April 2, 2026 • 35 mins
We follow the Easter Bunny origin from ancient fertility themes to the American Easter basket tradition. And why are we putting our kids on a stranger’s lap in a creepy bunny suit? When did we normalize that? We unpack mall bunny anxiety, Easter holiday myths, and the stuff nobody says out loud. Listen, then drop your scariest Easter Bunny photo story?
#Easter #Easterbunny #bunnies #candy #Easterbaskets #Malls #dysfunction #dysfunctionjunkiespodcast #kerrydoll #chrissydoll
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
SPEAKER_02 (00:07):
Welcome to the Ditchbox and Junkies podcast.
SPEAKER_01 (00:10):
We may not have seen it all, but we've seen enough.
And now here are your hosts,Chrissy and Harry.
KERRY (00:21):
Hello, junkies.
I'm Carrie.
SPEAKER_05 (00:25):
And I'm Chrissy with Carrie.
KERRY (00:28):
And I'm with Chrissy.
SPEAKER_05 (00:31):
Yeah.
How are we explaining thesepsychotic dolls that we have
with us?
KERRY (00:36):
I don't know what episode was.
We've talked about them before.
Somewhere back in season one,Chrissy found these dolls.
And they are the Carrie doll,which Chrissy has with her with
the blonde hair and the greenoutfit.
And it's spelled actually how Ispell my name, K-E-R-R-Y.
And then this is Carrie orChrissy or Carrie's friend
(00:57):
Chrissy.
And so we thought it would begreat to get these dolls.
So I found them on eBay, and wejust finally decided to make
their debut.
So when we can't be together inperson, we have dolls.
SPEAKER_05 (01:13):
Yes, we do.
Yeah, Chrissy is not spelled theway I spell it, which is fine.
It's I think it's C-R-I-S-S-Y.
Yeah, there's two F's instead ofone.
But I think she was a prettypopular doll in the late 60s,
early 70s, and she had a friendCarrie.
She had other friends too.
I think it was a whole thing.
Yeah.
But I couldn't believe when Isaw when I was looking up this
(01:35):
doll that it had a the doll hada friend, and the friend was
Carrie.
And the Carrie doll is blondeand blue-eyed.
So it just was meant to be.
KERRY (01:46):
And what's funny is I actually had the Carrie doll
growing up because I think thatwas such a unique thing that
something actually had my namespelled right.
But what's interesting aboutthem is their hair grows.
So like they have this littlething that you can twist.
Excuse me, why violate?
She has that too.
Yeah.
You'd you scroll here.
(02:07):
I'll cover the dupa, but it'sstill worse.
Yeah, yeah.
So you do that, and then you canpull the hair to make it grow
somehow.
Oh no, push you push a butt.
I don't know, but in any case,so they could have short hair or
long hair.
SPEAKER_05 (02:25):
So yes, beautiful.
KERRY (02:27):
And yes, they are lovely.
And Carrie located these.
Yes, the originals.
SPEAKER_05 (02:32):
These are not represent replicas.
These are originals.
KERRY (02:36):
In 1971, 72.
So I think the carry doll that Ihad growing up, I think my
sister has it.
My my sister that lives over inPennsylvania.
I think she actually has myoriginal Carrie doll.
But so anyways, nice.
So you will see them in our homestudios.
SPEAKER_05 (02:56):
And she's much more fun to look at.
KERRY (02:58):
Anyway, so um I may have actually gotten my carry doll as
an Easter gift in my Easterbasket.
Who knows?
Back in the day.
SPEAKER_05 (03:08):
Wow, that's a pretty nice score for Easter.
Because I don't even remembergetting a doll at Easter, always
a stuffed animal, and thencandy.
Yeah.
Coloring book-ups.
But of course, then when I hadkids, everything changed.
You had to go all out.
Yep.
Yep.
That's how it is.
But that's what we do.
(03:30):
Yeah.
So what are we going to talkabout?
I I came up with this ideabecause I know we crapped all
over Santa Claus at Christmasand learned a whole bunch of new
things about Santa.
Yeah.
So now we're going to talk aboutthe dysfunction of the Easter
bunny, his or her origin, andjust all the unfortunate mess of
the Easter bunny in general.
(03:52):
Let's do it.
Or what?
KERRY (03:54):
Let's do three days away from Easter?
SPEAKER_05 (03:59):
Yeah.
It's here already.
I know.
So again, it's not it's earlythis year, but not terribly
early.
KERRY (04:06):
Yeah, at least sometimes it comes at the end of March,
and that's just a bummer.
SPEAKER_02 (04:10):
I hate when it's that early.
What?
So I don't mean to interrupt,but do you want to put a
disclaimer on this?
Just like you did with the Santaepisode that you may not if you
have children present.
SPEAKER_05 (04:19):
Yeah, you do not want so they probably don't want
them to listen to this.
KERRY (04:25):
In general, but mommy or daddy listen to without the
children present.
If Crimson goes down the roadthat she went down at Christmas
time, then yeah, this is uh putyour ear pods and your
headphones on, put the kids, Idon't know, up in front of the
chair.
SPEAKER_02 (04:43):
I just wanted to I wanted to put that in there
before you guys got going incase.
KERRY (04:47):
Good job, DJ.
SPEAKER_02 (04:48):
Because I've seen some of her I saw some of her
notes.
SPEAKER_05 (04:51):
Yeah.
Okay.
Uh so how and again, I need I'mgonna need to buy readers, I
think, because this is justreally bad.
But uh, so let's talk about theorigin first.
Yeah, we're gonna start.
So are we talking about theEaster bunny?
KERRY (05:10):
That's the focus, not necessarily Easter.
SPEAKER_05 (05:12):
Yeah, this is not the bunny.
No, okay.
This is the Easter bunny, notEaster.
Okay, and just like with theChristmas idea, a lot of it is
based in ancient pagan roots.
It's then generally Christianitytook some of these and adopted
(05:32):
it for their celebration.
But so it says rabbits and hareswere associated with the ancient
pagan festival of oh great.
Nick, you got this printout.
Say these words for me.
Outside of the fact that I can'tsee them, then I have to try and
read this stuff.
It's got the those little dotsover the E.
(05:53):
Or no, it's a line.
It's a line over the E.
What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02 (05:58):
Which way is the line go?
SPEAKER_05 (06:00):
It's flat.
It's like a hyphen over the E.
SPEAKER_02 (06:04):
Oh.
SPEAKER_05 (06:04):
It's not Ulots or whatever those dots are called.
What is this?
SPEAKER_02 (06:09):
Do I have this?
SPEAKER_05 (06:10):
Yes, I gave you a printout.
SPEAKER_02 (06:11):
Is it on the it's not on your notes, it's on the
email?
SPEAKER_05 (06:15):
It's actually what I printed out from the notes that
I found from AI.
And by the way, there's not thisis no author.
I do give credit when I do usesomebody's lists or something
like that.
But this is just somehowgenerated.
I typed in dysfunction bunny anddysfunction my computer with oh
dysfunction Easter Bunny.
KERRY (06:34):
Tomara, the Festival of Ostar.
Tomorrow.
I had to switch screens here tolook at it.
So if my eyes went weird for aminute, because Oh, it does in
parentheses tell you how to sayit.
SPEAKER_05 (06:45):
Okay.
Yeah.
Ha ha ha.
Very funny.
Okay, yeah.
I'm playing as a bat.
It's an Anglo-Saxon goddess ofspring and fertility due to
their rapid productions.
Wonderful.
Right there.
I'm already having a problem.
Okay, go.
We're celebrating rapidreproduction.
I guess that's why rabbits therabbit test.
Does anybody still remember thatpoll remark?
(07:09):
If they asked if he had a rabbittest.
Oh, I never heard just apregnancy test.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they reproduce like rabbits.
That's another one you alwaysheard.
Okay.
KERRY (07:20):
Which is so that's where that's from.
So when I was young, I had arabbit, and when it passed away,
my mom said, Whatever other,whatever breed of rabbit you
want to get, I will get you.
Because I was in 4-H and thingslike that.
I went through the little rabbitbreed book and I found this
breed of rabbit that I was like,oh my gosh, this is what I want.
(07:42):
And it's called the Polishrabbit.
That's the name of the breed.
They're very difficult toobtain.
Now, I don't know if things havechanged in the last 40 years,
but part of the reason why theywere very difficult to get and
hard to find was because theydid not breed like rabbits.
So that was always the funnything that people would say, oh,
it breeds like rabbits.
And I'm like, not my Polishrabbits, because that ain't
(08:06):
happening.
SPEAKER_05 (08:07):
No.
So anyways, go ahead.
Well, there you go.
Not all of the different breedsare created equal.
SPEAKER_00 (08:15):
Okay.
SPEAKER_05 (08:16):
And then we have, and this he said this one real
easy.
German folklore.
And I even took German.
I took a quarter of it at theuniversity.
SPEAKER_02 (08:28):
It looks like Osterhaus.
SPEAKER_05 (08:30):
Right, probably.
That's the concept of an egglaying here.
Comes from German folklore,specifically the Osterhaus or
Osterhaus.
Oh boy.
(08:52):
And then Catholic education.
Does anybody remember we tookphonics?
KERRY (08:57):
Tom Phonics.
SPEAKER_05 (08:58):
Did I even teach phonics?
Okay, smart ass.
We're fine.
But I always spelled everythingthe way it sounded, but in the
English language, that only getsyou so far.
This is true.
You can't spell everything theway it sounds.
Okay, fine.
So what does this say here?
So I need to get it from yourclasses.
(09:20):
This is really bad.
Okay.
KERRY (09:23):
I do like you would if we were on video.
You just put it right up here.
SPEAKER_05 (09:27):
I feel so self-conscious.
I am putting it right up there.
All right, fine.
KERRY (09:32):
There you go.
SPEAKER_05 (09:32):
The look on the uh the ostrich house tradition is
this tradition.
Children would create nests,sometimes using bonnets or hats.
And if they were well behaved,the hair would lay colorful eggs
in it.
In your hat?
Is that where shit go shit inyour hat comes from?
(09:54):
Did you hear anybody sayingthat?
Tell you go shit in your hat.
Is that a saying?
SPEAKER_01 (09:58):
I think you're making some sense.
KERRY (10:03):
I swear, I think somebody, that's an old say.
Go shit in your hat.
I'm gonna not go.
What are we Gemini that?
SPEAKER_05 (10:13):
Why can't we still say Google?
I don't know.
SPEAKER_02 (10:17):
You could say Google.
SPEAKER_05 (10:18):
Okay.
These by the way, everybody, ifyou can't follow along, and
hopefully your children are notlistening.
Well, then this is just aboutthe origin, but still probably
should listen.
Is did you find it?
Yeah, I did.
Is go shit in your head to sayshit in your head?
KERRY (10:33):
See?
A World War II era insult tosomeone who expects something
unreasonable from you.
A sarcastic reply.
SPEAKER_05 (10:44):
I think we need to bring this back.
Everybody go out there and telleverybody go shit in your hat.
KERRY (10:53):
We'll put it on nobody's wearing it.
You heard it.
You heard it again onDysfunction Dread Keys Podcast.
SPEAKER_05 (11:01):
First, yes, yes.
Okay, so now we get all that outof the way if you've been
following at all.
Then we have the arrival inAmerica.
So of course it comes with theimmigrants that come over.
German immigrants brought thistradition to oh Pennsylvania, a
neighbor over here, although notyours anymore, but mine still.
(11:23):
Who's your neighbors?
I don't even know geographicallywho's next to you.
Where are you at?
Nevada.
KERRY (11:28):
Nevada, Arizona, Colorado.
There are surrounding states.
SPEAKER_04 (11:37):
Oh, okay.
Show off.
Yeah.
Okay, those are pretty good, Iguess.
I'm still stuck over here nextto PA.
SPEAKER_05 (11:44):
Um, that was in the 1700s, which later spread
throughout the United States,evolving into the modern Easter
basket tradition.
Well, where the hell's theEaster Bunny at in all this?
KERRY (11:57):
The Easter bunny was that monster hawks thing that was
laying colorful egg.
SPEAKER_05 (12:05):
I didn't read the first paragraph.
The Easter Bunny tradition,often viewed as a secular
commercial figure, has itsorigins.
It's an ancient Europeanfertility customs rather than
biblical scripture.
There you go.
KERRY (12:18):
Hey, speaking of Easter basket, I have another show and
tell today.
Oh, yeah, let's see.
Chris, would you help me talkedabout it briefly and bring in
the show and tell?
SPEAKER_05 (12:33):
We're having way too much fun at our age.
KERRY (12:37):
We're playing with our dogs.
This is my okay, Chrissy, go sitdown.
All right.
This is my East basket that Ihave had my entire life that I
remember.
Probably well at least fiveyears old that I remember back.
But this used to be green.
(13:00):
This stripe here used to begreen, but over years it's
faded.
But yeah, this is my Easterbasket from childhood.
SPEAKER_05 (13:07):
There it is.
Well, you can get a lot of uhcontraband in there.
So I hope your parents werealways good about filling it up
for you.
KERRY (13:14):
They actually, that was one time they were pretty good.
Hi, Chrissy.
Welcome back.
They were pretty good aboutthat.
Yeah.
It's Easter with a lot of candy.
But there were still some ofthose hard-boiled eggs that they
threw in there for color, but Inever ate them.
SPEAKER_05 (13:30):
You know-boiled eggs.
KERRY (13:32):
Oh, I like hard-boiled eggs, but there was something
from a very young age that I hadwarm eggs.
So you know, because the eggswere in the basket, and who
okay, first of all, do you hideyour basket?
No.
That's effort.
SPEAKER_05 (13:48):
Wait, but you know how people hide for my kids?
No, I until I did not know thiswas a thing.
KERRY (13:55):
Oh my god.
SPEAKER_05 (13:56):
I heard about hiding Easter eggs, but never the whole
basket.
KERRY (14:02):
Oh yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (14:04):
So the whole that takes too much energy.
My kids are too old now.
KERRY (14:07):
This whole basket would be full of of candy and yummies
and maybe an occasional toy.
If it was a toy, it was probablygonna be something like play-doh
or something small.
But that whole basket washidden.
And when you got up on Eastermorning, you had to go find your
basket.
And you never know where thatEaster buddy was gonna hide it.
(14:29):
So to this day, Farm Boy Jimstill has to find the Easter
basket.
I do not let him escape thattradition.
He has to find it.
He acts like he doesn't like it,but he really does.
If I don't hide it, he'll beupset.
SPEAKER_05 (14:42):
Was this in the house, or what could it be
outside?
KERRY (14:46):
Usually or was it weather permitting?
Yeah, usually it was inside, butthere were occasional times it
would have been found maybe inthe barn, maybe in the rabbit
hutch of the rabbit cageoutside.
SPEAKER_05 (15:05):
Yeah.
Were you under the impressionthat the rabbits that you had
somehow were involved in uhdelivering this stuff?
KERRY (15:12):
No, I never made those correlations.
No.
Uh no.
But yeah, but this was sometimesa challenge.
You would think this would beeasy to find because it's big,
but it was actually sometimeshard to find.
You never knew.
Of course it's a challenge.
It's one thing.
SPEAKER_05 (15:30):
At least, even though eggs are smaller, there's
several of them.
You have a your chances arebetter at the eggs than one
basket.
Yeah.
Just because it's the size of itis is appropriate large and you
think you could see itsomewhere, but yeah, no.
That again, I never grew up withan Easter egg hunt.
Well, nothing.
No, I did the Easter egg huntfor my kids, and it was always
(15:54):
in the house.
I was not gonna go outside anddump eggs somewhere, but I would
hide eggs in the house.
Then you wouldn't go and eatthose eggs afterwards, would
you?
No, because they were always theplastic ones with candy inside.
Okay, okay, okay.
Yeah, see, in this you I'm gonnasit there and spend all that
time coloring those eggs.
I'm already obsessive aboutmaking those look good.
(16:16):
I'm not gonna let those likejust be laying around somewhere.
KERRY (16:19):
So, yeah, so this basket would have the candy, and then
it would have some of thecolored Easter eggs that we did
the night before.
So, my point being that youdidn't know when the Easter
bunny came.
So, you didn't know how long theeggs were out of the
(16:39):
refrigerator and in the basketbefore you even started looking.
And then if you couldn't findthe basket, then you know, then
it was even harder because andit would take longer.
And of course, you did thissometimes.
It would you had to go tochurch.
So if you didn't find yourEaster basket and it was time to
go to church, you had to go tochurch, so you would pick up on
(17:02):
the hunt afterwards.
So those things could have been48 hours out of the fridge, and
yeah, my time I'm imagining youguys maybe had some stomach
aches.
Oh, I didn't that's why I didn'teat them.
Maybe my mom didn't purposelylet us eat them.
I don't know, but I didn't eatthem because they were warm
(17:23):
eggs.
SPEAKER_05 (17:24):
So oh god, yeah.
A hard-boiled egg has to be coldto be really enjoyed, in my
opinion.
Yes.
So, anyways, I'm sorry.
KERRY (17:32):
I didn't we're working all over the board today.
A little squirrely.
SPEAKER_05 (17:38):
But that's okay.
Well, we've got uh uh pressureson with the Carrie and Chrissy
doll here.
Yeah, I don't think that ourparents I don't know, I don't
want to talk out of term, butthey didn't seem to be as they
didn't hold it as important tomaintain and keep the whole
thing going with the Easterbunny as they were with Sienna.
KERRY (18:01):
Yes, this is true.
SPEAKER_05 (18:04):
And I couldn't even tell you when I just when I
still believed, I had to bepretty small, which is funny
because you figure if you losefaith in believing in one, you
would you would not lose.
But maybe the bunny wasn't asreal.
Question, you had to reallysuspend disbelief to believe in
the Easter bike.
The guy dressed up in a red suitwas more fe it could be
(18:28):
happening, exactly possible.
KERRY (18:29):
Big human-sized bunny with the paper merché head and
weird facing thing that yeah,it's not real.
SPEAKER_02 (18:40):
What was that movie with Jimmy Stewart, Harvey with
the big bunny?
SPEAKER_05 (18:43):
He was the only one that ever saw it.
Oh, but then at the end, I thinkmaybe you did finally get to see
the how did you remember thatmovie?
I was about to go to the MontyPython movie.
Oh, you probably want to quitbelieving in the Easter bunny
when you watch that moviebecause that rabbit totally
destroyed everybody.
KERRY (19:03):
That is oh I never saw that movie in the early mid-20s.
SPEAKER_04 (19:10):
Oh gosh, it's hilarious.
I know it is.
SPEAKER_05 (19:13):
Anyhow, okay, so we now we know we're in the it came
to America and the eggs with thebunny bringing eggs.
It's a symbol of new life.
Yeah.
And that um merged with theChristian celebration of Jesus
Christ's resurrection, blendingOh god, here we go.
(19:35):
Despirate, the spirit, what thehell's that already?
SPEAKER_02 (19:41):
Despirate, pagan and religious traditions.
That's the whole that's thedysfunction and or the
disconnect about the rabbit.
And where you're mixing thepagan and the that's the whole
disconnect.
Or the dysfunction.
SPEAKER_05 (19:55):
I need to have a linguist in the studio with me
for all of this stuff.
Although Nick is doing a greatjob, Dolphins.
SPEAKER_02 (20:04):
You should be doing the best.
You took English.
You you had you're an Englishmajor and you actually took
linguistics in college.
You shouldn't be the best atthat.
And you should be blowingChrissy or Carrie and I away
with these pronunciations.
SPEAKER_05 (20:17):
I actually got through that class.
Everybody was terrified.
You had to take linguistics, andthere was always this nightmare.
Everybody who took it alreadytold you're never gonna get
through it the first time.
Expect to take it again, and itwas required.
And they said, Nobody ever getsthrough it the first time.
It's very rare because theteacher was really difficult.
(20:38):
And so I took it and they said,if you're gonna take it as
credit, no credit.
Because if you get a bad gradein it, you'll still be able to
use the credit, no credit aslong as you take it.
I took it and I was so stressedout about it, but I went, the
guy offered all this extracredit, and I did every bit of
(20:59):
it.
And I was so happy I didn't haveto take it again.
I got through it the first time.
So that looks like that's wherewe are.
Yeah.
Thank you, Youngstown State.
Well, oh, reimagining thesymbolism.
Okay, so we'll wrap this one upand then we'll move on to more
dysfunction with the Easterbunny.
(21:21):
While the rabbit representsfertility and the pagan spring
festival, the egg was adopted byearly Christians to represent
the resurrection and the emptytomb.
Right.
So there you go.
So these are all things you canthink about while you're
celebrating in a few days.
And now this one's really hard,but it came up, so I'm gonna
(21:43):
touch on it.
This is more dysfunction withthese three.
That one actually wasn't thatdysfunctional.
It was just more about theorigin.
Yeah.
But this is gonna beunfortunate.
Okay.
Probably people are gonna beoffended, maybe.
I don't know.
So The dysfunction of the Easterbunny refers to the severe, oh
(22:05):
my god, negative impact ofpurchasing live rabbits.
Yes.
KERRY (22:12):
And I and this is I have in my years of working in animal
control, all of this stuff thatwas come up is I've witnessed,
okay.
People buy, oh, we'll go get acute little bunny for Easter for
our child.
Bad decision.
Don't do it.
(22:34):
Go get a stuffy.
Go get a chocolate candy bunny.
Please don't buy a real bunny.
Oh, yeah.
Chrissy's got show and tell now.
I brought show and tell.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (22:48):
I'm going through kids' toys, getting rid of toys.
KERRY (22:51):
And I thought, oh, I'll just bring out old little.
He's cute.
He it looks a little bit likethe bunny from oh, that's cute.
SPEAKER_05 (23:00):
Purple.
Yeah.
And these I would almost saythis is just as cruel buying all
these stuffed animals.
Because eventually you're gonnahave to get rid of these, which
just they got these cute faces.
Why would you want to get rid ofthat?
SPEAKER_02 (23:16):
So is it still is it still animal crueltine and
abandonment if you get rid ofthe stuffed animals?
SPEAKER_05 (23:23):
I don't know.
I didn't it make it does, itbothers me.
This is one of those damn beaniebaby things that they said were
gonna be worth money.
Bullshit.
And then I got a little ducky.
Don't forget about the duckies.
There's no mention ofdysfunction with ducks at
Easter.
KERRY (23:39):
Yeah, but he's cute.
Show up the cute one.
This is my favorite.
SPEAKER_05 (23:42):
Yeah, the favorite one.
Yeah, this one has a hat.
It's very appropriate.
He's proper.
The cute.
She's been sitting weird in thebox, though.
She's lopsided a little bit.
Okay.
Enough of that.
All right.
So seriously, though.
This whole thing of buying realrammets.
I guess it's like at Christmas,sometimes people go and adopt
(24:03):
and puppies bring home pets.
KERRY (24:06):
Yeah.
Don't do it.
Pets, live animals are not to begiven as holiday gifts or
impulse gifts.
Like they just you need to putthought behind it, people.
But the bunnies, especially,they're so fragile.
And people think that bunniesare easy, like they're low
(24:27):
maintenance, that oh, it's easy,it's just a little bunny.
They're gonna be easy to takecare of, wrong and wrong.
They require a very specialdiet.
And just because you see thewild bunnies outside hopping
around, enjoying life, eatingwhatever, that's not what it's
like for domestic bunnies.
So they need a special diet,they need proper exercise, and
(24:48):
they're very fearful animals.
They're prey animals.
Their entire life is aboutwhat's gonna kill me, chase me,
eat me, go after me, orpotentially like my life is
gonna end if I let somethingnear me.
Little kids, which you know, Iunderstand you can teach your
children how to be good aroundanimals, but do we have to test
(25:11):
that theory?
So it's like rabbits still theyget scared, they panic, they
run, and they just they're justin fear of their life, and they
either smack into a wall orsmack into their cage, break
their neck, or their adrenalinespikes and that kills.
I know this is how it is.
It's trip, people truth talkingtruth here.
(25:32):
And then you are thank you.
Yeah, sorry, you hit a nervewith this one.
Then what happens is that peopledo buy the bunny and it happens
to live.
People get rid of them afteryou, oh, they lose interest, or
oh, it's summer.
Okay, we're buying this littlecute little bunny in in the
early spring when you're stillstuck indoors.
Then summer hits, and you wantkids want to go outside, they
(25:53):
forget about the rabbit.
Parents want to go on vacation.
Oh, who's gonna take care of therabbit?
So, what do they do?
One of two things they usuallyget rid of it, take it to a
shelter, try to re-home it, orthey think, oh, here's a bright
idea.
Let's just release it in thepark with all the other wild
rabbits.
It'll be fine.
No, it won't.
(26:14):
No, it won't.
So I remember in animal controlone year, there was this local
park, and I don't know, two,three months after Easter, they
all of a sudden had this influxof these white rabbits, white
and colored rabbits.
They were not jackrabbits, theywere not cottontail rabbits,
they were domestic rabbits.
People got at Easter, didn'tknow what to do with them
(26:36):
anymore, so they let them out.
These poor rabbits were dyingbecause they're either, you
know, getting hit by a car,they're getting eaten by
coyotes.
Oh, it's horrible.
So we're out there trying tocatch these rabbits.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sorry.
I wasn't.
SPEAKER_05 (26:50):
Well, I actually have uh a stat on that.
Okay, tell me your thoughts.
It says roughly 80% of shelterrabbits were once bought as
Easter gifts and are abandonedby summer, just like what you
said.
Yep.
So while kids may suffer stressfrom meeting the character or
(27:11):
distress from learning, it is alie.
Oh, wait, we jumped fromsomething else.
I was trying to tell you aboutthe 80% of the um rabbits and
shelters are from Easter.
I don't think rabbits are amistrust.
Easter, okay.
(27:31):
All right, well, let's move on.
Animal, okay.
So we've obviously touched onthe animal cruelty and
abandonment.
Live rabbits are often boughtimpulsively, they children lose
interest, leading to highabandonment rates and
overcrowded shelters.
Pet care ignorance.
Yeah.
Ooh, that sounds mean.
Domestic rabbits requirespecialized care, including hay
(27:54):
and specific foods, and are notsuitable for children to manage.
Yep.
Often biting when stressed orneglected.
Yep.
So maybe if you show them thatmove Monty Python movie, no DMK
gonna want a bunny rabbit afterthat.
And then child emotionaldistress.
Yeah.
Boy, we just really we try tomake these holidays so special
(28:16):
for our kids, and we're reallyjust torturing them, it sounds
like.
Yep.
So the tradition of sitting on aoh, this is about the mall bunny
head that's terrifying.
Um, the tradition of sitting ona giant creature's lap often a
masked stranger can cause severelasting anxiety and fear for
(28:39):
children.
Yeah.
Yeah, and that's the otherthing.
I think that why Easter Bunnylike believing in it does not
last.
When you go to the mall inSienna, it's a person.
Yeah.
And you, I guess, depending onyour age, yeah, you might not
understand, because this doesn'tlook like a rabbit.
Right.
It's a person in a horriblebunny suit.
(29:02):
So it just yeah, I don't know.
I I don't think I was ever takento see the Easter bunny.
KERRY (29:08):
Yeah, I was.
SPEAKER_05 (29:09):
I remember getting drunk to see that.
KERRY (29:11):
I think what we need to do is we need our listeners to
post pictures of their localEaster bunny photo shoots, like
where they took their kids tothe mall or wherever the grocery
store, wherever they had one ofthese Easter bunny things.
We want to see these pictures inall the different variations of
(29:33):
these Easter bunnyrepresentatives.
That's what I want to see.
SPEAKER_05 (29:37):
Yeah, we what we would ask is if you could,
though, we you know, of course,just to keep your sensitive,
keep the children maybe covertheir face or we would before we
posted it, we would crop themout.
KERRY (29:50):
Yeah, we just want to see the bunny part.
So yeah.
Blurb over put a fuzzy over thekid's face.
SPEAKER_05 (30:01):
Just you want to see the bunny.
That's always terrifying initself when we have to blur out
people's faces.
The tradition, okay.
So we myth deception.
Here we go again.
We talked about this with SantaClaus.
Yeah, the law, the big law.
Yep.
So research suggests thatmaintaining the myth of the
Easter Buddy can cause childrento feel hurt upon learning the
(30:23):
truth or encourage lyingbehavior.
So, you can't be a liar.
So I'm gonna be a liar to you.
Yeah, good lord.
All these excuses for how we'veended up with some real horrible
human beings running around.
Money and dandy lied to me aboutthe money.
(30:45):
Now, this is really funny.
Environmental garden damage.
Any gardeners out there?
I'm sure I do garden, but I havethat rabbits, even not even if
not the mythical kind, aredestructive to landscaping.
Okay, particularly young tulipsand pansies in early spring.
Yeah.
(31:06):
So then we just need to hate thebunnies because they destroyed
our garden, our flowers.
I just hate the fact that I knowwe have a lot of bunnies coming
into our yard, even though myyard is fenced.
The reason I know this isbecause I have two dogs, and
they just know that there werebunnies out there.
(31:31):
We had.
And those dogs, they'rebeautiful.
I love to have them.
But then when I got kids, I wasworried because my kids would
jump all over the place, and myone dog did get under my
daughter when she was jumpingaround, and we had to deal with
helping him out because he gothurt a little bit.
But so I decided to get a goldendoodle, which I love.
They have two of them.
(31:52):
And it's been a new experiencethough, because they are half
retriever.
Yeah.
And they retrieved.
So the big one, who weighs about80 pounds, has killed birds.
Yeah.
He just jumps and gets them.
Yeah.
And for somebody like me, whohas never been raised around the
(32:14):
things you have, I totally allyou do is hear me and Nick in
the backyard screaming.
And unfortunately, there'slanguage coming out, and there's
a ton of kids in thisneighborhood.
I probably we really need to tryand watch.
SPEAKER_00 (32:27):
Oh.
SPEAKER_05 (32:29):
But Nick and I are traumatized.
So we've got the Easter bunnies.
Our trauma dogs killing birds.
We are traumatized.
We have traumatized.
SPEAKER_02 (32:37):
No, I do worry that he will catch it because there's
a ton of bunnies in thebackyard.
Because we have pine trees andit's a lot of shelter.
So they they'll do their nestsunder those on those pine trees.
And he's always in there.
I'm just I'm so worried he'sgonna kill some of those
bunnies.
SPEAKER_05 (32:55):
When yeah, we don't want to wait for the phone.
KERRY (32:56):
When we lived on the farm, we have a chain link
fenced in backyard, but thebunnies could easily get under
and through.
And most of our dogs neverbothered them.
But our little happy ons, whoare barely as big as the
bunnies, they thought it wasjust fun.
And you're not meaning to doanything.
They just see something runningand they're like, oh, I want to
(33:18):
play.
And so they were constantlychasing these.
So we're happy that we're herenow because it's a block wall.
So we don't have any rabbitsgetting in our yard, and they
can't see the rabbits that we dosee, which are jack rabbits.
They're huge, they're like, Idon't know, 25 pounds.
They're big, they're really big.
(33:39):
Oh, yeah, they're really big.
And so we can enjoy seeing themnow.
We don't have to worry about ourdogs chasing us.
But, anyways, geez, it went downup.
SPEAKER_05 (33:48):
That's about as big as a dog.
Yeah, so I think I did I covereverything.
I think you did.
I think we've been please enjoyEaster, enjoy your eggs, enjoy
the bunnies, enjoy your plushlittle stuffed animals, yes,
enjoy the dolls if you get adoll in your Easter basket.
KERRY (34:10):
No, we really do want to wish everybody a happy Easter or
whatever you're celebrating.
And if you don't celebrateEaster, happy spring break,
happy spring, happy weekend off,whatever.
Yeah, absolutely.
Talk about our uh Yes,absolutely.
So we are in the month of April.
So this month we are celebratingWorld Autism Month.
(34:33):
And so our junkiest careinitiative is the Crippy Go.
SPEAKER_05 (34:39):
Akron Autism Society.
Yes, but a lot of communitieshave autism societies, and I
pick that one because that onesort of represents the county
I'm in right now.
And seek that out.
They are a nonprofit and they dowonderful things for families.
They offer a lot of programs andinformation and just support.
KERRY (35:02):
Absolutely.
But definitely check out ourFacebook page, check out our
website, dysfunctionjunkiespodcast.com, and learn
more about us, more and moreabout Akron Autism Society.
And we'll see you next week.
Bye, everybody.
Welcome to the Ditchbox and Junkies podcast.
SPEAKER_01 (00:10):
We may not have seen it all, but we've seen enough.
And now here are your hosts,Chrissy and Harry.
KERRY (00:21):
Hello, junkies.
I'm Carrie.
SPEAKER_05 (00:25):
And I'm Chrissy with Carrie.
KERRY (00:28):
And I'm with Chrissy.
SPEAKER_05 (00:31):
Yeah.
How are we explaining thesepsychotic dolls that we have
with us?
KERRY (00:36):
I don't know what episode was.
We've talked about them before.
Somewhere back in season one,Chrissy found these dolls.
And they are the Carrie doll,which Chrissy has with her with
the blonde hair and the greenoutfit.
And it's spelled actually how Ispell my name, K-E-R-R-Y.
And then this is Carrie orChrissy or Carrie's friend
(00:57):
Chrissy.
And so we thought it would begreat to get these dolls.
So I found them on eBay, and wejust finally decided to make
their debut.
So when we can't be together inperson, we have dolls.
SPEAKER_05 (01:13):
Yes, we do.
Yeah, Chrissy is not spelled theway I spell it, which is fine.
It's I think it's C-R-I-S-S-Y.
Yeah, there's two F's instead ofone.
But I think she was a prettypopular doll in the late 60s,
early 70s, and she had a friendCarrie.
She had other friends too.
I think it was a whole thing.
Yeah.
But I couldn't believe when Isaw when I was looking up this
(01:35):
doll that it had a the doll hada friend, and the friend was
Carrie.
And the Carrie doll is blondeand blue-eyed.
So it just was meant to be.
KERRY (01:46):
And what's funny is I actually had the Carrie doll
growing up because I think thatwas such a unique thing that
something actually had my namespelled right.
But what's interesting aboutthem is their hair grows.
So like they have this littlething that you can twist.
Excuse me, why violate?
She has that too.
Yeah.
You'd you scroll here.
(02:07):
I'll cover the dupa, but it'sstill worse.
Yeah, yeah.
So you do that, and then you canpull the hair to make it grow
somehow.
Oh no, push you push a butt.
I don't know, but in any case,so they could have short hair or
long hair.
SPEAKER_05 (02:25):
So yes, beautiful.
KERRY (02:27):
And yes, they are lovely.
And Carrie located these.
Yes, the originals.
SPEAKER_05 (02:32):
These are not represent replicas.
These are originals.
KERRY (02:36):
In 1971, 72.
So I think the carry doll that Ihad growing up, I think my
sister has it.
My my sister that lives over inPennsylvania.
I think she actually has myoriginal Carrie doll.
But so anyways, nice.
So you will see them in our homestudios.
SPEAKER_05 (02:56):
And she's much more fun to look at.
KERRY (02:58):
Anyway, so um I may have actually gotten my carry doll as
an Easter gift in my Easterbasket.
Who knows?
Back in the day.
SPEAKER_05 (03:08):
Wow, that's a pretty nice score for Easter.
Because I don't even remembergetting a doll at Easter, always
a stuffed animal, and thencandy.
Yeah.
Coloring book-ups.
But of course, then when I hadkids, everything changed.
You had to go all out.
Yep.
Yep.
That's how it is.
But that's what we do.
(03:30):
Yeah.
So what are we going to talkabout?
I I came up with this ideabecause I know we crapped all
over Santa Claus at Christmasand learned a whole bunch of new
things about Santa.
Yeah.
So now we're going to talk aboutthe dysfunction of the Easter
bunny, his or her origin, andjust all the unfortunate mess of
the Easter bunny in general.
(03:52):
Let's do it.
Or what?
KERRY (03:54):
Let's do three days away from Easter?
SPEAKER_05 (03:59):
Yeah.
It's here already.
I know.
So again, it's not it's earlythis year, but not terribly
early.
KERRY (04:06):
Yeah, at least sometimes it comes at the end of March,
and that's just a bummer.
SPEAKER_02 (04:10):
I hate when it's that early.
What?
So I don't mean to interrupt,but do you want to put a
disclaimer on this?
Just like you did with the Santaepisode that you may not if you
have children present.
SPEAKER_05 (04:19):
Yeah, you do not want so they probably don't want
them to listen to this.
KERRY (04:25):
In general, but mommy or daddy listen to without the
children present.
If Crimson goes down the roadthat she went down at Christmas
time, then yeah, this is uh putyour ear pods and your
headphones on, put the kids, Idon't know, up in front of the
chair.
SPEAKER_02 (04:43):
I just wanted to I wanted to put that in there
before you guys got going incase.
KERRY (04:47):
Good job, DJ.
SPEAKER_02 (04:48):
Because I've seen some of her I saw some of her
notes.
SPEAKER_05 (04:51):
Yeah.
Okay.
Uh so how and again, I need I'mgonna need to buy readers, I
think, because this is justreally bad.
But uh, so let's talk about theorigin first.
Yeah, we're gonna start.
So are we talking about theEaster bunny?
KERRY (05:10):
That's the focus, not necessarily Easter.
SPEAKER_05 (05:12):
Yeah, this is not the bunny.
No, okay.
This is the Easter bunny, notEaster.
Okay, and just like with theChristmas idea, a lot of it is
based in ancient pagan roots.
It's then generally Christianitytook some of these and adopted
(05:32):
it for their celebration.
But so it says rabbits and hareswere associated with the ancient
pagan festival of oh great.
Nick, you got this printout.
Say these words for me.
Outside of the fact that I can'tsee them, then I have to try and
read this stuff.
It's got the those little dotsover the E.
(05:53):
Or no, it's a line.
It's a line over the E.
What does that mean?
SPEAKER_02 (05:58):
Which way is the line go?
SPEAKER_05 (06:00):
It's flat.
It's like a hyphen over the E.
SPEAKER_02 (06:04):
Oh.
SPEAKER_05 (06:04):
It's not Ulots or whatever those dots are called.
What is this?
SPEAKER_02 (06:09):
Do I have this?
SPEAKER_05 (06:10):
Yes, I gave you a printout.
SPEAKER_02 (06:11):
Is it on the it's not on your notes, it's on the
email?
SPEAKER_05 (06:15):
It's actually what I printed out from the notes that
I found from AI.
And by the way, there's not thisis no author.
I do give credit when I do usesomebody's lists or something
like that.
But this is just somehowgenerated.
I typed in dysfunction bunny anddysfunction my computer with oh
dysfunction Easter Bunny.
KERRY (06:34):
Tomara, the Festival of Ostar.
Tomorrow.
I had to switch screens here tolook at it.
So if my eyes went weird for aminute, because Oh, it does in
parentheses tell you how to sayit.
SPEAKER_05 (06:45):
Okay.
Yeah.
Ha ha ha.
Very funny.
Okay, yeah.
I'm playing as a bat.
It's an Anglo-Saxon goddess ofspring and fertility due to
their rapid productions.
Wonderful.
Right there.
I'm already having a problem.
Okay, go.
We're celebrating rapidreproduction.
I guess that's why rabbits therabbit test.
Does anybody still remember thatpoll remark?
(07:09):
If they asked if he had a rabbittest.
Oh, I never heard just apregnancy test.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And they reproduce like rabbits.
That's another one you alwaysheard.
Okay.
KERRY (07:20):
Which is so that's where that's from.
So when I was young, I had arabbit, and when it passed away,
my mom said, Whatever other,whatever breed of rabbit you
want to get, I will get you.
Because I was in 4-H and thingslike that.
I went through the little rabbitbreed book and I found this
breed of rabbit that I was like,oh my gosh, this is what I want.
(07:42):
And it's called the Polishrabbit.
That's the name of the breed.
They're very difficult toobtain.
Now, I don't know if things havechanged in the last 40 years,
but part of the reason why theywere very difficult to get and
hard to find was because theydid not breed like rabbits.
So that was always the funnything that people would say, oh,
it breeds like rabbits.
And I'm like, not my Polishrabbits, because that ain't
(08:06):
happening.
SPEAKER_05 (08:07):
No.
So anyways, go ahead.
Well, there you go.
Not all of the different breedsare created equal.
SPEAKER_00 (08:15):
Okay.
SPEAKER_05 (08:16):
And then we have, and this he said this one real
easy.
German folklore.
And I even took German.
I took a quarter of it at theuniversity.
SPEAKER_02 (08:28):
It looks like Osterhaus.
SPEAKER_05 (08:30):
Right, probably.
That's the concept of an egglaying here.
Comes from German folklore,specifically the Osterhaus or
Osterhaus.
Oh boy.
(08:52):
And then Catholic education.
Does anybody remember we tookphonics?
KERRY (08:57):
Tom Phonics.
SPEAKER_05 (08:58):
Did I even teach phonics?
Okay, smart ass.
We're fine.
But I always spelled everythingthe way it sounded, but in the
English language, that only getsyou so far.
This is true.
You can't spell everything theway it sounds.
Okay, fine.
So what does this say here?
So I need to get it from yourclasses.
(09:20):
This is really bad.
Okay.
KERRY (09:23):
I do like you would if we were on video.
You just put it right up here.
SPEAKER_05 (09:27):
I feel so self-conscious.
I am putting it right up there.
All right, fine.
KERRY (09:32):
There you go.
SPEAKER_05 (09:32):
The look on the uh the ostrich house tradition is
this tradition.
Children would create nests,sometimes using bonnets or hats.
And if they were well behaved,the hair would lay colorful eggs
in it.
In your hat?
Is that where shit go shit inyour hat comes from?
(09:54):
Did you hear anybody sayingthat?
Tell you go shit in your hat.
Is that a saying?
SPEAKER_01 (09:58):
I think you're making some sense.
KERRY (10:03):
I swear, I think somebody, that's an old say.
Go shit in your hat.
I'm gonna not go.
What are we Gemini that?
SPEAKER_05 (10:13):
Why can't we still say Google?
I don't know.
SPEAKER_02 (10:17):
You could say Google.
SPEAKER_05 (10:18):
Okay.
These by the way, everybody, ifyou can't follow along, and
hopefully your children are notlistening.
Well, then this is just aboutthe origin, but still probably
should listen.
Is did you find it?
Yeah, I did.
Is go shit in your head to sayshit in your head?
KERRY (10:33):
See?
A World War II era insult tosomeone who expects something
unreasonable from you.
A sarcastic reply.
SPEAKER_05 (10:44):
I think we need to bring this back.
Everybody go out there and telleverybody go shit in your hat.
KERRY (10:53):
We'll put it on nobody's wearing it.
You heard it.
You heard it again onDysfunction Dread Keys Podcast.
SPEAKER_05 (11:01):
First, yes, yes.
Okay, so now we get all that outof the way if you've been
following at all.
Then we have the arrival inAmerica.
So of course it comes with theimmigrants that come over.
German immigrants brought thistradition to oh Pennsylvania, a
neighbor over here, although notyours anymore, but mine still.
(11:23):
Who's your neighbors?
I don't even know geographicallywho's next to you.
Where are you at?
Nevada.
KERRY (11:28):
Nevada, Arizona, Colorado.
There are surrounding states.
SPEAKER_04 (11:37):
Oh, okay.
Show off.
Yeah.
Okay, those are pretty good, Iguess.
I'm still stuck over here nextto PA.
SPEAKER_05 (11:44):
Um, that was in the 1700s, which later spread
throughout the United States,evolving into the modern Easter
basket tradition.
Well, where the hell's theEaster Bunny at in all this?
KERRY (11:57):
The Easter bunny was that monster hawks thing that was
laying colorful egg.
SPEAKER_05 (12:05):
I didn't read the first paragraph.
The Easter Bunny tradition,often viewed as a secular
commercial figure, has itsorigins.
It's an ancient Europeanfertility customs rather than
biblical scripture.
There you go.
KERRY (12:18):
Hey, speaking of Easter basket, I have another show and
tell today.
Oh, yeah, let's see.
Chris, would you help me talkedabout it briefly and bring in
the show and tell?
SPEAKER_05 (12:33):
We're having way too much fun at our age.
KERRY (12:37):
We're playing with our dogs.
This is my okay, Chrissy, go sitdown.
All right.
This is my East basket that Ihave had my entire life that I
remember.
Probably well at least fiveyears old that I remember back.
But this used to be green.
(13:00):
This stripe here used to begreen, but over years it's
faded.
But yeah, this is my Easterbasket from childhood.
SPEAKER_05 (13:07):
There it is.
Well, you can get a lot of uhcontraband in there.
So I hope your parents werealways good about filling it up
for you.
KERRY (13:14):
They actually, that was one time they were pretty good.
Hi, Chrissy.
Welcome back.
They were pretty good aboutthat.
Yeah.
It's Easter with a lot of candy.
But there were still some ofthose hard-boiled eggs that they
threw in there for color, but Inever ate them.
SPEAKER_05 (13:30):
You know-boiled eggs.
KERRY (13:32):
Oh, I like hard-boiled eggs, but there was something
from a very young age that I hadwarm eggs.
So you know, because the eggswere in the basket, and who
okay, first of all, do you hideyour basket?
No.
That's effort.
SPEAKER_05 (13:48):
Wait, but you know how people hide for my kids?
No, I until I did not know thiswas a thing.
KERRY (13:55):
Oh my god.
SPEAKER_05 (13:56):
I heard about hiding Easter eggs, but never the whole
basket.
KERRY (14:02):
Oh yeah.
Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (14:04):
So the whole that takes too much energy.
My kids are too old now.
KERRY (14:07):
This whole basket would be full of of candy and yummies
and maybe an occasional toy.
If it was a toy, it was probablygonna be something like play-doh
or something small.
But that whole basket washidden.
And when you got up on Eastermorning, you had to go find your
basket.
And you never know where thatEaster buddy was gonna hide it.
(14:29):
So to this day, Farm Boy Jimstill has to find the Easter
basket.
I do not let him escape thattradition.
He has to find it.
He acts like he doesn't like it,but he really does.
If I don't hide it, he'll beupset.
SPEAKER_05 (14:42):
Was this in the house, or what could it be
outside?
KERRY (14:46):
Usually or was it weather permitting?
Yeah, usually it was inside, butthere were occasional times it
would have been found maybe inthe barn, maybe in the rabbit
hutch of the rabbit cageoutside.
SPEAKER_05 (15:05):
Yeah.
Were you under the impressionthat the rabbits that you had
somehow were involved in uhdelivering this stuff?
KERRY (15:12):
No, I never made those correlations.
No.
Uh no.
But yeah, but this was sometimesa challenge.
You would think this would beeasy to find because it's big,
but it was actually sometimeshard to find.
You never knew.
Of course it's a challenge.
It's one thing.
SPEAKER_05 (15:30):
At least, even though eggs are smaller, there's
several of them.
You have a your chances arebetter at the eggs than one
basket.
Yeah.
Just because it's the size of itis is appropriate large and you
think you could see itsomewhere, but yeah, no.
That again, I never grew up withan Easter egg hunt.
Well, nothing.
No, I did the Easter egg huntfor my kids, and it was always
(15:54):
in the house.
I was not gonna go outside anddump eggs somewhere, but I would
hide eggs in the house.
Then you wouldn't go and eatthose eggs afterwards, would
you?
No, because they were always theplastic ones with candy inside.
Okay, okay, okay.
Yeah, see, in this you I'm gonnasit there and spend all that
time coloring those eggs.
I'm already obsessive aboutmaking those look good.
(16:16):
I'm not gonna let those likejust be laying around somewhere.
KERRY (16:19):
So, yeah, so this basket would have the candy, and then
it would have some of thecolored Easter eggs that we did
the night before.
So, my point being that youdidn't know when the Easter
bunny came.
So, you didn't know how long theeggs were out of the
(16:39):
refrigerator and in the basketbefore you even started looking.
And then if you couldn't findthe basket, then you know, then
it was even harder because andit would take longer.
And of course, you did thissometimes.
It would you had to go tochurch.
So if you didn't find yourEaster basket and it was time to
go to church, you had to go tochurch, so you would pick up on
(17:02):
the hunt afterwards.
So those things could have been48 hours out of the fridge, and
yeah, my time I'm imagining youguys maybe had some stomach
aches.
Oh, I didn't that's why I didn'teat them.
Maybe my mom didn't purposelylet us eat them.
I don't know, but I didn't eatthem because they were warm
(17:23):
eggs.
SPEAKER_05 (17:24):
So oh god, yeah.
A hard-boiled egg has to be coldto be really enjoyed, in my
opinion.
Yes.
So, anyways, I'm sorry.
KERRY (17:32):
I didn't we're working all over the board today.
A little squirrely.
SPEAKER_05 (17:38):
But that's okay.
Well, we've got uh uh pressureson with the Carrie and Chrissy
doll here.
Yeah, I don't think that ourparents I don't know, I don't
want to talk out of term, butthey didn't seem to be as they
didn't hold it as important tomaintain and keep the whole
thing going with the Easterbunny as they were with Sienna.
KERRY (18:01):
Yes, this is true.
SPEAKER_05 (18:04):
And I couldn't even tell you when I just when I
still believed, I had to bepretty small, which is funny
because you figure if you losefaith in believing in one, you
would you would not lose.
But maybe the bunny wasn't asreal.
Question, you had to reallysuspend disbelief to believe in
the Easter bike.
The guy dressed up in a red suitwas more fe it could be
(18:28):
happening, exactly possible.
KERRY (18:29):
Big human-sized bunny with the paper merché head and
weird facing thing that yeah,it's not real.
SPEAKER_02 (18:40):
What was that movie with Jimmy Stewart, Harvey with
the big bunny?
SPEAKER_05 (18:43):
He was the only one that ever saw it.
Oh, but then at the end, I thinkmaybe you did finally get to see
the how did you remember thatmovie?
I was about to go to the MontyPython movie.
Oh, you probably want to quitbelieving in the Easter bunny
when you watch that moviebecause that rabbit totally
destroyed everybody.
KERRY (19:03):
That is oh I never saw that movie in the early mid-20s.
SPEAKER_04 (19:10):
Oh gosh, it's hilarious.
I know it is.
SPEAKER_05 (19:13):
Anyhow, okay, so we now we know we're in the it came
to America and the eggs with thebunny bringing eggs.
It's a symbol of new life.
Yeah.
And that um merged with theChristian celebration of Jesus
Christ's resurrection, blendingOh god, here we go.
(19:35):
Despirate, the spirit, what thehell's that already?
SPEAKER_02 (19:41):
Despirate, pagan and religious traditions.
That's the whole that's thedysfunction and or the
disconnect about the rabbit.
And where you're mixing thepagan and the that's the whole
disconnect.
Or the dysfunction.
SPEAKER_05 (19:55):
I need to have a linguist in the studio with me
for all of this stuff.
Although Nick is doing a greatjob, Dolphins.
SPEAKER_02 (20:04):
You should be doing the best.
You took English.
You you had you're an Englishmajor and you actually took
linguistics in college.
You shouldn't be the best atthat.
And you should be blowingChrissy or Carrie and I away
with these pronunciations.
SPEAKER_05 (20:17):
I actually got through that class.
Everybody was terrified.
You had to take linguistics, andthere was always this nightmare.
Everybody who took it alreadytold you're never gonna get
through it the first time.
Expect to take it again, and itwas required.
And they said, Nobody ever getsthrough it the first time.
It's very rare because theteacher was really difficult.
(20:38):
And so I took it and they said,if you're gonna take it as
credit, no credit.
Because if you get a bad gradein it, you'll still be able to
use the credit, no credit aslong as you take it.
I took it and I was so stressedout about it, but I went, the
guy offered all this extracredit, and I did every bit of
(20:59):
it.
And I was so happy I didn't haveto take it again.
I got through it the first time.
So that looks like that's wherewe are.
Yeah.
Thank you, Youngstown State.
Well, oh, reimagining thesymbolism.
Okay, so we'll wrap this one upand then we'll move on to more
dysfunction with the Easterbunny.
(21:21):
While the rabbit representsfertility and the pagan spring
festival, the egg was adopted byearly Christians to represent
the resurrection and the emptytomb.
Right.
So there you go.
So these are all things you canthink about while you're
celebrating in a few days.
And now this one's really hard,but it came up, so I'm gonna
(21:43):
touch on it.
This is more dysfunction withthese three.
That one actually wasn't thatdysfunctional.
It was just more about theorigin.
Yeah.
But this is gonna beunfortunate.
Okay.
Probably people are gonna beoffended, maybe.
I don't know.
So The dysfunction of the Easterbunny refers to the severe, oh
(22:05):
my god, negative impact ofpurchasing live rabbits.
Yes.
KERRY (22:12):
And I and this is I have in my years of working in animal
control, all of this stuff thatwas come up is I've witnessed,
okay.
People buy, oh, we'll go get acute little bunny for Easter for
our child.
Bad decision.
Don't do it.
(22:34):
Go get a stuffy.
Go get a chocolate candy bunny.
Please don't buy a real bunny.
Oh, yeah.
Chrissy's got show and tell now.
I brought show and tell.
Yeah.
SPEAKER_05 (22:48):
I'm going through kids' toys, getting rid of toys.
KERRY (22:51):
And I thought, oh, I'll just bring out old little.
He's cute.
He it looks a little bit likethe bunny from oh, that's cute.
SPEAKER_05 (23:00):
Purple.
Yeah.
And these I would almost saythis is just as cruel buying all
these stuffed animals.
Because eventually you're gonnahave to get rid of these, which
just they got these cute faces.
Why would you want to get rid ofthat?
SPEAKER_02 (23:16):
So is it still is it still animal crueltine and
abandonment if you get rid ofthe stuffed animals?
SPEAKER_05 (23:23):
I don't know.
I didn't it make it does, itbothers me.
This is one of those damn beaniebaby things that they said were
gonna be worth money.
Bullshit.
And then I got a little ducky.
Don't forget about the duckies.
There's no mention ofdysfunction with ducks at
Easter.
KERRY (23:39):
Yeah, but he's cute.
Show up the cute one.
This is my favorite.
SPEAKER_05 (23:42):
Yeah, the favorite one.
Yeah, this one has a hat.
It's very appropriate.
He's proper.
The cute.
She's been sitting weird in thebox, though.
She's lopsided a little bit.
Okay.
Enough of that.
All right.
So seriously, though.
This whole thing of buying realrammets.
I guess it's like at Christmas,sometimes people go and adopt
(24:03):
and puppies bring home pets.
KERRY (24:06):
Yeah.
Don't do it.
Pets, live animals are not to begiven as holiday gifts or
impulse gifts.
Like they just you need to putthought behind it, people.
But the bunnies, especially,they're so fragile.
And people think that bunniesare easy, like they're low
(24:27):
maintenance, that oh, it's easy,it's just a little bunny.
They're gonna be easy to takecare of, wrong and wrong.
They require a very specialdiet.
And just because you see thewild bunnies outside hopping
around, enjoying life, eatingwhatever, that's not what it's
like for domestic bunnies.
So they need a special diet,they need proper exercise, and
(24:48):
they're very fearful animals.
They're prey animals.
Their entire life is aboutwhat's gonna kill me, chase me,
eat me, go after me, orpotentially like my life is
gonna end if I let somethingnear me.
Little kids, which you know, Iunderstand you can teach your
children how to be good aroundanimals, but do we have to test
(25:11):
that theory?
So it's like rabbits still theyget scared, they panic, they
run, and they just they're justin fear of their life, and they
either smack into a wall orsmack into their cage, break
their neck, or their adrenalinespikes and that kills.
I know this is how it is.
It's trip, people truth talkingtruth here.
(25:32):
And then you are thank you.
Yeah, sorry, you hit a nervewith this one.
Then what happens is that peopledo buy the bunny and it happens
to live.
People get rid of them afteryou, oh, they lose interest, or
oh, it's summer.
Okay, we're buying this littlecute little bunny in in the
early spring when you're stillstuck indoors.
Then summer hits, and you wantkids want to go outside, they
(25:53):
forget about the rabbit.
Parents want to go on vacation.
Oh, who's gonna take care of therabbit?
So, what do they do?
One of two things they usuallyget rid of it, take it to a
shelter, try to re-home it, orthey think, oh, here's a bright
idea.
Let's just release it in thepark with all the other wild
rabbits.
It'll be fine.
No, it won't.
(26:14):
No, it won't.
So I remember in animal controlone year, there was this local
park, and I don't know, two,three months after Easter, they
all of a sudden had this influxof these white rabbits, white
and colored rabbits.
They were not jackrabbits, theywere not cottontail rabbits,
they were domestic rabbits.
People got at Easter, didn'tknow what to do with them
(26:36):
anymore, so they let them out.
These poor rabbits were dyingbecause they're either, you
know, getting hit by a car,they're getting eaten by
coyotes.
Oh, it's horrible.
So we're out there trying tocatch these rabbits.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Sorry.
I wasn't.
SPEAKER_05 (26:50):
Well, I actually have uh a stat on that.
Okay, tell me your thoughts.
It says roughly 80% of shelterrabbits were once bought as
Easter gifts and are abandonedby summer, just like what you
said.
Yep.
So while kids may suffer stressfrom meeting the character or
(27:11):
distress from learning, it is alie.
Oh, wait, we jumped fromsomething else.
I was trying to tell you aboutthe 80% of the um rabbits and
shelters are from Easter.
I don't think rabbits are amistrust.
Easter, okay.
(27:31):
All right, well, let's move on.
Animal, okay.
So we've obviously touched onthe animal cruelty and
abandonment.
Live rabbits are often boughtimpulsively, they children lose
interest, leading to highabandonment rates and
overcrowded shelters.
Pet care ignorance.
Yeah.
Ooh, that sounds mean.
Domestic rabbits requirespecialized care, including hay
(27:54):
and specific foods, and are notsuitable for children to manage.
Yep.
Often biting when stressed orneglected.
Yep.
So maybe if you show them thatmove Monty Python movie, no DMK
gonna want a bunny rabbit afterthat.
And then child emotionaldistress.
Yeah.
Boy, we just really we try tomake these holidays so special
(28:16):
for our kids, and we're reallyjust torturing them, it sounds
like.
Yep.
So the tradition of sitting on aoh, this is about the mall bunny
head that's terrifying.
Um, the tradition of sitting ona giant creature's lap often a
masked stranger can cause severelasting anxiety and fear for
(28:39):
children.
Yeah.
Yeah, and that's the otherthing.
I think that why Easter Bunnylike believing in it does not
last.
When you go to the mall inSienna, it's a person.
Yeah.
And you, I guess, depending onyour age, yeah, you might not
understand, because this doesn'tlook like a rabbit.
Right.
It's a person in a horriblebunny suit.
(29:02):
So it just yeah, I don't know.
I I don't think I was ever takento see the Easter bunny.
KERRY (29:08):
Yeah, I was.
SPEAKER_05 (29:09):
I remember getting drunk to see that.
KERRY (29:11):
I think what we need to do is we need our listeners to
post pictures of their localEaster bunny photo shoots, like
where they took their kids tothe mall or wherever the grocery
store, wherever they had one ofthese Easter bunny things.
We want to see these pictures inall the different variations of
(29:33):
these Easter bunnyrepresentatives.
That's what I want to see.
SPEAKER_05 (29:37):
Yeah, we what we would ask is if you could,
though, we you know, of course,just to keep your sensitive,
keep the children maybe covertheir face or we would before we
posted it, we would crop themout.
KERRY (29:50):
Yeah, we just want to see the bunny part.
So yeah.
Blurb over put a fuzzy over thekid's face.
SPEAKER_05 (30:01):
Just you want to see the bunny.
That's always terrifying initself when we have to blur out
people's faces.
The tradition, okay.
So we myth deception.
Here we go again.
We talked about this with SantaClaus.
Yeah, the law, the big law.
Yep.
So research suggests thatmaintaining the myth of the
Easter Buddy can cause childrento feel hurt upon learning the
(30:23):
truth or encourage lyingbehavior.
So, you can't be a liar.
So I'm gonna be a liar to you.
Yeah, good lord.
All these excuses for how we'veended up with some real horrible
human beings running around.
Money and dandy lied to me aboutthe money.
(30:45):
Now, this is really funny.
Environmental garden damage.
Any gardeners out there?
I'm sure I do garden, but I havethat rabbits, even not even if
not the mythical kind, aredestructive to landscaping.
Okay, particularly young tulipsand pansies in early spring.
Yeah.
(31:06):
So then we just need to hate thebunnies because they destroyed
our garden, our flowers.
I just hate the fact that I knowwe have a lot of bunnies coming
into our yard, even though myyard is fenced.
The reason I know this isbecause I have two dogs, and
they just know that there werebunnies out there.
(31:31):
We had.
And those dogs, they'rebeautiful.
I love to have them.
But then when I got kids, I wasworried because my kids would
jump all over the place, and myone dog did get under my
daughter when she was jumpingaround, and we had to deal with
helping him out because he gothurt a little bit.
But so I decided to get a goldendoodle, which I love.
They have two of them.
(31:52):
And it's been a new experiencethough, because they are half
retriever.
Yeah.
And they retrieved.
So the big one, who weighs about80 pounds, has killed birds.
Yeah.
He just jumps and gets them.
Yeah.
And for somebody like me, whohas never been raised around the
(32:14):
things you have, I totally allyou do is hear me and Nick in
the backyard screaming.
And unfortunately, there'slanguage coming out, and there's
a ton of kids in thisneighborhood.
I probably we really need to tryand watch.
SPEAKER_00 (32:27):
Oh.
SPEAKER_05 (32:29):
But Nick and I are traumatized.
So we've got the Easter bunnies.
Our trauma dogs killing birds.
We are traumatized.
We have traumatized.
SPEAKER_02 (32:37):
No, I do worry that he will catch it because there's
a ton of bunnies in thebackyard.
Because we have pine trees andit's a lot of shelter.
So they they'll do their nestsunder those on those pine trees.
And he's always in there.
I'm just I'm so worried he'sgonna kill some of those
bunnies.
SPEAKER_05 (32:55):
When yeah, we don't want to wait for the phone.
KERRY (32:56):
When we lived on the farm, we have a chain link
fenced in backyard, but thebunnies could easily get under
and through.
And most of our dogs neverbothered them.
But our little happy ons, whoare barely as big as the
bunnies, they thought it wasjust fun.
And you're not meaning to doanything.
They just see something runningand they're like, oh, I want to
(33:18):
play.
And so they were constantlychasing these.
So we're happy that we're herenow because it's a block wall.
So we don't have any rabbitsgetting in our yard, and they
can't see the rabbits that we dosee, which are jack rabbits.
They're huge, they're like, Idon't know, 25 pounds.
They're big, they're really big.
(33:39):
Oh, yeah, they're really big.
And so we can enjoy seeing themnow.
We don't have to worry about ourdogs chasing us.
But, anyways, geez, it went downup.
SPEAKER_05 (33:48):
That's about as big as a dog.
Yeah, so I think I did I covereverything.
I think you did.
I think we've been please enjoyEaster, enjoy your eggs, enjoy
the bunnies, enjoy your plushlittle stuffed animals, yes,
enjoy the dolls if you get adoll in your Easter basket.
KERRY (34:10):
No, we really do want to wish everybody a happy Easter or
whatever you're celebrating.
And if you don't celebrateEaster, happy spring break,
happy spring, happy weekend off,whatever.
Yeah, absolutely.
Talk about our uh Yes,absolutely.
So we are in the month of April.
So this month we are celebratingWorld Autism Month.
(34:33):
And so our junkiest careinitiative is the Crippy Go.
SPEAKER_05 (34:39):
Akron Autism Society.
Yes, but a lot of communitieshave autism societies, and I
pick that one because that onesort of represents the county
I'm in right now.
And seek that out.
They are a nonprofit and they dowonderful things for families.
They offer a lot of programs andinformation and just support.
KERRY (35:02):
Absolutely.
But definitely check out ourFacebook page, check out our
website, dysfunctionjunkiespodcast.com, and learn
more about us, more and moreabout Akron Autism Society.
And we'll see you next week.
Bye, everybody.
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