WEBVTT - Mechanical Bulls! 0:00:01.480 --> 0:00:04.280 Welcome to Stuff you should know, a production of I 0:00:04.360 --> 0:00:13.039 Heart Radio. Hey you, and welcome to the podcast. I'm 0:00:13.119 --> 0:00:16.439 Josh and there's Chuck. Jerry is not here. She stepped 0:00:16.480 --> 0:00:19.280 away for a minute digitally speaking, but she's still here 0:00:19.320 --> 0:00:22.800 in spirit. So this is stuff you should know. Jerry's 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:25.800 looking for love and all the wrong places, right, that's right. 0:00:26.040 --> 0:00:32.159 And Chuck. I was not really cognizant of what was 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:36.600 going on when all of this was happening. But there's 0:00:36.640 --> 0:00:40.120 a period of time where like country was just beyond 0:00:40.240 --> 0:00:45.879 cool in America, like it was the popular culture. Yeah, 0:00:45.920 --> 0:00:49.279 I mean I really remember it. And you're, what five 0:00:49.360 --> 0:00:57.600 years younger at least never gets old. Uh. It is 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:02.480 a time that I remember well in the TV show 0:01:02.560 --> 0:01:07.080 Dallas and when country, you know, had these big crossover 0:01:07.200 --> 0:01:11.319 stars like Eddie Rabbit and Juice Newton and Mickey Gilly 0:01:11.520 --> 0:01:14.880 and Kenny Rogers and Kenney Rogers was making these big 0:01:14.920 --> 0:01:18.520 Hollywood movies and Dolly Parton was making big Hollywood movies. 0:01:18.560 --> 0:01:21.240 It was it was an interesting time, and it was 0:01:22.560 --> 0:01:25.120 it was sort of the beginning of the change of 0:01:25.200 --> 0:01:30.800 country music from sort of more underground outlaw cowboy Johnny Cash, 0:01:30.800 --> 0:01:34.800 Willie Nelson, Whale and Jennings stuff to the big A 0:01:35.040 --> 0:01:38.240 M A's country thing that we see today. And I 0:01:38.240 --> 0:01:42.360 think the transition was kind of happening back then in 0:01:42.440 --> 0:01:45.600 the seventies early eighties. That seems to be where it 0:01:45.640 --> 0:01:48.960 finds its roots is is in this area of this 0:01:49.080 --> 0:01:52.520 era where it turned into pop basically yeah. And the 0:01:52.680 --> 0:01:56.480 transition from um, like you were saying that kind of 0:01:56.520 --> 0:02:01.480 outlaw like hardcore country, um, you pop by way of 0:02:01.520 --> 0:02:04.120 easy listening, which is a pretty hard left turn if 0:02:04.160 --> 0:02:07.559 you think about it. But this that easy listening UM 0:02:07.760 --> 0:02:10.760 was featured prominently on the sound check for a movie 0:02:10.800 --> 0:02:15.880 called Urban Cowboy, which in one of the more surprising 0:02:15.919 --> 0:02:18.640 things I've ever come across in our research in the 0:02:18.720 --> 0:02:22.760 thirteen years we've been doing this. Happy anniversary by the way, 0:02:23.080 --> 0:02:27.120 um yeah, like right now it's right basically yeah, alright 0:02:27.200 --> 0:02:31.919 and close enough to that's worth saying happy anniversary for um. 0:02:31.919 --> 0:02:33.920 One of the more surprising things I've ever come across 0:02:33.960 --> 0:02:36.680 is that, since we're talking about mechanical bulls today, you 0:02:36.720 --> 0:02:40.280 can't tell the story of mechanical bulls without John Travolta. 0:02:40.840 --> 0:02:44.280 I know, right, who knew? Not me? Did you know 0:02:44.360 --> 0:02:50.560 that that was tied together intimately Urban Cowboy and Mechanical Bulls. Well, 0:02:50.560 --> 0:02:52.280 it was a big surprise for me, in a pleasant 0:02:52.280 --> 0:02:54.639 one too, Like I'm still on cloud nine enough for 0:02:54.760 --> 0:02:57.200 learning about that. Yeah, I mean this was I guess 0:02:57.200 --> 0:02:58.800 I was a little kid, so you would have been 0:02:59.280 --> 0:03:02.840 just a babe at the time, So it makes sense 0:03:02.880 --> 0:03:05.560 that this is more cemented in my memory. But I 0:03:05.600 --> 0:03:09.000 remember Urban Cowboy. I just remember it all being a 0:03:09.120 --> 0:03:11.880 very big deal, like people like Olivia Newton John where 0:03:12.400 --> 0:03:15.680 where people were making country albums that normally didn't because 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.000 it was just the hot ticket. It was a big deal. Yeah, 0:03:19.040 --> 0:03:22.639 it really was. Um And like I like, I watched 0:03:22.720 --> 0:03:25.640 enough um ME TV and stuff to to to be 0:03:25.680 --> 0:03:28.960 able to recognize this era. It seemed weird to me. 0:03:29.560 --> 0:03:32.520 Uh it's I think it stands for memorable entertainment television. 0:03:32.520 --> 0:03:35.320 It's all like old three runs from the seventies. Is 0:03:35.360 --> 0:03:37.200 it a channel or is it like a streaming app? 0:03:37.520 --> 0:03:40.680 It's a channel. Um, we have one of those like antenna's. 0:03:40.720 --> 0:03:44.960 You can get a digital antenna and there's a lot 0:03:45.000 --> 0:03:50.480 of like really good um rerun Like, uh, what's the 0:03:50.480 --> 0:03:54.840 word I'm looking for. I guess nostalgic TV out there 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:57.520 and me, TV is one of them. But anyway, you know, 0:03:57.600 --> 0:04:00.560 every once in a while, probably every six their seventh 0:04:00.560 --> 0:04:03.640 episode of Bionic Woman or six Million Dollar Man will 0:04:03.640 --> 0:04:07.200 suddenly have some weird country trucker lumberjack theme going on, 0:04:08.440 --> 0:04:11.280 and you can tell it's like it's because that was 0:04:11.360 --> 0:04:14.800 the cool thing, right then, you know it was. I mean, 0:04:14.840 --> 0:04:17.520 like I said, Dallas was a big TV show, and 0:04:17.640 --> 0:04:21.520 the Dallas Cowboys and the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders was the 0:04:21.520 --> 0:04:24.239 biggest thing going, and and b J and the Bear 0:04:24.320 --> 0:04:26.919 and the Dukes of Hazard and right it was. It 0:04:26.960 --> 0:04:30.880 was this weird time in America where like the Southern 0:04:31.880 --> 0:04:36.360 and Western country western culture was at the four it's 0:04:36.480 --> 0:04:39.960 it's very strange, and it coincided with punkin new wave, 0:04:40.080 --> 0:04:42.039 and you know, it's it's a very weird kind of 0:04:42.080 --> 0:04:45.440 cool time in this country, I think. But the one 0:04:45.480 --> 0:04:47.359 of the things that came out of this, one of 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:50.480 the things that was popular at the time that really 0:04:50.520 --> 0:04:55.040 tied into this country zeitgeist that was like the basis 0:04:55.080 --> 0:04:58.000 of the pop culture at the time was mechanical bull riding, 0:04:58.360 --> 0:05:01.320 right that that is some thing you would do if 0:05:01.360 --> 0:05:04.839 you were trying to show off at some bar. It 0:05:04.880 --> 0:05:07.160 doesn't matter where the bar was in the United States, 0:05:07.160 --> 0:05:10.000 and I suspect in other parts of the Western world 0:05:10.000 --> 0:05:14.000 as well, um that that you would ride a mechanical 0:05:14.040 --> 0:05:18.320 bull wearing a cowboy shirt and tight jeans even though 0:05:18.400 --> 0:05:22.200 you were from you know, Miami or something like that. Yeah, 0:05:22.200 --> 0:05:24.240 it's funny. When I was reading this and they were saying, like, 0:05:24.640 --> 0:05:26.240 they have him in New York, and they had him 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:29.120 in New York, in Los Angeles, and it's popular everywhere. 0:05:29.240 --> 0:05:30.960 The first thing I thought was, I bet they had 0:05:31.040 --> 0:05:34.560 him in Japan. Surely I was looking. I'm like, I 0:05:34.920 --> 0:05:38.560 wonder if it's just some like throwback retro uh like 0:05:38.680 --> 0:05:41.800 mechanical bull riding trend somewhere in the world. I couldn't 0:05:41.839 --> 0:05:45.039 find any any mention of it anywhere, but surely it 0:05:45.160 --> 0:05:47.400 is somewhere, you know. It seemed like a good fit. 0:05:47.920 --> 0:05:51.320 But the mechanical bull, if you don't know what one is, 0:05:52.120 --> 0:05:56.320 you're not under a rock. Everybody. You could be very 0:05:56.400 --> 0:05:58.479 much aware of many things in the world and not 0:05:58.600 --> 0:06:01.360 know what one is. It is. Boy, Chuck, you've really 0:06:01.400 --> 0:06:03.680 softened and Mellot in your old age, I really have 0:06:04.360 --> 0:06:08.719 h it is. It is a a simulation of bull 0:06:08.839 --> 0:06:12.360 riding the rodeo sport of bull riding. It isn't literally 0:06:12.400 --> 0:06:15.160 a mechanical bull, and we'll talk about how it's made 0:06:15.160 --> 0:06:17.880 and what it looks like, but you know it's uh, 0:06:18.160 --> 0:06:20.960 go google a picture. You sit on it and someone 0:06:21.080 --> 0:06:23.279 is in control of it on the other end, and 0:06:23.760 --> 0:06:27.160 it mimics the bucking of a bull as if a 0:06:27.240 --> 0:06:30.640 human were riding on it. And they are very popular 0:06:30.760 --> 0:06:36.720 in bars, touristy bars usually and maybe in Japan. There's 0:06:36.720 --> 0:06:40.000 one in New York City at Johnny Utahs. I have 0:06:40.080 --> 0:06:43.719 some stories about later. But um, the mechanical bull basically 0:06:43.720 --> 0:06:49.040 can be used to train a rodeo rider, although it's 0:06:49.200 --> 0:06:53.559 usually just for entertainment purposes. Yeah, it's really interesting about 0:06:53.600 --> 0:06:55.680 what you just said that it's used for training. Is 0:06:56.200 --> 0:07:01.120 it's not entirely clear if the mechanical bull was used 0:07:01.160 --> 0:07:05.800 to train rodeo riders first, or was used as an 0:07:05.800 --> 0:07:10.200 amusement at Honky Tonk bars first and then became used 0:07:10.400 --> 0:07:14.800 to train rodeo riders. It has a really hazy origin 0:07:15.040 --> 0:07:20.400 and it's possible that it evolved um in parallel and 0:07:20.560 --> 0:07:25.800 multiple places, because there there was a need for training 0:07:25.880 --> 0:07:31.320 rodeo riders on artificial bulls because part of rodeo that 0:07:31.400 --> 0:07:34.280 kind of grew out in the nineteenth century in America 0:07:34.600 --> 0:07:38.400 as um rodeo riding developed based on some of the 0:07:39.080 --> 0:07:42.720 Mexican blood sports with bulls um As they made their 0:07:42.760 --> 0:07:46.040 way up north in the United States the southwestern US, 0:07:46.960 --> 0:07:49.840 um bull riding just kind of came out of nowhere 0:07:49.960 --> 0:07:53.600 rather than you know, toreo doors um. It was. It 0:07:53.680 --> 0:07:57.200 got translated into bull riding, and if you want to 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:01.080 train on riding a bull, your way better off finding 0:08:01.200 --> 0:08:04.280 something to simulate the bowl and learning how to ride 0:08:04.280 --> 0:08:07.360 a bull by riding a bull. You know. Yeah, although 0:08:07.400 --> 0:08:09.320 you know what it did see somewhere and I couldn't 0:08:09.400 --> 0:08:11.880 verify it in a lot of places, but I did 0:08:11.880 --> 0:08:14.200 see in the sixteenth century in Mexico they were actually 0:08:14.240 --> 0:08:19.440 riding bulls. Uh yeah, so that might have just been 0:08:19.480 --> 0:08:22.960 a part of the blood sport of bull fighting. If 0:08:22.960 --> 0:08:25.240 you're a tough guy and you see a bull, you say, 0:08:25.240 --> 0:08:29.480 I'm gonna ride that bull. Watch this maybe so uh. 0:08:29.560 --> 0:08:31.880 And then the nineteen thirties in the United States, the 0:08:31.960 --> 0:08:35.320 Rodeo Cowboy Association was formed, so it was a full 0:08:35.360 --> 0:08:37.840 deal by the nineteen thirties, the one thing we do 0:08:37.920 --> 0:08:41.839 know is that the precursor to the mechanics, the mechanized 0:08:41.920 --> 0:08:46.400 or mechanical bull, was the bucking barrel, which, um, if 0:08:46.440 --> 0:08:48.760 you could just do an image search for bucking barrel, 0:08:48.800 --> 0:08:51.760 you've probably seen these at some point. It is a 0:08:51.880 --> 0:08:55.320 barrel like an oil barrel, tipped on its side, with 0:08:55.400 --> 0:08:57.840 a saddle on it, and its suspended off the ground 0:08:57.880 --> 0:09:00.959 and tied at four corners with some pretty heavy duty 0:09:01.080 --> 0:09:04.200 tight rope. And um, you would go sit on that 0:09:04.200 --> 0:09:06.480 that barrel, on that saddle, and you would have four 0:09:07.000 --> 0:09:09.920 ranch hands try and throw you off of it. And 0:09:10.040 --> 0:09:12.440 imagine that was a lot of fun. Yes, which I 0:09:12.440 --> 0:09:15.040 mean it's dangerous in and of itself, especially if the 0:09:15.120 --> 0:09:18.400 ranch hands are jerks, but it's a lot safer than 0:09:18.520 --> 0:09:21.680 riding a bull. When you're practicing writing to ride a bull, Yeah, 0:09:21.720 --> 0:09:23.480 I would. I would write a bucking barrel. If I 0:09:23.520 --> 0:09:26.920 was at one of those uh city slickers like cattle 0:09:27.000 --> 0:09:29.600 rustling things and they were like, you want to get 0:09:29.600 --> 0:09:33.120 on the bucking barrel, partner, I'd say, heck yeah, but 0:09:33.160 --> 0:09:34.760 I would. You could not pay me to get on 0:09:34.760 --> 0:09:39.520 a real mechanical bull. Oh, I don't know. I was 0:09:39.559 --> 0:09:45.760 watching some um there's like mechanical bull throw compilations, people 0:09:45.800 --> 0:09:48.160 falling off mechanical bulls. I watched quite a bit of this. 0:09:48.559 --> 0:09:50.600 What's the funniest ones are the ones that happened in 0:09:50.600 --> 0:09:53.000 slow motion, Like the camera's on in slow motion, is 0:09:53.080 --> 0:09:56.000 just the person who is sliding off in slow motion. Yeah, 0:09:56.000 --> 0:09:58.959 that's usually how it works instead of really being thrown, right, 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:02.360 it seems like legs on there. Pretty not dangerous. So 0:10:02.400 --> 0:10:05.400 I would ride a mechanical bullet I ever encountered one. Yeah, 0:10:05.520 --> 0:10:11.200 I'm not into it. That's fine, I won't yum your yuck. Well, 0:10:11.240 --> 0:10:13.920 I mean there, we'll talk injuries later on. It's uh 0:10:15.120 --> 0:10:18.200 oh yeah, pretty badly. I think we should. That's that's 0:10:18.200 --> 0:10:21.240 it's worth saying. We're like, you can really get injured 0:10:21.280 --> 0:10:24.960 on a mechanical bull maybe not live bul level, but 0:10:25.200 --> 0:10:27.800 don't ride live bulls anyway. Let's just put that one 0:10:27.840 --> 0:10:29.800 out there, and then if you're gonna ride a mechanical bull, 0:10:29.840 --> 0:10:35.120 no that it's still very dangerous and can be. That's right. So, um, 0:10:35.160 --> 0:10:38.400 should we take a break, Sure, Yeah, let's do it. 0:10:38.720 --> 0:10:41.040 I'm not we won't come to blows. It's fine, it's fine. 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:42.959 I'll just go along one. All right, we'll take a 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:45.160 break and then we'll talk more about this funny thing. 0:10:45.240 --> 0:11:14.840 Right after this m hm, so chuck um. I was saying, like, 0:11:14.880 --> 0:11:19.160 the origins of mechanical bulls are fairly hazy. Um. We 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.559 are pretty sure that they came from the bucking barrel 0:11:21.720 --> 0:11:25.720 that that preceded them, but it's not entirely clear that 0:11:25.760 --> 0:11:29.319 the mechanical bull descended from the bucking barrel in the 0:11:29.400 --> 0:11:33.160 rodeo world or into the amusement world. First, like Ed 0:11:33.240 --> 0:11:35.160 put this together for us, and he looked high and 0:11:35.200 --> 0:11:39.040 low to find primary source but couldn't find one. But 0:11:39.080 --> 0:11:41.920 he saw a lot of like mentions of a place 0:11:41.960 --> 0:11:45.000 called Bertrand Island, an amusement park in New Jersey that 0:11:45.080 --> 0:11:48.880 supposedly had a mechanical bull back in the thirties. Yeah, 0:11:48.880 --> 0:11:50.960 this was in New Jersey, and I think this is 0:11:51.000 --> 0:11:55.319 what the deal is. I saw this referenced a lot online, 0:11:55.520 --> 0:11:59.120 and there is a coffee table book about Bertrand Island 0:11:59.160 --> 0:12:03.120 amusement Park. And I bet you dollars to donuts there's 0:12:03.160 --> 0:12:06.000 a picture of this rightem cowboy ride in that book, 0:12:06.080 --> 0:12:09.440 because they all referenced this book. But I didn't have 0:12:09.520 --> 0:12:12.160 time nor the inclination to buy this book to prove 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:15.120 it to myself. But I have a feeling that there 0:12:15.200 --> 0:12:16.880 was a picture of this right um cowboy ride in 0:12:16.880 --> 0:12:20.520 this in this coffee table book about Bertrand Island Amusement 0:12:20.520 --> 0:12:23.640 Park in the nineteen thirties. Okay, I've got a great idea. 0:12:24.000 --> 0:12:26.000 Let's get in the way back machine and we'll go 0:12:26.120 --> 0:12:28.600 to the printing of that book and we'll look through 0:12:28.640 --> 0:12:30.520 one of the books. Are you ready? Well, why don't 0:12:30.520 --> 0:12:32.520 we just go back to the Bertrand Island Amusement Park 0:12:32.520 --> 0:12:35.400 in the thirties and ride the thing. I guess we 0:12:35.440 --> 0:12:37.360 could have done. Okay, all right, let's see that. I mean, 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:40.040 we can go to a book branding shop. Okay, we'll 0:12:40.080 --> 0:12:48.760 go to Bertrand Island. You're ready, look at it? Okay, 0:12:48.760 --> 0:12:51.160 here we are there. It is there, it is. We 0:12:51.240 --> 0:12:55.119 have definitively proven it. There was a rightem cowboy mechanical 0:12:55.200 --> 0:12:58.480 bowl um Bertrand what year is it? Right now? Uh? 0:12:58.800 --> 0:13:02.280 While I'm looking at my uh shark surf watch and 0:13:02.320 --> 0:13:08.160 it says two. Okay, mechanical bull at Bertrand Island Amusement Park. 0:13:08.320 --> 0:13:16.320 All right, I guess we should just go back, all right, well, 0:13:17.000 --> 0:13:19.560 it's weird that we went back and we didn't ride 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:22.480 it or getting saltwater taffy or hit the big strongman 0:13:22.559 --> 0:13:25.040 bell like could have just gone to do the printing 0:13:25.080 --> 0:13:29.400 press place. I guess we should have. Huh. Probably had 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:31.760 a little candy dish with saltwater taffy there that we 0:13:31.800 --> 0:13:34.959 could have gramped. So if you talk mechanical bulls, you're 0:13:35.000 --> 0:13:37.960 gonna hear the name Sherwood cry or come up a lot. Uh. 0:13:38.000 --> 0:13:42.360 Some people might mistakenly say he invented the mechanical bull. Uh. 0:13:42.480 --> 0:13:44.520 Certainly is could be looked at as the sort of 0:13:44.520 --> 0:13:48.679 grandfather of the mechanical bull. But he owned a mechanical 0:13:48.760 --> 0:13:51.560 bull in his saloon in the seventies. That will get 0:13:51.600 --> 0:13:54.640 too later. But it was built by a man name 0:13:55.160 --> 0:13:57.600 Actually I don't know if he built it. Joe Turner 0:13:57.640 --> 0:14:00.640 built it. But Joe Turner and knew my scope at 0:14:00.640 --> 0:14:04.960 the very least, held a patent for this mechanical ball. Right. Um, 0:14:05.000 --> 0:14:06.920 I saw it with my own two eyes, but it's 0:14:06.960 --> 0:14:12.960 from six So Joe Turner definitely didn't invent the mechanical ball, 0:14:13.120 --> 0:14:15.920 though he was an inventor of the mechanical bull. But 0:14:16.080 --> 0:14:19.240 we can say definitively since Sherwood Cryer bought the patent 0:14:19.280 --> 0:14:22.320 from Joe Turner, that Sherwood Cryer is not the inventor 0:14:22.360 --> 0:14:24.720 of the mechanical Bull, even though I believe even um 0:14:24.760 --> 0:14:28.840 Wikipedia cites him as the inventor. Yeah, I was surprised 0:14:28.880 --> 0:14:33.200 to see that, UM, But yeah, he's very widely held 0:14:33.280 --> 0:14:36.440 to be the the the inventor. But he even said 0:14:36.640 --> 0:14:39.000 there was an interview with him in the Austin Chronicle 0:14:39.120 --> 0:14:42.320 in the late nineties where he said he talked about 0:14:42.360 --> 0:14:44.640 how he bought it off of UM Joe Turner for 0:14:44.680 --> 0:14:49.440 thirty dollars, and it will become clear why he did 0:14:49.440 --> 0:14:51.240 that and why that was actually a really good move 0:14:51.320 --> 0:14:54.680 on his part later on. That's right. But if you 0:14:54.720 --> 0:14:57.280 want to talk about the mechanics of the mechanical Bull, 0:14:57.400 --> 0:15:01.680 it is a hydraulic based machine that has a couple 0:15:01.720 --> 0:15:04.520 of motors on it. It's got a a center shaft 0:15:04.560 --> 0:15:07.080 and a main gearbox that make up the spin motor, 0:15:07.480 --> 0:15:10.640 and that's the one that's gonna spin. It's gonna turn 0:15:10.680 --> 0:15:13.720 it back and forth. That usually when you see them operated, 0:15:13.760 --> 0:15:16.840 they usually rarely even go a full three sixty before 0:15:16.840 --> 0:15:18.960 they turn back and go the other way, because that's 0:15:19.000 --> 0:15:21.160 kind of the whole object is to keep this thing 0:15:21.160 --> 0:15:24.320 moving in different directions. Right and it's turned back, and 0:15:24.360 --> 0:15:28.200 the other direction is usually very sudden and harsh. That 0:15:28.360 --> 0:15:31.800 is abrupt. There's abrupt, thank you buddy, UM. And then 0:15:31.840 --> 0:15:36.080 there's another motor usually above the bottom motor, and that 0:15:36.080 --> 0:15:39.440 that that motor has to do with UM moving pistons 0:15:39.480 --> 0:15:42.440 up and down. Like imagine a platform that that the 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:45.200 saddle sits on that the build the bowl is built 0:15:45.240 --> 0:15:48.360 around that. The rider actually sits on this platform. It 0:15:48.400 --> 0:15:50.760 moves from side to side and up and down and 0:15:50.880 --> 0:15:55.239 left and right. So you have a you have a 0:15:55.240 --> 0:15:58.600 a lot of yaw control is what you need, UM 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:00.720 when it comes to riding a mechanic ankle bull because 0:16:00.720 --> 0:16:03.760 there's also there's pitch yaw and what's the third one 0:16:04.680 --> 0:16:07.880 role role? You got all three of those going on 0:16:08.360 --> 0:16:11.960 in this mechanical ball. I believe right. Uh, if you 0:16:12.000 --> 0:16:13.600 see one of these in a bar, or if you 0:16:13.680 --> 0:16:16.200 rent one, I love that. Ed did the research in 0:16:16.840 --> 0:16:18.800 Ed lives in Buffalo, New York and said, and Buffalo, 0:16:18.880 --> 0:16:21.600 you can rent one for three hours for nine bucks 0:16:21.640 --> 0:16:24.440 and it comes with the operator and everything. I heard 0:16:24.480 --> 0:16:27.000 that and then I thought that might be a have 0:16:27.160 --> 0:16:30.960 been a fun fiftieth birthday party, but unfortunately quarantine to 0:16:31.120 --> 0:16:33.760 be like three or four people standing around. That's not 0:16:33.840 --> 0:16:36.520 You could ride it on zoom for all of the 0:16:36.520 --> 0:16:41.920 other party guests. But it is mounted very very securely 0:16:42.000 --> 0:16:45.240 to a big floor plate and uh, it is surrounded. 0:16:45.240 --> 0:16:47.800 I think Sherwood Choir would drive around and collect mattresses 0:16:47.840 --> 0:16:50.440 at first, but now they have this big inflatable ring 0:16:50.520 --> 0:16:54.440 basically that surrounds it. And uh, it's got a saddle. 0:16:54.480 --> 0:16:58.560 It's it's usually the horse itself is um fiberglass or 0:16:58.680 --> 0:17:01.680 or it's it's metal maybe, but it's covered in this 0:17:02.000 --> 0:17:05.120 sort of thick padding with leather and then a real 0:17:05.160 --> 0:17:09.479 deal saddle. Yeah, and um, the ones today there, you 0:17:09.520 --> 0:17:12.720 know there. There are plenty built in the seventies and 0:17:12.800 --> 0:17:16.240 eighties and even in the nineties that look like old 0:17:17.000 --> 0:17:21.359 carnival fun house rides. Basically the controllers are real like 0:17:21.400 --> 0:17:24.080 old and Yankee looking and colorful and kind of cool 0:17:24.119 --> 0:17:28.439 in retro. The ones today are um touchscreen. They have 0:17:28.640 --> 0:17:32.080 like speakers built into them. The padding around them isn't 0:17:32.119 --> 0:17:35.680 like a mattress, they're like blown air, like a bouncy castle. 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:38.639 Kind of thing. Um. So when you get thrown, it's 0:17:38.680 --> 0:17:42.160 it's like doesn't feel like anything is actually kind of pleasant. Um. 0:17:42.640 --> 0:17:46.040 And the controllers are much more computerized and less mechanized 0:17:46.040 --> 0:17:48.840 than they used to be in times past. Yeah, and 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:51.159 these days if you look at Urban Cowboy too, it 0:17:51.240 --> 0:17:54.119 is just sort of the body if you would of 0:17:54.200 --> 0:17:57.719 the bowl. Uh. Now, if you go to a Johnny 0:17:57.800 --> 0:18:00.000 Utah's in New York or any kind of fun house, 0:18:00.480 --> 0:18:02.679 are you getting free drinks there or something? No? I 0:18:02.760 --> 0:18:04.679 just learned of it, and I didn't know that there 0:18:04.720 --> 0:18:07.640 was still an urban cowboy type place in New York 0:18:07.680 --> 0:18:09.600 that you could go. I think it's it's got to 0:18:09.600 --> 0:18:12.160 be close to Times Square. It's in Midtown and urban 0:18:12.359 --> 0:18:16.359 urban Cowboy bar that's referential to point break. It's like 0:18:16.680 --> 0:18:22.000 man covering all the bases. Um. You they have a 0:18:22.040 --> 0:18:24.960 little fake foam bull heads and horns, and apparently you 0:18:24.960 --> 0:18:27.400 can even find them with if you want to ride 0:18:27.440 --> 0:18:31.000 a bison or or a ram like a sheep, you 0:18:31.040 --> 0:18:32.879 can get a sheep's head put on or a ram's 0:18:32.880 --> 0:18:35.639 head put on. It goes even more than that. I 0:18:35.760 --> 0:18:41.320 literally you there's a hammer head, shark, camel, hot dog, 0:18:41.400 --> 0:18:45.800 banana and then apparently there are there's like the this 0:18:46.480 --> 0:18:50.080 tawdry thread of bull riding, there's a sexual element to it. 0:18:50.119 --> 0:18:54.879 I think, uh yes, sure, I mean Ed ed found 0:18:54.920 --> 0:18:58.199 one of the settings is sexy right right on the 0:18:58.200 --> 0:19:03.159 actual operations of one machine. ED found it was like pro, intermediate, 0:19:03.200 --> 0:19:06.680 beginner and sexy. So it's definitely fair to say, okay, 0:19:06.720 --> 0:19:11.000 And also what I turned up goes way beyond a 0:19:11.080 --> 0:19:15.040 sexy setting. There's there's a penis one you can get sure, 0:19:15.520 --> 0:19:19.159 there's a one woman called Horny Hannah, and there's a 0:19:19.200 --> 0:19:26.560 guy named Randy Roger Boy. So it gets pretty um stupid. Sure, 0:19:27.320 --> 0:19:32.120 it gets pretty like dark bachelorette party really quick with 0:19:32.680 --> 0:19:34.880 when you if you if you wanted to go that way, 0:19:34.880 --> 0:19:37.200 apparently you can you can make it go that way. 0:19:37.560 --> 0:19:40.520 That's right. We were just speaking of the settings. There 0:19:40.560 --> 0:19:44.560 are those automated settings, usually that you can just hit 0:19:44.640 --> 0:19:47.280 pro or beginner or whatever, but you can also be 0:19:47.359 --> 0:19:50.800 in control. And I think the automated settings are much 0:19:50.800 --> 0:19:52.520 more common these days. I think back in the urban 0:19:52.560 --> 0:19:56.840 cowboy days was very much about a human operator trying 0:19:56.880 --> 0:20:01.720 to you know, really simulate a rodeo. For these sort 0:20:01.760 --> 0:20:06.840 of about say pseudo competitions. They were competitions in bars. Yeah, 0:20:06.880 --> 0:20:08.480 I mean there would be like you know, you could 0:20:08.480 --> 0:20:13.879 win you know, a hundred bucks or something like that. Okay, alright, 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:17.320 so so there was like a competition, but um also 0:20:17.440 --> 0:20:19.560 like in bars, it was you know, just to show 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:22.239 off to like that was the whole reason. That's the 0:20:22.400 --> 0:20:25.760 entire reason for mechanical bulls. If you're sitting there wondering, like, 0:20:25.800 --> 0:20:29.359 why does anybody do this, it's basically to just show 0:20:29.400 --> 0:20:34.200 off to stay on as long as you possibly can, basically, 0:20:34.440 --> 0:20:38.080 And so, like you're saying with the original operator, the 0:20:38.160 --> 0:20:43.480 operator's job was too humiliate you. That was the whole dynamic. 0:20:43.880 --> 0:20:46.920 You showing off, the operator trying to throw you off 0:20:46.920 --> 0:20:49.560 in a very humiliating fashion. And so the more you 0:20:49.600 --> 0:20:51.600 could stay on, or the longer you could stay on 0:20:51.840 --> 0:20:55.439 despite the operator's best efforts, you know, the more of 0:20:55.480 --> 0:20:58.880 a show off you are. I guess. Yeah, I mean, 0:20:59.040 --> 0:21:01.879 it's not any different. It it's not a far cry 0:21:01.960 --> 0:21:05.199 from any carnival game where it shows some sort of 0:21:05.240 --> 0:21:08.639 feet of strength, whether you're hitting the thing with a 0:21:08.680 --> 0:21:11.800 hammer to make the bell ring or the punching bag 0:21:11.880 --> 0:21:14.240 to see how hard you can punch a thing, right, 0:21:14.560 --> 0:21:16.760 and the ones that you rent today for the parties. 0:21:17.600 --> 0:21:20.080 Uh ed described as an all in one entertainment center. 0:21:20.080 --> 0:21:21.719 I mean it's got a built in p A system 0:21:21.800 --> 0:21:26.280 with speakers and a microphone and amplifier, and it's electric 0:21:26.359 --> 0:21:29.880 scoreboard and timer, and it's just this big thing now, 0:21:29.880 --> 0:21:32.880 whereas it started out as just sort of this very 0:21:32.960 --> 0:21:38.840 very rudimentary, hydraulic thing. Yeah. Um, which makes sense because 0:21:38.840 --> 0:21:40.199 again this is the kind of thing that you can 0:21:40.240 --> 0:21:43.520 rent like a bounty house, but for grown ups, although 0:21:43.520 --> 0:21:46.560 they have little kids ones too. About those. And then 0:21:46.720 --> 0:21:49.880 something else I saw is there's a um so there's 0:21:49.920 --> 0:21:52.680 like the riding the bull version, there's also a surfboard 0:21:52.760 --> 0:21:56.359 version that you stand on. And I actually saw a 0:21:56.440 --> 0:21:59.479 video of a dude who combines those two. Look up 0:21:59.520 --> 0:22:03.080 on YouTube. Man dances a mechanical bull wearing best Sunday 0:22:03.119 --> 0:22:07.760 suit and this guy is in a bar wearing a tie, 0:22:09.560 --> 0:22:13.720 not not just standing up dancing on a mechanical bull 0:22:13.800 --> 0:22:17.359 that's going at a pretty moderate rate, and it is 0:22:17.400 --> 0:22:19.679 one of the most astounding things I've ever seen in 0:22:19.680 --> 0:22:23.640 my life. Amazing. Yeah, but there's the version you can 0:22:23.800 --> 0:22:25.920 you can rent that or by I guess if you're 0:22:25.920 --> 0:22:27.800 into that kind of thing. That is, it's like a 0:22:27.840 --> 0:22:31.280 surfboard and like the bounty area around you. The padding 0:22:31.320 --> 0:22:34.160 is like a wave kind of thing. It looks pretty cool. 0:22:34.440 --> 0:22:37.040 Well that's fun. I thought so too. It looks fun 0:22:37.080 --> 0:22:39.159 at least. So if you're going to ride one of 0:22:39.160 --> 0:22:42.280 these things, I will say most of the videos I 0:22:42.320 --> 0:22:46.720 saw at Johnny Utah's among others, is they they keep 0:22:46.720 --> 0:22:50.640 it pretty tame. Although we'll talk about the dark side 0:22:50.640 --> 0:22:53.199 of that in a bit too. But um, if if 0:22:53.240 --> 0:22:55.840 you're going to get like a real ride, then you 0:22:55.880 --> 0:22:59.199 want to go is forward on that thing towards the 0:22:59.200 --> 0:23:02.479 head of the bull as much as you can. Uh, 0:23:02.720 --> 0:23:06.160 you want to grip that bull with your inner thighs 0:23:06.240 --> 0:23:08.560 and dig those heels in and keep your feet ahead 0:23:08.560 --> 0:23:12.159 of you and point those toes. Apparently you want to 0:23:12.400 --> 0:23:14.280 you know, they have a strap that you put your 0:23:14.320 --> 0:23:16.880 hand in and then you put the other arm up. 0:23:17.720 --> 0:23:19.960 They say to hang on with your non dominant hand. 0:23:20.400 --> 0:23:22.399 That's all I've seen. That's all I've seen too. I 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:24.080 don't know. I feel like I would be stronger with 0:23:24.119 --> 0:23:27.800