WEBVTT - SYSK Live: Andre the Giant 0:00:00.640 --> 0:00:03.880 Hey, Seattle, will see you Thursday, January sixteenth at the 0:00:03.920 --> 0:00:06.400 More Theater in San Francisco. We're going to be at 0:00:06.400 --> 0:00:11.720 the Castro on January when else? Chuck? Uh? That is it? Man? 0:00:11.800 --> 0:00:14.680 January eighteenth at the Castro, our annual trip to Sketch Fest. 0:00:14.920 --> 0:00:17.520 We love performing there. We have great crowds there. Go 0:00:17.600 --> 0:00:19.119 get a ticket. If you want to come see me 0:00:19.160 --> 0:00:21.439 at Movie Crush the next night on Sunday and a 0:00:21.480 --> 0:00:23.720 small venue where you can shake my hand and hug 0:00:23.720 --> 0:00:25.720 my neck. I would welcome that as well. Well, that's 0:00:25.720 --> 0:00:27.240 what I was setting you up for when I said 0:00:27.280 --> 0:00:30.080 what else. I appreciate that. We'll see you guys. You 0:00:30.120 --> 0:00:32.000 can get all the info and tickets you need on 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:34.440 s Y s K Live dot com or s F 0:00:34.600 --> 0:00:39.040 sketch Fest dot com. Welcome to Stuff you should know, 0:00:39.240 --> 0:00:47.880 a production of My Heart Radios How Stuff Works. Hey, 0:00:47.920 --> 0:00:51.239 and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh Clark, There's Charles 0:00:51.280 --> 0:00:54.560 w Chuck, Brian Jerry's not here, but all of these beautiful, 0:00:54.640 --> 0:01:09.200 wonderful people are at Plaza Live in Orlando, Florida, our 0:01:09.240 --> 0:01:15.080 Cineo Hall. Stuff going on back there. Yeah, like Florida. 0:01:16.360 --> 0:01:19.840 Um yeah, woo indeed, thank you for that. Toto is 0:01:19.840 --> 0:01:24.080 playing here next week. I could relive my childhood. Yeah, 0:01:24.280 --> 0:01:26.760 quke on the sand, people pulling up their shoes. For 0:01:26.800 --> 0:01:31.240 those of you at home, you'll just never Jerry just 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:35.440 got all that out. So before we get started, Actually, 0:01:35.480 --> 0:01:37.600 if you guys will indulge me, I would like to 0:01:37.680 --> 0:01:41.160 dedicate this show, uh to a very special woman named 0:01:41.200 --> 0:01:44.680 Alice Harrison, who also happens to have been Jumie's grandma. 0:01:45.280 --> 0:01:48.600 And she passed on Monday, so she is actually a 0:01:48.640 --> 0:01:51.640 fellow Floridian. She lived outside of Tampa for most of 0:01:51.640 --> 0:01:56.400 her life. Um had like parrots and peacocks, like super Florida, right, 0:01:57.000 --> 0:01:59.240 and she was just a very wonderful woman. So I 0:01:59.240 --> 0:02:03.080 want to dedicate this show to Alice Harrison in her memory. 0:02:03.120 --> 0:02:12.320 Everyone very nice, thanks great, thanks for that. And EM's 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:16.119 here and she's very proud of you right now, yeah 0:02:16.400 --> 0:02:21.160 you um so uh. We didn't really just bring you 0:02:21.200 --> 0:02:25.400 here to talk about's grandma exclusively. We asked you all 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:29.240 here tonight to talk to you about legends, and in 0:02:29.280 --> 0:02:36.560 particular one legend. No oh man, the crowd showder is 0:02:36.639 --> 0:02:44.359 rarely funny, well done. This legend was something drunk right, 0:02:49.480 --> 0:02:52.760 already deep in this early in the show. Not that's 0:02:52.760 --> 0:02:56.320 the last one you get though, so uh, this legend 0:02:56.360 --> 0:03:00.520 was even better than Zelda. This legend's name was Andre Giant. 0:03:04.480 --> 0:03:06.920 And by the way, if you're not a fan, I 0:03:06.960 --> 0:03:08.359 know this is Florida, But if you're not a fan 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:10.400 of wrestling, they're like, what are you? What are you 0:03:10.440 --> 0:03:13.359 talking about? Fear not, I'm not a fan of wrestling. 0:03:13.600 --> 0:03:17.280 You're not a real fan of wrestling. This is interesting stuff. 0:03:17.639 --> 0:03:21.320 We wouldn't bring you something so niche that only wrestling 0:03:21.360 --> 0:03:24.200 fans would enjoy. Trust us. In fact, you can make 0:03:24.240 --> 0:03:25.919 the case that if you are a wrestling fan you 0:03:26.000 --> 0:03:32.080 might not like this. Just excuse yourself. So to start 0:03:32.120 --> 0:03:35.400 at the beginning, Andre the Giant was not born under 0:03:35.400 --> 0:03:38.800 the Giant. He was born Andre renee rusom Off May 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:45.280 in Columier, France, which is a town that is close 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:47.840 to where he was raised in a French farming town 0:03:47.880 --> 0:03:51.480 called Mullan. I'm sorry, I don't have peanut butter in 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:57.120 my mouth and um in Mullion. He was raised by 0:03:57.160 --> 0:04:01.160 his parents, Boris and Maryanne ruce him Off, who were 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:04.920 of Bulgarian Polish descent, respectively, and he was the third 0:04:04.960 --> 0:04:08.800 of five siblings, and he was born at eleven pounds, 0:04:08.880 --> 0:04:11.880 which were told is kind of big. I heard a 0:04:11.880 --> 0:04:18.680 couple of women gasps. Someone sucked airs through their teeth. Yeah, 0:04:18.720 --> 0:04:25.960 Boris Russomof, I'm surprised he's Bulgarian with that name. Terry 0:04:25.960 --> 0:04:31.200 cut that one. You can't just cut everything, sure, we can. 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:33.680 You gotta put yourself out there, live on the edge 0:04:34.560 --> 0:04:39.440 like that. Boris Russomof's Bulgarian. Who would have thunk it? There? 0:04:39.520 --> 0:04:42.480 You go? Alright? Who would have cut that one too? 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:48.039 So they were a family of farmers, and he worked 0:04:48.040 --> 0:04:49.960 on the family farm, as did all the kids. I 0:04:49.960 --> 0:04:53.799 think he was the third of five children. And here's 0:04:53.839 --> 0:04:55.360 one thing that may or may not be true, but 0:04:55.440 --> 0:04:58.320 an interesting little tidbit will throw out. Supposedly, when he 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:00.840 was in school along with the other children, uh there 0:05:00.839 --> 0:05:04.039 in rural France, they would occasionally get rides in the 0:05:04.040 --> 0:05:08.680 pickup truck to school from playwright Samuel Beckett. Yeah right, 0:05:09.080 --> 0:05:12.520 that's the appropriate response to that, like a little surprise, 0:05:12.560 --> 0:05:16.280 but not like totally blown away. But little Andre it 0:05:16.440 --> 0:05:18.560 was never little because he was eleven pounds at birth. 0:05:18.600 --> 0:05:21.080 He began to grow very early. All of his siblings 0:05:21.080 --> 0:05:23.760 and even his parents. We're all just sort of average size, 0:05:23.839 --> 0:05:26.800 so no one knew what was coming when a little Andre, 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:29.320 by the age of twelve, was six ft tall and 0:05:29.360 --> 0:05:34.000 wade two and forty pounds. And so his parents, being farmers, 0:05:34.000 --> 0:05:38.719 were like, yes, yes, we have an ox yeah for 0:05:38.800 --> 0:05:42.279 our third child. And uh, they were pretty happy about this. 0:05:42.360 --> 0:05:45.280 And Andre said, don't get too comfortable, because in two 0:05:45.360 --> 0:05:47.440 years I'm gonna quit school in eighth grade and go 0:05:47.560 --> 0:05:50.800 find my fortunes in Paris. And he did. And it's 0:05:50.800 --> 0:05:53.400 one of those things where when you're researching and telling 0:05:53.400 --> 0:05:56.440 people that he went to Paris to find his fortunes 0:05:56.440 --> 0:05:58.320 after dropping on the eighth grade, if you stop and 0:05:58.320 --> 0:06:01.360 think about it, imagine getting your fourteen year old son 0:06:01.520 --> 0:06:04.279 moved to Paris by himself to go find his fortune. 0:06:04.320 --> 0:06:07.320 It's a different time. Those are cool parents, very cool parents. 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:09.960 So maybe they just didn't miss him. They had four 0:06:10.000 --> 0:06:12.520 others wandering around. No, but I'm sure that they tried 0:06:12.520 --> 0:06:14.359 to talk him out, but they're like, he swing a 0:06:14.400 --> 0:06:17.880 scythe like no one I've ever seen who's gonna pull 0:06:17.920 --> 0:06:21.479 the cart right. So he did. He actually started to 0:06:21.520 --> 0:06:23.960 find his fortune is not the best fortune but he 0:06:23.960 --> 0:06:28.120 found some he started moving furniture. Figure he just kind 0:06:28.120 --> 0:06:31.400 of threw uh, he just kind of threw couches through 0:06:31.440 --> 0:06:35.080 the doorways upstairs, that kind of stuff. Sure. Um. And 0:06:35.120 --> 0:06:39.160 then later he became a professional rugby player. Um, which 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:42.280 is okay, it's getting closer and closer. But rugby actually 0:06:42.400 --> 0:06:46.920 led him inadvertently and accidentally into the world of wrestling. 0:06:47.400 --> 0:06:49.480 That's right, because he trained at a gym as a 0:06:49.560 --> 0:06:52.640 rugby player along with some other wrestlers. There were wrestlers 0:06:52.640 --> 0:06:55.080 that trained there with him, and one day one of 0:06:55.120 --> 0:06:58.080 the wrestlers got hurt. They looked around the gym and 0:06:58.120 --> 0:07:03.680 they said, hey, huge human, come over here, forget rugby. 0:07:04.000 --> 0:07:07.200 You should wrestle with us. Because it was France, and 0:07:07.240 --> 0:07:10.760 they say wrestle uh, And he did and he really 0:07:10.760 --> 0:07:12.560 took to it, and before you know it, he was 0:07:12.600 --> 0:07:16.840 touring as a pro wrestler in Japan, Africa, and New Zealand, 0:07:17.920 --> 0:07:21.360 and in Japan in particular, he had this persona named 0:07:21.480 --> 0:07:23.920 um was it Monster rusom Off. Well he had a 0:07:24.000 --> 0:07:27.480 few names, right, yeah, um he Well, he wrestled under 0:07:27.920 --> 0:07:30.720 the Butcher was one, yeah, Andre the Butcher rusom Off. 0:07:30.880 --> 0:07:34.200 So so one was the French giant, which is way 0:07:34.240 --> 0:07:38.280 too on the nose. It's just like the American podcaster 0:07:38.480 --> 0:07:40.440 if I were a wrestler or something like that, you know, 0:07:41.760 --> 0:07:44.040 And then another can you imagine I would get my 0:07:44.080 --> 0:07:49.040 ass kicked every match, not if you were right in 0:07:49.080 --> 0:07:53.000 the match. By the way, everybody, Oh yeah, well, I 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:54.960 guess we should just cut to the chase wrestling is 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:59.320 fake end of the podcast. Um, And then the other one, Chuck. 0:07:59.360 --> 0:08:01.000 What was the third one? Well, the third one, I 0:08:01.040 --> 0:08:03.360 think we can all agree is the best, maybe best 0:08:03.400 --> 0:08:09.480 wrestling name of all time. Monster Eiffel Tower. You imagine, 0:08:10.120 --> 0:08:12.600 like what does it do? Is like the the second 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:15.320 the gap between the second and third stories, like the 0:08:15.400 --> 0:08:19.360 mouth they eat there's it bends over and like like 0:08:20.320 --> 0:08:23.800 jabs you or something. It just doesn't make any sense 0:08:23.840 --> 0:08:25.840 if you really think about it. It's pretty good. Though 0:08:25.880 --> 0:08:27.640 they ate it up in Japan. Though they did so 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.680 in JAPANI had a different name, Monster russom Off, and 0:08:30.760 --> 0:08:33.920 Monster russomo Off was what in wrestling parlance is called 0:08:33.920 --> 0:08:37.240 a heel a bad guy, right, And in Japan, Andre 0:08:37.440 --> 0:08:40.320 really ate that up, like in the ring and outside 0:08:40.320 --> 0:08:42.600 of the ring. Um, at matches, he would he would 0:08:42.640 --> 0:08:45.559 taunt the fans on the streets. So he's a big 0:08:45.600 --> 0:08:49.320 celebrity on the street. Um, if somebody took a picture 0:08:49.360 --> 0:08:51.440 of him, he chased him down and break their camera. 0:08:52.720 --> 0:08:56.400 He loved being a heel right, all in good fun, right, 0:08:57.160 --> 0:08:59.280 Tell that to the Japanese guy who had to go 0:08:59.280 --> 0:09:01.880 buy another key because monster russom Off broke the other 0:09:01.960 --> 0:09:05.240 one and none of his friends would believe him. So 0:09:05.600 --> 0:09:07.800 he eventually went to Europe to wrestle, and there he 0:09:07.840 --> 0:09:10.760 wrestled under the name Jean Fare, which is a play 0:09:10.840 --> 0:09:13.559 on the term or the name Grand Fair, who was 0:09:13.600 --> 0:09:19.120 a hero in French folklore who would kill English invaders? Uh? 0:09:19.240 --> 0:09:23.000 Or colonial? I can never say that word colonially and 0:09:23.080 --> 0:09:29.440 the colonists you're adding like five or six extra sill colonialists. Colonists. 0:09:29.760 --> 0:09:35.959 No colonialists, No, that's just wrong. Who says colonialism colonialism? 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:41.080 They're colonialists, right, No colonial like a bird colonists, guys, 0:09:41.200 --> 0:09:47.240 colonists right, Okay, I'm not losing my mind. Colonialists right here, 0:09:48.200 --> 0:09:52.240 that's where it is a melting COI This usually didn't 0:09:52.240 --> 0:09:57.280 happen so later in the show. Someone snorting makes you 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:01.319 feel a lot better. So regardless of what they called 0:10:01.360 --> 0:10:07.240 the English invaders colonists in folklore, Grand Fair would kill 0:10:07.320 --> 0:10:09.600 them with an axe. And he was this big French 0:10:09.760 --> 0:10:12.880 hero in the storybooks. And so Jean Fair was a 0:10:12.880 --> 0:10:16.040 play on that name, right, And so when he became Genfair, 0:10:16.400 --> 0:10:19.719 he became a hero in the wrestling world. Or what's 0:10:19.760 --> 0:10:21.800 known is a baby face or a face. You got 0:10:21.840 --> 0:10:25.839 heels and faces. Everyone in this room doesn't know that already, right. 0:10:26.679 --> 0:10:30.559 So as gen Fair, he became pretty big around Europe, 0:10:31.040 --> 0:10:33.640 so much so that there's a legend that he told 0:10:33.720 --> 0:10:37.320 himself once in an interview we read where he went 0:10:37.360 --> 0:10:40.280 back home. Uh, like aged nineteen, I think so, I've 0:10:40.320 --> 0:10:42.720 been about five years since he left home. He went 0:10:42.720 --> 0:10:44.760 back home after he'd made it. He shows up in 0:10:44.760 --> 0:10:47.360 a rolls Royce, goes up to the door and knocks 0:10:47.440 --> 0:10:49.920 on it and says, hey, how are you doing? Mom 0:10:49.920 --> 0:10:53.040 and dad? And they didn't recognize him at first, but 0:10:53.120 --> 0:10:56.880 they did recognize gen Fair, their favorite wrestler who had 0:10:56.920 --> 0:10:59.520 just shown up on their doorstep and said, I'm your son. 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:02.440 They've been watching him all this time, and Andre the 0:11:02.440 --> 0:11:05.320 Giant had changed so much they didn't recognize them. They 0:11:05.360 --> 0:11:07.640 just became fans of gen Fair. I really want to 0:11:07.640 --> 0:11:10.760 believe that. I do too. Even if it's b S, 0:11:10.840 --> 0:11:13.040 it's still a pretty great story. But it'd be like 0:11:13.080 --> 0:11:16.439 if if like um Stone called Steve Austin showed up 0:11:16.440 --> 0:11:20.000 on your doorst was like, I'm your son. It's basically 0:11:20.040 --> 0:11:23.040 the same, the same thing. It's just a different person. 0:11:23.280 --> 0:11:29.040 That's right. He's really trying to keep it together here, everybody, Yeah, 0:11:29.080 --> 0:11:34.160 this is good. Florida's forgiving God. This didn't happen in Maine. 0:11:36.960 --> 0:11:40.480 We have to cut that part out. Those manners have 0:11:40.679 --> 0:11:44.360 come for us. I've seen that last some more people 0:11:44.400 --> 0:11:47.080 asleep in the audience in Maine. We've seen that before. 0:11:47.160 --> 0:11:49.640 Very disconcerting. Just so you know, if you're in the 0:11:49.640 --> 0:11:52.360 first five rows, please just stay awake. I'm used to it. 0:11:52.360 --> 0:11:54.440 If you don't even have to laugh, just stay awake. 0:11:55.080 --> 0:11:59.200 That's your job tonight. Did you see your partners start 0:11:59.240 --> 0:12:02.240 to fall asleep? Just give him one of those. It's 0:12:02.320 --> 0:12:09.199 very disconcerting. Basically, we're watching you. So around nineteen seventy, 0:12:09.600 --> 0:12:13.120 Andrea was working with a man named Eduard Carpentier, the 0:12:13.200 --> 0:12:16.480 Flying Frenchman, and he was a wrestler, believe it or not, 0:12:17.080 --> 0:12:19.559 turned promoter, and he claimed and that there are a 0:12:19.600 --> 0:12:21.600 lot of tall tales in this story and we're not 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:24.000 sure which ones are true. But he claimed that he 0:12:24.080 --> 0:12:26.640 met Andre when he was driving down the road in 0:12:26.720 --> 0:12:29.480 France and there was a redwood tree that had fallen, 0:12:29.800 --> 0:12:32.960 and Andrea emerged and moved the tree. I think that 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:35.920 one might not be true. Sounds pretty good though. That's 0:12:35.960 --> 0:12:39.120 a good story, but that's not true. But he figures 0:12:39.120 --> 0:12:41.880 in very important to Andre's life because he took him 0:12:41.880 --> 0:12:45.199 to Quebec to wrestle le gen Fair and made a 0:12:45.320 --> 0:12:48.480 very important introduction to a man named Vince McMahon sr. 0:12:50.000 --> 0:12:53.960 Oh yeah, okay, okay, So Vince McMahon senior for those 0:12:54.000 --> 0:12:55.640 of you, the five of you who don't know who 0:12:55.679 --> 0:12:59.520 he is. He was a big time wrestling promoter at 0:12:59.559 --> 0:13:02.600 a time when wrestling in America was regional, right, It 0:13:02.679 --> 0:13:05.520 was not a nationwide thing. It was the country was 0:13:05.559 --> 0:13:08.600 cut up into different regions. And Vince McMahon was the 0:13:08.600 --> 0:13:14.240 head of the Worldwide Wrestling Federation, the w w w F. 0:13:14.800 --> 0:13:17.920 Because apparently Vince McMahon didn't know that worldwide is one 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:22.400 word serious, they put it on marketing materials and everything. 0:13:22.520 --> 0:13:25.200 He would go on to shorten that later yeah, later on, 0:13:25.320 --> 0:13:28.520 his son would correct the massive spelling error that his 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:32.640 father had started years before. But before that, Mr mcman 0:13:32.720 --> 0:13:35.959 had this really great idea. He said, you Joan Fair, 0:13:36.320 --> 0:13:38.520 We're going to change that name in a minute. You 0:13:38.600 --> 0:13:41.800 are really something special. Rather than put you on one 0:13:41.840 --> 0:13:44.439 circuit or one town or whatever, just sticking to one 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:46.720 region where you're gonna, you know, be huge at first 0:13:46.760 --> 0:13:49.559 and then just kind of become whatever, just a so 0:13:49.559 --> 0:13:51.800 so guy. I'm gonna take you from region to region 0:13:51.840 --> 0:13:56.080 around the country and promote you. And he did, and 0:13:56.120 --> 0:13:58.920 in doing so, Andre the Giant became one of the 0:13:59.040 --> 0:14:02.520 nation's first wrestling stars because he went from town to 0:14:02.520 --> 0:14:04.839 town and it was a big deal when he came 0:14:04.880 --> 0:14:06.880 to town. Every time it was a really big deal. 0:14:06.920 --> 0:14:09.960 They would start promoting the storylines ahead of time, because, 0:14:10.040 --> 0:14:13.079 as we said, wrestling is fake. So they would drove 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:15.880 up these stories about this giant that would come to town. 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:18.360 And because all the heels were getting out of hand 0:14:18.480 --> 0:14:22.440 in Memphis or in Jacksonville or wherever, and so they 0:14:22.480 --> 0:14:26.600 would bring in Andre to get them all in line. 0:14:26.840 --> 0:14:28.760 And the big Giant's gonna come into town. He's a 0:14:28.800 --> 0:14:30.960 good guy, and he's huge and no one's ever seen 0:14:30.960 --> 0:14:33.080 anything like him, and that really got people in the 0:14:33.080 --> 0:14:35.600 seats and really dig way like the promoters would charge 0:14:35.640 --> 0:14:38.280 more than than was normal because they knew that people 0:14:38.320 --> 0:14:39.920 who are going to pay it to come to Andrea 0:14:40.160 --> 0:14:44.400 set the universe right again. Right um. In America, he 0:14:44.480 --> 0:14:46.680 finally got the name Andre the Giant. I believe it 0:14:46.720 --> 0:14:49.320 was Vince McMahon sor who gave who gave him that name. 0:14:49.600 --> 0:14:53.040 And he debuted in nineteen seventy three at Madison Square 0:14:53.040 --> 0:14:55.600 Gardens as Andrea the Giant, and he was builed as 0:14:55.680 --> 0:14:59.760 the eighth Wonder of the World. At seven ft four 0:14:59.800 --> 0:15:06.400 in is five hundred and twenty pounds, right, yeah, yeah. 0:15:06.480 --> 0:15:09.960 He wrestled I think between four fifty and five twenty 0:15:11.120 --> 0:15:13.640 for most of his career except at the end and 0:15:13.680 --> 0:15:16.000 WrestleMania three. There are reports that he weighed as much 0:15:16.000 --> 0:15:18.680 as six fifty lot and you could tell he was 0:15:18.800 --> 0:15:21.320 not in the best of shape at that point. Well 0:15:21.320 --> 0:15:24.680 he was six fifty. Yeah, this story will we'll get 0:15:24.720 --> 0:15:27.680 sad at some point, so just get ready his time. Sorry, 0:15:28.120 --> 0:15:31.000 his height, his height is in dispute. Basically, there are 0:15:31.000 --> 0:15:34.520 people who have dedicated entire websites to trying to prove 0:15:34.600 --> 0:15:37.560 that Andre the Giant was seven ft four inches, but 0:15:37.680 --> 0:15:41.440 most credible sources say, nice about six ft seven inches. Um. 0:15:41.600 --> 0:15:44.160 Some people say maybe he was towards the end of 0:15:44.200 --> 0:15:47.480 his career, but he underwent back surgery six and they 0:15:47.480 --> 0:15:50.560 removed some vertebrae there, so he was seven ft four 0:15:50.600 --> 0:15:53.760 inches and they shrunk him down to six ft seven inches. 0:15:54.080 --> 0:15:56.800 And most people say, you live in your mom's basement, 0:15:56.840 --> 0:16:01.000 don't you, And that ends the argument every single time. 0:16:01.520 --> 0:16:03.320 I'm not a back surgeon. I don't think that's how 0:16:03.360 --> 0:16:07.080 that works. I don't think it's that one vertebrae out, dude, 0:16:07.760 --> 0:16:09.720 let's get another one out. The good news is your 0:16:09.760 --> 0:16:15.200 back one hurt, but you're eight inches shorter, right, I 0:16:15.240 --> 0:16:17.960 don't think that's how it works. So, uh, he was 0:16:18.000 --> 0:16:20.800 truly enormous, though there are other great stories. One is 0:16:20.840 --> 0:16:28.960 that his wrists were nearly a foot in diameter. Right. Yeah, 0:16:29.320 --> 0:16:33.040 we're like so everybody, that's just plainly obvious, an enormous wrist. 0:16:33.560 --> 0:16:36.160 But we had no frame of reference except for my 0:16:36.280 --> 0:16:38.320 tiny wrist, right, which we know is not a foot 0:16:38.400 --> 0:16:41.240 mine's not either. Um, So we went to the slender 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:45.640 wrist dot com and that is a real website. We said, 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:48.920 what is the average human man's wrists circumference? And we 0:16:48.960 --> 0:16:53.080 found out it's seven inches seven point four inches, So 0:16:53.280 --> 0:16:57.120 his is about five inches bigger around than the average 0:16:57.160 --> 0:17:00.320 man's wrist, which is huge, which I guess we should 0:17:00.320 --> 0:17:02.880 have just stuck to a foot in circumfort. You know, 0:17:02.880 --> 0:17:05.600 I shouldn't have explained that into the ground. Well, I 0:17:05.680 --> 0:17:08.080 just like knowing there's a website called the Slender Wrist 0:17:08.160 --> 0:17:12.879 dot com, and then I'm not on it. So he 0:17:12.920 --> 0:17:17.000 wore a size twenty six wrestling boot just for comparison. 0:17:17.040 --> 0:17:20.159 Shaquille O'Neil was very large man started out his career 0:17:20.359 --> 0:17:24.600 playing for a little team called the Orlando Magic. He 0:17:24.640 --> 0:17:29.480 wears a twenty two andre were six so uh what else? 0:17:29.520 --> 0:17:31.720 There were other legends he could pass a silver dollar 0:17:31.840 --> 0:17:34.919 coin through his rings. Uh. And then another one that 0:17:34.960 --> 0:17:37.879 I don't think it's true that he had two hearts 0:17:38.359 --> 0:17:43.840 and multiple rows of teeth like a monster. And apparently 0:17:43.960 --> 0:17:49.359 Rick Flair, the nature boy, Um, we're in the right place. 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:52.639 He he believed both of those, the heart one and 0:17:52.680 --> 0:17:55.080 the teeth one, and whenever he was talking to the giant, 0:17:55.119 --> 0:17:57.040 he said that he was like kind of trying to 0:17:57.080 --> 0:18:00.720 look into his mouth while he was talking. We've met 0:18:00.800 --> 0:18:04.560 Rick Flair. He totally believed that, Yeah, we can attend. 0:18:04.640 --> 0:18:06.679 He for some reason was a guest star on our 0:18:06.680 --> 0:18:09.359 TV show that we had. Maybe that was one reason 0:18:09.359 --> 0:18:12.080 why it wasn't so great, you know, I think he 0:18:12.160 --> 0:18:16.159 was the reason it wasn't totally terribly. It was a 0:18:16.160 --> 0:18:18.159 good little guest appearance. We found out the day of 0:18:18.240 --> 0:18:20.919 that he was coming to shoot. That's right, it's a 0:18:20.920 --> 0:18:25.280 weird day. So he was ridiculously strong though. He would 0:18:25.320 --> 0:18:27.960 do with this little party trick where when his friends 0:18:27.960 --> 0:18:29.920 were in a bar, he would move their cars. It's 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:34.080 a little small European cars, like not with the keys right, 0:18:34.200 --> 0:18:37.920 he would pick it up and move it. He also 0:18:38.080 --> 0:18:42.040 there's footage of him lifting a two thousand pound weight. Like, 0:18:42.280 --> 0:18:45.320 you try to lift two thousand pounds, you can't do it. 0:18:45.080 --> 0:18:47.600 Has anyone ever tried to lift two thousand pounds? I'm 0:18:47.640 --> 0:18:50.439 not trying, well, believe me, you can't do it. And 0:18:50.520 --> 0:18:53.440 he tried to lift twenty pounds. He's there picking picking 0:18:53.520 --> 0:18:55.520 up a two thousand I mean, I presume it was 0:18:55.560 --> 0:18:57.119 a two thousand pound weight. It was a weight that 0:18:57.200 --> 0:19:00.560 said two thousand pounds on it. What way eight lines, 0:19:00.720 --> 0:19:04.000 you know, and it wasn't a cartoon. The thing. The 0:19:04.040 --> 0:19:09.000 thing is he um he was feared because of his 0:19:09.040 --> 0:19:11.080 strength by other wrestlers, not because he was known to 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:14.400 be like a malicious, brutal guy, but because just one 0:19:14.520 --> 0:19:18.320 slip in wrestling you could he could really injure somebody. 0:19:18.359 --> 0:19:21.679 But he almost never did because he had he was 0:19:21.760 --> 0:19:24.720 a genuinely good wrestler. That's one of the things about 0:19:24.960 --> 0:19:29.280 Andre the Giant. Confetti. There's confetti, there's been the steady 0:19:29.320 --> 0:19:32.280 stream of confetti fallen the whole thing. The flaming lips 0:19:32.359 --> 0:19:37.840 might have played here like night. So Under the Giant 0:19:38.280 --> 0:19:42.720 was a legitimately good wrestler. Yeah, into that paragraph. So 0:19:43.800 --> 0:19:46.800 his his English was never great, you know. He was 0:19:46.800 --> 0:19:49.239 born and raised in France and could speak English, but 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:52.080 not not the greatest. And he also just put a 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:53.760 pin in this. He had a medical condition that we're 0:19:53.760 --> 0:19:55.720 going to get back to you later. But because of 0:19:55.720 --> 0:19:58.440 that condition as well, enunciating was a little difficult for him. 0:19:58.880 --> 0:20:00.600 So a lot of people thought that he was just 0:20:00.880 --> 0:20:03.520 this big dummy, this big brute, and that was not 0:20:03.600 --> 0:20:06.160 true at all. He was a very smart guy. Very 0:20:06.200 --> 0:20:11.439 savvy businessman, a great showman, very observant, and very shrewd. 0:20:11.800 --> 0:20:14.600 He was not just some big oath in a singlet right, No, 0:20:14.800 --> 0:20:17.720 he wasn't. Um to help him though with that language 0:20:17.720 --> 0:20:21.320 barrier when he moved from Quebec down in North America 0:20:21.440 --> 0:20:24.360 or down in the United States, I guess technically Quebec 0:20:24.400 --> 0:20:28.920 is in North America. Technically Um. He hired a guy 0:20:29.000 --> 0:20:31.920 named Frank Valois, and Frank val Wall was a referee 0:20:31.920 --> 0:20:35.080 on the Quebec circuit who served as his interpreter um 0:20:35.400 --> 0:20:37.400 and he hung out with him for a few years, 0:20:37.440 --> 0:20:39.199 and then he just became like a friend of his 0:20:39.359 --> 0:20:41.560 rather than somebody worked with And that was kind of 0:20:41.600 --> 0:20:43.639 par for the course with Andre the Giant. Compared to 0:20:43.680 --> 0:20:47.639 other sports stars, he had a very small, if non 0:20:47.680 --> 0:20:50.800 existent entourage. He didn't have the hangers on and the 0:20:50.840 --> 0:20:53.800 toady's and the lackeys and the agents and like the 0:20:53.800 --> 0:20:56.440 the drug dealers or whoever else do you have hanging 0:20:56.440 --> 0:20:59.800 around you if you're never took no no um. He 0:20:59.880 --> 0:21:02.520 was a bit of a loner, but the friends he 0:21:02.600 --> 0:21:05.600 had were like true, legitimate friends. So he was kind 0:21:05.600 --> 0:21:08.320 of an anomaly in that sense in the sports world. Yeah, 0:21:08.320 --> 0:21:11.160 and apparently he did have a very pretty strict list, 0:21:11.720 --> 0:21:13.600 and you were either a friend or you're an enemy, 0:21:13.640 --> 0:21:15.399 and once you were on that list, you were kind 0:21:15.400 --> 0:21:17.960 of on it for life. His list of friends was 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:19.840 very long because he was a good guy and really 0:21:19.840 --> 0:21:22.320 loved people. But he did have a few enemies in 0:21:22.359 --> 0:21:26.320 the in the wrestling world. One was Big John stud 0:21:26.840 --> 0:21:29.760 who was another very large man who wrestled, and he 0:21:29.800 --> 0:21:33.520 allegedly called Andrea's circus freak once once, And as you 0:21:33.600 --> 0:21:36.040 will see as we go on, Andrea was a very 0:21:36.040 --> 0:21:38.879 sensitive guy about his size and he didn't want to 0:21:38.880 --> 0:21:43.439 be called a circus freak. Who does, so it's a 0:21:43.440 --> 0:21:46.960 good point. Um. He also had a thing with the 0:21:47.000 --> 0:21:51.040 iron cheek for reasons that are unclear. Um. He also 0:21:51.080 --> 0:21:54.320 had a very long standing beef with Randy the Macho 0:21:54.359 --> 0:21:58.960 Man Savage. That's right, And this one boils down to 0:21:59.080 --> 0:22:04.280 the fact that Randy like to oil up. He would 0:22:04.760 --> 0:22:07.160 baby oil himself, which was a common thing in wrestling 0:22:07.480 --> 0:22:11.080 because I guess shiny muscles read on camera. I don't know, 0:22:11.160 --> 0:22:14.040 I'm not sure that's not why I oil up, but 0:22:16.359 --> 0:22:19.760 apparently it looks better on TV. And so Randy would 0:22:19.760 --> 0:22:23.800 oil up in a big way, baby, And people would 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:27.639 tell Randy like, Andre doesn't like the oil in the 0:22:27.680 --> 0:22:31.520 wrestling match, so like, can you just when you wrestle him, 0:22:31.600 --> 0:22:33.760 can he not oil up? And he said, no, I 0:22:33.800 --> 0:22:37.280 gotta oil up right. As as an aside, by the way, 0:22:37.320 --> 0:22:41.040 everybody is one of the tragic unknown facts of Randy 0:22:41.080 --> 0:22:44.920 the Macho Man Savages life that he was physically incapable 0:22:45.000 --> 0:22:48.359 of snapping into his own slim gym because his fingers 0:22:48.400 --> 0:22:51.840 were so oily. You had to walk around in the 0:22:51.920 --> 0:22:56.000 street begging common strangers to snap into a slim gym 0:22:56.080 --> 0:23:05.240 for him, just denigrating himself. Sad. Apparently, uh that's good. 0:23:06.640 --> 0:23:10.440 Apparently years later, Uh, Andre has has a daughter named Robin, 0:23:10.760 --> 0:23:13.000 and she wasn't super close with her dad, and we're 0:23:13.000 --> 0:23:14.560 gonna get to that a little bit more. It was 0:23:14.640 --> 0:23:16.840 very sad, but she was trying to get information about 0:23:16.840 --> 0:23:20.439 her dad and get stories from wrestler from wrestlers and friends, 0:23:20.480 --> 0:23:24.320