WEBVTT - Holiday Monsters & Listener Mail 0:00:03.120 --> 0:00:06.200 Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from housetop works 0:00:06.200 --> 0:00:15.560 dot com. Hey, welcome to Stuff to bloy to Mind. 0:00:15.600 --> 0:00:17.960 My name is Robert Lamb, I'm John McCormick, and I'm 0:00:18.040 --> 0:00:21.800 Christian Sager. Hey, so it is almost the new year. Uh. 0:00:21.920 --> 0:00:25.840 This is our listener mail episode right before the Christmas holiday, 0:00:26.239 --> 0:00:29.120 and we just want to remind you that we don't 0:00:29.160 --> 0:00:32.000 just do the podcast, right guys, like we do a 0:00:32.000 --> 0:00:35.239 lot throughout the week. We are on social media curating 0:00:35.280 --> 0:00:37.879 all kinds of weird science e stuff. We're making videos, 0:00:37.880 --> 0:00:42.839 we're writing articles for how stuff works. Sometimes the eating 0:00:42.840 --> 0:00:44.760 thing I've been taking a little bit of a step 0:00:44.760 --> 0:00:48.760 back from, but mainly so that I can post on Facebook, 0:00:48.840 --> 0:00:52.880 Twitter and Tumbler and live blog Mascar events. Oh wait, 0:00:52.960 --> 0:00:54.920 is that part of our contract? Yes, that's what we 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:57.120 do now, Okay, all right, I'll try to get on 0:00:57.160 --> 0:00:59.800 top of that over the break. So, uh, if you 0:01:00.000 --> 0:01:01.640 out there want to catch up on all this other 0:01:01.680 --> 0:01:04.000 stuff that isn't the podcast, maybe you're just getting the 0:01:04.040 --> 0:01:06.360 podcast feed right into your phone. That's what I do 0:01:06.400 --> 0:01:08.720 with most of the podcasts I listened to. Don't forget 0:01:08.760 --> 0:01:11.120 to hang out with us on Facebook, Twitter, and Tumbler 0:01:11.120 --> 0:01:13.080 will blow the mind on all those channels, and be 0:01:13.120 --> 0:01:15.560 sure to check out stuff to Blow your Mind dot 0:01:15.600 --> 0:01:18.360 com because that is the mothership for this podcast. That's 0:01:18.360 --> 0:01:20.640 where you'll find all the podcast episodes going all the 0:01:20.640 --> 0:01:22.959 way back to the beginning of time. You'll find videos 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:25.320 who find a whole bunch of blog post cool listen 0:01:25.400 --> 0:01:28.160 galleries that we put together. Uh, and the landing page 0:01:28.200 --> 0:01:31.160 for each podcast episode is gonna have feature some links 0:01:31.240 --> 0:01:33.760 out to related content both on and off the site. 0:01:34.000 --> 0:01:35.840 And also if you're one of the wonderful little gang 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:38.759 who's been joining us every Friday at noon, you already 0:01:38.800 --> 0:01:42.440 know this, but we also do Periscope. Periscope is a 0:01:42.560 --> 0:01:45.840 how would you describe periscope, Christian It's a social media 0:01:45.920 --> 0:01:49.520 platform that I believe Twitter owns that is live streaming video. 0:01:49.760 --> 0:01:53.360 So literally we hang out here at the office, sit 0:01:53.400 --> 0:01:55.520 in front of an iPad and we talked to I 0:01:55.560 --> 0:01:57.280 think it's like we're up to like maybe about a 0:01:57.320 --> 0:02:00.680 hundred people a session now, um, but it could always 0:02:00.680 --> 0:02:02.800 be bigger. So yeah, if you want to ask us 0:02:02.880 --> 0:02:06.120 questions live or or just come to chat heckle us 0:02:06.120 --> 0:02:08.920 and have some fun, we tend to do that. Every 0:02:08.960 --> 0:02:12.640 Friday at noon. We announced it on social media Eastern 0:02:12.680 --> 0:02:17.040 Standard time, right, but we we may be erratic or 0:02:17.280 --> 0:02:19.520 or absent the next couple of weeks over the holidays. 0:02:19.520 --> 0:02:21.560 We're still trying to figure that out. You will let 0:02:21.639 --> 0:02:24.560 you know through our social channels, because we're here in America. 0:02:24.639 --> 0:02:26.520 We have a pretty crazy next couple of weeks with 0:02:26.639 --> 0:02:29.320 Christmas coming up in the New Year holiday, and because 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:33.800 it is time, is there a time of stress and 0:02:33.880 --> 0:02:40.239 it is a time of darkness and monsters. Yes, perfect segue, Robert. Yeah. 0:02:40.240 --> 0:02:42.519 I mean, I don't know about you guys, but holiday 0:02:42.560 --> 0:02:45.239 monsters there are something that I cling to more and more, 0:02:46.000 --> 0:02:50.799 especially given here in America Christmas is in holidays. It's 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:56.000 just such a bombardment of of fake joy and enthusiasm 0:02:56.080 --> 0:03:01.040 and high expectations of what your celebrations in family time 0:03:01.200 --> 0:03:04.600 and in in situation and just emotional state are supposed 0:03:05.280 --> 0:03:07.880 to amount to. And all of it is in rather 0:03:08.000 --> 0:03:11.880 stark contrast to the reactable. First of all, just the 0:03:11.880 --> 0:03:15.639 reality of living life in the real world, but even 0:03:16.120 --> 0:03:21.840 traditional treatment of a season that is is typified by darkness, 0:03:22.240 --> 0:03:25.440 the loss of light, the death of crops and and 0:03:25.560 --> 0:03:28.440 frozen soil, I actually pitched a story here at work 0:03:28.480 --> 0:03:30.000 the other day that I don't think we'll ever get 0:03:30.040 --> 0:03:32.120 off the ground. That was, like, let's do a cost 0:03:32.160 --> 0:03:34.960 benefit analysis as of the emotional well being of people 0:03:35.040 --> 0:03:39.680 post Christmas, like like like, like, does all the stuff 0:03:39.720 --> 0:03:42.160 that you put into it, right? Does that actually end 0:03:42.240 --> 0:03:47.000 up as positive goodwill after all sudden done. I'm the 0:03:47.000 --> 0:03:48.800 wrong person to ask. I'm kind of a grinch, but 0:03:49.240 --> 0:03:51.200 I like, I'm not a grinch in the sense that like, 0:03:51.240 --> 0:03:53.000 I'm like, I don't want to give gifts to anybody, 0:03:53.000 --> 0:03:55.840 but I just I have this sort of cynical viewpoint 0:03:55.880 --> 0:03:58.960 of the holidays, but I love given gifts and I 0:03:59.000 --> 0:04:03.040 love even more Christmas monsters. Yeah, that's well. My wife 0:04:03.040 --> 0:04:07.280 and I watch Rare Exports every Christmas. That is a wonderful, 0:04:07.400 --> 0:04:11.520 wonderful movie. It's got, it's got everything you could want. Yeah, Christmas, 0:04:11.760 --> 0:04:14.320 and I'm really happy to see this sort of resurgence 0:04:14.400 --> 0:04:17.800 of Christmas themed horror movies. It's not just Halloween time 0:04:17.839 --> 0:04:21.200 where we get some really good some really good horror movies. Well, 0:04:21.240 --> 0:04:23.839 it's an old tradition that you had Gremlins in the eighties, 0:04:24.440 --> 0:04:27.080 that's right. I always forget that was essentially a Christmas movie, 0:04:28.440 --> 0:04:32.000 Black Christmas, Silent Night, Deadly Night. Oh. I think those 0:04:32.000 --> 0:04:35.479 were pretty horrible, weren't they. Those always traumatized me seeing 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:37.640 that the posters as a child, because I remember as 0:04:37.680 --> 0:04:39.840 a as a child, I loved Christmas and I had 0:04:40.480 --> 0:04:43.160 I would I would really have like a childhood like 0:04:43.440 --> 0:04:46.680 a fence that I would take at seeing those posters 0:04:46.920 --> 0:04:50.680 or are certainly seeing one particular episode of Tales from 0:04:50.720 --> 0:04:54.240 the Dark Side about the Grither. I think that the 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:58.000 episode is called Seasons of Belief, and it's just it's 0:04:58.000 --> 0:05:00.000 not even a very good episode, but this has something 0:05:00.080 --> 0:05:02.520 monstrous ending where the Gritter, which is kind of this 0:05:03.160 --> 0:05:06.080 Grinch esque creature like, reaches its arms through the windows 0:05:06.120 --> 0:05:11.200 and crushes the skulls of the children's parents because they, 0:05:11.680 --> 0:05:14.279 you know, they weren't believing in Christmas enough. Now, do 0:05:14.320 --> 0:05:16.839 you remember the episode of Tales from the Crypt that 0:05:16.960 --> 0:05:20.320 has an axe murderer addressed as Santa. Yes, that was 0:05:20.360 --> 0:05:23.960 a big theme. In a season of American Horror Story, 0:05:24.400 --> 0:05:26.880 Shane shows up for like two episodes as a serial 0:05:27.000 --> 0:05:30.040 killer who dresses up like Santa Claus. Larry Drake, who 0:05:30.040 --> 0:05:33.159 played the villain in dark Man played the deranged Santa 0:05:33.560 --> 0:05:35.600 on the Tales from the Crypt TV show. But that 0:05:35.760 --> 0:05:38.240 same story, if I remember correctly, was also featured in 0:05:38.279 --> 0:05:41.520 the older Tales from the Crypt movie, and of course 0:05:41.560 --> 0:05:44.920 it has its roots in the comic itself. Yeah. So okay, 0:05:46.000 --> 0:05:48.560 all this is to say is that we before we 0:05:48.640 --> 0:05:51.000 get into listener mail this episode, want to talk about 0:05:51.080 --> 0:05:53.080 holiday monsters for a little bit. So we each picked 0:05:53.120 --> 0:05:57.000 our favorites. Yeah, so of course we've got to start 0:05:57.080 --> 0:06:02.400 off with the new patron saint of Christmas. He's everywhere 0:06:02.480 --> 0:06:05.960 this Yeah, Crampus has suddenly become popular. Well there at 0:06:06.040 --> 0:06:09.200 least an stream movie. Yeah, yeah, which looks fun. I 0:06:09.200 --> 0:06:11.000 haven't seen it yet, but I'm looking forward to going to. 0:06:11.400 --> 0:06:15.720 I mean, the guy who directed Tricker Treat, Yeah, he's been. 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:19.040 Crampus has been growing in global popularity, I feel each 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:23.680 year so just exponentially. Uh. And it's it's really fascinating 0:06:23.720 --> 0:06:25.760 to look at that. I mean, on one hand, it's 0:06:25.839 --> 0:06:28.200 kind of you get kind of like that that angst 0:06:28.200 --> 0:06:29.800 about it, you know, like I was, I was a 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:32.480 fan when Crampas was Indie. I had dinner with a 0:06:32.640 --> 0:06:36.719 with a mutual friend of the show. Uh. E c. Steiner, 0:06:36.760 --> 0:06:38.680 who's designed some of the artwork for Stuff to Play 0:06:38.720 --> 0:06:41.080 your mon for Monster Science, and we were talking about 0:06:41.080 --> 0:06:43.760 the Crampus phenomenon. He's he had that kind of like 0:06:44.080 --> 0:06:46.960 they're taking this thing away from us. Man. Yeah, but 0:06:47.080 --> 0:06:49.640 and then yeah, on one level, yeah, I get that. 0:06:49.720 --> 0:06:52.880 But then on the other level, it is nice to 0:06:52.920 --> 0:06:56.600 see the Christmas monster of the Crampus rising to such 0:06:57.120 --> 0:07:00.719 such a position of holiday power. So we're all fans 0:07:00.720 --> 0:07:03.880 of Crampus. But Robert, you've done deep dive research into 0:07:03.880 --> 0:07:05.880 Crampus in the last week or so, because you wrote 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:08.320 how Crampus Works for How Stuff Works. Yeah, it was. 0:07:08.960 --> 0:07:12.000 It was the just the other week, first week of 0:07:12.120 --> 0:07:16.720 December actually, And Tracy Wilson, who in addition to being 0:07:16.720 --> 0:07:19.520 a side directors also of course on us stuff you 0:07:19.560 --> 0:07:21.520 missed in history class. She said, Hey, we need a 0:07:21.560 --> 0:07:24.280 Crampus article this uh this uh this year. Do you 0:07:24.320 --> 0:07:26.320 want to write it? And I said, and I said, well, 0:07:26.520 --> 0:07:29.080 we were gonna have to get it out by December five, 0:07:29.240 --> 0:07:32.000 because that's a Crampus knock. That's the the eve of 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:34.680 the Feast of St. Nicholas, when Crampus and his kin 0:07:35.280 --> 0:07:38.400 come down from the mountains. To terrorize children and threatened 0:07:38.400 --> 0:07:40.440 to take them back in a sack and or and 0:07:40.600 --> 0:07:43.200 or beat them in the streets for their misdeeds. And 0:07:43.240 --> 0:07:45.640 so it was. It was a very quick deep dive 0:07:45.680 --> 0:07:47.760 where I had. Luckily, it's the topic I've I've looked 0:07:47.760 --> 0:07:50.360 into a number of times in the past. But it 0:07:50.400 --> 0:07:53.040 gave me a chance to reacquaint myself with what we 0:07:53.080 --> 0:07:57.640 know about crampus history, his uh, his mythic folkloric origins 0:07:58.120 --> 0:08:01.360 and uh and indeed this uh, this continuing timeline of 0:08:01.480 --> 0:08:05.200 his his rise to power and uh and and the 0:08:05.200 --> 0:08:07.120 the efforts of others to crush him back down and 0:08:07.320 --> 0:08:11.480 keep Christmas happy. There's a really great uh novel that 0:08:11.560 --> 0:08:13.960 actually ec Steiner gave me for Christmas a couple of 0:08:14.040 --> 0:08:17.440 years ago, by that artist brom Yeah, Gerald Brown. Yeah. 0:08:17.480 --> 0:08:20.840 And it's called Crampus, And it's a really cool Christmas 0:08:20.840 --> 0:08:24.160 time horror story about Crampus and about how like sort 0:08:24.160 --> 0:08:26.559 of like he waxes and waynes over the years based 0:08:26.600 --> 0:08:29.560 on his popularity and how many followers he has. Oh 0:08:29.640 --> 0:08:32.839 that's see, that's perfect because one of the things that 0:08:32.840 --> 0:08:35.080 that I discovered when I was researching his history was 0:08:35.120 --> 0:08:37.880 that uh, if you go back. Of course, Crampus always 0:08:37.880 --> 0:08:44.079 has his roots in um in German speaking Alpine uh cultures. 0:08:44.160 --> 0:08:48.160 That's that's where he comes from. That's where Austria, Switzerland, Yeah, 0:08:48.440 --> 0:08:50.720 a little bit of Italy and any any place where 0:08:50.760 --> 0:08:54.880 you can find German speaking mountain people, then they will 0:08:54.960 --> 0:08:57.800 likely have some version of Crampus. And of course there 0:08:57.800 --> 0:09:00.040 are various versions of it his chan and it's in 0:09:00.120 --> 0:09:04.199 the nature of folklore. Right. So before Nazi Germany's invasion 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:10.120 of Austria, Catholic Austro fascist briefly held power, and as 0:09:10.160 --> 0:09:12.880 reported in a nineteen forty five New York Times article, 0:09:13.160 --> 0:09:16.800 they saw Crampus as a demonic, unruly and also potentially 0:09:16.960 --> 0:09:21.800 communist usurper of Christian tradition. Uh. And this was it's crazy. 0:09:21.800 --> 0:09:24.599 I think this was a time to where Crampus was 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:27.680 really popular. So he's on all over the postcards and 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.079 we've I think we've all seen examples of of these 0:09:30.120 --> 0:09:33.480 old cool creepy pick I guess, like if you're out 0:09:33.480 --> 0:09:35.760 there and you have no idea what we're talking about, 0:09:35.840 --> 0:09:39.160 like Google image search Crampus, but he basically looks kind 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:43.559 of like a giant sader feature with horns and kind 0:09:43.559 --> 0:09:47.520 of like a fond coves and and chains sometimes chains 0:09:47.559 --> 0:09:50.000 a basket for kid children to throw in the back, 0:09:50.080 --> 0:09:54.120 a big alolling tongue that sometimes has serpentine qualities to it. 0:09:54.840 --> 0:09:56.280 I'll be sure to link to the part of these 0:09:56.280 --> 0:10:01.080 gallery Anti Santa Claus. Yeah, well, he's sort of he's 0:10:01.160 --> 0:10:03.400 kind of the anti St. Nick and buy St. Nick. 0:10:03.440 --> 0:10:07.840 I mean, the the traditional dour Catholic St. Nicholas. But 0:10:07.840 --> 0:10:09.160 he's also kind of like they're kind of like good 0:10:09.160 --> 0:10:11.480 cop bad cop. They both have the same mission and 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:15.040 they they're seen side by side. But when it comes 0:10:15.080 --> 0:10:17.520 to dressing up as one of these characters at Christmas, 0:10:17.720 --> 0:10:20.760 Crampus is always more fun. But at this point during 0:10:20.800 --> 0:10:25.440 the Austro Fascist rule, um, he was mad popular that 0:10:26.080 --> 0:10:27.760 you buy and not only would you buy all these 0:10:27.760 --> 0:10:31.840 postcards and cramp As candies, but he was actually stealing 0:10:31.880 --> 0:10:35.640 the role of prime gift giver from Santa. This is 0:10:35.760 --> 0:10:38.480 not only coming to your house to scare you, he 0:10:38.559 --> 0:10:41.960 was also bringing the gifts. He was completely pushing old St. 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:44.080 Nick out the door. So you'd go to the mall 0:10:44.200 --> 0:10:47.400 and line up to sit on this like baffamet laugh 0:10:47.720 --> 0:10:51.640 and say, oh please, Crampas I wanna, you know, Super 0:10:51.720 --> 0:10:55.240 Nintendo any less creepy than the actual Santa's a mall 0:10:55.240 --> 0:10:59.559 are I'm going down another path. My nephews just turned 0:10:59.600 --> 0:11:01.840 two years is old, and I don't know. Maybe Bastion's 0:11:01.880 --> 0:11:05.520 the same way Robert's son. Every time my sister brings 0:11:05.600 --> 0:11:07.880 him to the mall to do the Christmas photos with Santa, 0:11:07.960 --> 0:11:11.320 He's just screaming, trying and trying to get Don't blame it. 0:11:11.320 --> 0:11:13.640 It was like that for a Bastion at two. At three, 0:11:13.679 --> 0:11:17.120 he was more. He had a very you know, very 0:11:17.160 --> 0:11:22.240 serious holy respect this entity. But but now I'll refer 0:11:22.280 --> 0:11:24.920 everyone to the to the article and some other materials 0:11:24.920 --> 0:11:27.120 for a more in depth look at Crampus. But I 0:11:27.160 --> 0:11:29.120 will just leave you with that idea that there was 0:11:29.240 --> 0:11:32.600 a time, uh prior to a crackdown. They ended up 0:11:32.600 --> 0:11:36.320 outlining Crampus and then requiring that Santa Clauses even be 0:11:36.440 --> 0:11:39.480 registered with the with the state. But there was this 0:11:39.559 --> 0:11:42.320 time where Crampus was about to take over. He was 0:11:42.360 --> 0:11:46.640 about to take over the holidays in Austria, but then 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:49.520 the man had to shut it down. The World War two, 0:11:49.880 --> 0:11:51.560 we like we could live in a world right now 0:11:51.600 --> 0:11:54.640 where everybody celebrates Christmas with Crampus. But are we heading 0:11:54.640 --> 0:11:57.360 that way? That we might be heading that way? His 0:11:57.480 --> 0:12:00.760 tide is rising again. Hey, Santa didn't have movie this year, 0:12:00.960 --> 0:12:04.920 did he? I think that Santa has ever year that 0:12:05.000 --> 0:12:07.120 you don't find out about because their direct to video 0:12:07.200 --> 0:12:11.240 kids movies. Are they still making the Santa Claus movies? 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:13.480 Are they on the Santa Claus and nine, the one 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:18.559 with the guy from Home Improvement? Yes, I don't know. Okay, well, 0:12:18.559 --> 0:12:20.880 I've got my own Christmas monsters to talk about. When 0:12:20.920 --> 0:12:24.320 you have personal experience with these monsters. Oh, it was 0:12:24.360 --> 0:12:27.640 so wonderful when I found out about them. So last year, 0:12:27.640 --> 0:12:30.800 my wife Rachel and I traveled to, uh, the what 0:12:30.840 --> 0:12:34.320 I sort of think of as the moonland of Iceland. Like, 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:36.640 I know, it's actually a country on Earth, but for 0:12:36.679 --> 0:12:39.600 some reason I started thinking about it. I guess because 0:12:39.600 --> 0:12:43.360 of like the Arctic isolation and the geographical character of it. 0:12:43.440 --> 0:12:46.200 I think of it as a moon of Europe. Yeah. 0:12:46.240 --> 0:12:48.280 I mean I've been Iceland as well, and the volcanic 0:12:48.600 --> 0:12:52.480 uh structure of the land makes it feel very lunar. Yeah, 0:12:52.520 --> 0:12:55.760 so that moon of Europe. It's wonderful. And as the 0:12:55.800 --> 0:12:59.240 guy at the Icelandic rental car place told us Iceland 0:12:59.280 --> 0:13:02.840 is full of surprise. One of them is their Christmas 0:13:02.840 --> 0:13:07.440 creature folklore. So Icelandic Christmas time has big highlights in 0:13:07.480 --> 0:13:11.080 the monster category, and the first one is Gorilla, the 0:13:11.160 --> 0:13:15.840 child eater. Gorilla is a wonderful o griss who lives 0:13:15.920 --> 0:13:19.000 in caves among the mountains, and her line is pretty 0:13:19.080 --> 0:13:22.160 much that the most delicious and wonderful thing on earth 0:13:22.280 --> 0:13:26.680 is the steaming flesh of naughty children. So there's a 0:13:26.720 --> 0:13:30.280 description of Gorilla written by the Icelandic writer Yawn Arnisson, 0:13:30.440 --> 0:13:33.280 and I got this from the Icelandic Museum website. But 0:13:33.760 --> 0:13:37.480 it goes like this. Gorilla has three heads and three 0:13:37.600 --> 0:13:43.160 eyes in each head, horribly long curved fingernails, icy blue 0:13:43.160 --> 0:13:45.480 eyes at the back of the head, and horns like 0:13:45.520 --> 0:13:48.600 a goat. Her ears dangled down to her shoulders and 0:13:48.800 --> 0:13:52.640 are attached to the nose in front. Trying to picture 0:13:52.679 --> 0:13:56.480 that's an interesting piercing. I'd like to see that she 0:13:56.600 --> 0:13:59.880 has a beard on her chin is like knotted yarn 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:03.000 in a weave with tangles hanging from it, while her 0:14:03.040 --> 0:14:07.439 teeth are like burnt rocks in a great Wow, that's 0:14:07.440 --> 0:14:11.840 an awesome image. Brutal. So beginning sometime in the sevente 0:14:12.120 --> 0:14:16.600 eighteenth century literature, the legend emerged that Gorilla shows up 0:14:16.640 --> 0:14:20.320 in town just before Christmas is about to happen or 0:14:20.360 --> 0:14:24.040 something well, and I think probably in smaller towns often, 0:14:24.120 --> 0:14:26.520 so there there'd be towns all over, you know, the 0:14:26.760 --> 0:14:30.720 farm communities where Grilla shows up before Christmas and it's 0:14:30.760 --> 0:14:34.560 time to collect. She is there for the naughty children 0:14:34.560 --> 0:14:36.280 and they need to watch out or they will get 0:14:36.360 --> 0:14:39.480 dragged back to Gorilla's cave in a sack and boiled 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:42.200 in a big cauldron and then she can devour them. 0:14:42.720 --> 0:14:45.320 So there's some some similarities with Crampus here, like the 0:14:45.400 --> 0:14:49.280 you know, insertion into the basket or sack for transport 0:14:49.320 --> 0:14:53.160 back to the cave or lair. But Grilla also, unlike 0:14:53.160 --> 0:14:55.880 Crampus as far as I know, though maybe we can 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:59.840 find out different, Grilla has kids. So together with a 0:15:00.040 --> 0:15:03.720 dude named Lepo Lute, she gives birth to a bunch 0:15:03.720 --> 0:15:08.520 of children, thirteen of which become more Christmas creatures for Iceland, 0:15:08.760 --> 0:15:14.880 the Yule Lads. Crampus that has occasionally he sometimes has siblings, 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:17.040 but I don't think he has any offspring. Now, now 0:15:17.040 --> 0:15:20.280 are his siblings also evil or does he have good siblings? Well, 0:15:20.320 --> 0:15:22.920 it depends how deep you go into sort of Germanic 0:15:23.040 --> 0:15:27.400 pagan origins, because you get into this idea that they're 0:15:27.440 --> 0:15:30.800 like the beautiful children and then the ugly children of 0:15:31.240 --> 0:15:34.400 the dramatic goddess, and Cramps is definitely on the ugly 0:15:34.480 --> 0:15:37.880 side of that equation. I think he's beautiful. Well, so, 0:15:37.960 --> 0:15:41.280 the Yule Lads are a group of thirteen trolls who 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:43.960 are all grill as children, and they're they're sort of 0:15:44.000 --> 0:15:46.880 a little bit closer to the Father Christmas Santa Claus 0:15:46.960 --> 0:15:50.440 type figure, especially that I've seen them. They look like 0:15:50.520 --> 0:15:54.400 little like Christmas elf in type things, but they're also 0:15:54.400 --> 0:15:57.120 still pretty different. So for the thirteen days leading up 0:15:57.160 --> 0:16:01.880 to and including Christmas Eve, one front Yule Lad visits 0:16:01.920 --> 0:16:04.640 your house each night. Now, Joe, I have a request here. 0:16:04.800 --> 0:16:08.120 Can you please name them as if you are as 0:16:08.160 --> 0:16:11.960 if you're Santa Claus uh in the night before Christmas 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:14.080 calling on your reindeer. Oh, let's see if I can 0:16:14.080 --> 0:16:16.040 do that. So here they are. They each have names 0:16:16.040 --> 0:16:21.200 according to their proclivities on sheep coat, Claude on gully Gawk, 0:16:21.440 --> 0:16:25.800 on Stubby, on spoon, liquor on pot scraper, bull liquor, 0:16:26.000 --> 0:16:30.480 door slammer and skier, gobbler, on sausage swiper, window peeper, 0:16:30.560 --> 0:16:35.920 door sniffer, and meat hook and on candle begger. Uh so, 0:16:37.000 --> 0:16:39.040 wait a minute, you may have heard some things in there, 0:16:39.120 --> 0:16:42.200 like meat hook. Yeah, that's one of the ones that 0:16:42.240 --> 0:16:46.320 comes to your house. So they cause they cause eponymous 0:16:46.360 --> 0:16:48.680 mischief in a way. Each one has a name that 0:16:48.760 --> 0:16:50.760 lets you know the kind of trouble it gets into. 0:16:50.840 --> 0:16:54.400 What kind of trouble is meat hooks? Well, funny you 0:16:54.400 --> 0:16:57.200 should ask, because meat hook has a hook and it 0:16:57.280 --> 0:17:00.560 reaches into your house with the hook to steal morsels 0:17:00.600 --> 0:17:04.240 of meat. Disappointing, I thought he had a hook made 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:07.040 of meat. Yeah, he shows up on St. Thorlax Day, 0:17:07.080 --> 0:17:13.800 by the way, a combination of Thor and snorrelax from Pokemon. No, 0:17:13.920 --> 0:17:18.440 it's December Thorlak. Come on, you don't. You don't ask 0:17:18.440 --> 0:17:21.520 for the patron inche of St. Thorlak. Only when I 0:17:21.560 --> 0:17:24.840 need to, well, only when sausage swiper is at my door, 0:17:25.119 --> 0:17:30.199 right or door sniffer. Big help then, But anyway, so 0:17:30.640 --> 0:17:32.959 meat yeah, meat hook, he steals the meat. But then 0:17:33.000 --> 0:17:36.200 there's also one like Skier Gobbler. So in Iceland they've 0:17:36.240 --> 0:17:39.840 got this sheep's milky yogurt type stuff. This is a 0:17:40.200 --> 0:17:45.639 dense dairy product called skier and uh, and people love it. 0:17:45.680 --> 0:17:48.640 They really sing its praises. I didn't really eat much 0:17:48.680 --> 0:17:51.119 skier in Icelands. I'm not a big yogurt guy. But 0:17:52.520 --> 0:17:55.640 Skier Gobbler comes to empty out your skier tub and 0:17:55.720 --> 0:17:57.879 he eats so much that he's about to pop and 0:17:57.960 --> 0:18:00.800 he starts howling in pain. So basically he does the 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:04.520 Chinese buffet thing. All right, Hollywood producers listening right now, 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:09.439 we need a gorilla in the Yule Lads movie for Christmas. 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.520 Yet on it stat there there's a great source for this. 0:18:12.640 --> 0:18:16.399 That was a poem called the Yola s ven Are 0:18:16.480 --> 0:18:19.320 Near I hope I said that right by Johannas or 0:18:19.400 --> 0:18:23.960 Colum and I read a translation of it into English 0:18:24.080 --> 0:18:27.359 that was just delightful. It lets you know about all 0:18:27.400 --> 0:18:29.399 the kinds of trouble that they get into. For example, 0:18:29.440 --> 0:18:32.239 you remember sheep coat Claude. As far as I know, 0:18:32.280 --> 0:18:35.920 what sheep coat Claude tries to do is he harasses sheep. 0:18:36.359 --> 0:18:38.840 So he gets into your sheep and he causes trouble, 0:18:38.880 --> 0:18:41.480 and he tries to suck their milk. He tries to 0:18:41.520 --> 0:18:43.600 suck the milk from the sheep, but the kids are hungry, 0:18:43.640 --> 0:18:46.280 Gorilla doesn't feed them. He has he has stiff knees, 0:18:46.359 --> 0:18:48.879 and that sort of prevents him from sucking the milk 0:18:49.000 --> 0:18:53.000 from the sheep. Correctly, that's a tragic tale. You know. 0:18:53.040 --> 0:18:55.240 There was a story book I had as a kid, 0:18:55.359 --> 0:18:57.639 and um and I picked up a copy for passion 0:18:57.680 --> 0:19:01.639 as well. It's a book of trolls and ogres, and 0:19:01.720 --> 0:19:03.440 it has of course the billy goats gruff in it, 0:19:03.480 --> 0:19:07.159 and these wonderful illustrations that are reminiscent of of you know, 0:19:07.240 --> 0:19:11.199 of Bosh and similar works. But one of the stories 0:19:11.200 --> 0:19:14.680 that it involves his house and every Christmas a bunch 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:17.280 of little troll creatures come and just steal all their 0:19:17.320 --> 0:19:20.080 food and wreck their feet. But then a traveler with 0:19:20.160 --> 0:19:23.120 a with a polar bear. He stays there that night, 0:19:23.320 --> 0:19:25.239 and the polar bear hides under the table and then 0:19:25.280 --> 0:19:28.000 scares all the trolls away. It sounds like that might 0:19:28.040 --> 0:19:31.119 be a derivative of the Ule Lads. I think I 0:19:31.200 --> 0:19:34.920 know the name of this traveler. He's probably named Yukon Cornelius. 0:19:36.800 --> 0:19:38.919 Oh we'll get to that in a second, but I 0:19:38.960 --> 0:19:41.520 have to finish off one more thing about the icelandic tails. 0:19:41.800 --> 0:19:44.560 So one last thing about the Eule lads is that 0:19:44.720 --> 0:19:46.640 they're softer than they used to be. So I think 0:19:46.640 --> 0:19:48.760 they used to also be trolls who would eat children. 0:19:49.320 --> 0:19:52.080 But over time I don't know that. I guess the 0:19:52.119 --> 0:19:55.119 Icelanders were like, that's a little rough for the kids 0:19:56.080 --> 0:20:00.000 constantly be threatened with murder and death at Christmas. Uh, 0:20:00.119 --> 0:20:03.200 So they changed it to where the Yule adds. Now 0:20:03.240 --> 0:20:05.720 they bring the little gifts. So you put your shoe 0:20:05.800 --> 0:20:08.080 up on the window sill and the ul lads will 0:20:08.160 --> 0:20:10.840 leave small presents or candies in the shoe if you've 0:20:10.840 --> 0:20:13.879 been good. If you've been bad, they used to eat you, 0:20:13.920 --> 0:20:15.840 but they no longer eat you. Now they just bring 0:20:15.880 --> 0:20:19.800 you rotting potatoes. Oh god, that's still unpleasant. And then 0:20:19.840 --> 0:20:23.000 there's one more creature in Iceland. It's the Yule cat. 0:20:23.680 --> 0:20:26.480 The old cat is the pet of Gorilla, the child 0:20:26.480 --> 0:20:30.040 eater and Luti. So they have this Christmas cat and 0:20:30.200 --> 0:20:34.240 it apparently there was, or maybe still is an expression 0:20:34.320 --> 0:20:39.399 Iceland that if you don't get any new clothes for Christmas. 0:20:39.800 --> 0:20:43.879 You are quote dressing the Yule Cat or quote ending 0:20:43.960 --> 0:20:47.399 up in the Yule Cat. So it's possible that the 0:20:47.480 --> 0:20:50.480 Yule Cat will pretty much eat you if you don't 0:20:50.520 --> 0:20:53.520 have a nice new sweater for the Christmas season. So 0:20:53.560 --> 0:20:57.280 this kind of ups the anti giving bad clothing that 0:20:57.320 --> 0:20:59.160 you end up getting. Yeah, where was the Yule Cat 0:20:59.320 --> 0:21:00.960 when we were growing up, Like that would have been 0:21:01.240 --> 0:21:03.960 I'm gonna have to use that all those Cosby sweaters. Yeah, 0:21:04.000 --> 0:21:08.920 it's literally a matter of life or death underwear variant 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:11.760 that only comes after you if you don't get underwear 0:21:11.760 --> 0:21:17.160 for Christmas. Well, mine is pretty pop culture reference. It's 0:21:17.200 --> 0:21:21.720 not from like another nation or culture. Uh is from 0:21:21.760 --> 0:21:25.480 those Rootolph the Red Nose Reindeer stop motion movies that 0:21:25.560 --> 0:21:27.800 I grew up with and loved so much as a kid. 0:21:28.119 --> 0:21:31.200 Although I went back and rewatched them. My wife and 0:21:31.240 --> 0:21:33.200 I actually bought it for a friend of ours kid 0:21:33.280 --> 0:21:35.280 for Christmas a couple of years ago. And there's some 0:21:36.000 --> 0:21:40.760 there's some dicey uh treatment of women in those movies 0:21:40.800 --> 0:21:45.080 and raised as a little Yeah, but as many of 0:21:45.119 --> 0:21:48.919 you probably remember from seeing those, uh, the Abominable snow 0:21:49.000 --> 0:21:53.600 Monster of the North is my favorite Christmas Monster, also 0:21:53.640 --> 0:21:56.800 known as the Bumble as he's so named by Yukon Cornelius, 0:21:56.800 --> 0:21:59.159 who was an experts in all things. I want to 0:21:59.200 --> 0:22:02.600 throw in that. Uh, my son Bastion has informed me 0:22:02.920 --> 0:22:07.200 that the Abominable Snowman in this film is a real monster. 0:22:08.200 --> 0:22:11.360