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What's the deal with smashing cake at weddings? · Ridiculous History

0:35
Speaker 1: Welcome to the show. Friends and neighbors, ladies and gentlemen.
0:39
Speaker 1: You know what that music means. I'm ben, I'm known.
0:42
Speaker 1: Apparently it's a nice day for a white wedding. Yeah,
0:47
Speaker 1: as we speak. Given the just the raw numbers, odds
0:52
Speaker 1: are that there are thousands of couples getting married today,
0:55
Speaker 1: hundreds of thousands, even, It's very true. It is a
0:57
Speaker 1: popular pastime. MM. And of course we are joined by
1:03
Speaker 1: our super producer, Casey Pegram here and today we are
1:08
Speaker 1: looking at one of the world's most universal traditions, the
1:13
Speaker 1: tradition of matrimony. I like to call it nuptials. Nuptials
1:16
Speaker 1: is cool too, It just sounds cute. And we know
1:21
Speaker 1: whether or not you have been married, or whether or
1:25
Speaker 1: not you've actually been to a wedding. It's impossible not
1:28
Speaker 1: to know a little bit about it because it's such
1:30
Speaker 1: a fundamental part of so much fiction. It's in so
1:32
Speaker 1: many films, not just rom coms, but definitely in rom coms,
1:36
Speaker 1: definitely definitely big in rom coms. So everybody is aware
1:41
Speaker 1: on some level of the the basic idea that typically
1:46
Speaker 1: it's going to be two people who decide that they're
1:49
Speaker 1: going to uh in front of members of their society,
1:54
Speaker 1: and in the eyes of the law usually as well,
1:56
Speaker 1: and the Lord and the Lord right whatever Lord that
1:59
Speaker 1: maybe precisely they're they're going to be an official item
2:04
Speaker 1: until death do they part, unless it's a shotgun wedding.
2:07
Speaker 1: Unless it's a shotgun in which case you're sort of
2:10
Speaker 1: out of luck. You guys gotta kind of bite the bullet,
2:13
Speaker 1: or you have to bite the bullet Daddy's bullet. So
2:18
Speaker 1: at some point you and I have looked into weird
2:22
Speaker 1: traditions before traditions. I want to be fair, traditions that
2:26
Speaker 1: might seem unusual. Two outsiders, we've looked into this sort
2:29
Speaker 1: of theme before tradition. You know that you've seen The
2:34
Speaker 1: Fiddler on the Roof. I have a long time ago
2:37
Speaker 1: all about tradition. In fact, one of the most popular
2:40
Speaker 1: songs from it is the song tradition that goes like
2:43
Speaker 1: I just sang Was that an excerpt or is that
2:45
Speaker 1: the whole thing? That was just my my bit? That's
2:47
Speaker 1: really the only the only lyric I I remember, But
2:49
Speaker 1: there there's a whole song around it. You guys can
2:52
Speaker 1: check it out in your own time, yes, please do.
2:54
Speaker 1: And while you are checking things out, you may also
2:59
Speaker 1: run into their strange traditions. Were familiar with some wedding traditions,
3:03
Speaker 1: like uh, tossing the garter belts? What's that one? I've
3:06
Speaker 1: always been there. That seems so ascay. It's like the
3:09
Speaker 1: person who catches the garter belt traditionally is amongst like
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Speaker 1: the male folk or the grooms, and they're gonna get
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Speaker 1: married next. But then the and then the bouquet is
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Speaker 1: the female who's gonna get married next. Yeah, yeah, at
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Speaker 1: least traditionally. And I know there's some problematic gender norms
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Speaker 1: in there, but sometimes tradition has problems, right, Yeah, And
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Speaker 1: you know, these traditions range from the you know, innocuous
3:35
Speaker 1: to the bizarre. And the one we're talking about today
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Speaker 1: I find pretty intensely bizarre because at some point in
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Speaker 1: history it became a thing for the happy couple to
3:48
Speaker 1: shove wedding cake into each other's face. Holes do have
3:54
Speaker 1: a miniature and intimate food fight in front of everybody
3:58
Speaker 1: else at the wedding because other wedding members don't do
4:01
Speaker 1: this a ritualistic force feeding. Yes, and we do know
4:07
Speaker 1: that newly weds beforehand would feed the first slice of
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Speaker 1: wedding cake to one another, and it was a symbol
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Speaker 1: of their commitment right to provide for one another. And
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Speaker 1: this comes from Rachel Sylvester, associate Real Weddings Editor with
4:21
Speaker 1: the not However, says Sylvester, the symbolisms often lost, and
4:26
Speaker 1: it's been replaced increasingly now with this tradition that Noel
4:31
Speaker 1: just described. There is a fantastic Dear Abbey letter from
4:34
Speaker 1: June of two thousand eleven where Faithful writes into Abbey
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Speaker 1: and says, Dear Abbey, I'm writing you about a disgusting,
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Speaker 1: rude and obscene habit the bride and groom shoving wedding
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Speaker 1: cake into each other's faces. How rude and insensitive to
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Speaker 1: the person he or she just promised to love, honor
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Speaker 1: and cherish, not to mention disrespectful. What do you think
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Speaker 1: of this custom? And Dear Abbey has okay, so no
5:01
Speaker 1: mincing words on faithful spark, and Dear Abbey seems to agree, saying,
5:06
Speaker 1: Dear Faithful, the customs should have been retired at least
5:08
Speaker 1: fifty years ago. The significance of this quote unquote ritual
5:12
Speaker 1: is demeaning to women, right because Dear Abbey says, according
5:16
Speaker 1: to curious customs by Tad tou Leja. The cake cutting
5:21
Speaker 1: at modern weddings as a fourth step comedic ritual that
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Speaker 1: sustains masculine prerogatives in the very act of supposedly subverting them.
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Speaker 1: So Abby goes on, and the first step of the comedy,
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Speaker 1: the groom helps direct the hand of the bride and
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Speaker 1: a symbolic demonstration of male control that was unnecessary in
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Speaker 1: the days of more tractable women. Uh. And what I
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Speaker 1: love about this is it really pushes home the kind
5:48
Speaker 1: of inherent misogyny in this. It's a little bit of
5:52
Speaker 1: a stretch to me, but I'm gonna go with it.
5:53
Speaker 1: I think it's interesting. So the female, the bride, she
5:57
Speaker 1: accepts this gesture and according to Abby, this serves as
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Speaker 1: further proof of her submissiveness, and then performing the second
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Speaker 1: step of the ritual, which seems to be a twist
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Speaker 1: where she offers him the first bite of cake, but
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Speaker 1: then playfully in the third step, she subverts this trope
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Speaker 1: by shoving it in his face playfully right um. And
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Speaker 1: then Abby goes on that this act of revolt is
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Speaker 1: performed in a childish fashion, and the groom is able
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Speaker 1: to endure it without losing face because it ironically demonstrates
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Speaker 1: his superiority. His bride is an imp needing supervision. And
6:34
Speaker 1: the idea here is that the bride is being infantilized
6:39
Speaker 1: to a degree I would I would tend to describe
6:43
Speaker 1: this argument as based in in patriarchy, even more so
6:46
Speaker 1: than than misogyny. But they're both present there if if
6:50
Speaker 1: you believe this, and the idea here is almost it's depicted,
6:55
Speaker 1: at least in this quotation, as a ritualistic theater of sorts,
7:01
Speaker 1: as a play, almost and with clear beats to the story.
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Speaker 1: And then the bride has apologetically wiped clean the groom's
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Speaker 1: face and is now obedient to his dignified, somehow inherently
7:18
Speaker 1: wiser self. So you have to wonder how far back
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Speaker 1: does this go. We know in ancient room the bride
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Speaker 1: could expect to conclude festivities by having a barley cake
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Speaker 1: smashed upside her head. So in this case, back in Rome,
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Speaker 1: it was the bride who got cake smashed. Yeah, And
7:38
Speaker 1: then I found this, uh, this great Smithsonian article that
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Speaker 1: that the details some other early cake traditions, and it
7:46
Speaker 1: says that in medieval England the bride and groom would
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Speaker 1: kiss each other on top of a pile of buns,
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Speaker 1: and this act was meant to demonstrate and ensure even
7:59
Speaker 1: there prosperity in the years to come. But there's another
8:03
Speaker 1: weird part about that one, yeah, they're sure is the
8:06
Speaker 1: unmarried guests. A lot of these things seemed to be
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Speaker 1: for the unmarried guests in general, with the garter and
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Speaker 1: the bouquet and the whole taking home a piece of cake,
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Speaker 1: because in this ritual, the guests would sometimes take a
8:19
Speaker 1: little piece as a souvenir of this cake that they
8:22
Speaker 1: would tuck under their pillow like the tooth fairy, despite
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Speaker 1: the fact that they were very well aware of all
8:29
Speaker 1: the things that happened to it. And as it turns out,
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Speaker 1: this particular recipe in these early British traditions was something
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Speaker 1: called bride's pie p y e, which mixed something called
8:42
Speaker 1: cocked combs, which I believe is the frill the little
8:46
Speaker 1: hand looking thing on top of of a of a
8:48
Speaker 1: of a male chicken. Uh. Mixed that with lamb testicles uh,
8:53
Speaker 1: sweetbreads which if for my money, I quite enjoy sweetbreads
8:56
Speaker 1: if they're prepared well, oysters which are also good, and
9:00
Speaker 1: a lot of spices. And then there was another version
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Speaker 1: of this recipe that included boiled calf's feet, and this
9:07
Speaker 1: did change in the sixteenth century. Oh, I want to
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Speaker 1: not forget another note about Rome. There in ancient Rome,
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Speaker 1: it's also argued that this tradition of barley caking was
9:20
Speaker 1: which I've just made a verb. I like it. Oh,
9:22
Speaker 1: thanks man Um. This tradition of barley caking was also
9:26
Speaker 1: done to symbolize male dominance and to encourage fertility, and
9:31
Speaker 1: this practice stayed with us today. When did things change
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Speaker 1: We can date it to around the mid sixteenth century
9:37
Speaker 1: because sugar was becoming more plentiful and affordable in England. Yeah,
9:41
Speaker 1: and sugar became a really important ingredient in cakes, not
9:45
Speaker 1: only because it tastes way better than lamb's testicles, one
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Speaker 1: would assume, but also it's symbolized the purity and virginity
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Speaker 1: of the bride to be and also it was a
9:58
Speaker 1: serious status symbol, right Ben, Yeah, it was absolutely serious
10:01
Speaker 1: status symbol because it goes back to the color of
10:05
Speaker 1: it as well as the show of wealth and opulence
10:10
Speaker 1: for the wedding party and the wedding goers. Look at
10:13
Speaker 1: this tremendous cake and even now we see this I
10:16
Speaker 1: believe it was during Princess Diana's wedding that the cake
10:19
Speaker 1: was five ft tall and they had a stunt double
10:22
Speaker 1: cake in case something happened to the first one. Yeah,
10:31
Speaker 1: And wedding cakes are big business these days, and all
10:35
Speaker 1: the you know, the wedding reality shows and the cooking
10:39
Speaker 1: shows and Cake Boss and all of the fon dunt
10:41
Speaker 1: and and the different versions of these absurd cakes that
10:45
Speaker 1: you can get in all kinds of shapes and sizes.
10:49
Speaker 1: They can be you know, like a race car or
10:52
Speaker 1: a volcano that spews fourth uh lava even or you know,
10:58
Speaker 1: something like your your favorite sports car perhaps, or if
11:01
Speaker 1: you're you know, having a Star Wars wedding, it could
11:03
Speaker 1: be at a moscale model of tattooing. And one person
11:07
Speaker 1: doubled down, right. We read about a We read about
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Speaker 1: one bride who had a full sized replica of herself.
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Speaker 1: Is the cake, which to me is weird. It's a
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Speaker 1: little vain, maybe we you know, it's very eat of
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Speaker 1: my flesh. Typically you have the tiny bride and groom
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Speaker 1: as the topper of the cake, but that's that's a
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Speaker 1: real stretch to have an entire cake that appears to
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Speaker 1: be a facsimile of just one member of the wedding party. Well,
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Speaker 1: if both the bride and her spouse are into it,
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Speaker 1: then it's it's their call. I would just personally feel
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Speaker 1: kind of weird eating it, you know what I mean?
11:43
Speaker 1: Totally And in the Smithsonian article by Abigail Tucker, she
11:46
Speaker 1: also talks about how as a cost saving measure. And
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Speaker 1: I've never heard of this before, but I think this
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Speaker 1: is pretty smart because obviously, this big, giant, showy cake
11:55
Speaker 1: is less about a delicious, delectable treat and more about
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Speaker 1: a show of opulence. But you could actually get a
12:01
Speaker 1: kind of a dummy cake that's made of styrofoam, that
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Speaker 1: has a single kind of decoy piece of cake that
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Speaker 1: you can cut out and use for the ceremony, and
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Speaker 1: then the guests just get, you know, a regular old
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Speaker 1: Walmart cheet cake or what have you, right, right, which
12:19
Speaker 1: does make sense. And the problem with the styrofoam cake is,
12:23
Speaker 1: you know, you have to be very careful about how
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Speaker 1: you do the cake smashing thing. If you choose to
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Speaker 1: do it, you gotta pick the one real slice. And
12:32
Speaker 1: it's tough for us to us being human beings, not
12:35
Speaker 1: just Casey Nolan. I it's tough for us to collectively
12:39
Speaker 1: figure out exactly when this cake serving thing became a
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Speaker 1: cake smashing thing. We know what's been around for several decades,
12:48
Speaker 1: but probably not several centuries in this current form. We
12:52
Speaker 1: just know there was stuff like it, and we've walked
12:55
Speaker 1: through the perspective that this is in some ways uh
13:00
Speaker 1: folkloreic drama right acted out. But most people, according to experts,
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Speaker 1: are probably unaware of what this ritual is supposed to signify,
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Speaker 1: seeing it either as a fun riff on cake cutting,
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Speaker 1: you know, because everybody wants their wedding to be fun, right,
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Speaker 1: Everybody has like a little goofy joke of some sort
13:19
Speaker 1: at some point they're like, oh, let's play this as
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Speaker 1: our first song, or they think it's a silly custom
13:25
Speaker 1: that just needs to go away, and it's levity, right.
13:28
Speaker 1: It adds a little fun, a little uh lighthearted uh
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Speaker 1: lark to the proceedings, you know. Uh, I've been at
13:38
Speaker 1: weddings where people do that, but it doesn't ever seem
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Speaker 1: to be a squabble, you know, it just seems to
13:45
Speaker 1: be like they're both you know, we've had to be
13:47
Speaker 1: serious for a little while. And then, as you said,
13:50
Speaker 1: let's have some levity. But it turns out noll uh that. Again,
13:54
Speaker 1: according to Sylvester, this cake smashing tradition is in decline.
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Speaker 1: I can see why. I mean, it's gross, it's the wedding.
14:02
Speaker 1: It's not like an episode of Double Dare you know?
14:04
Speaker 1: And you know, and although I will say, I found
14:07
Speaker 1: a great page um with a whole bunch of different
14:11
Speaker 1: photos of various versions of this, and it goes from
14:15
Speaker 1: you know, uh, bride and groom with their hands in
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Speaker 1: each other's faces literally rubbing the cake in to one
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Speaker 1: being a little more aggressive than the other. I've got
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Speaker 1: one here where the bride is is pretty much pouncing
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Speaker 1: on the groom and just shoving this face. And then
14:31
Speaker 1: I've got another one where the groom is actually wearing
14:34
Speaker 1: a garbage bag, which seemed like probably the the smart move, um,
14:38
Speaker 1: you know, just to save that tuxedo. Those things are
14:41
Speaker 1: not cheap, right, no kidding? And you know what else
14:44
Speaker 1: I found? This is an unsubstantiated thing, but apparently it's
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Speaker 1: a pretty widespread rumor people believe with again no solid proof,
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Speaker 1: that couples who do the wedding cake smashing thing are
14:57
Speaker 1: more likely to be divorced. Later in life. Well, as
14:59
Speaker 1: its turns out, Ben, I can speak to that. I
15:03
Speaker 1: am in fact divorced. I'm what they call a divorcee
15:06
Speaker 1: as am I. Yes, but I did not do the
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Speaker 1: cake smashing, so and we did not marry each other.
15:11
Speaker 1: This is true. Just for the record. We're just pals.
15:13
Speaker 1: We're just buddies. But the work wives kind of we
15:16
Speaker 1: do hang out a lot. We're hanging out after this
15:20
Speaker 1: as well. So I was in a one way cake
15:23
Speaker 1: smashing thing. I just the person I'm married. She just
15:28
Speaker 1: smashed the cake gets my face and I thought it
15:30
Speaker 1: was funny. You know, it's your good sport. Thanks man,
15:32
Speaker 1: I try to be Also, it did. It did get
15:35
Speaker 1: all over the tucks, but that made it funnier and
15:38
Speaker 1: there's more risky business. According to the wedding experts, when
15:43
Speaker 1: you talk about cake smashing, first cake fans or champion
15:48
Speaker 1: at the bit to point out it is a waste
15:50
Speaker 1: of good cake. Yeah, no joke. I mean some of
15:53
Speaker 1: these absurdly fancy cakes can equal somewhere in the neighborhood
15:57
Speaker 1: of like twelve to thirteen bucks of slice and even
16:00
Speaker 1: just like an average kind of front of the mill
16:02
Speaker 1: wedding cake and be at least two or three bucks slice.
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Speaker 1: And you know, I'm not one to waste good cake.
16:07
Speaker 1: Ben you know me to be a fan of pastry,
16:10
Speaker 1: And I just feel like this is a tradition that
16:12
Speaker 1: needs to go the way of the bronte sor think.
16:18
Speaker 1: So yes, uh so you say nay to cake wasters?
16:22
Speaker 1: Huh yeah, I have a real problem with them. So
16:31
Speaker 1: it's interesting that even in the modern day, some people
16:34
Speaker 1: see it as just all in good fun, and then
16:37
Speaker 1: other people see it as disrespectful and demeaning. And the
16:42
Speaker 1: tradition seems to evolved somewhat organically. You know. There wasn't
16:48
Speaker 1: a There wasn't an article in Vanity Fair or some
16:52
Speaker 1: sort of etiquette guide to weddings that said, and at
16:55
Speaker 1: this point, the bride shall stuff hug room's face with cake.
16:59
Speaker 1: Rubb need hither and fro and or thither and or thither. Uh.
17:04
Speaker 1: You know what? This also made me think of the
17:07
Speaker 1: world is full of these very specific wedding traditions, you know,
17:13
Speaker 1: and I found just a couple. If you want a
17:16
Speaker 1: laundry list, I want to hear what you think it is.
17:19
Speaker 1: So in weaker culture in China, grooms shoot their future
17:23
Speaker 1: bride with a bow and arrow minus the arrowheads three
17:26
Speaker 1: times and then they what what's on the tip of
17:29
Speaker 1: the era Just it's just the shaft that would still hurt,
17:34
Speaker 1: though we would hope. Then they break the arrows to
17:37
Speaker 1: ensure that the couple stays in love forever. See, I
17:40
Speaker 1: think I would prefer the cake smashing to getting shot
17:43
Speaker 1: with a projectile. You can put an eye out with
17:46
Speaker 1: one of those, man right. And here's another one that
17:49
Speaker 1: I thought, this is one that would be the line
17:52
Speaker 1: for me. And you know, I really appreciated when you
17:54
Speaker 1: said that I was in general a good sport. I
17:56
Speaker 1: don't know if I could go with this one. In Scotland,
17:59
Speaker 1: there's something called the lackening of the bride. Have you
18:02
Speaker 1: heard of this? So traditionally Scottish brides to be you're,
18:08
Speaker 1: are taken by surprise. Their friends kind of jump them
18:12
Speaker 1: and they pelt them with stuff like curdled milk, dead fish,
18:15
Speaker 1: spoiled through tar and feathers, and then they're tied to
18:19
Speaker 1: a tree and then after that they go out for
18:22
Speaker 1: a night of drinking. And the idea here, the belief
18:25
Speaker 1: is that if the bride can withstand that kind of treatment,
18:28
Speaker 1: she can handle anything that comes her way in marriage.
18:31
Speaker 1: Can we just skip to the drinking. I mean, yeah,
18:33
Speaker 1: I don't. I don't understand that's like some serious, like
18:37
Speaker 1: military hazing type stuff there. Yeah. Yeah, when we're talking,
18:41
Speaker 1: you know, it came to mind when we're talking about
18:43
Speaker 1: the cultural implications, right of smashing cake on someone, and
18:48
Speaker 1: we've seen how it could become aggressive. But I don't
18:50
Speaker 1: think that has anything on this throwing trash at people
18:53
Speaker 1: and tying them to trees. No, that is not on,
18:56
Speaker 1: my friend, not on one bit. Okay, just a just
19:00
Speaker 1: a couple more of these if it. I want to
19:02
Speaker 1: gauge you on this and see which ones you think
19:05
Speaker 1: are like understandable. Gauge me up, all right. So in Mauritania,
19:11
Speaker 1: girls aged between five and fifteen are sent to fat
19:14
Speaker 1: farms before their wedding to pile on the pounds because
19:19
Speaker 1: it's also seen as a status symbol. It's seen as
19:22
Speaker 1: a signal that the groom is wealthy enough to keep
19:25
Speaker 1: the bride satisfied in a very physical way. And then
19:30
Speaker 1: in another part of China, brides of the Tujia people
19:34
Speaker 1: are required to cry for an hour a day every
19:37
Speaker 1: day for the month before their wedding. Well, that's that's
19:40
Speaker 1: just like how I live. I have my daily cry.
19:44
Speaker 1: Sometimes it lasts longer than an hour. It just depends.
19:46
Speaker 1: Is it like meditative or no. You don't plan it,
19:49
Speaker 1: just it just comes upon me. Well, if you were
19:53
Speaker 1: doing this in preparation for a wedding ten days before
19:55
Speaker 1: the wedding, your mother would join you. The mother joins
19:59
Speaker 1: the and they cried together, and then the grandmother joins
20:02
Speaker 1: as well. Yeah, I cry with my mom too, at
20:04
Speaker 1: least one day out of the week. Well, you know,
20:08
Speaker 1: I mean whatever it takes, man, Nothing like a good
20:11
Speaker 1: phone cry with your mom, just to you know. We
20:14
Speaker 1: saw the movie Coco the other week and we cried
20:17
Speaker 1: in tandem um during that film with my eight year
20:19
Speaker 1: old daughter, who also cried. It was a freeway cry, cathartic,
20:23
Speaker 1: it really was. Is that a Pixar film? Oh boy?
20:25
Speaker 1: Was it ever? The Pixar cry that's where it's at.
20:28
Speaker 1: I have some friends who refused to watch Pixar because
20:31
Speaker 1: they feel that it's emotionally manipulous a little bit. But
20:33
Speaker 1: I you know, bend me, break me, Pixar. It's fine. Yeah,
20:38
Speaker 1: they're fantastic stories. Honestly, here's another weird story, and I
20:44
Speaker 1: guess this can be the last unusual tradition. And by
20:47
Speaker 1: the way, Nolan and I are not dinging any of these.
20:50
Speaker 1: They're just strange and they weren't news to us. Uh,
20:52
Speaker 1: newly weds in France for a while, we're forced to
20:55
Speaker 1: drink leftovers from their wedding out of a toilet bowl nowadays,
21:00
Speaker 1: kind of leftover stuff food from the wedding. Yeah, well
21:06
Speaker 1: is making a very distasteful sneer. Yeah, I agree with
21:10
Speaker 1: you there, man. Nowadays, thankfully, chocolate and champagne are repeatedly
21:15
Speaker 1: used as a substitute, but still served out of a toilet. Okay, then,
21:21
Speaker 1: I think we have run the gamut of odd wedding
21:24
Speaker 1: customs in today's ridiculous history. Nugget a little bit of
21:28
Speaker 1: a shorter one. So I think we're gonna wrap up
21:30
Speaker 1: today with a couple of really cool fun listener males.
21:37
Speaker 1: Our first listener mail today comes from um Michelle and
21:42
Speaker 1: the subject is Butter episode, and she goes, I know
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Speaker 1: I'm late to the party with responding to this episode,
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Speaker 1: but I can't leave my feedback on set. Um. I
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Speaker 1: love the Butter podcast. It was so interesting that this
21:53
Speaker 1: had such a huge effect on how we practice religion
21:56
Speaker 1: and spirituality and how that has evolved. However, I think
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Speaker 1: you guys missed a critical point with butter itself, which
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Speaker 1: is important in crafting the lens through which you view
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Speaker 1: the issue. You refer to butter as a spread, a seasoning,
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Speaker 1: and a stir fry agent. If this is all butter is,
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Speaker 1: then by nature it's a luxury, not a necessity. Also, really,
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Speaker 1: stir fry in medieval Europe. Look, I wasn't saying stir
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Speaker 1: fry as we know. I just meant, you know, cooking
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Speaker 1: different ingredients with some sort of cooking agents and combining them.
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Speaker 1: Surely that was a thing like a stew right, come on,
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Speaker 1: I don't know. I hear you, Michelle, though you got
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Speaker 1: me ding Um noted, But she goes on. However, the
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Speaker 1: piece you missed is that fat is a crucial ingredient
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Speaker 1: in making bread, which even your vegan monks would have
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Speaker 1: been eating. Bread was the main dietary staple of the time,
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Speaker 1: and most of the world peasants would not have been
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Speaker 1: able to survive without bread because of as you mentioned,
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Speaker 1: of the scarcity of food in that part of the world.
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Speaker 1: So these people without butter, the only fat available to
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Speaker 1: them would have to choose between their family starvation and
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Speaker 1: their immortal soul. I think this changes the lens fundamentally.
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Speaker 1: You know, I'm tempted to agree, and I really appreciate
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Speaker 1: you pointing that out, Michelle. We think and a lot
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Speaker 1: of feedback about the Butter episode in particular, YEA, most
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Speaker 1: of it quite good and this one, you know, she's
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Speaker 1: not being me and he's got a really good point.
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Speaker 1: We definitely mentioned bread, but I don't think we gave
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Speaker 1: it the weight that it probably deserves. So Michelle duly
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Speaker 1: noted and thank you for writing in and listening to
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Speaker 1: the show. And no spoilers, but stay tuned Bread fans.
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Speaker 1: So we have one more listener mail for today and
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Speaker 1: it pertains to our Antarctica episode. Sarah P. Writes in
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Speaker 1: to say Ben and Nolan super producer Casey. I found
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Speaker 1: your podcast yesterday and have quickly gone through every episode,
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Speaker 1: thoroughly enjoying it, as well as your thoughts on whether
23:41
Speaker 1: or not to start a Pinterest account. Sarah side note
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Speaker 1: here you'll be glad to know that we have a
23:46
Speaker 1: meeting about it every week. I really enjoyed all of them.
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Speaker 1: Says Sarah, and had a question to ask in regards
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Speaker 1: the episode about who would have jurisdiction on a case
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Speaker 1: in Antarctica of an instant occurs on a country base
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Speaker 1: that is not the same country as the person involved.
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Speaker 1: My initial reaction was why not have interpoll take care
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Speaker 1: of the incident? Granted I am not by any means
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Speaker 1: an expert on the organization, but I feel as an
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Speaker 1: organization that routinely assists multiple nations, they would be the
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Speaker 1: perfect organization to assist the continent that no nation can claim,
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Speaker 1: whether as a mediator between two countries or is the
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Speaker 1: lead in an investigation, they could be a useful asset
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Speaker 1: on Antarctica. On a side note, as a Philly girl,
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Speaker 1: I must recommend that if you want a good Philly
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Speaker 1: cheese steak, you have to go to Gym's on South Street.
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Speaker 1: They have the best. No matter what anyone may say
24:35
Speaker 1: shots fired. I'm sure that's a serious point of contention
24:38
Speaker 1: and Philly and that's who has the best cheese steak.
24:40
Speaker 1: And I'm sure there are many varying opinions on it,
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Speaker 1: but I am all about trying next if we ever
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Speaker 1: make it to the City of Brotherly Love, let's go,
24:49
Speaker 1: let's take Ridiculous History on the road, do a live
24:52
Speaker 1: show sponsored by just the Idea of Philly Cheese Steaks.
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Speaker 1: I am all about it, and thanks so much for
24:57
Speaker 1: writing in, Michelle and Sarah, and we hope that you
25:00
Speaker 1: will write into us too. A ridiculous at how Stuff
25:03
Speaker 1: Works dot Com, we're still plugging away at that Pinterest
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Speaker 1: vision board getting there, but you know we're we're gonna
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Speaker 1: debut it when the time is right. We're taking a
25:12
Speaker 1: Hines fifty seven approach to it. Good things come to
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Speaker 1: those who debate Pinterest boards. But you can also find
25:19
Speaker 1: us in the meantime on various other Internet platforms. The Twitter, now, yes,
25:25
Speaker 1: we do have a Twitter account. Now we're going legit
25:27
Speaker 1: my man. Man, it's a brave new world. And we
25:30
Speaker 1: also have an Instagram and a Facebook. You can find
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Speaker 1: Nolan I on several other shows. But as it turns out,
25:37
Speaker 1: we have a lot of things cooking here and we
25:39
Speaker 1: have some new how Stuff Work shows coming out now. Yeah,
25:43
Speaker 1: I don't know if you guys know um our buddy
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Speaker 1: Ken Jennings of Jeopardy fame. I think he's the when
25:48
Speaker 1: the winning ist Jeopardy contestant and I think he only
25:52
Speaker 1: was finally dethroned by the notorious Watson computer that bested him. Um.
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Speaker 1: But you know, it's it's hard to uh to fight
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Speaker 1: back against our robot overlord. So I still love you. Ken.
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Speaker 1: And Ken and his buddy John Roderick, who was in
26:06
Speaker 1: a real cool band called the Long Winters, have a
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Speaker 1: new show that will be available anywhere you get your
26:10
Speaker 1: podcasts by the time you hear this episode called Omnibus,
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Speaker 1: where they the whole concept is their podcasting from the
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Speaker 1: present for the people of the distant future. UM, given
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Speaker 1: some sort of monumental catastrophe that would decimate our society,
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Speaker 1: and they want to preserve all kinds of weird esoteric
26:30
Speaker 1: bits of knowledge and curio and do so with a plum.
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Speaker 1: And they're quite funny and charming and it's got kind
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Speaker 1: of a fun sci fi quality to it. Actually was
26:41
Speaker 1: lucky enough I got to do all the music for
26:43
Speaker 1: it and the sound design. So give Omnibus a listen
26:46
Speaker 1: whenever you get a chance, and right to them. Tell
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Speaker 1: them Ben and Noel saying, maybe that'll you know, will
26:53
Speaker 1: that give him some credit? Will that be a ding?
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Speaker 1: I don't know. I think we might need to get
26:56
Speaker 1: credit from them because the show is going to be
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Speaker 1: a hit. Yes, agree to end while you're looking for omnibus.
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Speaker 1: Of course we want to end on the question. Please
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Speaker 1: write to us, let us know what strange wedding traditions
27:07
Speaker 1: you have encountered or taken part in, and most importantly,
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Speaker 1: join us next time for another episode of ridiculous history.
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Speaker 1: Goodbye everyone,