January 16, 2020 • 38 mins
It's no secret that kids do all sorts of dumb things -- but have you ever swallowed a live goldfish? If so, you're not alone. In fact, it wasn't so long ago that hundreds of college students across the United States began gulping live goldfish by the dozens. Tune in to learn why.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Ridiculous History is a production of I Heart Radio. Welcome
(00:27):
back to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you
so much for tuning in. This is this is a
this is a story that is uncomfortably close to me.
Dudes and do debts. Why why? Yeah, well I'll tell
you no. Um, we were all kids, including our illustrious
(00:48):
super producer Casey Pegram, and we've all done kind of
dumb stuff growing up, for stunts and such. Yeah. Where
you going with this? Man, I'm not proud of it.
But I swallowed some goldfish at my time. Some goldfish. Yeah, yeah,
multiple goldfish. Not not like it once, No, not not
(01:10):
nothing crazy. Oh my goodness. What led to this? Uh?
This currents? Ben? And did you poop it out? Oh? Man,
this is never mind. Don't answer that answer the first one. Sure, sure,
Uh so it was a dare situation, not the anti
drug program so popular in Georgia, but it was it
(01:30):
was like a my dumb friends dared me, and dumb me,
I thought, well, I'll do it. I've eaten a lot
of strange things in my time. That's sort of your thing.
It's one of those things. Yeah, well, yeah, it's good
to have things. Ben, It's good to have hobbies and
things you care about. So, Ben, were these like um
goldfish and bags sort of like a county fair style
(01:51):
or did they come out of someone's beloved collection of
fish in an aquarium? Uh? These these were It's even worse, Man,
these were purposely purchased sacrifices. You're a monster, Ben, I
never knew this about Chad person. You're not Bennett's okay,
because it turns out this was an absolute craze. It
was a fat I'm not sure if that's if that
(02:12):
completely absolves you, but at least you're not the first
person to have this idea. It turns out it was
practically institutionalized thanks to an organization that's probably responsible for
a lot of idiotic, weird culti behavior, the Harvard Union. Yeah,
and the Harvard Union. Uh. In March third, nine thirty nine,
(02:33):
a freshman with the brilliant name Lowthrop. I bet he
was really grew up really poor. Yeah, Lowthrop Withington Jr.
Class of forty two. Yeah, you know what, he had
a lot, he had a lot to work against with
that name. Anyway, he had a bet with his roommates
(02:53):
that involved swallowing goldfish, and he swallowed alive goldfish. He
got ten bucks for doing this, which was actually more
than I got years later. And let's not forget this
is a ninety nine So ten bucks in nine dollars,
that's all I scratched? Should we handy dandy inflation calculator?
That beast? Yeah? I want to get a sense of
(03:14):
the market price here and the results are in ten
dollars in nineteen thirty nine. Is worth casey? If we
could have the drum roll perfect one hundred and eighty
two dollars and ninety three cents a decent living down
(03:37):
in Goldfish in those days, I guess yeah, yeah, is
your opinion changeing? No? No, I didn't think so. Uh
So he gets this money, but he also starts a craze,
and over a two month period, this fad is blowing
up in colleges across the land. People are swallowing goldfish
(03:58):
left and right, and with intent. By the way, does
talk about this, but he doesn't. He doesn't sound like
the nicest guy. Yeah. He was quoted as saying it
was purely a case of mind over matter. I don't mind,
and the fish don't matter. See you at least probably
had a little bit of empathy for for the for
the fish man, right. I know I still eat seafood,
(04:19):
of course he eats seafood. But this is a live goldfish.
We're talking about. Fish have feelings, right, probably yea, I
was a kid at the time. That's that's a very
good point. I do want to point out to that
this became such a thing um that Time magazine referred
to it as among the maddest in the annals of
(04:39):
us undergrad It was literally, this is my words, not Times. Uh,
the butt chugging of nineteen thirty nine, the boofing. So
people do react diversely to this. The Animal Rescue League
thinks this is terrible, and then the criticism grows in
line with the craze, such that Massachusetts state Senator at
the time, George Crapp k r apf filed this bill
(05:03):
might be silent, though I would love that if that
were the yes. Uh, he filed a bill to preserve
the fish from cruel and wanton consumption. Lo Thor, in
a letter to The New York Times in nine says
that he actually did this because his quote unquote campaign
managers advised him to do it as a publicity stunt
(05:24):
when he was running for class president, because once upon
a time he said that he had eaten a live
goldfish before. Prove it. Yeah, prove it. Put your goldfish
where your mouth is and then stick it in there
and swallow it. And then he said, this is what
a class president needs. Um. He did take a toothbrush
(05:45):
out and brush his teeth afterwards, because he said the
scales caught a bit on his throat when they went down.
And one of the reasons this became so well known
is that there were reporters and photographers in attendance at
the time when Whittington swallowed this live cold fish. Also, apparently,
(06:05):
I'm not super clear on this, Apparently he ate mashed
potatoes afterwards for some reason as a cleanser. I don't know. Yeah,
just you know clear, you know, I mean, fish are sharp,
fish have weird little spiny edges. Maybe it like scratched
up his throat a little bit. I mean, I don't know.
That's probably not sure. Goldfish probably goes down real smooth. Well, no,
I I'm surprised that you would say that. Sadly, from experience,
(06:29):
I can tell you that's not always the case. But
also you, in particular, my friend, you have a dare
I call it a very specific phobia that involves the
idea of swallowing fish. Okay, first of all, Ben, I
know what you're talking about here. I don't want to
put out no no, no, no no, no, no, it's fine.
I'll put myself on the spot man. I will shine
(06:50):
the spotlight squarely in in in my own face. Um. Yeah.
We were on a trip one time doing doing some
shows and we went to a really nice tig restaurant
and got a whole fish that we were ring between
you and me and our compatriot Matt Frederick. And it
was one of those fish that have all the little
spiny bones in and I caught one in my throat
and I thought I was having a panic attack, and
then I was never it was never gonna gonna leave
(07:11):
my throat. I thought it was just in there for life,
and I could feel the scratchiness of it for weeks
to come. Uh, pretty sure. I got rid of it
much quicker than that. But um, I tried swallowing bread.
I tried, uh, you know, like changing your posture, my
posture in the whole kind of thing, you know, And uh,
swallowing ice cubes and nothing did the trick um, So
(07:33):
that sensation is really more what did it for me
than you know, actually something being lodged in my throat.
But this is different, man, This is a tiny goldfish
that's presumably quite slippery and not to go right on
down the hatch, right. Yeah, and uh for the regor bed,
I'm so glad you're okay. That did seem quite traumatic.
Uh my mind. I was like, this is just my
(07:53):
life now. Yeah, this bonus never going And you said
that out loud several times. Sure did. We almost did
do the show, but we did. We did a great show,
and we we we learned our lesson here. You are right,
live fish, A live goldfish would be a very different case.
So we mentioned that there was a media presence. There
(08:14):
were Papa Rozzi in the in the audience when Wentthington
did this, And most of the reaction to this story
was favorable. As a wacky story. It was kind of
like in America's Funniest Home Videos anecdote of its time.
He got job offers, he got fan letters, newspaper clippings
(08:34):
and Boston papers played a huge role in spreading this
story in the Boston Harold. A writer named Eva Williams
Raymond wrote rotor response to the goldfish swallowing craze. In verse,
she said, to end this paranoiac prank, Oh, Harvard, how
I wish you'd put the students in the tank and
(08:57):
graduate the fish. That's cute. That's well, that's that's all Eva, man.
I know, but it's like it's the perfect most basic,
kind of absurdest concept. You know. It's like, what if
bicycles road people? I love ideas, Like, that's so funny.
So this publicity inspires a bunch of other people to
(09:18):
write into a bunch of other papers, and these papers
run letters they like, and they rerun other stories. And
one letter to the editor had a point about about
classism that I thought was cutting. I think it is
wonderful the advantages boys have who go to Harvard with
its background of three hundred years of educational pre eminence.
(09:39):
Those of us who for financial reasons have to send
our children to Wesley into other places, just can't hope
to give them an opportunity to learn how to swallow
a live goldfish. Well, if you think about it, I
mean it's sort of like a junior version of like
the orderl on, you know, which is like that songbird
that the uber rich would eat whole d fried bones
(10:01):
and all and put like a cloth over their high
eyes in their head to hide their shame from God. Uh.
There's a really great scene totally illegal to do now, um,
but they still I'm saying. There's a scene in the
fantastic HBO series Succession, Um where one of the characters
take sort of an underling to this very secret exclusive
supper club and they do the Order lan and he
(10:23):
sort of explains to him the tradition of it and
how it represents complete and utter opulence and depravity. Yeah. Also,
for the record, you know how there's that controversy criticism
about FOI graw because you're essentially torturing the animal. I've
seen videos it is, it is is more than essentially.
It's absolutely torturing me. It's past the line for me, honestly. Uh.
(10:46):
The order law isn't just caught and cooked. They're kept
in cages where they can't move and their fat like
veal like veal. But back to the publicity, right, the
goldfish swallowing craze isn't just a whoa look at us
wild and crazy guys hanging out swallowing fish. It's also competitive,
(11:07):
and so people start trying to set records. Three weeks
after Lawthrop does his goldfish swallowing stuff, a guy named
Frank Hope Jr. Tries to one up him or double
up him by swallowing three goldfish and saying that Lawthrop
is quote a sissy, which is as you know. I'm
sure everybody's nodding in agreement. Um, the measure of masculinity
(11:30):
is clearly how many fish you can how many live
fish you can put in your mouth at once? I
don't I don't know again at a different times. A
lot of this is coming from the National Museum of
American History, too, and you have to wonder what actual
educational sites right about these kinds of stories. I like
to think the author is having fun with it. I would.
I would also like to think that then you have
(11:52):
David Blaine, you know, in modern times, where you swallowing
baby frogs and then puking them back up into a
glass of water. I believe it was on uh, what's
his name, James Cordon. It sounds like something David Blaine
would do, and he probably was conscious of the goldfish craze.
He would be right at home actually in this intense competition,
because how long do you think Frank Hope's three fish
(12:14):
record lasted. I would imagine not long. I mean this
required too much of a skill swallowing, and I mean
David Blaine swallowed a man puked them back up. The
swallowing parts the easy part, So I would imagine somebody
bested him pretty quickly. Yeah, you're right, within twenty four hours,
less than twenty four hours. Another student in Frank's college,
guy named George Rabb, swallows six fish. And now we've
(12:36):
got three different schools battling to be the I don't know,
the premier fish swallowers. And when you hear this next story,
everyone keep in mind that these are college students. And
they're not just college students. They are some of the
most privileged colleges in the world. I just want you
to remember that when you hear about Irving Clark Jr.
(12:58):
Was student at Harvard. He swallowed not only gay swallowed
two dozen goldfish, but he furthermore promised publicly to eat
quote any bug for a nickel, an angle worm for
a dime, and he said, if you give me a quarter.
I will eat a beetle. He just sounds like that
gross kid in the neighborhood. You know, it's like a
glue eater. Exactly did we talk about the way Life
(13:22):
magazine characterized this in the thirties, this whole craze. I
don't think I love this because it's just really fun
to read in that like mid Atlantic accent um. Actually,
now here we go. Time magazine wrote about this craze
in nine. Last week, Joe College was busy gulp and goldfish.
He garnished it with salt, with mayonnaise, all with ketchup,
and he chased it with milk, Cotton's juice, all soda pop.
(13:45):
But one routine did not vary. Each goldfish was gulped alive. See,
that's the kind of thing you'd love to read Domand
that's a lot of fun. And the headline was crazy
co ed gulps a guppy. Oh that made my day. Uh.
I love the alliteration. It's like a cognit of tickle.
Writing a headline really is a skill I don't of itself.
(14:05):
You can tell when people in especially in British press,
are happy or that you know, you can tell when
they've had a back pocket pun they've been waiting to unleash.
I always wonder how they get away with it. By
the way, send us your favorite weird headlines for for crazes,
just anything with some arresting or whimsical language. So the
(14:32):
goldfish competition doesn't stop there, other colleges get involved. There's
this guy from the University of Pennsylvania. His name is
Gilbert Hollanderski. He downs goldfish. He doesn't down one, he
doesn't down three, he doesn't down six, doesn't down two, dozen,
he downs twenty five and then he eats a steak
(14:54):
dinner and from then he earned he worked for that way.
The steak might not have tasted did that great? But
you know it's it's it's about the message. It's good.
Steak will wipe away any foul taste from your mouth
if you ask me. Yeah, oh man, I've been going
through a steak phase. I don't know if I told you.
The only meat I've been eating recently got of It's
(15:15):
all vegets good stuff. Apologies to any vegans out there.
I'm a fan of a steak. I'm not going to
apologize for that, even though I kind of just did
I send my apology suck at vegans, just kidding. So
we know that after Gilbert, more and more people from
around the country again overwhelming, and college students are swallowing
(15:35):
more and more fish to try to set the record.
There's an escalation of fish swallowing. The sure is yeah, yeah,
there's for instance, Julius Aisner from University of Michigan swallowed
twenty nine and then Michael Bonner, Albright College football captain
eight thirty three. Yeah. Then we've got our boy, Albert
(15:56):
Hayes from m I t no less um. He downed
forty two goldfish um. And actually there was became such
a like a like almost like a spectator sport or
a competitive thing. There became an intercollegiate goldfish swallowing competition
of which he was the champion. That's so wild. And
(16:17):
then people, as you said, began performing it right in
front of crowds. A lot of good names in this
in this episode, this might be my favorite. We've got
Jack Smuckler from Northeaster and he swallowed thirty eight fish
in front of a crowdser really is becoming kind of
a spectator sport. Then we have Gordon Southworth who ate
sixty seven of of the of those regularly little guys. Uh,
(16:40):
he did that in just fourteen minutes. Sixty seven fish
and fourteen minutes that that received. Now, now we're starting
to inch into the like that first guy that came
up with this, wait, like what to one? Yeah, that
goes too over the course of his life, over the
course of his life. Um, you know, but I bet
he was kind of like, my work is done here.
I made something that bib will remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly.
(17:02):
I mean, I don't think he imagined that someone like
Gordon would come along and be a competitive eat er.
Sixties seven goldfish in just fourteen minutes. And then there's
there's another record. There are a couple other records that
gave him more egregious Like at this point is just protuitous,
you know what I mean? At this point, I'm worried
about goldfish population. I went to Clark University's name is
(17:25):
Joseph Deliberato. He swallowed eighty nine goldfish and he is uh,
he is still not the record holder. We also know
that this wasn't just the domain of dudes. There was
Mary Hanson of the University Missouri, famously known as the
first female student to swallow alive goldfish, but a professor
(17:48):
of anatomy the u c l A Got involved, and
this professor said with this actually entry on encyclopedia dot com,
this professor said, an average size human male can safely
eat a hundred and fifty live goldfish. I'm sorry, the
average mail can say, oh so they needed to weigh in.
(18:08):
Uh less, somebody eats one more than that number and
uh and die right right. I wonder what that? Do
you think it's a toxicity thing or it's just like
a stomach capacity thing. Might be just the stomach capacity thing,
because what's interesting about this is, uh, there's something called
the satity response, and it means that it takes your
(18:30):
It takes your stomach anywhere between seventeen to twenty three
minutes to successfully send a message to your brain that
says I'm full. So that's why when you're doing competitive eating,
you really want to go for as much as you
can in fourteen minutes, and because otherwise your brain will
shut you down and then just hold off as as
well as should because it seems like that's a really
bad idea. Yeah, I gotta wonder too, how long you
(18:52):
think it takes the poor little guys to die once
they get into your stomach and hit all that acid.
I don't like to think about it. Yeah, you monster,
God seeing a whole new side of you today. I've
done a lot of good things. I know you have
your your Ultimately, that was a long time ago, Ben,
you were but a child. You didn't know any better. Well,
Whitman said, we were vast. We contain multitudes. Yeah, you
(19:13):
contained multitudes of goldfish. So we have one last record
that seems to take the cake. An anonymous student at St.
Mary's down two and ten fish in one city and
then promptly dropped dead because that's clearly over the lemon.
And then he died of goldfish, yes consumption right, Oh boy, Uh,
(19:37):
that's that's insane. That that seems like, I mean, what
must that feel like there? If? Again, like, I don't
want to get too grisly with it. But they wouldn't
die immediately. They'd be swimming around in your stomach for
a second. Or do you think they would die before
they hit your hit your stomach because of the squeezing
nous of the of the esophagus and all that sez
that is made up that word. Yeah. I don't know
exactly when they would expire. Yeah, but I imagine it's
(20:00):
even more horrific for the fish if you're eating so
many at one time, because they're being crushed under their brethren.
We went a little too dark with this one, but
we were gonna come back because this thing eventually went international.
UM didn't take off internationally quite as as much as
it did in in the States, but it did make
(20:22):
its way to Belgium. Yeah. Yeah. Citizens in Belgium, in
a town called Grammont Groman said that they consume fifty
goldfish at their annual see how would you pronounce it? Oh,
let's call it feast of der kraka Linga. I like
it when you do German. Thanks man, But I misspoke.
(20:43):
This was not them just copying the the the new
American fad. No, no, no, this was actually a tradition
dating back to the fourteenth century. Pretty crazy, right, Yeah,
and also pretty sure that UM our original Uh college
boy did didn't know about that? It wasn't. It wasn't
some kind of like, you know, cultural appropriation, but who knows,
(21:05):
who knows? Uh, it's weird because back over the pond
in the US, there's the rise of an institution called
the Intercollegiate Goldfish gold Being Association. They were trying to
be the authoritative source for people reporting in the number
of fish they swallowed, and they started doing regulations. They
said the fish have to be three inches long, and
(21:26):
they have to be retained by the participants for at
least twelve hours. Since we're a family show, let's just
say what that means is that they can't put the
fish in their mouth and then spit it up right
or poop it out right. That would take a little longer, though.
Can you imagine what that movement would look like? I'd
(21:46):
rather not? Okay, same, so sorry I even brought it up. Well,
you know, case he's making a disgusted face over there,
by the way, he should you should be disgusted. If
he were licking his lips, it would be worried. Casey,
you will joy this part because other people wanted to
get into the swallowing live animals game, but they wanted
to have their own twist on it. They didn't want
(22:08):
to just be uh guppies. Following the goldfish goal being heard,
So one guy, John Poopla writer, this is over the
line even for me, he swallowed five white mice. That
seems dangerous, doesn't it, The claws, the teeth. Yeah, it's
like some Richard gear Gerbil stuff right there. Yeah, it's
like some some like G. G Allen unwinding in the
(22:30):
green room stuff. No, thank you, I don't and again
not to mention that it's just absolutely cruel and inhumane.
You know, we think of fish is being you know,
not exactly as feeling and anthropomorphizable as uh, you know, mammals.
I guess, but I got your finding memo. I guess
it's been fishing, but anthropomorphies plenty. What am I talking about?
(22:52):
For some reason, it seems like people draw a line,
you know, like, oh, we can swallow goldfish all day long,
but not but not mammals. Yeah, so this really really
is over the line. You're right, then, well, it's to
each their own. I guess, but I I don't know.
Swallow a live mouse seems like maybe a survival situation,
you know, if you're if you're stuck and you're starving
(23:14):
and you have to eat something, then I can see it.
But doing it for fun because you're in college, that's
wild of the guys. Okay, at Gregg and State student
decided to swallow a hundred and thirty nine angle worms?
What is what is an angle worm? What do they
(23:34):
look like? What's their what's their thing? I'm assuming they
are angular? There we go. They're like a right the thing.
They're a right angle and I'm two single now, just
like regular worms. Pretty pretty underwhelming angle. Yeah, just looks
like an earthworm to me. I'm pulling up when as well.
Uh oh man, No, I would if I had to
(23:55):
do something like this again, which I don't and I
don't condone it. I know we have some teachers and
children listening to this show. Kids, if you're listening, no
one here is condoning swallowing live goldfish. Don't do it.
And I'm also sorry I told Vegan to suck it.
Where we have made our peace, we have mayor a piece.
But we have also seen the tide turn on goldfish
(24:19):
gulping because people also did their own spins on on
the goldfish phenomenon. There was, for instance, a college student
back at Harvard who decided to instead of swallowing fish,
kissed them, and he kissed a hundred and thirty three fish.
It was it was kind of like a childish prank,
but the tide eventually turned, the sun eventually set on
(24:42):
the practice of eating goldfish while they were still alive.
And it had something to do with that bill that
we mentioned by Senator George crap Um, you know, the
Preserving the Fish from cruel and wanton consumption. And then
this predecessor to like a Ethical Treatment of Animals organization
came into play animal rescue legion and the president of
(25:05):
Boston's Animal League even threatened legal action right like that,
several things going against them, and they really did as
they should have it. And And just a really quick aside,
I just want to point out that on Amazon you
can get angle worm um fishing bait kind of lures
sort of like you know, rubber or whatever. And the
brand or the name of the model, I guess the
companies called Berkeley. You'll never believe what it's called them.
(25:28):
It's called gulp exclamation mark. That's what you want the
fish to do, and I guess it is it is. Well,
Boston's Animal League they said that if you were caught
swallowing goldfish on campus, you will be arrested. M hmm.
Interesting if if the campus officials don't step in and
(25:50):
stop this. So goldfish swallowing went underground, like with cock
fighting or fight club fight all that stuff. Yeah. Additionally,
the US public helcer Iss said that goldfish may contain
tape worms or harbor disease. Well, I would hope. So
these guys haven't coming, and so we see the demise
of the era, the end of the age of swallowing
(26:11):
goldfish but low through Withington Jr. Was known as a
goldfish swallower for the rest of his life, and he
didn't ever apologize for it. He made appearances on different
shows like to Tell the Truth, What's My Line? And
I've Got a Secret, and he lived a long, healthy life.
When he passed away at nineties six, he was still
(26:33):
driving around town and using his exercise bike, so it
wasn't fatal for him. Gave him some celebrity, though. I
don't think he needed the money. I'm just gonna say,
I don't think he needed the ten bucks. Pretty sure
you're right there, I'm pretty sure you're right. So what's
the weirdest thing that you have ever eaten? Let us know.
You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. I once
(26:54):
accidentally swallowed an entire lossenge with the rapper on and everything.
What happened? What happened? I didn't die, I didn't die.
What what flavor was the loss? It was a ricola?
Oh yeah, those were great, though, you had to choose one. Now,
when I say the entire rapper on, I mean you
know ricola has an outer wrapper and then it also
has a little piece of wax paper around. Yeah. Yeah,
(27:15):
that's what happened. Oh okay, Well you you could digest
that stuff, and you're supposed to swallow rico laws home,
and they're not like horse pills. You know, you're supposed
to suck on them so they can give you relief
from Europe, you know, from what ails you from your
little your little cough. Maybe we're in a hurry. I
usually am. We're hurry. Uh. We do want to hear.
We do want to hear some of the weirdest stuff
(27:36):
you've eat and tell us tell our favorite part of
the show your fellow listeners on Facebook. We particularly like
to recommend our community page, Ridiculous Historians. You can also
find us as individuals. I am at then Bulling on
Instagram and at den bull in h s W one Twitter.
You can find me exclusively on Instagram at how Now
Noel Brown huge thanks to super producer Casey Pegram, Alex
(27:57):
Williams who composed our theme an associated Gabe Loser, and
of course, as always, thanks to Strat. It's time, gentleman,
What time is it? Jonathan's time? Jonathan Jonathan Strickland a
k a. The Quister? Uh? First number one is always
(28:20):
how dare you? Uh? Number two? Happy New Year? Year?
Is the first time we've been hanging out? Is that
what you call this hanging out? It's more like getting
attacked in an alley. Just wait, listen you to, I've
got beef with both of you. What happened to your accent? Listen? Beef?
Beef supersedes accent affectation. My beef is that for too
(28:43):
long you guys have been doing your paper rock scissors,
which means you might as well flip a coin before
I even say anything and just go with that, and
you'll be just as likely to get the right answer
or the wrong answer. That takes all the glee out
of victory and all the sting out defeats. So now
we have changed the game, gentlemen. Now you will be
(29:04):
presented with three short stories. You have to choose which
of the three is fake. So I will give you
three stories. We can just payper rock scissors for each
of them. Right, But then you're going to have to
decide if you get two that are right. So you
still it decreases your odds by by I don't have
(29:26):
time to get into statistical analysis. I love it. I'm
glad you thought about it. This is by far the
most diabolical thing you've done yet. Yes, well you know
it's one of my resolutions increase my diabolical nous. I
like that, lean into it to a strong start. Here
are your three scenarios, and of course we will start
the time. I will not be answering any questions so
(29:49):
that there'll be no need for any arbitrary rules. Wow,
you're serious, Okay, okay, I just want to hear you scramble.
So here are your three three scenarios. Now, if I
recall correctly, we're talking about swallowing goldfish. These are three
fisherman related stories, all three taking place in the distant
(30:12):
year of two thousand eighteen. March two thousand eighteen, a
fisherman near Siberia noticed something odd poking out of the
snow while walking along the shore. It was a human hand.
Upon further investigation, it turned out it wasn't just a
human hand, it was a whole bag of human hands,
(30:33):
fifty four of them in total. September two thousand eighteen,
an Irish fisherman pulled in his fishing nets and got
more than what he bargained for. Rather than a hall
of fishes, he discovered his net had captured the skull
and antlers of a giant Irish elk, an animal that
had gone extinct more than ten thousand years ago. November
(30:54):
two thousand eighteen, a fisherman in Okinawa discovered something odd
in his nets that caused a bit of a stirred
a nearby American military base. It was an unexploded torpedo,
one that clearly belonged to the American military, but, according
to every manifest on the base, should have been sitting
safely in storage. Begin okay, I'm running for the clock,
(31:18):
and go okay, I'm not into this. And those are
all you know what I'm gonna give the You know,
every quisitor deserves his day, I'm gonna give him. Propsies
are all pretty well crafted. I think it's number one.
I think it's number one. Well, my only thing my
number was he here. Here's the reason why I do
think it's number one. You why do you think it's fake?
Are you think the number one's fake? Yeah, we're supposed
to find the one that's face. I know. I'll tell
(31:38):
you why. I's okay. And this is why you think
it's true. I think it's true because there's a detail
in it that doesn't make sense. Uh that that the
Jonathan is is excuse me for giving them a compliment
too smart to have missed. Why would a hand be
sticking up if it was a bag of hands. Why
wouldn't they have discovered a bag right unless the bag
(31:59):
was overflowing? This is this is interesting because we're getting
into the Quister psychology a little bit now, because if
you think about it in the past, when do you
like how we're talking like you're not actually here with
his arms crossed? Ah? God, that was a question, alright, fine,
leave it in. No casey leave it in. So when
(32:21):
Jonathan was creating fake stories in the past, he would
tend to no offense. Here, he would tend to add
more details than were necessary to flesh out the credibilities.
Fatal flaw, so the fact, But but did he anticipate
us knowing that, because we've all all four of us
have talked about that before. So clearly you can't choose
(32:42):
the cup in front of you, right, yeah? Is that
a princess? You can't ask me any questions? No? Okay, sorry,
it's weird that we can't ask you questions. But but
you're leading. Hold on a second, there's still away for
us to rock paper sisn't we can just rock paper
scissors to weather. We're gonna choose one as being fair, right, right,
(33:03):
But then let's say that you agree on two of them.
Does that mean the third one out is the fake? Will? Well?
I see? So okay, okay, it complicates it slightly, but
not not that. Let's let's shift to Let's shift to
the other two stories. So the second story is about
that skull and antlers of a giant elk that went
(33:23):
extinct ten thousand years ago, and that would bet would
there be a fully intact it would be fossilized somewhere,
it would be buried. We wouldn't just have that sitting
on the seafloor. Erosion and things would have buried it.
It wouldn't just get dug up. So that's what's that's
what's persuading me that maybe number two is the answer.
Number three. I'm gonna see. That seems legit. It seems
like that actually happened, because there there's military grade weaponry
(33:47):
off the coast of Savannah right now. You know. The
detail of that it should have been safely in storage
is interesting. But I don't know, Ben, I tend to
go with the I think, yeah, I'm thinking to all right,
we're locked in it. In two twenty games quiz to
one you chumps zero. That was a completely true story.
(34:11):
It really did have Yes Irish fisherman actually did pulling
his nets. He thought at first that it was a log.
Realized then it was a skull of an Irish elk.
Was a bag of hands that was fake. Bag of
hands was also true, the one that you were because
the one we thought that only counts as one. I know,
I know, but I'm I'm enjoying it anyway. You know,
(34:32):
I can't even be meld And I gotta say, I
like this new way. I like this new Methodist the
hands thing. By the way, everyone was scared that it
was perhaps some sort of hand seeking psychopathic killer kiss.
But it was not. It turns out that it was
a forensic slap that had misplaced a bag of hands.
As you do, you know they got away. I mean,
(34:56):
it's like red handed, there's a bag of hands is
falling sparrow of the forensic world. Indeed, can't keep your
eye indeed, so so, yes, well, well played. Unfortunately you
came up short this time. But who knows what next
time we'll bring. I mean, I do, I've got it
written right in front of me, but we're not ready
to do that one yet. I can just I can
feel the smugness emanating. It's pretty good, comes off like
(35:19):
stink lines in a cartoon. But now, when you get
them right, and you will when you get them right, uh,
it is going to hurt so much more when you
get them well. Okay, first, hang on, man, I played
games with children before, and that's how I talked to
children when I'm playing games, like, hey, buddy, when you win,
imagine how cool that'll be. Keep playing. Congratulations, Ben, your
(35:41):
resolution to get a little bit more into the psyche
of Jonathan has somewhat paid off. I also, like, I
want to say, the the legalistic into d Emmy is
noting that you officially reset our score. So it's one zero.
Now wait a minute, so where do we where did
we shake out one behind? Got real close? Well, that's
(36:04):
I mean, that's endearing, right, I think so, I think.
So we're not in it to win it or just
in it for fun. That's so we tell ourselves when
we lose, well and to be there. These three were
very odd stories, and they were all very recent, but
they had to do with things from the past. I'm
just so impressed that the Okinawa story completely got past this. Well,
that was the one that, like we both agree, seemed
(36:24):
pretty legit. So again, you know, um, not to belittle
my seething hatred for you, but I do commend you
for for this this round. Thank you. Oh. I want
to give you one more insight, just so that you
know this going in, because I know that's going to
come up. You're going to sit there and say, well,
he chose three last time, so why would he put
it in the third place. I am going to put
these in chronological order every single week, so if you
(36:47):
had noticed in that case, it was March, September November,
so it will always be in chronological order. Of story
that will determine which one you know. Whenever you guess
which one's fake, it's not. I've decided to try and
full will you by putting it in position two instead
of position one based on the year or the month
or whatever. Well, you were definitely I've always respected that
(37:08):
if we were D and D characters, you would be lawful.
Even that's very rules are very important, and you really
have given this some thought and I can't. I can't
hold that against you, so be grudging thanks to Jonathan Strickland,
the Notorious Quister. Anyway, I want everyone to know how
slowly clapping, because you could definitely clap slower than that.
Come on, we all know it was a matter of
(37:30):
time before Benny gave me the Claph Family show. Yes,
thanks thanks to Jonathan Strickland, the Quister. Thanks to super
producer Casey Peg. That's true. Alex Williams, a composed our
theme research associated Gabe Loser. Christopher Hasciota is here in
spirit as always, eaves Jeff Coach. Check out her shows
um this day in History class. But I do believe
(37:51):
we're going to be guesting on at some point in
the near future. And also solution sessions, the Afro pun Podcast,
which is really great. Yeah, it's fantastic. Thanks, of course
to all the brave, innocent goldfish who in a way
gave their lives so that we can make this show.
And uh no, thanks to you. Thanks to you, Buddy
Happy tow here. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
(38:24):
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. Welcome
(00:27):
back to the show Ridiculous Historians. As always, thank you
so much for tuning in. This is this is a
this is a story that is uncomfortably close to me.
Dudes and do debts. Why why? Yeah, well I'll tell
you no. Um, we were all kids, including our illustrious
(00:48):
super producer Casey Pegram, and we've all done kind of
dumb stuff growing up, for stunts and such. Yeah. Where
you going with this? Man, I'm not proud of it.
But I swallowed some goldfish at my time. Some goldfish. Yeah, yeah,
multiple goldfish. Not not like it once, No, not not
(01:10):
nothing crazy. Oh my goodness. What led to this? Uh?
This currents? Ben? And did you poop it out? Oh? Man,
this is never mind. Don't answer that answer the first one. Sure, sure,
Uh so it was a dare situation, not the anti
drug program so popular in Georgia, but it was it
(01:30):
was like a my dumb friends dared me, and dumb me,
I thought, well, I'll do it. I've eaten a lot
of strange things in my time. That's sort of your thing.
It's one of those things. Yeah, well, yeah, it's good
to have things. Ben, It's good to have hobbies and
things you care about. So, Ben, were these like um
goldfish and bags sort of like a county fair style
(01:51):
or did they come out of someone's beloved collection of
fish in an aquarium? Uh? These these were It's even worse, Man,
these were purposely purchased sacrifices. You're a monster, Ben, I
never knew this about Chad person. You're not Bennett's okay,
because it turns out this was an absolute craze. It
was a fat I'm not sure if that's if that
(02:12):
completely absolves you, but at least you're not the first
person to have this idea. It turns out it was
practically institutionalized thanks to an organization that's probably responsible for
a lot of idiotic, weird culti behavior, the Harvard Union. Yeah,
and the Harvard Union. Uh. In March third, nine thirty nine,
(02:33):
a freshman with the brilliant name Lowthrop. I bet he
was really grew up really poor. Yeah, Lowthrop Withington Jr.
Class of forty two. Yeah, you know what, he had
a lot, he had a lot to work against with
that name. Anyway, he had a bet with his roommates
(02:53):
that involved swallowing goldfish, and he swallowed alive goldfish. He
got ten bucks for doing this, which was actually more
than I got years later. And let's not forget this
is a ninety nine So ten bucks in nine dollars,
that's all I scratched? Should we handy dandy inflation calculator?
That beast? Yeah? I want to get a sense of
(03:14):
the market price here and the results are in ten
dollars in nineteen thirty nine. Is worth casey? If we
could have the drum roll perfect one hundred and eighty
two dollars and ninety three cents a decent living down
(03:37):
in Goldfish in those days, I guess yeah, yeah, is
your opinion changeing? No? No, I didn't think so. Uh
So he gets this money, but he also starts a craze,
and over a two month period, this fad is blowing
up in colleges across the land. People are swallowing goldfish
(03:58):
left and right, and with intent. By the way, does
talk about this, but he doesn't. He doesn't sound like
the nicest guy. Yeah. He was quoted as saying it
was purely a case of mind over matter. I don't mind,
and the fish don't matter. See you at least probably
had a little bit of empathy for for the for
the fish man, right. I know I still eat seafood,
(04:19):
of course he eats seafood. But this is a live goldfish.
We're talking about. Fish have feelings, right, probably yea, I
was a kid at the time. That's that's a very
good point. I do want to point out to that
this became such a thing um that Time magazine referred
to it as among the maddest in the annals of
(04:39):
us undergrad It was literally, this is my words, not Times. Uh,
the butt chugging of nineteen thirty nine, the boofing. So
people do react diversely to this. The Animal Rescue League
thinks this is terrible, and then the criticism grows in
line with the craze, such that Massachusetts state Senator at
the time, George Crapp k r apf filed this bill
(05:03):
might be silent, though I would love that if that
were the yes. Uh, he filed a bill to preserve
the fish from cruel and wanton consumption. Lo Thor, in
a letter to The New York Times in nine says
that he actually did this because his quote unquote campaign
managers advised him to do it as a publicity stunt
(05:24):
when he was running for class president, because once upon
a time he said that he had eaten a live
goldfish before. Prove it. Yeah, prove it. Put your goldfish
where your mouth is and then stick it in there
and swallow it. And then he said, this is what
a class president needs. Um. He did take a toothbrush
(05:45):
out and brush his teeth afterwards, because he said the
scales caught a bit on his throat when they went down.
And one of the reasons this became so well known
is that there were reporters and photographers in attendance at
the time when Whittington swallowed this live cold fish. Also, apparently,
(06:05):
I'm not super clear on this, Apparently he ate mashed
potatoes afterwards for some reason as a cleanser. I don't know. Yeah,
just you know clear, you know, I mean, fish are sharp,
fish have weird little spiny edges. Maybe it like scratched
up his throat a little bit. I mean, I don't know.
That's probably not sure. Goldfish probably goes down real smooth. Well, no,
I I'm surprised that you would say that. Sadly, from experience,
(06:29):
I can tell you that's not always the case. But
also you, in particular, my friend, you have a dare
I call it a very specific phobia that involves the
idea of swallowing fish. Okay, first of all, Ben, I
know what you're talking about here. I don't want to
put out no no, no, no no, no, no, it's fine.
I'll put myself on the spot man. I will shine
(06:50):
the spotlight squarely in in in my own face. Um. Yeah.
We were on a trip one time doing doing some
shows and we went to a really nice tig restaurant
and got a whole fish that we were ring between
you and me and our compatriot Matt Frederick. And it
was one of those fish that have all the little
spiny bones in and I caught one in my throat
and I thought I was having a panic attack, and
then I was never it was never gonna gonna leave
(07:11):
my throat. I thought it was just in there for life,
and I could feel the scratchiness of it for weeks
to come. Uh, pretty sure. I got rid of it
much quicker than that. But um, I tried swallowing bread.
I tried, uh, you know, like changing your posture, my
posture in the whole kind of thing, you know, And uh,
swallowing ice cubes and nothing did the trick um, So
(07:33):
that sensation is really more what did it for me
than you know, actually something being lodged in my throat.
But this is different, man, This is a tiny goldfish
that's presumably quite slippery and not to go right on
down the hatch, right. Yeah, and uh for the regor bed,
I'm so glad you're okay. That did seem quite traumatic.
Uh my mind. I was like, this is just my
(07:53):
life now. Yeah, this bonus never going And you said
that out loud several times. Sure did. We almost did
do the show, but we did. We did a great show,
and we we we learned our lesson here. You are right,
live fish, A live goldfish would be a very different case.
So we mentioned that there was a media presence. There
(08:14):
were Papa Rozzi in the in the audience when Wentthington
did this, And most of the reaction to this story
was favorable. As a wacky story. It was kind of
like in America's Funniest Home Videos anecdote of its time.
He got job offers, he got fan letters, newspaper clippings
(08:34):
and Boston papers played a huge role in spreading this
story in the Boston Harold. A writer named Eva Williams
Raymond wrote rotor response to the goldfish swallowing craze. In verse,
she said, to end this paranoiac prank, Oh, Harvard, how
I wish you'd put the students in the tank and
(08:57):
graduate the fish. That's cute. That's well, that's that's all Eva, man.
I know, but it's like it's the perfect most basic,
kind of absurdest concept. You know. It's like, what if
bicycles road people? I love ideas, Like, that's so funny.
So this publicity inspires a bunch of other people to
(09:18):
write into a bunch of other papers, and these papers
run letters they like, and they rerun other stories. And
one letter to the editor had a point about about
classism that I thought was cutting. I think it is
wonderful the advantages boys have who go to Harvard with
its background of three hundred years of educational pre eminence.
(09:39):
Those of us who for financial reasons have to send
our children to Wesley into other places, just can't hope
to give them an opportunity to learn how to swallow
a live goldfish. Well, if you think about it, I
mean it's sort of like a junior version of like
the orderl on, you know, which is like that songbird
that the uber rich would eat whole d fried bones
(10:01):
and all and put like a cloth over their high
eyes in their head to hide their shame from God. Uh.
There's a really great scene totally illegal to do now, um,
but they still I'm saying. There's a scene in the
fantastic HBO series Succession, Um where one of the characters
take sort of an underling to this very secret exclusive
supper club and they do the Order lan and he
(10:23):
sort of explains to him the tradition of it and
how it represents complete and utter opulence and depravity. Yeah. Also,
for the record, you know how there's that controversy criticism
about FOI graw because you're essentially torturing the animal. I've
seen videos it is, it is is more than essentially.
It's absolutely torturing me. It's past the line for me, honestly. Uh.
(10:46):
The order law isn't just caught and cooked. They're kept
in cages where they can't move and their fat like
veal like veal. But back to the publicity, right, the
goldfish swallowing craze isn't just a whoa look at us
wild and crazy guys hanging out swallowing fish. It's also competitive,
(11:07):
and so people start trying to set records. Three weeks
after Lawthrop does his goldfish swallowing stuff, a guy named
Frank Hope Jr. Tries to one up him or double
up him by swallowing three goldfish and saying that Lawthrop
is quote a sissy, which is as you know. I'm
sure everybody's nodding in agreement. Um, the measure of masculinity
(11:30):
is clearly how many fish you can how many live
fish you can put in your mouth at once? I
don't I don't know again at a different times. A
lot of this is coming from the National Museum of
American History, too, and you have to wonder what actual
educational sites right about these kinds of stories. I like
to think the author is having fun with it. I would.
I would also like to think that then you have
(11:52):
David Blaine, you know, in modern times, where you swallowing
baby frogs and then puking them back up into a
glass of water. I believe it was on uh, what's
his name, James Cordon. It sounds like something David Blaine
would do, and he probably was conscious of the goldfish craze.
He would be right at home actually in this intense competition,
because how long do you think Frank Hope's three fish
(12:14):
record lasted. I would imagine not long. I mean this
required too much of a skill swallowing, and I mean
David Blaine swallowed a man puked them back up. The
swallowing parts the easy part, So I would imagine somebody
bested him pretty quickly. Yeah, you're right, within twenty four hours,
less than twenty four hours. Another student in Frank's college,
guy named George Rabb, swallows six fish. And now we've
(12:36):
got three different schools battling to be the I don't know,
the premier fish swallowers. And when you hear this next story,
everyone keep in mind that these are college students. And
they're not just college students. They are some of the
most privileged colleges in the world. I just want you
to remember that when you hear about Irving Clark Jr.
(12:58):
Was student at Harvard. He swallowed not only gay swallowed
two dozen goldfish, but he furthermore promised publicly to eat
quote any bug for a nickel, an angle worm for
a dime, and he said, if you give me a quarter.
I will eat a beetle. He just sounds like that
gross kid in the neighborhood. You know, it's like a
glue eater. Exactly did we talk about the way Life
(13:22):
magazine characterized this in the thirties, this whole craze. I
don't think I love this because it's just really fun
to read in that like mid Atlantic accent um. Actually,
now here we go. Time magazine wrote about this craze
in nine. Last week, Joe College was busy gulp and goldfish.
He garnished it with salt, with mayonnaise, all with ketchup,
and he chased it with milk, Cotton's juice, all soda pop.
(13:45):
But one routine did not vary. Each goldfish was gulped alive. See,
that's the kind of thing you'd love to read Domand
that's a lot of fun. And the headline was crazy
co ed gulps a guppy. Oh that made my day. Uh.
I love the alliteration. It's like a cognit of tickle.
Writing a headline really is a skill I don't of itself.
(14:05):
You can tell when people in especially in British press,
are happy or that you know, you can tell when
they've had a back pocket pun they've been waiting to unleash.
I always wonder how they get away with it. By
the way, send us your favorite weird headlines for for crazes,
just anything with some arresting or whimsical language. So the
(14:32):
goldfish competition doesn't stop there, other colleges get involved. There's
this guy from the University of Pennsylvania. His name is
Gilbert Hollanderski. He downs goldfish. He doesn't down one, he
doesn't down three, he doesn't down six, doesn't down two, dozen,
he downs twenty five and then he eats a steak
(14:54):
dinner and from then he earned he worked for that way.
The steak might not have tasted did that great? But
you know it's it's it's about the message. It's good.
Steak will wipe away any foul taste from your mouth
if you ask me. Yeah, oh man, I've been going
through a steak phase. I don't know if I told you.
The only meat I've been eating recently got of It's
(15:15):
all vegets good stuff. Apologies to any vegans out there.
I'm a fan of a steak. I'm not going to
apologize for that, even though I kind of just did
I send my apology suck at vegans, just kidding. So
we know that after Gilbert, more and more people from
around the country again overwhelming, and college students are swallowing
(15:35):
more and more fish to try to set the record.
There's an escalation of fish swallowing. The sure is yeah, yeah,
there's for instance, Julius Aisner from University of Michigan swallowed
twenty nine and then Michael Bonner, Albright College football captain
eight thirty three. Yeah. Then we've got our boy, Albert
(15:56):
Hayes from m I t no less um. He downed
forty two goldfish um. And actually there was became such
a like a like almost like a spectator sport or
a competitive thing. There became an intercollegiate goldfish swallowing competition
of which he was the champion. That's so wild. And
(16:17):
then people, as you said, began performing it right in
front of crowds. A lot of good names in this
in this episode, this might be my favorite. We've got
Jack Smuckler from Northeaster and he swallowed thirty eight fish
in front of a crowdser really is becoming kind of
a spectator sport. Then we have Gordon Southworth who ate
sixty seven of of the of those regularly little guys. Uh,
(16:40):
he did that in just fourteen minutes. Sixty seven fish
and fourteen minutes that that received. Now, now we're starting
to inch into the like that first guy that came
up with this, wait, like what to one? Yeah, that
goes too over the course of his life, over the
course of his life. Um, you know, but I bet
he was kind of like, my work is done here.
I made something that bib will remember. Yeah, yeah, yeah exactly.
(17:02):
I mean, I don't think he imagined that someone like
Gordon would come along and be a competitive eat er.
Sixties seven goldfish in just fourteen minutes. And then there's
there's another record. There are a couple other records that
gave him more egregious Like at this point is just protuitous,
you know what I mean? At this point, I'm worried
about goldfish population. I went to Clark University's name is
(17:25):
Joseph Deliberato. He swallowed eighty nine goldfish and he is uh,
he is still not the record holder. We also know
that this wasn't just the domain of dudes. There was
Mary Hanson of the University Missouri, famously known as the
first female student to swallow alive goldfish, but a professor
(17:48):
of anatomy the u c l A Got involved, and
this professor said with this actually entry on encyclopedia dot com,
this professor said, an average size human male can safely
eat a hundred and fifty live goldfish. I'm sorry, the
average mail can say, oh so they needed to weigh in.
(18:08):
Uh less, somebody eats one more than that number and
uh and die right right. I wonder what that? Do
you think it's a toxicity thing or it's just like
a stomach capacity thing. Might be just the stomach capacity thing,
because what's interesting about this is, uh, there's something called
the satity response, and it means that it takes your
(18:30):
It takes your stomach anywhere between seventeen to twenty three
minutes to successfully send a message to your brain that
says I'm full. So that's why when you're doing competitive eating,
you really want to go for as much as you
can in fourteen minutes, and because otherwise your brain will
shut you down and then just hold off as as
well as should because it seems like that's a really
bad idea. Yeah, I gotta wonder too, how long you
(18:52):
think it takes the poor little guys to die once
they get into your stomach and hit all that acid.
I don't like to think about it. Yeah, you monster,
God seeing a whole new side of you today. I've
done a lot of good things. I know you have
your your Ultimately, that was a long time ago, Ben,
you were but a child. You didn't know any better. Well,
Whitman said, we were vast. We contain multitudes. Yeah, you
(19:13):
contained multitudes of goldfish. So we have one last record
that seems to take the cake. An anonymous student at St.
Mary's down two and ten fish in one city and
then promptly dropped dead because that's clearly over the lemon.
And then he died of goldfish, yes consumption right, Oh boy, Uh,
(19:37):
that's that's insane. That that seems like, I mean, what
must that feel like there? If? Again, like, I don't
want to get too grisly with it. But they wouldn't
die immediately. They'd be swimming around in your stomach for
a second. Or do you think they would die before
they hit your hit your stomach because of the squeezing
nous of the of the esophagus and all that sez
that is made up that word. Yeah. I don't know
exactly when they would expire. Yeah, but I imagine it's
(20:00):
even more horrific for the fish if you're eating so
many at one time, because they're being crushed under their brethren.
We went a little too dark with this one, but
we were gonna come back because this thing eventually went international.
UM didn't take off internationally quite as as much as
it did in in the States, but it did make
(20:22):
its way to Belgium. Yeah. Yeah. Citizens in Belgium, in
a town called Grammont Groman said that they consume fifty
goldfish at their annual see how would you pronounce it? Oh,
let's call it feast of der kraka Linga. I like
it when you do German. Thanks man, But I misspoke.
(20:43):
This was not them just copying the the the new
American fad. No, no, no, this was actually a tradition
dating back to the fourteenth century. Pretty crazy, right, Yeah,
and also pretty sure that UM our original Uh college
boy did didn't know about that? It wasn't. It wasn't
some kind of like, you know, cultural appropriation, but who knows,
(21:05):
who knows? Uh, it's weird because back over the pond
in the US, there's the rise of an institution called
the Intercollegiate Goldfish gold Being Association. They were trying to
be the authoritative source for people reporting in the number
of fish they swallowed, and they started doing regulations. They
said the fish have to be three inches long, and
(21:26):
they have to be retained by the participants for at
least twelve hours. Since we're a family show, let's just
say what that means is that they can't put the
fish in their mouth and then spit it up right
or poop it out right. That would take a little longer, though.
Can you imagine what that movement would look like? I'd
(21:46):
rather not? Okay, same, so sorry I even brought it up. Well,
you know, case he's making a disgusted face over there,
by the way, he should you should be disgusted. If
he were licking his lips, it would be worried. Casey,
you will joy this part because other people wanted to
get into the swallowing live animals game, but they wanted
to have their own twist on it. They didn't want
(22:08):
to just be uh guppies. Following the goldfish goal being heard,
So one guy, John Poopla writer, this is over the
line even for me, he swallowed five white mice. That
seems dangerous, doesn't it, The claws, the teeth. Yeah, it's
like some Richard gear Gerbil stuff right there. Yeah, it's
like some some like G. G Allen unwinding in the
(22:30):
green room stuff. No, thank you, I don't and again
not to mention that it's just absolutely cruel and inhumane.
You know, we think of fish is being you know,
not exactly as feeling and anthropomorphizable as uh, you know, mammals.
I guess, but I got your finding memo. I guess
it's been fishing, but anthropomorphies plenty. What am I talking about?
(22:52):
For some reason, it seems like people draw a line,
you know, like, oh, we can swallow goldfish all day long,
but not but not mammals. Yeah, so this really really
is over the line. You're right, then, well, it's to
each their own. I guess, but I I don't know.
Swallow a live mouse seems like maybe a survival situation,
you know, if you're if you're stuck and you're starving
(23:14):
and you have to eat something, then I can see it.
But doing it for fun because you're in college, that's
wild of the guys. Okay, at Gregg and State student
decided to swallow a hundred and thirty nine angle worms?
What is what is an angle worm? What do they
(23:34):
look like? What's their what's their thing? I'm assuming they
are angular? There we go. They're like a right the thing.
They're a right angle and I'm two single now, just
like regular worms. Pretty pretty underwhelming angle. Yeah, just looks
like an earthworm to me. I'm pulling up when as well.
Uh oh man, No, I would if I had to
(23:55):
do something like this again, which I don't and I
don't condone it. I know we have some teachers and
children listening to this show. Kids, if you're listening, no
one here is condoning swallowing live goldfish. Don't do it.
And I'm also sorry I told Vegan to suck it.
Where we have made our peace, we have mayor a piece.
But we have also seen the tide turn on goldfish
(24:19):
gulping because people also did their own spins on on
the goldfish phenomenon. There was, for instance, a college student
back at Harvard who decided to instead of swallowing fish,
kissed them, and he kissed a hundred and thirty three fish.
It was it was kind of like a childish prank,
but the tide eventually turned, the sun eventually set on
(24:42):
the practice of eating goldfish while they were still alive.
And it had something to do with that bill that
we mentioned by Senator George crap Um, you know, the
Preserving the Fish from cruel and wanton consumption. And then
this predecessor to like a Ethical Treatment of Animals organization
came into play animal rescue legion and the president of
(25:05):
Boston's Animal League even threatened legal action right like that,
several things going against them, and they really did as
they should have it. And And just a really quick aside,
I just want to point out that on Amazon you
can get angle worm um fishing bait kind of lures
sort of like you know, rubber or whatever. And the
brand or the name of the model, I guess the
companies called Berkeley. You'll never believe what it's called them.
(25:28):
It's called gulp exclamation mark. That's what you want the
fish to do, and I guess it is it is. Well,
Boston's Animal League they said that if you were caught
swallowing goldfish on campus, you will be arrested. M hmm.
Interesting if if the campus officials don't step in and
(25:50):
stop this. So goldfish swallowing went underground, like with cock
fighting or fight club fight all that stuff. Yeah. Additionally,
the US public helcer Iss said that goldfish may contain
tape worms or harbor disease. Well, I would hope. So
these guys haven't coming, and so we see the demise
of the era, the end of the age of swallowing
(26:11):
goldfish but low through Withington Jr. Was known as a
goldfish swallower for the rest of his life, and he
didn't ever apologize for it. He made appearances on different
shows like to Tell the Truth, What's My Line? And
I've Got a Secret, and he lived a long, healthy life.
When he passed away at nineties six, he was still
(26:33):
driving around town and using his exercise bike, so it
wasn't fatal for him. Gave him some celebrity, though. I
don't think he needed the money. I'm just gonna say,
I don't think he needed the ten bucks. Pretty sure
you're right there, I'm pretty sure you're right. So what's
the weirdest thing that you have ever eaten? Let us know.
You can find us on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter. I once
(26:54):
accidentally swallowed an entire lossenge with the rapper on and everything.
What happened? What happened? I didn't die, I didn't die.
What what flavor was the loss? It was a ricola?
Oh yeah, those were great, though, you had to choose one. Now,
when I say the entire rapper on, I mean you
know ricola has an outer wrapper and then it also
has a little piece of wax paper around. Yeah. Yeah,
(27:15):
that's what happened. Oh okay, Well you you could digest
that stuff, and you're supposed to swallow rico laws home,
and they're not like horse pills. You know, you're supposed
to suck on them so they can give you relief
from Europe, you know, from what ails you from your
little your little cough. Maybe we're in a hurry. I
usually am. We're hurry. Uh. We do want to hear.
We do want to hear some of the weirdest stuff
(27:36):
you've eat and tell us tell our favorite part of
the show your fellow listeners on Facebook. We particularly like
to recommend our community page, Ridiculous Historians. You can also
find us as individuals. I am at then Bulling on
Instagram and at den bull in h s W one Twitter.
You can find me exclusively on Instagram at how Now
Noel Brown huge thanks to super producer Casey Pegram, Alex
(27:57):
Williams who composed our theme an associated Gabe Loser, and
of course, as always, thanks to Strat. It's time, gentleman,
What time is it? Jonathan's time? Jonathan Jonathan Strickland a
k a. The Quister? Uh? First number one is always
(28:20):
how dare you? Uh? Number two? Happy New Year? Year?
Is the first time we've been hanging out? Is that
what you call this hanging out? It's more like getting
attacked in an alley. Just wait, listen you to, I've
got beef with both of you. What happened to your accent? Listen? Beef?
Beef supersedes accent affectation. My beef is that for too
(28:43):
long you guys have been doing your paper rock scissors,
which means you might as well flip a coin before
I even say anything and just go with that, and
you'll be just as likely to get the right answer
or the wrong answer. That takes all the glee out
of victory and all the sting out defeats. So now
we have changed the game, gentlemen. Now you will be
(29:04):
presented with three short stories. You have to choose which
of the three is fake. So I will give you
three stories. We can just payper rock scissors for each
of them. Right, But then you're going to have to
decide if you get two that are right. So you
still it decreases your odds by by I don't have
(29:26):
time to get into statistical analysis. I love it. I'm
glad you thought about it. This is by far the
most diabolical thing you've done yet. Yes, well you know
it's one of my resolutions increase my diabolical nous. I
like that, lean into it to a strong start. Here
are your three scenarios, and of course we will start
the time. I will not be answering any questions so
(29:49):
that there'll be no need for any arbitrary rules. Wow,
you're serious, Okay, okay, I just want to hear you scramble.
So here are your three three scenarios. Now, if I
recall correctly, we're talking about swallowing goldfish. These are three
fisherman related stories, all three taking place in the distant
(30:12):
year of two thousand eighteen. March two thousand eighteen, a
fisherman near Siberia noticed something odd poking out of the
snow while walking along the shore. It was a human hand.
Upon further investigation, it turned out it wasn't just a
human hand, it was a whole bag of human hands,
(30:33):
fifty four of them in total. September two thousand eighteen,
an Irish fisherman pulled in his fishing nets and got
more than what he bargained for. Rather than a hall
of fishes, he discovered his net had captured the skull
and antlers of a giant Irish elk, an animal that
had gone extinct more than ten thousand years ago. November
(30:54):
two thousand eighteen, a fisherman in Okinawa discovered something odd
in his nets that caused a bit of a stirred
a nearby American military base. It was an unexploded torpedo,
one that clearly belonged to the American military, but, according
to every manifest on the base, should have been sitting
safely in storage. Begin okay, I'm running for the clock,
(31:18):
and go okay, I'm not into this. And those are
all you know what I'm gonna give the You know,
every quisitor deserves his day, I'm gonna give him. Propsies
are all pretty well crafted. I think it's number one.
I think it's number one. Well, my only thing my
number was he here. Here's the reason why I do
think it's number one. You why do you think it's fake?
Are you think the number one's fake? Yeah, we're supposed
to find the one that's face. I know. I'll tell
(31:38):
you why. I's okay. And this is why you think
it's true. I think it's true because there's a detail
in it that doesn't make sense. Uh that that the
Jonathan is is excuse me for giving them a compliment
too smart to have missed. Why would a hand be
sticking up if it was a bag of hands. Why
wouldn't they have discovered a bag right unless the bag
(31:59):
was overflowing? This is this is interesting because we're getting
into the Quister psychology a little bit now, because if
you think about it in the past, when do you
like how we're talking like you're not actually here with
his arms crossed? Ah? God, that was a question, alright, fine,
leave it in. No casey leave it in. So when
(32:21):
Jonathan was creating fake stories in the past, he would
tend to no offense. Here, he would tend to add
more details than were necessary to flesh out the credibilities.
Fatal flaw, so the fact, But but did he anticipate
us knowing that, because we've all all four of us
have talked about that before. So clearly you can't choose
(32:42):
the cup in front of you, right, yeah? Is that
a princess? You can't ask me any questions? No? Okay, sorry,
it's weird that we can't ask you questions. But but
you're leading. Hold on a second, there's still away for
us to rock paper sisn't we can just rock paper
scissors to weather. We're gonna choose one as being fair, right, right,
(33:03):
But then let's say that you agree on two of them.
Does that mean the third one out is the fake? Will? Well?
I see? So okay, okay, it complicates it slightly, but
not not that. Let's let's shift to Let's shift to
the other two stories. So the second story is about
that skull and antlers of a giant elk that went
(33:23):
extinct ten thousand years ago, and that would bet would
there be a fully intact it would be fossilized somewhere,
it would be buried. We wouldn't just have that sitting
on the seafloor. Erosion and things would have buried it.
It wouldn't just get dug up. So that's what's that's
what's persuading me that maybe number two is the answer.
Number three. I'm gonna see. That seems legit. It seems
like that actually happened, because there there's military grade weaponry
(33:47):
off the coast of Savannah right now. You know. The
detail of that it should have been safely in storage
is interesting. But I don't know, Ben, I tend to
go with the I think, yeah, I'm thinking to all right,
we're locked in it. In two twenty games quiz to
one you chumps zero. That was a completely true story.
(34:11):
It really did have Yes Irish fisherman actually did pulling
his nets. He thought at first that it was a log.
Realized then it was a skull of an Irish elk.
Was a bag of hands that was fake. Bag of
hands was also true, the one that you were because
the one we thought that only counts as one. I know,
I know, but I'm I'm enjoying it anyway. You know,
(34:32):
I can't even be meld And I gotta say, I
like this new way. I like this new Methodist the
hands thing. By the way, everyone was scared that it
was perhaps some sort of hand seeking psychopathic killer kiss.
But it was not. It turns out that it was
a forensic slap that had misplaced a bag of hands.
As you do, you know they got away. I mean,
(34:56):
it's like red handed, there's a bag of hands is
falling sparrow of the forensic world. Indeed, can't keep your
eye indeed, so so, yes, well, well played. Unfortunately you
came up short this time. But who knows what next
time we'll bring. I mean, I do, I've got it
written right in front of me, but we're not ready
to do that one yet. I can just I can
feel the smugness emanating. It's pretty good, comes off like
(35:19):
stink lines in a cartoon. But now, when you get
them right, and you will when you get them right, uh,
it is going to hurt so much more when you
get them well. Okay, first, hang on, man, I played
games with children before, and that's how I talked to
children when I'm playing games, like, hey, buddy, when you win,
imagine how cool that'll be. Keep playing. Congratulations, Ben, your
(35:41):
resolution to get a little bit more into the psyche
of Jonathan has somewhat paid off. I also, like, I
want to say, the the legalistic into d Emmy is
noting that you officially reset our score. So it's one zero.
Now wait a minute, so where do we where did
we shake out one behind? Got real close? Well, that's
(36:04):
I mean, that's endearing, right, I think so, I think.
So we're not in it to win it or just
in it for fun. That's so we tell ourselves when
we lose, well and to be there. These three were
very odd stories, and they were all very recent, but
they had to do with things from the past. I'm
just so impressed that the Okinawa story completely got past this. Well,
that was the one that, like we both agree, seemed
(36:24):
pretty legit. So again, you know, um, not to belittle
my seething hatred for you, but I do commend you
for for this this round. Thank you. Oh. I want
to give you one more insight, just so that you
know this going in, because I know that's going to
come up. You're going to sit there and say, well,
he chose three last time, so why would he put
it in the third place. I am going to put
these in chronological order every single week, so if you
(36:47):
had noticed in that case, it was March, September November,
so it will always be in chronological order. Of story
that will determine which one you know. Whenever you guess
which one's fake, it's not. I've decided to try and
full will you by putting it in position two instead
of position one based on the year or the month
or whatever. Well, you were definitely I've always respected that
(37:08):
if we were D and D characters, you would be lawful.
Even that's very rules are very important, and you really
have given this some thought and I can't. I can't
hold that against you, so be grudging thanks to Jonathan Strickland,
the Notorious Quister. Anyway, I want everyone to know how
slowly clapping, because you could definitely clap slower than that.
Come on, we all know it was a matter of
(37:30):
time before Benny gave me the Claph Family show. Yes,
thanks thanks to Jonathan Strickland, the Quister. Thanks to super
producer Casey Peg. That's true. Alex Williams, a composed our
theme research associated Gabe Loser. Christopher Hasciota is here in
spirit as always, eaves Jeff Coach. Check out her shows
um this day in History class. But I do believe
(37:51):
we're going to be guesting on at some point in
the near future. And also solution sessions, the Afro pun Podcast,
which is really great. Yeah, it's fantastic. Thanks, of course
to all the brave, innocent goldfish who in a way
gave their lives so that we can make this show.
And uh no, thanks to you. Thanks to you, Buddy
Happy tow here. For more podcasts from my Heart Radio,
(38:24):
visit the I heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever
you listen to your favorite shows.
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