November 23, 2024 • 41 mins
Inarguably the most well-known Wookie in the Star Wars universe, Chewbacca also bears a strong resemblance to another popular creature in American culture -- the towering, hirsute cryptid known as Bigfoot. So much so, in fact, that during filming the studio (allegedly) became very concerned for the safety of Peter Mayhew, the actor who played Chewbacca onscreen. While filming Return of the Jedi in the forests of the California redwoods, guards accompanied the costumed Peter Mayhew so that Bigfoot hunters wouldn't shoot him. So what's the big deal with California and Bigfoot? Tune in to find out.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to our classic episode for this week.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Yeah, yeah, that's okay, it's it's it's all right.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
You might hear my pal doing some I would say
eight out of ten.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Ten, Yeah, I lost I lost it there at the end.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
No, you got you went Australia. I got excited, which
is fine. We are bringing you a classic episode about
that time Chewbacca needed body guards. Isn't Chewbacca himself a bodyguard?
He's like Han Solo's bodyguard. Yeah, why did he get
secret service for his own secret service?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, let's just jump in and find out. Man, this
is a wacky story.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. We spent a
(01:12):
little bit of time before we went on air in
search of the perfect song to open today's episode with
and by Golly by Gum. I think we got it.
Let's let's let's roll it. Just a clip of it.
There was some scientists trying to figure out the sasquatch
ridd all.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Didn't they figure out it was a missing link? Is
that the D? It is the D? Man, I love
the D. I miss the D.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
They're back though, That's what could be more appropriate than
the Tenacious D song about Bigfoot about the Sasquatch. Hello,
I'm Ben, I am Noel, and Noel you found that
perfect song as we were as we were looking through
the internets to find a cool, fun song.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
What had to be the one, Ben, because there is
really no finer song of the mystery of the Bigfoot
the Sasquatch than in Search of Sasquatch by Tenacious D.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
That was also the TV show version. I don't think
it was actually on the record. It doesn't matter, but
they may.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
The only way that song could be topped is if
Tenacious D when they return, if they put out a
reprised version, or they have the discovery of the Sasquatch.
We want to, of course, bid a distant hello to
our super producer Casey Pegram and a very close hello
(02:42):
to our guest super producer, Paul Dectt.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, he's seated right outside of the shipping container. We're
looking at him right now.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
And our story today begins in the far West. They're
in California specifically. It also incorporates not just Tenacious D,
but another pop culture phenomenon, Star Wars.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Where do you come down on the Star Wars? Ben,
I'm a fan.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
You for it? Again, I'm for it. I'm a fan.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I'm not one of those people who feels that you
must choose between either Star Trek or Star Wars. I
think they both have their merits, and although they're totally different, because.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
They're in space and they have Star in the name,
we have to make a choice, we have to choose allegiances.
That's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
It feels a little it feels a little bit falsely
dichotomous to me. Are you rebel or empire? You know,
it's tough to make that call because having watched the films,
the rebels are always the protagonists.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Right, So an empire, they're basically a bunch of fascists.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, man very much into uniforms and conformity. So I
guess I would say rebel. But really, if I were
existing in the Star Wars universe, all I would want
to do is use the force, get my Midichlorians up.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
You know, what about what about you? Where would you?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So obviously rebel? It seems like a very unpopular decision
to be empire, but people do choose that allegiance in
the fan community.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Many of you may know are.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Compatriot Holly Fry from Stuff he was in history class. Also,
by the way, Plug a host of a cool show
I'm working on with her called Drawn the Story of Animation,
which is a partnership with Cartoon Network, and it's a
really fun kind of love letter to all things animation. Anyway,
Holly the biggest Star Wars fan you could ever imagine.
I'm serious, Use use your imagination. Think of the biggest
(04:40):
Star Wars fan.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Take it up.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
A couple of clicks from there, you got Holly Fryes.
She has a rebel tattoo. She makes all her own
clothes pretty much all of it is Star Wars themed.
And when she overheard Ben, you and I talking about
the connection between Sasquatch and a certain Wookie, her eyes
lit right up.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
It's true, there is a connection. Now, fans of Star Wars,
you will recall Chewbacca.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Of course he is that it. We're in the throat. Really,
I bet you can know that was close. Let's play
a clip. Hey, it's better. As I was saying.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Chewbacca is a Wookie, a tall, Harry biped and also
intelligent as sentient being. He is best known as the friend,
first Mate, cosmic road trip buddy of Hands solo and
he is the co pilot on the famous spaceship the
Millennium Falcon. He's also super duper tall, very tall, like
(05:42):
seventh foot plus.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, and you know it took a super duper tall
human to fill that super duper tall costume, a British
man by the name of Peter Mayhew.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yes, Peter Mayhew, who might be unfamiliar to people who
are casual Star Wars fans, wouldn't say that either of
us or super producer Paul are people who can quote
exact moments and know all the canon. I wouldn't say
we're super fans, but but we're fans, right.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
You like Star Wars? See all the movie I've seen
all of them.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, and I'll probably watch them again. And I'll say
it in real life. I'm a very nice, compassionate person
with a lot of empathy. But I think the Sith
are cool. Wow, don't you? Okay, dude, the Sith are cool.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Darth Vader is like the most memorable part of the
first few movies.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
It's true, also played by a very tall man. It's
actually quite appropriate for today's episode. How Mayhew found himself
in this role in London back around the time that
Star Wars was going into pre production. He was part
of a profile that a London reporter did on people
(06:54):
with big feet, which.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Is insane when you think about funny. Originally, he wasn't
supposed to beat Trabacca. Originally, I believe George Lucas was
hoping to get a bodybuilder named David Prows to play
the role. But Prows chose to play Darth Vader. And
we should say Peter Mayhew, despite having a peak height
of seven feet three inches or two hundred and twenty
(07:18):
one centimeters, he does not suffer from gigantism, you know,
like Wadlow had. Now, Yeah, he's just a big fella.
He does, however, have a condition called Marfan syndrome, which
is a genetic disorder of connective tissue and often that
can lead to people having extraordinary heights.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, and often very skinny. You know the band Deer Hunter,
the singer in Atlanta band is fantastic. The singer Bradford
Cox has Marfin syndrome and he's quite tall and lanky.
The other guy you're talking about who played Darth Vader,
he said he wanted to play Darth Vader because.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
He thought villains were more memorable.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
And the funny thing is too he didn't realized his
voice wasn't going to be eased that Chanel Jones.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
He did a little bait and switch on him.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
And Mayhew also not his voice, the voice of Chewbacca.
That sound we heard a minute ago is comprised of
like a bear, a walrus, and several other animals combined
to make that super cool sound. But today's story didn't
take place until the third.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I don't know. I don't know how you count them,
you're supposed to. It's like an episode in order of
let's do it an order of release. That's let's do
it that way, just to keep it easy. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
The third Star Wars movie released that was the Return
of the Jedi, which was the first Star Wars movie
to feature If I'm not mistaken in Star Wars fans,
please just just come at me.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Be kind.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
No, don't be kind, be kind, Give it to me,
be kind. Hit me with your lightsabers was the first
one to feature the little guys, the little furry bear
guys Ewok's and they occupied they were forest dwellers.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
The Forest of Indoor. Yes, Return of the Jedi nineteen
eighty three In the film. You'll remember, of course, that
Chewbacca is one of the characters who visits Endoor, and
he is he has a nice rapport with Ewoks, being
that they are both furry and lovable despite their size difference.
(09:17):
But the story we're examining doesn't take place in front
of the cameras while they were rolling and you see
where they were shooting the scenes for the Forest of
Indoor in state park. What was that state park? More?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
It is the Tall Trees Redwood Grove, located in the
Redwood National and State Park in Humboldt County.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
And when this area has another notable thing about it,
aside from being a site of Star Wars filming, it
is also known as an alleged hotspot for one of
the most famous cryptids in the United State's Bigfoot aka
the Sasquatch, aka the Yetti aka swamp Ape, but that
(10:07):
they call swamp Pape in Florida Skunk Cape, skunk Ape.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
That's another one. That's another one.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah, abominable Snowman in the Himalayas and sasquatch sighting or
sasquatch hunting was popular enough in this region and remains
popular enough in this region today that the filmmakers were
worried that Chewbacca or Peter might get shot or harassed
(10:33):
or attacked because in Bigfoot country there is a seven
plus foot tall creature that is Harry that is wandering around,
and they said, well, you know, that's kind of going
to mess up filming for us.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
We don't have him getting shot. What's that cool word,
the five dollars word for being Harry. Here's suit? Love that? Yeah, sorry,
I just love that word. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
So they didn't have it in the script for him
to be shot by Bigfoot hut hunters, but they had
to make the movie anyway.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
The show must go on. So what did they do well?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
According to Mayhew himself, this is something of a sort
of a Star Wars fan community urban legend, which is
interesting considering it surrounds a big Foot story as well.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
That he had kind of a detail, sort.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Of a protection squad, if you will, that were decked
out in brightly colored jackets, like vests, you know, like
you'd see Neon crossing guard vests or even hunters wear
these kind of vests so that they can be visible
in the forest and you know, keep from shooting each other.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
And be obviously not creatures of the woods, unless you're
Dick Cheney. That apparently does not read for Dick.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Oh boy, too soon. No, I don't think that's too soon.
That's that's not too soon. That's a it's a sasquatch
related But it's a great example of how easily accidents
can happen while hunting.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Hunting, especially if you know your mistake for a potentially
dangerous predator or the target of your hunt.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Right, because people genuinely believe that this creature, while elusive,
does exist somewhere, right, and they want to Everybody who
believes it wants to be the first person to find it.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
You kill it, You think you'd shoot it with a
dart or something.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Yeah, that's the thing, because when we discover new animals,
or rediscover animals they are previously thought to be extinct.
It's a real tragedy to find out that they were
still alive when you've killed one, right, or you've killed
the last one of two or three. There's another reason here.
I know this sounds like maybe they were being overprotective
(12:48):
of Chewbacca, even though it's an understandable thing to have
this detail. Something else happened in nineteen sixty seven in
Humboldt count That both fueled the search for this cryptid
and I think added some credibility to the fear that
(13:09):
Chewbacca might be attacked. And that is a film. Are
you talking about the famous Patterson Gimlin film. Yep, the
famous Patterson Gimlin film which was shot in nineteen sixty
seven alongside Bluff Creek that's about twenty five miles northwest
of Orleans, California, in Humboldt County. And this film, which
(13:31):
is named after the guys who shot at Roger Patterson
and Robert Bob Gimlin. This film is so iconic that
if you are a died in the world true believer
of Bigfoot or you're an absolute skeptic. Either way, no
matter how you feel about the allegations of this gigantic
(13:51):
creature existing, you have seen this footage. You can go
on YouTube and see countless professional documentaries, countless TV shows,
and countless amateur documentaries attempting to analyze this. What a
little less than one minute of footage of this large,
hairy looking thing walking.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, I mean you see it from behind and it
it looks good.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Although at the same time it's sort of like, you know,
when was this, uh sixty seven, sixty seven. I mean,
you know, the Chewbacca costume. It looks a lot like
the Chewbacca.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Costume from behind, a lot like it, a lot like it.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
It absolutely does, because the big differentiation is the big
differentiations between the appearance of Chewbacca and the appearance of
this creature in this film are only discernible from a
closer distance.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Sure, and my question for you, Ben is like, what's
the backstory behind this film? Like how what gives it weight?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Like why are.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
People still kind of thinking that this these people had
no reason to like fake it.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
We can, yeah, we can look a little bit into
the origin of that film. So Patterson read an article
about Bigfoot in a magazine in nineteen fifty nine, a
magazine called True Magazine, and then he visited Bluff Creek
in nineteen sixty two, So several years before they film,
(15:17):
they caught this film or made this film, right, So
he was he was already kind of in search of Sasquatch. Yeah,
a little bit like the Tenacious d song.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
According to author Marion Place, when Patterson arrived at Bluff Creek,
he talked to tons of people who believed in Bigfoot
and said, hey, it's out here. Not only is it
out here, I can show you some stuff about it,
I can show you some evidence. And so in nineteen
sixty four he returned and he met a guy named
(15:48):
Pat Graves who drove him to Layered Meadows and that's where,
according to this story, he saw fresh tracks, fresh Bigfoot tracks,
and he thought it would be an amazing scientific breakthrough
if he could obtain evidence that these were not hoaxes
but the mark of an unknown human like creature.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I think for me it would be a lot more
believable if it just happened to be some rando out
in the woods with his camera that caught the thing, you.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Know, right like out of candidly.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Yeah, and they're they're filming their kid making a Sunday's
and then it pans.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
To the left.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I'd buy that much more than this guy who sort
of had a result he was after and a reason
to to want to be the guy.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Yeah. Here here's the thing. He was constantly ridiculed for
this search, and he was always running short on money.
He founded this thing called the Northwest Research Foundation and
use that to get funding for these bigfoot searches, and
he conducted several expeditions, but he also had a financial motivation,
(16:58):
It's probably the best way to put it. In sixty
six he published a paperback about the search, and he
added the income from that to the income from his lectures.
I e ostensibly to just too fun further searches. But
that's a tough call to make.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I think so too.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
But you know what, Ben, this area is just lousy
with these kinds of reports in general, this humble area
and the Northern California region in general, big old state California,
and totally different like ecosystem and environment in Northern California,
whereas in Southern California everything's a lot more arid and
desert like up there, it's much more lush and green
and these.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Huge, huge trees, the redwood forests.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I actually found Ben, a report dating back of the
earliest one that I could find, from January second of
eighteen eighty six from the Del Norte Record, and a
correspondent from that publication wrote this from Happy Camp, sisk
You County again on January second, eighteen eighty six. Here's
what it says. I do not remember to have seen
(18:01):
any reference to the wild man which haunts this part
of the country, so I shall allude to him briefly.
Not a great while, since mister Jack Dover, one of
our most trustworthy citizens, while hunting, saw an object standing
one hundred and fifty yards from him, picking berries or
tender shoots from the bushes. This thing was of gigantic size,
about seven feet high, with a bulldog head, short ears,
(18:24):
and long hair. It was also furnished with a beard,
and was free from hair on such parts of its
body as is common among men. Its voice was shrill
or soprano, and very human, like that of a woman
in great fear. Mister Dover could not see its footprints
as it walks on hard soil. He aimed his gun
at the animal or whatever it is, several times, but
(18:47):
because it was so human, he would not shoot. Eighteen
eighty six.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Eighteen eighty six and those are that's just the first
published report we con find.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Well, let's go back even further. Ben, Let's talk about
the origin of this creature, the origin and lore.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
The strange thing about Bigfoot, which is at base a
gigantic human like primate, right, The strange thing about it
is that reports of creatures like these date back into
the ancient empires and ages of myth and legend. Sometimes
you will see reports of a quote unquote wild man
(19:31):
right that troope or.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
That wild man of Borneo for example.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Sure yeah, or something called the hairy Man. Folklore experts
like Joseph Campbell see this wild man in the woods
legend as a as coming from a couple of different places.
One of the most interesting, if not the most plausible ideas,
is that it's some sort of orally transmitted memory of
(19:58):
an encounter with the largest known primate, the extinct Gigantipithecus,
which was ten feet tall and may emphasis on may
here may have interacted with early Homo sapiens like in
the Jungle Book. Yeah, like in the Jungle Book. A
spoiler alert for the newest jungle Book.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I'm kidding, but the one depicted in that live action
slash CGI Jungle Book is like a giant orangutan looking creature,
But it is that extinct Gigantopithecus that would have been
native to that part of the country.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, and Asia India.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
And fun fact, with the Gigantipithecus, at least in the
Jungle Book, and this is not too much of a
spoiler for the show. In the live action Jungle Book,
the gigantipithecus King Louis is played by Christopher Walkin, who
is going just full walking on that.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
He is nuts. He's just taking a walk again for
some reason.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
It's from Brooks and he sings the King Louis song,
but in a really weird, like spoken words stating way.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Christopher Walkin is one of those like just beloved actors
that can only do.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Christopher Walkin, right.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, maybe you might disagree, but I kind of feel
like it works and it's great.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
But he's sort of like a Jeff Goldbloom, you know.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Well, here's here's a or an al Pacino. Right, here's
a hot take. I want to see what you think
of this. This is entire I guess this is sort
of related because Peter Mayhew's an actor.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Anyway, just humor me, go with it. Tell me what
you think about this.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
So one of the great differences between the lauded actors
in the States and the lauded actors in Europe is that,
in the case of European actors, the A listers, the
top notch actors are praised for their abilities to be
chameleons largely praised for their ability to become another person
(21:57):
to slip into a role, whereas in the States, a
lot of top notch A list actors are praised for
their ability to constantly be unapologetically themselves. And it's it's
weird because it doesn't I'm not at all saying that
one is better than the other, nor am I saying
that these people aren't amazing actors. It's just a very
(22:18):
strange interpretation.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Now, It's true over here we call those character actors.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
They almost get like a like a demotion kind of
you know, yeah, like you're that kind of a leading man.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
You're a character actor.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
You're always the cop, You're always the angry dad who's
almost had it.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Oh, I guess when I say character actor, I mean
what I'm saying is they are more chameleonic, but the
leading men are less so.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Right like al Pacino in Devil's Advocate and al Pacino
in Scent of a Woman. A lot of people would
tell you, and I love Devil's Advocate, a lot of
people will tell you that they're always the same, They're
roughly the same mannerisms or something. You know, even though
I believe in scent of a woman, al Pacino plays
a blind character.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
But you know what, al Pacino not tall enough to
play Bigfoot, my friend? Not tall enough?
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah yeah, we pulled it back, Yeah yeah, circle back.
Not tall enough to play Bigfoot. Gigantopithecus though in a
larger sense, no pun intended, but I guess I'll allow
it was close enough to be like our guy for
this if we're trying to find a suspect for historical Bigfoot,
because Gigantopithecus Blackie was thought to be closely related to
(23:29):
early hominins, especially Ostrolopithecus, and this was based on molar evidence.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
So the thing molar like teeth, yea like tevy.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
The thing about trying to figure out whether Gigantopithecus was
the origin of the sasquatch or hairy man myths is
that when you look at it, as as we established earlier,
when we get depictions of this thing, it doesn't look
like a sasquatch the way they are described from the
nineteenth century on. It looks like a giant orangutan, and
(24:04):
it's got the big face flaps that are I'm gonna
say a big enough differentiator, Like its head is bigger,
yeah than a sasquatch's head would.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Be, and its neck looks like testicles or something.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
It's got like a wattle. Yeah almost. Yeah. It was
also probably not super fast.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Oh I can't imagine, And unlike the depiction in the
Jungle Book, it probably didn't smash things and swing on.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Trees, nor did it have a strong New York accents. Yeah, no,
it's true. But here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, you know, one beef that bigfoot skeptics have is like,
where's the evidence.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Give me some bones, give me a body, show me
the body, right, show me fecal matter or some nesting site.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Yeah, but with gigandipithecus, you know, there is evidence you
could even find some of these. They're plentiful enough that
you could find jawbones and teeth in like curio or
apothecary shops in places like Vietnam and India where these
creatures were indigenous.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
So for traditional medicine, then one would imagine, right, that
would be the use.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
And the thing is, you know, these things would have
been ten feet tall and weighed more than twelve hundred pounds,
so totally in line with the type of stature we're
talking about for these wild men, these hairymen, these sasquatches.
And the thing is they're not just limited to you know,
(25:34):
North America or northern California. They're all over the world.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Sure, sure, they're in Siberia. They're called the Chutrena there.
The Australians would call it the Yawi, which I think
is a fun name. Absolutely, you may hear it called.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
The year in China. We mentioned the yeti earlier. There
are different the Yeti's the snow one right, yeah, are.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Abominable snows right, There are different There are different cases
of alleged physical artifacts being discovered or being held, such
as the Pengbuche hand. There was an alleged Yetti scalp
that was supposed to be around, but I think was
later disproven through testing. And this is a really controversial
(26:23):
thing because for some biologists, the search for cryptids, which
is an umbrella term describing any animal that has been
alleged to exist but has been not proven to exist
or has been officially considered extinct, and then you know,
people think it may be rediscovered. Cryptozoologists are considered largely
(26:48):
persona non grata in the dingy pseudoscience in the academic world,
because other scientists will say that these folks have already
decided something exists, and they're not practicing critical thinking, your
scientific method. They're just trying to prove that what they
came in believing was correct. It's a confirmation bias exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
And like our pal who made the film, like I would,
I would find that evidence quote unquote much more believable
if it if it wasn't somebody who already was looking
to find something and then did this.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
And until his death he maintained that he understood why
people could think it was weird, but he was not
hoaxing anyone, and he well, he wouldn't deny that what
he saw was legitimate. But then that also raises the
possibility that perhaps he was hoaxed mm, which is.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Maybe someone was trolling him, yeah, or sasquatching him.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah. Oh, maybe we could use that as a new
verb to get sasquatched. I like it. I just squatched.
How about that? Squatched is good? Yeah? Squatch out? Yeah?
Into it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
All right, Well, let's incorporated into the ridiculous history lexicon.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Yeah, let's put it into our burgeoning encyclopedia.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
We have we have Son of a Fish, we have
a ship show, and now we have you Just Got Squatched.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Yeah, yeah, I think I have a few other ones,
but recommend your favorite slaying to us.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
We do want to point out again we know how.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Ridiculous this, this fear may have seen for Peter Mayhew
and for the filmmakers, but even as recently as twenty fourteen,
twenty percent of the US population one out of five
people believe in Bigfoot or something like it was.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Isn't that like as many people as believe in the
Big Bang theory.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yes? Yeah, not the show, the scientific concept. I believe
in the Big Bang.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
I believe so good Sheldon, it's got hart, Young Sheldon,
it's not good?
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Is that a spin off? Yeah? What, young Sheldon?
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I remember seeing the just the thumbnail for that and thinking, wow,
I have drifted far from the mainstream demographic.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
He's just such a smarmy little little kid. He just
thinks he thinks he knows it all.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
It's one of those those shows about like the genius
kid who gets to go to high school and he's like,
you know, ten or something everyone hates him, insists on
wearing the bows eye.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
I digress.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
The kid that that plays him is also in that
show Big Little Liars, which is awesome. By the way,
that's a great show if you haven't checked that out.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
But I don't know.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
You're right, Ben, there was a legitimate fear for this
quite large tall man wearing this.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Here suit costume.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Yes, yeah, and on another show we've done. If you
want to learn more about Bigfoot, you can hear our
full interview with the founder and curator of Expedition Bigfoot,
a one of a kind museum in up near l J, Georgia.
It's so cool, David Baraka.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Yeah, it's like it's like something you'd see in Epcot
Center or the Universe in.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
The nineties or something. It's really really neat.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
The guy's a super cool guy and believes this stuff
with all his heart.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
And you can in the interview hear us ask him
some of the some of the same questions that always
come up, the tough ones. The question number one numero
uno is you know where the bones, where the feces,
where the nesting sites and how much of a range
would a creature this size have to have? How much
(30:10):
food would it have to eat to sustain itself, let
alone to sustain and feed a juvenile version, right if
it reproduces. At this point, there is no universally accepted
proof that something like Bigfoot currently exists, nor is there
proof that something like it existed in the recent past.
(30:33):
The closest the closest known thing would be maybe misidentification
of large extant primates like gorillas or orangutans or the Gigantopithecus.
Maybe maybe, maybe way back in the day, but then
again still very speculative. One thing is for sure, though,
(30:55):
If someone who was a Sasquatch hunter was out there
in the area that is sometimes called the Bigfoot capital
of the world and they saw Peter Mayhew chubaka Everyone's
favorite Wookie, strolling through the woods by himself, they would
probably have freaked out. They definitely would have tried to
(31:17):
film him, harass him. I like to think they wouldn't
have shot the guy.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
You don't think they would have noticed all the camera
crews and extras and ewoks and.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Stuff confirmation bias, though, Man, I guess you're right. Maybe
they would.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
And we don't want to get too far, too far
down the Bigfoot rabbit hole.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
But it is interesting.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
I wonder if there are other situations like that where
in the course of making a film the filmmakers had
to take extra precautions or maybe even do extra cultural
things because of the values of mores of the place
in which they were filming.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah, oh, I have no doubt.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Yeah Apocalypse, Now there's got to be something with that.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Oh yeah, But I mean that was a notoriously gorilla
kind of shoot, you know.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
And the thing I've noticed too, like the here in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
It's like they call it yolly Wood because they shoot
a whole lot of movies here, and people I know
that work in the film industry. Sometimes they they bulldoze
a little bit, you know, if they're gonna like shoot
on your street.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Oh yeah, they.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Don't really care about disrupting your routine. The US post
a little bill and so you know it's coming. But
it's like, Okay, I guess this is my life for
the next week or two.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Did you ever get the shakedown?
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Like what if someone's filming on your street and they
say no through traffic, I might tell them that you live.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
There, I live here, I'm walking here. But here's the
thing too.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
This, Like I said, this, this story about Mayhew and
the the the anti big the Bigfoot determined uh detail
has kind of found its place in Star Wars fan
culture as kind of a bit of a of an
urban legend. But Mayhew himself was asked this in an
ama on Reddit in.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
A teen and he did confirm this is true.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
He said, yes, that is absolutely true. But then some
intrepid Star Wars fans did a little digging and kind
of got clarification that he was really more warned by
production folks not to walk off the set in costume
(33:22):
for fear that he might get shot by hunters, and
they reminded him remember this is Bigfoot country.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
So you know, memory is a funny thing. The story's
kind of true, it has a seed of truth.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
But this idea of dudes and you know, brightly colored
vests there specifically to protect this one actor in this
costume a.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Little little bit of an exact. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
And the thing is that if you would if you
would like to become a sasquatch hunter or search for them,
you are absolutely free to do. So I'm gonna go
ahead and call it Noel. I don't think I don't
think anyone's gonna find anything, But it's such a cool
excuse to get out into some of the most beautiful
(34:09):
wilderness in this country.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Absolutely, I mean, the redwoods are gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
I've actually never gotten I've been to San Francisco, but
I've not gotten to go quite that far up north.
But I think I will be relatively soon going up
to Washington State and Oregon for the first time.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
You've been You haven't been to Oregon before? No, I've
never been to. Oh, you're gonna love it. It's beautiful, very exciting.
What part are you going going to Portland? Okay? But
then also, uh, like we're taking a road trip, so awesome.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
For a secret project, right right, right, Well, we are
almost out of time today, but we would be remiss
if we didn't mention some other fantastic and fascinating things
we learned about Chewbacca.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
One of my favorites is actually this comic book that
depicts a crash landing that happens with Han Solo and
Chewbacco and the Millenium Falcon and they go through some kind.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Of like wormhole of some kind and end.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Up in the past in like this part of the
country that we're talking about, right, And they are being
chased by Native Americans who are firing arrows at Han
Solo and Chewbacca, and Hans Solo ends up keep getting
killed in this particular kind of non cannon Star Wars story.
(35:28):
It comes from a collection of Star Wars short comics
called the Think Star Wars Tales. I believe that's right.
And of course, you know, Chewbacca mourns his friend with
his famous yowl, his plaintive plant of Quala sorrow. Yeah,
and kind of goes off into the wilderness alone. It's
actually quite sad. And then the comic cuts to a
(35:50):
couple hundred years in the future and Indiana Jones shows
up with his now fully grown sidekick Short Round from
Temple of Doom in search of Sasquatch. And it turns
out that said that Chewbacca is Sasquatch. I just like
that alternate reality kind of like a treatment there.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
Yeah, lot of DC's Else World series or Marvel's oh
I can't remember what they call them, Marvel other Chewbacca facts.
The character was inspired by George Lucas's dog, a big
Alaskan malamute and named Indiana.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Named Indiana, we named the dog in Diada.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Exactly, and it wasn't the other way around. Indiana Jones
was inspired by the dog the name.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And the name Chewbacca is derived from
the Russian word for dog, So there's a very clear
relationship there. And and and for anyone who's thinking about
some of the chronology of that alternative world comic book,
uh Noel summarized, wookie Is are very long lived in
(36:56):
comparison to humans. At the time Star Wars is set,
Chewbacca is about two hundred years old. He looks great,
he looks fantastic. He must be using herbal essences or
one of the fancy shampoos.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Maybe for hymns. Maybe maybe he's using for him. So
keeps him a virile.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
And he was quite virile because in the much maligned
Star Wars holiday, specially with that which I'm not even
sure is considered canon, Lucas hated it so much. You
are introduced to Chewbacca's family.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
Right, yeah, you meet his You meet three members of
his family, his father Itchy, his wife Mala, and his son.
I think this is your favorite one, Nol. He's a
lumpy lumpy Yeah. These names are later later told these
are just nicknames.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
They're nicknames, right, they're much longer proper Wookie names. And
this is on his home planet of Kushik.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Yeah, the dad is out of chitcock. Very well done.
It was probably terrible a man. We don't speak Wikie,
we don't. Yeah, it's fine that we do our best,
our level best.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
To our level sincere best, whether it's hunting bigfoot or
protecting people from bigfoot hunters.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Right, and we are off.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
We hope you enjoyed this episode at least as much
as we enjoyed.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
Researching you know what. I enjoyed this one very much.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Yeah, I'm you know, I'm glad to say there's never
been one that I thought was a track.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Yeah, no, seriously.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
But there's also a fun crossover between some of the
stuff we talk about on our other show, stuff they
don't want you to know, where we take a critical
thinking approach to conspiracy theories like this one.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Yes, and stay tuned next week when we were going
to do something completely different, exploring the bizarre story of
Santa Anna and a funeral that he helped.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Looking forward to that one too. We're having a hard
time not telling you right now, I know we want
to tease but not spoil.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Yeah, so please join us for our next episode in
the mean time, massive thanks to our guest super producer
Paul Decktt, Thanks as always to Casey Pegram, thanks to
Alex Williams who composed our opening.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Music, and of huge thanks to Christopher Hasiotis, who has
been doing amazing We're collaborating with us on research for
these episodes, so.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Our episode falls through a close, but you don't have
to say goodbye just yet. You can find us on
our Facebook community page, Ridiculous Historians.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
We are pushing it hard because it is a lot
of fun. And the thing is about Facebook, as you know.
You know, if you have just like a regular Facebook page,
the reach is you just don't know what you're gonna get.
You might like the page, you might not see it.
Most of the cool stuff that I look at on
Facebook are like meme groups and Facebook pages like that.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
And that's how you know you're gonna get.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
The goods and the folks on Ridiculous Historians are a
lot of fun. There's a lot of fun history memes
and just cool articles and discussion and you know, pictures
of me and Ben doing weird stuff.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
And of course, we have fantastic moderators there who really
make the page what it is.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
We want you to be a part of it.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
There are some there's some very interesting threads and I
hang out there. Noel hangs out there. We even cajoled
our recurring arch nemesis, Jonathan Strickland the Quister, to post
a picture of himself.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
As a child.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Yea, at first I saw it from a distance and
thought it was a joke because I just saw like
a giant, weird clown.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
But when you zoom in you see Jonathan's tiny, tiny
child face in the Hole's what I cut the cutout things. Yeah,
so so definitely do check that out.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
And of course you can always send an email with
feedback or topic suggestions to us directly. We're ridiculous at
HowStuffWorks dot com and we can't wait to.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Hear from you and do us a solid leave us
a nice iTunes review.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
It really helps out and makes us feel good, and
we might read some on the air.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yeah, maybe some bad ones even take it easy. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Welcome to our classic episode for this week.
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Yeah, yeah, that's okay, it's it's it's all right.
Speaker 1 (00:08):
You might hear my pal doing some I would say
eight out of ten.
Speaker 3 (00:12):
Ten, Yeah, I lost I lost it there at the end.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
No, you got you went Australia. I got excited, which
is fine. We are bringing you a classic episode about
that time Chewbacca needed body guards. Isn't Chewbacca himself a bodyguard?
He's like Han Solo's bodyguard. Yeah, why did he get
secret service for his own secret service?
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Yeah, let's just jump in and find out. Man, this
is a wacky story.
Speaker 3 (00:45):
Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. We spent a
(01:12):
little bit of time before we went on air in
search of the perfect song to open today's episode with
and by Golly by Gum. I think we got it.
Let's let's let's roll it. Just a clip of it.
There was some scientists trying to figure out the sasquatch
ridd all.
Speaker 1 (01:31):
Didn't they figure out it was a missing link? Is
that the D? It is the D? Man, I love
the D. I miss the D.
Speaker 3 (01:41):
They're back though, That's what could be more appropriate than
the Tenacious D song about Bigfoot about the Sasquatch. Hello,
I'm Ben, I am Noel, and Noel you found that
perfect song as we were as we were looking through
the internets to find a cool, fun song.
Speaker 2 (02:01):
What had to be the one, Ben, because there is
really no finer song of the mystery of the Bigfoot
the Sasquatch than in Search of Sasquatch by Tenacious D.
Speaker 1 (02:13):
That was also the TV show version. I don't think
it was actually on the record. It doesn't matter, but
they may.
Speaker 3 (02:20):
The only way that song could be topped is if
Tenacious D when they return, if they put out a
reprised version, or they have the discovery of the Sasquatch.
We want to, of course, bid a distant hello to
our super producer Casey Pegram and a very close hello
(02:42):
to our guest super producer, Paul Dectt.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
Yeah, he's seated right outside of the shipping container. We're
looking at him right now.
Speaker 3 (02:53):
And our story today begins in the far West. They're
in California specifically. It also incorporates not just Tenacious D,
but another pop culture phenomenon, Star Wars.
Speaker 2 (03:11):
Where do you come down on the Star Wars? Ben,
I'm a fan.
Speaker 1 (03:14):
You for it? Again, I'm for it. I'm a fan.
Speaker 3 (03:17):
I'm not one of those people who feels that you
must choose between either Star Trek or Star Wars. I
think they both have their merits, and although they're totally different, because.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
They're in space and they have Star in the name,
we have to make a choice, we have to choose allegiances.
That's ridiculous.
Speaker 3 (03:34):
It feels a little it feels a little bit falsely
dichotomous to me. Are you rebel or empire? You know,
it's tough to make that call because having watched the films,
the rebels are always the protagonists.
Speaker 2 (03:47):
Right, So an empire, they're basically a bunch of fascists.
Speaker 3 (03:51):
Yeah, man very much into uniforms and conformity. So I
guess I would say rebel. But really, if I were
existing in the Star Wars universe, all I would want
to do is use the force, get my Midichlorians up.
Speaker 1 (04:05):
You know, what about what about you? Where would you?
Speaker 2 (04:08):
So obviously rebel? It seems like a very unpopular decision
to be empire, but people do choose that allegiance in
the fan community.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Many of you may know are.
Speaker 2 (04:19):
Compatriot Holly Fry from Stuff he was in history class. Also,
by the way, Plug a host of a cool show
I'm working on with her called Drawn the Story of Animation,
which is a partnership with Cartoon Network, and it's a
really fun kind of love letter to all things animation. Anyway,
Holly the biggest Star Wars fan you could ever imagine.
I'm serious, Use use your imagination. Think of the biggest
(04:40):
Star Wars fan.
Speaker 1 (04:41):
Take it up.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
A couple of clicks from there, you got Holly Fryes.
She has a rebel tattoo. She makes all her own
clothes pretty much all of it is Star Wars themed.
And when she overheard Ben, you and I talking about
the connection between Sasquatch and a certain Wookie, her eyes
lit right up.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
It's true, there is a connection. Now, fans of Star Wars,
you will recall Chewbacca.
Speaker 1 (05:07):
Of course he is that it. We're in the throat. Really,
I bet you can know that was close. Let's play
a clip. Hey, it's better. As I was saying.
Speaker 3 (05:17):
Chewbacca is a Wookie, a tall, Harry biped and also
intelligent as sentient being. He is best known as the friend,
first Mate, cosmic road trip buddy of Hands solo and
he is the co pilot on the famous spaceship the
Millennium Falcon. He's also super duper tall, very tall, like
(05:42):
seventh foot plus.
Speaker 2 (05:43):
Yeah, and you know it took a super duper tall
human to fill that super duper tall costume, a British
man by the name of Peter Mayhew.
Speaker 3 (05:51):
Yes, Peter Mayhew, who might be unfamiliar to people who
are casual Star Wars fans, wouldn't say that either of
us or super producer Paul are people who can quote
exact moments and know all the canon. I wouldn't say
we're super fans, but but we're fans, right.
Speaker 1 (06:12):
You like Star Wars? See all the movie I've seen
all of them.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
Yeah, and I'll probably watch them again. And I'll say
it in real life. I'm a very nice, compassionate person
with a lot of empathy. But I think the Sith
are cool. Wow, don't you? Okay, dude, the Sith are cool.
Speaker 1 (06:29):
Darth Vader is like the most memorable part of the
first few movies.
Speaker 2 (06:32):
It's true, also played by a very tall man. It's
actually quite appropriate for today's episode. How Mayhew found himself
in this role in London back around the time that
Star Wars was going into pre production. He was part
of a profile that a London reporter did on people
(06:54):
with big feet, which.
Speaker 3 (06:58):
Is insane when you think about funny. Originally, he wasn't
supposed to beat Trabacca. Originally, I believe George Lucas was
hoping to get a bodybuilder named David Prows to play
the role. But Prows chose to play Darth Vader. And
we should say Peter Mayhew, despite having a peak height
of seven feet three inches or two hundred and twenty
(07:18):
one centimeters, he does not suffer from gigantism, you know,
like Wadlow had. Now, Yeah, he's just a big fella.
He does, however, have a condition called Marfan syndrome, which
is a genetic disorder of connective tissue and often that
can lead to people having extraordinary heights.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
Yeah, and often very skinny. You know the band Deer Hunter,
the singer in Atlanta band is fantastic. The singer Bradford
Cox has Marfin syndrome and he's quite tall and lanky.
The other guy you're talking about who played Darth Vader,
he said he wanted to play Darth Vader because.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
He thought villains were more memorable.
Speaker 2 (07:57):
And the funny thing is too he didn't realized his
voice wasn't going to be eased that Chanel Jones.
Speaker 1 (08:03):
He did a little bait and switch on him.
Speaker 2 (08:04):
And Mayhew also not his voice, the voice of Chewbacca.
That sound we heard a minute ago is comprised of
like a bear, a walrus, and several other animals combined
to make that super cool sound. But today's story didn't
take place until the third.
Speaker 1 (08:22):
I don't know. I don't know how you count them,
you're supposed to. It's like an episode in order of
let's do it an order of release. That's let's do
it that way, just to keep it easy. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (08:31):
The third Star Wars movie released that was the Return
of the Jedi, which was the first Star Wars movie
to feature If I'm not mistaken in Star Wars fans,
please just just come at me.
Speaker 1 (08:41):
Be kind.
Speaker 2 (08:42):
No, don't be kind, be kind, Give it to me,
be kind. Hit me with your lightsabers was the first
one to feature the little guys, the little furry bear
guys Ewok's and they occupied they were forest dwellers.
Speaker 1 (08:55):
The Forest of Indoor. Yes, Return of the Jedi nineteen
eighty three In the film. You'll remember, of course, that
Chewbacca is one of the characters who visits Endoor, and
he is he has a nice rapport with Ewoks, being
that they are both furry and lovable despite their size difference.
(09:17):
But the story we're examining doesn't take place in front
of the cameras while they were rolling and you see
where they were shooting the scenes for the Forest of
Indoor in state park. What was that state park? More?
Speaker 2 (09:34):
It is the Tall Trees Redwood Grove, located in the
Redwood National and State Park in Humboldt County.
Speaker 3 (09:42):
And when this area has another notable thing about it,
aside from being a site of Star Wars filming, it
is also known as an alleged hotspot for one of
the most famous cryptids in the United State's Bigfoot aka
the Sasquatch, aka the Yetti aka swamp Ape, but that
(10:07):
they call swamp Pape in Florida Skunk Cape, skunk Ape.
Speaker 1 (10:10):
That's another one. That's another one.
Speaker 3 (10:11):
Yeah, abominable Snowman in the Himalayas and sasquatch sighting or
sasquatch hunting was popular enough in this region and remains
popular enough in this region today that the filmmakers were
worried that Chewbacca or Peter might get shot or harassed
(10:33):
or attacked because in Bigfoot country there is a seven
plus foot tall creature that is Harry that is wandering around,
and they said, well, you know, that's kind of going
to mess up filming for us.
Speaker 1 (10:47):
We don't have him getting shot. What's that cool word,
the five dollars word for being Harry. Here's suit? Love that? Yeah, sorry,
I just love that word. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (10:55):
So they didn't have it in the script for him
to be shot by Bigfoot hut hunters, but they had
to make the movie anyway.
Speaker 1 (11:03):
The show must go on. So what did they do well?
Speaker 2 (11:05):
According to Mayhew himself, this is something of a sort
of a Star Wars fan community urban legend, which is
interesting considering it surrounds a big Foot story as well.
Speaker 1 (11:18):
That he had kind of a detail, sort.
Speaker 2 (11:19):
Of a protection squad, if you will, that were decked
out in brightly colored jackets, like vests, you know, like
you'd see Neon crossing guard vests or even hunters wear
these kind of vests so that they can be visible
in the forest and you know, keep from shooting each other.
Speaker 1 (11:36):
And be obviously not creatures of the woods, unless you're
Dick Cheney. That apparently does not read for Dick.
Speaker 3 (11:42):
Oh boy, too soon. No, I don't think that's too soon.
That's that's not too soon. That's a it's a sasquatch
related But it's a great example of how easily accidents
can happen while hunting.
Speaker 2 (11:57):
Hunting, especially if you know your mistake for a potentially
dangerous predator or the target of your hunt.
Speaker 3 (12:07):
Right, because people genuinely believe that this creature, while elusive,
does exist somewhere, right, and they want to Everybody who
believes it wants to be the first person to find it.
Speaker 1 (12:22):
You kill it, You think you'd shoot it with a
dart or something.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Yeah, that's the thing, because when we discover new animals,
or rediscover animals they are previously thought to be extinct.
It's a real tragedy to find out that they were
still alive when you've killed one, right, or you've killed
the last one of two or three. There's another reason here.
I know this sounds like maybe they were being overprotective
(12:48):
of Chewbacca, even though it's an understandable thing to have
this detail. Something else happened in nineteen sixty seven in
Humboldt count That both fueled the search for this cryptid
and I think added some credibility to the fear that
(13:09):
Chewbacca might be attacked. And that is a film. Are
you talking about the famous Patterson Gimlin film. Yep, the
famous Patterson Gimlin film which was shot in nineteen sixty
seven alongside Bluff Creek that's about twenty five miles northwest
of Orleans, California, in Humboldt County. And this film, which
(13:31):
is named after the guys who shot at Roger Patterson
and Robert Bob Gimlin. This film is so iconic that
if you are a died in the world true believer
of Bigfoot or you're an absolute skeptic. Either way, no
matter how you feel about the allegations of this gigantic
(13:51):
creature existing, you have seen this footage. You can go
on YouTube and see countless professional documentaries, countless TV shows,
and countless amateur documentaries attempting to analyze this. What a
little less than one minute of footage of this large,
hairy looking thing walking.
Speaker 2 (14:13):
Yeah, I mean you see it from behind and it
it looks good.
Speaker 1 (14:19):
Although at the same time it's sort of like, you know,
when was this, uh sixty seven, sixty seven. I mean,
you know, the Chewbacca costume. It looks a lot like
the Chewbacca.
Speaker 2 (14:27):
Costume from behind, a lot like it, a lot like it.
Speaker 3 (14:31):
It absolutely does, because the big differentiation is the big
differentiations between the appearance of Chewbacca and the appearance of
this creature in this film are only discernible from a
closer distance.
Speaker 2 (14:44):
Sure, and my question for you, Ben is like, what's
the backstory behind this film? Like how what gives it weight?
Speaker 1 (14:50):
Like why are.
Speaker 2 (14:51):
People still kind of thinking that this these people had
no reason to like fake it.
Speaker 3 (14:55):
We can, yeah, we can look a little bit into
the origin of that film. So Patterson read an article
about Bigfoot in a magazine in nineteen fifty nine, a
magazine called True Magazine, and then he visited Bluff Creek
in nineteen sixty two, So several years before they film,
(15:17):
they caught this film or made this film, right, So
he was he was already kind of in search of Sasquatch. Yeah,
a little bit like the Tenacious d song.
Speaker 1 (15:26):
Yeah.
Speaker 3 (15:27):
According to author Marion Place, when Patterson arrived at Bluff Creek,
he talked to tons of people who believed in Bigfoot
and said, hey, it's out here. Not only is it
out here, I can show you some stuff about it,
I can show you some evidence. And so in nineteen
sixty four he returned and he met a guy named
(15:48):
Pat Graves who drove him to Layered Meadows and that's where,
according to this story, he saw fresh tracks, fresh Bigfoot tracks,
and he thought it would be an amazing scientific breakthrough
if he could obtain evidence that these were not hoaxes
but the mark of an unknown human like creature.
Speaker 1 (16:10):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (16:11):
I think for me it would be a lot more
believable if it just happened to be some rando out
in the woods with his camera that caught the thing, you.
Speaker 1 (16:18):
Know, right like out of candidly.
Speaker 3 (16:19):
Yeah, and they're they're filming their kid making a Sunday's
and then it pans.
Speaker 1 (16:25):
To the left.
Speaker 2 (16:25):
I'd buy that much more than this guy who sort
of had a result he was after and a reason
to to want to be the guy.
Speaker 1 (16:32):
You know.
Speaker 3 (16:33):
Yeah. Here here's the thing. He was constantly ridiculed for
this search, and he was always running short on money.
He founded this thing called the Northwest Research Foundation and
use that to get funding for these bigfoot searches, and
he conducted several expeditions, but he also had a financial motivation,
(16:58):
It's probably the best way to put it. In sixty
six he published a paperback about the search, and he
added the income from that to the income from his lectures.
I e ostensibly to just too fun further searches. But
that's a tough call to make.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
I think so too.
Speaker 2 (17:17):
But you know what, Ben, this area is just lousy
with these kinds of reports in general, this humble area
and the Northern California region in general, big old state California,
and totally different like ecosystem and environment in Northern California,
whereas in Southern California everything's a lot more arid and
desert like up there, it's much more lush and green
and these.
Speaker 1 (17:36):
Huge, huge trees, the redwood forests.
Speaker 2 (17:39):
I actually found Ben, a report dating back of the
earliest one that I could find, from January second of
eighteen eighty six from the Del Norte Record, and a
correspondent from that publication wrote this from Happy Camp, sisk
You County again on January second, eighteen eighty six. Here's
what it says. I do not remember to have seen
(18:01):
any reference to the wild man which haunts this part
of the country, so I shall allude to him briefly.
Not a great while, since mister Jack Dover, one of
our most trustworthy citizens, while hunting, saw an object standing
one hundred and fifty yards from him, picking berries or
tender shoots from the bushes. This thing was of gigantic size,
about seven feet high, with a bulldog head, short ears,
(18:24):
and long hair. It was also furnished with a beard,
and was free from hair on such parts of its
body as is common among men. Its voice was shrill
or soprano, and very human, like that of a woman
in great fear. Mister Dover could not see its footprints
as it walks on hard soil. He aimed his gun
at the animal or whatever it is, several times, but
(18:47):
because it was so human, he would not shoot. Eighteen
eighty six.
Speaker 3 (18:51):
Eighteen eighty six and those are that's just the first
published report we con find.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Well, let's go back even further. Ben, Let's talk about
the origin of this creature, the origin and lore.
Speaker 3 (19:07):
The strange thing about Bigfoot, which is at base a
gigantic human like primate, right, The strange thing about it
is that reports of creatures like these date back into
the ancient empires and ages of myth and legend. Sometimes
you will see reports of a quote unquote wild man
(19:31):
right that troope or.
Speaker 1 (19:32):
That wild man of Borneo for example.
Speaker 3 (19:34):
Sure yeah, or something called the hairy Man. Folklore experts
like Joseph Campbell see this wild man in the woods
legend as a as coming from a couple of different places.
One of the most interesting, if not the most plausible ideas,
is that it's some sort of orally transmitted memory of
(19:58):
an encounter with the largest known primate, the extinct Gigantipithecus,
which was ten feet tall and may emphasis on may
here may have interacted with early Homo sapiens like in
the Jungle Book. Yeah, like in the Jungle Book. A
spoiler alert for the newest jungle Book.
Speaker 2 (20:17):
I'm kidding, but the one depicted in that live action
slash CGI Jungle Book is like a giant orangutan looking creature,
But it is that extinct Gigantopithecus that would have been
native to that part of the country.
Speaker 1 (20:33):
Yeah, and Asia India.
Speaker 3 (20:36):
And fun fact, with the Gigantipithecus, at least in the
Jungle Book, and this is not too much of a
spoiler for the show. In the live action Jungle Book,
the gigantipithecus King Louis is played by Christopher Walkin, who
is going just full walking on that.
Speaker 1 (20:53):
He is nuts. He's just taking a walk again for
some reason.
Speaker 3 (20:58):
It's from Brooks and he sings the King Louis song,
but in a really weird, like spoken words stating way.
Speaker 2 (21:08):
Christopher Walkin is one of those like just beloved actors
that can only do.
Speaker 1 (21:12):
Christopher Walkin, right.
Speaker 2 (21:14):
Yeah, maybe you might disagree, but I kind of feel
like it works and it's great.
Speaker 1 (21:19):
But he's sort of like a Jeff Goldbloom, you know.
Speaker 3 (21:22):
Well, here's here's a or an al Pacino. Right, here's
a hot take. I want to see what you think
of this. This is entire I guess this is sort
of related because Peter Mayhew's an actor.
Speaker 1 (21:32):
Anyway, just humor me, go with it. Tell me what
you think about this.
Speaker 3 (21:35):
So one of the great differences between the lauded actors
in the States and the lauded actors in Europe is that,
in the case of European actors, the A listers, the
top notch actors are praised for their abilities to be
chameleons largely praised for their ability to become another person
(21:57):
to slip into a role, whereas in the States, a
lot of top notch A list actors are praised for
their ability to constantly be unapologetically themselves. And it's it's
weird because it doesn't I'm not at all saying that
one is better than the other, nor am I saying
that these people aren't amazing actors. It's just a very
(22:18):
strange interpretation.
Speaker 1 (22:19):
Now, It's true over here we call those character actors.
Speaker 2 (22:23):
They almost get like a like a demotion kind of
you know, yeah, like you're that kind of a leading man.
Speaker 1 (22:28):
You're a character actor.
Speaker 3 (22:29):
You're always the cop, You're always the angry dad who's
almost had it.
Speaker 1 (22:33):
You know.
Speaker 2 (22:34):
Oh, I guess when I say character actor, I mean
what I'm saying is they are more chameleonic, but the
leading men are less so.
Speaker 3 (22:40):
Right like al Pacino in Devil's Advocate and al Pacino
in Scent of a Woman. A lot of people would
tell you, and I love Devil's Advocate, a lot of
people will tell you that they're always the same, They're
roughly the same mannerisms or something. You know, even though
I believe in scent of a woman, al Pacino plays
a blind character.
Speaker 1 (23:00):
But you know what, al Pacino not tall enough to
play Bigfoot, my friend? Not tall enough?
Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah yeah, we pulled it back, Yeah yeah, circle back.
Not tall enough to play Bigfoot. Gigantopithecus though in a
larger sense, no pun intended, but I guess I'll allow
it was close enough to be like our guy for
this if we're trying to find a suspect for historical Bigfoot,
because Gigantopithecus Blackie was thought to be closely related to
(23:29):
early hominins, especially Ostrolopithecus, and this was based on molar evidence.
Speaker 1 (23:36):
So the thing molar like teeth, yea like tevy.
Speaker 3 (23:41):
The thing about trying to figure out whether Gigantopithecus was
the origin of the sasquatch or hairy man myths is
that when you look at it, as as we established earlier,
when we get depictions of this thing, it doesn't look
like a sasquatch the way they are described from the
nineteenth century on. It looks like a giant orangutan, and
(24:04):
it's got the big face flaps that are I'm gonna
say a big enough differentiator, Like its head is bigger,
yeah than a sasquatch's head would.
Speaker 2 (24:13):
Be, and its neck looks like testicles or something.
Speaker 3 (24:17):
It's got like a wattle. Yeah almost. Yeah. It was
also probably not super fast.
Speaker 2 (24:25):
Oh I can't imagine, And unlike the depiction in the
Jungle Book, it probably didn't smash things and swing on.
Speaker 1 (24:32):
Trees, nor did it have a strong New York accents. Yeah, no,
it's true. But here's the thing.
Speaker 2 (24:38):
Yeah, you know, one beef that bigfoot skeptics have is like,
where's the evidence.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
Give me some bones, give me a body, show me
the body, right, show me fecal matter or some nesting site.
Speaker 2 (24:49):
Yeah, but with gigandipithecus, you know, there is evidence you
could even find some of these. They're plentiful enough that
you could find jawbones and teeth in like curio or
apothecary shops in places like Vietnam and India where these
creatures were indigenous.
Speaker 3 (25:08):
So for traditional medicine, then one would imagine, right, that
would be the use.
Speaker 1 (25:12):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2 (25:13):
And the thing is, you know, these things would have
been ten feet tall and weighed more than twelve hundred pounds,
so totally in line with the type of stature we're
talking about for these wild men, these hairymen, these sasquatches.
And the thing is they're not just limited to you know,
(25:34):
North America or northern California. They're all over the world.
Speaker 3 (25:38):
Sure, sure, they're in Siberia. They're called the Chutrena there.
The Australians would call it the Yawi, which I think
is a fun name. Absolutely, you may hear it called.
Speaker 1 (25:51):
The year in China. We mentioned the yeti earlier. There
are different the Yeti's the snow one right, yeah, are.
Speaker 3 (25:58):
Abominable snows right, There are different There are different cases
of alleged physical artifacts being discovered or being held, such
as the Pengbuche hand. There was an alleged Yetti scalp
that was supposed to be around, but I think was
later disproven through testing. And this is a really controversial
(26:23):
thing because for some biologists, the search for cryptids, which
is an umbrella term describing any animal that has been
alleged to exist but has been not proven to exist
or has been officially considered extinct, and then you know,
people think it may be rediscovered. Cryptozoologists are considered largely
(26:48):
persona non grata in the dingy pseudoscience in the academic world,
because other scientists will say that these folks have already
decided something exists, and they're not practicing critical thinking, your
scientific method. They're just trying to prove that what they
came in believing was correct. It's a confirmation bias exactly.
Speaker 2 (27:08):
And like our pal who made the film, like I would,
I would find that evidence quote unquote much more believable
if it if it wasn't somebody who already was looking
to find something and then did this.
Speaker 3 (27:18):
And until his death he maintained that he understood why
people could think it was weird, but he was not
hoaxing anyone, and he well, he wouldn't deny that what
he saw was legitimate. But then that also raises the
possibility that perhaps he was hoaxed mm, which is.
Speaker 2 (27:36):
Maybe someone was trolling him, yeah, or sasquatching him.
Speaker 1 (27:40):
Yeah. Oh, maybe we could use that as a new
verb to get sasquatched. I like it. I just squatched.
How about that? Squatched is good? Yeah? Squatch out? Yeah?
Into it? Yeah?
Speaker 2 (27:48):
All right, Well, let's incorporated into the ridiculous history lexicon.
Speaker 3 (27:51):
Yeah, let's put it into our burgeoning encyclopedia.
Speaker 2 (27:56):
We have we have Son of a Fish, we have
a ship show, and now we have you Just Got Squatched.
Speaker 3 (28:01):
Yeah, yeah, I think I have a few other ones,
but recommend your favorite slaying to us.
Speaker 1 (28:06):
We do want to point out again we know how.
Speaker 3 (28:08):
Ridiculous this, this fear may have seen for Peter Mayhew
and for the filmmakers, but even as recently as twenty fourteen,
twenty percent of the US population one out of five
people believe in Bigfoot or something like it was.
Speaker 2 (28:25):
Isn't that like as many people as believe in the
Big Bang theory.
Speaker 1 (28:29):
Yes? Yeah, not the show, the scientific concept. I believe
in the Big Bang.
Speaker 2 (28:34):
I believe so good Sheldon, it's got hart, Young Sheldon,
it's not good?
Speaker 1 (28:39):
Is that a spin off? Yeah? What, young Sheldon?
Speaker 3 (28:42):
I remember seeing the just the thumbnail for that and thinking, wow,
I have drifted far from the mainstream demographic.
Speaker 2 (28:49):
He's just such a smarmy little little kid. He just
thinks he thinks he knows it all.
Speaker 3 (28:55):
You know.
Speaker 2 (28:55):
It's one of those those shows about like the genius
kid who gets to go to high school and he's like,
you know, ten or something everyone hates him, insists on
wearing the bows eye.
Speaker 1 (29:05):
I digress.
Speaker 2 (29:05):
The kid that that plays him is also in that
show Big Little Liars, which is awesome. By the way,
that's a great show if you haven't checked that out.
Speaker 1 (29:11):
But I don't know.
Speaker 2 (29:13):
You're right, Ben, there was a legitimate fear for this
quite large tall man wearing this.
Speaker 1 (29:21):
Here suit costume.
Speaker 3 (29:23):
Yes, yeah, and on another show we've done. If you
want to learn more about Bigfoot, you can hear our
full interview with the founder and curator of Expedition Bigfoot,
a one of a kind museum in up near l J, Georgia.
It's so cool, David Baraka.
Speaker 2 (29:41):
Yeah, it's like it's like something you'd see in Epcot
Center or the Universe in.
Speaker 1 (29:45):
The nineties or something. It's really really neat.
Speaker 2 (29:46):
The guy's a super cool guy and believes this stuff
with all his heart.
Speaker 3 (29:50):
And you can in the interview hear us ask him
some of the some of the same questions that always
come up, the tough ones. The question number one numero
uno is you know where the bones, where the feces,
where the nesting sites and how much of a range
would a creature this size have to have? How much
(30:10):
food would it have to eat to sustain itself, let
alone to sustain and feed a juvenile version, right if
it reproduces. At this point, there is no universally accepted
proof that something like Bigfoot currently exists, nor is there
proof that something like it existed in the recent past.
(30:33):
The closest the closest known thing would be maybe misidentification
of large extant primates like gorillas or orangutans or the Gigantopithecus.
Maybe maybe, maybe way back in the day, but then
again still very speculative. One thing is for sure, though,
(30:55):
If someone who was a Sasquatch hunter was out there
in the area that is sometimes called the Bigfoot capital
of the world and they saw Peter Mayhew chubaka Everyone's
favorite Wookie, strolling through the woods by himself, they would
probably have freaked out. They definitely would have tried to
(31:17):
film him, harass him. I like to think they wouldn't
have shot the guy.
Speaker 2 (31:20):
You don't think they would have noticed all the camera
crews and extras and ewoks and.
Speaker 1 (31:26):
Stuff confirmation bias, though, Man, I guess you're right. Maybe
they would.
Speaker 3 (31:31):
And we don't want to get too far, too far
down the Bigfoot rabbit hole.
Speaker 1 (31:36):
But it is interesting.
Speaker 3 (31:37):
I wonder if there are other situations like that where
in the course of making a film the filmmakers had
to take extra precautions or maybe even do extra cultural
things because of the values of mores of the place
in which they were filming.
Speaker 1 (31:54):
Yeah, oh, I have no doubt.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
Yeah Apocalypse, Now there's got to be something with that.
Speaker 2 (31:58):
Oh yeah, But I mean that was a notoriously gorilla
kind of shoot, you know.
Speaker 1 (32:04):
And the thing I've noticed too, like the here in Atlanta.
Speaker 2 (32:05):
It's like they call it yolly Wood because they shoot
a whole lot of movies here, and people I know
that work in the film industry. Sometimes they they bulldoze
a little bit, you know, if they're gonna like shoot
on your street.
Speaker 1 (32:17):
Oh yeah, they.
Speaker 2 (32:18):
Don't really care about disrupting your routine. The US post
a little bill and so you know it's coming. But
it's like, Okay, I guess this is my life for
the next week or two.
Speaker 1 (32:28):
Did you ever get the shakedown?
Speaker 3 (32:30):
Like what if someone's filming on your street and they
say no through traffic, I might tell them that you live.
Speaker 1 (32:35):
There, I live here, I'm walking here. But here's the
thing too.
Speaker 2 (32:38):
This, Like I said, this, this story about Mayhew and
the the the anti big the Bigfoot determined uh detail
has kind of found its place in Star Wars fan
culture as kind of a bit of a of an
urban legend. But Mayhew himself was asked this in an
ama on Reddit in.
Speaker 1 (32:59):
A teen and he did confirm this is true.
Speaker 2 (33:02):
He said, yes, that is absolutely true. But then some
intrepid Star Wars fans did a little digging and kind
of got clarification that he was really more warned by
production folks not to walk off the set in costume
(33:22):
for fear that he might get shot by hunters, and
they reminded him remember this is Bigfoot country.
Speaker 1 (33:29):
So you know, memory is a funny thing. The story's
kind of true, it has a seed of truth.
Speaker 2 (33:35):
But this idea of dudes and you know, brightly colored
vests there specifically to protect this one actor in this
costume a.
Speaker 1 (33:44):
Little little bit of an exact. Yeah.
Speaker 3 (33:48):
And the thing is that if you would if you
would like to become a sasquatch hunter or search for them,
you are absolutely free to do. So I'm gonna go
ahead and call it Noel. I don't think I don't
think anyone's gonna find anything, But it's such a cool
excuse to get out into some of the most beautiful
(34:09):
wilderness in this country.
Speaker 1 (34:11):
Absolutely, I mean, the redwoods are gorgeous.
Speaker 2 (34:13):
I've actually never gotten I've been to San Francisco, but
I've not gotten to go quite that far up north.
But I think I will be relatively soon going up
to Washington State and Oregon for the first time.
Speaker 1 (34:23):
You've been You haven't been to Oregon before? No, I've
never been to. Oh, you're gonna love it. It's beautiful, very exciting.
What part are you going going to Portland? Okay? But
then also, uh, like we're taking a road trip, so awesome.
Speaker 3 (34:35):
For a secret project, right right, right, Well, we are
almost out of time today, but we would be remiss
if we didn't mention some other fantastic and fascinating things
we learned about Chewbacca.
Speaker 2 (34:50):
One of my favorites is actually this comic book that
depicts a crash landing that happens with Han Solo and
Chewbacco and the Millenium Falcon and they go through some kind.
Speaker 1 (35:03):
Of like wormhole of some kind and end.
Speaker 2 (35:06):
Up in the past in like this part of the
country that we're talking about, right, And they are being
chased by Native Americans who are firing arrows at Han
Solo and Chewbacca, and Hans Solo ends up keep getting
killed in this particular kind of non cannon Star Wars story.
(35:28):
It comes from a collection of Star Wars short comics
called the Think Star Wars Tales. I believe that's right.
And of course, you know, Chewbacca mourns his friend with
his famous yowl, his plaintive plant of Quala sorrow. Yeah,
and kind of goes off into the wilderness alone. It's
actually quite sad. And then the comic cuts to a
(35:50):
couple hundred years in the future and Indiana Jones shows
up with his now fully grown sidekick Short Round from
Temple of Doom in search of Sasquatch. And it turns
out that said that Chewbacca is Sasquatch. I just like
that alternate reality kind of like a treatment there.
Speaker 3 (36:10):
Yeah, lot of DC's Else World series or Marvel's oh
I can't remember what they call them, Marvel other Chewbacca facts.
The character was inspired by George Lucas's dog, a big
Alaskan malamute and named Indiana.
Speaker 1 (36:26):
Named Indiana, we named the dog in Diada.
Speaker 2 (36:29):
Exactly, and it wasn't the other way around. Indiana Jones
was inspired by the dog the name.
Speaker 3 (36:35):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And the name Chewbacca is derived from
the Russian word for dog, So there's a very clear
relationship there. And and and for anyone who's thinking about
some of the chronology of that alternative world comic book,
uh Noel summarized, wookie Is are very long lived in
(36:56):
comparison to humans. At the time Star Wars is set,
Chewbacca is about two hundred years old. He looks great,
he looks fantastic. He must be using herbal essences or
one of the fancy shampoos.
Speaker 1 (37:08):
Maybe for hymns. Maybe maybe he's using for him. So
keeps him a virile.
Speaker 2 (37:15):
And he was quite virile because in the much maligned
Star Wars holiday, specially with that which I'm not even
sure is considered canon, Lucas hated it so much. You
are introduced to Chewbacca's family.
Speaker 3 (37:29):
Right, yeah, you meet his You meet three members of
his family, his father Itchy, his wife Mala, and his son.
I think this is your favorite one, Nol. He's a
lumpy lumpy Yeah. These names are later later told these
are just nicknames.
Speaker 2 (37:46):
They're nicknames, right, they're much longer proper Wookie names. And
this is on his home planet of Kushik.
Speaker 1 (37:52):
Yeah, the dad is out of chitcock. Very well done.
It was probably terrible a man. We don't speak Wikie,
we don't. Yeah, it's fine that we do our best,
our level best.
Speaker 3 (38:03):
To our level sincere best, whether it's hunting bigfoot or
protecting people from bigfoot hunters.
Speaker 1 (38:11):
Right, and we are off.
Speaker 3 (38:13):
We hope you enjoyed this episode at least as much
as we enjoyed.
Speaker 1 (38:18):
Researching you know what. I enjoyed this one very much.
Speaker 3 (38:21):
Yeah, I'm you know, I'm glad to say there's never
been one that I thought was a track.
Speaker 1 (38:26):
Yeah, no, seriously.
Speaker 2 (38:27):
But there's also a fun crossover between some of the
stuff we talk about on our other show, stuff they
don't want you to know, where we take a critical
thinking approach to conspiracy theories like this one.
Speaker 3 (38:38):
Yes, and stay tuned next week when we were going
to do something completely different, exploring the bizarre story of
Santa Anna and a funeral that he helped.
Speaker 1 (38:48):
Looking forward to that one too. We're having a hard
time not telling you right now, I know we want
to tease but not spoil.
Speaker 3 (38:56):
Yeah, so please join us for our next episode in
the mean time, massive thanks to our guest super producer
Paul Decktt, Thanks as always to Casey Pegram, thanks to
Alex Williams who composed our opening.
Speaker 2 (39:09):
Music, and of huge thanks to Christopher Hasiotis, who has
been doing amazing We're collaborating with us on research for
these episodes, so.
Speaker 3 (39:19):
Our episode falls through a close, but you don't have
to say goodbye just yet. You can find us on
our Facebook community page, Ridiculous Historians.
Speaker 2 (39:28):
We are pushing it hard because it is a lot
of fun. And the thing is about Facebook, as you know.
You know, if you have just like a regular Facebook page,
the reach is you just don't know what you're gonna get.
You might like the page, you might not see it.
Most of the cool stuff that I look at on
Facebook are like meme groups and Facebook pages like that.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
And that's how you know you're gonna get.
Speaker 2 (39:48):
The goods and the folks on Ridiculous Historians are a
lot of fun. There's a lot of fun history memes
and just cool articles and discussion and you know, pictures
of me and Ben doing weird stuff.
Speaker 3 (39:58):
And of course, we have fantastic moderators there who really
make the page what it is.
Speaker 1 (40:04):
We want you to be a part of it.
Speaker 3 (40:07):
There are some there's some very interesting threads and I
hang out there. Noel hangs out there. We even cajoled
our recurring arch nemesis, Jonathan Strickland the Quister, to post
a picture of himself.
Speaker 1 (40:20):
As a child.
Speaker 2 (40:21):
Yea, at first I saw it from a distance and
thought it was a joke because I just saw like
a giant, weird clown.
Speaker 1 (40:26):
But when you zoom in you see Jonathan's tiny, tiny
child face in the Hole's what I cut the cutout things. Yeah,
so so definitely do check that out.
Speaker 3 (40:35):
And of course you can always send an email with
feedback or topic suggestions to us directly. We're ridiculous at
HowStuffWorks dot com and we can't wait to.
Speaker 2 (40:44):
Hear from you and do us a solid leave us
a nice iTunes review.
Speaker 1 (40:47):
It really helps out and makes us feel good, and
we might read some on the air.
Speaker 2 (40:50):
Yeah, maybe some bad ones even take it easy. For
more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,
or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
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