June 1, 2021 • 33 mins
In today’s Classic episode, the guys travel back to their early days.
For centuries some lawyers and judges in the U.K. have worn distinctive wigs during court proceedings. But why? Join Ben and Noel as they explore the strange history of the peruke.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Oh yeah,
this isn't our usual introduction. This is our very first
classic episode. Can you believe it already a classic? How
(00:24):
long has it been? But we did we did the math.
We we have three hundred and seventies something episodes in
the feed and we wouldn't typically do this, but it is, uh,
the lead up to Memorial Day weekend, and we are,
you know, human beings, patriotic human beings, and we've we
felt the need to, you know, take the actual time off.
So we're going to introduce this classic episode to you today.
Many of you have maybe not heard it, that's right,
(00:46):
that's right. For people who are on Apple podcasts, you
may in fact be unable to find this episode. Of course,
we had to have our super producer, Max Williams aboard. Max,
I think we told you, oh, and I'm bad. I
think we told you that the uh that this episode
is is about British lawyers, right do we tell him that?
(01:08):
And all? I don't recall, but now he knows. How
do you feel about this? Max? Oh? I feel pretty good.
I mean thankfully. I read the tea leaves and I
already you know have the episode selected and everything, so
we should be good. You're the best. Well, it turns
out that British lawyers you may have seen them in
like you know, British law and order. That's gotta be
a thing, right or the very least, you know British
(01:29):
crime procedural shows the lawyers still to this day out
of a sense of nostalgia perhaps and tradition, which we
know the Brits are big on. Where these weird powdered wigs. Yes,
we're so glad to share this with you, folks. This
is I believe that one of the very first episodes
(01:49):
we ever did, if not the actual first Ridiculous History episode.
So in a way, Max, we're we're welcoming to the
show from the very beginning, just as is our we're
doing it very late, we're doing it several years later.
It's true. Uh, And and just a word to the word,
to the wise, and and to to ourselves. Even this
could be a really fun kind of time capsule peek
(02:12):
behind the curtain situation because this was very very early
in the show. And as you know, sometimes these shows,
uh take a little time to stretch their legs and
find their voice. So it could suck, but I seem
to remember it being fun. I played it for my
mom and she liked it, so that's my gauge. Yeah, yeah, man,
I think we all had a good time. And just
(02:32):
I love that you mentioned Peek behind the Curtain, l
because this is an episode we recorded when we thought
we were only going to do this show for like
six weeks yep. So we definitely have a bit of
a fatalistic attitude. You can totally tell. We're just kind
of like Thelma and Louise driving off the cliff at
the end of the movie because you know, this is
all there is, so why not just go for it?
(02:54):
And so we hope that everyone has had a great weekend.
I hope that you have a month day off as well.
If you have ever asked yourself why on earth do
British lawyers wear those wigs, well, we're going to tell you.
(03:41):
Welcome to the show. My name is Ben Bullen. I
am not a lawyer mine. You don't here like those
lawyer jokes. Lawyers really get craped on, don't they. Yeah,
they get a tough time, especially in the world of commons.
They say, llawyer, what's uh, what do you call a
hundred lawyers at the bottom of the ocean a good star.
I also heard one that says, what's the difference between
(04:03):
a dead lawyer and a dead dog in the street?
There are skid marks in front of the dog. So
hi to all our lawyer listener friends, I'm Noel Brown.
This is ridiculous history. Um. Before we started are a producer,
Alex said, all right, we're rolling on laser wigs. Yeah,
I want to do a podcast on laser wigs. But
(04:24):
apparently that's not a thing. But lawyer wigs are. Yes,
lawyer wigs are a thing. Growing up as a kid,
I was always very skeptical about this night. I had
assumed that it was just like a television thing, televisual
sight gag. So what we're talking about is something that
(04:46):
maybe unfamiliar to a lot of people, but it's definitely
familiar to you if you live in a lot of
commonwealth countries, you know, and that is that in the
legal system, especially like the UK, I think is the
most well known for this in the In the legal system,
these people who are practitioners of law, the dark arts,
(05:11):
the dark arts uh. Their formal courtroom attire includes these
incredibly anachronistic wigs, you know that, like powdered wigs. Just
just think George Washington. Yeah, it's like they're George Washington wigs,
like a founding father wig and its the this goes
(05:33):
for uh, male as well as female judges and barrissters, right,
and there's like a hierarchy of like wig quality too.
We'll get into all that. But this is a fascinating world,
the world of of of legal whiggery. Um. I mean seriously,
this is pretty comical, but it's also there's a lot
(05:53):
of really fun stuff to unpack here. So why don't
we get to unpack him? Sure? Yeah, So you know,
tradition is a dangerous and tricky thing, and our species
loves doing stuff just because someone else did it earlier.
Tradition is a hell of a drug. Rick James said that.
I'm pretty sure that was That was Rick James. The
(06:16):
thing with these wigs is that they are thought by
the proponents of the practice to impart and air of formality.
You know that the idea is that you go into
a courtroom and you sit down and you see the whigs,
and that, coupled with the judiciary proceedings, make you think,
(06:37):
oh wow, this is serious. You think someone somewhere down
the line misconstrued the word formality with hilarity, right right,
And we're not. We're not making fun of We're not
making serious fun, I should say, of this practice. But
you can understand how strange this seems to people who
(06:59):
are not familiar with it. The wigs, according to other proponents,
are an emblem of anonymity. They distanced the wearer from
personal involvement, and they visually draw on the supremacy of
the law. This is according to a guy named Kevin Newton,
(07:20):
a DC based lawyer who studied law at the University
of London. And they have a name. It's not just
called a lawyer wig or a laser wig. These uh,
these headpieces are called perukes p e r u K
so punk sounding peruke. I don't know why you get
(07:41):
peruked up, you know, so the the rules are pretty
specific as well, So I'm going to peruke. But a
peruke it's got a name, and it's just I guess,
I guess that specifically, would could you use that term
outside of the legal the courtroom setting for this style
isle of wig? Is it referring to the style of wig,
(08:02):
or specifically a wig used in legal setting. I don't know.
Peruke is an archaic term for a periwig, which is
a highly styled wig that used to be warm for
both by both men and women. So in this situation,
I imagine them drawing the line at the use of
(08:24):
the phrase periwig. I'm like, no, we're calling them peruke. So,
because this is serious, definitely has a more of an
air of kind of finality to it, you know, like
it's a much more kind of sharp edged word of cherry.
Wig sounds frivolous, it sounds too there's too much whimsy,
and it's check this out, man wigs. If a barrister
(08:50):
doesn't wear a wig, it's considered an insult to the court,
stop the process. A barrister, yes, a barrister. So there
are barristers, solicitors, and judges. Barrister can be distinguished from
a solicitor because they wear a wig and a gown
in court, and they also work at higher levels than solicitors.
(09:13):
Their main role is to act as advocates in legal hearings.
So there they stand in the court and they plead
a case on behalf of their clients to the judge
who is also peruked up. But like I was saying earlier,
been uh, you know, do you know about the whig arkey?
The higher the hierarchy of wigs, Like it's it's a thing.
It's really really cool. Lay it out for me. Oh man.
(09:34):
So you know, you've got your barristers who wear these
slightly kind of frizzed up wigs that are kind of
frizzy at the crown, and they have horizontal curls on
the sides and the back like little uh like like
you know, like your mom's curlers, you know that kind
of like a little nice tight What do you call that?
What kind of curl is that? Is there a name
(09:55):
for it? I would go, Jerry, it's a more of
a could you say ringlet? A ringlet? Yes, ringlet exactly.
That is exactly the word I was fishing for. So yeah,
but they're like very organized in there. They flow down
the sides and the back um and then they have
too long kind of Jedi braids of hair that hang
(10:16):
down below the hairline on the neck and they sport
a looped curl at each end. Right, So it's like
that's kind of like a Jedi a Jedi braid. These
are yeah, these are very specific, very specific, and you've
got different types of lawyers, different styles of wigs. The
(10:37):
best one though, is the judge, because the judge has
a similar, similarly styled wig, but it's way like it's
like a blown out version of the barrister's wig. It's
a full wig um from a slightly frizzed out top
and it kind of transitions into this tight, horizontal array
(10:57):
of curls that go several inches down your shoulder. And
these wigs, all of them, from judge to barrister what
have you, are made of white horsehair um. And there's
a certain amount of gravitas that's associated with the yellowing
that happens as the whigs age, because it imparts a
(11:18):
certain amount of you know, respect, You've got you know,
you've got that yellow wig. You've been at this for
a while, sir or madam. Nowadays, obviously wearing one of
these is at the very best a fashion statement, you know,
like if our if our super producer Alex showed up
(11:39):
one day and said, you know, it was wearing a
barrister's wig. This is me now, guys, this is the
choice I've made in life. Of course we would support
him because we're all actually friends, but it would be
weird because people don't typically wear wigs in that style.
Now people still wear wigs in general, but they're very
(12:01):
it's very different nowadays. And once upon a time, wigs
were considered an essential part of being a well put
together professional, like if you if you were a person
of substance and means, then you wore a wig. It
was during that time culturally when wigs began to appear
(12:22):
in courtrooms and so it was seen as a mark
of a bit of elitism, a mark of authenticity, mark
of professionalism, and a mark of success. This was in
the seventeenth century, so only the creme de la creme,
socially speaking, were those powdered wigs that were made of
as you said, no horse hair. Those were just the
(12:43):
really dope ones though, like those are the the upper
echelon of powdered wigs. There's a whole array of materials
that kind of stepped down the quality ladder. I guess
he could say, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, there was a
goat hair, old cotton hair, stolen from the dead. That
(13:03):
is true. I want one of those. You want to
you want a dead man's scalp. Dead man's scalps tell
no tales, my friend. And that's dark. I don't know
what that even means. I don't know. I was into it.
I could see it contextually. Yeah, and like a line
kind of cut your eyes at me a little bit
there they cut my eyes at you? Is that a
(13:24):
weird expression? It is? I was trying to figure out what,
how what would that would intain, know, like like like
a little like a little side side eye. There you go?
How is it okay? I'm just for everything. You can't
see this. I'm just moving my head and maintaining eye contact. Well.
Whether or not the wig trade involved cutting of eyes,
(13:45):
it also involved a practice that remains around in the
modern day, which is that there were people who would
grow their hair out and then sell it, and people
buy real human hair wigs and all joking aside. Uh,
nowadays that is a thing, Um there is. There are
human hair wigs that are sold. But the thing that
I always associate that with is the whole locks of love.
(14:07):
Uh scene, I guess where people will sell their hair
to not sell, donate their hair to be made into
wigs for cancer patients. Who have lost their hair through chemotherapy.
I think that's super cool. I have a friend um,
who I used to do sound with back in the day,
like a production you know, audio jobs, and he had
the most luxurious head of hair just down his back,
(14:30):
just like a like a great lion. And his mother
got sick with cancer and he donated all his hair,
and I had a wig made out of his hair
to give to his mother, and I thought that was
just the sweetest. Yeah, that's beautiful. It's hard freaking yeah,
it really is. But the reason that this is important
that he would donate this, or that anyone would donate this,
is because today these kind of wigs are very, very expensive. Yeah, yeah,
(14:55):
this is the this is the top in real human hair,
and sometimes people rate it by the region of the
world where this hair originates. But this is still what's
really weird to me about this man. In the seventeenth century,
while you could get a human hair wig, it was
still a couple steps down below the status symbol of
(15:18):
a horse hair wig. Exactly different different times, different strokes,
I suppose. But today these wigs that are used in
the English court system, they're like a prerequisite, like you
have to like you graduate, you get your law degree,
you go and buy your first wig. But like I
was saying before, you kind of want to hang onto
it because you want that air, that patina, that that
(15:42):
yellow thing to happen. So people know that you mean
business and that you've been in the game for a minute,
you've been wigging out. You're an o g wigster. And
uh there they they go for from a you know,
five bucks for like one of these smaller, slightly less
ornate barrister wigs, harter wig, your starter wig too, like
(16:02):
three grand for a judge wig, these ones that go
you know, all the way down the back. There's a
significant investment. And so maybe one of the questions we
would ask is we said that this was all the
rage fashion wise, right, but why it turns out most
(16:24):
most people overwhelmingly When I say most people, I mean
overwhelmingly historians blame it on syphilis. Always comes back down
a syphilis that took a turn. Things have indeed taken
a turn for the syphiltic. Uh, corpse whigs wasn't enough.
The corpse whigs that was just like a little bit
(16:46):
of a slight ummi added into the story. But now
this is becoming. This part of the show is syphilis centric.
In the sixteenth century, a lot of people in Europe
were contracting syphilis. It was also known as the syphilic
sixt yes, yeah, as you probably know it better as
(17:08):
the syphilytic. You know. So the treatment used for syphilis, penicillin,
wasn't going to be discovered until nineteen, so people with
syphilis didn't have a treatment program. Instead, they got rashes, blindness,
open sores, eventually dementia and then hair loss. I mean
(17:32):
there's market for probably all kinds of like devices and
cosmetic little accoutrement to cover up scars and things like that.
You know, if you think of like half masks for
faces and stuff that had some form of deformity that
could have resulted from something like syphilis. Oh yeah, that's
a really good point. I didn't think about that. I
just wonder who like cornered the market on you know,
(17:55):
that kind of stuff, cause cosmetic accessories, shall we say.
I always thought those things were cool growing up, you know,
seeing the seeing the half mask in the Phantom of
the Opera, for instance, that was great. I if I
could get away with it, I would just wear one
of those but it would be a little bit anticlimactic
and disappointing. You know when I finally took it off,
(18:17):
if I had a normal face, So I can lose
a nose, you can lose like a hole, like your
nose can totally get eating away. Leg I just typed
in syphilis mask, uh, and I pretty disturbing actually came
right up. It's a wire frame with a pair of
glasses and a fake nose, but it looks like clearly
as is an artifact. Um, and then we've got masks,
(18:37):
like we're talking about all that stuff. But you know,
if you just had hair loss, a wig would be
your best friend and a crucial one because hair loss
was very problematic for people social lives at this time.
So in this kind of this continues a little bit today. Uh,
(18:58):
long hair at the time was super in fashion. It
was all the rage, and because of the prevalence of syphilis,
if somebody was prematurely balding, everyone just sort of thought
they had syphilis, which is is a really tough, a
really tough situation, unfair for uh, people who are just
(19:21):
balding naturally. But you know, Larry David would take great
issue with this notion. Of but you know, bald um
what's the word bald is um? You know, they look
at a bald person and you immediately assume they have syphilis.
You know, that's a that's problematic in the you know
you guys. You know Larry David, right, Larry David one
(19:42):
of the most famous baldman and entertainment. I know, he
makes it. He sort of like carries that torch, you know, proudly,
very proudly, and can tankerously. No, it's weird because even today,
especially in the entertainment industry, people who are prematurely balding
are are kind of typecast. You know, well, they said,
(20:03):
it's it's seen as like some sort of deficiency in
your your person, right, like a for instance, if you
if you're watching most television shows, you're watching action film
or something, and you meet a balding character, the chances
are overwhelming that they're going to be like a lower
(20:24):
level sleazy villain. And that's completely not true about real people,
uh real The idea of sleazy villain e knows no
specific appearance type or template. But that's still better than
what was happening in the sixteenth century, where someone would
look at another person who had hair loss and then say, oh,
(20:47):
they have syphilis. Also, wigs were a big help for
people who had another, uh prominent hair problem lice. Oh yeah, man,
my kid got lice. Why what's really? Oh yeah. And
the thing about even today lice is seen. It's got
this stigma that it carries, right where like your kid
(21:07):
gets lice and people look at you here like you're
a crappy parent, you know, like I did a bad
job keeping my kid clean or whatever. You know. But
the thing about lice is it spreads, and kids they're
always you know, touching each other and you know, play
in and being kids and all this stuff. And yeah,
well you know when one kid at school gets lice,
like it's can we assume like the whole school has lice?
(21:28):
And so you know, let's just think of this period
in English history as just like a a macro cosmic
schoolyard where everyone is just giving everyone lice and syphilis.
It might, you know, it did reach the higher realms
of society. Here's an interesting story. Lice doesn't discriminate, lest
(21:52):
does it discriminate. Louis the fourteen King of France, the
son king. He was the king from six three, seventeen fifteen,
and he was prematurely balding. So he got over this
by or I guess, compensated for this by wearing a wig.
And yes, historians do believe that he contracted syphilis. And
(22:17):
once he started wearing this wig, it's the king of France.
He started a trend, and the upper class, the upper
crust of Europe, a lot of them started wearing wigs,
including Charles the Second, who was Louis's cousin and was
rumored to also have contracted syphilis. I'm telling you, man,
syphilis was out of control. Seriously. I mean, if the
(22:40):
King of France has syphilis, then you know it's running rampant.
I mean it's like he's you can't, like what I'm saying,
Like syphilis and lice, they don't discriminate there. That's not
just like reserved for the unwashed masses, freaking the sun king. Dude,
have you seen this guy? Have you seen his hair? Yeah?
And that's what we're getting with this, aren't we Yeah,
it's a lot a lot of hair. But it's like
(23:01):
he kind of set this, uh, set this thing up
as like a massive fashion trend. And then other people
started doing it because you know, the king could have
you killed upon a word, and if you're hanging out
in court all the time, you're probably I think there
was a little bit of syncophancy. You know. It wasn't
even court though, just right, it was everybody. Yeah, it
(23:21):
was that court. Came later I kind of read, yeah,
the court, I guess, I mean the the King's court.
Excuse me, see here we are. We're missing a misconstruing courts.
It's a it's not our fault, it's English. It's my fault. No,
it's my I take responsible. I take full responsibility for
misconstruing court. Just then in the court of the Crimston King, well,
(23:43):
we can't judge whether we We can't judge whether you
should be guilty of that responsibility because neither of us
has a peruke. It's true, we can't even present our case.
It's confusing to Alex s a who has a gigantic
judge wig God right now, really really does. And he
is looking at us quite judgmentally with those piercing bespectacled eyes,
(24:06):
those long, long log Oh my god, he just kind
of tipped them down, and I swear to God, I
looked into his eyes and I saw the void. Man,
I saw the abyss went back at me. The practice
of wearing these wigs in like legal courts, actual courts
of law did come later, and I believe it was
(24:28):
in the late eighties or so. I think that's right. UM.
In this article on how stuff works dot com plug um,
you can see a rendering I guess it's like a
woodcut kind of thing of UM some attorneys and it
looks like one of them has got the wig on
and he's got some really sick like mutton chops too
(24:51):
on the sides. But then there's two guys behind him
that don't have them. So I'm wondering if it was
like it didn't really get codified or become like it
was be like a thing that people did out of
fashion at first, and then over time it became more
like this is the uniform of the court. And something
we didn't mention that I came up in another article
(25:12):
that I that I was reading. UM. As far as
why they still do this today, we talked about the
idea how it gave an air of anonymity and like
sort of like we're all equal in the eyes of
the law or something. But if you thought about the
fact that, um, it possibly imparted some very literal anonymity,
(25:33):
almost like a disguise, so hardened criminals. Maybe I wouldn't
know you on the street. That's a really interesting point. Yeah,
I wonder, I wonder if that played or how much
of a role that played. You know, we do know
that it persisted after weeks fell out of fashion, right yeah. Yeah,
And like you know, like you said, it's like totally
(25:54):
a historical kind of like like you know, the English,
we're all about tradition and the English. Like I just know,
like you know, everyone in England, the English and their traditions. Um.
But you know, it does appear on first glance that
this is like what that is, but they there do
(26:15):
seem to be some functional reasons behind it the whole,
Like maybe it's like sort of like a semi disguise.
It also could prevent jurors from judging you based on
your your your fashion sense, because all I mean, it
is a fashioning thing, but everyone has their own type
of each role has a specific type of wig. We're
(26:37):
not like these aren't bedazzled. There's no like you don't
get special you know, buretts or anything. In your in
your court wig, and it is, as you said, part
of a uniform. So it further, uh, it further removes yes,
individual or unique identifiers. This was interesting to me as well.
By the early eighteen hundreds, only a few types of
(27:01):
people wore wigs in this in this sense, those in
the legal profession coachman and bishops. And bishops I think
short shortly after eighteen thirties or so, bishops finally cracked
the deal and they were allowed to stop wearing wigs.
And recently, as we record this, some of the laws
(27:26):
regarding this historical tradition changed. In two thousand and seven,
new dress rules did away with barrister wigs. Mainly, I
think it's contemptible. You know. It's like, if we can't
depend on British lawyers of all stripes wearing these ridiculous
head dresses, what can we depend on. That's a good
(27:50):
question you. I think you will be happy to note
that wigs do remain in use in criminal cases, thank god.
So maybe maybe that's another thing, right, Maybe maybe that
is another plank in the platform or the argument that
wigs serve a practical purpose. They are no longer required
(28:13):
for family or civil court appearances or even while appearing
before the Supreme Court in the UK, but in criminal
cases you got a wig up. All over the UK
and Ireland, judges also continued to wear those luxurious what
do you call it ben ringlets until when the practice
(28:33):
would discontinue. And also English and British colonies like Canada,
UM who some of their provinces abandoned the wig deal,
you know, throughout the nine centuries, or even Jamaica which
got rid of wigs back in um lawyers and judges
now only wear wigs in like kind of ceremonies, I guess,
(28:53):
or because I don't know what is a trial if
not a ceremony in a super official event. Yeah, so yeah,
that's weird. And let's say you're someone who's thinking, man,
I really want to see this practice. I want to
see history in action, you know what I mean? Then
your odds, uh, your odds maybe best in Hong Kong
(29:17):
of all places. According to a lawyer in Hong Kong
named Johnny Moke, the symbolic aspect of the wig and
gown is very important to Hong Kong, and he said,
my feeling is that Hong Kong will probably be one
of the last jurisdictions where wig and gown will continue
to be used. So we might need to take a trip.
(29:40):
You know. Now we've finally got a a compelling reason
to uh tell our tell our bosses to send us
to Hong Kong. You know, I'm down. Alex says he
has a friend in Hong Kong. We go stay with
do they? What is their position on wigs? He says
their apartment is two square feet would means that, Um
(30:01):
that sounds like plenty of room. Yeah, what could go wrong?
I don't know. Man, We'll have a misadventure, a gown
and wig misadventure. Um. Well, I think that's it for today,
right yeah? Man, that history was dumb? Right, well, I
guess ridiculous? Was that dumb? It's ridiculous, absurd, it's wacky, right,
(30:23):
It's strage, you know, It's it's strange how easily bizarre
things can become normal. Totally British listeners. I'm not dogging
your system. I just know it's just it's it's wild,
you know. I guess when I say dumb, it's just
like it's so easy for some little snippets, some little
like thing to just infiltrate culture, like almost accidentally, and
(30:46):
it makes me. It makes me wonder about the stories
of other things that are part of accepted forms of
dress that are also kind of ridiculous when you think
about it. Neckties, neckties, bow ties, bow ties, they're not
doing anything, you know. Uh, polo shirts with two buttons
at the top. What's that about? I'm wearing one now,
I know. I was just spitball in here is if
(31:07):
some people could see medallions, I guess you know, you
want to just show a little nip. I don't even
think that's going to reach a nip. Well before we
head into the slippery slope of nip slips, it maybe
time for us to call it a day, book our
tickets to Hong Kong and see wigs in action. I'm down, man,
(31:28):
let's go, let's go. But before we do that, uh, listeners,
tell us your wigtails. Does anyone have like a wig
story or have you? Are you a hardened British criminal
and you had to be dressed down by a barrister
with ringlets? I would find it hard to take that
person seriously. The barrister, you know they're standing in there
with that wig. If it's supposed to like, I guess
(31:50):
in part some kind of fear strike fear into the
hearts of criminals. I would just snicker the whole time. Yeah, yeah,
Well we're from very different culture, so true. World's apart
in terms of head covering in the legal system at
least uh was at one point being send us your tails,
send us your wigtails. We have Facebook, we have you
(32:10):
can just start Ridiculous History. I think we're the only one. Yeah,
you can find us on Instagram, all all the all
the good stuff. We even discussed doing a Pinterest account,
which we might get to. But you can also email
us directly at Ridiculous at how stuff works dot com.
And please be sure and tune in for your next
(32:31):
installment of Ridiculous Headdresses Immune History. That's the name of
the show. Can we get a law in order? I
love that sound effect. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
(33:06):
visit the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Oh yeah,
this isn't our usual introduction. This is our very first
classic episode. Can you believe it already a classic? How
(00:24):
long has it been? But we did we did the math.
We we have three hundred and seventies something episodes in
the feed and we wouldn't typically do this, but it is, uh,
the lead up to Memorial Day weekend, and we are,
you know, human beings, patriotic human beings, and we've we
felt the need to, you know, take the actual time off.
So we're going to introduce this classic episode to you today.
Many of you have maybe not heard it, that's right,
(00:46):
that's right. For people who are on Apple podcasts, you
may in fact be unable to find this episode. Of course,
we had to have our super producer, Max Williams aboard. Max,
I think we told you, oh, and I'm bad. I
think we told you that the uh that this episode
is is about British lawyers, right do we tell him that?
(01:08):
And all? I don't recall, but now he knows. How
do you feel about this? Max? Oh? I feel pretty good.
I mean thankfully. I read the tea leaves and I
already you know have the episode selected and everything, so
we should be good. You're the best. Well, it turns
out that British lawyers you may have seen them in
like you know, British law and order. That's gotta be
a thing, right or the very least, you know British
(01:29):
crime procedural shows the lawyers still to this day out
of a sense of nostalgia perhaps and tradition, which we
know the Brits are big on. Where these weird powdered wigs. Yes,
we're so glad to share this with you, folks. This
is I believe that one of the very first episodes
(01:49):
we ever did, if not the actual first Ridiculous History episode.
So in a way, Max, we're we're welcoming to the
show from the very beginning, just as is our we're
doing it very late, we're doing it several years later.
It's true. Uh, And and just a word to the word,
to the wise, and and to to ourselves. Even this
could be a really fun kind of time capsule peek
(02:12):
behind the curtain situation because this was very very early
in the show. And as you know, sometimes these shows,
uh take a little time to stretch their legs and
find their voice. So it could suck, but I seem
to remember it being fun. I played it for my
mom and she liked it, so that's my gauge. Yeah, yeah, man,
I think we all had a good time. And just
(02:32):
I love that you mentioned Peek behind the Curtain, l
because this is an episode we recorded when we thought
we were only going to do this show for like
six weeks yep. So we definitely have a bit of
a fatalistic attitude. You can totally tell. We're just kind
of like Thelma and Louise driving off the cliff at
the end of the movie because you know, this is
all there is, so why not just go for it?
(02:54):
And so we hope that everyone has had a great weekend.
I hope that you have a month day off as well.
If you have ever asked yourself why on earth do
British lawyers wear those wigs, well, we're going to tell you.
(03:41):
Welcome to the show. My name is Ben Bullen. I
am not a lawyer mine. You don't here like those
lawyer jokes. Lawyers really get craped on, don't they. Yeah,
they get a tough time, especially in the world of commons.
They say, llawyer, what's uh, what do you call a
hundred lawyers at the bottom of the ocean a good star.
I also heard one that says, what's the difference between
(04:03):
a dead lawyer and a dead dog in the street?
There are skid marks in front of the dog. So
hi to all our lawyer listener friends, I'm Noel Brown.
This is ridiculous history. Um. Before we started are a producer,
Alex said, all right, we're rolling on laser wigs. Yeah,
I want to do a podcast on laser wigs. But
(04:24):
apparently that's not a thing. But lawyer wigs are. Yes,
lawyer wigs are a thing. Growing up as a kid,
I was always very skeptical about this night. I had
assumed that it was just like a television thing, televisual
sight gag. So what we're talking about is something that
(04:46):
maybe unfamiliar to a lot of people, but it's definitely
familiar to you if you live in a lot of
commonwealth countries, you know, and that is that in the
legal system, especially like the UK, I think is the
most well known for this in the In the legal system,
these people who are practitioners of law, the dark arts,
(05:11):
the dark arts uh. Their formal courtroom attire includes these
incredibly anachronistic wigs, you know that, like powdered wigs. Just
just think George Washington. Yeah, it's like they're George Washington wigs,
like a founding father wig and its the this goes
(05:33):
for uh, male as well as female judges and barrissters, right,
and there's like a hierarchy of like wig quality too.
We'll get into all that. But this is a fascinating world,
the world of of of legal whiggery. Um. I mean seriously,
this is pretty comical, but it's also there's a lot
(05:53):
of really fun stuff to unpack here. So why don't
we get to unpack him? Sure? Yeah, So you know,
tradition is a dangerous and tricky thing, and our species
loves doing stuff just because someone else did it earlier.
Tradition is a hell of a drug. Rick James said that.
I'm pretty sure that was That was Rick James. The
(06:16):
thing with these wigs is that they are thought by
the proponents of the practice to impart and air of formality.
You know that the idea is that you go into
a courtroom and you sit down and you see the whigs,
and that, coupled with the judiciary proceedings, make you think,
(06:37):
oh wow, this is serious. You think someone somewhere down
the line misconstrued the word formality with hilarity, right right,
And we're not. We're not making fun of We're not
making serious fun, I should say, of this practice. But
you can understand how strange this seems to people who
(06:59):
are not familiar with it. The wigs, according to other proponents,
are an emblem of anonymity. They distanced the wearer from
personal involvement, and they visually draw on the supremacy of
the law. This is according to a guy named Kevin Newton,
(07:20):
a DC based lawyer who studied law at the University
of London. And they have a name. It's not just
called a lawyer wig or a laser wig. These uh,
these headpieces are called perukes p e r u K
so punk sounding peruke. I don't know why you get
(07:41):
peruked up, you know, so the the rules are pretty
specific as well, So I'm going to peruke. But a
peruke it's got a name, and it's just I guess,
I guess that specifically, would could you use that term
outside of the legal the courtroom setting for this style
isle of wig? Is it referring to the style of wig,
(08:02):
or specifically a wig used in legal setting. I don't know.
Peruke is an archaic term for a periwig, which is
a highly styled wig that used to be warm for
both by both men and women. So in this situation,
I imagine them drawing the line at the use of
(08:24):
the phrase periwig. I'm like, no, we're calling them peruke. So,
because this is serious, definitely has a more of an
air of kind of finality to it, you know, like
it's a much more kind of sharp edged word of cherry.
Wig sounds frivolous, it sounds too there's too much whimsy,
and it's check this out, man wigs. If a barrister
(08:50):
doesn't wear a wig, it's considered an insult to the court,
stop the process. A barrister, yes, a barrister. So there
are barristers, solicitors, and judges. Barrister can be distinguished from
a solicitor because they wear a wig and a gown
in court, and they also work at higher levels than solicitors.
(09:13):
Their main role is to act as advocates in legal hearings.
So there they stand in the court and they plead
a case on behalf of their clients to the judge
who is also peruked up. But like I was saying earlier,
been uh, you know, do you know about the whig arkey?
The higher the hierarchy of wigs, Like it's it's a thing.
It's really really cool. Lay it out for me. Oh man.
(09:34):
So you know, you've got your barristers who wear these
slightly kind of frizzed up wigs that are kind of
frizzy at the crown, and they have horizontal curls on
the sides and the back like little uh like like
you know, like your mom's curlers, you know that kind
of like a little nice tight What do you call that?
What kind of curl is that? Is there a name
(09:55):
for it? I would go, Jerry, it's a more of
a could you say ringlet? A ringlet? Yes, ringlet exactly.
That is exactly the word I was fishing for. So yeah,
but they're like very organized in there. They flow down
the sides and the back um and then they have
too long kind of Jedi braids of hair that hang
(10:16):
down below the hairline on the neck and they sport
a looped curl at each end. Right, So it's like
that's kind of like a Jedi a Jedi braid. These
are yeah, these are very specific, very specific, and you've
got different types of lawyers, different styles of wigs. The
(10:37):
best one though, is the judge, because the judge has
a similar, similarly styled wig, but it's way like it's
like a blown out version of the barrister's wig. It's
a full wig um from a slightly frizzed out top
and it kind of transitions into this tight, horizontal array
(10:57):
of curls that go several inches down your shoulder. And
these wigs, all of them, from judge to barrister what
have you, are made of white horsehair um. And there's
a certain amount of gravitas that's associated with the yellowing
that happens as the whigs age, because it imparts a
(11:18):
certain amount of you know, respect, You've got you know,
you've got that yellow wig. You've been at this for
a while, sir or madam. Nowadays, obviously wearing one of
these is at the very best a fashion statement, you know,
like if our if our super producer Alex showed up
(11:39):
one day and said, you know, it was wearing a
barrister's wig. This is me now, guys, this is the
choice I've made in life. Of course we would support
him because we're all actually friends, but it would be
weird because people don't typically wear wigs in that style.
Now people still wear wigs in general, but they're very
(12:01):
it's very different nowadays. And once upon a time, wigs
were considered an essential part of being a well put
together professional, like if you if you were a person
of substance and means, then you wore a wig. It
was during that time culturally when wigs began to appear
(12:22):
in courtrooms and so it was seen as a mark
of a bit of elitism, a mark of authenticity, mark
of professionalism, and a mark of success. This was in
the seventeenth century, so only the creme de la creme,
socially speaking, were those powdered wigs that were made of
as you said, no horse hair. Those were just the
(12:43):
really dope ones though, like those are the the upper
echelon of powdered wigs. There's a whole array of materials
that kind of stepped down the quality ladder. I guess
he could say, right, yeah, yeah, yeah, there was a
goat hair, old cotton hair, stolen from the dead. That
(13:03):
is true. I want one of those. You want to
you want a dead man's scalp. Dead man's scalps tell
no tales, my friend. And that's dark. I don't know
what that even means. I don't know. I was into it.
I could see it contextually. Yeah, and like a line
kind of cut your eyes at me a little bit
there they cut my eyes at you? Is that a
(13:24):
weird expression? It is? I was trying to figure out what,
how what would that would intain, know, like like like
a little like a little side side eye. There you go?
How is it okay? I'm just for everything. You can't
see this. I'm just moving my head and maintaining eye contact. Well.
Whether or not the wig trade involved cutting of eyes,
(13:45):
it also involved a practice that remains around in the
modern day, which is that there were people who would
grow their hair out and then sell it, and people
buy real human hair wigs and all joking aside. Uh,
nowadays that is a thing, Um there is. There are
human hair wigs that are sold. But the thing that
I always associate that with is the whole locks of love.
(14:07):
Uh scene, I guess where people will sell their hair
to not sell, donate their hair to be made into
wigs for cancer patients. Who have lost their hair through chemotherapy.
I think that's super cool. I have a friend um,
who I used to do sound with back in the day,
like a production you know, audio jobs, and he had
the most luxurious head of hair just down his back,
(14:30):
just like a like a great lion. And his mother
got sick with cancer and he donated all his hair,
and I had a wig made out of his hair
to give to his mother, and I thought that was
just the sweetest. Yeah, that's beautiful. It's hard freaking yeah,
it really is. But the reason that this is important
that he would donate this, or that anyone would donate this,
is because today these kind of wigs are very, very expensive. Yeah, yeah,
(14:55):
this is the this is the top in real human hair,
and sometimes people rate it by the region of the
world where this hair originates. But this is still what's
really weird to me about this man. In the seventeenth century,
while you could get a human hair wig, it was
still a couple steps down below the status symbol of
(15:18):
a horse hair wig. Exactly different different times, different strokes,
I suppose. But today these wigs that are used in
the English court system, they're like a prerequisite, like you
have to like you graduate, you get your law degree,
you go and buy your first wig. But like I
was saying before, you kind of want to hang onto
it because you want that air, that patina, that that
(15:42):
yellow thing to happen. So people know that you mean
business and that you've been in the game for a minute,
you've been wigging out. You're an o g wigster. And
uh there they they go for from a you know,
five bucks for like one of these smaller, slightly less
ornate barrister wigs, harter wig, your starter wig too, like
(16:02):
three grand for a judge wig, these ones that go
you know, all the way down the back. There's a
significant investment. And so maybe one of the questions we
would ask is we said that this was all the
rage fashion wise, right, but why it turns out most
(16:24):
most people overwhelmingly When I say most people, I mean
overwhelmingly historians blame it on syphilis. Always comes back down
a syphilis that took a turn. Things have indeed taken
a turn for the syphiltic. Uh, corpse whigs wasn't enough.
The corpse whigs that was just like a little bit
(16:46):
of a slight ummi added into the story. But now
this is becoming. This part of the show is syphilis centric.
In the sixteenth century, a lot of people in Europe
were contracting syphilis. It was also known as the syphilic
sixt yes, yeah, as you probably know it better as
(17:08):
the syphilytic. You know. So the treatment used for syphilis, penicillin,
wasn't going to be discovered until nineteen, so people with
syphilis didn't have a treatment program. Instead, they got rashes, blindness,
open sores, eventually dementia and then hair loss. I mean
(17:32):
there's market for probably all kinds of like devices and
cosmetic little accoutrement to cover up scars and things like that.
You know, if you think of like half masks for
faces and stuff that had some form of deformity that
could have resulted from something like syphilis. Oh yeah, that's
a really good point. I didn't think about that. I
just wonder who like cornered the market on you know,
(17:55):
that kind of stuff, cause cosmetic accessories, shall we say.
I always thought those things were cool growing up, you know,
seeing the seeing the half mask in the Phantom of
the Opera, for instance, that was great. I if I
could get away with it, I would just wear one
of those but it would be a little bit anticlimactic
and disappointing. You know when I finally took it off,
(18:17):
if I had a normal face, So I can lose
a nose, you can lose like a hole, like your
nose can totally get eating away. Leg I just typed
in syphilis mask, uh, and I pretty disturbing actually came
right up. It's a wire frame with a pair of
glasses and a fake nose, but it looks like clearly
as is an artifact. Um, and then we've got masks,
(18:37):
like we're talking about all that stuff. But you know,
if you just had hair loss, a wig would be
your best friend and a crucial one because hair loss
was very problematic for people social lives at this time.
So in this kind of this continues a little bit today. Uh,
(18:58):
long hair at the time was super in fashion. It
was all the rage, and because of the prevalence of syphilis,
if somebody was prematurely balding, everyone just sort of thought
they had syphilis, which is is a really tough, a
really tough situation, unfair for uh, people who are just
(19:21):
balding naturally. But you know, Larry David would take great
issue with this notion. Of but you know, bald um
what's the word bald is um? You know, they look
at a bald person and you immediately assume they have syphilis.
You know, that's a that's problematic in the you know
you guys. You know Larry David, right, Larry David one
(19:42):
of the most famous baldman and entertainment. I know, he
makes it. He sort of like carries that torch, you know, proudly,
very proudly, and can tankerously. No, it's weird because even today,
especially in the entertainment industry, people who are prematurely balding
are are kind of typecast. You know, well, they said,
(20:03):
it's it's seen as like some sort of deficiency in
your your person, right, like a for instance, if you
if you're watching most television shows, you're watching action film
or something, and you meet a balding character, the chances
are overwhelming that they're going to be like a lower
(20:24):
level sleazy villain. And that's completely not true about real people,
uh real The idea of sleazy villain e knows no
specific appearance type or template. But that's still better than
what was happening in the sixteenth century, where someone would
look at another person who had hair loss and then say, oh,
(20:47):
they have syphilis. Also, wigs were a big help for
people who had another, uh prominent hair problem lice. Oh yeah, man,
my kid got lice. Why what's really? Oh yeah. And
the thing about even today lice is seen. It's got
this stigma that it carries, right where like your kid
(21:07):
gets lice and people look at you here like you're
a crappy parent, you know, like I did a bad
job keeping my kid clean or whatever. You know. But
the thing about lice is it spreads, and kids they're
always you know, touching each other and you know, play
in and being kids and all this stuff. And yeah,
well you know when one kid at school gets lice,
like it's can we assume like the whole school has lice?
(21:28):
And so you know, let's just think of this period
in English history as just like a a macro cosmic
schoolyard where everyone is just giving everyone lice and syphilis.
It might, you know, it did reach the higher realms
of society. Here's an interesting story. Lice doesn't discriminate, lest
(21:52):
does it discriminate. Louis the fourteen King of France, the
son king. He was the king from six three, seventeen fifteen,
and he was prematurely balding. So he got over this
by or I guess, compensated for this by wearing a wig.
And yes, historians do believe that he contracted syphilis. And
(22:17):
once he started wearing this wig, it's the king of France.
He started a trend, and the upper class, the upper
crust of Europe, a lot of them started wearing wigs,
including Charles the Second, who was Louis's cousin and was
rumored to also have contracted syphilis. I'm telling you, man,
syphilis was out of control. Seriously. I mean, if the
(22:40):
King of France has syphilis, then you know it's running rampant.
I mean it's like he's you can't, like what I'm saying,
Like syphilis and lice, they don't discriminate there. That's not
just like reserved for the unwashed masses, freaking the sun king. Dude,
have you seen this guy? Have you seen his hair? Yeah?
And that's what we're getting with this, aren't we Yeah,
it's a lot a lot of hair. But it's like
(23:01):
he kind of set this, uh, set this thing up
as like a massive fashion trend. And then other people
started doing it because you know, the king could have
you killed upon a word, and if you're hanging out
in court all the time, you're probably I think there
was a little bit of syncophancy. You know. It wasn't
even court though, just right, it was everybody. Yeah, it
(23:21):
was that court. Came later I kind of read, yeah,
the court, I guess, I mean the the King's court.
Excuse me, see here we are. We're missing a misconstruing courts.
It's a it's not our fault, it's English. It's my fault. No,
it's my I take responsible. I take full responsibility for
misconstruing court. Just then in the court of the Crimston King, well,
(23:43):
we can't judge whether we We can't judge whether you
should be guilty of that responsibility because neither of us
has a peruke. It's true, we can't even present our case.
It's confusing to Alex s a who has a gigantic
judge wig God right now, really really does. And he
is looking at us quite judgmentally with those piercing bespectacled eyes,
(24:06):
those long, long log Oh my god, he just kind
of tipped them down, and I swear to God, I
looked into his eyes and I saw the void. Man,
I saw the abyss went back at me. The practice
of wearing these wigs in like legal courts, actual courts
of law did come later, and I believe it was
(24:28):
in the late eighties or so. I think that's right. UM.
In this article on how stuff works dot com plug um,
you can see a rendering I guess it's like a
woodcut kind of thing of UM some attorneys and it
looks like one of them has got the wig on
and he's got some really sick like mutton chops too
(24:51):
on the sides. But then there's two guys behind him
that don't have them. So I'm wondering if it was
like it didn't really get codified or become like it
was be like a thing that people did out of
fashion at first, and then over time it became more
like this is the uniform of the court. And something
we didn't mention that I came up in another article
(25:12):
that I that I was reading. UM. As far as
why they still do this today, we talked about the
idea how it gave an air of anonymity and like
sort of like we're all equal in the eyes of
the law or something. But if you thought about the
fact that, um, it possibly imparted some very literal anonymity,
(25:33):
almost like a disguise, so hardened criminals. Maybe I wouldn't
know you on the street. That's a really interesting point. Yeah,
I wonder, I wonder if that played or how much
of a role that played. You know, we do know
that it persisted after weeks fell out of fashion, right yeah. Yeah,
And like you know, like you said, it's like totally
(25:54):
a historical kind of like like you know, the English,
we're all about tradition and the English. Like I just know,
like you know, everyone in England, the English and their traditions. Um.
But you know, it does appear on first glance that
this is like what that is, but they there do
(26:15):
seem to be some functional reasons behind it the whole,
Like maybe it's like sort of like a semi disguise.
It also could prevent jurors from judging you based on
your your your fashion sense, because all I mean, it
is a fashioning thing, but everyone has their own type
of each role has a specific type of wig. We're
(26:37):
not like these aren't bedazzled. There's no like you don't
get special you know, buretts or anything. In your in
your court wig, and it is, as you said, part
of a uniform. So it further, uh, it further removes yes,
individual or unique identifiers. This was interesting to me as well.
By the early eighteen hundreds, only a few types of
(27:01):
people wore wigs in this in this sense, those in
the legal profession coachman and bishops. And bishops I think
short shortly after eighteen thirties or so, bishops finally cracked
the deal and they were allowed to stop wearing wigs.
And recently, as we record this, some of the laws
(27:26):
regarding this historical tradition changed. In two thousand and seven,
new dress rules did away with barrister wigs. Mainly, I
think it's contemptible. You know. It's like, if we can't
depend on British lawyers of all stripes wearing these ridiculous
head dresses, what can we depend on. That's a good
(27:50):
question you. I think you will be happy to note
that wigs do remain in use in criminal cases, thank god.
So maybe maybe that's another thing, right, Maybe maybe that
is another plank in the platform or the argument that
wigs serve a practical purpose. They are no longer required
(28:13):
for family or civil court appearances or even while appearing
before the Supreme Court in the UK, but in criminal
cases you got a wig up. All over the UK
and Ireland, judges also continued to wear those luxurious what
do you call it ben ringlets until when the practice
(28:33):
would discontinue. And also English and British colonies like Canada,
UM who some of their provinces abandoned the wig deal,
you know, throughout the nine centuries, or even Jamaica which
got rid of wigs back in um lawyers and judges
now only wear wigs in like kind of ceremonies, I guess,
(28:53):
or because I don't know what is a trial if
not a ceremony in a super official event. Yeah, so yeah,
that's weird. And let's say you're someone who's thinking, man,
I really want to see this practice. I want to
see history in action, you know what I mean? Then
your odds, uh, your odds maybe best in Hong Kong
(29:17):
of all places. According to a lawyer in Hong Kong
named Johnny Moke, the symbolic aspect of the wig and
gown is very important to Hong Kong, and he said,
my feeling is that Hong Kong will probably be one
of the last jurisdictions where wig and gown will continue
to be used. So we might need to take a trip.
(29:40):
You know. Now we've finally got a a compelling reason
to uh tell our tell our bosses to send us
to Hong Kong. You know, I'm down. Alex says he
has a friend in Hong Kong. We go stay with
do they? What is their position on wigs? He says
their apartment is two square feet would means that, Um
(30:01):
that sounds like plenty of room. Yeah, what could go wrong?
I don't know. Man, We'll have a misadventure, a gown
and wig misadventure. Um. Well, I think that's it for today,
right yeah? Man, that history was dumb? Right, well, I
guess ridiculous? Was that dumb? It's ridiculous, absurd, it's wacky, right,
(30:23):
It's strage, you know, It's it's strange how easily bizarre
things can become normal. Totally British listeners. I'm not dogging
your system. I just know it's just it's it's wild,
you know. I guess when I say dumb, it's just
like it's so easy for some little snippets, some little
like thing to just infiltrate culture, like almost accidentally, and
(30:46):
it makes me. It makes me wonder about the stories
of other things that are part of accepted forms of
dress that are also kind of ridiculous when you think
about it. Neckties, neckties, bow ties, bow ties, they're not
doing anything, you know. Uh, polo shirts with two buttons
at the top. What's that about? I'm wearing one now,
I know. I was just spitball in here is if
(31:07):
some people could see medallions, I guess you know, you
want to just show a little nip. I don't even
think that's going to reach a nip. Well before we
head into the slippery slope of nip slips, it maybe
time for us to call it a day, book our
tickets to Hong Kong and see wigs in action. I'm down, man,
(31:28):
let's go, let's go. But before we do that, uh, listeners,
tell us your wigtails. Does anyone have like a wig
story or have you? Are you a hardened British criminal
and you had to be dressed down by a barrister
with ringlets? I would find it hard to take that
person seriously. The barrister, you know they're standing in there
with that wig. If it's supposed to like, I guess
(31:50):
in part some kind of fear strike fear into the
hearts of criminals. I would just snicker the whole time. Yeah, yeah,
Well we're from very different culture, so true. World's apart
in terms of head covering in the legal system at
least uh was at one point being send us your tails,
send us your wigtails. We have Facebook, we have you
(32:10):
can just start Ridiculous History. I think we're the only one. Yeah,
you can find us on Instagram, all all the all
the good stuff. We even discussed doing a Pinterest account,
which we might get to. But you can also email
us directly at Ridiculous at how stuff works dot com.
And please be sure and tune in for your next
(32:31):
installment of Ridiculous Headdresses Immune History. That's the name of
the show. Can we get a law in order? I
love that sound effect. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
(33:06):
visit the I Heart Radio 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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