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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Histories, a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show,

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Speaker 1: Ridiculous Historians. Thank you, as always so much for tuning in.

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Speaker 1: Let's give a shout out to our super producer, Max

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Speaker 1: Jeeves Williams.

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Speaker 2: I knew you were gonna go with Jeeves. This is

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Speaker 2: the best one. Best remember asked Jeeves? If you guys

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Speaker 2: ever asked Jeeves about anything? Yeah?

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Speaker 3: Remember I think I asked something stupid and dirty from

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Speaker 3: ask Jeeves.

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Speaker 2: But that's about it. Like, yeah, I remember the time,

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Speaker 2: We're faintly thinking this is some sort of novel thing.

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Speaker 2: But at the end of the day, wasn't asked Jeeves

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Speaker 2: just kind of a subpar search engine.

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Speaker 1: For its time. It was pretty dope, it was. But

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Speaker 1: of course, you know, search engine technology has its ebbs

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Speaker 1: and flows, and for a lot of people in the

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Speaker 1: time that ask Jeeves came about, the idea that you

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Speaker 1: would have this electronic butler or concierge kind of familiarized

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Speaker 1: people with the idea of search engine. So I think

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Speaker 1: for that reason it was pretty successfulness day. I'm Ben Bowling,

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Speaker 1: You're Nold Brown. It is I and Ben. By the way,

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Speaker 1: this very one for the folks listening playing along at home.

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Speaker 2: His nickname in our video chat platform Thinking Today is

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Speaker 2: mister Belvidere, and I would argue that the ask jeeves

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Speaker 2: quid essential Butler logo or whatever the titular jeeves very

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Speaker 2: much mister Belvidere kind of situation.

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Speaker 1: Guys, this is part of the inspiration for today's episode.

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Speaker 1: So peep behind the curtain. This idea, the idea of

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Speaker 1: Butler's as an episode, came to us while Noel and

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Speaker 1: r pal Matt and I were recording another show we

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Speaker 1: do called Stuff that Will Wants You to Know is

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Speaker 1: a true story. I was kind of a square, goody

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Speaker 1: goodye as a child, and the first time I ever

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Speaker 1: lingered or called in sick to school, it was to skip.

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Speaker 1: Nothing was wrong. I skipped school and obsessively watched an

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Speaker 1: all day Mister Belvidere marathon. I couldn't tell you what

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Speaker 1: happens on the show. It's just I love the theme song.

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Speaker 2: It's a good example of that golden age where sitcom

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Speaker 2: theme songs gave you the whole rundown. They let you

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Speaker 2: know the stakes right up front, and not to make light,

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Speaker 2: but there is one thing, one little clip of mister

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Speaker 2: Belvidere that has been making the rounds lately, and it

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Speaker 2: is where this little neighbor kid who apparently has been

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Speaker 2: diagnosed with HIV. It's one of those special episodes that

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Speaker 2: deals with a hot button issue and the clip that

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Speaker 2: goes around is just apropos of nothing. This little kid

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Speaker 2: comes in and mister Belvidere goes, oh, hello, Johnny, how

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Speaker 2: are you an? He goes, wow, pretty good, except that

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Speaker 2: I have aids. Oh my god, just I'm sorry again

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Speaker 2: not to make light at all in Golden Time. It

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Speaker 2: makes me think of like Kelly Kapowski getting hopped up

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Speaker 2: on speed and singing, I'm so excited. I'm so excited,

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Speaker 2: you know. I mean a lot of these after school

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Speaker 2: special aspects of these nineties sitcoms they did get dark.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, they're like, hey, this is usually the twenty five

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Speaker 1: to twenty eight minutes during week that you're guaranteed to laugh,

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Speaker 1: but this week it's human trafficking exactly, and they.

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Speaker 2: Still don't change the theme song. Or Mark from Home

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Speaker 2: Improvement wears a dog collar and a tool shirt, and

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Speaker 2: all of a sudden, his parents are genuinely concerned for

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Speaker 2: his immortal soul. I love those things.

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Speaker 1: Maybe we should do an episode on weird special episodes.

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Speaker 2: There's a dozens of them. Yes, yeah, I say one

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Speaker 2: million percent. You know again, there was even an episode

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Speaker 2: of Rosanne where like I believe they found out that

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Speaker 2: or one of her daughters was Becky. I think was

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Speaker 2: like do an acid or something like that. This is

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Speaker 2: the whole thing. Wow.

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Speaker 1: We also know that, Okay, butlers are iconic in film

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Speaker 1: and fiction. The majority of people when they think of butler's,

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Speaker 1: we think of fictional butlers because most people simply do

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Speaker 1: not have personal household servants. But butlers are like the

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Speaker 1: ambassador of servants, and it would be depay on your personality.

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Speaker 1: I think it would be great to have a butler

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Speaker 1: because modern life, I've been thinking about this a lot.

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Speaker 1: You guys, modern life is kind of tough. If you're

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Speaker 1: an adult, you essentially have two jobs minimum. You've got

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Speaker 1: the one job you do that pays your bills, right

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Speaker 1: like in our case, producing and podcasting, and then you

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Speaker 1: have the second job of all the other stuff you

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Speaker 1: have to do just to exist in society, laundry, chores, appointments.

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Speaker 1: You know, if you're a parent, you know this struggle well,

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Speaker 1: because you're done with your first job, and then your

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Speaker 1: other job is you know, you have to make sure

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Speaker 1: things stay on the level with your children, or if

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Speaker 1: you have put paid your way through college, then you

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Speaker 1: have to do college as a job, and then you

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Speaker 1: have to do your job as a job. So what

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Speaker 1: if there were a way to outsource this? What if

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Speaker 1: we let's get some fantasy music, Max.

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Speaker 2: There it is.

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Speaker 1: What if you came home from work and the kitchen

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Speaker 1: was already clean, the cutlery was polished, the invitations for

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Speaker 1: the birthday soiree was sent, the laundry was folded, the

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Speaker 1: lawn was freshly trimmed. This brings us to the strange,

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Speaker 1: at times disturbing history of butlers.

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Speaker 2: And I didn't know this though.

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Speaker 1: Their first job, Like if you go back through antiquity,

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Speaker 1: the butler was the guy who was in charge of

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Speaker 1: the booze.

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Speaker 2: Sure, yeah, he maintained the wha and probably required a

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Speaker 2: pretty deep knowledge of the finer things. I mean. Typically

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Speaker 2: a butler occupies sort of a rarefied echelon of society. Right,

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Speaker 2: you wouldn't even call it a butler if you were

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Speaker 2: just like upper middle class, you'd have like maybe a

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Speaker 2: housekeeper or like a yard man or something like that.

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Speaker 2: It might even go so far as to call it

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Speaker 2: a grounds keeper. But more or less, the butler is

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Speaker 2: kind of the like major domo of the household in

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Speaker 2: many ways, like if you look at the upstairs downstairs

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Speaker 2: and ness of like a down n abbey type situation,

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Speaker 2: the butler would be kind of the big boss, sort

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Speaker 2: of like you know, who reports directly to the lady

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Speaker 2: in lord of the house and sort of makes sure

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Speaker 2: keeps tabs on the rest of the staff. Yeah. Yeah,

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Speaker 2: one hundred percent.

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Speaker 1: In the ancient days, In the ancient times, all the

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Speaker 1: way up through the medieval period, alcoholic beverages, like you said,

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Speaker 1: were stored in these earthenware vessels and then later in

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Speaker 1: wooden barrels and casks. They were considered a huge part

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Speaker 1: of an estate's wealth or prime among their possessions. So

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Speaker 1: I love your example of these yeah assets. I love

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Speaker 1: your example of the yard guy. A lot of people

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Speaker 1: have you know, someone comes by once a month or

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Speaker 1: whatever to move their lawn or do some landscaping, But

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Speaker 1: you wouldn't let that person also be the guy to

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Speaker 1: take your mercedes on a road trip. Right, That feels

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Speaker 1: like a different job and so the butt take it

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Speaker 1: to get it washed. Yeah, maybe to pay how well,

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Speaker 1: you know the.

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Speaker 2: Guy, right, I get I guess that's sort of the deal.

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Speaker 2: It's it's not a matter of like distrust or whatever.

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Speaker 2: This is also sort of like a at what point

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Speaker 2: do you consider somebody worthy of being in charge of

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Speaker 2: your precious precious things?

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Speaker 1: Exactly exactly, that's a great way to put it. So,

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Speaker 1: the care of these alcoholic containers or these beverage containers

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Speaker 1: was generally only reserved for trusted individuals. Often these individuals

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Speaker 1: were enslaved people. The job could go to free people,

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Speaker 1: but if it did, it was usually because their father

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Speaker 1: and their father before them was the butler for the family.

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Speaker 1: So this was an intergenerational thing. It's even it even

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Speaker 1: shows up in the Bible. The Book of Genesis contains

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Speaker 1: a reference to a chief butler or chief cup bearer.

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Speaker 2: It's the cup bearer, and not to mention this is

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Speaker 2: also requires someone of a trusted standing because it was

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Speaker 2: often a means of poisoning or doing harm individuals you

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Speaker 2: know that are in high ranking positions or whatever. So

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Speaker 2: you see, of course we know the little story of

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Speaker 2: the like food taster or whatever. But oftentimes the cup bearer.

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Speaker 2: You needed someone in charge of the uh so, the

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Speaker 2: supply chain and the flow of these things that the

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Speaker 2: low lady of the house would be consuming. And you

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Speaker 2: need that person to be someone who you would literally

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Speaker 2: trust with your life, that cup bearer exactly. Yeah, and

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Speaker 2: let's play.

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Speaker 1: This also happened in ancient Greece and Rome, and then

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Speaker 1: they're in the medieval era. They had something called the

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Speaker 1: pinserna who would do the same thing, the cup bearer

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Speaker 1: for the court. If you look at the let's play

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Speaker 1: the etymology game. As a matter of fact, Butler, the

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Speaker 1: word we use today comes from a Middle English word

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Speaker 1: bouteller and some old French words. No, I think I'll

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Speaker 1: need your help with this phrase.

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Speaker 2: I mean, it makes me think if I believe it's

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Speaker 2: a poet, the French poet Baudelaire. Oh yeah, Bodlier, I believe,

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Speaker 2: you know, but you know, you gotta wonder if that

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Speaker 2: is if Baudelaire is maybe almost one of those nominative

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Speaker 2: determinism type situations like Bolin or Baker. Yeah. Maybe.

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Speaker 1: And before that, there was another word that led to butler.

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Speaker 1: It is Middle Latin particula, which is hilarious wasn't there

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Speaker 1: a young adult book about a vampire rabbit Banicula.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, but Barticula is a vampire, but it just comes

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Speaker 2: for you. It sucks out your life's essence in the night.

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Speaker 2: That would be an amazing story.

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Speaker 1: I think we we put that in our back pocket

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Speaker 1: because we've been coming up with some great cinematic pitches

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Speaker 1: and no spoilers, folks, but one of our one of

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Speaker 1: our friends of the show actually wrote to us recently

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Speaker 1: and said, Hey, remember that weird riff you guys were doing.

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Speaker 2: What if we tried to make it real? It's already

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Speaker 2: real in our minds. Guest, that's all that matters to me.

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Speaker 2: But it would be fun for sure. Man. There was

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Speaker 2: a whole universe around Banicula. There was the Celery Stalks

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Speaker 2: at Midnight. Oh here, Lauren Vogelbaum in front of the show,

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Speaker 2: actually has a Banicula t shirt that she wears out

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Speaker 2: and about. It was a very popular series of young

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Speaker 2: adult kind of comedy, cuddly horror books. You know, there

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Speaker 2: were quite a few. But yeah, Latin uh Budtists, busies,

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Speaker 2: I'm gonna say Buddhists, referring to that that very specific

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Speaker 2: uh vessel, the cask that would be used to store

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Speaker 2: the fine wines in the cellar. And the modern English

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Speaker 2: butler therefore does get its origins from bottles and casks.

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Speaker 2: Just clap your hands, yeah, your hands, Just clap your hands.

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Speaker 1: Also, it does sound a little bit more dignified than

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Speaker 1: bottle boy or buttle boy. But boy, bye boy, we

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Speaker 1: had somebody had to say, yeah, somebody stop us please.

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Speaker 2: It is interesting though, but you know, I think it's

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Speaker 2: easy to be dismissive of just the idea of boy,

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Speaker 2: bring me wine, you know, but there really is a

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Speaker 2: certain trust in this chain of custody of like, you know,

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Speaker 2: from being the person that oversees receiving these barrels to

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Speaker 2: make sure a they're very pricey, they need to be

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Speaker 2: taken care of and stored correctly in all of that

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Speaker 2: so they don't spoil. But it really is important to

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Speaker 2: have someone that's very trusted that providing you with this

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Speaker 2: thing that could potentially kill you. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: And originally the European butler was kind of a middle

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Speaker 1: ranking member of the servants in a great house or

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Speaker 1: big estate, and they were just in charge of what

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Speaker 1: was called the buttery, which is where you would store.

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Speaker 1: These butts severage. Yeah, they call them butts of liquor.

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Speaker 1: And then if we go to the Elizabethan era, we

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Speaker 1: see the steward becomes a little bit closer to the

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Speaker 1: modern butler. And then if you go through the eighteen hundreds,

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Speaker 1: the Victorian era in particular, you see that there is

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Speaker 1: an explosion of butlers and other domestic servants in different countries,

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Speaker 1: including the United States. The butler, by this point evolves

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Speaker 1: to be that senior male servant of a household staff.

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Speaker 1: But of course butler's today it's a gender neutral term.

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Speaker 1: There are female and male identifying butlers. Back in the day, though,

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Speaker 1: this guy was like almost a little emperor of the downstairs,

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Speaker 1: you know, like like you said with Downtown Abbey. By

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Speaker 1: this time, your butler is going to be in charge

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Speaker 1: of the wine cellar, the pantry, and something I had

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Speaker 1: no idea existed, because I am not the one percent

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Speaker 1: the owery.

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Speaker 2: Have you ever heard of an owery? No? I have

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Speaker 2: not been. Okay, I don't feel bad. I don't think

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Speaker 2: that's in my wheelhouse.

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Speaker 1: It's it's the place that just has napkins and basins

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Speaker 1: for washing and shaving.

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Speaker 2: I see, Okay, So maybe a little antiquated at this point,

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Speaker 2: would maybe call that more like the boudoir, yeah, or

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Speaker 2: the laundry room. You know. But it is funny how

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Speaker 2: when you get to a certain level of wealth, terms

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Speaker 2: like laundry room and bathroom, they just don't apply to

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Speaker 2: you anymore. You need fancier terms and a whole staff

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Speaker 2: to maintain them. Mm hmm.

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Speaker 3: Yeah.

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Speaker 1: I think my favorite from any of those weird rich

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Speaker 1: people things we've looked at over the years is still

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Speaker 1: the orangery.

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Speaker 2: That's where all the orgies happen.

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Speaker 1: Well, it is where elite maybe, but I think technically

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Speaker 1: it's where they grew oranges.

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Speaker 2: Ah. Yes, of course, common mistake of common misunderstand how

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Speaker 2: you can tell we're low class and a manual of

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Speaker 2: sorts was published in Britain in eighteen sixty one with

250
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Speaker 2: the fabulous title Missus Beadon's Book of Household Management, and

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Speaker 2: it put you know, know, the whole evolving nature of bottling. Thusly,

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Speaker 2: the number of male domestics in a family varies according

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Speaker 2: to the wealth and position of the master from the

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Speaker 2: owner of the ducal mansion with a retinue of attendance

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Speaker 2: at the head of which is the chamberlain and house

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Speaker 2: steward to the occupier of the humbler house, where a

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Speaker 2: single footman or even the odd man of all work

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Speaker 2: is the only male retainer the scandal. The man of

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Speaker 2: all work is what we might today call a handyman.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, or a dogs body or of la Yeah, did

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Speaker 1: you say dog's body.

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Speaker 2: I don't know this one.

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Speaker 1: That dog's body, as one word, is another term for

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Speaker 1: kind of your general assistant.

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Speaker 2: It doesn't sound very uh, it does sound very yeah.

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Speaker 1: Sure, But they're like do menial work all the basically

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Speaker 1: all the unpleasant jobs that you don't want to do

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Speaker 1: if you can afford to hire someone else to do.

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Speaker 2: It, sort of a jack of all trades type, you know,

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Speaker 2: who can get the job done. The footman. However, I

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Speaker 2: guess when I think of footmen, I think of people

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Speaker 2: that are attending to like a coach, you know, or

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Speaker 2: like running alongside it. Perhaps I don't know, I'm thinking

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Speaker 2: I'm getting it's giving big Cinderella vibes. Yeah.

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Speaker 1: They might also be the person who meets you at

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Speaker 1: the door. They might serve for fancy dinners. They might

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Speaker 1: play the role of waiter. This leads us to the

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Speaker 1: question of what a butler actually does. So now they're

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Speaker 1: the head of this pretty hierarchical system of servants, and

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Speaker 1: they are more they're increasingly managerial instead of hands on.

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Speaker 1: So for example, the butler might greet a guest officially

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Speaker 1: and announce their arrival to the shindig, but the door

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Speaker 1: is actually opened by the footman, and the hat and

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Speaker 1: coat of the visitor are actually handled by the footman

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Speaker 1: if there was, if there was a pressing need, the

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Speaker 1: butler was not above pitching in, like during a staff shortage,

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Speaker 1: and they would do whatever they could to make sure

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Speaker 1: the house ran smoothly. But they were kind of above

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Speaker 1: the physical work. They were sort of liaisons between the

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Speaker 1: wealthy employer and the servants.

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Speaker 2: I guess it would also depend on the situation, because

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Speaker 2: you know, one could argue that Alfred in the Batman

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Speaker 2: universe is Bruce Wayne's butler. But like I think, by design,

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Speaker 2: Bruce Wayne doesn't really have a whole hell of a

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Speaker 2: lot of other staff. You know, he might have like

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Speaker 2: a housekeeper that comes and goes, but it would seem

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Speaker 2: that Alfred cooks his meals, you know, serves him dinner

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Speaker 2: and and and does all of the above. So a

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Speaker 2: butler can also be a bit of a catch all term.

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Speaker 3: So to jump in here, I was thinking about it, like,

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Speaker 3: so Dark Knight Rises, the third Christopher Nolan film, there's

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Speaker 3: actually a scene at the very beginning of this big

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Speaker 3: thing happening at the Wayne estate and Alfred's like running

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Speaker 3: the whole crew and Boston people around and being in

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Speaker 3: charge of which kind of thing. Is like he like

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Speaker 3: these people, I'm like look at him, like they're.

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Speaker 2: Not always there.

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Speaker 3: So he's like, oh, it's the having of this, the

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Speaker 3: fact I'm gonna go hire all these people out, and

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Speaker 3: very much his managerial thing. But the day to day yeah,

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Speaker 3: I mean.

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Speaker 2: He he's cooking eggs. I think they're like and they're like,

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Speaker 2: get there.

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Speaker 3: Like his job is to make sure we get to

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Speaker 3: this certain place that the head of the household is

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Speaker 3: cared for.

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Speaker 2: Right, that's the end goal.

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Speaker 1: There's a lot of anticipation at this level of service.

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Speaker 1: And maybe we'll talk a little bit about how to

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Speaker 1: become a butler at the end of this. But I

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Speaker 1: think you guys are putting it perfectly because it becomes

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Speaker 1: a more generalized term. It is an official role, but

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Speaker 1: the duties of that role can be pretty pretty varied. So,

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Speaker 1: for instance, in a household that doesn't have an official

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Speaker 1: head housekeeper, the female servants and kitchen staff are also

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Speaker 1: directly under the butler's management. And then you know, the

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Speaker 1: smaller the householder estate gets, the more the butler actually does.

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Speaker 1: And I remember the episode we stumbled upon this with.

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Speaker 1: It was the disappearing billionaire Carl Eric. Remember, because he

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Speaker 1: had a butler situation.

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Speaker 2: He had two butlers, But even in that situation, one

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Speaker 2: of them felt a little more like the head of

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Speaker 2: household type cat and the other one was a little

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Speaker 2: more of a catch all jack of all tray's handyman

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Speaker 2: who would like mow the yard and things like that.

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Speaker 2: So it really does kind of there's a bit. It's

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Speaker 2: a bit of an umbrella term as it's used today.

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Speaker 2: But speaking of as it's used today, I did just

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Speaker 2: want to mention that buttling is still very much a thing.

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Speaker 2: I literally googled our butler is still a thing, to

341
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Speaker 2: which I received yes, yes, no, butlers very much are

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Speaker 2: still a thing. In fact, there is a professional society

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Speaker 2: of butlers called the International Guild of Professional Butlers, and

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Speaker 2: this organization estimates that there are in fact millions of

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Speaker 2: professional butlers worldwide today with an actual pretty significant uptick

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Speaker 2: over the past thirty years. I imagine as that one

347
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Speaker 2: percent has gotten a little more one percent. Y.

348
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Speaker 1: Yeah, and there's a lot of international demand too. That

349
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Speaker 1: played a huge role in this, because there were more

350
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Speaker 1: and more millionaires, billionaires and people who could afford butlers.

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Speaker 1: As a matter of fact, there's an interesting thing we

352
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Speaker 1: can talk about a little bit later where you can

353
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Speaker 1: see the rise in butlers as a profession. It ties

354
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Speaker 1: pretty closely with the rise of economic inequality.

355
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Speaker 2: So the more.

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Speaker 1: Unequal society gets financially, the more butlers there are, because

357
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Speaker 1: there's a higher demand for them and more people are

358
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Speaker 1: pretty much searching for any kind of job.

359
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Speaker 2: I don't think we've mentioned this little bit another term

360
00:20:26,720 --> 00:20:29,159
Speaker 2: as maybe often used or was in the past for

361
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Speaker 2: a butler didn't know about dog's body.

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Speaker 1: How do you feel about manservant? I think it's okay.

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Speaker 1: There are some things that sks me out a little

364
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Speaker 1: bit about it, but I think that's a me thing.

365
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Speaker 1: I think it's totally a respectable title and it's not

366
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Speaker 1: weird unless you make it weird. And now we have

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Speaker 1: to talk about one of the one of the things

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Speaker 1: that's a little bit disturbing regarding butlers. If we travel

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Speaker 1: across the Atlantic to the United States, we know that

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Speaker 1: from the beginning of slavery in America in the early

371
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Speaker 1: sixteen hundreds, many enslaved people and the African Americans were

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Speaker 1: put to task as domestic servants, and some of those

373
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Speaker 1: did become butler's and in some cases, far from every case,

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Speaker 1: but in some cases they attained a level of power

375
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Speaker 1: right in their estate that might not have been accessible

376
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Speaker 1: through other means. And we even see another author, a

377
00:21:30,640 --> 00:21:34,920
Speaker 1: guy named Robert Roberts is an African American butler and

378
00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:38,679
Speaker 1: created a book called The House Servants Directory in eighteen

379
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Speaker 1: twenty seven. It's like the book household Management. It's manual

380
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Speaker 1: for butlers and waiters. And it was a smash success.

381
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Speaker 1: It was a runaway hit. A second edition got published

382
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Speaker 1: in eighteen twenty eight, and a third got published in

383
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Speaker 1: eighteen forty three. People were buying this book left and right.

384
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Speaker 1: There were also people who were not technically slaves, but

385
00:22:02,320 --> 00:22:06,800
Speaker 1: we're indentured servants, so they were kind of still enslaved, right.

386
00:22:06,760 --> 00:22:08,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, what was the deal with indentured service? They basically

387
00:22:08,760 --> 00:22:11,199
Speaker 2: you got paid a wage like a stipend, and a

388
00:22:11,200 --> 00:22:12,800
Speaker 2: lot of it had to do with like you basically

389
00:22:12,840 --> 00:22:17,159
Speaker 2: were beholden to your uh to your employer, like you

390
00:22:17,320 --> 00:22:19,840
Speaker 2: relied on them for every aspect of your life, for

391
00:22:20,119 --> 00:22:21,640
Speaker 2: the for for intensive purposes.

392
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Speaker 1: Yeah, the way it would work when everybody was acting

393
00:22:24,880 --> 00:22:27,240
Speaker 1: in good faith is this. They would pay for a

394
00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:32,000
Speaker 1: person's passage from Europe to the Americas, and the deal was,

395
00:22:32,080 --> 00:22:35,679
Speaker 1: you know, once you land there, you will be an employee,

396
00:22:35,720 --> 00:22:38,600
Speaker 1: an unpaid employee of ours, will give you room and board,

397
00:22:38,960 --> 00:22:41,679
Speaker 1: and you'll work for either a set number of years

398
00:22:41,880 --> 00:22:44,440
Speaker 1: or you'll work until we believe you have paid off

399
00:22:44,440 --> 00:22:47,000
Speaker 1: your debt. So it could be, it could be a

400
00:22:47,119 --> 00:22:52,000
Speaker 1: rough situation, but we know. The thing that we know

401
00:22:52,160 --> 00:22:57,119
Speaker 1: for sure is your experience as a butler is going

402
00:22:57,160 --> 00:23:01,360
Speaker 1: to vary widely, both in the past and today, almost

403
00:23:01,520 --> 00:23:05,960
Speaker 1: entirely depending on the vibe of your employer. So if

404
00:23:06,000 --> 00:23:09,320
Speaker 1: your employer is kind of a chill person, then you're

405
00:23:09,400 --> 00:23:12,679
Speaker 1: gonna you're gonna probably have a good job, and you'll

406
00:23:12,880 --> 00:23:15,040
Speaker 1: even form a friendship with that employer.

407
00:23:15,320 --> 00:23:17,120
Speaker 2: Yeah, I just I mean, I mentioned this thing about

408
00:23:17,119 --> 00:23:19,600
Speaker 2: the professional society, and I'd be really interested to see

409
00:23:19,600 --> 00:23:21,400
Speaker 2: what they're you know, a lot of times the job

410
00:23:21,440 --> 00:23:25,040
Speaker 2: of societies like that, much like unions, is to determine

411
00:23:25,080 --> 00:23:28,120
Speaker 2: exactly what the scope of a butler's work would be

412
00:23:28,520 --> 00:23:30,720
Speaker 2: like to me, I think more of like if you're

413
00:23:30,720 --> 00:23:35,840
Speaker 2: looking at like Hollywood, for example, people have assistance, you

414
00:23:35,840 --> 00:23:39,320
Speaker 2: know what I mean, they have personal assistance. Who in

415
00:23:39,359 --> 00:23:42,199
Speaker 2: the scope of that job can can vary widely if

416
00:23:42,200 --> 00:23:44,960
Speaker 2: you've ever watched like you know, Entourage or whatever. So

417
00:23:45,160 --> 00:23:47,679
Speaker 2: it starts to become this kind of interesting gray area

418
00:23:47,720 --> 00:23:50,879
Speaker 2: where it's like, what is it to buttle? You know,

419
00:23:51,960 --> 00:23:55,640
Speaker 2: obviously it is can be a verb even though we

420
00:23:55,720 --> 00:23:58,639
Speaker 2: know the etymology kind of calls that into question. It

421
00:23:58,640 --> 00:23:59,879
Speaker 2: makes it not make a whole hell of a lot

422
00:23:59,880 --> 00:24:03,680
Speaker 2: of sense. Basically means to bottle, you know, right, Yeah,

423
00:24:03,800 --> 00:24:05,919
Speaker 2: I don't know, it's it's it's It does become this

424
00:24:06,040 --> 00:24:10,000
Speaker 2: kind of interesting like shifting definition, you know, over the

425
00:24:10,040 --> 00:24:13,160
Speaker 2: course of history, and what does that leave us with today? Oh?

426
00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:15,720
Speaker 1: You know another phrase I like, and I'm glad you

427
00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:18,520
Speaker 1: mentioned the Butler's Guild. There's a phrase I learned from

428
00:24:18,520 --> 00:24:21,400
Speaker 1: their website, Gentlemen's Gentlemen.

429
00:24:22,040 --> 00:24:25,720
Speaker 2: Yeah, like like chapel roone is your favorite artist's favorite artists.

430
00:24:25,920 --> 00:24:29,000
Speaker 1: You know, I'm looking at the available staff on the website,

431
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:33,159
Speaker 1: and everybody's got just the one name, like Henny or

432
00:24:33,200 --> 00:24:37,280
Speaker 1: Golf or Rocco. There is one couple, Paul and Jessica,

433
00:24:37,560 --> 00:24:39,760
Speaker 1: if you want to hire them or.

434
00:24:39,800 --> 00:24:42,600
Speaker 2: Package tag team. Yeah.

435
00:24:42,359 --> 00:24:45,879
Speaker 1: Uh, they're probably twice as expensive too, right, I would imagine,

436
00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:47,920
Speaker 1: But they can't. You can't have one without the other.

437
00:24:48,000 --> 00:24:53,120
Speaker 1: It's not all right exactly. In the nineteen twenties, there

438
00:24:53,359 --> 00:24:59,400
Speaker 1: was this sharp decline in domestic service occupations, including butler's

439
00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:02,400
Speaker 1: in Western Europe, and there was an even more precipitous

440
00:25:02,440 --> 00:25:07,520
Speaker 1: decline of these positions in the United States. In the UK, though,

441
00:25:07,920 --> 00:25:10,800
Speaker 1: butlers were still very much a thing. By World War Two,

442
00:25:11,000 --> 00:25:14,959
Speaker 1: there were around thirty thousand butlers employed just in the

443
00:25:15,080 --> 00:25:17,239
Speaker 1: United Kingdom, which makes sense because they have a lot

444
00:25:17,280 --> 00:25:18,280
Speaker 1: of aristocrats, right.

445
00:25:18,440 --> 00:25:21,320
Speaker 2: But I mean, frankly, you know, Ben, when I think

446
00:25:21,359 --> 00:25:26,560
Speaker 2: of butler in general, I think of the United Kingdom same. Yeah,

447
00:25:26,720 --> 00:25:30,280
Speaker 2: but I feel like it's a European export. Like the

448
00:25:30,320 --> 00:25:32,560
Speaker 2: folks over here were like, well, we want to be

449
00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:35,960
Speaker 2: more like the Swells, you know, the Royals or whatever,

450
00:25:36,000 --> 00:25:38,679
Speaker 2: so we're going to have butlers too. Exactly.

451
00:25:39,000 --> 00:25:43,680
Speaker 1: Yeah, there's definitely this is definitely during the period of

452
00:25:43,720 --> 00:25:48,440
Speaker 1: American history where you know, seventeen seventy six was sort

453
00:25:48,440 --> 00:25:51,159
Speaker 1: of a distant memory for a lot of people, and

454
00:25:51,200 --> 00:25:55,120
Speaker 1: now they were aspiring to be as good as their

455
00:25:55,200 --> 00:25:58,399
Speaker 1: idea of Europeans, right, and that's what you see a

456
00:25:58,440 --> 00:26:00,959
Speaker 1: lot of weird, a lot of weird cultural stuff.

457
00:26:01,080 --> 00:26:03,640
Speaker 2: Well, I mean that goes back to the American Revolution though,

458
00:26:03,640 --> 00:26:05,480
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, there's this whole concept of like

459
00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:08,960
Speaker 2: we need to escape, you know, get out from under

460
00:26:09,000 --> 00:26:12,280
Speaker 2: the yoke of our British oppressors. But then enough time

461
00:26:12,440 --> 00:26:14,960
Speaker 2: passes not to mention. During that Colerci of independence, although

462
00:26:14,960 --> 00:26:18,320
Speaker 2: there were certain factions within the new government, the founding

463
00:26:18,359 --> 00:26:20,879
Speaker 2: Fathers that wanted to have kings, that wanted to be

464
00:26:21,000 --> 00:26:25,440
Speaker 2: more like the aristocrats of you know, Britain, But then

465
00:26:25,480 --> 00:26:27,680
Speaker 2: as time went on, it almost became like a badge

466
00:26:27,720 --> 00:26:29,760
Speaker 2: of honor to be like, you know, maybe we had

467
00:26:29,800 --> 00:26:31,679
Speaker 2: those Brits wrong. It was actually kind of awesome to

468
00:26:31,720 --> 00:26:35,440
Speaker 2: have these mansions and these galatial estates, and this staff

469
00:26:35,520 --> 00:26:37,360
Speaker 2: and the attendants.

470
00:26:37,840 --> 00:26:40,840
Speaker 1: And then we see these numbers EBB and flu again

471
00:26:41,119 --> 00:26:45,680
Speaker 1: kind of correlating to equality or inequality in society, and

472
00:26:45,960 --> 00:26:50,000
Speaker 1: if we go to the nineteen eighties, we see the

473
00:26:50,119 --> 00:26:54,120
Speaker 1: rise of globalization. Right the world is getting smaller and

474
00:26:54,200 --> 00:26:57,399
Speaker 1: more and more people are actually becoming wealthy, which means

475
00:26:57,440 --> 00:27:01,160
Speaker 1: there is an overall global demand for butlers, and that

476
00:27:01,240 --> 00:27:12,960
Speaker 1: demand seems to continue to rise. Honestly, if you look

477
00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:16,680
Speaker 1: at people like Charles McPherson, who was a vice chairman

478
00:27:16,720 --> 00:27:19,600
Speaker 1: of the International Guild of Professional Butlers.

479
00:27:19,520 --> 00:27:21,200
Speaker 2: He says the same thing we've been saying.

480
00:27:21,280 --> 00:27:25,080
Speaker 1: He says, Look, people are searching for butlers. It's a

481
00:27:25,119 --> 00:27:29,560
Speaker 1: hot commodity because there are more millionaires and billionaires who

482
00:27:29,720 --> 00:27:33,800
Speaker 1: want to have that aspirational service. In some cases, their

483
00:27:33,920 --> 00:27:37,879
Speaker 1: estates are so big that one person literally couldn't run it,

484
00:27:37,960 --> 00:27:40,520
Speaker 1: so they need help. It's also butlers are huge in

485
00:27:40,640 --> 00:27:41,480
Speaker 1: China right now.

486
00:27:41,800 --> 00:27:44,359
Speaker 2: Oh interesting. Can we just take a minute not to

487
00:27:44,520 --> 00:27:47,720
Speaker 2: like wealth shame anybody, but do you ever think about

488
00:27:47,800 --> 00:27:51,720
Speaker 2: how ridiculous it is to have a house that you

489
00:27:51,760 --> 00:27:55,159
Speaker 2: can't even like, you you'll never even see most of

490
00:27:56,080 --> 00:27:58,280
Speaker 2: What is the point? What is the point of having

491
00:27:58,359 --> 00:28:01,399
Speaker 2: ten bathrooms and like fifteen bedrooms. It just seems like

492
00:28:01,440 --> 00:28:04,080
Speaker 2: a waste of space and like a waste of money

493
00:28:04,080 --> 00:28:06,000
Speaker 2: that could be used to like maybe, like I don't know,

494
00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:07,280
Speaker 2: help people.

495
00:28:07,680 --> 00:28:10,560
Speaker 1: Yeah, exactly. I think about that too, Like if I

496
00:28:10,640 --> 00:28:13,719
Speaker 1: end up living in a in a big, big house

497
00:28:15,119 --> 00:28:18,480
Speaker 1: or you know, a mansion that I would be hard

498
00:28:18,560 --> 00:28:21,679
Speaker 1: pressed to find a use for every room, you know,

499
00:28:21,800 --> 00:28:24,439
Speaker 1: I would end up like renting stuff out, telling family

500
00:28:24,480 --> 00:28:27,359
Speaker 1: members to just come live with me, you know, because

501
00:28:27,359 --> 00:28:31,960
Speaker 1: otherwise you're wandering alone in this cavernous space that you

502
00:28:32,000 --> 00:28:33,960
Speaker 1: will never be able to fully clean.

503
00:28:34,400 --> 00:28:36,439
Speaker 2: Goes back to Batman. It makes me think of him

504
00:28:36,440 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 2: the first Tim Burton Batman movie when he has Vicky

505
00:28:39,560 --> 00:28:42,440
Speaker 2: Vail over for dinner and they're sitting on opposite sides

506
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:47,160
Speaker 2: of this like giant, obnoxious dining room table, very putent style.

507
00:28:47,520 --> 00:28:49,800
Speaker 3: I'm thinking also, like you know, the in the Nolan

508
00:28:49,880 --> 00:28:51,920
Speaker 3: Batman movie is like there's like every time he's walking

509
00:28:51,960 --> 00:28:54,760
Speaker 3: through the house, everything's just covered up in the house,

510
00:28:54,800 --> 00:28:57,120
Speaker 3: always because he's the only one that lives there.

511
00:28:57,720 --> 00:29:03,240
Speaker 1: Exactly. I've been in situations where I spent time in

512
00:29:03,280 --> 00:29:06,760
Speaker 1: these big, like proper estates, and one of the things

513
00:29:06,800 --> 00:29:09,840
Speaker 1: they got me about it is for houses of that size,

514
00:29:10,600 --> 00:29:13,360
Speaker 1: a lot of times they just shut down wings of

515
00:29:13,400 --> 00:29:17,719
Speaker 1: the house and they like, don't bother to take it

516
00:29:17,760 --> 00:29:21,240
Speaker 1: out of the cleaning equivalent of a deep freeze until

517
00:29:21,280 --> 00:29:22,920
Speaker 1: there's a big Christmas.

518
00:29:22,440 --> 00:29:26,240
Speaker 2: Gathering or somebody's birthday or something like that. It probably

519
00:29:26,320 --> 00:29:29,560
Speaker 2: saves on heating and cooling bills too. Yeah, they're a

520
00:29:29,640 --> 00:29:31,560
Speaker 2: huge about that. I was at this.

521
00:29:31,680 --> 00:29:33,240
Speaker 1: I told you guys about this when I was at

522
00:29:33,640 --> 00:29:39,240
Speaker 1: this creepy, beautiful but kind of creepy villa in rural Italy,

523
00:29:39,760 --> 00:29:43,000
Speaker 1: and half of it was just half of it they

524
00:29:43,000 --> 00:29:47,080
Speaker 1: would rent out to parties, people who come by and

525
00:29:47,200 --> 00:29:49,800
Speaker 1: like the west wing, and then the other half is

526
00:29:49,840 --> 00:29:53,120
Speaker 1: where the family occasionally lived when they weren't at one

527
00:29:53,160 --> 00:29:58,960
Speaker 1: of their other many mansions. Yeah, exactly. It's just a

528
00:29:59,000 --> 00:30:02,840
Speaker 1: different world, man. And we know that there's also a

529
00:30:02,880 --> 00:30:07,200
Speaker 1: big demand for butlers in India, in some Asian countries

530
00:30:07,480 --> 00:30:10,200
Speaker 1: and of course in the Middle East. You're gonna have

531
00:30:10,320 --> 00:30:13,800
Speaker 1: very different experiences again, depending on your employer.

532
00:30:14,800 --> 00:30:16,840
Speaker 2: We know that. We know that now.

533
00:30:16,960 --> 00:30:20,120
Speaker 1: Butlers, of course, do much more than just look after

534
00:30:20,160 --> 00:30:23,160
Speaker 1: the booze. There are a lot of what they're trying

535
00:30:23,200 --> 00:30:28,960
Speaker 1: to do is anticipate their employer's needs or desires before

536
00:30:29,000 --> 00:30:32,640
Speaker 1: the employer voices them. That's considered you know, the top

537
00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:36,920
Speaker 1: tier of service there, you're you're nearly telepathic because you

538
00:30:37,000 --> 00:30:39,200
Speaker 1: know your employer so well well, I mean.

539
00:30:39,080 --> 00:30:43,320
Speaker 2: You know, and that translates even to like high level

540
00:30:43,720 --> 00:30:46,760
Speaker 2: service industry folks like I remember. I can distinctly remember

541
00:30:47,240 --> 00:30:49,120
Speaker 2: being in New York on my first trips as a

542
00:30:49,240 --> 00:30:52,480
Speaker 2: you know whatever, early twenties person with some friends New York,

543
00:30:52,640 --> 00:30:55,320
Speaker 2: and we went to this really fancy Italian restaurant and

544
00:30:55,600 --> 00:30:58,920
Speaker 2: I just distinctly remember the person that served us had

545
00:30:59,000 --> 00:31:03,360
Speaker 2: this way about him that was, like you said, borderline telepathic.

546
00:31:03,400 --> 00:31:08,600
Speaker 2: That was just a certain kind of attentiveness and kindness

547
00:31:08,960 --> 00:31:12,320
Speaker 2: and almost, like you said, predictive, you know, like just

548
00:31:12,400 --> 00:31:14,880
Speaker 2: literally knowing what you went. I had that similar situation

549
00:31:15,040 --> 00:31:17,440
Speaker 2: in Spain recently with We're very lucky you got a

550
00:31:17,480 --> 00:31:20,320
Speaker 2: reservation in this new place, and it was early because

551
00:31:20,360 --> 00:31:21,760
Speaker 2: they dinner late this so we were one of the

552
00:31:21,840 --> 00:31:24,320
Speaker 2: only folks there, and this guy just gave us his

553
00:31:25,040 --> 00:31:28,560
Speaker 2: every inch of his attention and it just felt It

554
00:31:28,600 --> 00:31:30,640
Speaker 2: made you feel like a million bucks, It really does.

555
00:31:30,880 --> 00:31:33,200
Speaker 2: And so I mean, there is something to be said

556
00:31:33,240 --> 00:31:36,880
Speaker 2: about a life of quote unquote service, whether you're you know,

557
00:31:37,320 --> 00:31:40,880
Speaker 2: a waiter in like a fine dining establishment, or perhaps

558
00:31:41,120 --> 00:31:44,400
Speaker 2: somebody overseeing someone's home worst date.

559
00:31:44,480 --> 00:31:48,280
Speaker 3: Yeah, I remember when I was first starting to up ourtend.

560
00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:51,280
Speaker 3: You know, I worked food bad for ten years being

561
00:31:51,320 --> 00:31:55,400
Speaker 3: told that being in service industry is more about having

562
00:31:55,440 --> 00:31:58,440
Speaker 3: like a knowledge in like psychology, that it is in

563
00:31:59,640 --> 00:32:01,840
Speaker 3: like knowledge and kind of stuff like just knowing what

564
00:32:01,960 --> 00:32:04,920
Speaker 3: people want and need before they know it.

565
00:32:05,040 --> 00:32:10,720
Speaker 1: Yes, us, and that's that is a very particular set

566
00:32:10,800 --> 00:32:14,280
Speaker 1: of skills. Now you may be hearing this ridiculous historians

567
00:32:14,320 --> 00:32:18,160
Speaker 1: and think, well, darn guys, this does sound great, But

568
00:32:18,640 --> 00:32:22,000
Speaker 1: I'm a regular person. I can't afford to pay somebody

569
00:32:22,120 --> 00:32:26,280
Speaker 1: eighty thousand to one hundred thousand dollars a year just

570
00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:29,479
Speaker 1: to wait on my whims. The good news is you

571
00:32:29,520 --> 00:32:34,440
Speaker 1: can also rent a butler. Now you can temporarily live

572
00:32:34,480 --> 00:32:37,280
Speaker 1: the good life. You'll see rent a butler services in

573
00:32:37,520 --> 00:32:42,360
Speaker 1: corporate settings, sometimes on embassies, right where there's not a

574
00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:45,560
Speaker 1: specific you know, high net value person, but there is

575
00:32:45,600 --> 00:32:48,440
Speaker 1: an institution they represent. You'll see them on cruise ships

576
00:32:48,440 --> 00:32:52,720
Speaker 1: and yachts. Also, butlers have and I think this is

577
00:32:52,760 --> 00:32:56,520
Speaker 1: good for the butler's. Butlers have always been associated with

578
00:32:56,800 --> 00:33:01,840
Speaker 1: pretty formal, somewhat stuffy clothing in uniforms. But now that's

579
00:33:02,040 --> 00:33:04,760
Speaker 1: relaxing a little bit. And it depends on what part

580
00:33:04,800 --> 00:33:07,440
Speaker 1: of the world you're in. I recently learned the butlers

581
00:33:07,440 --> 00:33:10,600
Speaker 1: in the United States will often rock a polo shirt

582
00:33:10,680 --> 00:33:16,120
Speaker 1: and slacks instead of a top siders, no doubt, yes, yes, yes, oh,

583
00:33:16,200 --> 00:33:19,920
Speaker 1: because you always need to look like you're on the

584
00:33:19,920 --> 00:33:22,200
Speaker 1: way to a boat or have just left a boat.

585
00:33:22,640 --> 00:33:28,240
Speaker 1: That is one of the key American rich looks. Right, Yeah,

586
00:33:28,240 --> 00:33:31,400
Speaker 1: it looks like you're associated with sort of you know,

587
00:33:31,440 --> 00:33:35,720
Speaker 1: it's like your resort ware, I guess. And with this,

588
00:33:35,920 --> 00:33:38,360
Speaker 1: you know, there's so many other things to get into.

589
00:33:38,480 --> 00:33:40,640
Speaker 1: We were having a lot of fun talking about this

590
00:33:40,760 --> 00:33:45,640
Speaker 1: off air with our favorite fictional butlers and things of

591
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:48,040
Speaker 1: that nature. So we may return to this in the future.

592
00:33:48,440 --> 00:33:51,120
Speaker 1: But Noel, I've got to ask, is we're wrapping up,

593
00:33:51,440 --> 00:33:53,960
Speaker 1: would you ever go to butler school? I don't think

594
00:33:53,960 --> 00:33:55,920
Speaker 1: I have the people skills to be a butler, to

595
00:33:55,960 --> 00:33:57,600
Speaker 1: be quite honest with you, Yeah.

596
00:33:57,400 --> 00:34:00,360
Speaker 2: I don't think it's my thing, but I do expect

597
00:34:00,760 --> 00:34:02,640
Speaker 2: it as a trade. I really do. And the more

598
00:34:02,680 --> 00:34:04,719
Speaker 2: we talked about it, and I'm really not being sarcastic,

599
00:34:04,800 --> 00:34:07,560
Speaker 2: like there is part of me that sort of scoffs

600
00:34:07,640 --> 00:34:10,480
Speaker 2: at the idea of needing that level of attention. But

601
00:34:10,480 --> 00:34:13,600
Speaker 2: I also understand that sometimes when you have that much wealth,

602
00:34:13,880 --> 00:34:16,280
Speaker 2: maybe you're just very, very busy and you need someone

603
00:34:16,320 --> 00:34:19,160
Speaker 2: to take care of your basic needs in that fashion.

604
00:34:19,719 --> 00:34:21,560
Speaker 2: So who am I to judge? But yeah, I don't know.

605
00:34:22,080 --> 00:34:24,440
Speaker 2: More power to all the butlers out there. I hope

606
00:34:24,480 --> 00:34:26,520
Speaker 2: your bosses aren't buttholes.

607
00:34:26,880 --> 00:34:29,240
Speaker 1: And if you want to read some first hand accounts,

608
00:34:29,239 --> 00:34:32,319
Speaker 1: they're easy to find online. There's a great ama on

609
00:34:32,360 --> 00:34:36,480
Speaker 1: Reddit Ask Me Anything thread from a butler who has

610
00:34:36,560 --> 00:34:40,719
Speaker 1: worked for multiple very very wealthy people. And because we're

611
00:34:40,719 --> 00:34:43,239
Speaker 1: a family show, we're not going to read a lot

612
00:34:43,239 --> 00:34:47,359
Speaker 1: of the stuff this guy says. But he seems pretty uh.

613
00:34:48,760 --> 00:34:51,960
Speaker 1: He seems pretty set in his opinions. And he notes

614
00:34:52,320 --> 00:34:55,280
Speaker 1: that an experienced butler can earn eighty to one hundred

615
00:34:55,320 --> 00:34:58,920
Speaker 1: grand a year. The hours are really long, you only

616
00:34:59,040 --> 00:35:03,480
Speaker 1: basically get five days off, and he said the way

617
00:35:03,520 --> 00:35:06,520
Speaker 1: he got into this gig was taking a butler training course.

618
00:35:06,600 --> 00:35:09,680
Speaker 1: It cost around thirty thousand and it's two years long.

619
00:35:10,280 --> 00:35:12,600
Speaker 1: And then you sign up for a recruitment agency who

620
00:35:12,640 --> 00:35:16,359
Speaker 1: will place you with an employer and butler's in very

621
00:35:16,440 --> 00:35:19,560
Speaker 1: high demand because there were so many more wealthy people

622
00:35:19,560 --> 00:35:21,840
Speaker 1: who wanted to live the good life or have someone

623
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:25,960
Speaker 1: manage their estates. It's kind of it's been kind of

624
00:35:25,960 --> 00:35:30,880
Speaker 1: tough for people to find butlers, which is interesting. I

625
00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:32,040
Speaker 1: never thought that would happen.

626
00:35:32,400 --> 00:35:37,279
Speaker 2: Can you imagine, Ben, we had to go without a butler? Right?

627
00:35:37,360 --> 00:35:39,960
Speaker 2: What do we do? Savage reminds me of that line.

628
00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:41,880
Speaker 2: It's like a Mister Show's sketch. I think it's coupon

629
00:35:42,000 --> 00:35:44,200
Speaker 2: the movie, where it's a bunch of movie executives and

630
00:35:44,520 --> 00:35:46,719
Speaker 2: they think that coupon the movie is gonna tank. It's

631
00:35:46,719 --> 00:35:48,640
Speaker 2: this who green lit this picture? It's the whole thing.

632
00:35:48,760 --> 00:35:50,200
Speaker 2: And one guy goes, that's where if I have to

633
00:35:50,200 --> 00:35:52,760
Speaker 2: go from being super rich to just rich, I'll kill myself.

634
00:35:53,480 --> 00:35:56,719
Speaker 1: It also reminds me of that line from the amazing

635
00:35:57,120 --> 00:36:02,960
Speaker 1: comedy show thirty Rock where someone someone points out Alec

636
00:36:03,040 --> 00:36:07,239
Speaker 1: Baldwin's character is just suddenly wearing a tux and they say,

637
00:36:07,239 --> 00:36:09,399
Speaker 1: are you wearing a tuxiot? And he says, of course

638
00:36:09,440 --> 00:36:13,320
Speaker 1: I am lemonnutes after seven pm? What about a farmer?

639
00:36:14,440 --> 00:36:16,879
Speaker 2: And of course the classic Lucille Blue How much could

640
00:36:16,920 --> 00:36:19,400
Speaker 2: a banana cost right exactly.

641
00:36:19,800 --> 00:36:22,400
Speaker 1: And this is not to dunk on people in different

642
00:36:22,760 --> 00:36:27,440
Speaker 1: social situations, but it is a world that is relatively

643
00:36:27,560 --> 00:36:30,880
Speaker 1: obscured to most people, and it turns out there's a

644
00:36:30,920 --> 00:36:38,240
Speaker 1: lot of ridiculous history behind this truly noble profession. We're

645
00:36:38,280 --> 00:36:41,440
Speaker 1: gonna call the day here, folks. We are so excited

646
00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:46,359
Speaker 1: for some upcoming episodes we've in working away in our

647
00:36:46,440 --> 00:36:49,279
Speaker 1: secret podcast lab and we can't wait for you to

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Speaker 1: hear them in the meantime, Big big thanks to super

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Speaker 1: producer mister Max Williams.

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Speaker 2: Alex Williams who composed our theme, Christophraciotis Needs, Jeff Coats

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Speaker 2: here in Spirit, Jonathan Ricklin, the quizt A. J. Bahamas,

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Speaker 2: Jacob's the.

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Speaker 1: Puzzler, Doctor Big Spinach Lance the world expert on underwater explosions,

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Speaker 1: which is one of our favorite things to brag about,

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Speaker 1: even though we didn't do it big thanks to our

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Speaker 1: pals Side Door check out their excellent show with Lizzie

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Speaker 1: Peabody and No Big Big Things to.

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Speaker 2: You and you as well, Ziah. We'll see you next time, folks.

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Speaker 2: For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple

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Speaker 2: Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows,