WEBVTT - Short Stuff: Plastic Pink Flamingos 0:00:04.120 --> 0:00:06.320 Hey, and welcome to the Short Stuff. I'm Josh, and 0:00:06.360 --> 0:00:09.600 there's chalk, and this is short stuff, and we're talking 0:00:09.600 --> 0:00:13.200 at long last about a topic that has been on 0:00:13.240 --> 0:00:15.840 my list for short Stuffs since basically the first time 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:19.400 we came up with short Stuffs, which is pink plastic 0:00:19.760 --> 0:00:23.840 lawn flamingos, one of the all time great pieces of 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:28.200 yard art anyone's ever come up with. Do you own them? No, 0:00:28.640 --> 0:00:32.920 I'm not mean. Okay, you're not mean. Oh you'll you'll see. 0:00:33.159 --> 0:00:36.080 I'll describe why I think owning a pink flamingo is 0:00:36.159 --> 0:00:41.040 kind of mean. Interesting, all right, Okay, you're gonna do 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:42.479 that after the break. Is it going to be a 0:00:42.479 --> 0:00:44.199 setup for a teaser? Yeah, maybe that will be a 0:00:44.240 --> 0:00:46.199 set up. Let's tell them first about the origin of 0:00:46.240 --> 0:00:48.199 these things. Everybody knows what we're talking about, right, Like 0:00:48.240 --> 0:00:51.280 the plastic pink flamingos that people had on their lawns, 0:00:51.400 --> 0:00:55.320 especially in the fifties and maybe the sixties. Um. Nowadays 0:00:55.320 --> 0:01:00.360 they're super kitchy and campy. Um, but plastic lawn flamingos, 0:01:00.800 --> 0:01:03.600 that's right. They were created by a man named Don Featherstone, 0:01:04.240 --> 0:01:07.680 who was a sculptor who was hired by Union Products 0:01:08.319 --> 0:01:12.160 from uh Leo, Minster Mass or however they pronounced it. 0:01:12.200 --> 0:01:17.000 They're sure there's some strange pronunciation for that. And they 0:01:17.000 --> 0:01:19.640 are the cap plastics capital of the world. And he 0:01:19.680 --> 0:01:23.039 created the very first one as his second work assignment 0:01:23.080 --> 0:01:26.560 in ninety seven. Yeah, Union Union Products had two d 0:01:27.280 --> 0:01:30.440 um flamingos and they also had ducks, and his first 0:01:30.440 --> 0:01:33.280 assignment was to turn the ducks from two D into 0:01:33.319 --> 0:01:36.360 three D. And the ducks were the long, long time 0:01:36.560 --> 0:01:40.600 biggest seller. It was called duck and ducklings, and people 0:01:40.600 --> 0:01:42.840 would put plastic ducks like on their yard as if 0:01:42.840 --> 0:01:45.800 they were just hanging out in their grass. Yeah, so 0:01:45.959 --> 0:01:50.760 Featherstone created the flamingos. They cost about two seventy six 0:01:51.240 --> 0:01:53.880 for two of them because you gotta Solomon pairs. I 0:01:53.920 --> 0:01:56.240 think they're still sold in pairs. Yeah, you gotta have 0:01:56.240 --> 0:01:58.000 a little buddy, you don't just have one. And that's 0:01:58.040 --> 0:02:01.480 by the way, that's about day. Yeah. So it's a 0:02:01.480 --> 0:02:03.520 pretty good deal today because they're what like fifteen or 0:02:03.560 --> 0:02:10.119 sixteen bucks now. So apparently they came about because this 0:02:10.200 --> 0:02:14.320 was the beginnings of sort of the cookie cutter subdivision revolution, 0:02:14.960 --> 0:02:17.799 and you know, if you wanted to put something in 0:02:17.880 --> 0:02:19.799 your yard and make yourself stand out from your neighbor. 0:02:19.880 --> 0:02:22.000 Pink flamingo was a fine way to do so. Yeah, 0:02:22.000 --> 0:02:25.400 and the pink flamingo was um was chosen to be 0:02:25.440 --> 0:02:29.400 like the second one because that pink and everything Caribbean 0:02:29.440 --> 0:02:32.160 was super in, like Tiki culture was kind of big 0:02:32.200 --> 0:02:34.680 around that time, and it was a smash hit, Like 0:02:34.760 --> 0:02:40.000 people started buying them by the boatloads. Um the moment 0:02:40.080 --> 0:02:42.600 they hit the market, it just was perfectly time. It 0:02:42.680 --> 0:02:45.040 was exactly what everybody was looking for. And they were 0:02:45.040 --> 0:02:48.359 still you know, twenty five bucks isn't you know, free, 0:02:48.400 --> 0:02:50.840 but they were. They were affordable but basically everybody who 0:02:50.840 --> 0:02:53.040 could afford them, and so they became this kind of 0:02:53.120 --> 0:02:58.520 emblem of suburban working class culture. Like that was a 0:02:58.600 --> 0:03:03.960 certain group of popowle prized pink flamingo lawn ornaments and 0:03:04.000 --> 0:03:08.119 put them on their yards. Non ironically, that's very important, right, 0:03:08.400 --> 0:03:11.320 which is a very big reason why in the nineteen 0:03:11.440 --> 0:03:15.200 sixties there was a backlash against them. Like so many 0:03:15.240 --> 0:03:18.400 things in the nineteen fifties that mom and Dad loved, 0:03:19.200 --> 0:03:22.239 the sixties came along and the hippie said, I'm done 0:03:22.320 --> 0:03:26.440 with that. Screw your conformity. I'm not gonna play your games. 0:03:26.440 --> 0:03:32.400 I'm counterculture baby, and those lawn gnomes and flamingos are terrible. 0:03:32.480 --> 0:03:34.760 Get them out of here. But then, of course the 0:03:34.800 --> 0:03:37.839 seventies roll back around and they're like, hey man, who 0:03:37.840 --> 0:03:40.160 cares those things are cool, Let's bring them back. But 0:03:40.280 --> 0:03:43.360 the reason that they were cool, and the whole reason 0:03:43.360 --> 0:03:45.560 they came back, you can make a really strong case 0:03:46.000 --> 0:03:51.040 is because of a single American director out of Baltimore, 0:03:51.120 --> 0:03:56.520 Maryland named John Waters that here is basically single handedly 0:03:56.560 --> 0:04:00.800 responsible for bringing back the pink Flamingo. But the key 0:04:00.880 --> 0:04:04.600 differences that when he brought the Pink Flamingo back, he 0:04:04.720 --> 0:04:07.880 brought it back and ran it through a completely different 0:04:08.680 --> 0:04:12.480 paradigm so that it came out the other end totally schlocky, 0:04:12.520 --> 0:04:16.200 totally campy, and lost every bit of earnestness and was 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.719 completely saddled with irony from that point on because he 0:04:19.839 --> 0:04:24.120 created a movie in nineteen seventy two known Round the 0:04:24.120 --> 0:04:26.599 World is one of the most offensive movies ever made 0:04:26.880 --> 0:04:32.080 that he called pink flamingos. That's right, And uh, I 0:04:32.080 --> 0:04:34.720 guess before we take that break to find out why 0:04:34.760 --> 0:04:37.920 they're mean, why you feel they're mean, we should mention 0:04:37.960 --> 0:04:41.640 that John Waters, who just called Roger Waters and did 0:04:41.640 --> 0:04:45.200 a retake, I feel like I should point out uh 0:04:45.440 --> 0:04:48.679 gay icon in the USA. And so as a result, 0:04:48.800 --> 0:04:53.240 gay bars started using pink flamingos mascots and you could 0:04:53.279 --> 0:04:56.400 find uh at drag shows. You could find them on 0:04:56.839 --> 0:05:00.839 earrings of performers and on their high heels. Uh. And 0:05:00.920 --> 0:05:03.520 then you know, it kind of became sort of this 0:05:03.839 --> 0:05:08.400 uh a symbol for for gay America. In the seventies 0:05:08.440 --> 0:05:12.799 in the United States, High High High Camp, High Camp. 0:05:13.560 --> 0:05:15.960 All right, let's take a break. We will take that break. Yeah, 0:05:15.960 --> 0:05:18.000 I think that's a good idea. All Right, We're gonna 0:05:18.040 --> 0:05:20.000 follow up with a little bit more right after this. 0:05:33.360 --> 0:05:36.640 If you want to know, then you're in luck. Just 0:05:37.000 --> 0:05:47.920 listen up to Chuck Shoon. Okay. So when when John 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:51.960 Waters like breathed a second life into pink flamingos, pink 0:05:52.040 --> 0:05:55.720 lawn flamingo ornaments, UM, when they came back, they were 0:05:55.760 --> 0:05:58.200 they were brought back, like you said, uh, in the 0:05:58.400 --> 0:06:00.839 gay community big time. But then they also kind of 0:06:00.880 --> 0:06:04.599 spread out further and further into um, the larger community 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:08.279 in America, UH and became kind of part and parcel 0:06:08.360 --> 0:06:12.560 with UM. Pranksterism like they were. They were frequently put 0:06:12.600 --> 0:06:15.920 on people's lawn as prank basically like what person could 0:06:15.920 --> 0:06:19.760 possibly want lawn pink lawn flamingos, Right, so if we 0:06:19.800 --> 0:06:22.080 put them on somebody's law, and it's a hysterical prank 0:06:22.560 --> 0:06:26.320 um but also in in some way, And I think 0:06:26.320 --> 0:06:28.640 a lot of people didn't realize that they were necessarily 0:06:28.640 --> 0:06:31.800 doing this, but it was part of the whole second 0:06:31.920 --> 0:06:37.720 life of it was mocking the people who originally enjoyed 0:06:37.960 --> 0:06:42.800 pink lawn flamingos earnestly and mocking their taste. And that 0:06:42.920 --> 0:06:45.320 is why I think pink flamingos are kind of mean 0:06:45.440 --> 0:06:49.039 these days. Oh so you think if you put a 0:06:49.080 --> 0:06:55.119 flamingo up it's uh, sort of a hipster ironic making 0:06:55.160 --> 0:06:57.320 fun of it kind of thing. Yeah, so do you remember, 0:06:57.360 --> 0:07:00.320 you know, how mom jeans are back? Sure, I could 0:07:00.320 --> 0:07:02.360 not find this article. I searched all over forth, but 0:07:02.400 --> 0:07:05.640 I read this article, which is basically account of somebody 0:07:05.640 --> 0:07:09.000 in the fashion industry who was there when mom jeans 0:07:09.080 --> 0:07:11.440 were brought back, and they were brought back in this 0:07:11.480 --> 0:07:16.200 really mean spirited way among like little twenty something wave 0:07:16.560 --> 0:07:19.480 models who basically wanted to rub it in the faces 0:07:19.520 --> 0:07:22.760 of moms, um how good they looked, even in their 0:07:22.880 --> 0:07:26.160 frumpy mom jeans, and that's how mom jeans came back. 0:07:26.440 --> 0:07:30.000 That to me is basically the same principle behind bringing 0:07:30.040 --> 0:07:33.280 back the pink flamingos. It's it's it's the way that 0:07:33.360 --> 0:07:36.600 John Waters put is that they become loaded objects, classics, 0:07:36.680 --> 0:07:39.040 tools of the well to do, mocking the taste of 0:07:39.040 --> 0:07:41.680 the less fortunate, and that he says that the real 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:45.120 plastic flamingo is in a sense extinct. You can't have 0:07:45.160 --> 0:07:48.760 anything that innocent anymore. So I realized I'm being a 0:07:48.800 --> 0:07:51.360 little high blown and high falutant about this whole thing, 0:07:51.400 --> 0:07:54.120 But I just found it really fascinating that the idea 0:07:54.200 --> 0:07:57.360 that it is has this certain level of mockery. That 0:07:57.400 --> 0:07:59.840 you're mocking the taste of people who ever thought they 0:08:00.000 --> 0:08:02.240 those things were neat and enjoyed them on there, you know, 0:08:02.280 --> 0:08:05.040 at face value. Sure, and I think both of us 0:08:05.040 --> 0:08:11.480 are kind of anti uh ironic, you know, flaunting ironically. Yeah, 0:08:11.600 --> 0:08:13.720 at the same time though, sometimes we've just just gotta 0:08:13.760 --> 0:08:16.480 mellow out. Well, that's true too. I mean we're not 0:08:16.560 --> 0:08:22.080 upset about this or anything, right, Uh, are you mad? No? Okay, 0:08:22.200 --> 0:08:24.800 I'm just kidding. It's all good. Uh So, a few 0:08:24.800 --> 0:08:27.320 more things about the flamingos, though, a couple of neat things. 0:08:28.000 --> 0:08:32.440 In nine, if you are familiar with Madison, Wisconsin and 0:08:32.440 --> 0:08:36.120 the university there, they planted over a thousand of these 0:08:36.600 --> 0:08:39.440 in the grass of in front of the dean's office. 0:08:40.160 --> 0:08:43.480 And then many years later, I think they paid homage 0:08:43.520 --> 0:08:47.040 to that. In two thousand nine, in honor of this 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:50.400 prank in the city town council named the pink Flamingo 0:08:50.440 --> 0:08:53.880 the official bird of Madison. That's right. So the seventies 0:08:53.920 --> 0:08:56.320 were huge for the pink Flamingo, but the eighties were 0:08:56.400 --> 0:08:59.360 even huger. For the first time ever in the history 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:02.520 of Union pro ducks, I think in five, six or seven, 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:07.240 the pink Flamingo out sold the duck with ducklings um 0:09:07.320 --> 0:09:10.320 lawn ornament. And some people say, well, it was just 0:09:10.400 --> 0:09:12.520 it was the thirtieth anniversary of the pink Flamingo, so 0:09:12.640 --> 0:09:14.600 it was getting more pressed and it had this revival. 0:09:14.840 --> 0:09:16.679 Other people say, no, no, no, it had nothing to 0:09:16.679 --> 0:09:20.240 do the thirtieth anniversary. It was the popularity of Miami 0:09:20.400 --> 0:09:23.959 vice that brought pink flamingos back. But again brought them 0:09:23.960 --> 0:09:27.040 back in this way that like people weren't really enjoying 0:09:27.120 --> 0:09:29.760 them at face value. There was something kind of campy 0:09:29.880 --> 0:09:32.480 or funny about having the pink flamingo in the front yard. 0:09:33.360 --> 0:09:35.600 Well here at our zoo in Atlanta, that one of 0:09:35.640 --> 0:09:37.560 the very first things that you see when you walk 0:09:37.640 --> 0:09:41.400 in are the flamingos standing there on one leg. And 0:09:41.440 --> 0:09:44.079 I think we should do a full episode on flamingos 0:09:44.080 --> 0:09:47.839 at some point, because a really neat and my daughter 0:09:47.880 --> 0:09:49.640 was so taken with them. We ended up getting her 0:09:50.280 --> 0:09:54.840 a large flamingo painting for her bedroom that was like 0:09:55.000 --> 0:09:59.040 twenty bucks at a flea market. And she's enjoying it earnestly, 0:09:59.160 --> 0:10:01.760 isn't she. Now she loves it. That's great. So then 0:10:01.760 --> 0:10:05.080 all of her who are mocking it, who are mocking 0:10:05.080 --> 0:10:11.240 pink flamingos, you're mocking Chuck's daughter directly think about that. Uh. 0:10:11.280 --> 0:10:15.200 And there's this other cool thing that I hadn't heard of. Um, 0:10:15.240 --> 0:10:19.120 it's sort of like a chain letter that gets passed around. 0:10:19.360 --> 0:10:21.920 So here's how it works. What you do is you're 0:10:21.920 --> 0:10:24.360 trying to raise money for a charity and have a 0:10:24.360 --> 0:10:27.320 little fun while you're doing it. So at night instead 0:10:27.360 --> 0:10:31.319 of like teeping somebody's yard. You will set up flamingos 0:10:31.360 --> 0:10:34.040 in the yard of a house or a business, and 0:10:34.080 --> 0:10:37.160 there's a sign that says, this flock has been placed 0:10:37.200 --> 0:10:42.000 here for this charity. Uh, and a dollar will come 0:10:42.040 --> 0:10:45.320 pick these things up for a dollar apiece that goes 0:10:45.360 --> 0:10:48.720 to this charity, and then that gets passed onto another 0:10:48.840 --> 0:10:52.800 yard like a chain letter, right, which is funny. Like 0:10:52.960 --> 0:10:56.120 I gotta shout out Smithsonian Mental Floss and thought co 0:10:56.320 --> 0:10:58.040 for helping us out with this. But I think in 0:10:58.120 --> 0:11:01.640 the Mental Floss article, the author it's clearly much younger 0:11:01.679 --> 0:11:05.400 than us because they say like old school chain letters 0:11:05.440 --> 0:11:09.240 from the early two thousand, so they know they go 0:11:09.320 --> 0:11:11.960 back a lot further than that. I just thought that 0:11:12.040 --> 0:11:14.520 was very funny. Yeah, And I think the person like, 0:11:14.600 --> 0:11:17.040 if someone put them in my yard, put like a 0:11:17.080 --> 0:11:20.439 hundred flamingos for a charity, I would say, all right, 0:11:20.480 --> 0:11:22.840 I'll pay the hundred bucks, and then now I get 0:11:22.880 --> 0:11:25.120 to pick and I would send them straight to your house. 0:11:25.160 --> 0:11:27.520 Of course, like an old school chain letter from the 0:11:28.679 --> 0:11:30.440 I get to pick the next house and so on 0:11:30.480 --> 0:11:34.280 and so on. Yep, Um, there's there. They're so they're 0:11:34.320 --> 0:11:36.680 clearly still around you can still get them today, and 0:11:36.840 --> 0:11:39.280 I guess from what I read they still make about 0:11:39.280 --> 0:11:41.760 a thousand of them a day and use two hundred 0:11:41.800 --> 0:11:45.200 and seventy million pounds of plastic to make pink plastic 0:11:45.400 --> 0:11:49.120 lawn flamingos in the United States. M well booted that, 0:11:49.240 --> 0:11:52.800 but gated the flamingos. There's also one last little tidbit, Chuck. 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:56.920 There's a rumor an urban legend who knows that if 0:11:56.960 --> 0:12:00.440 you see somebody with a plastic pink lawnful mingo in 0:12:00.440 --> 0:12:05.800 their front yard, it's a signal that they are swingers. Right, 0:12:06.280 --> 0:12:08.440 But I think it's a good time to remember not 0:12:08.559 --> 0:12:11.640 everyone with the pineapple in their grocery cart is looking 0:12:11.640 --> 0:12:14.320 to hook up, and not every flamingo in the front 0:12:14.360 --> 0:12:17.800 yard Mains' swinger hadn't heard the pineapple one. What if 0:12:17.840 --> 0:12:21.840 somebody has a pineapple and a flamingo in their front yard. 0:12:22.120 --> 0:12:24.360 Oh well, it's all like Donkey Kong. Here you go, 0:12:25.600 --> 0:12:28.440 big big fish bowl with a few keys in there. 0:12:29.000 --> 0:12:33.680 That's right. Well, that's it for short stuff, right, That's right? Okay, 0:12:33.679 --> 0:12:39.000 Well then that means short stuff is out. Stuff you 0:12:39.000 --> 0:12:41.360 should know. Is a production of iHeart Radio's How Stuff 0:12:41.400 --> 0:12:44.040 Works for more podcasts for my heart Radio, visit the 0:12:44.080 --> 0:12:47.000 iHeart Radio app, Apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to 0:12:47.000 --> 0:12:47.840 your favorite shows.