WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Tooth Fairy: Not Real 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:07.240 Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, there's Chuck, 0:00:07.280 --> 0:00:11.000 there's Jerry. Ghost of Dave Kustan is hanging around here somewhere, 0:00:11.600 --> 0:00:13.920 and that means that this is short stuff and in fact, 0:00:14.000 --> 0:00:16.560 it's not a ghost. I'm mistaken, Chuck. He is a 0:00:16.560 --> 0:00:20.400 tooth fairy. That's right. David is very much alive. Don't 0:00:20.440 --> 0:00:24.400 worry everyone, Short Stuff producer, Dave is not a ghost. No, 0:00:24.680 --> 0:00:27.720 you could astray project yourself and still be what I 0:00:27.760 --> 0:00:30.640 would consider basically a ghost. I don't think. I think 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:34.320 being dead is overstated as a reason for being a ghost. 0:00:34.520 --> 0:00:38.520 It's being it's overrated. Yeah. Yeah, So we're talking about 0:00:38.520 --> 0:00:41.239 the tooth fairy, and um, the reason I thought of 0:00:41.320 --> 0:00:45.160 this is because my daughter has not lost a tooth yet. 0:00:45.280 --> 0:00:48.880 She's coming up on six years old with his baby teeth, 0:00:49.640 --> 0:00:53.160 and um, I'm just waiting like it could have happened 0:00:53.280 --> 0:00:56.360 by now and it can't happen at any time. And 0:00:56.800 --> 0:00:58.280 I was, you know, I was like, all right, I 0:00:58.280 --> 0:01:02.600 gotta get up on the latest research on the story 0:01:02.880 --> 0:01:05.600 that I'm gonna need to tell the lie that I'm 0:01:05.600 --> 0:01:08.800 going to pound into her brain, and like how much 0:01:08.880 --> 0:01:12.120 money these kids get? These days a lot. It's like, 0:01:12.520 --> 0:01:15.120 did you get I got like a quarter and a 0:01:15.200 --> 0:01:19.160 quarter two, which apparently is like nineteen thirties level. You know. 0:01:19.520 --> 0:01:21.880 I also got a quarter for giving up my passive fire. 0:01:21.920 --> 0:01:24.160 And only later did I find out like my sisters 0:01:24.160 --> 0:01:26.440 had gotten things like an easy bake oven or something 0:01:26.480 --> 0:01:28.080 like that, and I got bought off for a quarter. 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:30.960 I'm still to this day a little upset about that. Now, 0:01:31.000 --> 0:01:33.760 how old are you when you gave it up? Like twelve? 0:01:36.640 --> 0:01:38.880 It all depends on the kid. My daughter gave her 0:01:38.880 --> 0:01:40.640 PASTI fire really early, so she didn't even know what 0:01:40.680 --> 0:01:42.759 money was. You know, there you go, that's the way 0:01:42.800 --> 0:01:45.760 to do it. She just didn't like it. Yeah, that 0:01:45.800 --> 0:01:48.520 was actually thirteen, was approaching the age where I also 0:01:48.600 --> 0:01:50.880 would have traded my past fire for a pack of smokes. 0:01:52.360 --> 0:01:54.720 You're like, give me one more to suck on something. 0:01:56.280 --> 0:01:59.920 I never connected it too. So the tooth dairy is 0:02:00.280 --> 0:02:05.280 pretty interesting, and that since people had children all over 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:08.800 the world through antiquity, there seems to be weird little 0:02:08.800 --> 0:02:12.320 stories here and there about traditions and things that you 0:02:12.360 --> 0:02:14.200 would do with the tooth. It seems like it was 0:02:14.240 --> 0:02:16.520 never just like well that happened. Let me just toss 0:02:16.560 --> 0:02:18.839 it out of here. You know, it could have been 0:02:19.040 --> 0:02:22.040 some little ceremony. You could have put it in a fire. Um. 0:02:22.080 --> 0:02:25.360 But this this was not like the tooth fairies. We 0:02:25.400 --> 0:02:28.079 know it. No no, no, no, but it is there there, 0:02:28.120 --> 0:02:29.920 and we'll talk about in a minute. But there's rituals 0:02:29.960 --> 0:02:31.959 all over the world of what to do like it's 0:02:31.960 --> 0:02:35.400 not like it. It just goes unnoticed. The tooth fairies 0:02:35.760 --> 0:02:40.399 one of the most all American um, supernatural beings there 0:02:40.520 --> 0:02:44.560 there is, and as not even not even old. It's 0:02:44.600 --> 0:02:48.040 not even an old one. Apparently, the tooth fairy that 0:02:48.040 --> 0:02:50.400 that is going to eventually come to visit your daughter, 0:02:50.760 --> 0:02:55.080 that is running around this very night handing out dollars 0:02:55.200 --> 0:03:00.400 for teeth is basically sure. Um, although you could make 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:03.560 a really strong case in court that putting the tooth 0:03:03.639 --> 0:03:06.519 under the pillow it could be construed as an invitation 0:03:06.600 --> 0:03:11.200 into your home. But that that tooth fairy, that particular being, 0:03:11.240 --> 0:03:15.639 that entity is from basically the mid century, mid twentieth 0:03:15.680 --> 0:03:19.800 century America and is very new and very young for 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:23.320 being a supernatural entity. Yeah, I think there are a 0:03:23.320 --> 0:03:27.440 couple of references. There was one from eight from the 0:03:27.480 --> 0:03:32.360 Chicago Daily Tribune and an editorial UM that valued the 0:03:32.639 --> 0:03:36.240 contribution from the tooth Fairy at a nickel. I think 0:03:36.240 --> 0:03:39.480 in twenty seven there was a short play with a 0:03:39.520 --> 0:03:43.119 tooth fairy in it from Esther Watkins Arnold. Oh, it's 0:03:43.200 --> 0:03:45.320 it was okay. I saw there was also a kid's 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:49.160 book from the twenties that um was an English version 0:03:49.160 --> 0:03:52.800 of the eighteenth century French tooth fairy kind of thing, 0:03:52.880 --> 0:03:58.760 but the tooth fairy was a mouse, Okay. The tooth 0:03:58.760 --> 0:04:01.200 fairy like really kind of hit a zeitgeists in the twenties. 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:04.360 I guess, yeah, it sounds like it okay. And then 0:04:04.400 --> 0:04:07.040 apparently the whole thing broke wide open with a Collier's 0:04:07.040 --> 0:04:11.040 magazine article in May of nineteen forty nine. Yeah, so 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.880 ninety nine. I mean, that's not that long ago that 0:04:14.880 --> 0:04:16.800 that parents have been lying to their kids about this 0:04:17.200 --> 0:04:20.400 home invader. Who would who would leave money to avoid prosecution? 0:04:21.040 --> 0:04:24.040 That's right? I mean it is kind of weird, like, 0:04:24.680 --> 0:04:27.000 is there any explanation that you've run across so far 0:04:27.080 --> 0:04:30.159 as to why the tooth fairy wants teeth? That's something 0:04:30.240 --> 0:04:34.040 that no one ever taught me. No, And you know, 0:04:34.520 --> 0:04:36.600 I looked a lot of different places, and there's just 0:04:36.720 --> 0:04:38.919 not a lot out there. It's pretty interesting. There's no 0:04:39.760 --> 0:04:43.360 there's no weird origin story. I mean, we could make 0:04:43.360 --> 0:04:45.159 one up if you want to kick that thing off. 0:04:45.279 --> 0:04:47.920 Let's see that. Let's just take the Cabbage Patch kids 0:04:47.920 --> 0:04:51.360 origin story and just replace it with tooth fairy. Yeah, 0:04:51.480 --> 0:04:54.160 or maybe the tooth fairy builds this fantasy land out 0:04:54.160 --> 0:04:58.240 of out of children's teeth. That's horrific, it does it 0:04:58.279 --> 0:05:02.280 sounds like the teeth monster from what was that? There 0:05:02.320 --> 0:05:08.640 was a weird Canadian TV shows basically No, no, that 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.359 was weird in a different way. Um, I will, I 0:05:11.400 --> 0:05:13.039 will come up with the name of it. But it 0:05:13.160 --> 0:05:15.600 was basically a bunch of urban legends that they blew 0:05:15.680 --> 0:05:18.200 out into an actual narrative over the course of the season. 0:05:18.200 --> 0:05:20.560 It was pretty interesting, but there was a monster made 0:05:20.640 --> 0:05:24.839 of children's teeth and it was creepy. I'll send it 0:05:24.880 --> 0:05:28.159 to you. You can show it to your daughter. All right, Well, 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:29.800 let's take a little break and we'll come back and 0:05:29.800 --> 0:05:32.760 talk about kind of some of these strange rituals and 0:05:32.800 --> 0:05:54.400 traditions all over the world right after this. Alright, So 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:57.000 we mentioned that depending on where you are in the world, 0:05:57.000 --> 0:05:59.680 throughout history there have been these interesting traditions when it 0:05:59.680 --> 0:06:03.039 comes of your children losing their first teeth um in 0:06:03.080 --> 0:06:07.800 a lot of different countries Afghanistan, Russia, Mexico, New Zealand, 0:06:08.240 --> 0:06:11.200 there is a mouse or a rat involved, whether or 0:06:11.200 --> 0:06:13.640 not you put it in a box for a mouse 0:06:13.760 --> 0:06:15.640 or put it in a little mouse hole like Tom 0:06:15.640 --> 0:06:19.320 and Jerry's style. And I think the whole thing there 0:06:19.400 --> 0:06:22.360 was it was a wish that the tooth would grow 0:06:22.440 --> 0:06:25.159 back to be as strong as a rat's tooth or 0:06:25.160 --> 0:06:28.400 a mouse's tooth, which makes sense. Yeah, And that's called 0:06:28.400 --> 0:06:32.320 the transference, uh wish that an anthropologist might call a 0:06:32.400 --> 0:06:35.080 simp called sympathetic magic, which I think is a pretty 0:06:35.080 --> 0:06:38.359 good band name though. Wishing that your child's tooth grows 0:06:38.400 --> 0:06:40.440 back like a rat's tooth. That would be one of 0:06:40.480 --> 0:06:43.240 those careful what you wish for kind of situations. If 0:06:43.279 --> 0:06:47.680 you ask me, that's true people do um well. Actually, 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:51.880 so there's like actually supposedly nine things, including everything from 0:06:51.920 --> 0:06:55.320 throwing the tooth into the sun, which that's got to 0:06:55.400 --> 0:06:59.920 be hard to do, not possible. Much more easy is 0:07:00.040 --> 0:07:04.599 to throw it into a fire like that between the legs. 0:07:04.680 --> 0:07:09.280 Huey Lewis style, a little weird um onto or over 0:07:09.400 --> 0:07:12.480 the roof of your house. Yeah, that's not a lot 0:07:12.520 --> 0:07:15.240 of Asian countries do this, okay. So one of the 0:07:15.280 --> 0:07:17.480 things I saw it was that a lot of these rituals, 0:07:17.520 --> 0:07:21.720 pretooth fairy rituals, were often wrapped up or tied into 0:07:22.200 --> 0:07:25.760 burial rituals of that same culture. So does that mean 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:27.680 that there are cultures are there that throw their there 0:07:28.400 --> 0:07:30.920 they're deceased, onto the roof of the house. You think 0:07:32.080 --> 0:07:35.600 maybe it's like a sky burial kind of thing. I 0:07:35.600 --> 0:07:38.800 don't know. I don't know. I was being funny at 0:07:38.800 --> 0:07:41.960 first and then pulled it out into into into something 0:07:42.080 --> 0:07:45.800 really thought provoking at the end. Uh, what else do 0:07:45.840 --> 0:07:48.400 people do? I think a lot of people bury them, right, 0:07:49.000 --> 0:07:51.040 and that kind of makes or hide them and that 0:07:51.120 --> 0:07:53.640 kind of maybe that's where we got under the pillow. 0:07:53.720 --> 0:07:56.880 I don't know. And then, um, it's from probably has 0:07:56.920 --> 0:07:58.920 nothing to do with the dead or the deceased, but 0:07:59.120 --> 0:08:01.960 there's one where the mother or the kid, or you 0:08:02.000 --> 0:08:06.800 make a poor animal swallow the tooth and talk about 0:08:06.800 --> 0:08:09.680 a write of passage. Because that's why all of these um, 0:08:09.720 --> 0:08:14.440 all of these cultures have a ritual surrounding the loss 0:08:14.480 --> 0:08:17.800 of the first tooth, because that's basically the first rite 0:08:17.840 --> 0:08:22.560 of passage any kid cognizantly goes through. And so you know, 0:08:22.640 --> 0:08:24.880 cultures tend to make a big deal about it. But 0:08:24.960 --> 0:08:29.360 imagine your culture having you swallow your baby's tooth and 0:08:29.400 --> 0:08:33.280 then you pass it as the mom, Like, that's gotta 0:08:33.440 --> 0:08:38.600 provoke some sort of you know, a mixed bag of emotions. Yeah, 0:08:39.600 --> 0:08:41.600 for some reason, it just that was the first thing 0:08:41.640 --> 0:08:43.760 that came to mind when I saw that mom sometimes 0:08:43.760 --> 0:08:51.240 swallow baby teeth basically ye, from that, from that little 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:55.800 little vignette. So it seems like when it really became 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.360 the tooth fairy that we think of in America, it 0:08:58.440 --> 0:09:01.439 came about at the same time that Disney was putting 0:09:01.440 --> 0:09:05.320 out movies like Pinocchio and Cinderella, two movies that each 0:09:05.440 --> 0:09:10.840 fit featured these benevolent fairies who granted wishes. And I 0:09:10.880 --> 0:09:13.200 think it may have just been the public consciousness and 0:09:13.240 --> 0:09:16.240 we borrowed, like we said, from other cultures that may 0:09:16.240 --> 0:09:19.840 be buried their teeth or hid their teeth into the 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:23.840 under the pillow thing and an exchange for money. Yeah, 0:09:23.840 --> 0:09:27.160 and the money thinks still seems confounding, like it's fairy 0:09:27.200 --> 0:09:29.040 coming for your tooth. That's pretty cute, and that makes 0:09:29.080 --> 0:09:31.520 sense that Disney would influenced it based on the time. 0:09:31.559 --> 0:09:35.920 But the money thing supposedly dates back to twelfth century 0:09:36.000 --> 0:09:39.079 Norse custom, which was that you would pay a tooth 0:09:39.160 --> 0:09:42.480 fee to the kid who got there who lost their 0:09:42.520 --> 0:09:45.640 their first baby tooth. And you know, rather than them 0:09:45.679 --> 0:09:48.280 putting it in the pillar there being any supernatural being 0:09:48.320 --> 0:09:50.480 who came to collect that, you just hand the kids 0:09:50.480 --> 0:09:53.839 some money or whatever tell them to go away now. Um, 0:09:54.000 --> 0:09:58.319 So I think those combined to form this modern incarnation 0:09:58.360 --> 0:10:01.360 of the tooth fairy. Yeah, and what's the going rate 0:10:01.400 --> 0:10:04.040 these days? From what I saw, it's about three dollars 0:10:04.040 --> 0:10:06.839 and seventy cents, which means there's some weird parents out 0:10:06.840 --> 0:10:09.560 there who are right at the median who leave three 0:10:09.559 --> 0:10:13.440 dollars and seventy cents under their kids pillow in exchange 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:15.720 for the tooth. But that also means that there's plenty 0:10:15.760 --> 0:10:17.680 of parents out there who are leaving like ten bucks, 0:10:18.600 --> 0:10:21.720 you know, who are skewing the average upwards. And don't 0:10:21.720 --> 0:10:23.920 email me because I know a median is not the 0:10:23.960 --> 0:10:28.280 same thing as average. I guess, I guess, Emily, and 0:10:28.320 --> 0:10:31.720 I need to do some soul searching, uh, to find 0:10:31.800 --> 0:10:34.720 out what the value of this tooth is because it's 0:10:35.120 --> 0:10:37.360 you know, it can also be an opportunity to teach 0:10:37.960 --> 0:10:40.040 you know, kids have no idea what things cost. They 0:10:40.040 --> 0:10:43.880 think everything is free, so it can be an opportunity 0:10:43.920 --> 0:10:48.760 to teach them. Yeah, disappointment. You know about the value 0:10:48.760 --> 0:10:51.319 of money, and you know what what this might buy 0:10:51.640 --> 0:10:54.040 or maybe you can save it or say part of it. 0:10:54.160 --> 0:10:56.439 I don't know, but the the introduction to money and 0:10:56.559 --> 0:10:59.640 income kind of starts with the tooth ferry. It's pre 0:10:59.760 --> 0:11:02.199 allowed ones. Yeah, well I read that there was a 0:11:03.120 --> 0:11:06.559 from a folklore that said, like the reason why this 0:11:06.720 --> 0:11:09.440 tooth fairies an American invention and gives you money exchange 0:11:09.520 --> 0:11:12.040 or something. As you're teaching your kids capitalism, it would 0:11:12.080 --> 0:11:15.360 just make total sense. Yeah. I mean, she's got piggy banks, 0:11:15.400 --> 0:11:18.960 so we'll we'll put change in there occasionally, but that 0:11:19.080 --> 0:11:21.080 that's about it as far as money goes. She thinks, 0:11:21.280 --> 0:11:24.640 you know, everything costs nothing. Well, you can teach her 0:11:24.679 --> 0:11:26.840 the value of a human tooth now, and she'll go 0:11:26.880 --> 0:11:29.280 around the rest of her life thinking she can get 0:11:29.320 --> 0:11:32.320 about three dollars and seventy cents per tooth if she just, 0:11:32.520 --> 0:11:34.560 you know, really tries at it. I think if I 0:11:34.600 --> 0:11:36.640 tried to do three seventy on the nose, Emily would 0:11:36.640 --> 0:11:38.800 just be like, are you kidding me? Put a fiver 0:11:38.960 --> 0:11:41.720 in there would be hilarious. Hey, report back when when 0:11:41.720 --> 0:11:44.439 it happens, will you? Yeah? And I also want to 0:11:44.559 --> 0:11:48.200 quickly shout out Janet Varney, one of our good friends 0:11:48.240 --> 0:11:51.800 here in the industry, a podcaster and one of the 0:11:52.400 --> 0:11:55.760 co founders of s F sketch Fest and the j 0:11:55.920 --> 0:11:59.319 V Club. Yeah, j V Club, great, great show. Um, 0:11:59.800 --> 0:12:03.199 I think I had no tooth when I was first 0:12:03.240 --> 0:12:06.400 a guest of Janet's JV Club Live It sketch Fest, 0:12:06.440 --> 0:12:09.240 And when I got home, she sent me and Janet's 0:12:09.320 --> 0:12:11.480 Janet is wanted to just send people funny gifts like this. 0:12:11.880 --> 0:12:15.080 She sent me a little tooth fairy pillow. That is 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:17.520 very sweet. Yeah, because you can you can get an 0:12:17.520 --> 0:12:21.360 actual pillow, right, that's special for the little pocket fairy. Okay, 0:12:21.559 --> 0:12:25.600 that's great. Yeah, so um, well that's the tooth fairy 0:12:25.640 --> 0:12:27.920 unless you got anything else to you. I got nothing 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:32.079 else except three fake teeth. You can get some money 0:12:32.080 --> 0:12:35.400 for that, almost a little over ten dollars Chuck Aaron 0:12:35.400 --> 0:12:38.520 Cooper would pay fifteen. There you go. Um and since 0:12:38.600 --> 0:12:40.760 Chuck said Aaron Cooper, then of course that means short 0:12:40.800 --> 0:12:45.720 stuff is out. Stuff you should Know is a production 0:12:45.800 --> 0:12:48.760 of I Heart Radio. For more podcasts for my heart Radio, 0:12:48.920 --> 0:12:51.680 visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you 0:12:51.720 --> 0:12:52.960 listen to your favorite shows.