WEBVTT - The Killing Joke 0:00:00.520 --> 0:00:03.120 Brought to you by the two thousand twelve Toyota Camera. 0:00:03.440 --> 0:00:11.000 It's ready. Are you welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind? 0:00:11.160 --> 0:00:18.079 From how Stuff Works dot Com? Hey, you welcome to 0:00:18.160 --> 0:00:20.200 Stuff to Blow your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb 0:00:20.200 --> 0:00:22.720 and I'm Julie Douglas. Julie, did you ever watch Monty 0:00:22.720 --> 0:00:26.600 Python Growing Up? Money Python's Flying Surfaced? Yes? How much? 0:00:26.640 --> 0:00:29.760 How much? Like in what quantities? Um? Well, you know, 0:00:29.800 --> 0:00:31.840 I would say here and there. It probably wasn't until 0:00:31.840 --> 0:00:34.840 I was more of a teenager that I really sort 0:00:34.880 --> 0:00:39.800 of dabbled in it yourself strict diet I'm imagining for 0:00:40.440 --> 0:00:42.400 a short period of time, definitely like junior High. There 0:00:42.440 --> 0:00:43.839 was a period in there where they were showing it 0:00:43.880 --> 0:00:47.440 regularly on on the Comedy Network whatever it was called 0:00:47.479 --> 0:00:50.639 at the time, and and I was this totally new 0:00:50.640 --> 0:00:52.000 thing to me, so I just ate it up. And 0:00:52.040 --> 0:00:54.400 then then of course me and my friends got into 0:00:55.000 --> 0:00:58.000 Money Python, the Holy Grail, Life of Brian, all that, 0:00:58.200 --> 0:01:01.000 and just it consumed us for a while and and 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:04.360 definitely had a big impact on my sense of human 0:01:04.400 --> 0:01:06.800 I think most people of my age and the earlier 0:01:06.840 --> 0:01:09.320 generation as well. But but there's something about being it 0:01:09.480 --> 0:01:12.120 just the right age, just at the right time when 0:01:12.120 --> 0:01:14.200 all of it was on TV, and you just you 0:01:14.200 --> 0:01:16.160 couldn't help it absorb it. Now, did you ever go 0:01:16.280 --> 0:01:19.160 lowbrow and put a little Benny Hill in there? Um, 0:01:19.400 --> 0:01:22.200 you know, if Benny Hill was on and you're at 0:01:22.240 --> 0:01:25.760 that age where aspects of Benny Hill's show definitely appeal 0:01:25.800 --> 0:01:29.880 to young male minds. But and it's ultimately I mean, 0:01:29.920 --> 0:01:31.520 it was a little body but it was so silly, 0:01:31.560 --> 0:01:33.640 like all those chase scenes they do kind of suck 0:01:33.680 --> 0:01:35.280 you in a bit. But I don't I don't even 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:38.039 I guess they were showing that on Comedy Central as well. 0:01:39.319 --> 0:01:44.399 But today we are talking particularly about one sketch, and 0:01:44.400 --> 0:01:46.840 we're gonna roll out the science from this one sketch 0:01:47.120 --> 0:01:49.280 and uh, you can probably guess what it's gonna be. 0:01:49.360 --> 0:01:52.360 We're gonna play a quick clip from it here, and 0:01:52.400 --> 0:01:55.400 then we'll talk about it. This man is Ernest Scribbler, 0:01:55.800 --> 0:01:58.800 writer of jokes. In a few moments he will have 0:01:58.840 --> 0:02:02.560 written the funniest joe in the world, and as a consequence, 0:02:02.920 --> 0:02:29.280 he will die laughing. Kay, all right, we're talking, of course, 0:02:29.320 --> 0:02:33.280 about the joke that kills people, the killer joke, the 0:02:33.400 --> 0:02:38.079 joke that in this sketch is ultimately weaponized. Um they 0:02:38.200 --> 0:02:41.600 end up having it. Anyone who hears it laughs himself 0:02:41.680 --> 0:02:44.960 to death, and so they have to get people to 0:02:45.000 --> 0:02:48.160 translate it into German. This is during World War two. 0:02:48.800 --> 0:02:51.480 Get separate people to translate segments of the joke because 0:02:51.480 --> 0:02:52.959 no one can read the whole thing at once or 0:02:53.000 --> 0:02:56.200 they'll die. But there too, there wasn't one instance in 0:02:56.200 --> 0:02:59.919 this story that they had two words that were translated. Yes, 0:03:00.040 --> 0:03:02.320 they were hospital as yes. So you have to be 0:03:02.360 --> 0:03:06.160 careful because because the joke and its entirety will kill you. 0:03:06.240 --> 0:03:08.560 It's so funny, and even just a little segment, like 0:03:08.560 --> 0:03:10.560 maybe just the punch line is enough to do unit. 0:03:10.680 --> 0:03:12.919 So they had to send in. They had to break 0:03:12.919 --> 0:03:15.959 it up into different words, have translators translate each word, 0:03:15.960 --> 0:03:18.560 and then reassemble it in German. And it was in 0:03:18.840 --> 0:03:22.200 utilized on the front lines in World War two. They 0:03:22.200 --> 0:03:24.880 would have somebody who did not understand German read the 0:03:24.960 --> 0:03:28.959 joke aloud, and then any German imagtryment that happened to 0:03:29.000 --> 0:03:31.320 hear it would just die laughing right there. So go 0:03:31.360 --> 0:03:32.720 ahead and go ahead and read it for us. And 0:03:32.800 --> 0:03:36.520 just a quick warning if you speak German watch out, 0:03:36.600 --> 0:03:39.440 this might have harmful effects. Yeah, just I mean, maybe 0:03:39.480 --> 0:03:42.440 even just turn it off for a moment. All right, 0:03:43.040 --> 0:03:50.480 that's a joke. Joke. Warfare, Vinish does, Nontrika Baron does, 0:03:50.640 --> 0:03:56.040 all the deflippers bolt. See. Now I couldn't understand it, 0:03:56.160 --> 0:03:58.720 or I would have I would have died. Now. I 0:03:58.840 --> 0:04:02.120 laughed at that just because I enjoyed the German nous 0:04:02.200 --> 0:04:06.280 of it, and your and your accent was was was excellent. Yeah, 0:04:07.000 --> 0:04:09.840 But of course anyone who actually speaks German they recognize 0:04:09.880 --> 0:04:12.120 that those are not all real German words. This is 0:04:12.200 --> 0:04:15.560 ultimately nonsense and gibberish. Because they couldn't. They didn't actually 0:04:15.640 --> 0:04:17.599 have a joke at the center of this. The content 0:04:17.680 --> 0:04:19.600 of the joke is a mcguffin. There's a lot of 0:04:19.640 --> 0:04:22.000 fiction that they create around it, just saying that if 0:04:22.040 --> 0:04:23.719 you hear this joke, if you understand it, it kills 0:04:23.760 --> 0:04:29.040 you dead. But one can't help. But wonder, is it 0:04:29.120 --> 0:04:31.000 possible to have a joke that's so funny that it 0:04:31.080 --> 0:04:35.440 kills people? Right, It's possible. It's possible. But of course 0:04:35.520 --> 0:04:38.839 that would be uh sort of sort of complicated underlying 0:04:38.920 --> 0:04:42.200 conditions here right now, First of all, you would have 0:04:42.320 --> 0:04:46.760 to have an exceedingly funny joke, like the funniest joke possible, 0:04:47.080 --> 0:04:50.440 and how would we possibly find that. Well, in two 0:04:50.480 --> 0:04:54.160 thousand two, some researchers actually looked into this and uh. 0:04:54.240 --> 0:04:57.640 It took place at the University of Herefordshire, psychology professor 0:04:57.760 --> 0:05:01.479 Richard Wiseman started a program called laugh app. The objective 0:05:01.560 --> 0:05:05.880 find the funniest joke across all cultures, regions, demographics, countries, 0:05:05.960 --> 0:05:09.280 the funniest joke that then can be unleashed, I guess 0:05:09.360 --> 0:05:11.800 on on the world for global domination. Well maybe not 0:05:11.839 --> 0:05:14.160 the global domination part, but he was interested in what 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:17.680 makes people tick and certainly what how senses of humor 0:05:17.880 --> 0:05:20.760 vary among different groups as well. So they set up 0:05:20.760 --> 0:05:23.320 a website and they spent a year collecting jokes. People 0:05:23.360 --> 0:05:26.440 would share their favorite jokes, they're the funniest joke they 0:05:26.520 --> 0:05:28.560 knew on this website. Other people would come in and 0:05:28.720 --> 0:05:31.640 rate the jokes and uh and so over time the 0:05:31.720 --> 0:05:35.240 website received forty thousand jokes and one point five million 0:05:35.400 --> 0:05:38.359 ratings from all over. They got some international press exposures, 0:05:38.440 --> 0:05:41.880 so lots of people were chiming in. So of the 0:05:41.920 --> 0:05:45.880 forty thousand jokes submitted. The winner was won by a 0:05:45.920 --> 0:05:49.400 guy mean the name of Girpele Gosseil, which which right there, 0:05:51.400 --> 0:05:55.000 a thirty one year old psychiatrist from Manchester, England, and 0:05:55.080 --> 0:05:58.040 the joke went something like this. Two hunters are out 0:05:58.080 --> 0:06:00.640 in the woods when one of them collapses. He doesn't 0:06:00.640 --> 0:06:02.560 seem to be breathing and his eyes are glazed. The 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:05.120 other guy whip side his phone and calls the emergency services. 0:06:05.200 --> 0:06:07.200 He guess, my friend is dead. What can I do? 0:06:07.360 --> 0:06:10.680 The operator says, calm down, I can help. First, let's 0:06:10.720 --> 0:06:14.400 make sure he's dead. There's a silence, then a gunshot 0:06:14.520 --> 0:06:16.600 is heard back on the phone. The guy says, okay, 0:06:16.640 --> 0:06:20.680 now what now you see I don't know. That wasn't 0:06:20.839 --> 0:06:23.479 I That wasn't my favorite. I have to say, yeah, 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:26.280 he doesn't. And I think that's maybe something worth noting 0:06:26.360 --> 0:06:29.520 here is that you have such varied senses of humor 0:06:30.080 --> 0:06:32.240 that if you find something that everyone agrees on, or 0:06:32.279 --> 0:06:34.320 the vast majority of people agree on, it's not gonna 0:06:34.320 --> 0:06:37.479 be good. It's like it's like hotel food. The hotel 0:06:37.520 --> 0:06:39.880 food or food that's catered at a hotel event, it 0:06:39.960 --> 0:06:44.160 has to be palpable by various um senses of taste, 0:06:44.560 --> 0:06:48.080 various aversions to spices. It has to meet all these 0:06:48.080 --> 0:06:51.200 different dietary requirements. So when you check everything off the list, 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:54.520 you can end up with some pretty bland fair right. Yeah, 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:56.880 and you're right, this is across all cultures. This was 0:06:56.960 --> 0:06:59.200 the winning choke. But I did think it was interesting 0:06:59.320 --> 0:07:02.560 that there are a different cultural tasting in humor. And 0:07:02.800 --> 0:07:05.640 according to the study, people from the Republic of Ireland, 0:07:06.080 --> 0:07:09.440 the UK, Australia and New Zealand I'll express a strong 0:07:09.560 --> 0:07:13.560 preference for jokes involving word play, which sort of makes sense. 0:07:13.600 --> 0:07:15.360 I mean, if you if you think, especially when I 0:07:15.400 --> 0:07:18.120 think about Irish humor. Um, so here you want to 0:07:18.120 --> 0:07:20.520 read that one, I'm gonna say, here's an example from 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:24.120 that study. Uh that that placed this doctor. I've got 0:07:24.200 --> 0:07:28.400 a strawberry stuck up my bum. Doctor says I've got 0:07:28.480 --> 0:07:32.320 some cream for that. Now, that one when I when 0:07:32.360 --> 0:07:34.280 I read it and heard it again, that one made 0:07:34.280 --> 0:07:37.960 me laugh a little more. I have to say, well 0:07:38.040 --> 0:07:41.080 and stuck up my bomb. Right, There's just it's funny stuff. 0:07:41.600 --> 0:07:45.440 It's a good material. Yeah. So the study figuring out 0:07:45.480 --> 0:07:48.160 some interesting things about jokes in general, Like they found 0:07:48.200 --> 0:07:49.760 that the perfect length of the joke is around a 0:07:49.840 --> 0:07:53.440 hundred words. That the best animal to place uh in 0:07:53.560 --> 0:07:57.240 a in a person's role, The best anthroomorphized animal to 0:07:57.280 --> 0:08:00.280 feature in a joke is the duck, which which I 0:08:00.360 --> 0:08:02.520 think is perfect. There's always the joke you can make 0:08:02.720 --> 0:08:04.480 lots of There's lots of word play to be made 0:08:04.560 --> 0:08:06.240 with the ducks bill, you know, putting it on the 0:08:06.320 --> 0:08:09.360 ducks bill, and and ducks are always walking into bars, 0:08:09.440 --> 0:08:14.800 you know how. Um, And they found that this was 0:08:14.840 --> 0:08:18.720 interesting to that Germans appreciate a wide variety of humor. Yes, 0:08:18.960 --> 0:08:22.960 and immediately thought, oh, well, I remember when Seinfeld played 0:08:23.000 --> 0:08:25.800 in Germany and there was all of this kerfuffle because um, 0:08:26.000 --> 0:08:28.400 it was poled. It just didn't do that well that 0:08:28.720 --> 0:08:32.959 the TV series Seinfeld in Germany. But so I immediately thought, oh, well, 0:08:33.200 --> 0:08:36.240 you know, you know, let me do just a sweeping generalization. 0:08:36.440 --> 0:08:39.160 Perhaps they don't have the sense of humor that other 0:08:39.240 --> 0:08:41.520 people do. But it turns out that they actually have 0:08:41.600 --> 0:08:45.640 a more nuanced and complex sense of humor. Well that's 0:08:45.640 --> 0:08:48.520 what they say. And Okay. On one hand, there's like 0:08:48.600 --> 0:08:51.240 the stereotypical German that we all sort of get decided 0:08:51.360 --> 0:08:55.240 a German is a very serious, regimented person, and maybe 0:08:55.480 --> 0:08:58.920 they're not that inclined to humor, despite the fact that 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:02.840 they do have all puppet hip hop acts in Berlin. 0:09:03.240 --> 0:09:05.360 But when I was there briefly on like a school 0:09:05.400 --> 0:09:08.120 trip back in high school, I I distinctly remember turning 0:09:08.120 --> 0:09:10.559 on the German TV and even then I was I 0:09:10.679 --> 0:09:14.959 was expecting some you know, sort of Sprockets esque kraft Work, 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:18.280 e German nous, And there was a comedy on, for sure. 0:09:18.320 --> 0:09:20.080 It was on in the lobby of this this hotel, 0:09:20.480 --> 0:09:22.720 and it was some. It was really Binny Hill esque 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:27.640 and reminiscent of the the really outlandish humor that you'll 0:09:27.679 --> 0:09:31.559 see on various Spanish television um sides. So so that 0:09:32.240 --> 0:09:36.040 alone let me know that, yes there's some they're not 0:09:36.200 --> 0:09:38.800 all German humors necessarily going to be that complex, uh, 0:09:38.920 --> 0:09:40.360 And I would like to study that out. They like 0:09:40.400 --> 0:09:44.360 a wide variety of things, so stereotypes are a little elusive, 0:09:44.400 --> 0:09:47.120 I guess in figuring all of that out. Although to 0:09:47.480 --> 0:09:50.880 continue to talk about stereotypes, I should mention that in 0:09:51.040 --> 0:09:54.400 terms of cultural taste, Americans and Canadians tend to prefer 0:09:54.600 --> 0:09:58.160 jokes that are trade on the theme of superiority, either 0:09:58.440 --> 0:10:01.839 you know, sort of making fun of it or elevating it. Um. 0:10:02.000 --> 0:10:04.920 Here's an example. A Texans says where are you from? 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:08.240 And Harvard grad says, I come from a place where 0:10:08.280 --> 0:10:11.720 we do not end our sentences with prepositions. And then 0:10:11.760 --> 0:10:17.040 the Texans says, okay, where are you from? Jackass? And actually, 0:10:17.120 --> 0:10:20.160 my I've heard my father in law tell this before 0:10:20.280 --> 0:10:22.400 some sort of version of it, so I thought that 0:10:22.480 --> 0:10:26.839 was interesting. And then there's a computer generated joke that 0:10:26.960 --> 0:10:30.559 actually made the cut here because the researchers wanted to 0:10:30.679 --> 0:10:33.280 insert some computer generated jokes to see how they would do, 0:10:34.040 --> 0:10:36.199 and they put five of the jokes in there. Four 0:10:36.240 --> 0:10:39.319 of them fell flat, but one of them was successful. 0:10:39.760 --> 0:10:41.800 Do you know that one? Oh? Yes, yes, we have 0:10:41.880 --> 0:10:45.680 it right here. What kind of murderer has moral fiber? 0:10:46.640 --> 0:10:50.760 A serial killer? I love it. I gotta tell you, 0:10:50.800 --> 0:10:52.400 I don't know what that says about my sense of humor, 0:10:52.520 --> 0:10:55.600 but that's funny. Well, that gag scored higher than one 0:10:55.679 --> 0:10:59.400 third of all human jokes, so I guess it's you know, 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:02.840 the Peter world that robots are the kind of stand 0:11:02.920 --> 0:11:04.960 up comedians. They get up there, they're gonna they're gonna 0:11:04.960 --> 0:11:06.600 throw stuff out there. There's just gonna fail, but when 0:11:06.640 --> 0:11:10.559 they hit it, you know it's going to be well. 0:11:10.640 --> 0:11:12.719 That kind of also harkens back to our episode on 0:11:13.360 --> 0:11:16.480 computers and creativity and their ability to actually make something 0:11:16.559 --> 0:11:20.439 that is novel. But anyway, there you go, here's the 0:11:20.520 --> 0:11:23.559 research about the funniest joke in the world. You know, 0:11:23.600 --> 0:11:27.040 obviously no one was going to die from laughing, but this, 0:11:27.360 --> 0:11:30.440 this term we even have dying of laughter is something 0:11:30.520 --> 0:11:32.960 that has been with us for centuries, and you can 0:11:33.000 --> 0:11:36.240 actually place it back in um in Taming of the 0:11:36.320 --> 0:11:41.840 Shrew around six when Shakespeare wrote went they not quickly, 0:11:42.120 --> 0:11:45.680 I should die with laughing, which really sort of means 0:11:45.679 --> 0:11:47.880 if they hadn't left soon, I would have died laughing. 0:11:49.080 --> 0:11:51.040 So it's been around for a while, this idea that 0:11:51.120 --> 0:11:53.959 we could laugh so hard that we could expire from it. 0:11:54.840 --> 0:11:57.199 And I'm going to run through a few more examples 0:11:57.280 --> 0:12:01.120 of of supposed in some cases, in some more verified 0:12:01.240 --> 0:12:04.559 cases of people who've actually died quote unquote of laughter. 0:12:04.920 --> 0:12:07.040 But real quick, we should we should touch base on 0:12:07.240 --> 0:12:11.040 just just a reminder about laughter and physiology. We recently 0:12:11.080 --> 0:12:14.080 did an episode titled what did we call? That episode? 0:12:14.960 --> 0:12:18.679 The healing power of laughter. That's what it was. Yes, 0:12:19.000 --> 0:12:21.200 So we we talked about how a good hearty laugh 0:12:22.080 --> 0:12:23.920 can help you out. It can heal you, it can 0:12:24.040 --> 0:12:26.880 it gets your your heart beating. It's a full body experience. 0:12:27.559 --> 0:12:30.120 I mean basically when we laugh, we have changes occurring 0:12:30.160 --> 0:12:33.000 and all different parts of the body, even the arms, 0:12:33.040 --> 0:12:35.280 the legs, obviously, the trunk, muscles. I mean we have 0:12:35.360 --> 0:12:37.600 to term bell you laugh for a reason because you're 0:12:37.679 --> 0:12:40.640 laughing so hard. You're just you're shaking like a bowl 0:12:40.720 --> 0:12:44.600 full of jelly. Right. Respiratory system is up is upset um. 0:12:44.760 --> 0:12:48.440 In some cases you're actually crying um. You're you may 0:12:48.480 --> 0:12:51.760 be struggling for breath. Your face becomes moist and red. 0:12:51.880 --> 0:12:54.280 I mean you you you're having a full body episode. 0:12:54.520 --> 0:12:56.400 And if you did not know what laughter is, if 0:12:56.400 --> 0:12:58.800 you've grown up in a mystical land where there was 0:12:58.920 --> 0:13:01.720 no humor and you saw all somebody laughing, you might 0:13:01.800 --> 0:13:04.200 think it was some sort of a seizure. It's true. 0:13:04.240 --> 0:13:06.920 And actually the speaking of seizure, I mean just kind 0:13:06.920 --> 0:13:10.240 of go over how it's working in your brain. Your 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:13.040 brain's pre mort or cortical region is activated. And this 0:13:13.160 --> 0:13:14.760 is important because this is the part of the brain 0:13:14.880 --> 0:13:17.800 that stands up ready to react to sound. Then the 0:13:17.960 --> 0:13:21.160 left side of your cerebral cortex interprets the content and 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:23.800 the structure of the piece of humor, and then the 0:13:23.960 --> 0:13:27.000 right side of the cortex performs the analysis, enabling you 0:13:27.120 --> 0:13:30.240 to get the joke. And then an electrical wave pulses 0:13:30.280 --> 0:13:33.520 through your cerebral cortex about four tenths of a second later, 0:13:33.640 --> 0:13:36.240 and you laugh if the wave takes a negative charge. 0:13:37.040 --> 0:13:39.599 So already right there, you can see that there's a 0:13:39.679 --> 0:13:42.880 very complex set of motions going on in your brain 0:13:43.080 --> 0:13:45.280 and your body. And if you were to tell me, hey, 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:47.439 the government's working on a weapon that does just this 0:13:47.600 --> 0:13:50.040 list of things to the human body, I'd be like, WHOA, 0:13:50.120 --> 0:13:52.480 I'm not even sure if that's a non lethal weapon 0:13:52.559 --> 0:13:55.240 that sounds potentially dangerous and a little that might be 0:13:55.559 --> 0:13:58.520 outlawed by some sort of international convention, but it can 0:13:58.559 --> 0:14:01.959 conceivably just be a real well told joke. And it's 0:14:02.000 --> 0:14:05.760 true because we know that laughing sometimes will lead to 0:14:05.880 --> 0:14:10.120 blacking out, and this is usually related to overbreathing, and 0:14:10.200 --> 0:14:13.439 it's usually not too dangerous, but there are times when 0:14:13.440 --> 0:14:17.040 you've got underlying conditions where it could actually become quite dangerous. Yes, 0:14:17.240 --> 0:14:20.080 and we'll we'll get into that in a minute. But first, 0:14:20.800 --> 0:14:22.880 people who have died or are said to have died 0:14:22.880 --> 0:14:24.640 by laughter. I'm not going to run through all of them. 0:14:25.040 --> 0:14:27.640 You can easily find a list of these accounts online, 0:14:27.680 --> 0:14:29.200 but I'm gonna touch on a few of them here. 0:14:29.760 --> 0:14:32.880 One important one, at least in the lore of dying 0:14:33.200 --> 0:14:37.360 by laughter is Chrysippus. Chrystippus was amongst the most influential 0:14:37.400 --> 0:14:40.160 philosophers of the Hellenistic period, and it had a huge 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:43.760 role on the development of stoicism, which is excellent because 0:14:43.800 --> 0:14:46.400 you used tend to think of a stoic individual is 0:14:46.440 --> 0:14:48.320 not necessarily being a person who's gonna engage in a 0:14:48.360 --> 0:14:51.240 lot of laughter, much less a lethal dosage of laughter, 0:14:51.600 --> 0:14:54.200 right is. It turns out there are two different stories 0:14:54.240 --> 0:14:57.240 about it. How he died, and he died at the 0:14:57.280 --> 0:14:59.760 age of seventy three, and and that was in two 0:15:00.000 --> 0:15:03.320 two and six BC. Okay, that's a pretty advanced age 0:15:03.400 --> 0:15:05.400 at that time. Yeah, of course, you know he's living. 0:15:05.440 --> 0:15:09.040 He's like a philosopher. To be a specialized philosopher in 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:11.760 any age, it kind of implies that maybe you have 0:15:12.160 --> 0:15:14.560 you know, not not to not philosophers, but you're not 0:15:14.600 --> 0:15:17.600 gonna get crushed by a falling rock. Generally, you're not 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:19.760 gonna be doing a lot of hard labors where you're Yeah. 0:15:20.400 --> 0:15:23.160 So anyway, one story is that Christmas just drank a 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.280 lot of wine at a feast, grew dizzy and died. Okay, 0:15:26.920 --> 0:15:31.160 that's possible. But then there's another story that after an ass, 0:15:31.360 --> 0:15:33.960 you know, a donkey, had eaten up his figs, he 0:15:34.120 --> 0:15:36.600 cried out to an old woman, Now give the ass 0:15:36.640 --> 0:15:38.880 a drink of pure wine to wash down the figs, 0:15:39.320 --> 0:15:44.720 and then he laughed so heartily that he died. So um, 0:15:45.880 --> 0:15:49.360 I just love that. From this period, it seems like 0:15:49.720 --> 0:15:52.960 people are getting their pets in the farm animals drunk 0:15:52.960 --> 0:15:56.440 a lot. Yes, you're thinking, of course of our friend, 0:15:56.600 --> 0:16:00.160 uh Tico, Yeah, well actually who was later on? It's 0:16:00.160 --> 0:16:02.560 still I kind of think that this is an absence 0:16:02.640 --> 0:16:05.440 of any parlor games. You go ahead and get the 0:16:05.680 --> 0:16:08.560 animal off the farm and start having it chugged something. Well, 0:16:08.600 --> 0:16:10.920 it comes back to the duck, right. The whole reason 0:16:11.000 --> 0:16:13.280 they asked the question, what's the most hilarious animal to 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:16.080 have doing human things and engaging in a human joke. 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:18.680 The duck is certainly the funniest, but there are other 0:16:18.800 --> 0:16:21.520 funny creatures to how to do human things, and one 0:16:21.560 --> 0:16:23.760 of them is the donkey. A donkey doing anything non 0:16:23.920 --> 0:16:28.600 donkey is pretty hilarious. Likewise, the monkey, uh Like, it's 0:16:28.600 --> 0:16:30.440 interesting if you look, go to a museum. Go to 0:16:30.480 --> 0:16:33.000 a big museum next time, be on the lookout for 0:16:33.680 --> 0:16:37.240 this particular motif, a monkey riding a horse. It's it's 0:16:37.280 --> 0:16:40.600 generated laughter since time out of mind, since we've actually 0:16:40.720 --> 0:16:43.120 ridden horses. Like, the idea that a monkey could do 0:16:43.200 --> 0:16:46.480 it is just somehow instantly hilarious. You can read into 0:16:46.480 --> 0:16:48.640 that way you will. Perhaps it's the the idea that 0:16:49.080 --> 0:16:51.840 a monkey riding a horses is threatening. What if they 0:16:51.920 --> 0:16:53.880 ride they'll be like Planet of the Apes, right, Or 0:16:54.040 --> 0:16:55.840 maybe it's just the fact that we look down on 0:16:55.920 --> 0:16:58.320 the monkey as something less than us, and the idea 0:16:58.360 --> 0:17:00.120 that the monkey could do what we do is that 0:17:00.280 --> 0:17:02.560 laughter zone for us. Well, it's like whenever I want 0:17:02.600 --> 0:17:04.600 to make my daughter laugh, I'll just say like, hey, 0:17:04.720 --> 0:17:06.040 do you think that car ahead of us? Do you 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:09.120 think that a cat's driving it? And then she'll start 0:17:09.200 --> 0:17:11.400 laughing outside But it's wearing a bow tie, and it's 0:17:11.440 --> 0:17:13.720 just because of up to Annie even more. Yeah, yeah, 0:17:13.840 --> 0:17:18.320 the layers of ridiculousness, goats, cats, poppy, I mean, all 0:17:18.400 --> 0:17:22.119 fair game for for laughter by by far anyway. So Chrysippus, 0:17:22.359 --> 0:17:24.800 who knows there are two stories there. Certainly if he 0:17:24.880 --> 0:17:28.159 was seventy three, I could imagine it's possible that he 0:17:28.240 --> 0:17:31.240 died by laughter. It's you might have had, you know, again, 0:17:31.320 --> 0:17:34.400 an underlying heart condition. There another guy of note from 0:17:34.400 --> 0:17:36.879 the old world, well not as old world. We have 0:17:37.040 --> 0:17:39.560 a man by the name of Martin of Aragon. Martin 0:17:40.320 --> 0:17:44.760 was the King of Aragon, Valencia, Sardinia, Corsica and Count 0:17:44.840 --> 0:17:49.160 of Barcelona from and king of Sicily from fourteen o nine, 0:17:49.240 --> 0:17:54.280 and he died in fourteen ten. Okay, so what happened here? 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:57.000 The accounts say that he died due to a kind 0:17:57.000 --> 0:18:00.760 of a mixture of serious indigestion and laughter. Now he 0:18:00.880 --> 0:18:04.520 was only fifty six. And I think one possibility here 0:18:05.040 --> 0:18:07.760 is that I was reading a little bit about heart attacks. 0:18:08.400 --> 0:18:13.000 And you do have this situation where someone someone has only, say, 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:15.320 seen a heart attack on television. What do they think 0:18:15.400 --> 0:18:17.680 of They think of Fred Sandford having the big one, 0:18:18.000 --> 0:18:20.920 these Hollywood heart attacks. But in reality you can sometimes 0:18:21.000 --> 0:18:24.119 have a heart attack, experience a heart attack, and you 0:18:24.240 --> 0:18:26.960 might conceivably pass it off as innigestion because it's not 0:18:27.119 --> 0:18:30.480 this Hollywood Fred Sanford stumbling around the room kind of situation. 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:33.960 So it seems to me, and I'm no, you know, 0:18:34.119 --> 0:18:35.800 I'm not weighing in as an expert here, but it 0:18:35.800 --> 0:18:38.359 seems to me it's it's likely that he may have 0:18:38.400 --> 0:18:41.520 had a heart attack while laughing, and that's what killed. 0:18:42.320 --> 0:18:44.119 Are you wearing that lab coat and saying that at 0:18:44.119 --> 0:18:46.680 the same time, I totally believe you. That's why you 0:18:46.720 --> 0:18:50.639 need to look expert. Yeah, um, yeah, it's very very possible. 0:18:50.680 --> 0:18:52.960 And again this this is a sort of theme we 0:18:53.080 --> 0:18:56.440 see when we look at more modern cases of and 0:18:56.560 --> 0:18:59.360 who know. Again, anytime you're looking at a two possible 0:18:59.359 --> 0:19:02.680 ways of person died, like ultimately, like, no one wants 0:19:02.720 --> 0:19:06.080 to die laughing, but you gotta admit it sounds like 0:19:06.160 --> 0:19:07.560 a good way to go. Like, if you got to 0:19:07.600 --> 0:19:09.280 go out some way in it's little stressful, it might 0:19:09.320 --> 0:19:12.000 as well be dying laughing. Yeah, there are many many 0:19:12.080 --> 0:19:13.840 other ways that I wouldn't want to go out. So 0:19:14.000 --> 0:19:17.560 you could see that where certainly centuries or millennia after 0:19:17.640 --> 0:19:20.639 someone has died, the story might get shifted into a 0:19:20.720 --> 0:19:22.800 happy year. Oh he was a stoic, but he died laughing. 0:19:22.880 --> 0:19:25.000 It's just a great story, you know, which brings us 0:19:25.040 --> 0:19:27.919 to more modern times. There have been a few instances, 0:19:28.560 --> 0:19:30.439 but the most interesting one, the one that has been 0:19:30.760 --> 0:19:33.880 more closely studied certainly has become part of comedy lore, 0:19:34.560 --> 0:19:36.280 has to do with the older show called The Goodies, 0:19:37.359 --> 0:19:39.760 which I was not familiar with this. Were you familiar 0:19:39.760 --> 0:19:42.800 with the Goodies? No? But just the entire situation and 0:19:42.920 --> 0:19:45.960 what this person was laughing at I couldn't help yeah, 0:19:47.119 --> 0:19:49.600 but be tickled by. I mean, it's unfortunate for the 0:19:49.640 --> 0:19:52.000 person who passed away from laughter at this. But we're 0:19:52.040 --> 0:19:54.640 talking about this good the Goodies, which is a TV show, 0:19:55.480 --> 0:19:59.680 and uh, we're talking about nineteen right, fifty year old 0:19:59.720 --> 0:20:04.040 brick player Alex Mitchell in England. He actually kicked the 0:20:04.080 --> 0:20:09.160 bucket while roaring with laughter at one of these shows Goodies. 0:20:09.400 --> 0:20:11.800 And do you want to describe this? Oh the sketches, 0:20:12.160 --> 0:20:15.800 because okay, so The Goodies is basically three dudes, um 0:20:16.600 --> 0:20:18.879 one or more of them went to college with the 0:20:18.920 --> 0:20:20.960 guys in Monty Python, so they kind of shared a 0:20:21.040 --> 0:20:25.680 similar love of the absurd, and it's certainly absurd to watch. Again. 0:20:25.680 --> 0:20:27.480 I've never seen any of this and I don't have 0:20:27.520 --> 0:20:29.919 any nostalgia for it. So if you're a big fan 0:20:29.960 --> 0:20:31.440 of the goodies out there right in, I'd love to 0:20:31.520 --> 0:20:33.920 hear your take on it. But this particular sketch that 0:20:34.160 --> 0:20:38.800 arguably killed Alex Mitchell was a kung Fu caper sketch. Uh. 0:20:38.880 --> 0:20:41.359 And this is a nineteen seventy five kung fu is 0:20:41.400 --> 0:20:44.280 big and everyone's excited about it and doing songs and whatnot. 0:20:44.680 --> 0:20:49.080 In this surreal sketch, you have a man from Lancashire 0:20:50.400 --> 0:20:54.760 battling via kung fu Scottish bagpipers. There's a man in 0:20:54.880 --> 0:20:57.800 black face as an American boxer. There's a mime like 0:20:57.880 --> 0:21:00.359 a French mine. There's an Australian with a boomerang. So 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:03.159 it's like a battle like a kung Fu battle of 0:21:03.840 --> 0:21:08.919 weird kind of distasteful stereotypes. I mean, well, isn't there 0:21:09.000 --> 0:21:11.560 there's putting involved? Right? This is I think the pudding 0:21:11.680 --> 0:21:13.639 is what I was like, what what is going on? 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:18.280 The Lancashire mode of martial arts and this is called 0:21:18.720 --> 0:21:23.440 ikey thump and it involves palting opponents with black pudding. Okay, 0:21:23.560 --> 0:21:30.040 so the white stripes, which I can only assume there's 0:21:30.080 --> 0:21:32.920