June 19, 2018 • 29 mins
Whether you're royalty or a roaming vagrant, a President or a pauper, one thing's for sure: At some point, you'll have to use the restroom. While sanitation isn't often brought up in polite conversation, it plays a vital role in human health, and over the centuries various civilizations have come up with some pretty innovative ways of staying clean. Globally speaking, the bidet is one of humanity's most popular sanitation technologies -- it's spread across Europe to Asia and beyond. So why don't Americans use these? Join Ben and Noel as they crack the case.
Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:12):
Yeah, welcome to the show, fellow ridiculous historians. We'd like
to start today's episode with just a couple of statistics,
some of which may surprise you. You're gonna give us
(00:33):
the straight poop, Ben, I am, I am, And yeah
you're no, I'm Ben. That's our super producer, Casey Pegrum,
saving the show every time we are here in the
booth with you. So, first things first, the average American
uses twenty three point six rolls of toilet paper per
(00:56):
year per capita. Huh, which doesn't seem like that much, right,
It doesn't until you consider that they're over three million
people in the US with people, and that makes a
total of seven point four billion rolls the toilet paper
used in the US each year. You ever, just think
about just picture everyone in the world's but you know
(01:19):
what kind of blows the mind? A little bit, doesn't.
But some people will think it's particularly cheeky of us
to have back to back episodes related to butts, or
should we say cheek to cheek? Yeah, you know, like
the way you dance with the Lady in Red. You know,
thanks for classing that up, man. We seriously, I think
we need as much class as we can get in
(01:39):
this episode, the average American uses fifty more TP than
people in Western Europe and Japan. And there's a big
reason for that, which is the subject of our episode today, which,
by the way, yes, let me tell you. We're excited
about this for a couple of reasons. Um. I don't
know if you guys know what custom content as. That's
(02:01):
sort of the industry buzzword for when you make a
piece of content for a company, which is kind of
what we're doing today. But it's totally awesome because I
am just a huge fan of bidats, first of all,
and I'm a huge fan of this company that has
sponsored this episode, of company called Tushi, who actually sent
us these bid days. And I will tell you, my friend,
my but has never been cleaner, My disposition has never
(02:23):
been sunnier. I'm just loving life, and the Biday life
is the life for me, my friend. Yeah, it's a
brand new biddet, did it? I see what you did?
There's that's gonna happens. We've been throwing that around. Although
apparently I saw an Englishman talking about it and he
pronounces it b day. Yeah, I saw I saw the
same video. Now, uh, let's continue peeking behind the curtain
(02:44):
here because I want to assure you friends and neighbors
that my co host enthusiasm is genuine and sincere. I
literally talk about it all the time. It's weird, it
gets weird sometimes, but but but this is gonna be
rich so in our in another show that we do
(03:04):
stuff they don't want you to know with our illustrious,
amazing co host Matt Frederick. We actually also did uh
the Day sponsorship. We did some ads for them, but
this episode came about because we reached out to them
and said, we're gonna do this anyway. Do you guys
(03:25):
want to hang out? Basically, and we're so glad that
when we reached out to them, Yeah, we did it, yeah,
because it just made sense and it's like podcast needs sponsors.
Why not there's a matchmate in but Heaven Because we're
also we're also fairly silly and juvenile for two grown men,
(03:46):
you know what, And then I'm never gonna let that boyish,
potty mind die. Heck yeah, bang errang, that's what I said.
So we started investigating the history of this and just
at the very front of the episode, we want to
point out the following. Although it can seem very hilarious
(04:09):
and silly, I would argue rightfully so to talk about
these kinds of these kinds of gadgets and the techniques
people used to stay clean across the world. The truth
of the matter is that sanitation is a tremendously important
thing throughout history and in the modern day. Have we
talked about the fact that today UM in San Francisco specifically,
(04:30):
I saw an interview with the head of their sanitation
um it costs something like a million dollars a month
or something like that just to clean out their sewage system. Yeah,
there are a lot of people and those those costs
aren't really going to go down. Well, it's because of
this thing. If if you heard of this, it's called
a fat berg is it's the collection of like grease
(04:54):
and dirt and hair, toilet paper, toilet paper especially wipes
that you're not supposed to flush, sanitary products, condoms, absolutely,
just all the stuff that you're not supposed to flush
um and that's a huge infrastructure cost. I actually saw
an article about one of these fat bergs that was
so massive in London. It was the size of like
(05:15):
a double decker bus. They removed it and they put
it under glass in a museum. Yes, yeah, and it
looks just as disgusting as you might imagine. You can
find it. You can find this article online and you
don't have to take our word for it. Uh. The
only recommendation we would make before you read the article
is to be sure that you are not eating as
(05:38):
you peruse it. They call it the White Chapel Monster,
which is such a cool name. And in England London
rather a Thames Water, which is the company that operates
the water system there in London. It spends a million
pounds a month just to clear these kinds of blockages
and it's a constant battle. It's not like they're getting
(05:59):
ahead of the problem. It's strange because we spend so
little time thinking about how important sanitation is, especially in
a world where the majority of people now officially live
in urban areas. So this fat berg stuff, this problem
with sewage infrastructure, it's not going to go away for
(06:24):
most of our listeners here in the US. A bid day,
which you've probably heard of before, sounds like a very
you know, fancy pinkies up European thing, right, would you
would associate it with an upper crust lifestyle for good reason.
And there's a great reason for that. So let's let's
turn back the clock. Let's let's travel to France century.
(06:48):
Maybe that's right, the sixteenth century. You see, in the
fifteen hundreds, uh, bid day was a word referring to
a specific type of pet, a pony to be, to
be absolutely specific about it, and these ponies were kept
by French royalty. The the word bidday itself originates from
(07:09):
an old French word which I graphically mispronouncing, bidare, which
means to trot. And these, um, you know, I'm picturing
these fancy frenchmen and women in their finery trotting around
on these dainty little ponies, perhaps with ringlets in their mains,
(07:30):
you know, flowing lots, flowing locks, bedecked with little little bows.
Maybe I don't know, white stockings whatever. Man I'm at
a tour, were editorializing here, but I'm just paying a picture. Okay,
it's for effect. But it wasn't until the sixteen hundreds
that the Biday as we know at the b day
whatever was kind of came to to into fruition. But
(07:51):
it wasn't what we know today. Today's bidday. It wasn't
today's day, it was the bid day of yesterday. Uh.
And it was really just like a sink that looked
like a chair. So what, Yeah, let's let's take a
closer look at these days of yesterday. The apparatus itself
was resembled in some ways an ottoman, an ornamental ottoman.
(08:14):
The basin was set within wooden furniture, and the days themselves.
You will hear different contradicting claims about whether there were
was a single inventor or whether there were multiple people
to whom the idea occurred around the same time. But
one thing for sure we know is that they were
furniture makers, because these things were set into wooden furniture.
(08:38):
And the thing about that too is there's a reason
for that, ben because these were not in bathrooms, because
they didn't have indoor plumbing. The idea of a bathroom
would be more likely would be like in your chamber
pot it was just a bucket under your bed and
in two or in your dressing room or what have you,
your your what do you call your boudoir? Right, and
(09:00):
the um the b day would just be this little
I'm look I'm thinking of as like a nightstand kind
of with short legs, and this inlaid basin of water
that would just be filled up and you'd squat over
it and literally splash yourself manually, right, And this would
be I love the point you bring up about their
not being a separate bathroom or restroom. So this would
(09:20):
be either in the dressing chambers or in the bedroom itself.
And to keep it classy, would often be a lid,
something made of wood or wicker or leather, and a
lot of this, you know. You these furniture makers would
inlay these little basins into these wicker furniture, like you
were saying then, and it was almost to like disguise
the function of the device. Yeah, because it's it's a
(09:44):
very intimate thing. You're already in someone's bedroom and then
you see how they handle some very personal business. But
I feel weird every time we say, but I'm gonna
get over this, I promise. However, I like it. There
we go, good substitute, Thank you, thank you. However, in
(10:05):
the origin story of the bid day, it is inherently
intertwined with the story of class in France, and that
is why, as as we alluded to at the top
of the show. That is why bid days even today
are scene. Is this more upper crust fancy thing. And
(10:27):
you start to see why this might not have taken
off in the United States quite as much because of
that association with almost hedonism, right, because soldiers would see
these when they were traveling around Europe during World War two. Yeah,
and we want to give a shout out to the
Atlantic because there is a fantastic article we found called
(10:49):
the Bad Day's Revival. In this article, author Maria Teresa
Hart explores not just the somewhat murky origin of the biday,
but I would argue even more importantly the social role
it played. It occurred in culture, It was found in paintings,
It was referenced by the most wealthy, successful people of
(11:12):
the time. Even Marie Antoinette as she awaited her uh
there had to be chopped off by the guillotine. Um
was able to get her gold encrusted b day in
her cell because she was that was like one of
the comforts that she was used to. Apparently she used
to travel around with one, had one made that would
(11:32):
go in her coach. Um. So this was very much
associated with like kind of the upper crust. But then
it filtered down to kind of everyone eventually, right, well everyone,
you're everyone eventually, Asia, um and elsewhere, everywhere except the
United States. And with this article does a fantastic job
(11:55):
of doing is kind of exploring why that might be. Okay,
real quick timeline. The first written reference to the bidet
itself is in seventeen twenty six in Italy. But as
we know, the first written reference doesn't mean it wasn't around,
(12:18):
of course, It just meant that we have surviving documentation,
someone writing about it. And by those days been it
was a fancier version. It had like a pump with
the water that would squirt, you know, the more like
that seems very messy and ineffective. So around this time,
from the seventeen hundreds on Europe experiences what we can
(12:39):
only call a bidet boom, a boom of bidets. It
sounds like a just an explosion of bidets going everywhere.
Watch out, they're flying through the air to a home
near you. And it's spread to other social classes in France,
as you said, Noel, to other countries in Western Europe,
and then Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, but not
(13:02):
the US. And there's a weird. There's a weird reason
for that, and we we should explore that. You know,
while we're here at this point in space and time,
how did the US not jump on the biday train?
How did they not straddle the bidet train? Then it's
a good question because everything we've set up to this
point makes it sound like a pretty appealing train to ride, right,
(13:24):
you know, it helps the environment, um and we can't
even to talk about how much water and resources are
used in making toilet paper and paper products in general, right,
and how much money it costs some local and state
governments to clean up these disgusting blobs of congealed TP
and crap that are clogging up our source systems. And
(13:46):
as a Bidet user myself, I can tell you, sir,
it leaves you feeling fresh as a daisy. Well, they're
more hygienic, that's part of it. That's a big part
of it. But despite this, despite these advantages and friends
and neighbors, you can tell that we have our we
have a pretty strong opinion about this stuff. But despite
the advantages that were inherently present in the day technology,
(14:12):
they were thought of as very dirty, filthy things us
because in world War two. We've got allied troops, US
troops stationed in Europe, right, and they are visiting There's
there's no need to use the euphemism here. They are
visiting bordellos. They're visiting houses of prostitution. And they saw
(14:36):
the days in bathrooms, which was a normal thing, but
because of the location they were at, they started to
associate these with sex work. Interesting. I feel like it's
a little crappy of them to judge, uh, to judge
when they're they're they're hanging out in the bordellos, like what,
(14:57):
they're good enough to pay for sex, but they're like
freaked out by their strange cleansing implement and also the
process by which the day cleanses someone after they have
used the restroom right, or had intercourse or had intercourse. Yeah,
it's associated with a sexual aspect because you're washing out genitalia, right,
(15:18):
that's absolutely true. In fact, it was even associated with
birth control, and birth control in those days equals sin helen, damnation.
And we found a great quote from a birth control pioneer,
Norman Hair in n six right. Yeah, that's right. He
says that in Anglo Saxon communities where bathrooms are notoriously
(15:41):
cold and joyless rooms, lacking any kind of warmth or
decor um. The very presence of a bid day would
have been regarded as like a symbol of sin, right,
which is so strange because again we see this association
with hedonism, debauchery, and uh obscene wealth carrying over from
(16:05):
the seventeen hundreds to World War two. Do that this
would have been way in like the forties. So we've
got the evolution of the bidet kind of reaching its
logical conclusion at this point where you've got indoor plumbing
at this point, so the bidet has moved into the
bathroom next to the toilet. It's still a separate implement.
(16:25):
And that's why a lot of Americans when they see them,
there's it's right for comedy and like you know, euro
vacation or somebody someone ends up drinking from the bidet
and then making a joke about how, hey, pretty cool
you'll have water fountain in the bathroom here. They're kind
of low though, weird. I forget what that's definitely in
a movie and I can't remember which one rights and
let us know, yeah, people getting squirted in the face
(16:46):
and stuff there's there's another association that bidays had which
worked against them, at least in the US, and it
is tied to the misogyny of the time, and that
is that they were helpful in the process of menstruation.
That's right, because there were no sanitary products in these days. UM.
(17:07):
There's actually a really amazing sounding book called Unmentionable, The
Victorian Ladies Guide to Sex, Marriage and Manners. So this
is what we're going back a little bit, but this
is still doesn't get much better than this um and
it talks about how women to rid themselves of the
product of menstruation the blood would use what they referred
(17:30):
to as jelly rags and it was literally just a
piece of fabric that they would use to physically wipe
this area and that just sounds really unpleasant and messy
in the mid day, would give you a nice little
sprits clean you right off. We get to go for
at least a little while, right right. And so it's
strange now when we look back from eighteen that the
(17:54):
ability to provide a more healthy alternative in the process
of administruation was not seen as a selling point. It
was placed on the same level as prostitution or unwanted pregnancy,
to be delicate about it. And these all became hindrances
(18:16):
for the bid day itself because they were inherently being
linked in the American consumer's mind with a bunch of
things that at the time people just did not speak
of in public. We're kind of jumping all over the
place a little bit, which is fine, what's what we do. Um,
But if we go back to according to this um
(18:36):
amazing Atlantic article, there was actually a patent for a
design that's very similar to what we see in the
days today by our buddy John Harvey Kellogg. You know,
corn flakes and masturbation fame, corn flakes anti mascation. Well,
he would, he would take exception. He's also a big
(18:58):
fan of edemas, which we mentioned in an earlier episode,
yogurt Enemas I believe. Yeah. Yeah, weird guy, but forward
thinking when it comes to washing your butt. And he
was American, Yeah, he was American, and his very particular
beliefs about how one would pursue personal health obviously lad
(19:18):
him to design this thing. Now, there's no two ways
about it. Harvey Kellogg may have been really eccentric, but
he was also a brilliant person, so he would have
if the bidet had not already been invented centuries before,
he would have invented it in the US. Oh dude,
but I'm looking at this patent right now. It's a drawing. Yah.
(19:40):
It's just called J. H. Kellogg anal douche. Yeah, I
feel like it's his title. And it's a it's a
it's like a nozzle. Sorry about John Harvey Kellogg anal douche.
And it's a it's a it's a nozzle. It's a
nozzle that it kind of splits off from the water
supply that you would see. And it's the same as
and hasn't changed much, right indoor plumbing um, And it
(20:02):
goes up and kind of out from underneath the toilet seat.
And there's just a little spitzer nozzle and you have
a control with a valve, and its spritz is you
and you you might ask, isn't it gonna go everywhere? No,
sir or madam or whomever you're blocked by. Your butt
goes in your butt. That's true. Now, of course, we
should also point out that these things were not advertised
(20:25):
as a complete replacement for the use of toilet paper
they were in addition to so you use much less
toilet paper because one of the questions people would have
is how do you drive yourself off? Right? That's dab
that's where that stuff comes into play. Yeah, and you
use so much less toilet paper. But still as we're
in the twentieth century, early to mid twentieth century, the
(20:47):
days are seeing as hedonistic European and I hope you
can hear the italics when we say it that way. Uh,
like pan and they seemed to remain a thoroughly un
American thing, but that didn't stop people from trying to
make bidet waves. There was a guy named Arnold Cohen
(21:09):
who was the founder of the American Bidet Company because
he created a specific type of bidet for his father
who was having some health problems to mamorroids perhaps or rashes. Yeah,
where you can get these like ant they call him
fishers um that you can get from having, you know,
being unclean down there. It's it's it's bad times and
(21:32):
he uh, he ultimately had a very difficult time with this,
even though he was an experienced veteran man in the
advertising industry. No matter what he did, he couldn't really
seem to get this off the ground, and in bathrooms
across America were in the sixties at this point. We're
in the sixties. Yes, thank you. In nineteen four and
(21:54):
he he did some out of the box stuff. He
went on his own initiative. He installed hundreds or thousands
of these all over New York. Yeah, but unfortunately, this
is one man going up against big toilet paper, which
is a thing. It is when you can we hear
some stats about how much toilet paper is sold, how
much money is generated from toilet paper in this country. Ye, yeah,
(22:16):
because we had the stats about how much is used,
how much is Yeah, let's put some financial numbers on that. Dude,
this is insane. Okay. So Sharmon Ultrasoft, which is you know,
you know, you know Sharmon. They've been around for a
long time. They got a lot of brand recognition. They're
only the third most popular brand of toilet paper in
sales there. Sharmon Ultrasoft variety UM made more than a
(22:37):
billion dollars alone in the most popular private label made
one point seven billion dollars in seventeen. So when we
say big toilet paper, we are not kidding it's a
billion dollar, booming business, but belligerently opposed to days. Yes,
(23:00):
thanks man. Thanks. So we can tell from those statistics,
which are are really recent, you said, right, sir, So
we can tell that the battle between bid days and
toilet paper did not work out for bid Days back
in the sixties in the US. But you know where
it caught on, You're Cohen did find success for the
(23:22):
American Bidet company Japan. That's right, because the Japanese were
importing a lot of American toilets because original Japanese toilets
were really uncomfortable. They were super low to the ground.
You had to squat, which now they've got these squatty
potties and they say that it's good for you. But
I don't know about all that. But the Japanese, being
(23:43):
very innovative people, um kind of really took that bidet
design that Kellogg patented so long ago and took it
to the next level. There's this company called Toto that
makes a product called the Washlet, which is a remote
control biday with a heated seat that can be hot
or cold. The bite stream can change directions you wanted
(24:07):
to go counterclockwise or clockwise or give you a nice
direct jet kind of water pick vibe, you can do that.
And these things are like thousands of dollars, it depends.
They're like, you know, luxury toilet seats, but the bottom
line one is maybe five dollars, which is still very expensive,
very expense in comparison to a regular commode or you know,
(24:28):
the amazing product from our pals at there we go,
There we go. So we see that this technology originates
in France and proliferates throughout the world. But we also
see that this partially because of the cultural associations, I
(24:52):
think more and more frequently because of the price point.
But days have been you know, a a distant second
place in the story of sanitation here in the US.
You know, how much toilet paper was sold in Europe,
much less than the US relatively, Dropping the dropping the
chamber bucket because we're talking there we go, dropping the
(25:14):
chamber pike, because we're talking about a continent there, and
that's not just the country, that's Europe entire. And so
this catches us up to the modern day. And there's
an excellent article on our website how Stuff Works dot
Com by Alison Cooper called the Biday is it making
a comeback. And it turns out, as you and I
(25:35):
have been talking about off air, Noal, it turns out
that uh, the bidet may actually have its time to
shine here in the States, to shine up our butt holes. Yeah, man,
that's that's the truth of the matter. And look, we
know this can sound um, we we know that nine
here we go, here we go. Well do we know
(25:58):
this can sound a little little bit strange. But the facts,
the objective statistics are on the side of this argument
that the days are gaining ground here in the US.
And I think a huge part of that is because
for decades I assumed, and I think most everybody assumed
(26:19):
rightly so, that you would have to remodel your house,
you would have to install a new waterline to run
into that to day, right, that's right. But now, thanks
to our pals Tushi, he's got a super low profile
but day attachment that has gained popularity. And it's actually
very similar to that patent from from our buddy Kellogg
(26:41):
from nineteen thirty. It just splits off from the existing waterline.
And look, we know, we know they're they're sponsoring the show,
but I I really do it's It's a great thing
to have in your house. I'm a fan, and I
really hope the bid Day revolution continues on full force
and I'll be leading the charge of my friend, I
don't know about you to brand new Biday in America.
(27:03):
We got there, and all we did. Man, we hope that.
I think it's fairly obvious to everyone that we we
enjoyed ourselves so much on this episode. I'm Casey, I
am sure that you have cut out several solid minutes
of us just laughing at each other, just same. But
but we thank however, we hope you enjoyed this episode
(27:29):
as much as we enjoyed exploring it. And again, as
funny and silly as it may seem, as taboo as
it may feel to discuss these things, the truth of
the matter is that, for multiple reasons, uh, the role
of toilet paper, the role of personal sanitation of toilet paper. Oh,
(27:49):
I just walked into that one. Oh man, thank you. No,
I wouldn't have noticed that one. Uh. These these various
factors come into play in a tremendously important way, not
just environmentalism but also your own personal helit. I think
those US versus European toilet paper sales stats, speak volumes
m so let us know what your experiences are like.
(28:14):
We have a lot of listeners from around the world.
I'd also be interested to hear from folks in Australia
because we didn't really explore Australia's sanitation in this episode. Yeah,
and does the water really turn down the drain in
the other direction? Let us know. You can write to
us at Ridiculous at how Stuff Works dot com. You
can hit us up on our Facebook page, or better yeah,
(28:35):
join our Facebook group, the Ridiculous Historians, where we get
into all kinds of fun stuff. We'd like to thank
Casey Pegram for yet again saving the show. We'd like
to thank Alison Cooper and John Donovan over How Stuff Works,
and Lori l Dove while we're at it, she didn't
(28:56):
really write anything today, but just such a sound cue
I'm are. We also want to thank Alex Williams who
composed our track. And most importantly, as we as we
love to say every episode, we'd like to thank you,
specifically you. Why does she does? Oh? Subliminal? You like that? Yeah,
(29:19):
you're proselytizing right now. That's it for now, but stay
tuned for our next episode where we cover very strange
stories of voter fraud. Oh yeah, um, we're talking election
fraud in the eighteen hundreds that include stuff ranging from
all kinds of bad behavior, kidnapping, forced intoxication, and my
(29:39):
favorite one repeat, voting in disguise we were getting get
a trench coat. You can't make this stuff up, and
a fake mustache. Yes, we'll see then, ridiculous historians
Yeah, welcome to the show, fellow ridiculous historians. We'd like
to start today's episode with just a couple of statistics,
some of which may surprise you. You're gonna give us
(00:33):
the straight poop, Ben, I am, I am, And yeah
you're no, I'm Ben. That's our super producer, Casey Pegrum,
saving the show every time we are here in the
booth with you. So, first things first, the average American
uses twenty three point six rolls of toilet paper per
(00:56):
year per capita. Huh, which doesn't seem like that much, right,
It doesn't until you consider that they're over three million
people in the US with people, and that makes a
total of seven point four billion rolls the toilet paper
used in the US each year. You ever, just think
about just picture everyone in the world's but you know
(01:19):
what kind of blows the mind? A little bit, doesn't.
But some people will think it's particularly cheeky of us
to have back to back episodes related to butts, or
should we say cheek to cheek? Yeah, you know, like
the way you dance with the Lady in Red. You know,
thanks for classing that up, man. We seriously, I think
we need as much class as we can get in
(01:39):
this episode, the average American uses fifty more TP than
people in Western Europe and Japan. And there's a big
reason for that, which is the subject of our episode today, which,
by the way, yes, let me tell you. We're excited
about this for a couple of reasons. Um. I don't
know if you guys know what custom content as. That's
(02:01):
sort of the industry buzzword for when you make a
piece of content for a company, which is kind of
what we're doing today. But it's totally awesome because I
am just a huge fan of bidats, first of all,
and I'm a huge fan of this company that has
sponsored this episode, of company called Tushi, who actually sent
us these bid days. And I will tell you, my friend,
my but has never been cleaner, My disposition has never
(02:23):
been sunnier. I'm just loving life, and the Biday life
is the life for me, my friend. Yeah, it's a
brand new biddet, did it? I see what you did?
There's that's gonna happens. We've been throwing that around. Although
apparently I saw an Englishman talking about it and he
pronounces it b day. Yeah, I saw I saw the
same video. Now, uh, let's continue peeking behind the curtain
(02:44):
here because I want to assure you friends and neighbors
that my co host enthusiasm is genuine and sincere. I
literally talk about it all the time. It's weird, it
gets weird sometimes, but but but this is gonna be
rich so in our in another show that we do
(03:04):
stuff they don't want you to know with our illustrious,
amazing co host Matt Frederick. We actually also did uh
the Day sponsorship. We did some ads for them, but
this episode came about because we reached out to them
and said, we're gonna do this anyway. Do you guys
(03:25):
want to hang out? Basically, and we're so glad that
when we reached out to them, Yeah, we did it, yeah,
because it just made sense and it's like podcast needs sponsors.
Why not there's a matchmate in but Heaven Because we're
also we're also fairly silly and juvenile for two grown men,
(03:46):
you know what, And then I'm never gonna let that boyish,
potty mind die. Heck yeah, bang errang, that's what I said.
So we started investigating the history of this and just
at the very front of the episode, we want to
point out the following. Although it can seem very hilarious
(04:09):
and silly, I would argue rightfully so to talk about
these kinds of these kinds of gadgets and the techniques
people used to stay clean across the world. The truth
of the matter is that sanitation is a tremendously important
thing throughout history and in the modern day. Have we
talked about the fact that today UM in San Francisco specifically,
(04:30):
I saw an interview with the head of their sanitation
um it costs something like a million dollars a month
or something like that just to clean out their sewage system. Yeah,
there are a lot of people and those those costs
aren't really going to go down. Well, it's because of
this thing. If if you heard of this, it's called
a fat berg is it's the collection of like grease
(04:54):
and dirt and hair, toilet paper, toilet paper especially wipes
that you're not supposed to flush, sanitary products, condoms, absolutely,
just all the stuff that you're not supposed to flush
um and that's a huge infrastructure cost. I actually saw
an article about one of these fat bergs that was
so massive in London. It was the size of like
(05:15):
a double decker bus. They removed it and they put
it under glass in a museum. Yes, yeah, and it
looks just as disgusting as you might imagine. You can
find it. You can find this article online and you
don't have to take our word for it. Uh. The
only recommendation we would make before you read the article
is to be sure that you are not eating as
(05:38):
you peruse it. They call it the White Chapel Monster,
which is such a cool name. And in England London
rather a Thames Water, which is the company that operates
the water system there in London. It spends a million
pounds a month just to clear these kinds of blockages
and it's a constant battle. It's not like they're getting
(05:59):
ahead of the problem. It's strange because we spend so
little time thinking about how important sanitation is, especially in
a world where the majority of people now officially live
in urban areas. So this fat berg stuff, this problem
with sewage infrastructure, it's not going to go away for
(06:24):
most of our listeners here in the US. A bid day,
which you've probably heard of before, sounds like a very
you know, fancy pinkies up European thing, right, would you
would associate it with an upper crust lifestyle for good reason.
And there's a great reason for that. So let's let's
turn back the clock. Let's let's travel to France century.
(06:48):
Maybe that's right, the sixteenth century. You see, in the
fifteen hundreds, uh, bid day was a word referring to
a specific type of pet, a pony to be, to
be absolutely specific about it, and these ponies were kept
by French royalty. The the word bidday itself originates from
(07:09):
an old French word which I graphically mispronouncing, bidare, which
means to trot. And these, um, you know, I'm picturing
these fancy frenchmen and women in their finery trotting around
on these dainty little ponies, perhaps with ringlets in their mains,
(07:30):
you know, flowing lots, flowing locks, bedecked with little little bows.
Maybe I don't know, white stockings whatever. Man I'm at
a tour, were editorializing here, but I'm just paying a picture. Okay,
it's for effect. But it wasn't until the sixteen hundreds
that the Biday as we know at the b day
whatever was kind of came to to into fruition. But
(07:51):
it wasn't what we know today. Today's bidday. It wasn't
today's day, it was the bid day of yesterday. Uh.
And it was really just like a sink that looked
like a chair. So what, Yeah, let's let's take a
closer look at these days of yesterday. The apparatus itself
was resembled in some ways an ottoman, an ornamental ottoman.
(08:14):
The basin was set within wooden furniture, and the days themselves.
You will hear different contradicting claims about whether there were
was a single inventor or whether there were multiple people
to whom the idea occurred around the same time. But
one thing for sure we know is that they were
furniture makers, because these things were set into wooden furniture.
(08:38):
And the thing about that too is there's a reason
for that, ben because these were not in bathrooms, because
they didn't have indoor plumbing. The idea of a bathroom
would be more likely would be like in your chamber
pot it was just a bucket under your bed and
in two or in your dressing room or what have you,
your your what do you call your boudoir? Right, and
(09:00):
the um the b day would just be this little
I'm look I'm thinking of as like a nightstand kind
of with short legs, and this inlaid basin of water
that would just be filled up and you'd squat over
it and literally splash yourself manually, right, And this would
be I love the point you bring up about their
not being a separate bathroom or restroom. So this would
(09:20):
be either in the dressing chambers or in the bedroom itself.
And to keep it classy, would often be a lid,
something made of wood or wicker or leather, and a
lot of this, you know. You these furniture makers would
inlay these little basins into these wicker furniture, like you
were saying then, and it was almost to like disguise
the function of the device. Yeah, because it's it's a
(09:44):
very intimate thing. You're already in someone's bedroom and then
you see how they handle some very personal business. But
I feel weird every time we say, but I'm gonna
get over this, I promise. However, I like it. There
we go, good substitute, Thank you, thank you. However, in
(10:05):
the origin story of the bid day, it is inherently
intertwined with the story of class in France, and that
is why, as as we alluded to at the top
of the show. That is why bid days even today
are scene. Is this more upper crust fancy thing. And
(10:27):
you start to see why this might not have taken
off in the United States quite as much because of
that association with almost hedonism, right, because soldiers would see
these when they were traveling around Europe during World War two. Yeah,
and we want to give a shout out to the
Atlantic because there is a fantastic article we found called
(10:49):
the Bad Day's Revival. In this article, author Maria Teresa
Hart explores not just the somewhat murky origin of the biday,
but I would argue even more importantly the social role
it played. It occurred in culture, It was found in paintings,
It was referenced by the most wealthy, successful people of
(11:12):
the time. Even Marie Antoinette as she awaited her uh
there had to be chopped off by the guillotine. Um
was able to get her gold encrusted b day in
her cell because she was that was like one of
the comforts that she was used to. Apparently she used
to travel around with one, had one made that would
(11:32):
go in her coach. Um. So this was very much
associated with like kind of the upper crust. But then
it filtered down to kind of everyone eventually, right, well everyone,
you're everyone eventually, Asia, um and elsewhere, everywhere except the
United States. And with this article does a fantastic job
(11:55):
of doing is kind of exploring why that might be. Okay,
real quick timeline. The first written reference to the bidet
itself is in seventeen twenty six in Italy. But as
we know, the first written reference doesn't mean it wasn't around,
(12:18):
of course, It just meant that we have surviving documentation,
someone writing about it. And by those days been it
was a fancier version. It had like a pump with
the water that would squirt, you know, the more like
that seems very messy and ineffective. So around this time,
from the seventeen hundreds on Europe experiences what we can
(12:39):
only call a bidet boom, a boom of bidets. It
sounds like a just an explosion of bidets going everywhere.
Watch out, they're flying through the air to a home
near you. And it's spread to other social classes in France,
as you said, Noel, to other countries in Western Europe,
and then Latin America, the Middle East, Asia, but not
(13:02):
the US. And there's a weird. There's a weird reason
for that, and we we should explore that. You know,
while we're here at this point in space and time,
how did the US not jump on the biday train?
How did they not straddle the bidet train? Then it's
a good question because everything we've set up to this
point makes it sound like a pretty appealing train to ride, right,
(13:24):
you know, it helps the environment, um and we can't
even to talk about how much water and resources are
used in making toilet paper and paper products in general, right,
and how much money it costs some local and state
governments to clean up these disgusting blobs of congealed TP
and crap that are clogging up our source systems. And
(13:46):
as a Bidet user myself, I can tell you, sir,
it leaves you feeling fresh as a daisy. Well, they're
more hygienic, that's part of it. That's a big part
of it. But despite this, despite these advantages and friends
and neighbors, you can tell that we have our we
have a pretty strong opinion about this stuff. But despite
the advantages that were inherently present in the day technology,
(14:12):
they were thought of as very dirty, filthy things us
because in world War two. We've got allied troops, US
troops stationed in Europe, right, and they are visiting There's
there's no need to use the euphemism here. They are
visiting bordellos. They're visiting houses of prostitution. And they saw
(14:36):
the days in bathrooms, which was a normal thing, but
because of the location they were at, they started to
associate these with sex work. Interesting. I feel like it's
a little crappy of them to judge, uh, to judge
when they're they're they're hanging out in the bordellos, like what,
(14:57):
they're good enough to pay for sex, but they're like
freaked out by their strange cleansing implement and also the
process by which the day cleanses someone after they have
used the restroom right, or had intercourse or had intercourse. Yeah,
it's associated with a sexual aspect because you're washing out genitalia, right,
(15:18):
that's absolutely true. In fact, it was even associated with
birth control, and birth control in those days equals sin helen, damnation.
And we found a great quote from a birth control pioneer,
Norman Hair in n six right. Yeah, that's right. He
says that in Anglo Saxon communities where bathrooms are notoriously
(15:41):
cold and joyless rooms, lacking any kind of warmth or
decor um. The very presence of a bid day would
have been regarded as like a symbol of sin, right,
which is so strange because again we see this association
with hedonism, debauchery, and uh obscene wealth carrying over from
(16:05):
the seventeen hundreds to World War two. Do that this
would have been way in like the forties. So we've
got the evolution of the bidet kind of reaching its
logical conclusion at this point where you've got indoor plumbing
at this point, so the bidet has moved into the
bathroom next to the toilet. It's still a separate implement.
(16:25):
And that's why a lot of Americans when they see them,
there's it's right for comedy and like you know, euro
vacation or somebody someone ends up drinking from the bidet
and then making a joke about how, hey, pretty cool
you'll have water fountain in the bathroom here. They're kind
of low though, weird. I forget what that's definitely in
a movie and I can't remember which one rights and
let us know, yeah, people getting squirted in the face
(16:46):
and stuff there's there's another association that bidays had which
worked against them, at least in the US, and it
is tied to the misogyny of the time, and that
is that they were helpful in the process of menstruation.
That's right, because there were no sanitary products in these days. UM.
(17:07):
There's actually a really amazing sounding book called Unmentionable, The
Victorian Ladies Guide to Sex, Marriage and Manners. So this
is what we're going back a little bit, but this
is still doesn't get much better than this um and
it talks about how women to rid themselves of the
product of menstruation the blood would use what they referred
(17:30):
to as jelly rags and it was literally just a
piece of fabric that they would use to physically wipe
this area and that just sounds really unpleasant and messy
in the mid day, would give you a nice little
sprits clean you right off. We get to go for
at least a little while, right right. And so it's
strange now when we look back from eighteen that the
(17:54):
ability to provide a more healthy alternative in the process
of administruation was not seen as a selling point. It
was placed on the same level as prostitution or unwanted pregnancy,
to be delicate about it. And these all became hindrances
(18:16):
for the bid day itself because they were inherently being
linked in the American consumer's mind with a bunch of
things that at the time people just did not speak
of in public. We're kind of jumping all over the
place a little bit, which is fine, what's what we do. Um,
But if we go back to according to this um
(18:36):
amazing Atlantic article, there was actually a patent for a
design that's very similar to what we see in the
days today by our buddy John Harvey Kellogg. You know,
corn flakes and masturbation fame, corn flakes anti mascation. Well,
he would, he would take exception. He's also a big
(18:58):
fan of edemas, which we mentioned in an earlier episode,
yogurt Enemas I believe. Yeah. Yeah, weird guy, but forward
thinking when it comes to washing your butt. And he
was American, Yeah, he was American, and his very particular
beliefs about how one would pursue personal health obviously lad
(19:18):
him to design this thing. Now, there's no two ways
about it. Harvey Kellogg may have been really eccentric, but
he was also a brilliant person, so he would have
if the bidet had not already been invented centuries before,
he would have invented it in the US. Oh dude,
but I'm looking at this patent right now. It's a drawing. Yah.
(19:40):
It's just called J. H. Kellogg anal douche. Yeah, I
feel like it's his title. And it's a it's a
it's like a nozzle. Sorry about John Harvey Kellogg anal douche.
And it's a it's a it's a nozzle. It's a
nozzle that it kind of splits off from the water
supply that you would see. And it's the same as
and hasn't changed much, right indoor plumbing um, And it
(20:02):
goes up and kind of out from underneath the toilet seat.
And there's just a little spitzer nozzle and you have
a control with a valve, and its spritz is you
and you you might ask, isn't it gonna go everywhere? No,
sir or madam or whomever you're blocked by. Your butt
goes in your butt. That's true. Now, of course, we
should also point out that these things were not advertised
(20:25):
as a complete replacement for the use of toilet paper
they were in addition to so you use much less
toilet paper because one of the questions people would have
is how do you drive yourself off? Right? That's dab
that's where that stuff comes into play. Yeah, and you
use so much less toilet paper. But still as we're
in the twentieth century, early to mid twentieth century, the
(20:47):
days are seeing as hedonistic European and I hope you
can hear the italics when we say it that way. Uh,
like pan and they seemed to remain a thoroughly un
American thing, but that didn't stop people from trying to
make bidet waves. There was a guy named Arnold Cohen
(21:09):
who was the founder of the American Bidet Company because
he created a specific type of bidet for his father
who was having some health problems to mamorroids perhaps or rashes. Yeah,
where you can get these like ant they call him
fishers um that you can get from having, you know,
being unclean down there. It's it's it's bad times and
(21:32):
he uh, he ultimately had a very difficult time with this,
even though he was an experienced veteran man in the
advertising industry. No matter what he did, he couldn't really
seem to get this off the ground, and in bathrooms
across America were in the sixties at this point. We're
in the sixties. Yes, thank you. In nineteen four and
(21:54):
he he did some out of the box stuff. He
went on his own initiative. He installed hundreds or thousands
of these all over New York. Yeah, but unfortunately, this
is one man going up against big toilet paper, which
is a thing. It is when you can we hear
some stats about how much toilet paper is sold, how
much money is generated from toilet paper in this country. Ye, yeah,
(22:16):
because we had the stats about how much is used,
how much is Yeah, let's put some financial numbers on that. Dude,
this is insane. Okay. So Sharmon Ultrasoft, which is you know,
you know, you know Sharmon. They've been around for a
long time. They got a lot of brand recognition. They're
only the third most popular brand of toilet paper in
sales there. Sharmon Ultrasoft variety UM made more than a
(22:37):
billion dollars alone in the most popular private label made
one point seven billion dollars in seventeen. So when we
say big toilet paper, we are not kidding it's a
billion dollar, booming business, but belligerently opposed to days. Yes,
(23:00):
thanks man. Thanks. So we can tell from those statistics,
which are are really recent, you said, right, sir, So
we can tell that the battle between bid days and
toilet paper did not work out for bid Days back
in the sixties in the US. But you know where
it caught on, You're Cohen did find success for the
(23:22):
American Bidet company Japan. That's right, because the Japanese were
importing a lot of American toilets because original Japanese toilets
were really uncomfortable. They were super low to the ground.
You had to squat, which now they've got these squatty
potties and they say that it's good for you. But
I don't know about all that. But the Japanese, being
(23:43):
very innovative people, um kind of really took that bidet
design that Kellogg patented so long ago and took it
to the next level. There's this company called Toto that
makes a product called the Washlet, which is a remote
control biday with a heated seat that can be hot
or cold. The bite stream can change directions you wanted
(24:07):
to go counterclockwise or clockwise or give you a nice
direct jet kind of water pick vibe, you can do that.
And these things are like thousands of dollars, it depends.
They're like, you know, luxury toilet seats, but the bottom
line one is maybe five dollars, which is still very expensive,
very expense in comparison to a regular commode or you know,
(24:28):
the amazing product from our pals at there we go,
There we go. So we see that this technology originates
in France and proliferates throughout the world. But we also
see that this partially because of the cultural associations, I
(24:52):
think more and more frequently because of the price point.
But days have been you know, a a distant second
place in the story of sanitation here in the US.
You know, how much toilet paper was sold in Europe,
much less than the US relatively, Dropping the dropping the
chamber bucket because we're talking there we go, dropping the
(25:14):
chamber pike, because we're talking about a continent there, and
that's not just the country, that's Europe entire. And so
this catches us up to the modern day. And there's
an excellent article on our website how Stuff Works dot
Com by Alison Cooper called the Biday is it making
a comeback. And it turns out, as you and I
(25:35):
have been talking about off air, Noal, it turns out
that uh, the bidet may actually have its time to
shine here in the States, to shine up our butt holes. Yeah, man,
that's that's the truth of the matter. And look, we
know this can sound um, we we know that nine
here we go, here we go. Well do we know
(25:58):
this can sound a little little bit strange. But the facts,
the objective statistics are on the side of this argument
that the days are gaining ground here in the US.
And I think a huge part of that is because
for decades I assumed, and I think most everybody assumed
(26:19):
rightly so, that you would have to remodel your house,
you would have to install a new waterline to run
into that to day, right, that's right. But now, thanks
to our pals Tushi, he's got a super low profile
but day attachment that has gained popularity. And it's actually
very similar to that patent from from our buddy Kellogg
(26:41):
from nineteen thirty. It just splits off from the existing waterline.
And look, we know, we know they're they're sponsoring the show,
but I I really do it's It's a great thing
to have in your house. I'm a fan, and I
really hope the bid Day revolution continues on full force
and I'll be leading the charge of my friend, I
don't know about you to brand new Biday in America.
(27:03):
We got there, and all we did. Man, we hope that.
I think it's fairly obvious to everyone that we we
enjoyed ourselves so much on this episode. I'm Casey, I
am sure that you have cut out several solid minutes
of us just laughing at each other, just same. But
but we thank however, we hope you enjoyed this episode
(27:29):
as much as we enjoyed exploring it. And again, as
funny and silly as it may seem, as taboo as
it may feel to discuss these things, the truth of
the matter is that, for multiple reasons, uh, the role
of toilet paper, the role of personal sanitation of toilet paper. Oh,
(27:49):
I just walked into that one. Oh man, thank you. No,
I wouldn't have noticed that one. Uh. These these various
factors come into play in a tremendously important way, not
just environmentalism but also your own personal helit. I think
those US versus European toilet paper sales stats, speak volumes
m so let us know what your experiences are like.
(28:14):
We have a lot of listeners from around the world.
I'd also be interested to hear from folks in Australia
because we didn't really explore Australia's sanitation in this episode. Yeah,
and does the water really turn down the drain in
the other direction? Let us know. You can write to
us at Ridiculous at how Stuff Works dot com. You
can hit us up on our Facebook page, or better yeah,
(28:35):
join our Facebook group, the Ridiculous Historians, where we get
into all kinds of fun stuff. We'd like to thank
Casey Pegram for yet again saving the show. We'd like
to thank Alison Cooper and John Donovan over How Stuff Works,
and Lori l Dove while we're at it, she didn't
(28:56):
really write anything today, but just such a sound cue
I'm are. We also want to thank Alex Williams who
composed our track. And most importantly, as we as we
love to say every episode, we'd like to thank you,
specifically you. Why does she does? Oh? Subliminal? You like that? Yeah,
(29:19):
you're proselytizing right now. That's it for now, but stay
tuned for our next episode where we cover very strange
stories of voter fraud. Oh yeah, um, we're talking election
fraud in the eighteen hundreds that include stuff ranging from
all kinds of bad behavior, kidnapping, forced intoxication, and my
(29:39):
favorite one repeat, voting in disguise we were getting get
a trench coat. You can't make this stuff up, and
a fake mustache. Yes, we'll see then, ridiculous historians
Ridiculous History News
Hosts And Creators
Ben Bowlin
Noel Brown
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Therapy Gecko
An unlicensed lizard psychologist travels the universe talking to strangers about absolutely nothing. TO CALL THE GECKO: follow me on https://www.twitch.tv/lyleforever to get a notification for when I am taking calls. I am usually live Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays but lately a lot of other times too. I am a gecko.