July 28, 2025 • 46 mins
The British are a stuck up bunch, especially back in the early 1900's. This man though, Horace, decided to take the piss a little bit. Listen this week as Aaron takes us through the story of the 1900's version of Punk'd, the story of Horace de Vere Cole. John and Sean definitely liked this guy and thought his pranks were first class.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
It's 1910 and theBritish Empire is at its height.
London’s streets are filledwith starched collars,
monocles and mustaches waxedwithin an inch of their lives.
Even today,the British are a proud bunch.
But back
then they ruled a massive amountof the world,
and the smugmust have been visible
for hundreds of kilometersaround.
The London smug.
(00:21):
And yet, despite all their pompand pageantry,
their marble monumentsand military might, one
man managed to constantly takethe piss out of the whole thing.
He wasn't a revolutionaryor a rebel.
He didn't throw bombs or stageprotests.
This a short man?
No.Oh.
His weapon of choice was a joke.
(00:42):
A pranksterthat would make a mockery
of the upper classwhenever he could.
Usuallywith a few friends in tow.
And one day, he set his sights
on the most powerful warshipin the world.
This week on Cheeky Tales,the man who made the empire
look ridiculous for fun.
Horace de Vere Cole.
(01:10):
de Vere Cole.
Cole. Cole.
Oh! David.
Cole. Never.
Cole. Never.Never. Heard. Who was it?
Were you thinking. Napoleon?Yeah. Was. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Get the ball. Rolling.Yeah. No, I would not.
I would not classNapoleon as a prankster.
And he also didn'tleave in 1910.
Yeah.
Was he said he was first.
I was Horace. Horace.
My grandfather's name wasHorace.
(01:30):
Was it? It's a good name.A lovely name.
It was Horace and Hilda Savage.
Yeah, right.
That was dad's parents.
If you're just tuning in,live to take it out.
Which we don't do because thisis a prerecorded episode.
If you've somehowhacked my laptop and you're.
Listening while you're watchingthrough the camera.
Firstly, we just thank you forpaying that. Much to thank you.
We're just finishing offthe end of the, of the Lions
(01:52):
test of the Wallabies,the rugby union, rugby union.
It's pretty close.
Yeah.
Let's get some housekeepingout of the way.
We got the union going.
There's five minutesleft. Is two points difference.
Yeah, Ireland showeda couple dressing together.
We are a couple dressingtogether.
Although.
Although although his pantsdon't have a butterfly on.
That's true.
I have no butterflieson my clothing.
(02:12):
I have not.
Sure that makes it any better.Sure, but okay.
It definitely makes it better.
You didn'teven show it to the camera.
I tied my hips.
His hips lie. Okay.
I hit my hand, my hipslike my hips.
Look.
I have I have some an updateon something
that we haven't talked aboutfor a long time.
Okay. Maths? No,
(02:33):
I willnever speak of maths again.
I watched an Adam Sandler movietoday with great.
Happy Gilmore to it was. Yes,I haven't watched it.
Yeah. No spoilers.
But surprisingly good.
I went into it thinking, oh no,it's going to be Zealandia two.
It's going to be anchorman two.It wasn't. It was okay.
It was its own thing.
And I actually think it waspretty good. Okay. Let's go.
So was this instigated by Brie?
(02:56):
Yes, I came home okay.
And she was watching it,and I got moderately mad,
and we continued to watch it.
But Adam Sandlerstill doing well.
You know, he's only doing filmsfor Netflix now at the moment
because he. I'mpretty sure he has a deal with.
Yeah, he's.Got a good deal with Netflix.
Yeah, I'm keen to watch it.
We were justwe were talking movies before.
I haven't seen Superman yet,so I'm going to try
(03:17):
and sneak off at some pointvery soon and say, soup.
Yeah,I'd like to try and sneak out
and see a late night screening.
What do we want?
To organize something I. Reckonwe could organize.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Let's go watch a
an evening screening at,like, Like 930 or something.
Something like that. Yeah.
So you're listening tothree friends make loose plans.
Which for.
Three nights make you makingloose plans and giving away
(03:39):
personal, personal informationon our podcast again.
Yeah.
My credit card number is.
526. Zero.
The other housekeeping gotta do.
I've got the man for you.Yeah. John. Yes.
John's got the man.Exceptionally stuffy.
Yeah.
That's worse than that weekthat I,
I wasn't hosting, I think, butI was like, my voice was cooked.
Yeah. Couple of months back.
(04:00):
I, my voice does go deeperwhen I have the man flu. Yes.
I don't mind itthat most people.
Yeah.
No, no, I like a niceI can get a nice low.
All right. So I just turned itoff. It's a man.
It's just not it's not great.
I tend to say Johnny Cashwhen I get sick.
That's like the it's likeoh that's.
Yeah. Right. Okay, I'll be brag.
I sound likethe greatest country
(04:21):
and western performerof all time.
I think I just need to be, like,speaking.
Of musicians, I think we need tocall out Ozzy Osborne.
Yes. Oh, yeah.If we bring it up.
Ozzy. Rest in peace. Ozzy,pull one out.
Yeah. Pulling outfor the Prince of Darkness.
My crazy tribe.
People talk about influential
musiciansand pop culture figures.
When they passed away,my mom always remembers Elvis.
Yeah, Michael Jackson.
It was when we were younger.
(04:42):
But I think Ozzy deserves.
He definitely deserves it.Absolutely deserves.
And none of your hard rock
heavy metal bandsthat you like exist
without OzzyOsbourne and Black Sabbath.
Yeah,and if you've never picked up
a Gibson SG at a guitar shopand played War Pigs,
then you're missing out becauseit's it's a special feeling.
Guest.
Obviously, if you.
Know how to play the guitar,
obviouslythere's a caveat to that.
(05:04):
Anyway, there's one tool.
The only the only time I playedWar Pigs was Guitar Hero two.
Sean and I absolutely loved it.
That's okay.
Yeah, that's a good enough way.To write a lock.
You never picked upa Guitar Hero guitar.
Well, the Guitar Herotwo guitar was a Gibson.
The Gibson is J.
Yeah, T more my.
Video gameseducating people. Yeah. Games.
Yeah.
Another, another notablecelebrity death, Hulk Hogan.
(05:26):
Oh is especially sadby that now.
Yes, I loves. His MAGA era.
Sean okay, can. We just to.
Let the brothers know out there
now listen here.
Brothers, the Hulkster said
some other choicethings and choice.
That's that's his decision.
And that's his mistakestoo, mate.
However,
(05:48):
professional wrestlingas a sport, as an
as a pop culture phenomenonwould not be anywhere near
what it is without him.Without Hulkamania.
Without Hulkamania.
And alsowhen you put that together, it's
like you can'tjust create a whole industry
because one man made someextremely, tasteful comments.
But that doesn't diminishhis achievements in the sport
that he wrestled
(06:08):
in against lots of differentpeople of color and background.
Hulkamania will live on
in the sport of sportsentertainment forever.
Through every scandaland every bit of crap that comes
the wayof professional wrestling.
Nothing.
None of that happenswithout the Hulkster.
Nothing good, nothing bad.
None of that happenswithout Hulkamania.
(06:28):
They confirmed the try.
Yeah.
Well, you can turn it offnow. Okay.
Should we get interesting?Let's go.
So we're talkingabout Horus. Let's go.
This is goingto be a tough edit for you.
Yeah.
Our Horusvertical division debacle.
If a call which sounds like a,Cold and flu medicine.
(06:49):
Yeah, yeah. Are you sick?
Get difficult.
Yes, I need some difficultfor sure.
That was that.
That. Time.
Oh, man.I okay. Let's try to say.
This is going to make me soundlike I've got a problem,
but I love the taste of denizen.
Oh, you don't have a problem.Drink that.
You don't like the tasteof cough medicine.
You don't have taste buds.
Damn, it is so good.
(07:10):
This is has Sudafed in it.
I mean, I don't know, I haven't.
But, you know, all the.
Sad boy emo rappers in America.
Mix it with lemonadeand drink it.
You had the bed for younot to, I did. Yeah.
You, like, messaged melike I am on my deathbed.
I'm planning my funeral.
But you had to basically.
Yeah, I had one daywhere I was particularly bad.
Well,let's let's get into this one.
(07:31):
So a prankster is born? Yes.
Our story begins in battle.Earth.
I should have read this onefirst.
I think it's Bolandcolleague, County Cork, Ireland.
You mean you. Should have readit first? Didn't you write it?
I did write it, but I didn'tever try to say it out loud.
Yeah. Got my private. Yeah.
In the year 1881, Horace Devittcoal entered the world on 5th
(07:52):
of May that year, a golden childborn into relative privilege.
His family's roots were deepin the Anglo Irish aristocracy.
His father,William, was a rich Englishman
who had found his fortuneselling quinine,
which treated malaria. Okay.
Oh. Come on. Yeah.
Yeah. So he's a, farmer kid.
His mother, Mary de Vere.
(08:12):
I'm already out.Big pharma episode. I've done.
Pepper drank, coughsirup mixed with soft drink.
Right.
I don't want to do that.
Apparently very popular. Sure.
Among degenerate sumptionand rappers.
Yeah.
His mother, Mary deVere, was an Anglo Irish poet.
An aristocrat.
So exactly the stuffy Englishupbringing that turns you
(08:34):
into a stereotype.
He spent his early yearsidolizing his father,
who was down to earthand practical,
but also found himself
drawn to the intellectual folks
that frequently visitedhis mother.
Everything was looking greatuntil he copped a bout
a diptheria and found himselfpartially deaf.
This tragic brush with diseasewould leave him
socially awkward and sensitiveto the jokes of his peers,
(08:55):
which may have eventually ledhim down the path of trickery,
something that almost certainlydidn't help.
His sense of humor
was the untimely deathof his beloved
dad, who died of cholerawhile doing business in India.
His father had been his rock,
his greatest source of loveand support.
The understandably heartbrokenboy would feel even worse
when his mother remarriedjust two years later,
(09:16):
and then weeks later,found himself
shipped off to Eton,
the boarding school famousfor churning out the elites
of the British school system,including many of the royals.
I mean to you,seems like a enough time.
I mean, when your life is likeprobably 45 years.
Yeah, yeah.
But also to then like weeks
later, be like,get out of the house.
You gonna eat?
That's rough. Yeah, yeah,but it's not the worst school.
The guy, I suppose.
(09:37):
I'm sure there's worse placesin the world to go to than Eton.
Eton College?
Yeah.
It's one of the most prestigiousschools.
Yeah.
Yeah, especially in the historyof football in particular.
Isn't that where Prince Georgehas just been sent to?
I believe.
On the way there, I. Believe,yeah.
It was the school that PrinceCharles wished he'd gone to.
(09:57):
Yeah.
I have just finishedwatching the Crown.
Yes. Crown update.
Yeah. PrincePhilip went to Gordonstoun.
Yes, Charles went to Gordonstounas well. Yeah.
And guess who also has beento Gordonstoun?
Shout out my wife Rachel.
My wife went to Gordonstoun
for three monthson the high school.
High school exchange.Other notable people.
Prince Philip, Prince Charles,David.
(10:18):
Beckham, did she did
she see the wall of the gatethat Prince Philip built?
They just heavily in the crown.
I would have to ask her.
I'm sure she did.
But I for supplemental content,I can provide you a picture
of the Golden Stone coffee mugI have in my China cabinet.
Nice.
And look at the letterthat Rachel received
from the schoolon her 30th birthday.
(10:38):
Oh, that's that's actually cool.
Yeah, just I actually thoughtyou'd really appreciate that
because it's it's fresh. Yeah.
Anyway,
Horace would hold a grudgeagainst this decision
for the rest of his life, laterstating
why the devilwith such a handicap
would I be sent to Eton, whereno deaf boy could hear anything?
(11:00):
Inform callous cruelty,I call it.
I should have been taughta trade or profession.
So he's abit pasty. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
So, yeah.
I'm notthe greatest fan of Eton.
And it seems that distaste
of the high educationcontinued through
the rest of his schooling years.
While he was popularand well liked,
he didn't set the world on firewith his academic achievements,
(11:20):
nor did he find himself
playing any sportsthat would set him apart.
He would eventually call itquits on school just before
graduating,and would find himself
decidingto do a little bit of war.
Just just a little bit of all.
Awardswould. Do a little bit of.
Wall, a little.
Touch,a wall sprinkling of war.
For Putin, said Putin.
Putin, Putin.
(11:42):
His brief but eventfularmy career so eventful.
I fucked up really my own thing.
Eventful
kind of work. Did stuff happen?
And it was a it.
It. Yeah, it was eventually.
Did it happen eventually.
With his schooling career behindhim, Horace would seek out
a new career
in the Army, volunteeringto fight in the Anglo Boer War.
(12:03):
He would find himselfin South Africa,
Cape Town to be precise, in 1900as the youngest
cavalry cavalrymanin the entire British Army.
Through heavy losses of offices,
he found himself as an actingcaptain within months,
finding much more success
in the armythan he ever had at school.
Unfortunately,what he had in talent in the
army, he lacked in abilityto deflect bullets
(12:26):
and a bore sniperwould take a shot at him
with a dumdum bullet hitting himsquare in the head. Dum
dum bullets are the ones thata hollow point, so they like.
They're the real deadly ones.
Yeah, they don't go deep,but they go big.
Yeah, yeah.
So. Horace would be lucky,though.
Surviving the injuryand making a full recovery.
(12:46):
But you're took the head.
Yeah. Was a hollow point.
Yeah.
Must have just been winged okay.
Yeah. Trump did.
You believe that you.
Were just that.
I actually if.
You believe in the moonlanding you
to believe in the Trumpshooting.
I hate you I know you don't I.
Come on you gottayou got to give me that.
(13:07):
No I don't I refuse.
He had been injured enough tofind himself discharged though,
and would leave the armyafter just three months now
with medals and a pension.
Oh nice.
He would cash in the pensiontoday equivalent to roughly
500,000 Australian only crop,which he would donate
to the fund for warwidows and orphans.
(13:28):
Half the. Bill.
Yeah.Half a billion pension. Yeah.
And he donated it. Yeah.
Put it up like see him.
Might have been a pranksterwho went through
a rough childhoodbut clearly still a hot.
Dog with a cold.
You took the wordsliterally out of my mouth.
Took them out of my script.
Afterhis brief stint in the army,
Horace would return
to attemptingto educate himself,
(13:49):
securing a positionat Cambridge University
with the help of a tutor.
So how old is he about you.
Say he was bornin 1881 to be 20 2019, 20. 20.
Start of his 20.
Okay. Yeah,
not even 1901.
He'd be 20.
But, so yeah, he's gone from Eton.
Don't go to war. Okay.
(14:09):
How I was the little bit of warlike six months.
I think it was likethree months. Oh, really?
Yeah.It wasn't long at all. Yeah.
It would be so.
Quick promotionand then get shot in the head
like, yes, that's
you just take the checklist offand you want list.
Yeah. It's done.
All the things.And all the things I've done.
It was also it was a short war.
Yeah. Real short.
(14:30):
Not Falklands short, but.
Not, the Zanzibar.
No, not the Zanzibar, although.
Interestingthat you mention that.
She's also in Africa.
It's in the same continent.
How how long didthe Zanzibar war go for?
Well, I can't remember.It was like 20.
It was a 29 minute.
I think it's. 40 minutes.Or something like that.
Then what? You were.
Trying to do the podcastfor the length of the of.
(14:51):
The war? Yeah,it was one podcast length. Yeah.
I think AppleCoast was long ago.
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, after his brief
stint and Cambridge,it would be on the
hallowed grounds of Cambridgethat he would,
complete his educationin pranking
because he became the jokeout of Cambridge.
Real, George Weasley.
(15:11):
A bit of a George Weasley.
George's brothers,Fred, George and Fred Weasley.
Yeah. George isone that died right? Oh gosh.
I don't know.
I can't remember. One of.
I don't remember which one died.
Neither do I, the twins.
Doesn't really matter.Fact checking.
No one of the Fred or George.
But I did check.
Was that the Anglo Zanzibar warwas that.
(15:33):
Yeah, I think somewherebetween 38 and 45 minutes.
Right. Yeah.That's a little bit of war.
That's less than a little bit.That's a little bit of war.
That's a war.
Oh bad. GCM donethat in a war. No.
Horace would find himselfin a good circle at Cambridge,
rubbing shoulders with futureelites and cultural icons on.
Hurry. How are you? The heart?
(15:53):
Well, that was my granddad'snickname was Harry.
Look.
He would meet Virginia Woolf.
For example,
the future noted author
named one of the 20th century'smost influential authors.
As I say, it sounds familiar,but I couldn't.
I couldn't tell you it was,
I didn't recognize any ofthe novels that she's known for.
So, yeah, I do know the name.
(16:14):
No, I still haven't boughtthat novel that I've been.
Coming. Around about.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Project Hail Mary. Correct.
In the midstof such titans of the mind,
you might imaginethat Horace would find himself
studying hardand being a bit of a nerd.
But as Virginia Woolf put it,
he was an Irishmanwith beautiful blue eyes
and a little mustacheand perfect figure,
(16:35):
rather a dangerous friendfor a young man to have.
He was a wild young man.
He was a bit of escape, grace.
So aside from the vaguelythirsty way she described him,
I don't know, escape.
And I didn't look it up. Okay.
I think it's like,you can kind of be like, oh,
this guy's going to doall the funny stuff.
Yeah, right? Yeah.
(16:56):
So, yeah.
So Autumn,the vaguely thirsty way
she described him,she described him.
Yeah. Well.
But like in early 1900s
that basically poured.
It's but yeah.
Yeah.
Virginia nailed his personalitypretty well.
Oh okay.
(17:17):
Glad you put the,personality in there.
He would join the Magpieand Stomp Society,
a group named after a brothelthat focused on drinking
and also joined the CambridgeAlpine Society,
a group which aimed to championthe practice,
a champion and practicethe art of climbing up
the outside of the college rooms
to get insideafter a night of drinking.
(17:37):
Okay.
I would also startto flex his prankster muscles.
He would begin with harmlesspranks
like, holdingfunerals on university grounds
for friendsthat were suspended or expelled,
or dressing himself up as a bishop and allowing,
and showing up toschools to perform baptisms.
There is also a storythat is probably embellished
(17:58):
or outright untrue,but it is fun all the same.
One of the boys let the truthget the right of a good story.
That's right.
That after a lamp postfell on school grounds
that he painted his facewhite, stood on a lamp
lamp posts plinthand pretended to be a lamp post
for the laughs of his friends
they were talking about,like people were trying
to, like,put letters in him and stuff.
(18:20):
So I don't really knowif that story's true, but.
Comedy must be different.
A hundred years agoI would, with the film,
Look at it being a lamp.
I don't think it's very bright.
And now. Getting funny.
That's why it's funny.Yeah, yeah.
See, thatwould have got a laugh.
What is this?
My friend's really decent.
(18:41):
I just pointed out thatit was good.
I didn't laugh,I I'm not bitter about it.
All I can tell
other pranks that he pulledweren't so harmless, though,
with a story of him enteringa friend's room at 3 a.m.
with a knife.
Dabbing at the friend'spillow request fairly.
Ran away in fear.
It seemed thatthere were two sides to Horace.
(19:01):
One that was looking to pokefun at the establishment,
making light of the stuffyand rigid authority
of the time like the churchor the school administration,
and the darker sidethat held a grudge
against the worldfor the loss of his family
and the injury and disabilitythat he suffered from living.
That's a
psych I better effect.
I'm just going to say,if either of you
ever come into my room at 3 a.m.and stab my pillow.
(19:23):
No, I'm not doingthat. I'm not happy about that.
No. I'm not not.
I'm. Not pleased with youif you do that.
No you shouldn't be.
His eventual biographer,Martin Downer,
even suggeststhat Horace may have suffered
from bipolar disorder,with his pranking
and lighthearted jokesinterspersed
with outbursts of violenceand depression.
Yeah. Yeah,that's that's on track.
(19:44):
Yeah.
So yeah,
keep thatsame thought in your head
when you think he isjust a prankster.
This guy was a tortured artistwhose canvas was the world
and pranks his paint.
Okay.
So with his sad backstoryin mind and his apparent
distaste for the establishmentgiven a foundation,
let's get tohis greatest pranks.
Starting withthe Sultan of Zanzibar hoax.
(20:06):
That's what I said.
Yeah, that was
that was the whole pointof the Zanzibar Sultan.
Yeah.
He would have been canceledfor that today.
Spaghetti.
Cut that now.
So this. Whole, this fight.
Started with Horaceand his friend Adrian Stephen
planning a prank to thumbtheir nose at the establishment
(20:27):
by traveling to Germanyfirst thing was German soldiers
then crossing from Germanyinto France.
Now, this is the early 1900s.
That's not funny.
Germany and Francewere in a dispute over
Morocco at the time,
so at the very least,this would have been
an international incidentand at worst,
it could have kicked off a warand got them shot.
(20:48):
Are subjected to the plan
not because it was batchinsane though,
but because it would betoo expensive.
Stephen and Carl would setto work drawing up a new prank.
Eventually, AdrianStephen would come up with
what would become knownas the Sultan of Zanzibar prank.
The two would discover that
the Sultan of Zanzibarwas visiting London.
(21:09):
So I need you to swap seatswith John
so that you have the shockmount.
Yeah.I thought you could do that.
Khan crap.
Are you his laptop?That not his microphone?
Yeah. No, that was here.
Oh. Yeah? Yeah,this is my laptop.
So eventually I drew him.
We come up,
we come down on this.
On Zanzibar prank day,
we've discoveredthe Sultan of Zanzibar.
I was visiting London,
so the two would planto use this
(21:29):
to humiliatethe mayor of Cambridge.
You had a rivalry withthe University of Cambridge?
I thought he was going to saywith the salt loose ends bomb.
That's a tough rivalry here.
So the university had a rivalrywith the man?
Yeah. Tell.
Yeah. Okay. Interesting.
So thepair would send a telegram
to the mayoron the 2nd of March stating
(21:50):
the Sultan would visitin the afternoon,
asking him to show the sultan
around the buildings of interestand arrange a carriage.
And signed by Henry Lucas,a colonial official.
Horace and Adrian would thengrab two of their friends, Don
black, face with flowing robesand fake beards.
Jake says no to blackface.
(22:12):
I was looking at you,waiting for it.
You just like to.
Do it here I was.
I was stuck in shocked face.
A third friend would join themas their English interpreter
while traveling to Cambridgeon the train,
the party would learnthat the real Sultan
was actually visitingBuckingham Palace.
That afternoon, and so the planwould be pivoted to impersonate
(22:32):
Prince MikasaAli, a fake uncle of the Sultan.
The group would be welcomedby the mayor and his team,
and gifted a bottle of champagneand a guidebook to Cambridge.
And wait for the prank to stop,
because at the moment,this is just fraud.
Yeah, just. Oh, yeah.
They just got gifts. Yeah.
The group would
then be
takenon a tour of a local market
where a random old lady
who happened to have beena missionary in Zanzibar,
(22:54):
asked to speak to the princein the local tongue.
Oh, nice.
Classic.
It would be the quickthinking of the fake
interpreterthat would get them out of it,
statingthat the prince would only speak
to the womanif she joined his haram.
Okay, this is quick thinking.
Those she accepted.
(23:16):
And they lived happily.
Ever after? No.
After the tour,
the group would declinean invitation to dinner
and return to their trying
to celebrate their victoryover the mayor.
A couple of dayslater, the story.
What was the party?The prank that was like this.
Like fake dignitaries.
Okay. Good prank.
It's a bad prank. Toosmall. Good.
(23:36):
He's small. Anyway, you go.
They. Returned to the train.
They leaked the storyto the newspapers,
and the mayor would behumiliated.
Oh, no.
It's the daily silly man.
That's not a good prank.
With the Daily Mail.
Mail describing the prank
as one of the most audaciousand carefully played
practical jokes ever perpetratedby undergraduates.
(23:57):
So basically.
They just did blackface.
And showed up somewhereand went,
oh my God, Doug EnglishI think it walked around a bit
and went off.
I forgot thatthey did blackface and like,
no waythey actually believed that.
Like.
If you sayif you see pictures of them
because they're all picturesof the group, it's pretty.
Obviousthat they were very wrong.
(24:18):
It would.
Be just a. A black.
So why has the show smashed up?
It's basically that exceptrather than like lines here,
they're like panda eyesbecause they enter.
Rotten under the eyes.
See that there's like, it's so.
Bad it's not Robert DowneyJr in Tropic Thunder. Good.
Most audacious prank.
(24:39):
What do you mean you people?What do you mean, you people?
Crybaby.Yeah. Couldn't get by today.
So that is, at this point.
The greatest prank ever made.
So he didn't need a job,so he just kept on pranking.
What's the over on that?
Are not sayingTropic Thunder. Oh.
It'd be pretty shortodds, right?
(24:59):
That he hadn't seen it.It's like $1.10.
Yeah, he hasn't seen it.All right.
You can take that money. Dollar.
He's pretty smug.
I think he's bluffing.He's not saying Tropic Thunder.
I saw it in high school,but I didn't say it with Aaron.
But I got 20 bucks in my wallet.
We can bet this money.
I think he's bluffing.
Have you seen TropicThunder? Yes, I.
(25:21):
Had, I've.
Oh, I absolutely have.
That is one of the few moviesI have seen.
It's a good one to say I'm.
And of course, you knowwho I am. I'm just a dude.
Play thedude played another dude.
Tom cruise is likethe agent in that, right? Yes.
Yeah.
Tom Cruise is less Grossman,
and it's the rainiest rolehe ever played.
(25:43):
Yeah.
Dancingin the after credits theme song.
Anyway, sorry, we got no track.
Yeah, I got I got a really goodrecommendation for you.
How about yougo in your own face?
I can just. Ace. He's so good.
All that needs to be.
It's a very quotable movie.
Really.It's a really quotable movie.
Yeah.
It's actually one of the bettermovies that Ben Stiller's done.
(26:04):
He didn't need a job,so he just kept on pranking.
Okay? Pranking, pranking.
He gets a bit international.
He gets a. Bit more.
Prank, committingfraud more or less.
With his school yearsout of the way,
Horace would either,
could either buckle down,
get a job, and startcontributing to society,
or you could acceptthe large inheritance
(26:25):
left to him
by his now dead grandmotherand continue on pranking
large inheritance.
I kind of like regular pranking.
He did
some of his notable pranksinclude attaching a cow
of to himself and leaving ithanging from his pants.
He'd go to parties like this.
It's not a prank.
And when someoneasked him about it
because of course they did,because it looked like a
(26:46):
a gentleman sausage, he wouldpull out a pair of scissors and.
Just chop it off.
Still not a prank,
right?
So you had one othersticking out of his pants
and people would thinkit was his.
Gentleman's sausage. Penis,
and he cut off.
It's not a prank.
He's just.
(27:07):
He's not pranking other people.
He had three other ones to do.
He's just doing weird stuff.That's not.
Yeah, I don't see the practice.
That's like saying that I'mgoing to walk down Queen Street.
Well, with my haton. Sideways prank.
It's not.
A prank.
It's just me being weird.
I want you to walk that crazystraight, bro.
With a. With a. Cowsticking out of your. Forehead.
(27:29):
Yeah, yeah. All right.
So he would mess withwith the police and politicians
throwing.
Oh, I just had a weird, like,obviously I don't get it right.
No. Okay, okay.
That's good.I just got since I've gotten it
that there.
That's a
that would be a prank.
(27:49):
Mop up this milk. Oh.Just what is. It?
What do you needany milk at that coffee.
Milk? That's right.
That's a prank.
So he would also messwith the police and politicians
throwing knives.
Go throwing naked
female mannequins out of carswhile driving past police and.
Screaming at you or.
Did he. Throw it at the police?
(28:09):
No. Did he just throw.
It on the ground near them?
Not a prank.
This guy's. Oh,this is another great story.
It's just a nuisance. Oh, no.
No, it's so another.
Another one was,
he decided to challengethis politician to a race.
So this politician,like, a bit of a prick,
he's like,hey, let's have a race.
(28:30):
Kind of race. Running race.
And he's like, I'm pretty quick,I'll give you a head start.
But what he did was.
He just shot him in the backof the ankle. Peter.
Murked him in this. Great.
No. He slipped a pocketwatch into the guy's pocket.
And then whenhe started running, he was like.
He grabbed a policeman.He's like.
Stop that. Thief!
And so the policeman ranhim down and, like, tackled him.
(28:51):
Okay, that's not bad.That's getting better.
That's not bad.That's getting. Better.
That's better.That's a phrase lots of broke.
That's a prank. It'sjust a prank, bro.
Prank. Just.
That's better.
Like a veryclearly slipped his own pocket
watch into a politician's pocketand said to a policeman,
completely,with no context whatsoever.
(29:12):
Hey, that's a thief.
He has my pocket on.
And so then this is still.
A bit of an asshole move,but it's. It's more because.
None of these pranks were goodor not.
Then pick a random nonknown member of the public.
Pick someone that the policemanprobably knows.
Yeah.
So a couple personal favoritesof, of mine, of Horace's
(29:34):
pranks were when he paideight bald men to sit in
strategic placesaround a pretentious theater
and, painteda letter on each of their heads
to spell out ballocksso that the people in the boxes
could see theword ballocks on their heads.
No, it's not a prank.
It's funny. Funny, not a prank.
My other favorite.
I just want to write ballocks atthe back of Sean's head. Yeah.
(29:56):
So the other one washe held a dinner party.
That nobody. Nobody.They knew each other.
He just invitedall these people, and,
And he didn't show upgreatest probably.
So they all started.
Like a fire festival that.
They all startedintroducing each other,
and they all worked out.
They had the word bottomin their last name.
(30:16):
The star break.
It's no different.
I wonder how many peopleshowed up to this dinner party.
That a bottle?
Because so many peoplewith the last name bottom.
Hey, he's a socialite.
He's got nothing else to do.
Except to rubbish pranksthat, Claims
he was also a doppelgangerfor the Labor Prime
Minister, Ramsay MacDonald,which really confused people
(30:37):
when he would launchinto an outburst
against the labor movementand generally
lambasting the partythat he was fake.
Leading,getting there, getting there.
That's close to a prank.It's been a nuisance.
He like.
Met some miners and he's like,hello, I'm Ramsay MacDonald at.
The labor movement.
Oh, I like people that dig
in the ground,not underage people. Yes. Okay.
While this wasall of this was fun,
(30:59):
it wasn't quitethe level of grandeur
that Haris felt his prankingrequired.
Oh, sure.
I'm adding to the big battleshipbecause he mentioned the.
Yeah, which I'm assumingis going to be the food boy.
Are you going to bedisappointed?
Is it the hood?It'll be the crab is pranking.
That I put afeather in the captain's shoes.
I think I think I don't,but I think I know what
(31:20):
I was trying to ask with a storythat's a bit.
Again, this is.
This is a long play.
It's athis is the dark joke of pranks.
It's a bit meta.
While all of this was fun.
Yeah, it wasit wasn't quite the linguistic.
Grandeurthat Horace felt. His pranking.
Oh, yeah, he needed to.
They needed to step it up.
That would change in 1910,when a naval
officer approached Horacewith a question.
(31:42):
Do you think you could pull offa prank
to humiliate the officers
of the pride of the Royal Navy,the HMS dreadnought?
Okay. Yep. Okay.
It's a big ship.
Yeah. Big boat.
Well, that's whythere's a whole class of ships
now calledthe dreadnoughts named after it.
And so he got canceled again.
The junior officer
that had approachedHorace was in a battle of pranks
(32:03):
with the officerson the dreadnought.
And so I wanted Horaceto help him devise the ultimate
prank to win the battle again.
Adrian Stephen would help Horacedevise the plan,
and it would follow a similaridea to the Zanzibar hoax.
Robert, black folks.
Createa bunch of fake dignitaries
who would needto be shown around the site.
It was likethe start of the heist film,
(32:24):
with people dressing upand being cast in their roles.
Horace would play the roleof a man from the foreign
Office, Herbert Mandalay.
That was his fakename, Herbert Chell.
Amanda. Right, okay, it soundslike a Adam Sandler character.
Adrian would be an interpreter
and therefore friendswould again
don blackface
and robes to take the roleof the visiting dignitaries.
(32:46):
Right?I mean, this is something.
Countriesfrom any country on earth
that they could pretend to befrom where
they don't have to wear black.
I mean,
it's easy to hide your facewhen you're just covering it.
It's just covering it in soot.
Yeah, yeah. Tar.
So they were,
taking the roleof visiting dignitaries
from the country of Ethiopia,
which at the time was calledAbyssinia.
(33:07):
A telegram was againsent, this time to Admiral May,
the commander in chiefof the Home Fleet, again
saying the party led bya prince, McClean of Abyssinia,
would be arriving at 420. Blaze.
On the 10th of February 1910.
The telegram, said that
the Prince, the supposed cousinof the Emperor of Abyssinia,
(33:30):
wanted to view the dreadnought,and they should
make arrangementsto meet him to do so.
In a direct reflectionof what happened in Cambridge,
May and the other officersof the Navy would
welcome the Abyssinian partywith open arms.
They would twoof the entire vessel, somehow
not noticing that the peoplethat they were talking to
were clearly wearingmakeup and speaking gibberish.
(33:51):
Something that should have
been super obviouswas that every time they saw
something they liked,the Abyssinian would yell out,
Bunga bunga!
Oh! Oh!
(34:12):
Horace and Adrian would workhard to keep up the ruse,
translating the admiral's words
into a mangled mix of Swahili,Latin, and Ancient Greek.
They would also againexcuse themselves from dinner
to avoid showing off the fakebeards, this time
saying that they were,of course, Muslim
and so couldn't eatanything that wasn't halal.
They would even ask to performprayers at sundown.
(34:33):
And this is the part of the rusethat again, shows
the desire of Horus to humiliateand expose the upper classes
as Ethiopia,
even today, and indeed backthen,
was a mostly Christian country,
and the fake dignitarieswere even wearing crucifixes.
It all went to show how littlethe upper class
cared about the culture of thosefrom other countries,
and especiallybecause they didn't notice
(34:54):
that these people weren't black.
I don'tknow, I don't know what to say.
Yeah,there's a few layers to like.
They should probably have known.
No, I think the Christian Muslimthing
is probably lowon the tenor of the bit where.
They had Panda eyes isprobably the most obvious bit.
Hans probably would have looked
like. And they.
Kept yelling outBunga. Bunga, bunga bunga!
(35:15):
And then
then claiming it meant differentthings each time.
This prank so far, it'sdefinitely not bunga bunga.
It's not. It's not bunga bunga.One thing.
Even one bunga. What?
Why do I do want to implementthat now?
If we like somethingin the past, Bunga.
We weren't sure about that.
It doesn'tactually mean anything.
Something that'sreally a really good point.
(35:35):
Like, let's just make a wordor something.
Let's make some. Changes.
Okay? You went there.
But it's not some slanghorrid thing.
Once again,
the story would be leaked tothe press by Horace and Adrian,
and this would actually be quitea big deal.
The public in the press mocked
the admiral and his teamfor failing to catch the ruse,
and Admiral
May was even broughtbefore a parliamentary inquiry.
(35:58):
Keep in mind,
this was pre-World War One,when the European powers
were vying for supremacyall over the place,
and the hoax had provenhow easy it was
to get into a ship and gatherIntel.
Well, that's a problem.
You're getting ona military, the.
Like the jewel of the.
Fleet. Capital ship, right?
Yeah, just a bunch of kidsjust got up and went.
(36:18):
Bunga bunga bunga bunga.
A life of sporadic joyand continued pranks.
Doesn't mean anything.
Doesn'tturn after the dread Man.
We're not going to be using it.
Geez. It is.
You know.
No, it's not, but I'm nottalking about it on the podcast.
Okay? It's it.
Let me read.It'll just get caught.
Let me know. Let me read. I'mnot gonna read it out.
I just want to read.
(36:39):
Italian Prime Minister.
Sex scandals.
Oh, I'm all about that.
After the dreadnought hoax,
Horace would have quitethe reputation around London.
His sister,
and would marry the future primeminister, Neville Chamberlain.
Yes. The Neville Chamberlainthat thought Hitler was
going to be peacefuland would end up distancing
herself from, from Horacethanks to his age.
(37:01):
Obviously because of the,connection to Horace,
he was just the whole Hitlerlike, peaceful thing, the prank.
It's just a prank.But it's just a prank.
No, Neville Chamberlain
I feel bad for the guy
because, like,he just kind of fell for the.
No. That's that. That's them.
Guesshe's on the phone and left.
John,it's it's not Virginia Woolf.
(37:23):
Apparently it's Virginia. Isn'tVirginia. Woolf. Yeah. Wow.
Apparently Virginia Woolf wasone of the people in blackface.
For those listening,
Sean and John
have just found the photo
where, you can seewhat they looked like.
They definitely do notlook Ethiopian.
Oh, they do not look likewhite people in blackface.
I mean, it's notas bad as I thought it was not.
As bad as I thought,but it's not.
(37:43):
As bad as the first. One.
It's pretty unconvincing.
Yeah, and you can seethe crosses and stuff on them.
Right.
If you would like to seethis image,
have a look at our social media.
Can see that they arewearing the crisis. Yeah.
So after the dreadnought
hoax, Horace would have quitethe reputation around London.
I've said all this, so.
And ended up, distancing herself from Horace.
(38:04):
And he would find himselfspending more time
outside of London on a tripto Dublin, he met and fell
in love with Denise and MarieLynch, who he would later marry.
Let's just not talk aboutthe fact that he was 37
and she was 19.
The 30s.
This is the 19 tens, mate.
Yeah, I know, butit's fun to just biodiversity.
(38:26):
Their honeymoon would take themto Venice on April.
30, in the 30s.That's true. Yeah.
The honeymoon would take themto Venice on April Fool's Day
in 1919.
It was. A prank.
Which I'msure Horace would celebrate.
Instead of spending the nightwith his wife, he would spend,
he would spend the nightspreading
horse manure all over the city.
Well, this might seem likeit has no purpose.
(38:48):
You're absolutely right.
It didn't,
but all it did was give Horacethe fun of watching
the Venetian people's confusionas they tried to work out
how all the horse poopgot all over the city
when they didn'thave any horses.
Okay, let's let's. No.That's better.
I don't know.
That no crap prank, but yes, it.
Is a crap. Right? Yeah.
I think about
how much effort it required himto bring the horse poo on.
(39:10):
So I knowhe probably just had a horse.
Padilla I don't mind that dog.
I don't like the confusionof a whole city of young.
But wheredo these horses come out.
Of one of the most beautifulhistoric cities in the world?
Yeah. Spread horse, ridea horse. It's known.
It could maybe leastbring a horse.
So what's funny?
Bring a horseand let a horse free.
(39:31):
Be like, if I just got, like,a whole bunch of hippopotamus
and spread it through the brain.Sort of research.
Yeah, it'd be bad.
It'd be just as bad.
You you got people coming.
Coming and cheeringwould not come off, you.
Know that I.
I don't know,you probably wouldn't.
I do want insuring the company.
No no you don't. You'll do.
Well. Yeah I'm sure you do.
But wouldn't I.
(39:52):
He went to Ipswich in theUS. Why would he come here.
I mean you're notgoing to be able to go see him.
It's going to be a mayhemanyway.
It's a prank. It'll be fun.
It's not really a cheerand it's kind
a it's a prankand it makes it a prank.
It's RupertGrint. It's not really.
It's not really a riot.
Someone with red hairglued to their face. Sorry.
(40:14):
Doing red face.
You painted your hair red?
Oh, no. Red face.
That'sanother thing that gets cut.
That's Native American stuff.
Yeah, I know,that's all I was thinking of.
Mainly red segments.
Yeah.
See? So life.
Yeah, I'd assume so.
So after the holiday,
the calls were returnedto Dublin,
but the IRA reallywas causing a stir.
(40:36):
It was. Sorry,but with the IRA.
Really? Cool.
Yeah.
I was gonna say you haven't
talked about the troublesat all.
No. Horace's English backgroundwould cause trouble for them.
They would be robbed by members
and end upstaying in a hotel in Dublin.
Where? Here.
Horacewould apparently sniff out
an English spy
having him arrestedfor his own good
and sent back to Englandanother prank.
(40:56):
He would falsely claimthat he had been caught
by a notorious IRA member,Michael Collins,
which would lead to suspicionsthat Collins was actually Horace
in disguise.
This wouldlead to a confrontation
with the local British police,in which
they were trying to arrest himto claim
the 5,000 pounds rewardfor capturing Collins.
Horace would whip out his oldcharm, though,
(41:17):
and a bottle of whiskey,drinking the man under the table
to the pointwhere they left him be,
calling him a jolly good fellow,
even if he was Michael Collins.
So not really a prank,but just like
a bit of a side notefrom his life where he's like.
Tends to spray works.
This is beforetheir independence as well.
This is when I was startingthe fight for.
So is it is it believed thathe was Michael Collins? No.
(41:39):
Right. Okay.
So he just likehe caught this guy
and he's like ayou've been caught.
I'm going to get you arrested.
And then when he sent him back,he sent a letter within
that was like he got caughtby this Michael Collins.
Oh okay.
So then people are like, oh,Horace must be Michael Collins.
Let's get him. Yeah. Yeah.
It would seem that the goodtimes didn't last for Horace,
(41:59):
though,as his bouts of depression
took over more and more often,
which led to jokesbecoming more vulgar.
It seemed that the fun wasbeing overtaken by the darkness.
Oh, because cutting your penisoff in public is not a
no nothing horseman.
You know.
That's all just fun and games.
I think a bunch of people calledbottom that they know.
Ballocks.
(42:20):
Yes, that would. Be vulgar.
But involvingjust a little bit.
Yeah.
So the darkness is takinghold here, which was made worse
when in 1928,
Horace lost all his moneyin a bad investment in Canada,
and Denise would decideenough was enough,
leaving him in a divorce.It was a praying.
Prank, bro. It's just a prank.
(42:41):
Now, aloneand with very little money,
Horace would exile himselfto France,
where he would spend it.
Where he would meet his secondwife, Mabel. Right.
Who was a maid and former modelfor artist Augustus John.
The two would have a babyin 1931.
It's okay if you've never heardof Augustus John. I'm just.
This guy. Seems likehe's doing a right for himself.
Yeah.
(43:01):
So the baby's name was TristanDekker, called,
who wouldbe Horace's only child?
Unfortunately,
it turns out thatMabel was a bit of a two timer,
and she was actually porkingthat artist Augustus John.
And Augustus was actuallyTristan's real father.
So yeah, the laughterdefinitely stopped for Horace.
Maybe that was a prank.
(43:21):
It was prank. You got pranked.
Are you pay childsupport for 18 years? Prague.
What's that song.
Turned out it wasn't. He's.
Is that a Kanye song?
Was it gold diggers?
Part of that is Gold Digger.Thank you.
Thank you.
Even more.
I mean, this guy was poor.
I don't think she's a gold
digger, but even more,unfortunately,
(43:44):
just a year later, Horace wouldsuffer a fatal heart attack.
Oh, dying in povertyin France in 1936.
The 30s.
Was that a prank?
Was he still alive for prank?
No. Did
I do not want tothink that being buried alive,
while his death may have beenearly and his lady is tragic,
the lifetime of lightheartedness
and tomfooleryshould be a reminder to whistle
(44:06):
every now and then,take a break, make a fool
out of some upper classdignitary here and there.
Yeah,but doing blackface apparently.
In blackface more than once,say the if you once.
I get back up.
Pull that once.
Well, no, he only did it once.
If I had an interpreter.
(44:28):
So I just pulled this the storyout of a practice.
Just an asshole.
Just like.
There is. Just.
There is a fine linebetween prank and asshole.
And he was like,face on the asshole side.
Yeah, I think he's just. Yeah,a. Legend, an asshole.
I'm gonna say I miss Blakeis more of the prankster. Sorry.
(44:49):
He's like, tends towards legend.
Horace tended towards asshole.
Anyway. Bunga bunga.
Stop saying that.
We're gonna getcanceled in Italy anyway.
What'd you think?
Good one, I love it.
Best episode yet.
I mean, it was an episode.It was.
(45:09):
That was as much of an episodeas his pranks were.
That meets the requirementsof being an episode.
Thank you.
But we've had we we laughed.
We had some good laugh.
We laughed a lot.
The story. Rubbish, pranks.
The whole prank.
I faked being black.
They were talking the newspaperabout it.
(45:29):
Oh, yeah.
Thank God we've all got iPhonesand that's.
Yeah. It's that.
Yeah.
Oh, it's is not peoplejust running around doing that.
That's so cutting offother than the scary average.
I'm just going to say withoutHorus, you wouldn't have punked
was that's.
And on that.
Very truthful bombshell.
(45:51):
1910 Ashton Kutcher.
I think. That's it.
That's the title of the episode,I think.
I think instead Ashton Kutcher.
That's the point.
We should end on Horus.
Without without.
Horus, we would not.
Have Ashton Kutcher.
Thank you.
We wouldn't have asked. Gotcha.That's right. Okay.
Thank you and good night.
(46:11):
Good doctors.
See you next week.
I hate it this.
You've been listeningto Cheeky Tales podcast.
If you'd like to seesupplemental images
related to our episodesor to interact
with us about our episodes,hit us up on at cheeky.
Tell us Pod on Instagram,Facebook and YouTube.
You can watch our episodeson YouTube
or listen to them on Spotify,Apple Podcasts or whatever.
(46:34):
You get your podcasts.
It's 1910 and theBritish Empire is at its height.
London’s streets are filledwith starched collars,
monocles and mustaches waxedwithin an inch of their lives.
Even today,the British are a proud bunch.
But back
then they ruled a massive amountof the world,
and the smugmust have been visible
for hundreds of kilometersaround.
The London smug.
(00:21):
And yet, despite all their pompand pageantry,
their marble monumentsand military might, one
man managed to constantly takethe piss out of the whole thing.
He wasn't a revolutionaryor a rebel.
He didn't throw bombs or stageprotests.
This a short man?
No.Oh.
His weapon of choice was a joke.
(00:42):
A pranksterthat would make a mockery
of the upper classwhenever he could.
Usuallywith a few friends in tow.
And one day, he set his sights
on the most powerful warshipin the world.
This week on Cheeky Tales,the man who made the empire
look ridiculous for fun.
Horace de Vere Cole.
(01:10):
de Vere Cole.
Cole. Cole.
Oh! David.
Cole. Never.
Cole. Never.Never. Heard. Who was it?
Were you thinking. Napoleon?Yeah. Was. Yeah. Right. Yeah.
Get the ball. Rolling.Yeah. No, I would not.
I would not classNapoleon as a prankster.
And he also didn'tleave in 1910.
Yeah.
Was he said he was first.
I was Horace. Horace.
My grandfather's name wasHorace.
(01:30):
Was it? It's a good name.A lovely name.
It was Horace and Hilda Savage.
Yeah, right.
That was dad's parents.
If you're just tuning in,live to take it out.
Which we don't do because thisis a prerecorded episode.
If you've somehowhacked my laptop and you're.
Listening while you're watchingthrough the camera.
Firstly, we just thank you forpaying that. Much to thank you.
We're just finishing offthe end of the, of the Lions
(01:52):
test of the Wallabies,the rugby union, rugby union.
It's pretty close.
Yeah.
Let's get some housekeepingout of the way.
We got the union going.
There's five minutesleft. Is two points difference.
Yeah, Ireland showeda couple dressing together.
We are a couple dressingtogether.
Although.
Although although his pantsdon't have a butterfly on.
That's true.
I have no butterflieson my clothing.
(02:12):
I have not.
Sure that makes it any better.Sure, but okay.
It definitely makes it better.
You didn'teven show it to the camera.
I tied my hips.
His hips lie. Okay.
I hit my hand, my hipslike my hips.
Look.
I have I have some an updateon something
that we haven't talked aboutfor a long time.
Okay. Maths? No,
(02:33):
I willnever speak of maths again.
I watched an Adam Sandler movietoday with great.
Happy Gilmore to it was. Yes,I haven't watched it.
Yeah. No spoilers.
But surprisingly good.
I went into it thinking, oh no,it's going to be Zealandia two.
It's going to be anchorman two.It wasn't. It was okay.
It was its own thing.
And I actually think it waspretty good. Okay. Let's go.
So was this instigated by Brie?
(02:56):
Yes, I came home okay.
And she was watching it,and I got moderately mad,
and we continued to watch it.
But Adam Sandlerstill doing well.
You know, he's only doing filmsfor Netflix now at the moment
because he. I'mpretty sure he has a deal with.
Yeah, he's.Got a good deal with Netflix.
Yeah, I'm keen to watch it.
We were justwe were talking movies before.
I haven't seen Superman yet,so I'm going to try
(03:17):
and sneak off at some pointvery soon and say, soup.
Yeah,I'd like to try and sneak out
and see a late night screening.
What do we want?
To organize something I. Reckonwe could organize.
Let's do it.
Let's do it.
Let's go watch a
an evening screening at,like, Like 930 or something.
Something like that. Yeah.
So you're listening tothree friends make loose plans.
Which for.
Three nights make you makingloose plans and giving away
(03:39):
personal, personal informationon our podcast again.
Yeah.
My credit card number is.
526. Zero.
The other housekeeping gotta do.
I've got the man for you.Yeah. John. Yes.
John's got the man.Exceptionally stuffy.
Yeah.
That's worse than that weekthat I,
I wasn't hosting, I think, butI was like, my voice was cooked.
Yeah. Couple of months back.
(04:00):
I, my voice does go deeperwhen I have the man flu. Yes.
I don't mind itthat most people.
Yeah.
No, no, I like a niceI can get a nice low.
All right. So I just turned itoff. It's a man.
It's just not it's not great.
I tend to say Johnny Cashwhen I get sick.
That's like the it's likeoh that's.
Yeah. Right. Okay, I'll be brag.
I sound likethe greatest country
(04:21):
and western performerof all time.
I think I just need to be, like,speaking.
Of musicians, I think we need tocall out Ozzy Osborne.
Yes. Oh, yeah.If we bring it up.
Ozzy. Rest in peace. Ozzy,pull one out.
Yeah. Pulling outfor the Prince of Darkness.
My crazy tribe.
People talk about influential
musiciansand pop culture figures.
When they passed away,my mom always remembers Elvis.
Yeah, Michael Jackson.
It was when we were younger.
(04:42):
But I think Ozzy deserves.
He definitely deserves it.Absolutely deserves.
And none of your hard rock
heavy metal bandsthat you like exist
without OzzyOsbourne and Black Sabbath.
Yeah,and if you've never picked up
a Gibson SG at a guitar shopand played War Pigs,
then you're missing out becauseit's it's a special feeling.
Guest.
Obviously, if you.
Know how to play the guitar,
obviouslythere's a caveat to that.
(05:04):
Anyway, there's one tool.
The only the only time I playedWar Pigs was Guitar Hero two.
Sean and I absolutely loved it.
That's okay.
Yeah, that's a good enough way.To write a lock.
You never picked upa Guitar Hero guitar.
Well, the Guitar Herotwo guitar was a Gibson.
The Gibson is J.
Yeah, T more my.
Video gameseducating people. Yeah. Games.
Yeah.
Another, another notablecelebrity death, Hulk Hogan.
(05:26):
Oh is especially sadby that now.
Yes, I loves. His MAGA era.
Sean okay, can. We just to.
Let the brothers know out there
now listen here.
Brothers, the Hulkster said
some other choicethings and choice.
That's that's his decision.
And that's his mistakestoo, mate.
However,
(05:48):
professional wrestlingas a sport, as an
as a pop culture phenomenonwould not be anywhere near
what it is without him.Without Hulkamania.
Without Hulkamania.
And alsowhen you put that together, it's
like you can'tjust create a whole industry
because one man made someextremely, tasteful comments.
But that doesn't diminishhis achievements in the sport
that he wrestled
(06:08):
in against lots of differentpeople of color and background.
Hulkamania will live on
in the sport of sportsentertainment forever.
Through every scandaland every bit of crap that comes
the wayof professional wrestling.
Nothing.
None of that happenswithout the Hulkster.
Nothing good, nothing bad.
None of that happenswithout Hulkamania.
(06:28):
They confirmed the try.
Yeah.
Well, you can turn it offnow. Okay.
Should we get interesting?Let's go.
So we're talkingabout Horus. Let's go.
This is goingto be a tough edit for you.
Yeah.
Our Horusvertical division debacle.
If a call which sounds like a,Cold and flu medicine.
(06:49):
Yeah, yeah. Are you sick?
Get difficult.
Yes, I need some difficultfor sure.
That was that.
That. Time.
Oh, man.I okay. Let's try to say.
This is going to make me soundlike I've got a problem,
but I love the taste of denizen.
Oh, you don't have a problem.Drink that.
You don't like the tasteof cough medicine.
You don't have taste buds.
Damn, it is so good.
(07:10):
This is has Sudafed in it.
I mean, I don't know, I haven't.
But, you know, all the.
Sad boy emo rappers in America.
Mix it with lemonadeand drink it.
You had the bed for younot to, I did. Yeah.
You, like, messaged melike I am on my deathbed.
I'm planning my funeral.
But you had to basically.
Yeah, I had one daywhere I was particularly bad.
Well,let's let's get into this one.
(07:31):
So a prankster is born? Yes.
Our story begins in battle.Earth.
I should have read this onefirst.
I think it's Bolandcolleague, County Cork, Ireland.
You mean you. Should have readit first? Didn't you write it?
I did write it, but I didn'tever try to say it out loud.
Yeah. Got my private. Yeah.
In the year 1881, Horace Devittcoal entered the world on 5th
(07:52):
of May that year, a golden childborn into relative privilege.
His family's roots were deepin the Anglo Irish aristocracy.
His father,William, was a rich Englishman
who had found his fortuneselling quinine,
which treated malaria. Okay.
Oh. Come on. Yeah.
Yeah. So he's a, farmer kid.
His mother, Mary de Vere.
(08:12):
I'm already out.Big pharma episode. I've done.
Pepper drank, coughsirup mixed with soft drink.
Right.
I don't want to do that.
Apparently very popular. Sure.
Among degenerate sumptionand rappers.
Yeah.
His mother, Mary deVere, was an Anglo Irish poet.
An aristocrat.
So exactly the stuffy Englishupbringing that turns you
(08:34):
into a stereotype.
He spent his early yearsidolizing his father,
who was down to earthand practical,
but also found himself
drawn to the intellectual folks
that frequently visitedhis mother.
Everything was looking greatuntil he copped a bout
a diptheria and found himselfpartially deaf.
This tragic brush with diseasewould leave him
socially awkward and sensitiveto the jokes of his peers,
(08:55):
which may have eventually ledhim down the path of trickery,
something that almost certainlydidn't help.
His sense of humor
was the untimely deathof his beloved
dad, who died of cholerawhile doing business in India.
His father had been his rock,
his greatest source of loveand support.
The understandably heartbrokenboy would feel even worse
when his mother remarriedjust two years later,
(09:16):
and then weeks later,found himself
shipped off to Eton,
the boarding school famousfor churning out the elites
of the British school system,including many of the royals.
I mean to you,seems like a enough time.
I mean, when your life is likeprobably 45 years.
Yeah, yeah.
But also to then like weeks
later, be like,get out of the house.
You gonna eat?
That's rough. Yeah, yeah,but it's not the worst school.
The guy, I suppose.
(09:37):
I'm sure there's worse placesin the world to go to than Eton.
Eton College?
Yeah.
It's one of the most prestigiousschools.
Yeah.
Yeah, especially in the historyof football in particular.
Isn't that where Prince Georgehas just been sent to?
I believe.
On the way there, I. Believe,yeah.
It was the school that PrinceCharles wished he'd gone to.
(09:57):
Yeah.
I have just finishedwatching the Crown.
Yes. Crown update.
Yeah. PrincePhilip went to Gordonstoun.
Yes, Charles went to Gordonstounas well. Yeah.
And guess who also has beento Gordonstoun?
Shout out my wife Rachel.
My wife went to Gordonstoun
for three monthson the high school.
High school exchange.Other notable people.
Prince Philip, Prince Charles,David.
(10:18):
Beckham, did she did
she see the wall of the gatethat Prince Philip built?
They just heavily in the crown.
I would have to ask her.
I'm sure she did.
But I for supplemental content,I can provide you a picture
of the Golden Stone coffee mugI have in my China cabinet.
Nice.
And look at the letterthat Rachel received
from the schoolon her 30th birthday.
(10:38):
Oh, that's that's actually cool.
Yeah, just I actually thoughtyou'd really appreciate that
because it's it's fresh. Yeah.
Anyway,
Horace would hold a grudgeagainst this decision
for the rest of his life, laterstating
why the devilwith such a handicap
would I be sent to Eton, whereno deaf boy could hear anything?
(11:00):
Inform callous cruelty,I call it.
I should have been taughta trade or profession.
So he's abit pasty. Yeah. Okay. Yeah.
So, yeah.
I'm notthe greatest fan of Eton.
And it seems that distaste
of the high educationcontinued through
the rest of his schooling years.
While he was popularand well liked,
he didn't set the world on firewith his academic achievements,
(11:20):
nor did he find himself
playing any sportsthat would set him apart.
He would eventually call itquits on school just before
graduating,and would find himself
decidingto do a little bit of war.
Just just a little bit of all.
Awardswould. Do a little bit of.
Wall, a little.
Touch,a wall sprinkling of war.
For Putin, said Putin.
Putin, Putin.
(11:42):
His brief but eventfularmy career so eventful.
I fucked up really my own thing.
Eventful
kind of work. Did stuff happen?
And it was a it.
It. Yeah, it was eventually.
Did it happen eventually.
With his schooling career behindhim, Horace would seek out
a new career
in the Army, volunteeringto fight in the Anglo Boer War.
(12:03):
He would find himselfin South Africa,
Cape Town to be precise, in 1900as the youngest
cavalry cavalrymanin the entire British Army.
Through heavy losses of offices,
he found himself as an actingcaptain within months,
finding much more success
in the armythan he ever had at school.
Unfortunately,what he had in talent in the
army, he lacked in abilityto deflect bullets
(12:26):
and a bore sniperwould take a shot at him
with a dumdum bullet hitting himsquare in the head. Dum
dum bullets are the ones thata hollow point, so they like.
They're the real deadly ones.
Yeah, they don't go deep,but they go big.
Yeah, yeah.
So. Horace would be lucky,though.
Surviving the injuryand making a full recovery.
(12:46):
But you're took the head.
Yeah. Was a hollow point.
Yeah.
Must have just been winged okay.
Yeah. Trump did.
You believe that you.
Were just that.
I actually if.
You believe in the moonlanding you
to believe in the Trumpshooting.
I hate you I know you don't I.
Come on you gottayou got to give me that.
(13:07):
No I don't I refuse.
He had been injured enough tofind himself discharged though,
and would leave the armyafter just three months now
with medals and a pension.
Oh nice.
He would cash in the pensiontoday equivalent to roughly
500,000 Australian only crop,which he would donate
to the fund for warwidows and orphans.
(13:28):
Half the. Bill.
Yeah.Half a billion pension. Yeah.
And he donated it. Yeah.
Put it up like see him.
Might have been a pranksterwho went through
a rough childhoodbut clearly still a hot.
Dog with a cold.
You took the wordsliterally out of my mouth.
Took them out of my script.
Afterhis brief stint in the army,
Horace would return
to attemptingto educate himself,
(13:49):
securing a positionat Cambridge University
with the help of a tutor.
So how old is he about you.
Say he was bornin 1881 to be 20 2019, 20. 20.
Start of his 20.
Okay. Yeah,
not even 1901.
He'd be 20.
But, so yeah, he's gone from Eton.
Don't go to war. Okay.
(14:09):
How I was the little bit of warlike six months.
I think it was likethree months. Oh, really?
Yeah.It wasn't long at all. Yeah.
It would be so.
Quick promotionand then get shot in the head
like, yes, that's
you just take the checklist offand you want list.
Yeah. It's done.
All the things.And all the things I've done.
It was also it was a short war.
Yeah. Real short.
(14:30):
Not Falklands short, but.
Not, the Zanzibar.
No, not the Zanzibar, although.
Interestingthat you mention that.
She's also in Africa.
It's in the same continent.
How how long didthe Zanzibar war go for?
Well, I can't remember.It was like 20.
It was a 29 minute.
I think it's. 40 minutes.Or something like that.
Then what? You were.
Trying to do the podcastfor the length of the of.
(14:51):
The war? Yeah,it was one podcast length. Yeah.
I think AppleCoast was long ago.
Yeah, yeah.
So yeah, after his brief
stint and Cambridge,it would be on the
hallowed grounds of Cambridgethat he would,
complete his educationin pranking
because he became the jokeout of Cambridge.
Real, George Weasley.
(15:11):
A bit of a George Weasley.
George's brothers,Fred, George and Fred Weasley.
Yeah. George isone that died right? Oh gosh.
I don't know.
I can't remember. One of.
I don't remember which one died.
Neither do I, the twins.
Doesn't really matter.Fact checking.
No one of the Fred or George.
But I did check.
Was that the Anglo Zanzibar warwas that.
(15:33):
Yeah, I think somewherebetween 38 and 45 minutes.
Right. Yeah.That's a little bit of war.
That's less than a little bit.That's a little bit of war.
That's a war.
Oh bad. GCM donethat in a war. No.
Horace would find himselfin a good circle at Cambridge,
rubbing shoulders with futureelites and cultural icons on.
Hurry. How are you? The heart?
(15:53):
Well, that was my granddad'snickname was Harry.
Look.
He would meet Virginia Woolf.
For example,
the future noted author
named one of the 20th century'smost influential authors.
As I say, it sounds familiar,but I couldn't.
I couldn't tell you it was,
I didn't recognize any ofthe novels that she's known for.
So, yeah, I do know the name.
(16:14):
No, I still haven't boughtthat novel that I've been.
Coming. Around about.
Oh, yeah. Yeah.
Project Hail Mary. Correct.
In the midstof such titans of the mind,
you might imaginethat Horace would find himself
studying hardand being a bit of a nerd.
But as Virginia Woolf put it,
he was an Irishmanwith beautiful blue eyes
and a little mustacheand perfect figure,
(16:35):
rather a dangerous friendfor a young man to have.
He was a wild young man.
He was a bit of escape, grace.
So aside from the vaguelythirsty way she described him,
I don't know, escape.
And I didn't look it up. Okay.
I think it's like,you can kind of be like, oh,
this guy's going to doall the funny stuff.
Yeah, right? Yeah.
(16:56):
So, yeah.
So Autumn,the vaguely thirsty way
she described him,she described him.
Yeah. Well.
But like in early 1900s
that basically poured.
It's but yeah.
Yeah.
Virginia nailed his personalitypretty well.
Oh okay.
(17:17):
Glad you put the,personality in there.
He would join the Magpieand Stomp Society,
a group named after a brothelthat focused on drinking
and also joined the CambridgeAlpine Society,
a group which aimed to championthe practice,
a champion and practicethe art of climbing up
the outside of the college rooms
to get insideafter a night of drinking.
(17:37):
Okay.
I would also startto flex his prankster muscles.
He would begin with harmlesspranks
like, holdingfunerals on university grounds
for friendsthat were suspended or expelled,
or dressing himself up as a bishop and allowing,
and showing up toschools to perform baptisms.
There is also a storythat is probably embellished
(17:58):
or outright untrue,but it is fun all the same.
One of the boys let the truthget the right of a good story.
That's right.
That after a lamp postfell on school grounds
that he painted his facewhite, stood on a lamp
lamp posts plinthand pretended to be a lamp post
for the laughs of his friends
they were talking about,like people were trying
to, like,put letters in him and stuff.
(18:20):
So I don't really knowif that story's true, but.
Comedy must be different.
A hundred years agoI would, with the film,
Look at it being a lamp.
I don't think it's very bright.
And now. Getting funny.
That's why it's funny.Yeah, yeah.
See, thatwould have got a laugh.
What is this?
My friend's really decent.
(18:41):
I just pointed out thatit was good.
I didn't laugh,I I'm not bitter about it.
All I can tell
other pranks that he pulledweren't so harmless, though,
with a story of him enteringa friend's room at 3 a.m.
with a knife.
Dabbing at the friend'spillow request fairly.
Ran away in fear.
It seemed thatthere were two sides to Horace.
(19:01):
One that was looking to pokefun at the establishment,
making light of the stuffyand rigid authority
of the time like the churchor the school administration,
and the darker sidethat held a grudge
against the worldfor the loss of his family
and the injury and disabilitythat he suffered from living.
That's a
psych I better effect.
I'm just going to say,if either of you
ever come into my room at 3 a.m.and stab my pillow.
(19:23):
No, I'm not doingthat. I'm not happy about that.
No. I'm not not.
I'm. Not pleased with youif you do that.
No you shouldn't be.
His eventual biographer,Martin Downer,
even suggeststhat Horace may have suffered
from bipolar disorder,with his pranking
and lighthearted jokesinterspersed
with outbursts of violenceand depression.
Yeah. Yeah,that's that's on track.
(19:44):
Yeah.
So yeah,
keep thatsame thought in your head
when you think he isjust a prankster.
This guy was a tortured artistwhose canvas was the world
and pranks his paint.
Okay.
So with his sad backstoryin mind and his apparent
distaste for the establishmentgiven a foundation,
let's get tohis greatest pranks.
Starting withthe Sultan of Zanzibar hoax.
(20:06):
That's what I said.
Yeah, that was
that was the whole pointof the Zanzibar Sultan.
Yeah.
He would have been canceledfor that today.
Spaghetti.
Cut that now.
So this. Whole, this fight.
Started with Horaceand his friend Adrian Stephen
planning a prank to thumbtheir nose at the establishment
(20:27):
by traveling to Germanyfirst thing was German soldiers
then crossing from Germanyinto France.
Now, this is the early 1900s.
That's not funny.
Germany and Francewere in a dispute over
Morocco at the time,
so at the very least,this would have been
an international incidentand at worst,
it could have kicked off a warand got them shot.
(20:48):
Are subjected to the plan
not because it was batchinsane though,
but because it would betoo expensive.
Stephen and Carl would setto work drawing up a new prank.
Eventually, AdrianStephen would come up with
what would become knownas the Sultan of Zanzibar prank.
The two would discover that
the Sultan of Zanzibarwas visiting London.
(21:09):
So I need you to swap seatswith John
so that you have the shockmount.
Yeah.I thought you could do that.
Khan crap.
Are you his laptop?That not his microphone?
Yeah. No, that was here.
Oh. Yeah? Yeah,this is my laptop.
So eventually I drew him.
We come up,
we come down on this.
On Zanzibar prank day,
we've discoveredthe Sultan of Zanzibar.
I was visiting London,
so the two would planto use this
(21:29):
to humiliatethe mayor of Cambridge.
You had a rivalry withthe University of Cambridge?
I thought he was going to saywith the salt loose ends bomb.
That's a tough rivalry here.
So the university had a rivalrywith the man?
Yeah. Tell.
Yeah. Okay. Interesting.
So thepair would send a telegram
to the mayoron the 2nd of March stating
(21:50):
the Sultan would visitin the afternoon,
asking him to show the sultan
around the buildings of interestand arrange a carriage.
And signed by Henry Lucas,a colonial official.
Horace and Adrian would thengrab two of their friends, Don
black, face with flowing robesand fake beards.
Jake says no to blackface.
(22:12):
I was looking at you,waiting for it.
You just like to.
Do it here I was.
I was stuck in shocked face.
A third friend would join themas their English interpreter
while traveling to Cambridgeon the train,
the party would learnthat the real Sultan
was actually visitingBuckingham Palace.
That afternoon, and so the planwould be pivoted to impersonate
(22:32):
Prince MikasaAli, a fake uncle of the Sultan.
The group would be welcomedby the mayor and his team,
and gifted a bottle of champagneand a guidebook to Cambridge.
And wait for the prank to stop,
because at the moment,this is just fraud.
Yeah, just. Oh, yeah.
They just got gifts. Yeah.
The group would
then be
takenon a tour of a local market
where a random old lady
who happened to have beena missionary in Zanzibar,
(22:54):
asked to speak to the princein the local tongue.
Oh, nice.
Classic.
It would be the quickthinking of the fake
interpreterthat would get them out of it,
statingthat the prince would only speak
to the womanif she joined his haram.
Okay, this is quick thinking.
Those she accepted.
(23:16):
And they lived happily.
Ever after? No.
After the tour,
the group would declinean invitation to dinner
and return to their trying
to celebrate their victoryover the mayor.
A couple of dayslater, the story.
What was the party?The prank that was like this.
Like fake dignitaries.
Okay. Good prank.
It's a bad prank. Toosmall. Good.
(23:36):
He's small. Anyway, you go.
They. Returned to the train.
They leaked the storyto the newspapers,
and the mayor would behumiliated.
Oh, no.
It's the daily silly man.
That's not a good prank.
With the Daily Mail.
Mail describing the prank
as one of the most audaciousand carefully played
practical jokes ever perpetratedby undergraduates.
(23:57):
So basically.
They just did blackface.
And showed up somewhereand went,
oh my God, Doug EnglishI think it walked around a bit
and went off.
I forgot thatthey did blackface and like,
no waythey actually believed that.
Like.
If you sayif you see pictures of them
because they're all picturesof the group, it's pretty.
Obviousthat they were very wrong.
(24:18):
It would.
Be just a. A black.
So why has the show smashed up?
It's basically that exceptrather than like lines here,
they're like panda eyesbecause they enter.
Rotten under the eyes.
See that there's like, it's so.
Bad it's not Robert DowneyJr in Tropic Thunder. Good.
Most audacious prank.
(24:39):
What do you mean you people?What do you mean, you people?
Crybaby.Yeah. Couldn't get by today.
So that is, at this point.
The greatest prank ever made.
So he didn't need a job,so he just kept on pranking.
What's the over on that?
Are not sayingTropic Thunder. Oh.
It'd be pretty shortodds, right?
(24:59):
That he hadn't seen it.It's like $1.10.
Yeah, he hasn't seen it.All right.
You can take that money. Dollar.
He's pretty smug.
I think he's bluffing.He's not saying Tropic Thunder.
I saw it in high school,but I didn't say it with Aaron.
But I got 20 bucks in my wallet.
We can bet this money.
I think he's bluffing.
Have you seen TropicThunder? Yes, I.
(25:21):
Had, I've.
Oh, I absolutely have.
That is one of the few moviesI have seen.
It's a good one to say I'm.
And of course, you knowwho I am. I'm just a dude.
Play thedude played another dude.
Tom cruise is likethe agent in that, right? Yes.
Yeah.
Tom Cruise is less Grossman,
and it's the rainiest rolehe ever played.
(25:43):
Yeah.
Dancingin the after credits theme song.
Anyway, sorry, we got no track.
Yeah, I got I got a really goodrecommendation for you.
How about yougo in your own face?
I can just. Ace. He's so good.
All that needs to be.
It's a very quotable movie.
Really.It's a really quotable movie.
Yeah.
It's actually one of the bettermovies that Ben Stiller's done.
(26:04):
He didn't need a job,so he just kept on pranking.
Okay? Pranking, pranking.
He gets a bit international.
He gets a. Bit more.
Prank, committingfraud more or less.
With his school yearsout of the way,
Horace would either,
could either buckle down,
get a job, and startcontributing to society,
or you could acceptthe large inheritance
(26:25):
left to him
by his now dead grandmotherand continue on pranking
large inheritance.
I kind of like regular pranking.
He did
some of his notable pranksinclude attaching a cow
of to himself and leaving ithanging from his pants.
He'd go to parties like this.
It's not a prank.
And when someoneasked him about it
because of course they did,because it looked like a
(26:46):
a gentleman sausage, he wouldpull out a pair of scissors and.
Just chop it off.
Still not a prank,
right?
So you had one othersticking out of his pants
and people would thinkit was his.
Gentleman's sausage. Penis,
and he cut off.
It's not a prank.
He's just.
(27:07):
He's not pranking other people.
He had three other ones to do.
He's just doing weird stuff.That's not.
Yeah, I don't see the practice.
That's like saying that I'mgoing to walk down Queen Street.
Well, with my haton. Sideways prank.
It's not.
A prank.
It's just me being weird.
I want you to walk that crazystraight, bro.
With a. With a. Cowsticking out of your. Forehead.
(27:29):
Yeah, yeah. All right.
So he would mess withwith the police and politicians
throwing.
Oh, I just had a weird, like,obviously I don't get it right.
No. Okay, okay.
That's good.I just got since I've gotten it
that there.
That's a
that would be a prank.
(27:49):
Mop up this milk. Oh.Just what is. It?
What do you needany milk at that coffee.
Milk? That's right.
That's a prank.
So he would also messwith the police and politicians
throwing knives.
Go throwing naked
female mannequins out of carswhile driving past police and.
Screaming at you or.
Did he. Throw it at the police?
(28:09):
No. Did he just throw.
It on the ground near them?
Not a prank.
This guy's. Oh,this is another great story.
It's just a nuisance. Oh, no.
No, it's so another.
Another one was,
he decided to challengethis politician to a race.
So this politician,like, a bit of a prick,
he's like,hey, let's have a race.
(28:30):
Kind of race. Running race.
And he's like, I'm pretty quick,I'll give you a head start.
But what he did was.
He just shot him in the backof the ankle. Peter.
Murked him in this. Great.
No. He slipped a pocketwatch into the guy's pocket.
And then whenhe started running, he was like.
He grabbed a policeman.He's like.
Stop that. Thief!
And so the policeman ranhim down and, like, tackled him.
(28:51):
Okay, that's not bad.That's getting better.
That's not bad.That's getting. Better.
That's better.That's a phrase lots of broke.
That's a prank. It'sjust a prank, bro.
Prank. Just.
That's better.
Like a veryclearly slipped his own pocket
watch into a politician's pocketand said to a policeman,
completely,with no context whatsoever.
(29:12):
Hey, that's a thief.
He has my pocket on.
And so then this is still.
A bit of an asshole move,but it's. It's more because.
None of these pranks were goodor not.
Then pick a random nonknown member of the public.
Pick someone that the policemanprobably knows.
Yeah.
So a couple personal favoritesof, of mine, of Horace's
(29:34):
pranks were when he paideight bald men to sit in
strategic placesaround a pretentious theater
and, painteda letter on each of their heads
to spell out ballocksso that the people in the boxes
could see theword ballocks on their heads.
No, it's not a prank.
It's funny. Funny, not a prank.
My other favorite.
I just want to write ballocks atthe back of Sean's head. Yeah.
(29:56):
So the other one washe held a dinner party.
That nobody. Nobody.They knew each other.
He just invitedall these people, and,
And he didn't show upgreatest probably.
So they all started.
Like a fire festival that.
They all startedintroducing each other,
and they all worked out.
They had the word bottomin their last name.
(30:16):
The star break.
It's no different.
I wonder how many peopleshowed up to this dinner party.
That a bottle?
Because so many peoplewith the last name bottom.
Hey, he's a socialite.
He's got nothing else to do.
Except to rubbish pranksthat, Claims
he was also a doppelgangerfor the Labor Prime
Minister, Ramsay MacDonald,which really confused people
(30:37):
when he would launchinto an outburst
against the labor movementand generally
lambasting the partythat he was fake.
Leading,getting there, getting there.
That's close to a prank.It's been a nuisance.
He like.
Met some miners and he's like,hello, I'm Ramsay MacDonald at.
The labor movement.
Oh, I like people that dig
in the ground,not underage people. Yes. Okay.
While this wasall of this was fun,
(30:59):
it wasn't quitethe level of grandeur
that Haris felt his prankingrequired.
Oh, sure.
I'm adding to the big battleshipbecause he mentioned the.
Yeah, which I'm assumingis going to be the food boy.
Are you going to bedisappointed?
Is it the hood?It'll be the crab is pranking.
That I put afeather in the captain's shoes.
I think I think I don't,but I think I know what
(31:20):
I was trying to ask with a storythat's a bit.
Again, this is.
This is a long play.
It's athis is the dark joke of pranks.
It's a bit meta.
While all of this was fun.
Yeah, it wasit wasn't quite the linguistic.
Grandeurthat Horace felt. His pranking.
Oh, yeah, he needed to.
They needed to step it up.
That would change in 1910,when a naval
officer approached Horacewith a question.
(31:42):
Do you think you could pull offa prank
to humiliate the officers
of the pride of the Royal Navy,the HMS dreadnought?
Okay. Yep. Okay.
It's a big ship.
Yeah. Big boat.
Well, that's whythere's a whole class of ships
now calledthe dreadnoughts named after it.
And so he got canceled again.
The junior officer
that had approachedHorace was in a battle of pranks
(32:03):
with the officerson the dreadnought.
And so I wanted Horaceto help him devise the ultimate
prank to win the battle again.
Adrian Stephen would help Horacedevise the plan,
and it would follow a similaridea to the Zanzibar hoax.
Robert, black folks.
Createa bunch of fake dignitaries
who would needto be shown around the site.
It was likethe start of the heist film,
(32:24):
with people dressing upand being cast in their roles.
Horace would play the roleof a man from the foreign
Office, Herbert Mandalay.
That was his fakename, Herbert Chell.
Amanda. Right, okay, it soundslike a Adam Sandler character.
Adrian would be an interpreter
and therefore friendswould again
don blackface
and robes to take the roleof the visiting dignitaries.
(32:46):
Right?I mean, this is something.
Countriesfrom any country on earth
that they could pretend to befrom where
they don't have to wear black.
I mean,
it's easy to hide your facewhen you're just covering it.
It's just covering it in soot.
Yeah, yeah. Tar.
So they were,
taking the roleof visiting dignitaries
from the country of Ethiopia,
which at the time was calledAbyssinia.
(33:07):
A telegram was againsent, this time to Admiral May,
the commander in chiefof the Home Fleet, again
saying the party led bya prince, McClean of Abyssinia,
would be arriving at 420. Blaze.
On the 10th of February 1910.
The telegram, said that
the Prince, the supposed cousinof the Emperor of Abyssinia,
(33:30):
wanted to view the dreadnought,and they should
make arrangementsto meet him to do so.
In a direct reflectionof what happened in Cambridge,
May and the other officersof the Navy would
welcome the Abyssinian partywith open arms.
They would twoof the entire vessel, somehow
not noticing that the peoplethat they were talking to
were clearly wearingmakeup and speaking gibberish.
(33:51):
Something that should have
been super obviouswas that every time they saw
something they liked,the Abyssinian would yell out,
Bunga bunga!
Oh! Oh!
(34:12):
Horace and Adrian would workhard to keep up the ruse,
translating the admiral's words
into a mangled mix of Swahili,Latin, and Ancient Greek.
They would also againexcuse themselves from dinner
to avoid showing off the fakebeards, this time
saying that they were,of course, Muslim
and so couldn't eatanything that wasn't halal.
They would even ask to performprayers at sundown.
(34:33):
And this is the part of the rusethat again, shows
the desire of Horus to humiliateand expose the upper classes
as Ethiopia,
even today, and indeed backthen,
was a mostly Christian country,
and the fake dignitarieswere even wearing crucifixes.
It all went to show how littlethe upper class
cared about the culture of thosefrom other countries,
and especiallybecause they didn't notice
(34:54):
that these people weren't black.
I don'tknow, I don't know what to say.
Yeah,there's a few layers to like.
They should probably have known.
No, I think the Christian Muslimthing
is probably lowon the tenor of the bit where.
They had Panda eyes isprobably the most obvious bit.
Hans probably would have looked
like. And they.
Kept yelling outBunga. Bunga, bunga bunga!
(35:15):
And then
then claiming it meant differentthings each time.
This prank so far, it'sdefinitely not bunga bunga.
It's not. It's not bunga bunga.One thing.
Even one bunga. What?
Why do I do want to implementthat now?
If we like somethingin the past, Bunga.
We weren't sure about that.
It doesn'tactually mean anything.
Something that'sreally a really good point.
(35:35):
Like, let's just make a wordor something.
Let's make some. Changes.
Okay? You went there.
But it's not some slanghorrid thing.
Once again,
the story would be leaked tothe press by Horace and Adrian,
and this would actually be quitea big deal.
The public in the press mocked
the admiral and his teamfor failing to catch the ruse,
and Admiral
May was even broughtbefore a parliamentary inquiry.
(35:58):
Keep in mind,
this was pre-World War One,when the European powers
were vying for supremacyall over the place,
and the hoax had provenhow easy it was
to get into a ship and gatherIntel.
Well, that's a problem.
You're getting ona military, the.
Like the jewel of the.
Fleet. Capital ship, right?
Yeah, just a bunch of kidsjust got up and went.
(36:18):
Bunga bunga bunga bunga.
A life of sporadic joyand continued pranks.
Doesn't mean anything.
Doesn'tturn after the dread Man.
We're not going to be using it.
Geez. It is.
You know.
No, it's not, but I'm nottalking about it on the podcast.
Okay? It's it.
Let me read.It'll just get caught.
Let me know. Let me read. I'mnot gonna read it out.
I just want to read.
(36:39):
Italian Prime Minister.
Sex scandals.
Oh, I'm all about that.
After the dreadnought hoax,
Horace would have quitethe reputation around London.
His sister,
and would marry the future primeminister, Neville Chamberlain.
Yes. The Neville Chamberlainthat thought Hitler was
going to be peacefuland would end up distancing
herself from, from Horacethanks to his age.
(37:01):
Obviously because of the,connection to Horace,
he was just the whole Hitlerlike, peaceful thing, the prank.
It's just a prank.But it's just a prank.
No, Neville Chamberlain
I feel bad for the guy
because, like,he just kind of fell for the.
No. That's that. That's them.
Guesshe's on the phone and left.
John,it's it's not Virginia Woolf.
(37:23):
Apparently it's Virginia. Isn'tVirginia. Woolf. Yeah. Wow.
Apparently Virginia Woolf wasone of the people in blackface.
For those listening,
Sean and John
have just found the photo
where, you can seewhat they looked like.
They definitely do notlook Ethiopian.
Oh, they do not look likewhite people in blackface.
I mean, it's notas bad as I thought it was not.
As bad as I thought,but it's not.
(37:43):
As bad as the first. One.
It's pretty unconvincing.
Yeah, and you can seethe crosses and stuff on them.
Right.
If you would like to seethis image,
have a look at our social media.
Can see that they arewearing the crisis. Yeah.
So after the dreadnought
hoax, Horace would have quitethe reputation around London.
I've said all this, so.
And ended up, distancing herself from Horace.
(38:04):
And he would find himselfspending more time
outside of London on a tripto Dublin, he met and fell
in love with Denise and MarieLynch, who he would later marry.
Let's just not talk aboutthe fact that he was 37
and she was 19.
The 30s.
This is the 19 tens, mate.
Yeah, I know, butit's fun to just biodiversity.
(38:26):
Their honeymoon would take themto Venice on April.
30, in the 30s.That's true. Yeah.
The honeymoon would take themto Venice on April Fool's Day
in 1919.
It was. A prank.
Which I'msure Horace would celebrate.
Instead of spending the nightwith his wife, he would spend,
he would spend the nightspreading
horse manure all over the city.
Well, this might seem likeit has no purpose.
(38:48):
You're absolutely right.
It didn't,
but all it did was give Horacethe fun of watching
the Venetian people's confusionas they tried to work out
how all the horse poopgot all over the city
when they didn'thave any horses.
Okay, let's let's. No.That's better.
I don't know.
That no crap prank, but yes, it.
Is a crap. Right? Yeah.
I think about
how much effort it required himto bring the horse poo on.
(39:10):
So I knowhe probably just had a horse.
Padilla I don't mind that dog.
I don't like the confusionof a whole city of young.
But wheredo these horses come out.
Of one of the most beautifulhistoric cities in the world?
Yeah. Spread horse, ridea horse. It's known.
It could maybe leastbring a horse.
So what's funny?
Bring a horseand let a horse free.
(39:31):
Be like, if I just got, like,a whole bunch of hippopotamus
and spread it through the brain.Sort of research.
Yeah, it'd be bad.
It'd be just as bad.
You you got people coming.
Coming and cheeringwould not come off, you.
Know that I.
I don't know,you probably wouldn't.
I do want insuring the company.
No no you don't. You'll do.
Well. Yeah I'm sure you do.
But wouldn't I.
(39:52):
He went to Ipswich in theUS. Why would he come here.
I mean you're notgoing to be able to go see him.
It's going to be a mayhemanyway.
It's a prank. It'll be fun.
It's not really a cheerand it's kind
a it's a prankand it makes it a prank.
It's RupertGrint. It's not really.
It's not really a riot.
Someone with red hairglued to their face. Sorry.
(40:14):
Doing red face.
You painted your hair red?
Oh, no. Red face.
That'sanother thing that gets cut.
That's Native American stuff.
Yeah, I know,that's all I was thinking of.
Mainly red segments.
Yeah.
See? So life.
Yeah, I'd assume so.
So after the holiday,
the calls were returnedto Dublin,
but the IRA reallywas causing a stir.
(40:36):
It was. Sorry,but with the IRA.
Really? Cool.
Yeah.
I was gonna say you haven't
talked about the troublesat all.
No. Horace's English backgroundwould cause trouble for them.
They would be robbed by members
and end upstaying in a hotel in Dublin.
Where? Here.
Horacewould apparently sniff out
an English spy
having him arrestedfor his own good
and sent back to Englandanother prank.
(40:56):
He would falsely claimthat he had been caught
by a notorious IRA member,Michael Collins,
which would lead to suspicionsthat Collins was actually Horace
in disguise.
This wouldlead to a confrontation
with the local British police,in which
they were trying to arrest himto claim
the 5,000 pounds rewardfor capturing Collins.
Horace would whip out his oldcharm, though,
(41:17):
and a bottle of whiskey,drinking the man under the table
to the pointwhere they left him be,
calling him a jolly good fellow,
even if he was Michael Collins.
So not really a prank,but just like
a bit of a side notefrom his life where he's like.
Tends to spray works.
This is beforetheir independence as well.
This is when I was startingthe fight for.
So is it is it believed thathe was Michael Collins? No.
(41:39):
Right. Okay.
So he just likehe caught this guy
and he's like ayou've been caught.
I'm going to get you arrested.
And then when he sent him back,he sent a letter within
that was like he got caughtby this Michael Collins.
Oh okay.
So then people are like, oh,Horace must be Michael Collins.
Let's get him. Yeah. Yeah.
It would seem that the goodtimes didn't last for Horace,
(41:59):
though,as his bouts of depression
took over more and more often,
which led to jokesbecoming more vulgar.
It seemed that the fun wasbeing overtaken by the darkness.
Oh, because cutting your penisoff in public is not a
no nothing horseman.
You know.
That's all just fun and games.
I think a bunch of people calledbottom that they know.
Ballocks.
(42:20):
Yes, that would. Be vulgar.
But involvingjust a little bit.
Yeah.
So the darkness is takinghold here, which was made worse
when in 1928,
Horace lost all his moneyin a bad investment in Canada,
and Denise would decideenough was enough,
leaving him in a divorce.It was a praying.
Prank, bro. It's just a prank.
(42:41):
Now, aloneand with very little money,
Horace would exile himselfto France,
where he would spend it.
Where he would meet his secondwife, Mabel. Right.
Who was a maid and former modelfor artist Augustus John.
The two would have a babyin 1931.
It's okay if you've never heardof Augustus John. I'm just.
This guy. Seems likehe's doing a right for himself.
Yeah.
(43:01):
So the baby's name was TristanDekker, called,
who wouldbe Horace's only child?
Unfortunately,
it turns out thatMabel was a bit of a two timer,
and she was actually porkingthat artist Augustus John.
And Augustus was actuallyTristan's real father.
So yeah, the laughterdefinitely stopped for Horace.
Maybe that was a prank.
(43:21):
It was prank. You got pranked.
Are you pay childsupport for 18 years? Prague.
What's that song.
Turned out it wasn't. He's.
Is that a Kanye song?
Was it gold diggers?
Part of that is Gold Digger.Thank you.
Thank you.
Even more.
I mean, this guy was poor.
I don't think she's a gold
digger, but even more,unfortunately,
(43:44):
just a year later, Horace wouldsuffer a fatal heart attack.
Oh, dying in povertyin France in 1936.
The 30s.
Was that a prank?
Was he still alive for prank?
No. Did
I do not want tothink that being buried alive,
while his death may have beenearly and his lady is tragic,
the lifetime of lightheartedness
and tomfooleryshould be a reminder to whistle
(44:06):
every now and then,take a break, make a fool
out of some upper classdignitary here and there.
Yeah,but doing blackface apparently.
In blackface more than once,say the if you once.
I get back up.
Pull that once.
Well, no, he only did it once.
If I had an interpreter.
(44:28):
So I just pulled this the storyout of a practice.
Just an asshole.
Just like.
There is. Just.
There is a fine linebetween prank and asshole.
And he was like,face on the asshole side.
Yeah, I think he's just. Yeah,a. Legend, an asshole.
I'm gonna say I miss Blakeis more of the prankster. Sorry.
(44:49):
He's like, tends towards legend.
Horace tended towards asshole.
Anyway. Bunga bunga.
Stop saying that.
We're gonna getcanceled in Italy anyway.
What'd you think?
Good one, I love it.
Best episode yet.
I mean, it was an episode.It was.
(45:09):
That was as much of an episodeas his pranks were.
That meets the requirementsof being an episode.
Thank you.
But we've had we we laughed.
We had some good laugh.
We laughed a lot.
The story. Rubbish, pranks.
The whole prank.
I faked being black.
They were talking the newspaperabout it.
(45:29):
Oh, yeah.
Thank God we've all got iPhonesand that's.
Yeah. It's that.
Yeah.
Oh, it's is not peoplejust running around doing that.
That's so cutting offother than the scary average.
I'm just going to say withoutHorus, you wouldn't have punked
was that's.
And on that.
Very truthful bombshell.
(45:51):
1910 Ashton Kutcher.
I think. That's it.
That's the title of the episode,I think.
I think instead Ashton Kutcher.
That's the point.
We should end on Horus.
Without without.
Horus, we would not.
Have Ashton Kutcher.
Thank you.
We wouldn't have asked. Gotcha.That's right. Okay.
Thank you and good night.
(46:11):
Good doctors.
See you next week.
I hate it this.
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(46:34):
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