Speaker 1: Fellow Ridiculous Historians. We are so excited that you have
Speaker 1: looked around all the candidates for podcasting and you have
Speaker 1: voted to join us for today's classic episode. This is
Speaker 1: a special one for us, man, because somebody else joined
Speaker 1: the show.
Speaker 2: That's right, Christopher Rasiotis is here not only in spirit,
Speaker 2: but in the flesh corporeally to talk about history's coolest
Speaker 2: non human political candidates.
Speaker 3: Part one of two. Yeah, we get super into this one, Ed,
Speaker 3: you know what. I wish we could do an update,
Speaker 3: but no spoilers. We'll see if we get to it.
Speaker 2: Absolutely man.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so tune in and let us know some of
Speaker 1: your favorite non human political candidates. Ridiculous History is a
Speaker 1: production of iHeartRadio. Welcome to the show, Ridiculous Historians and
Speaker 1: hopefully fellow animal lovers. This episode is going to maybe
Speaker 1: knock your socks off, or at least maybe you'll take
Speaker 1: your socks off while you're listening to the podcast.
Speaker 2: Ben, are you what kind of animal person are you?
Speaker 1: I'm pretty much every animal person real, Yeah, except for
Speaker 1: the tales of rats and possums bother me as they should.
Speaker 1: But yeah, but other than that, I'm I'm super into
Speaker 1: pretty much every animal.
Speaker 2: Se you're a bit of a doctor dolittle figure.
Speaker 1: Yes, yes, but I've been thinking about life lately, Nolan.
Speaker 1: Maybe I should be a doctor do more. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: I'll get sued Ben. That's very good. That's very good.
Speaker 1: I like what you did there.
Speaker 2: I cat person, I guess a fair weather cat person.
Speaker 2: They kind of just they sort of drift around my periphery.
Speaker 2: They don't really bother me too much. There's the occasional meal.
Speaker 2: I'm an indoor outdoor cat person, so not as much
Speaker 2: of a do little as you. But I really do
Speaker 2: appreciate your commitment to the animal kingdom.
Speaker 1: Oh man, where would we be without animals? As a
Speaker 1: matter of fact, where would we be without our super
Speaker 1: producer Casey Pegram, who, if ever an animal is probably
Speaker 1: only a party animal is He's like Animal from the
Speaker 1: Muppet Show. He plays drums about as aggressively. This is true.
Speaker 2: Casey has an incredible drummer.
Speaker 1: Yes, this is true. We actually have a lot of
Speaker 1: very talented percussionists here at how stuff works. Maybe we
Speaker 1: can get a drum circle going on one day. However,
Speaker 1: today is not.
Speaker 2: That day, fortunately, but you know, fortunately for other reasons.
Speaker 1: Right right, today is another kind of very special day.
Speaker 1: As you can tell from whatever of writing the title
Speaker 1: of this episode, as we are exploring a very particular
Speaker 1: type of candidate, political candidate. One thing that's great about
Speaker 1: this country almost anybody can run for some sort of office.
Speaker 1: And one thing that's great about this podcast is NOL
Speaker 1: and I are not launching out on this endeavor alone.
Speaker 1: We are joined by our returning guest, longtime friend of
Speaker 1: the show, fellow ridiculous Historians give it up for Christopher hasiotis.
Speaker 4: Hey, good afternoon, good evening. If you're listening in the evening,
Speaker 4: good morning, we're waking you up. And if you are
Speaker 4: sleeping to this podcast, just keep on sleeping. No, wake up,
Speaker 4: wake up. I don't think this is a good.
Speaker 2: Sleeping podcast because it's a little toophrenetic. Yeah, we're too
Speaker 2: high energy, a little ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Ah yeah, wake up. We could do an ASMR, you know,
Speaker 1: lower the voice quiet, Steve, you.
Speaker 2: Want to talk about some animals?
Speaker 4: You dogs?
Speaker 2: You know what I discovered the other day? What a podcast? Well,
Speaker 2: it's called Sleep with Me. Have you heard of this?
Speaker 4: Is that just a text? You got?
Speaker 1: No?
Speaker 2: No, No, it's a podcast. It's a guy who plays
Speaker 2: this character named the Divine Scooter or something like that,
Speaker 2: and he just tells weird, non sequitar stories and this
Speaker 2: very relaxing, kind of unplaceable accent, and it's just a delight.
Speaker 2: So if if you're looking for a podcast to sleep too,
Speaker 2: I recommend Sleep with Me American Public Media.
Speaker 1: But not this podcast.
Speaker 2: No, definitely not this podcast.
Speaker 1: So Christopher, earlier you had given us this amazing idea.
Speaker 1: You gave us a choice between two possible topics to explore,
Speaker 1: and the one we ended up going with was the
Speaker 1: idea of non human political candidates.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 4: There are a lot of ways that people around the
Speaker 4: world choose their leaders, and one of the most popular,
Speaker 4: in if you're gonna accept the pun, one of the
Speaker 4: most popular ways is to vote right. We we put
Speaker 4: folks in office that we as a whole decide will
Speaker 4: best represent the majority and best uphold the needs of
Speaker 4: the minority. Sometimes I wanted to talk about non human
Speaker 4: electoral candidates after we dug into the story of Hartlepool. Now,
Speaker 4: ridiculous historians, you will remember that this was the story
Speaker 4: of the monkey perhaps that washed ashore in Hartleypool, England.
Speaker 4: The Hartlepool Monkey inspired or the story inspired Hengus the Monkey,
Speaker 4: and Hengus the Monkey was the mascot of the town
Speaker 4: the soccer team and ended up becoming the mayor of Hartlepool. Now,
Speaker 4: you guys talked about this a couple weeks ago, and
Speaker 4: that got me thinking, let's dive into more of these weird, strange,
Speaker 4: ridiculous stories of things, of animals, of ideas that somehow
Speaker 4: made it on the ballot and got into office.
Speaker 1: Okay, so our rules of engagement then would be ideally
Speaker 1: non humans of some sort that successfully ran for office.
Speaker 4: Yeah, that successfully we're part of a campaign. Yes, let's
Speaker 4: stick with that, because not all of these are winners.
Speaker 4: But that doesn't mean they're not worth talking about it
Speaker 4: because there's some really weird, ridiculous stuff that we can
Speaker 4: get into.
Speaker 1: Now.
Speaker 2: I don't know if mine were necessarily successful or not.
Speaker 2: I didn't realize we had this criteria.
Speaker 4: Well, they were successfully candidates, right, they were put forth?
Speaker 4: Yeah exactly?
Speaker 2: Is that is that good enough?
Speaker 1: Oh?
Speaker 4: Yeah, if they didn't win, probably were all better off. Four.
Speaker 2: Yes, I think that's fair.
Speaker 1: So we each on our own went out and found
Speaker 1: a couple of great candidates, and we'd like to share
Speaker 1: some of these with you today. I love this idea,
Speaker 1: But the sad part is when we set off, we're
Speaker 1: not going to be able to cover all of the
Speaker 1: non human candidates, because there are surprisingly a ton of them.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 2: I mean, it's funny. We were talking about doing this
Speaker 2: topic and I'm like, surely not. Surely, there's not enough
Speaker 2: to fill an entire but cast with this. But yes,
Speaker 2: in fact, we've been able to do it, and we
Speaker 2: have leftovers on the cutting room floor. Maybe we'll do
Speaker 2: a part two.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you you you underestimate the ridiculousness of human history
Speaker 4: and how seriously or not we're willing to take our
Speaker 4: political process.
Speaker 1: That's true, and we found one of the very first
Speaker 1: examples of this, which I think Noel you had looked into.
Speaker 2: Oh I get to go first. Oh please, you're nominating me? Okay, well,
Speaker 2: I mean I think wait, should we should vote? I
Speaker 2: guess what we're doing. Let's do the let's let's hold
Speaker 2: true to the political process.
Speaker 4: Okay, I just really quickly, let me just okay, here's
Speaker 4: a ballot, made the ballot. I'm gonna check my box check.
Speaker 1: Okay, I'm gonna voting for NOL. I already did that.
Speaker 2: Will vote for myself. Perfect, Okay, are we are we
Speaker 2: in agreement?
Speaker 1: Vote Casey what's.
Speaker 4: On hereby declare it shall be nol.
Speaker 2: It's been Casey on the case in the case. Literally
Speaker 2: he made it. He made a judgment there, he made
Speaker 2: a ruling. Okay, I like this one. Guys. Have you
Speaker 2: guys ever heard of Pigasus the immortal pig? Yeah, Pigasus
Speaker 2: the Immortal I'm did you say Pegasus? No, Pigasus, my friend, Pigasus.
Speaker 4: G I think I see where you're going with it.
Speaker 2: It's a bit of a pun, you see, because Pegasus
Speaker 2: was a unicorn, an aliicorn. I'm not sure what the
Speaker 2: terminology is, but a winged horse is a pegasus. And
Speaker 2: then I think Pegasus was the name of a particular
Speaker 2: winged horse from Greek mythology. Pegasus, on the other hand,
Speaker 2: was an actual pig, a spotted pig that was obtained
Speaker 2: in the country and outside of the city of Chicago
Speaker 2: during the Democratic National Convention of nineteen sixty eight by
Speaker 2: a little group you may have heard of called the
Speaker 2: Youth International Party aka the Yippies. Yep, yep, yep.
Speaker 1: You know these guys been I am not terribly familiar
Speaker 1: with the Yippies, Well, they're pretty neat.
Speaker 2: They were kind of a fringy, sort of a band
Speaker 2: of mary pranksters during the sixties that would do sit
Speaker 2: in but mainly their whole bag, as they might have said,
Speaker 2: was kind of political theater, right, So they would stage
Speaker 2: these events that were almost like a combination of protests
Speaker 2: and performance art. Right. So one big one they did
Speaker 2: was during the March on the Pentagon in nineteen sixty
Speaker 2: seven in Washington, d C. The Yippies kind of connected
Speaker 2: with a bunch of different people, including kind of fringe
Speaker 2: weirdo filmmaker Kenneth Anger. They were led by Abby Hoffman.
Speaker 2: He may know of he was in Forrest Gump. He's
Speaker 2: a Forrest Gump fame. They hung out. He always with
Speaker 2: like an American flag t shirt. He wrote a book
Speaker 2: called Steal this book, you know, proponent of free love
Speaker 2: a copy of that book.
Speaker 1: Yeah exactly, Yeah, did you I did?
Speaker 4: Did you?
Speaker 2: Did you?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 1: Yeah? Well it says it, Yeah, I kind of stole it.
Speaker 1: It was a friend of mine was like, this book
Speaker 1: is awesome. You should borrow Oh you just you just
Speaker 1: borrowed it and I never gave it back. So what's
Speaker 1: the statute of limitations When just borrowing becomes stealing, that's
Speaker 1: a a whole that's a whole other bag of badgers.
Speaker 2: That really really so yeah, Abby Hoffman, you know, very influential,
Speaker 2: kind of hippie revolutionary, I don't know what you want
Speaker 2: to call him and his partner, a guy named Jerry Rubin,
Speaker 2: they co founded the yippies together. And when they did
Speaker 2: this event in DC, they attempted to levitate the Pentagon.
Speaker 2: So they all sat around the pentagon and put their
Speaker 2: fingers underneath the foundation and they claimed that they levitated
Speaker 2: it like an inch or something, or like a couple
Speaker 2: of centimeters. But again, it was all just like this
Speaker 2: kind of charade for the purposes of like making a
Speaker 2: big fuss and getting some attention and riling up the squares.
Speaker 4: I will say, can you disprove that they levitated Pagan?
Speaker 2: Absolutely?
Speaker 4: No, you can't prove they didn't.
Speaker 2: No, you certainly can't. And that's sort of the beautiful
Speaker 2: thing about I actually first heard about this from a
Speaker 2: really cool It was just like a kind of a
Speaker 2: broadside like the creedive loafing type thing, like a like
Speaker 2: a free paper called Arthur Magazine. It was out of
Speaker 2: San Francisco, and they actually had a really cool music
Speaker 2: festival years ago that discontinued. I think the paper is too,
Speaker 2: but there was a cover story about this whole Yippie
Speaker 2: movement and the levitating and the Pentagon.
Speaker 1: Yeah, okay, now I remember the Yippies in further detail,
Speaker 1: But I still have a question with pigass.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, well, I mean I haven't even like balved
Speaker 2: into the lun yet. So Pigasus again, Like I said,
Speaker 2: they obtained this pig from a farmer outside of Chicago,
Speaker 2: and they said it wasn't super easy. Hoffman and some
Speaker 2: of his compatriots wandered around looking for a pig farm
Speaker 2: and they had to kind of like get directions to
Speaker 2: find one, and they finally found one, and they decided
Speaker 2: they had this pig that they named Pigasus for the
Speaker 2: purposes of nominating it for the presidency during the Democratic
Speaker 2: National Convention. Because this is how they put it, this
Speaker 2: is their campaign pledge quote. They nominated president and he
Speaker 2: eats the people. We nominated a president and the people
Speaker 2: eat him. And they also justified that if you know,
Speaker 2: the nomination didn't work out, they could just eat the
Speaker 2: eat the pig for breakfast. So the Democratic nominee was
Speaker 2: a guy by the name of Hubert H. Humphries, and
Speaker 2: he was of course running against Richard Nixon. And the
Speaker 2: Yippies put forth a nominee for their party, whatever that
Speaker 2: the Yippie party, I guess, which was Pigasus the Immortal.
Speaker 2: And here's a quote from Jerry Rubin about the whole thing.
Speaker 2: He says, we want to give you a chance to
Speaker 2: talk to our candidate to restate our demand that Pigasus
Speaker 2: be given Secret Service protection and he'd be brought to
Speaker 2: the White House for his foreign policy briefing. So you know,
Speaker 2: they had some demands. But here's the thing, it really
Speaker 2: didn't go over super well. Jerry Rubin was actually about
Speaker 2: to give this speech in front of the statue of
Speaker 2: Picasso in what is today called Daily Plaza in Chicago,
Speaker 2: and no sooner need to get up there. They actually
Speaker 2: paraded the pig through the streets. They I think they
Speaker 2: brought it in in like a station wagon of some kind,
Speaker 2: and then they brought it out and had it on
Speaker 2: a leash. They were arrested, and for all intents and purposes,
Speaker 2: they arrested the pig or at the very least confiscated it, right,
Speaker 2: So that's pretty silly. And it was August twenty third
Speaker 2: of nineteen sixty eight and the pigs came in, busted in,
Speaker 2: arrested the pig, the actual pig, along with a folk
Speaker 2: singer by the name of Phil Oakes, a guy named
Speaker 2: Stuart Albert, and Rubin himself, and they were hauled off
Speaker 2: to the clink, and the pig was actually taken to
Speaker 2: the Humane Society. And there was a whole court case
Speaker 2: surrounding this where they were kind of trying to get
Speaker 2: them on charges of animal cruelty and obstructing a right
Speaker 2: of way of some kind with this vehicle that they
Speaker 2: paraded it in with. And supposedly, according to Jerry Rubin,
Speaker 2: one of the cops came in when they were in
Speaker 2: lock of it and they said, all right, boys, you
Speaker 2: guys are going away for a long time because the
Speaker 2: pig squealed on you.
Speaker 4: Of course they did, of course. You know what I
Speaker 4: want to know about pegasust though, And I've been wondering
Speaker 4: this the whole time we're talking. Did pigas Has have wings?
Speaker 2: Absolutely not?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 2: Sorry, Christopher, It's an outrage. Here's the thing though, It
Speaker 2: was sort of a pun on again pig and Pegasus,
Speaker 2: but also the old adage you know when pigs fly.
Speaker 4: Oh, gotcha, that makes sense. This whole time I've been
Speaker 4: thinking of I don't know if you guys know the
Speaker 4: back cover of Prince's first album. We're gonna take a
Speaker 4: little musical digression here, but you know this is this
Speaker 4: is the podcast, and there's a naked Prince sitting astride
Speaker 4: a glorious white Pegasus, all on a really soft focus.
Speaker 4: And this whole time I've been thinking about Prince sitting
Speaker 4: atop a pig with wings. It's great, incredible. I'm sorry, Like,
Speaker 4: I know, you've been giving us a really good information,
Speaker 4: But all I've been thinking about is Prince on top
Speaker 4: of a page.
Speaker 2: Well that you know, that just shows where your mind is,
Speaker 2: and it's a it's a dirty mind.
Speaker 1: I think it's I think it's a beautiful, great place. Also,
Speaker 1: I don't know if we pointed out Pegasus was not
Speaker 1: a tiny boy.
Speaker 5: No, no, no, no.
Speaker 2: There's a picture of the cops wrangling this this boy
Speaker 2: and he's you know, he's about the size of a
Speaker 2: human boy.
Speaker 1: He's like one hundred and forty something for sure.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: Well, I don't know, he's probably I mean, pigs are
Speaker 4: pretty dense. That's that's very true.
Speaker 2: He packs a lot of substance in there. Yeah, in
Speaker 2: this picture with the cops, they're also laughing about it.
Speaker 2: They they you know, as is evidenced by this comment
Speaker 2: about the pig.
Speaker 1: Squealer, they seem like fun cops. They seem like fun cops.
Speaker 4: I mean, I guess if it's nineteen sixty eight and
Speaker 4: we're in Chicago, a lot worse things happen than people
Speaker 4: wrapping up a pig and booking him. The cops kind
Speaker 4: of cracked down at that.
Speaker 2: Well, that's the thing exactly. So, just as for a
Speaker 2: little bit of background before we move on to some
Speaker 2: more ridiculous non human candidates. Yeah, this was a big
Speaker 2: year because of all of the anti war protesting, all
Speaker 2: the protesting around Vietnam. There were like something in the
Speaker 2: neighborhood of twelve thousand police deployed, six thousand National Guard
Speaker 2: and over seven thousand someone the neighborhood. Seventy five hundred
Speaker 2: Army troops there to kind of help deal with all
Speaker 2: this chaos because people were coming and descending on this city,
Speaker 2: and this convention to let the powers that be know
Speaker 2: that they were not going to stand for this aggression.
Speaker 1: Pink oink oink.
Speaker 2: Indeed, so this is a nice kind of tongue in
Speaker 2: cheek way for the yippies to poke a little fun
Speaker 2: at this without you know, getting into a shooting match
Speaker 2: with the with the fuzz.
Speaker 1: And what's interesting here a common thread that I think
Speaker 1: will be discovering as we as we continue. What's interesting
Speaker 1: is that often these candidates exist as a form of protests,
Speaker 1: almost exclusively. It's very rare for someone to or a
Speaker 1: group of people to seriously elect an animal or a
Speaker 1: thing and expect it to do the job. But I
Speaker 1: think it's such a powerful form of protests.
Speaker 2: That's true. And my other one, just to for a
Speaker 2: little tease is sort of a combination of protests, but
Speaker 2: it's more.
Speaker 1: Of a a form of humiliation and craziness. Rightly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because that's I was setting you up for that. I
Speaker 1: think that's one of the earliest ones. But let's pause
Speaker 1: on that one, and let's let's turn to you, Christopher.
Speaker 1: I think Nolan I mainly have animals, but you've got
Speaker 1: a couple of inanimate yeah, Jackson, I do.
Speaker 4: Well, we're going to start with one inanimate one. The
Speaker 4: next one is animate but not alive. We'll explain what
Speaker 4: that means when we get to it. But Noel, since
Speaker 4: you have us in the mid to late sixties, let's
Speaker 4: stick there. We're going to go to nineteen sixty seven,
Speaker 4: so a little bit before Pigasus had his his day
Speaker 4: in I don't know, like in the frying pan, and
Speaker 4: before his bacon got booked. Yeah, sure, I like it
Speaker 4: all right. So let's go back a year. It's nineteen
Speaker 4: sixty seven. We're going south of the Equator to South America.
Speaker 4: We're in Ecuador. There's a small town called pico Asa.
Speaker 4: Now pico Asa is on the it's close to the
Speaker 4: Pacific coast of Ecuador. It's a small town. There's just
Speaker 4: four thousand people. They've got an election coming up. They
Speaker 4: really want to put someone in place who's going to
Speaker 4: represent everybody in town. And all of a sudden, these
Speaker 4: news reports showed up after the election in the United States,
Speaker 4: and the winner of the mayoral election, according to these
Speaker 4: reports in the in the US, pico Asa in Ecuador
Speaker 4: elected a foot Powder as mayor.
Speaker 1: Old I will rewind that. We we say that again.
Speaker 4: A foot Powder, a talc a talcum, a nice white,
Speaker 4: powdery substance to absorb the moisture in your feet, you
Speaker 4: know whatever. I guess you can use it in other
Speaker 4: sweaty parts of your body to to reduce chafing that
Speaker 4: you might have.
Speaker 2: In fact, the gold bond situation.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I sort of like that.
Speaker 2: Was there a brand associated with this candidate?
Speaker 5: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Was okay?
Speaker 4: Yeah, there's a specific brand. It's called pull Ups Talco
Speaker 4: pull Ups means foot powder, powder of the feet. Yeah,
Speaker 4: very Yeah. So what happened is this foot powder pull
Speaker 4: up Yas they put out ads, they kind of you know,
Speaker 4: there's there's an election coming up. You see this today
Speaker 4: when the presidential election is coming up in and Coca
Speaker 4: Cola and Pepsi might have some sort of fake campaign
Speaker 4: ads and vote for Pepsi or the choice of whatever
Speaker 4: you want it to be.
Speaker 2: And I'm sorry, I.
Speaker 4: Don't want to toss out their slogans, but same thing
Speaker 4: happened fifty years ago. So pull up yis this talcum
Speaker 4: powder put out ads to kind of take advantage of
Speaker 4: the of the political spirit of the time, And they
Speaker 4: had a slogan and said vote for any candidate, but
Speaker 4: if you want, well being and hygiene. Vote for pull
Speaker 4: Up Yers, and people did.
Speaker 2: People did.
Speaker 4: Okay, wow, Well here's the thing. Okay, so the day
Speaker 4: before the election, pull up Ys Talcum Powder put out
Speaker 4: a flyer they distributed around town and the flyer was
Speaker 4: made to look like one of the ballots that would
Speaker 4: indicate the choice in tomorrow's election. And I really really
Speaker 4: really encourage anyone listening to this podcast to go look
Speaker 4: up this ballot. We'll post a link to it on
Speaker 4: the Ridiculous Historians Facebook group. But this ballot, it has
Speaker 4: this visage of a of a creepy, terrifying foot, right, Okay,
Speaker 4: so that imagine a big yellow foot. Yeah, is it
Speaker 4: like a cartoons it's a cartoon foot, but the foot
Speaker 4: is what's the what's the bottom of your foot called
Speaker 4: the palm of your soul, the soul exactly. So imagine
Speaker 4: the soule of your foot looking right at you. There
Speaker 4: are eyes on the soul, a nose and mouth. The
Speaker 4: toes are kind of hanging forward over the front of
Speaker 4: the sole of the foot like like long bangs. Yeah.
Speaker 4: He's wearing a suit and a bow tie, giant foothead
Speaker 4: and uh, he's got two hands, two arms, you know,
Speaker 4: he's a kind of anthropomorphic foot.
Speaker 1: It's weird that he has arms, it's weird.
Speaker 4: And one hand is giving the thumbs up, the other
Speaker 4: hand is giving the V for victory sign, so covering
Speaker 4: all the bases for for winning, and and he's cut
Speaker 4: off at the waist. So I don't know if the
Speaker 4: foot has a foot has two feet is a mystery.
Speaker 4: I don't want to know the answer to this.
Speaker 1: Just technically speaking of what a cephalopod yeah, I.
Speaker 4: Mean, yeah, he's actually a cephalopod or I'm guessing though,
Speaker 4: in place of feet, he has two little heads, two
Speaker 4: little people heads that he's walking in.
Speaker 1: This is cool.
Speaker 4: This is the stuff of nightmares.
Speaker 2: Was this like like a publicity stunt by the foot
Speaker 2: powder manufacturer ad campaign?
Speaker 4: It was basically just a promotional stunt. But I think
Speaker 4: I think what you run into is a little bit
Speaker 4: of American mid century narcissism, looking at foreign countries as
Speaker 4: a little exotic, a little behind the times, and kind
Speaker 4: of having the journalists here in the States having a
Speaker 4: little bit of a laugh at the folks there because
Speaker 4: what was reported is that this footpowder won the election,
Speaker 4: and basically people were having a laugh thing These people
Speaker 4: are so dumb they voted for a foot powder or
Speaker 4: this foot powder is so much better than these other
Speaker 4: candidates that people actually believe the slogan and went for it.
Speaker 4: Turns out what is likely to have happened. First of all,
Speaker 4: it wasn't actually a vote for mayor. It was a
Speaker 4: vote for a municipal councilman, So slight difference there. And
Speaker 4: the pamphlets the brochures that pups distributed did in fact
Speaker 4: look like the ballots, and so it what what people
Speaker 4: theorize is that when they had to turn in the ballots,
Speaker 4: people grab the wrong one and put them in the
Speaker 4: ballot box, and people weren't actually voting for a foot powder.
Speaker 4: And when the votes were tallied, yeah, there were a
Speaker 4: lot of these foot powder ballots in there, but they
Speaker 4: were tossed out real persons over That's like.
Speaker 2: Some Russian meddling in the election right there, my friend,
Speaker 2: I mean, did they not get in trouble with the
Speaker 2: government for doing this?
Speaker 4: So I actually looked into it, and there's not a
Speaker 4: lot more out there, especially not in English. There's not
Speaker 4: a lot in Spanish. I tried to dig into some
Speaker 4: some Spanish language newspapers and couldn't find much, and I
Speaker 4: actually emailed the city of Posa got no response. The
Speaker 4: municipal website it actually goes into a good amount of
Speaker 4: detail on the town. But it's a certain incident in
Speaker 4: nineteen sixty seven for which I would think they're most
Speaker 4: well known.
Speaker 1: I would either hire slash promote the person behind that
Speaker 1: ad campaign, or have them kicked out of the country.
Speaker 1: That's just you can't mess with the vote that way.
Speaker 1: But that's brilliant.
Speaker 4: But kicked out with a nice, dry, hygienic foot.
Speaker 2: Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, because literally the stuff spread like
Speaker 2: wildfire after this thing, Right, you got a powder your feet, man.
Speaker 2: I want to know what their market share became after
Speaker 2: this incident.
Speaker 1: I want to know if they'll sponsor US.
Speaker 2: I wouldn't. Yeah.
Speaker 4: I mean, it's pretty humid here in Atlanta too.
Speaker 1: That's true. That's true. That's amazing though. Okay, so we've
Speaker 1: got foot powder for president, We've got.
Speaker 4: Mayor the municipal municipal councilman, Yes, excuse me, So the
Speaker 4: story is mayor not so true, kind of true, but
Speaker 4: still ridiculous.
Speaker 1: Pig for president, foot powder for mayor. Sure, let's say
Speaker 1: let's just say maynor, mayor Ish mayor esque. So far, Ben,
Speaker 1: who are you voting for? Pig or foot powder? Foot powder?
Speaker 2: Cool?
Speaker 1: Yeah, so I'm just I also like that it's an
Speaker 1: idea that it's not just one particular box or tube
Speaker 1: of foot powder. It's the concept of foot powder, which
Speaker 1: is pretty neat to vote for something that abstract. I
Speaker 1: have something I thought you guys would be very interested in.
Speaker 1: It is a story that comes to us from West Texas,
Speaker 1: a little town called Lahitas. And in Lahitas, this is
Speaker 1: an area about the size of almost Connecticut, right with
Speaker 1: maybe ten thousand people, and it's very small. In the seventies,
Speaker 1: if you walked by the Lahitas Trading Post, you would
Speaker 1: tend to see a lot of the same people, a
Speaker 1: lot of the same conversations occur. How's the weather, did
Speaker 1: you see the game? Stuff like that.
Speaker 4: Yeah, small town. Everyone knows each other. Did you hear
Speaker 4: the news about Ecuador they elected the foot powder?
Speaker 1: Yes? Ahaha, Yes, so you were there.
Speaker 2: You were there, Christopher, I've been to Texas.
Speaker 1: I've been to Texas. But they also had their own
Speaker 1: versions of local celebrities, and one of them was a
Speaker 1: fellow named Clay, Henry Clay Henry. The first Clay Henry
Speaker 1: hung around at the Lahita's Trading post for years and years,
Speaker 1: and in nineteen eighty six he entered politics. His qualifications
Speaker 1: included a love of alcohol, and the race for mayor
Speaker 1: was organized by a man named Walter Mischer, who was
Speaker 1: a Houston businessman, and he thought, you know, it would
Speaker 1: be a good promo thing, good pr Right.
Speaker 4: Yeah, so Clay Henry's getting involved in politics. It's a
Speaker 4: good name. It's a good, solid kind of a political name.
Speaker 1: I think it is a great political name. You're right
Speaker 1: about that, Christopher. But he was perhaps best known this
Speaker 1: goat for his consumption of booze upwards of forty beers
Speaker 1: a day.
Speaker 4: I'm sorry, Ben, we rewind a bit, did you say goat?
Speaker 1: Yes? Oh?
Speaker 2: Did I not mention that part as in greatest of
Speaker 2: all time?
Speaker 1: Well, at least in Texas. There's a couple of different levels. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's a goat.
Speaker 4: WHOA wait a minute, All right, you buried the lead here, man.
Speaker 1: Klay Henry is a drunk, belligerent goat.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker 1: His qualifications include drinking a cartoonish amount of beer and
Speaker 1: I quote, headbutting constituents without provocation, not only is he
Speaker 1: famous in this town, but he's he's famous in the region.
Speaker 1: People would come to see, you know, to have a
Speaker 1: beer with the mayor. And he was known for walking
Speaker 1: around the trading posts and other places in town. And
Speaker 1: if someone didn't hand him a beer, he would just
Speaker 1: find someone and take it, find their drink and take it.
Speaker 1: And there's a great article in the Houstonia by Peter
Speaker 1: Holly that describes the experience with the first Clay Henry
Speaker 1: in nineteen ninety two. Because he was mayor for essentially
Speaker 1: the rest of his life. I never actually witnessed Clay
Speaker 1: Henry drink a beer. I did see him slam them,
Speaker 1: guzzle them, and ferociously ingest them at a rate capable
Speaker 1: of incapacitating a full grown man in minutes. To see
Speaker 1: it in person was nothing short of incredible.
Speaker 2: Do you think a shotgun them or funneled them to Yes? Yes, really,
Speaker 2: yeah I could.
Speaker 4: I could see a goat just just eating the whole can,
Speaker 4: just a full cann of beer, or just chomp, chomp, chump.
Speaker 2: So not only is he a physical goat, he is
Speaker 2: also a goat greatest of all time. Yeah, when it
Speaker 2: comes to being a goat, that drinks greatest of all Texas.
Speaker 1: There you go, there, there we go. We got there.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 1: So one of the questions you would have is how
Speaker 1: does he drink without thumbs? There are two answers. The first,
Speaker 1: there's a holster that they fixed to in his office that,
Speaker 1: you know, we could put a bottle in it like
Speaker 1: a water feeder for a hamster cage. And then sometimes
Speaker 1: he would just go up to people and bug them
Speaker 1: until they got him a Lone Star because of course
Speaker 1: it's a lone Star beer. That's what he drinks. And
Speaker 1: he would polish off a twelve ounce bottle in ten
Speaker 1: seconds or less. And here's the thing. This guy was
Speaker 1: so popular that one of his offspring was elected mayor later,
Speaker 1: Clay Henry Jr. And then Clay Henry Jr. Was so
Speaker 1: popular that they elected a third goat mayor, Clay Henry
Speaker 1: the Third. Clay Henry the Third unfortunately, was involved in
Speaker 1: an altercation where in a local who had probably been
Speaker 1: drinking or we don't know if they had an argument
Speaker 1: because all three Clay Henry's are pretty heavy drinkers. Clay
Speaker 1: Henry three was attacked ouch one of his testicles was
Speaker 1: cut off. Oh he he stayed in office, of course
Speaker 1: he did. Well, you know, you don't need both testims
Speaker 1: go to stay in office.
Speaker 4: Especially if you're a goat. Yeah right, you get all
Speaker 4: the head buttting done in your early days.
Speaker 2: H yeah, I mean, you know, surely one goat testicle
Speaker 2: is like the equivalent of several human testicles. I don't
Speaker 2: know why I think that you're putting it out there.
Speaker 2: You mean in terms of like the fortitude, Yeah, yeah, exactly, Okay, yeah,
Speaker 2: and just the sheer gumption that it goes. Goats are
Speaker 2: very stubborn and they eat like everything, and this goat
Speaker 2: surely was no different.
Speaker 1: Also, goats have those weird sneak octopus like terrifying. Yeah.
Speaker 1: Favorite goat. I don't know about you guys, but my
Speaker 1: favorite goat, Sorry Clay Henry, My favorite goat is and
Speaker 1: will always be black Philip from The Witch.
Speaker 4: It's a good one. I thought maybe you're going to
Speaker 4: go with Gregory the Hungry Goat. There's there's a spot
Speaker 4: up in North Georgia called Goats on the Roof. Have
Speaker 4: you guys been there? Goats on the Roof?
Speaker 2: No, but there is a place around here where you
Speaker 2: can rent a goat to mow your lawn. Yeah, it's
Speaker 2: a good business.
Speaker 1: Yeah. My palace Scott Benjamin is actually a huge fan
Speaker 1: of those guys. Okay, so we have I have a
Speaker 1: successful line of goat mayors, the goat dynasty, the goat dynasty.
Speaker 1: We have the foot powder candidate not elected, and we
Speaker 1: have the pig president not elected. But we have more defined.
Speaker 2: I want to see a runoff between the drunk goat
Speaker 2: and the and pigasus.
Speaker 1: I don't know, man, that goat has like has the
Speaker 1: political game locked down? Yeah, they know how to play it.
Speaker 4: Was there an election Every time, I'm picturing a goat
Speaker 4: on a deathbed, you know, kind of wheezing its last
Speaker 4: breaths and as it says goodbye to this mortal coil,
Speaker 4: passing along the mayoral responsibilities to the next goat in line.
Speaker 1: Well, here's the thing. The mayor, the position of mayor
Speaker 1: in this small town contains no actual duties or responsibilities.
Speaker 1: I think the original Clay signed one thing with a hoof,
Speaker 1: but essentially their mayor is just there to drink, to.
Speaker 2: Drink beer, to drink beer.
Speaker 4: You know what. I'm sure there are a number of
Speaker 4: towns around the country that would think something similar about
Speaker 4: their own mayor.
Speaker 1: That's true, that's true. So what's next? What's our next animal?
Speaker 2: Oh boy, next one we get to talk about my
Speaker 2: favorite Roman orgy connoisseurs, psychopathic emperor, that kind of rhymed
Speaker 2: connoisseur and emperor. Sure I got there with the rhyme scheme.
Speaker 2: By the name of Caligula. Also one of my favorite,
Speaker 2: you know, fully pornographic yet artistically rendered films, the one
Speaker 2: in Esperanto. Uh huh yeah, wait is it? Is there
Speaker 2: a version of it in Esperanto?
Speaker 4: I think it's starring William Shatner.
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, we're talking about the one with
Speaker 2: Malcolm McDowell. That was the one that was produced by
Speaker 2: like the publisher of Penhouse. I'm just kidding. It's not
Speaker 2: really my favorite, but it is in fact a pretty
Speaker 2: epic film with a giant budget that depicts the life
Speaker 2: and times of the Roman emperor Caligula, who had many predilections,
Speaker 2: including fondness for coupling with his sisters, basically just a
Speaker 2: total hedonist. There's some stuff in the film that I
Speaker 2: don't know if it actually happened, but there's a part
Speaker 2: where he's buried his enemies up to their necks in
Speaker 2: the sand and then has this crazy like threshing lawnmower
Speaker 2: head cutting machine that just like goes over them and
Speaker 2: cuts all their heads off.
Speaker 4: I'm going to interrupt you real quick note, and I
Speaker 4: just want the listeners to know you were making some
Speaker 4: amazing hand motions.
Speaker 2: Right now now, sweeping back and forth.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Like, I wish everyone could see this. Maybe I
Speaker 4: should do some sort of like a like a gift
Speaker 4: or a boomerang, maybe social media.
Speaker 2: You know, we need to get better at that. We
Speaker 2: need to do more like real time podcast studio hijinks. Sure,
Speaker 2: talking about caligulous sweeping my arms back and forth. I
Speaker 2: could just get somebody in here to film this while
Speaker 2: we were recording this. We mean, we could recruit somebody
Speaker 2: from our socials.
Speaker 1: I'll have to put on pants, but you know what,
Speaker 1: that's a no, it's.
Speaker 2: Fine, but it's a it's a sort of a waste
Speaker 2: up view.
Speaker 1: That's a hill I'm willing to die on for the
Speaker 1: good of the show.
Speaker 2: Now, speaking of eyeing on hills, that probably happened a
Speaker 2: lot in Caligula's day in terms of his enemies, because
Speaker 2: he was pretty brutal and one of his main group
Speaker 2: of enemies was the Senate, because he was constantly beefing
Speaker 2: with the Senate because he, you know, was basically like
Speaker 2: trying to be a complete and utter totalitarian ruler. And
Speaker 2: you know, they still kind of had a semblance of
Speaker 2: a little thing called democracy, or at least what was it,
Speaker 2: like a republic right in Rome. So he was not
Speaker 2: fond of the Senate. And in fact, the legend has
Speaker 2: it this is this is a little unconfirmed, but there's
Speaker 2: a few historical counts of this happening. He had a
Speaker 2: horse that he was quite fond of. A horse. This
Speaker 2: is the doozy of a name. Let me see if
Speaker 2: I can, like, if I can do this one a
Speaker 2: horse by the name of Incitatus. It's actually not that hard.
Speaker 4: But when you look at it, Oh, you built it up.
Speaker 4: I'm excited. I'm so glad.
Speaker 1: There's more.
Speaker 3: So.
Speaker 2: This was his favorite horse. He loved this horse. He
Speaker 2: loved it more than he loved probably any human person
Speaker 2: in his life, to the point where he got this horse,
Speaker 2: had it fashion a jeweled collar. He even like had
Speaker 2: like a special like manger built out of ivory for it.
Speaker 2: He had a stall made out of marble and and
Speaker 2: supposedly some accounts say that he bought him his very
Speaker 2: own house, So that's a lot of stuff.
Speaker 1: Yeah. I also heard he owned slaves though the horse did. Yeah,
Speaker 1: that's in one of the accounts.
Speaker 2: Can a horse really own anything though, I mean.
Speaker 1: It's a great question.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he did own colligulss heart and apparently he was
Speaker 2: fed with food with the gold flakes built mixed in
Speaker 2: and stuff, you know, because gold is is important to
Speaker 2: consume for for animals.
Speaker 1: Caligula was a big fan of consuming or at least
Speaker 1: bathing in gold himself. He's a very pro gold guy.
Speaker 2: He is very pro excess And a big part of
Speaker 2: this was he was constantly thumbing his nose at the
Speaker 2: poor and just like you know, wanted to just be
Speaker 2: as decad and as possible, display it as openly as
Speaker 2: possible with as little shame, zero shame, as it turns out,
Speaker 2: as possible. And another thing he liked to do was
Speaker 2: humiliate the Senate because they were like his nemeses, you know,
Speaker 2: these these senators, these puffy, you know, stuff shirt senators.
Speaker 2: So supposedly he put forth into Tatis to become a console,
Speaker 2: like an official console, uhuh, an official console.
Speaker 4: But he's a horse.
Speaker 2: He's a horse, but it doesn't matter because it's a
Speaker 2: very special horse endowed now, you know, surely endowed with
Speaker 2: the same amount of wisdom that any of these you know,
Speaker 2: lifelong politicians possess, at least according to Caligula. And a
Speaker 2: big part of this was obviously to kind of humiliate
Speaker 2: them and say, you know, a horse could do your job,
Speaker 2: you morons, and you're gonna like it. You're gonna take it,
Speaker 2: and you're gonna you're gonna he's gonna live amongst you,
Speaker 2: and he's gonna vote. He's gonna hold up his hoof,
Speaker 2: you know, that's how he's gonna vote. Obviously. But apparently
Speaker 2: this did not go through because Caligula was just universally
Speaker 2: hated for obvious. Yeah, he was just kind of a
Speaker 2: he's kind of a bad guy, what with the thresher
Speaker 2: head chopping machines and the crazy Roman orgies with sisters,
Speaker 2: and he just.
Speaker 4: Wasn't a wasn't a good look for this guy. It's
Speaker 4: funny how that can turn the people off, the chopping
Speaker 4: off of heads and such.
Speaker 1: Yeah, you would think it was just a different time.
Speaker 1: But I like to think I know this is not true, folks,
Speaker 1: But I like to think that the horse becoming console
Speaker 1: was the last straw. I feel like the horse burn
Speaker 1: is what set everyone over the edge. The horse burn,
Speaker 1: horse burn. I like that. You like a horse, or
Speaker 1: you pointed a horse to burn his enemies, So it's
Speaker 1: a horse burn.
Speaker 2: Are you familiar with the move horse bites the corn?
Speaker 3: No?
Speaker 4: I am mystified.
Speaker 2: It's when you when you take yours, when you take
Speaker 2: your hand and make it into a C shape. I'm
Speaker 2: doing it right now. Yeah, and then you grab someone
Speaker 2: right above the knee and you go horse bites the corn.
Speaker 2: And it's the most annoying thing.
Speaker 4: Yeah, it's like, is this a brown family? Yeah, no,
Speaker 4: it's just.
Speaker 2: Maybe it's just my friend Tyler. It's a thing that
Speaker 2: he does to me all the time, and I hate it.
Speaker 2: I hate it. I hate it, and it gets a
Speaker 2: rise out of me every time.
Speaker 1: Why do you it's a very strange relationship.
Speaker 2: It is a very strange relationship.
Speaker 1: Maybe google it and see if other people do it,
Speaker 1: because it sounds like he's just making up reasons to
Speaker 1: grab you.
Speaker 2: Wow, you're right, it's not it is it is?
Speaker 4: Sure?
Speaker 2: Well okay, so yeah, what's it called when you squeeze
Speaker 2: just above someone's knee, it's called a horse bite. That
Speaker 2: a horse bites corn. That guy is making this up,
Speaker 2: so okay, horse bites aside. Caligula super unpopular. He was assassinated,
Speaker 2: he died, and so the horse did not ascend to
Speaker 2: the consulate. Right.
Speaker 1: It was before the horse was able to get in,
Speaker 1: which is a shame. We'll never know how history would
Speaker 1: have changed.
Speaker 2: I would have liked to see the horse's fiscal policy,
Speaker 2: you know, play out in the in the Senate.
Speaker 1: I would like to see it bite some cord, you know.
Speaker 1: I'd like to see the horse out there press in
Speaker 1: the flesh, kissing the babies, given complicated speeches, having political intrigue.
Speaker 1: I'm getting carried away, Christopher, what's next.
Speaker 4: We need to stick on the horse for one second more,
Speaker 4: because yeah, I want to hear a horse put things
Speaker 4: up for a vote. I want to know if the
Speaker 4: horse is going to vote yea or or nay?
Speaker 2: Worth it? Yeah, it was absolutely worth.
Speaker 4: Sorry I had to do it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you absolutely were required contractually to do that day.
Speaker 4: It's the reason I'm here, and you are.
Speaker 2: In fact a dad now, so you're allowed to You're
Speaker 2: in the in the exclusive camp of the dad joke elite.
Speaker 4: It's the US jokes.
Speaker 2: Yeah exactly.
Speaker 4: And you know people say politics these days are just
Speaker 4: a horse race. Yeah, all right, let's move on. Let's
Speaker 4: let's all right. I'm going to bring us from the
Speaker 4: Roman Empire back to modern times so we can debate
Speaker 4: how historical this is, but it's part of modern history.
Speaker 4: I want to tell you guys about Dustin. Dustin the
Speaker 4: wind No, dust in the Turkey. Ah, yes, dustin the
Speaker 4: Turkey is not actually even a turkey. What dust in
Speaker 4: the Turkey is a Turkey vulture. But dust In the
Speaker 4: Turkey is not even a Turkey vulture. Dust In the
Speaker 4: Turkey is a puppet Turkey vulture.
Speaker 1: Whoa.
Speaker 5: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So one of the fun things I think about traveling
Speaker 4: the world is you get to see pieces of pop
Speaker 4: culture that are so deeply enmeshed in other countries that
Speaker 4: you've never heard of. You know, Folks come to the
Speaker 4: States and they're like, what is this purple dinosaur Barney like,
Speaker 4: it's confusing. Go to Ireland, he'll be confronted with dust
Speaker 4: In the Turkey. So Dustin the Turkey is a character.
Speaker 4: He's a television presenter, He's a puppet who was on TV.
Speaker 4: He made his debut in nineteen eighty nine on the
Speaker 4: show The Den was on RTE, which is kind of
Speaker 4: the Irish version of PBS. Here is the kind of
Speaker 4: publicly funded broadcasting. Dustin the Turkey was on the show
Speaker 4: until twenty ten. And I want to paint a picture
Speaker 4: for you of dust In the Turkey. Imagine a c
Speaker 4: off creature that looks like a mix of Gonzo from
Speaker 4: the Muppets with Bernie Sanders, kind of you know, Statler
Speaker 4: and Waldorf, the two cranky guys also in the Muppets.
Speaker 1: Yeah, so Hecklers.
Speaker 4: Yeah, imagine Statler. He's the one with kind of the
Speaker 4: ring of hair around his head, that sort of Bernie
Speaker 4: Sanders Larry David hairstyle across him with Gonzo the Muppets,
Speaker 4: big weird beak, and you get a cranky, strange, odd
Speaker 4: Turkey puppet. Now Dustin the Turkey. He's he's a very
Speaker 4: specific kind of Turkey. He's from Dublin and he spent
Speaker 4: a lot of time. He's kind of a roustabout. He's
Speaker 4: got a strong attitude and he loves his city so much.
Speaker 4: He speaks out specifically as an advocate for Dublin itself.
Speaker 4: He's got a very strong Dublin accent. And I think, Casey,
Speaker 4: if you could queue up the SoundBite we've got from
Speaker 4: Dustin himself.
Speaker 2: He brought a clip.
Speaker 4: I brought a clip.
Speaker 1: Well done, Chrismas.
Speaker 2: That's why I'm here, over achiever, not just jokes.
Speaker 5: There's nowhere that matches Doblin. Sure don't. We have the
Speaker 5: biggest rock and roll band in the world. Yeah Aslan
Speaker 5: all right, ko, okay, and we have James Joyce, Yeah,
Speaker 5: the Bell Jimmy Joyce, Mazer, brilliant form with a Glenn Hansard. Okay,
Speaker 5: he might watch listen he did.
Speaker 4: Once and that's that's Dustin the Turkey is he voiced
Speaker 4: by Colin Farrell. He's a doub learned through and through,
Speaker 4: but he's he's deeply Irish, so much Southern. In nineteen
Speaker 4: ninety seven, Dustin ran for President of Ireland.
Speaker 1: Oh cool? Yeah, How far did he get?
Speaker 4: He did not get far at all. In fact, he
Speaker 4: had troubles with getting on the ballot because Dustin is
Speaker 4: a one named guy. He's just Dustin the Turkey, and
Speaker 4: you've got to have two names to get on a ballot.
Speaker 1: That was what that was the technicality.
Speaker 4: He worked his way around it by listing himself as
Speaker 4: Dustin Hoffmann.
Speaker 1: Oh great, So it wasn't that okay, So he was
Speaker 1: able to overcome that bureaucratic obstacle.
Speaker 4: Uh huh.
Speaker 1: And that was apparently more important than the fact that
Speaker 1: someone has their hand inside of him and his orchestra
Speaker 1: in his movement.
Speaker 4: He is truly a puppet, a political puppet. But the
Speaker 4: thing is, Dustin went nowhere in nineteen ninety seven with
Speaker 4: that candidacy nor a subsequent one for president. However, in
Speaker 4: two thousand and eight, I've got to ask you guys.
Speaker 4: Are you guys familiar with the Eurovision Song Contest?
Speaker 1: Yes, I am.
Speaker 4: No, that's a thing for you.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah, yeah. It's sort of like America's Got Talent
Speaker 2: or something, yeah, but super huge, super popular. So Ireland
Speaker 2: is a country known for its song, its story. It's
Speaker 2: it's oral tradition. We've got all this great music from Ireland.
Speaker 2: Ireland is actually the winningest country on the Eurovision Song Contest.
Speaker 2: Oh cool, yeah, for decades, They've won seven times. Sweden
Speaker 2: is number two with six wins, but Ireland tops it
Speaker 2: with seven wins. One of those wins, however, was not
Speaker 2: in two thousand and eight, and this is where Dustin
Speaker 2: comes in. So the way the Eurovision Song conon test
Speaker 2: works is every country has its own kind of championship
Speaker 2: round where five six songs from that country are voted
Speaker 2: on locally. All those the winning songs from each country
Speaker 2: then go to the finals wherever that is every year,
Speaker 2: and then Europe as a whole and parts of North
Speaker 2: Africa and the Middle East vote on who the winning
Speaker 2: song is that year. In two thousand and eight, the
Speaker 2: champion in Ireland, the one who beat out actual musicians
Speaker 2: like Maya, like Donald Skian, like Liam Gettis, was Dustin
Speaker 2: the Turkey. Yeah, so in two thousand and eight, Dustin
Speaker 2: the Turkey was the Ireland representative in the Eurovision Song Contest.
Speaker 2: His song Ireland. Dues point that it's a really dumb
Speaker 2: name that means kind of is a mispronunciation of Ireland
Speaker 2: twelve points in French, which is the number of points
Speaker 2: needed to win this the Eurovision Song Contest. So saying
Speaker 2: the name or the title of the song would sound
Speaker 2: like someone is saying that Ireland had won, but it didn't. Anyway,
Speaker 2: this competition, this election is what theust In the Turkey one,
Speaker 2: and you can actually go on YouTube you can find
Speaker 2: his performance at Eurovision. Did not win at all overall,
Speaker 2: but it's this weird psychedelic nonsense song about the competition itself.
Speaker 2: It's sort of met textual. Dustin the Turkey is sitting
Speaker 2: inside of a shopping cart with backup dancers painted in
Speaker 2: gold dancing next to him. There was some confusion among
Speaker 2: the judges. Well, I would imagine there's a lot of
Speaker 2: confusion among the judges whether he should be disqualified because
Speaker 2: you're only supposed to have a certain number of people
Speaker 2: on stage for your performance, and did the puppeteer actually
Speaker 2: count as an extra person? And so did Dustin the
Speaker 2: Turkey actually violate the Eurovision Song Contest rules by having
Speaker 2: a man hidden under the cart with his hand up
Speaker 2: as butt something we all want to know, And oh, yeah, puppet,
Speaker 2: they get right, Yeah, it's a puppet.
Speaker 1: So what happens to Dustin the Turkey later? Is he
Speaker 1: still around?
Speaker 2: Dustin?
Speaker 4: Is still around? Dustin? He did not win the finals
Speaker 4: in the Eurovision Song Contest, but he did then go
Speaker 4: on to campaign that next year against the Lisbon Treaty,
Speaker 4: which was an EU policy treaty. So Dustin has been
Speaker 4: involved in political life. He went on to record with
Speaker 4: release albums with artists like Ronnie Drew of the Dubliners,
Speaker 4: Bob Geldoff of the Boomtown Rats. Yeah, and you know,
Speaker 4: you can still use the hashtag vote Dustin to look
Speaker 4: up what's going on with the Poultry Party, which is
Speaker 4: Dustin's official group. Dustin also is taking things global. He
Speaker 4: became a UNISEF ambassador for Ireland. This ugly, foul mouthed,
Speaker 4: crass little puppet and he went to South Africa to
Speaker 4: the Quasulin Natal region to learn about the plight of
Speaker 4: people with HIV and eights.
Speaker 1: Wow. Yeah, positive change through comedy.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 4: So he won an election, he lost an election. He's
Speaker 4: a weird puppet, but he's got the people behind him.
Speaker 1: It's not even an animal. He's now officially my favorite
Speaker 1: Turkey Buzzard because I just I said at the beginning,
Speaker 1: I love animals, but those things freak me out.
Speaker 4: Turkey buzzards.
Speaker 2: Yeah, howbout puppet? How do you feel abut puppets?
Speaker 1: Pro puppet?
Speaker 4: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you got a pet puppet, don't You don't
Speaker 2: have a puppet? Yeah, you don't call them with pet
Speaker 2: though that's sort of actually, that's unfair to Stevens. Your
Speaker 2: companion is technically an intern. Steven still really formal with him. Now,
Speaker 2: I thought it was Steve.
Speaker 1: He's earned he's earned that second syllable phr v pH. Okay,
Speaker 1: there was a moment of tense silence between us just now.
Speaker 1: I hope we're still friends.
Speaker 2: We are.
Speaker 4: And if you're out there listening, if you're a Stephen
Speaker 4: with a pH, if you're a Stephen with a V,
Speaker 4: we're happy to have all of you.
Speaker 1: Yeah, thanks for hanging out. Well, maybe we can put
Speaker 1: a put a picture of the puppet on the on
Speaker 1: the social media's one day this. This is interesting, though,
Speaker 1: that you're talking about a political party, because this is
Speaker 1: not my second thing, but this reminds me of the
Speaker 1: Inanimate Objects Party. Did you guys hear about this. It's
Speaker 1: a it's a party that is based in Troy, New York,
Speaker 1: and their main thing is that we should elect more
Speaker 1: inanimate objects in political office. Their main candidate is an
Speaker 1: inflatable whale named Arthur Galpin, and their other major candidate
Speaker 1: is an albino's squirrel. Their symbol, their formal symbol, is
Speaker 1: a fork, but check them out.
Speaker 4: But that squirrel is not an inanimate object. So I'm
Speaker 4: already seeing some flaws in there in their policy.
Speaker 1: I think they're a fractured party, to be honest with you.
Speaker 4: But well, you're saying that it's not a serious thing,
Speaker 4: that people who put forth inflatable whales are not taking
Speaker 4: this process seriously.
Speaker 1: Perhaps I'm saying comedy is in the eye of the beholder.
Speaker 2: Fair enough.
Speaker 1: God, I hope they take it really seriously. But this
Speaker 1: leads us to an example of when these animals, or
Speaker 1: these non human candidates become a matter of very serious, important,
Speaker 1: non comedic stuff. And this story takes us to Brazil
Speaker 1: is the story of a female black rhinoceros named Kakareco.
Speaker 1: Cacareco was in nineteen fifty eight. She was residing at
Speaker 1: the Ardim Zoologico do Rio Dejanio. I am not a
Speaker 1: Portuguese speaker, but you could be. Yeah, I just have
Speaker 1: to try harder. So Cockareco is the daughter of Britador
Speaker 1: and Terra Zina, and in nineteen fifty eight she was
Speaker 1: loaned out to the Sal Paulo Zoo. People knew about
Speaker 1: this rhinoceros, and they didn't say particularly kind things about her.
Speaker 1: In the case of the drunk goat Mayor, people like
Speaker 1: the drunk goat, They like the bit hey.
Speaker 4: He hangs out, he has a beer, maybe a whiskey,
Speaker 4: I don't.
Speaker 1: Know, right, who knows. But in the case of Cacareco,
Speaker 1: people would say, this rhino is dumb as a door nail,
Speaker 1: as the brains of a peanut, and is still the best.
Speaker 1: It's still the best possible political candidate. So in nineteen
Speaker 1: fifty eight, a group of students print over two hundred
Speaker 1: thousand ballots with Cacoareko's name on them, and the ballots
Speaker 1: are all legitimately cast by voters. One person, because you
Speaker 1: could write in this is right an election one person said,
Speaker 1: better to elect a rhino than an ass. You see,
Speaker 1: this election was the result of serious and valid concerns
Speaker 1: about rampant corruption in the Brazilian political scene, especially in
Speaker 1: South Paulo. And not only did she end up winning,
Speaker 1: she won by a landslide, and it was one of
Speaker 1: the highest totals for a local candidate in Brazil's history
Speaker 1: to that date, which is weird because we also have
Speaker 1: to point out people who are familiar with the way
Speaker 1: voting goes in the US will know that our country's
Speaker 1: notorious for a lot of people just not voting. It's
Speaker 1: way way worse in Brazil, or it was at that time, and.
Speaker 4: So this was a way to get people engaged or
Speaker 4: were they protesting the actual people who were on the ballot.
Speaker 1: Both both Brazil seemed at the time, according to some sociologists,
Speaker 1: to be on the threshold of revolt. It was seen
Speaker 1: as a general protest from people who had varying different
Speaker 1: objections to the way things were going. There were food shortages,
Speaker 1: the cost of living was going up. Of course, political
Speaker 1: corruption as we already meant, and some voters there were
Speaker 1: actually multiple forms of protests. Some voters in the same
Speaker 1: election voted in local politics by putting black beans in
Speaker 1: the ballot envelope instead of the actual ballot.
Speaker 4: So this is kind of a way for people to say,
Speaker 4: our choices are so poor, we would rather have not
Speaker 4: just a rhinoceros, but a dumb as beans.
Speaker 1: Rhinoceros rights, yes, and cacuare Echo dies in nineteen sixty two,
Speaker 1: but her legacy lives on today. There's a widely used
Speaker 1: term that derives from her name. They think you've heard
Speaker 1: about before voto cacareco, which means cocka eco vote. It's
Speaker 1: kind of it's almost like kangaroo court, but it's a
Speaker 1: rhino vote. And she also inspired the formation of the
Speaker 1: Rhinoceros Party of Canada, whose members went on to appoint
Speaker 1: the Rhinoceros Cornelius the First as their leader.
Speaker 2: You know what a rhino is in American politics?
Speaker 1: A Republican in name only. I love that. It's not
Speaker 1: like the perfect acronym.
Speaker 2: But no, I'm just fond of acronyms in general, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: you know that's about me.
Speaker 4: And there's something about Brazil I think, like, I think
Speaker 4: they have fun with their politics there too, because I
Speaker 4: think in the eighties or nineties there was a monkey
Speaker 4: who ran for office, Macaco Chiao, who was a chimpanzee.
Speaker 4: You know what. That was on one of the.
Speaker 2: Lists for this whole thing that we're doing, this crazy experiment.
Speaker 2: I think we really need a part two, guys.
Speaker 1: I think we should come back for a part two
Speaker 1: because we did pretty well, but we only had a
Speaker 1: total of six and then maybe a couple of ancillary mentions.
Speaker 1: Why do they call it kangaroo court because in in
Speaker 1: the early days of the formation of Australia, all judicial
Speaker 1: positions were occupied by kangaroos. Of course, I don't believe it.
Speaker 1: They were wallabies, the wallabies. You're right, nobody gives enough
Speaker 1: credit to the wallabies role in the creation of Australian government.
Speaker 1: But maybe we can in part two if it actually happened.
Speaker 1: We can't just make up a wallaby story.
Speaker 2: Christopher.
Speaker 1: We want to thank you so much for coming back
Speaker 1: on the show. It's always a blast to have you
Speaker 1: over Hey.
Speaker 4: Thanks for having me here, guys, and thank you everyone
Speaker 4: for listening. I really love digging into these weird, ridiculous
Speaker 4: facts and sharing them with everyone.
Speaker 1: And we have not seen the last of you. Spoiler alert.
Speaker 1: If Casey Nolan and I have our way, you will
Speaker 1: be returning to the show. It's sometime sooner rather than later.
Speaker 2: This could be like a recurring episode. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I like this.
Speaker 2: There were so many more that we got to or
Speaker 2: maybe we could just do other list episodes like this
Speaker 2: in the future.
Speaker 1: I would like to get an animal and see if
Speaker 1: we can get it in office or least in the
Speaker 1: running for a position in Atlanta.
Speaker 2: Or maybe we could that the very least have one
Speaker 2: as a guest on the podcast.
Speaker 4: I yes, see, I thought you just said I would
Speaker 4: like to get an animal in the office, and I
Speaker 4: thought you were going to bring a rhinoceros here into
Speaker 4: the studio. I'm also open to that, at least an
Speaker 4: inflatable whale. Yeah, at least see see this is cut
Speaker 4: from the same cloth.
Speaker 1: Yeah, cut from the save inflatable cloth. We hope that
Speaker 1: you enjoyed checking out this episode. Write to us and
Speaker 1: let us know if there are any notorious animal or
Speaker 1: at least non human politicians in your neck of the
Speaker 1: global woods. Thanks of course to our super producer Casey Pegram.
Speaker 2: Thanks to Alex Williams, who composed our theme, and Eve's
Speaker 2: Jeff Coode, who is not here but is also an
Speaker 2: incredible research associate for this show, along with our illustrious
Speaker 2: guest Christopher Hasiotis, who I can thank for the first time.
Speaker 2: On the first time, I thank you for stuff, but
Speaker 2: in person, it's nice.
Speaker 4: Here I am a human touch Yeah, Thanks Nol, Thanks Ben,
Speaker 4: Thanks Casey of.
Speaker 1: Course, of course, so find us on Instagram, find us
Speaker 1: on Facebook, find us on Twitter. Post your favorite pictures
Speaker 1: of non human politicians. These questions are becoming increasingly specific
Speaker 1: as we continue with the show. I love it, love it, Yeah,
Speaker 1: post some. We'll see if we can get someone to
Speaker 1: start filming in the studio as we record, and stay
Speaker 1: tuned for our next.
Speaker 2: Episode, which is about a Napoleon thing.
Speaker 1: It is. It's don't want you.
Speaker 4: He really is.
Speaker 1: He's done a lot for this show, you guys. I
Speaker 1: know he's not perfect, but he has done a heck
Speaker 1: of a lot for our show.
Speaker 2: Agreed for more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 2: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.