easy. Um. Yeah.
7:43
Speaker 1: The third Star Wars movie released that was the Return
7:45
Speaker 1: of the Jedi, which was the first Star Wars movie
7:48
Speaker 1: to feature If I'm not mistaken, and Star Wars fans
7:51
Speaker 1: please just just come at me. No, don't be kind,
7:55
Speaker 1: give it to me. Hit me with your lightsabers. Was
7:58
Speaker 1: the first one to feature the the Little Guys, a
8:00
Speaker 1: little furry bear guys. He walks and they occupied uh
8:05
Speaker 1: the their forest dwellers, the Forest of Indoor. Yes, Return
8:09
Speaker 1: of the Jedi Night three. In the film, you will remember,
8:13
Speaker 1: of course, that Chewbacca is one of the characters who
8:18
Speaker 1: visits Indoor and he is he has a nice rapport
8:23
Speaker 1: with e walks, being that they are both furry and
8:26
Speaker 1: levable despite their size difference. But the story we're examining
8:31
Speaker 1: doesn't take place in front of the cameras while they
8:36
Speaker 1: were rolling and you see where they were shooting the
8:40
Speaker 1: scenes for the Forest of Indoor in uh state Park.
8:45
Speaker 1: What was that state park? It is the Tall Trees
8:47
Speaker 1: Redwood Grove located in the Redwood National and State Park
8:52
Speaker 1: in Humboldt County. And when this area has another notable
9:00
Speaker 1: thing about it, aside from being a side of Star
9:03
Speaker 1: Wars filming. It is also known as an alleged hotspot
9:08
Speaker 1: for one of the most famous cryptids in the United
9:11
Speaker 1: States Bigfoot a k a. The Sasquatch a k a.
9:15
Speaker 1: The Yetti a k a. Swamp pape, but that they
9:19
Speaker 1: called swampape in Florida sun skun Gape. That's another way
9:23
Speaker 1: abominable snowman in the Himalayas, and sasquatch sighting or sasquatch
9:29
Speaker 1: hunting was popular enough in this region and remains popular
9:33
Speaker 1: enough in this region today that the filmmakers were worried
9:39
Speaker 1: that Chewbacca or Peter might get shot or harassed or
9:45
Speaker 1: attacked because in Bigfoot country there is a seven plus
9:51
Speaker 1: foot tall creature that is Harry that is wandering around.
9:55
Speaker 1: And they said, well, you know, that's kind of gonna
9:57
Speaker 1: mess up filming for us. We don't have him getting shot.
10:00
Speaker 1: What's that cool word, the five dollar word for being
10:03
Speaker 1: Harry here suit to love that. Yeah, sorry, I just
10:06
Speaker 1: love that word. Yeah. So they didn't have it in
10:08
Speaker 1: the script for him to be shot by Bigfoot hunters,
10:12
Speaker 1: but they had to make the movie anyway. The show
10:15
Speaker 1: must go on. So what did they do? Well? According
10:18
Speaker 1: to Mayhew himself, this is something of sort of a
10:21
Speaker 1: Star Wars fan community urban legend, which is interesting considering
10:25
Speaker 1: it surrounds a big Foot story as well. Um that
10:30
Speaker 1: he had kind of a detail, sort of a protection
10:33
Speaker 1: squad if you will, that were decked out in brightly
10:36
Speaker 1: colored jackets like vests, you know, like um you'd see
10:40
Speaker 1: neon crossing guard vests or or even hunters where these
10:44
Speaker 1: kind of vests so they can be visible in the
10:45
Speaker 1: forest and you know, keep from shooting each other and
10:48
Speaker 1: be obviously not creatures of the woods unless you're Dick Cheney.
10:51
Speaker 1: That apparently does not read for Dick. Oh boy, Uh
10:55
Speaker 1: too soon? No, I don't think that's too soon. That's
10:59
Speaker 1: that that's the too that's a it's that it's not
11:02
Speaker 1: a sasquatch related But it's a great example of how
11:05
Speaker 1: easily accidents can happen while hunting. Hunting, especially if you
11:10
Speaker 1: know you're mistaken for um, a potentially dangerous predator or
11:16
Speaker 1: the target of your hunt. Right because people genuinely believe
11:22
Speaker 1: that this creature, while elusive, does exist somewhere, right and
11:28
Speaker 1: they want to Everybody who believes it wants to be
11:31
Speaker 1: the first person to find it. You just can you
11:35
Speaker 1: kill it. You think you shoot it with a dart
11:36
Speaker 1: or something. Yeah, that's that's the thing, because when we
11:40
Speaker 1: discover new animals or rediscover animals are previously thought to
11:44
Speaker 1: be extinct, it's a real tragedy to find out that
11:48
Speaker 1: they were still alive. When you've killed one, right, or
11:51
Speaker 1: you've killed the last one of two or three, there's
11:55
Speaker 1: there's another reason here. I know this sounds like maybe
11:58
Speaker 1: they were being overprotect div of Chewbacca. Even in though
12:02
Speaker 1: it's an understandable thing to have this have this detail,
12:06
Speaker 1: something else happened in nineteen seven in Humboldt County that
12:13
Speaker 1: both fueled the search for this cryptid and I think
12:18
Speaker 1: added some credibility to the fear that Chewbaca might be attacked.
12:22
Speaker 1: And that is a film. Are you talking about the
12:24
Speaker 1: famous Patterson Gimblin film. Yep, the famous Patterson Gimlin film
12:30
Speaker 1: which was shot in nineteen sixty seven alongside Bluff Creek
12:35
Speaker 1: that's about twenty five miles northwest of Orleans, California, in
12:39
Speaker 1: Humboldt County. And this film which is named after the
12:44
Speaker 1: the guys who shot at Roger Patterson and Robert Bob Gimlin.
12:49
Speaker 1: This film is so iconic that if you are a
12:53
Speaker 1: died in the world true believer of Bigfoot or you're
12:56
Speaker 1: an absolute skeptic. Uh. Either way, no matter how you
13:00
Speaker 1: feel about the allegations of this of this gigantic creature existing,
13:05
Speaker 1: you have seen this footage. You can go on YouTube
13:08
Speaker 1: and see countless professional documentaries, countless TV shows, and countless
13:13
Speaker 1: image war documentaries attempting to analyze this. What a little
13:19
Speaker 1: less than one minute of footage of this large, hairy
13:23
Speaker 1: looking thing walking. Yeah, I mean you see it from behind,
13:26
Speaker 1: and um it it it looks good. Although at the
13:31
Speaker 1: same time it's sort of like, you know, when was
13:33
Speaker 1: this uh sixty seven sixty seven? I mean, you know
13:36
Speaker 1: the Chewbacca costume. It looks a lot like the Chewbacca
13:39
Speaker 1: costume from behind. At it absolutely does, because the big
13:44
Speaker 1: differentiation is the big differentiations between the appearance of Chewbaca
13:50
Speaker 1: and the appearance of this creature in this film are
13:53
Speaker 1: only discernible from a closer distance. Sure, And my question
13:57
Speaker 1: for you, Ben is like, what's the backstory behind this film?
14:00
Speaker 1: Like how what gives it weight? Like why? Why are
14:03
Speaker 1: why are people still kind of thinking that this These
14:05
Speaker 1: people had no reason to like fake it. We can, Yeah,
14:08
Speaker 1: we can look at a little bit into the origin
14:11
Speaker 1: of that film itself. So Patterson read an article about
14:16
Speaker 1: Bigfoot in a magazine in nineteen fifty nine, magazine called
14:19
Speaker 1: True Magazine, and then he visited Bluff Creek in nineteen
14:26
Speaker 1: sixty two. So several years before they filmed, they caught
14:29
Speaker 1: this film or made this film. So he was he
14:34
Speaker 1: was already kind of in search of Sasquatch. Yeah, a
14:36
Speaker 1: little bit like the Tenacious Design. Yeah. According to author
14:41
Speaker 1: Mary in Place, when Patterson arrived at Bluff Creek, he
14:46
Speaker 1: talked to tons of people who believed in Bigfoot and said, hey,
14:49
Speaker 1: it's out here. Not only is it out here, I
14:52
Speaker 1: can show you some stuff about it. I can show
14:55
Speaker 1: you some evidence. And so in nineteen sixty four he
14:58
Speaker 1: returned and he met a guy named Graves who drove
15:02
Speaker 1: him to Layered Meadows and that's where, according to this story, uh,
15:07
Speaker 1: he saw fresh tracks, fresh big Foot tracks, and he
15:11
Speaker 1: thought it would be an amazing scientific breakthrough if he
15:14
Speaker 1: could obtain evidence that these were not hoaxes but the
15:18
Speaker 1: mark of an unknown human like creature. Interesting. I think
15:23
Speaker 1: for me it would be a lot more believable if
15:25
Speaker 1: it just happened to be some rando out in the
15:27
Speaker 1: woods with his camera that caught the thing, you know,
15:30
Speaker 1: right like out of candidly. Yeah, and they're they're filming
15:33
Speaker 1: their kid, making us sad, and then it pands to
15:36
Speaker 1: the left. I'd buy that much more than this guy
15:39
Speaker 1: who has sort of had a result. He was after
15:41
Speaker 1: um and a reason to want to be the guy,
15:44
Speaker 1: you know. Yeah, here here's the thing. Uh. He was
15:48
Speaker 1: constantly ridiculed for this search, and he was always running
15:53
Speaker 1: short on money. He founded this thing called the Northwest
15:56
Speaker 1: Research Foundation and used that to get fund for these
16:01
Speaker 1: big foot searches, and he conducted several expeditions, but he
16:06
Speaker 1: also had a financial motivation, it's probably the best way
16:11
Speaker 1: to put it. In sixty six he published a paperback
16:14
Speaker 1: about the search, and he added the income from that
16:17
Speaker 1: to the income from his lectures. I ostensibly too just
16:23
Speaker 1: too fund further searches. But that's a tough call to make.
16:28
Speaker 1: But you know what, been this area is just lousy
16:31
Speaker 1: with these kinds of reports in general, this humble area
16:34
Speaker 1: and the Northern California region in general, Big old state
16:37
Speaker 1: California and totally different like ecosystem and environment in northern California,
16:41
Speaker 1: whereas in southern California everything is a lot more arid
16:44
Speaker 1: and desert like up there is much more lush and
16:46
Speaker 1: green and these huge, huge trees the redwood forests. UM.
16:51
Speaker 1: I actually found then a report uh dating back the
16:54
Speaker 1: earliest one that I could find, from January two of
16:56
Speaker 1: eighteen eighties six UM from Del Norte Record, and a
17:01
Speaker 1: corresponded from that publication wrote this from Happy Camp, sisky
17:06
Speaker 1: You County again on January. Here's what it says. I
17:12
Speaker 1: do not remember to have seen any reference to the
17:14
Speaker 1: wild man which haunts this part of the country, so
17:17
Speaker 1: I shall allude to him briefly, not a great while,
17:19
Speaker 1: since Mr Jack Dover, one of our most trustworthy citizens,
17:23
Speaker 1: while hunting, saw an object standing one hundred and fifty
17:26
Speaker 1: yards from him, picking berries or tender shoots from the bushes.
17:30
Speaker 1: This thing was of gigantic size, about seven feet high,
17:33
Speaker 1: with a bulldog head, short ears, and long hair. It
17:37
Speaker 1: was also furnished with a beard, and was free from
17:40
Speaker 1: hair on such parts of its body as is common
17:43
Speaker 1: among men. Its voice was shrill or soprano, and very human,
17:48
Speaker 1: like that of a woman. In great fear. Mr Dover
17:51
Speaker 1: could not see its footprints as it walks on hard soil.
17:55
Speaker 1: He aimed his gun at the animal or whatever it is,
17:57
Speaker 1: several times, but because it was so human, he would
18:00
Speaker 1: not shoot. Eight six And that's those are That's just
18:06
Speaker 1: the first published report we could find. Well, let's go
18:08
Speaker 1: back even further. Then, let's talk about the origins of
18:12
Speaker 1: this creature, the origin and lore. The strange thing about Bigfoot,
18:22
Speaker 1: which is, at at base a gigantic humanlike primate, right.
18:27
Speaker 1: The strange thing about it is that reports of creatures
18:32
Speaker 1: like these date back into the ancient empires and ages
18:36
Speaker 1: of myth and legend. Sometimes you will see reports of
18:40
Speaker 1: a quote unquote wild man, right, that that true? Or
18:44
Speaker 1: that wild man of Borneo for example, Sure yeah, or
18:48
Speaker 1: something called that the hairy man. Folklore experts like Joseph
18:52
Speaker 1: Campbell see this wild Man in the woods legend as
18:58
Speaker 1: a has come from a couple of different places. One
19:01
Speaker 1: of the most interesting, if not the most plausible ideas,
19:06
Speaker 1: is that it's some sort of orally transmitted memory of
19:10
Speaker 1: an encounter with the largest known primate, the extinct gigant Epithecus,
19:16
Speaker 1: which was ten feet tall and may emphasis on may
19:20
Speaker 1: here may have interacted with early Homo sapiens like in
19:25
Speaker 1: the jungle Book. Yeah, like in the Jungle Book. A
19:27
Speaker 1: spoiler alert for the Newest Jungle I'm kidding, but the
19:30
Speaker 1: one depicted in that live action slashd g I Jungle
19:34
Speaker 1: Book is like a giant orangutan looking creature, but it
19:38
Speaker 1: is that extinct gigantopithecus that would have been native to
19:43
Speaker 1: that part of the country. Yeah, and Asia and India
19:47
Speaker 1: yea and fun fact with the Gigantopathecus, at least in
19:51
Speaker 1: the Jungle Book, this is not too much of a
19:54
Speaker 1: spoiler for the show. In the live action Jungle Book,
19:58
Speaker 1: the Gigantopathecus King Louis is played by Christopher Walkin, who
20:03
Speaker 1: is going just full walking on that he is. He
20:06
Speaker 1: is nuts. He has taken a walk again for some reason.
20:10
Speaker 1: It's from Brooklyn and and he he sings the King
20:14
Speaker 1: Louis song but in a really weird like spoken words.
20:19
Speaker 1: Christopher Walkin is one of those like just beloved actors
20:22
Speaker 1: that can only do Christopher Walkin right. Yeah, maybe you
20:28
Speaker 1: might disagree, but I kind of feel like it works
20:30
Speaker 1: and it's great. But he's sort of like a Jeff Goldbloom,
20:33
Speaker 1: you know, Well, here's a here's a or anal pacino,
20:36
Speaker 1: here's a hot take. I want to see what you
20:38
Speaker 1: think of this. This is entirely I guess this is
20:41
Speaker 1: sort of related because Peter Mayhew's an actor. Anyway, just
20:45
Speaker 1: humor me, tell me what you think about this. So,
20:47
Speaker 1: one of the great differences between, uh, the lauded actors
20:52
Speaker 1: in the States and the lauded actors in Europe is
20:55
Speaker 1: that in the case of European actors, the A list
21:00
Speaker 1: or is the top notch actors are praised for their
21:02
Speaker 1: abilities to be chameleons, largely praised for their ability to
21:07
Speaker 1: become another person to slip into a role, whereas in
21:12
Speaker 1: the States, a lot of top notch A list actors
21:15
Speaker 1: are praised for their ability to constantly be unapologetically themselves.
21:21
Speaker 1: And it's it's weird because it doesn't I'm not at
21:25
Speaker 1: all saying that one is better than the other, nor
21:27
Speaker 1: am I saying that these people aren't amazing actors. It's
21:30
Speaker 1: just a very strange interpretation. Now. It's true, is over
21:32
Speaker 1: here what we call those character actors, they almost get
21:35
Speaker 1: like a like a demotion kind of you know, yeah,
21:38
Speaker 1: like you're that kind of leading man you're a character actor.
21:41
Speaker 1: You're always the cop. You're always the angry dad who's
21:44
Speaker 1: almost had it. You know. Oh, I guess when I
21:46
Speaker 1: say character actor, I mean I'm What I'm saying is
21:48
Speaker 1: they are more chameleonic, but the leading men are less so.
21:52
Speaker 1: Right like al Pacino in Devil's Advocate and al Pacino
21:56
Speaker 1: Incent of a Woman. A lot of people would tell you,
22:00
Speaker 1: and I loved Devil's Advocate, a lot of people will
22:03
Speaker 1: tell you that they're always the same, They're roughly the
22:06
Speaker 1: same mannerisms or something, you know, even though I believe
22:09
Speaker 1: Incent of a Woman al Pacino plays a blind character.
22:12
Speaker 1: But you know what, al Pacino not tall enough to
22:14
Speaker 1: play big Foot? My friend? Not tall enough? Yeah yeah,
22:19
Speaker 1: circle back, not tall enough to play big Foot. Gigant
22:22
Speaker 1: Epithecus though in a larger sense, Uh no pun intended,
22:27
Speaker 1: but I guess I'll allow it was close enough to
22:31
Speaker 1: be like our guy. For this, we're trying to find
22:33
Speaker 1: a suspect for historical Bigfoot because Gigantopithecus Blackie was thought
22:39
Speaker 1: to be closely related to early hominins, especially Australopithecus, and
22:44
Speaker 1: this was based on Moelar evidence. So the thing like teeth. Like.
22:53
Speaker 1: The thing about trying to figure out whether gigant Epipthecus
22:56
Speaker 1: was the origin of the sasquatch or Harry and myths
23:01
Speaker 1: is that when you look at it, as as we
23:03
Speaker 1: established earlier, look at depictions of this thing, it doesn't
23:07
Speaker 1: look like a sasquatch the way they are described from
23:12
Speaker 1: the century on. It looks like a giant orangutan. And
23:16
Speaker 1: it's got the big face flaps that are I'm going
23:19
Speaker 1: to say, a big enough differentiator, Like its head is
23:23
Speaker 1: bigger than a sasquatch. His head would be Yeah, it's
23:26
Speaker 1: and its neck looks like like testicles or something. It's
23:29
Speaker 1: got like a wattle almost. Yeah. It was also probably
23:35
Speaker 1: not super fast. Oh I can't imagine, and and and
23:39
Speaker 1: and unlike the depiction in the Jungle Book, it probably
23:42
Speaker 1: didn't smash things and swing on trees, nor did it
23:45
Speaker 1: have a strong New York accent. Yeah, no, it's true.
23:49
Speaker 1: But here's the thing. You know, one beef that bigfoot
23:54
Speaker 1: skeptics have is like, where's the evidence. Give me some bones,
23:56
Speaker 1: give me a body, show me the body, right, show
23:59
Speaker 1: me fecal matter, some testing site. Yeah, but with Gigantopithecus,
24:03
Speaker 1: you know, there is evidence you could even find some
24:07
Speaker 1: of these there. There were plentiful enough that you could
24:09
Speaker 1: find jaw bones and teeth um in like curio or
24:13
Speaker 1: apothecary shops um in places like Vietnam and India where
24:18
Speaker 1: these creatures were indigenous. So for traditional medicine, then one
24:21
Speaker 1: would imagine, right, that would be the use. Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
24:25
Speaker 1: And the thing is, you know, these things would have
24:28
Speaker 1: been ten ft tall and weighed more than twelve hundred pounds,
24:34
Speaker 1: so totally in line with the type of stature we're
24:37
Speaker 1: talking about for uh, these wild men, these harrymen, these
24:41
Speaker 1: these sasquatches. And the thing is they're not just limited
24:44
Speaker 1: to you know, North America or northern California. They're all
24:49
Speaker 1: over the world. Sure, sure, they're in Siberia they're called there.
24:55
Speaker 1: The Australians would call it the Yawi, which I think
24:59
Speaker 1: is a name. You may hear it called the year.
25:03
Speaker 1: And in China we mentioned the Yeti earlier. There are
25:07
Speaker 1: different uaetti is the snow one, yeah, abominable snow, right,
25:12
Speaker 1: there are different There are different cases of alleged physical
25:18
Speaker 1: artifacts being discovered or being held, such as the Pengboche hand.
25:23
Speaker 1: There was an alleged YETI scalp that was supposed to
25:26
Speaker 1: be around, but I think was later disproven through testing.
25:32
Speaker 1: And this is, uh, this is a really controversial thing
25:36
Speaker 1: because for some biologists, the search for cryptids, which is
25:42
Speaker 1: an umbrella term describing any animal that has been alleged
25:45
Speaker 1: to exist but has been not proven to exist or
25:49
Speaker 1: has been officially considered extinct and then you know, people
25:53
Speaker 1: think it may be rediscovered. Cryptozoologists are considered largely sauda
26:00
Speaker 1: non grata in the yeah pseudo science in the academic world,
26:05
Speaker 1: because other scientists will say that these folks have already
26:09
Speaker 1: decided something exists, and they're not practicing critical thinking, your
26:14
Speaker 1: scientific method. They're just trying to prove that what they
26:16
Speaker 1: came in believing was correct confirmation bias exactly. And like
26:20
Speaker 1: our pal who made the film, like I would, I
26:22
Speaker 1: would find that evidence quote unquote much more believable if
26:26
Speaker 1: it if it wasn't somebody who already was looking to
26:28
Speaker 1: find something and then did this. And until his death
26:31
Speaker 1: he maintained that he understood why people could think it
26:34
Speaker 1: was weird, but he was not hoaxing anyone, and he
26:38
Speaker 1: will he wouldn't deny that what he saw was legitimate,
26:43
Speaker 1: But then that also raises the possibility that perhaps he
26:46
Speaker 1: was hoaxed, which is maybe someone was trolling him or
26:50
Speaker 1: sasquatching him. Yeah. Oh, maybe we could use as a
26:53
Speaker 1: new verb to get sasquatched, like it just squatched him?
26:56
Speaker 1: About that? Squatched is good? Squatch out? Yeah it alright,
27:00
Speaker 1: let's incorporated into the ridiculous history lexicon. Yeah, let's put
27:04
Speaker 1: it into our burgeoning encyclopedia. And we have Son of
27:08
Speaker 1: a Fish, we have Ship Show, and now we have
27:12
Speaker 1: you just got squatched? Yeah, yeah, I think we have
27:14
Speaker 1: a few other ones to but recommend your favorite slaying
27:17
Speaker 1: to us. We do want to point out again we
27:19
Speaker 1: know how ridiculous this, this fear may have seen for
27:23
Speaker 1: Peter Mayhew uh and for the filmmakers, but even as
27:28
Speaker 1: recently as fourteen, of the US population, one out of
27:33
Speaker 1: five people believe in Bigfoot or something like it. That was.
27:37
Speaker 1: Isn't that like as many people as believe in the
27:40
Speaker 1: Big Bang theory? Yes? Yeah, not the show that the
27:43
Speaker 1: scientific concept. I believe in the Big Bang believe So
27:46
Speaker 1: good Sheldon, it's got heart, young Sheldon. Not good? Is
27:51
Speaker 1: that a spin off? Yeah? What young Sheldon? I remember
27:55
Speaker 1: see the just the thumbnail for that and thinking, wow,
27:58
Speaker 1: I have drifted far from the Sene demographic. He's just
28:01
Speaker 1: such a smarmy little little kid. He just thinks he
28:05
Speaker 1: thinks he knows it all. You know. It's one of
28:07
Speaker 1: those those shows about like the genius kid who gets
28:10
Speaker 1: to go to high school and he's like, you know,
28:12
Speaker 1: ten or something. Everyone hates him, insist wearing the boats ie.
28:16
Speaker 1: I digress. The kid that that plays him is also
28:18
Speaker 1: in that show Big Little Liars, which is awesome. By
28:21
Speaker 1: the way, that's a great show. If you haven't checked
28:23
Speaker 1: that out, but I don't know, you're right, then there
28:27
Speaker 1: was legitimate fear for this quite large tall man wearing
28:32
Speaker 1: this here suit costume. Yes, yeah, and on another show
28:37
Speaker 1: we've done. If you want to learn more about big Foot,
28:39
Speaker 1: you can hear our full interview with the founder and
28:44
Speaker 1: curator of Expedition Bigfoot one of the Kim Museum in
28:49
Speaker 1: up near La j Georgia. It's so cool, David Baraka. Yeah,
28:53
Speaker 1: it's like it's like something you'd see an Epcot Center
28:56
Speaker 1: Universe in the nineties, or it's really really neat and
28:58
Speaker 1: the guy's a super cool guy and leaves this stuff
29:00
Speaker 1: with all his heart, and you can. In the interview,
29:04
Speaker 1: hear Us ask him some of the some of the
29:07
Speaker 1: same questions that always come up, the tough ones. The
29:09
Speaker 1: question number one numero uno is you know where where
29:13
Speaker 1: the bones, where, the feces, where the nesting sites? And
29:16
Speaker 1: how how much of arrange would a creature this size
29:20
Speaker 1: have to have? How much of food would it have
29:23
Speaker 1: to eat to sustain itself, let alone to sustain and
29:27
Speaker 1: feed a juvenile version right if it reproduces. At this point,
29:33
Speaker 1: there is no universally accepted proof that something like Bigfoot
29:39
Speaker 1: currently exists, nor is there proof that something like it
29:42
Speaker 1: existed in the recent past. The closest the closest known
29:47
Speaker 1: thing would be maybe misidentification of large extant primates like
29:51
Speaker 1: guerrillas or orangutans or uh the gigantapipthecus. Maybe maybe maybe
29:59
Speaker 1: way back in the day, but then again still very speculative.
30:04
Speaker 1: One thing is for sure, though, if someone who was
30:08
Speaker 1: a sasquatch hunter was out there in Uh, the area
30:12
Speaker 1: that is Uh sometimes called the Bigfoot capital of the world,
30:16
Speaker 1: and they saw Peter Mayhew Chewbacca, Everyone's favorite Wookie, strolling
30:22
Speaker 1: through the woods by himself. They would probably have freaked out.
30:26
Speaker 1: They definitely would have tried to film him, harass him.
30:30
Speaker 1: I like to think they wouldn't have shot the guy.
30:32
Speaker 1: You don't think they would have noticed all the camera
30:34
Speaker 1: crews and extras and e walks and confirmation bias though, Man,
30:40
Speaker 1: I guess you're right. Maybe they would. Uh. And we
30:43
Speaker 1: don't want to get too far, too far down the
30:46
Speaker 1: big Foot rabbit hole. But but it is interesting. I
30:49
Speaker 1: wonder if there are other situations like that where in
30:52
Speaker 1: the course of making a film the filmmakers had to
30:57
Speaker 1: take extra precautions or maybe even do extra cultural things
31:02
Speaker 1: because of the values of Moory's of the place in
31:05
Speaker 1: which they were filming. Yeah, oh, I have no doubt. Yeah, Apocalypse,
31:08
Speaker 1: Now there's got to be something with that. Oh yeah,
31:11
Speaker 1: But I mean that was a notoriously perilla kind of shoot,
31:15
Speaker 1: you know. And the thing I've noticed too, like they
31:17
Speaker 1: here in Atlanta, it's like they call it Yalli Wood
31:19
Speaker 1: because they shoot a whole lot of movies here. Um,
31:22
Speaker 1: and people I know that work in the film industry
31:24
Speaker 1: sometimes they bulldoze a little bit. You know, if they're
31:28
Speaker 1: gonna like shoot on your street, you don't really care
31:30
Speaker 1: about disrupting your routine. Let's post a little bill and
31:34
Speaker 1: so you know it's coming. But it's like, Okay, I
31:36
Speaker 1: guess this is my life for the next week or two.
31:40
Speaker 1: Did you ever get this shakedown? But if someone's filming
31:43
Speaker 1: on your street they say no through trapp trap, you
31:46
Speaker 1: tell them that you live I live here, I'm walking here.
31:49
Speaker 1: But here's the thing too, this, like I said, this,
31:51
Speaker 1: this story about Mayhew and the the the anti big
31:55
Speaker 1: the big Foot determined uh detail UM has kind of
31:59
Speaker 1: found its place in UH Star Wars fan culture as
32:04
Speaker 1: kind of a bit of a of an urban legend.
32:05
Speaker 1: But Mayhew himself was asked this in an A M
32:08
Speaker 1: A on Reddit in UH and he did confirm this
32:13
Speaker 1: is true. He said, yes, that is absolutely true. UM.
32:17
Speaker 1: But then some intrepid Star Wars fans did a little
32:21
Speaker 1: digging and kind of got clarification that he was really
32:26
Speaker 1: more warned by UM production folks not to walk off
32:31
Speaker 1: the set in costume for fear that he might get
32:35
Speaker 1: shot by hunters UM and they reminded him remember this
32:39
Speaker 1: is Bigfoot country, so you know, memory, it's a funny thing.
32:44
Speaker 1: The story is kind of true as a seed of
32:46
Speaker 1: truth but but, but this idea of of dudes and
32:49
Speaker 1: and you know, brightly colored vests there specifically to protect
32:54
Speaker 1: this one actor in this costume, a little a little
32:57
Speaker 1: bit of an exagg Yeah. And the thing is that
33:01
Speaker 1: if you would, if you would like to become a
33:05
Speaker 1: sasquatch hunter or search for them, you are absolutely free
33:09
Speaker 1: to do. So I'm gonna go ahead and call it. No,
33:13
Speaker 1: I don't think. I don't think anyone's gonna find anything.
33:16
Speaker 1: But it's such a cool excuse to get out into
33:20
Speaker 1: some of the most beautiful wilderness in this country. Absolutely
33:24
Speaker 1: in the Redwoods are gorgeous. I've actually never kind. I've
33:27
Speaker 1: been to San Francisco, but I have not gotten to
33:29
Speaker 1: go quite that far up north. But I think I
33:31
Speaker 1: will be relatively soon going up to Washington State and
33:34
Speaker 1: Oregon for the first time you've been. You haven't been
33:36
Speaker 1: to Oregon before. Oh, you're gonna love it. It's beautiful.
33:40
Speaker 1: Excited what part are you going? Going to Portland? But
33:42
Speaker 1: then also up like we're taking a road trip. So
33:46
Speaker 1: awesome for a secret project, right right, right, Well, we
33:54
Speaker 1: are almost out of time today, but we would be
33:56
Speaker 1: remiss if we didn't mention some other fantastic and fascinating
34:00
Speaker 1: things we learned about Chewbacca. One of my favorites UM
34:04
Speaker 1: is actually this comic book, uh that depicts a crash
34:09
Speaker 1: landing that happens UM with Han Solo and Chewbacco and
34:13
Speaker 1: the Lilliam Falcon and they go through some kind of
34:15
Speaker 1: like wormhole of some kind and end up in the
34:19
Speaker 1: past uh in like this part of the country that
34:22
Speaker 1: we're talking about, right, and they are being chased by
34:27
Speaker 1: Native Americans who are firing arrows at Han Solo and Chewbacca,
34:31
Speaker 1: and Han Solo ends up keep getting killed in this
34:35
Speaker 1: particular kind of non cannon Star Wars story. It comes
34:40
Speaker 1: from a collection of Star Wars short comics called to
34:42
Speaker 1: Think of Star Wars Tales. I believe that's right. And
34:45
Speaker 1: of course, you know, Chewbacca mourns his friend with his
34:49
Speaker 1: famous yowl, his plates of whales sorrow. Yeah, and Um
34:55
Speaker 1: kind of goes off into the wilderness alone. It's actually
34:58
Speaker 1: quite sad, uh. And then the comic cuts to a
35:01
Speaker 1: couple hundred years in the future and Indiana Jones shows
35:06
Speaker 1: up with his Um now fully grown um sidekick Short
35:10
Speaker 1: round from Temple of Doom in search of Sasquatch. And
35:15
Speaker 1: it turns out that said that Chewbacca is Sasquatch. I
35:19
Speaker 1: just like that alternate reality kind of like a treatment
35:22
Speaker 1: there DCS else World series or Marvel's um oh, I
35:27
Speaker 1: can't remember what they called him Marvel. Other Chewbacca facts.
35:30
Speaker 1: The character was inspired by George Lucas's dog, a big
35:34
Speaker 1: Alaska Mala mute and named Indiana, named Indian. Named the
35:40
Speaker 1: Dogana exactly and then and and it wasn't the other
35:43
Speaker 1: way around. Indiana. Jones was inspired by the dog. The
35:46
Speaker 1: name yeah, yeah, yeah, and uh. The name Chewbacca is
35:50
Speaker 1: derived from the Russian word for dog, So there's a
35:54
Speaker 1: very clear relationship there, and and and uh for anyone
35:58
Speaker 1: who's thinking about some of the chron leogy of that
36:01
Speaker 1: alternative world comic book, uh no. Summarized bookies are very
36:07
Speaker 1: long lived in comparison to humans. At the time Star
36:10
Speaker 1: Wars is set, Chewbacca is about two hundred years old.
36:13
Speaker 1: He looks great, he looks fantastic. He must be using
36:17
Speaker 1: herbal essences or one of the fancy shampoos, maybe for hims.
36:21
Speaker 1: Maybe maybe he's using for him keeps him virile. And
36:27
Speaker 1: he was quite virile because in the much maligned Star
36:31
Speaker 1: Wars Holiday special with that which I'm not even sure
36:34
Speaker 1: is considered canon. Lucas hated it so much. Um, you
36:37
Speaker 1: are introduced to Chewbacca's family, right, Yeah, you meet his
36:43
Speaker 1: You meet three members of his family, his father Itchy,
36:46
Speaker 1: his wife Mala, and his son. I think this is
36:50
Speaker 1: your favorite one, Knowle. He's a lumpy lumpy. Uh. These
36:54
Speaker 1: names are later you later told these are just nicknames, nicknames, right,
36:58
Speaker 1: they're much longer proper Wookie names. And this is on
37:02
Speaker 1: his home planet of Yeah, the dad is at a
37:05
Speaker 1: chip Cuck. Very well done. It's probably terrible. Man. We
37:10
Speaker 1: don't speak Wookie, we don't. You know. It's fine that
37:13
Speaker 1: we do our best, our level best, to our level
37:16
Speaker 1: sincere best, whether it's hunting big Foot or protecting people
37:21
Speaker 1: from bigfoot hunters. Right, and we are off. We hope
37:25
Speaker 1: you enjoyed this episode at least as much as we
37:29
Speaker 1: enjoyed researching. You know what. I enjoyed this one very much. Yeah,
37:33
Speaker 1: I'm you know, I'm glad to say there's never been
37:36
Speaker 1: one that I thought was a track. Yeah, no, seriously,
37:39
Speaker 1: But there's also a fun crossover between some of the
37:41
Speaker 1: stuff we talked about on our other shows, stuff they
37:43
Speaker 1: don't want you to know, where we take a critical
37:46
Speaker 1: thinking approach to conspiracy theories like this one. Yes, and
37:50
Speaker 1: stay tuned next week when we were going to do
37:52
Speaker 1: something completely different exploring the bizarre story of Santa Anna
37:58
Speaker 1: and a funeral that hel looking forward to that one too.
38:02
Speaker 1: We're having a hard time not telling you right now.
38:04
Speaker 1: I know these we we want to tease but not spoil. Yeah,
38:08
Speaker 1: So please join us for our next episode in the meantime,
38:12
Speaker 1: massive thanks to our guest super producer Paul Decant, Thanks
38:16
Speaker 1: as always to Casey Pegram, thanks to Alex Williams who
38:20
Speaker 1: composed our opening music, and of huge thanks to Christopher
38:24
Speaker 1: hasiotis Um who has been doing amazing We're collaborating with
38:28
Speaker 1: us on research for these episodes. So our episode falls
38:32
Speaker 1: to a close, but you don't have to say goodbye
38:34
Speaker 1: just yet. You can find us on our Facebook community page,
38:38
Speaker 1: Ridiculous Historians. We are pushing it hard because it is
38:41
Speaker 1: a lot of fun. And the thing is about Facebook,
38:44
Speaker 1: as you know, you know, if you have to take
38:45
Speaker 1: a regular Facebook page, the reaches you just don't know
38:48
Speaker 1: what what you're gonna get if you if you might
38:50
Speaker 1: like the page. You might not see it. Most of
38:52
Speaker 1: the cool stuff that I look at on Facebook are
38:54
Speaker 1: like meme groups and Facebook pages like that, and that's
38:58
Speaker 1: how you know you're gonna get the goods and the
39:01
Speaker 1: folks on Ridiculous Historians are a lot of fun. There's
39:03
Speaker 1: a lot of fun history memes and just cool articles
39:06
Speaker 1: and discussion and you know, pictures of of me and
39:09
Speaker 1: Ben doing weird stuff. And of course we have fantastic
39:12
Speaker 1: moderators there who really make the page what it is.
39:16
Speaker 1: We want you to be a part of it. There's
39:19
Speaker 1: some there's some very interesting threads and uh, I hang
39:23
Speaker 1: out there. Noel hangs out there. We even cajoled our
39:27
Speaker 1: recurring arch nemesis, Jonathan Strickland the Quister, to post a
39:31
Speaker 1: picture of himself as a child. At first, I saw
39:33
Speaker 1: it from a distance and thought it was a joke
39:35
Speaker 1: because I just saw like a giant, weird clown. But
39:38
Speaker 1: when you zoom in you see Jonathan's tiny, tiny child
39:41
Speaker 1: face in the whole. That's what cut out the cutout things. Yeah,
39:45
Speaker 1: so so definitely do check that out. And uh, of
39:47
Speaker 1: course you can always send an email with feedback or
39:50
Speaker 1: topic suggestions to us directly. We're ridiculous at how stuff
39:54
Speaker 1: works dot com and we can't wait to hear from
39:56
Speaker 1: you and do us a solid leave us in nice
39:58
Speaker 1: iTunes review. It really helps out and make us feel good.
40:00
Speaker 1: And we might read some on the air. Yeah, maybe
40:03
Speaker 1: some bad ones even take it easy. M