This is an "I Heart" podcast, Guaranteed Human. Hey everybody, we're back for another "Gets Weird" edition. Stuff you should know gets weird playlist, and this is episode 3. It's about mermaids, everybody. That's a pretty fun episode from what I remember, and it is called mermaids, colon, not a real thing. Welcome to stuffyoushouldknow from howstuffworks.com. Hey and welcome to the podcast on Josh Clarke, there's Charles W. Chuck Bryant, Jerry's over there, and the ether, floating, possibly not existing, who knows, and this is stuff you should know. Just a couple of mermaids trying to make their way in the world. Yeah. Trying to keep their tails wet. Yep. You know? Yeah. Because if that thing dries out, you've seen splash. Yeah, it's toast. No. She dried out, and she was just fine. Oh, I thought, oh, you're thinking of ET when you turned all white and dried out? No. I was thinking of splash, because I couldn't remember, it was one of my favorite movies as a kid. It was one of those early HBO movies, early Tom Hanks, which I'm a big fan. Of early Tom Hanks. And I just thought it was a really fun, funny movie. John Candy. Yeah. It was a great movie. What's his name played? The evil man trying to expose her Eugene Levy, I think? Oh, was he the bad guy? Yeah, he was the one that-- You know that's a high-quality movie when Eugene Levy is the bad guy. Yeah. That was the SETV crew. And he actually tried to spray her and get her wet, so she would-- Oh, it was an-- And in fact, good. To a mermaid on the sidewalk. That's what it was. She got wet. She turned to a mermaid. Right. She got dried. No problem. Yes. And Darryl Hannah, of course, who's running around with Neil Young now. Oh, really? Yeah. How about that couple? Sure. Why not? They're both environmentalists. But there's a lot of turquoise in that bedroom. I wonder if you hook up with Neil Young or anyone like that if you're sort of a new relationship and not like the wife they had for 40 years? If you're like, "Yeah, play a song, why don't you?" What? I wonder if you asked them to play music. Oh, like you're actually into him? Yeah. Like if your Billy Joel's new 25-year-old wife. Sure. Do you ever say like, "Hey, honey, play me a tune." Right. Play that one that you wrote 10 years before I was conceived. I think what I'm saying is I would have a hard time being with Neil Young and not every night after dinner just kind of nudging the guitar toward him. Oh, I got you. And saying, "I'd love to hear old man." Yeah. "Please, baby. One for me." Yeah. He says, "I've played that song 45,000 times." Yeah. I would guess that, well, I can tell you, I would guess that once you reach a certain point in playing a song, you never want to hear that song or even think about it existing again. Yeah. But then you still have to play it. Oh, I try not to think about that when I'm at those shows. Yeah. It makes me feel bad for him. Like they might as well be, you know, in the monkey house or something. Yeah. And you just throw him bananas at him. And God bless the people who really bring it still. Sure. Where you feel like, "Man, they're playing that song for me tonight." At a man? Is he still bringing it? He's just who came to mind. Whereas when I saw the police on their reunion, they were phonein' it in. Really? Yeah. Even Stewart Copeland? We're playing the songs, but it just, it didn't look like they were enjoying themselves at all. It looked like a total money grab. Sure. They entered from three separate entrances and exited from three separate. Oh, yeah. And I got the feeling they didn't even speak much. That's like, I was reading an article on the Ramones. The Rolling Stone one recently? Yeah. I guess it was. Yeah. They had a great article on them. So yeah, I guess it was. It was definitely Rolling Stone. So, okay. Did you read it? Yeah. Then it was awesome. They would just like get on the bus and not speak to one another. Yeah. Go to the next town and get on stage and play and then come off stage and not speak, they would speak on stage because they had to. Yeah. That was it. And apparently, well, at least Joey and it was his big foil. D-D-D. Is those ones who really hated each other? Yeah. Supposedly, they didn't speak at all for like 25 years, right? Right. Because Joey stole D-D's love of his life. Right. And then they were in the band together still after that. It was just like T.S. man. So weird. So like a lot of songs, especially ones like the KKK took my baby away. Uh-huh. That's about Joey stealing D-D's girlfriend. Wow. That was a great article. Yeah. Good read. Yeah. So back to Splash. Funny movie about a mermaid and we're going to talk about mermaids here. And mostly what we're going to cover is the lore and history and the mythology of the mermaid because there's a little giveaway. There are no mermaids. What? Did you look up like pictures of real mermaids, sightings and stuff? Yeah. And it's the same thing as pictures of big foot sightings and pictures of UFO sightings and weird distant blur that like, you can't, it could be kelp. Or is such an obviously doctored photo. Yeah. What would be fun though is if we had a time machine, forget killing Hitler, forget like my back machine. Oh yeah, that's right. I can't believe we haven't put this into good use. Forget like, you know, saving the world, they're keeping the dodo from going extinct. I would take some of these doctored photos that are just so easy to make today. Back to like the, the 1920s and be like, look at this. And they go, yeah, I know we still believe in that stuff. With your aim being what? Just to freak them out. Oh. I figured there'd be a money angle. Oh yeah. Josh is traveling wonder, wonder in boredom. That's not a bad idea. We're in which you just show them photos. But I charge them like 2016 rates and no one can possibly afford that. So I go out of business like almost immediately. Right. There's like one guy in the town. So I'll pay 2750 to see those. Right. Step right up. Towns only billionaire. Um. That's a great idea. I don't know why no one ever thought of that. It was a terrible idea like from beginning to end. Forget going back and betting on the stock market or the outcome of the world series. I'm going to go back and set up a business doom to fail. All right. So let's talk about mermaid lore. Well, we can start here in the more modern age because there are still places that try and take people from money like we were just talking about even. Yeah. Like me. Um, in fact, in Israel, on the coast of there, they actually have a town called Kiryat Yam. It's a great name. And if you go to Kiryat Yam, you could win. How much money does he even say? Million bucks. Million American dollars. If you, um, if you provide incontrovertible evidence of the mermaid that is reputed to wander the shores there. Yeah. And appear at sunset as of 2009 was the first sighting there. Yeah. And of course what that is is as a ploy to try and get tourists and come and spend money in the town and look for the mermaid. Sure. Come on. Chumps. The late welcome you to Kiryat Yam. I'm sure Loch Ness has made plenty of tourists money over the years. Apparently, they have a standing offer as well. And that's where the mayor of Kiryat Yam got the idea. Yeah. Great idea. Sure. And actually, I saw that photo too. And it's kind of neat. I don't know what it is or who created it or whatever, but there's allegedly a photo taken obviously from like a cliff down onto a beach. You know, a beach that will have like a big just slab of rocks surrounded by sand. Yeah. Sand and mermaids. Right. There's a mermaid on that rock just kind of looking out at the sea. Yeah. And of course, it could be anything. It could be totally doctored. Who knows? But it's from a distance. And at least they didn't like go full out like perfect picture of a mermaid or whatever. Right. It's just suggestive enough that people who believe in such things would be like, they're right there. There's a picture of a mermaid. Totally. So that was found in 2009 or that surface in 2009. And since then, the surface, right, since then the town's had that standing offer. Correct. So the really, the interesting thing to me about mermaids is the mythology. Did you take mythology in college at all? Yeah. It did. It always wanted it to interest me more than it did. Me too. It was just, I don't know if it was an explain to me quite well enough or just the ancient's non-bicameral mind wasn't fused together enough to interest people in the modern age. Well, I think so. I think the stories themselves as far as good storytelling or just lacking because a lot of them were just versions of one another. And there was usually a very basic premise or moral, and in the case of mermaids, a lot of times there were a lot of folklore, even, was rooted in misogyny. Oh, yeah. Sure. You know, there'll be a woman to come along and screw your life up. Right. Or if you've written by a woman, she will kill your children or something like that. Like women were not to be trusted and they were murderous and duplicitous in a lot of mythology. The old hag. So it was in various, I mean, hundreds and hundreds of books and texts, including the Talmud. Believe it.
or not. And we've talked about Pliny, the Elder, the Beer, and the Dude. Yeah. Rome's Pliny, the Elder, he and his natural history talked about a mermaid-like creature called the Niriid. Yes. I think I'm pronouncing that correctly. Yeah. In E-R-E-I-D. That E-I is a tough transition. It is. Because you want to say like Niriid. Yeah. Niriid. These are senyms. Half-human, half-fish mermaids. And he also talked about sea men. And we should point out that merman, we made the joke about us being merman. Yeah. I believe merman were even first on the literary scene. Is that correct? Well, first at least with mythology or theology. I guess there's a Babylonian god of the sea named Ia. Yeah. Ia sports. Just Ia. And he pops up in a Babylonian mythology from I think 4,000 years ago. And they think that he's actually the progenitor of or the predecessor, I should say, of Poseidon, who is the Greek god of the sea and Neptune, who's the Roman god of the sea. Because the Greeks gave us Western culture, but they just walked around to all of the neighboring cultures and picked their favorite parts and put them together. Yeah. And that was definitely one of them. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we talked in our, I guess it was in the folklore and fairy tale episodes that were twin episodes almost about the original little mermaid. And how, you know, she was disnified to the fullest. But the original story was far darker. Darker, but also even more touching by far. Yeah. Like I went back and read the last, the last like section of it. Well, give me a summary at the end. So at the end, this is where dramatically differs from the Disney story. The little mermaid is scorned for another woman. Her, the guy she loves, chooses someone else and marries her. And the little mermaid is like, dude, I gave up my tail for you. Yeah. I think a witch has my tongue kind of thing. And I want to get back my life. So her sisters came and bring her this ritual knife and say, you can convert back to a mermaid. If before dawn, you plunge this knife into this dude's heart. This guy you love's heart. Yeah. And you get some of his blood on your feet. You will regrow your tail and you can jump into the sea and everything will be just fine again. So she goes and she finds the guy sleeping with his new bride beside him and she just can't do it. She throws the knife into the sea and becomes sea foam. She disintegrates and becomes sea foam. So she gives her her own happiness up for this guy's right and dies as a result. But even better than that, when she turns into sea foam, she becomes a different mythical creature, like basically an air nymph that goes around like helping humans. And she can possibly get into heaven if she helps people for 300 years. It Hans Christian Anderson wrote it way better than I just recounted it. A lot less ohms and likes. Yeah. But it's pretty, it's worth reading. Plenty also talked about merman back in the day and there would be merman or semen who would at night climb up onto ships. And as a quote, that's why I'm reading it weird, upon which the side of the vessel where he seated himself would instantly sink downward. And if you remain there any considerable time, even go underwater. And that was something that we will see as we talk more about mermaids is they are very they're often either an omen that something bad is going to happen to sailors or coastal dwelling people. Yeah. Or they actually directly cause harm to sailors or coastal dwelling people. Yeah. And most times under the guys of something beautiful and like a siren. Yeah. They are often well, I don't we haven't even described one. Surely you know that a mermaid has the head and body torso of a woman, human woman. Usually with huge boobs. Yeah. If you're talking about a sailor's account. Sure. Yeah. She was busty. Did I mention the boobs? Yes, you did sir. Seven times. And from the, you know, torso down, she's a fish. Maybe web feet, maybe not. Very graceful, very fast and always beautiful. It depends. Oh, yeah. Yeah. There was some of legend that were not ugly. Really? Yeah. Not ugly. Or they were ugly. That they were not in parenthesis. Beautiful, comma, ugly. Well, I hadn't heard about that. Yeah. It's in here. No, I'm just I must have missed that part. It's far more frequent what you were saying that they were beautiful and alluring. Okay. But we'll talk more about that after we take a break, All right, Chuck. We were saying that for the most part, mermaids are beautiful. And one of the reasons why they are supposed to be beautiful is because they are frequently accused of luring men sailors out to sea to their death. Yeah. And how you do that? You do that one of two ways. You have a beautiful singing voice. Yep. Or you just straight up look good yourself. That's right. And if you have a beautiful singing voice, you're a siren in which case you would not be a mermaid because a siren is half bird half woman. Yes. And they don't even necessarily live in the water or near the water. They're sometimes described as hanging out in fields. Yeah. I guess sometimes you can be very pretty and be a good singer. Right? You're mermaid. Mm-hmm. But the yeah, you could be. Yeah. Sure. You'd be who am I to disagree? You'd be Beyonce. Right. Or Alicia Keys. Right. Or Adele. Oh, you knew who I like is Rihanna. Oh, yeah. She's great. She's very pretty. That part in what's it called? This is the end when she played herself. Yeah. Yeah. She's pretty great. She was pretty funny. Yeah. Michael Sarah likes Banker and she just immediately turned around and smack the heck out of them. Yeah. I enjoyed parts of that movie, especially Michael Sarah. Yeah. Playing like it coked out jerk. That was really funny. Yeah. So back to the beautiful mermaids though. There was one in 1000 BCE in Syria and her name. How would you pronounce that? At her gattis? Oh, I think you nailed it. Yeah. Yeah. All right. We'll go with that. And she and you'll see a lot of duality in a lot of these stories. And she was one for sure that was a protector, a goddess. I think she protected the fertility for people and watched over them and fell in love with the human man as you will often see in a lot of these stories. A dude. Yeah. A dude. And it was fine for a little while, like in most stories and then it goes south. Yeah. And she kills him. She crushed him with her greatness. Oh, I thought like her big tail or something. I don't know. Well, she wasn't a mermaid yet. This is where she becomes a mermaid. That's right. I forgot about that. So she accidentally kills him and then is very shamed, throws herself into the lake because she wants to become a fish. And she's so beautiful that it only works half as good. I really can't figure out the math on that. But I guess she's just so beautiful that the human beauty part of her is like, no, I won't be a fish. Just the lower half can be a fish. Yeah. Because she had toe fungus. So that was easily overcome. But her face was really nice. So the fish parts just couldn't overcome that. That's right. So she ended up a mermaid. Weird story. Well, not just weird like, like, oh, it's foreign or anything. I'm not being xenophobic. But it really like says a lot about humanity and like how we think of things. Like no, she was so good looking that this magic couldn't even overcome that. Yeah, you know, we place a lot of value on that kind of thing. All right. Should we move on to Germany? Yeah. This one was kind of interesting to me because Germany's landlocked. Oh, I never really thought about that. What does Germany have a mermaid mythology? Well, I mean, they have lakes. I guess. But mermaids are 100% ocean dwellers, aren't they? No, there are some river dwellers. Oh, that's right. Although I think the sirens were specifically river. Well, then in the German myth, that was a river dweller. Correct. Okay. Yeah, the nixes. Yeah. And they lowered men into the river. Yeah, it was a river. And so they could drown them. Like again, the call of the siren coming here. Look how beautiful I am. Right. Check these out. And now I'm holding your head underwater. Right. And you can't breathe anymore. And the guys like, Like, I regret nothing.
But this duality that we're talking about is what you see a lot of times in Mermaid myths from West Africa, the Mamiwata, the mother water. She was a mermaid who was very nurturing and very loving. If you didn't cross her. Yeah, exactly. That's where the duality comes in. I don't even know if that's duality. I think that's just a complex person. Good complex character there. Yeah. Yeah. So she's great. But when you cross her, she's murderous. Sure. All right. And that's what she did, actually. She had, if you were loyal to her, you could be wealthy from her magic mirror in comb. But if you betrayed her, then what this article says is she rains down fury and destruction. She rains the H word from above. But the duality is an important part of it because the physical creature itself is two things. Sure. And they are also two things emotionally. But so the mermaid, the mermaid or mermaid or murf folk as they're called in this article. Are they really? Yeah. So murf folk are half fish, half people, right? But they're not anywhere near unique in the pantheon of mythological creatures. Throughout the ages, right? There's again, there's sirens, half birds, half women. There's just tons of like the the Minotaur, half man, half bull. Yeah. The Centaur was what, half goat or horse and half man? I don't remember that sounds right. I think half horse. And I was like, where did all these come from? I suspected bestiality and it turns out I may be right. Oh, yeah. Yeah. What'd you find? There are some scholars out there who believe that this is the product of a much more relaxed attitude toward bestiality than we modern humans have today. Yeah. Yeah. I still never saw that documentary about the horse. Yeah. It's a good one. Zoo. Yeah. I need that fell off my radar. Man, it's one of those ones where they largely do recreate, like the whole thing's almost recreation. And I usually am not hip on those. It doesn't feel like a documentary to me, but that one changed my mind about that whole technique. They did it so well. Really? Yep. It's rough. I bet. It's rough. Especially like when you think about, you know, the animals as well. Yeah, of course. You know? But there's more than just that that makes it rough. I need to see that. So I guess we can talk a little bit about some eyewitness accounts. They're all bunk, of course, but they have happened in World War II in Japan on Indonesia's Kai Islands. Supposedly they encountered a monster on the beach that had, you know, webbed hands and feet and was kind of part human part fish. Yeah. It's like, look at these jazz hands. You can't do this. And then back in the day, some of our most revered explorers and adventure adventurers reported seeing mermaids. Like John Smith and Henry Hunson. And Columbus. John Smith. But he loves him. Yeah, what was, uh, there's a good quote in here from Columbus because he wasn't too impressed. Yeah. He said, and here's the thing I read that in his diary, he's referring to himself in the third person. Well, that says a lot. That's odd. He's like Ricky Henderson. Right. Or George Costanza. So he says that he saw some. Oh, yeah, the quotes on it. You got to read the quote. He's out sailing around. Not a day. Not a day. Not a day. Oh, what is that? In the ocean. I think I'll take a look through my spying glass. The day before when the admiral was going to the, in the admiral himself. Yeah. That's what I'm thinking. He was the admiral of his fillet for sure. The day before when the admiral was going on to the Rio del Oro. That's the river of gold. He said he saw three mermaids who came quite high out of the water, but were not as pretty as they are depicted. For somehow in the face, they look like men. But I still thought about it. Yeah. And see what they think now. I don't know how they substantiated this is that Columbus was seeing manatees. Yeah. Have you seen manatees? Yeah. Looks like nothing like a human. From enough of a distance, though, you're like, wait, what is that? Especially if you've never seen a manatee before. I don't think it looks human like at all. From enough of a distance, I think. Yeah. I can see how somebody would, especially if you believe that mermaids existed. You see a manatee? Maybe it's hard for me to totally get that. Go there and put my mind in that kind of frame. In the frame of Christopher Columbus? Well, just to have never seen a mermaid, to have never seen a manatee, to be high on all the green stuff. Arrow wax scalps. Oh my God. Why could I just blanked on the green marijuana? No. The green drink. Absent. I don't think Absent was around with Columbus. Oh, you kid me. No, I'm not. You're shooting that stuff. I can't see it. So he maybe saw a manatee and was like, eh, they're not so great looking after all. Yeah, they're not that great. What's everyone talking about? Yeah, he saw one. This is like Jimmy Carter in the UFOs. Like you're kind of surprised when you hear this, that somebody cited it. Apparently Reagan said he saw UFOs as well. John Smith said he saw some. He liked what he saw. He liked the look of the manatees because he said he fell in love with one with long green hair. Yeah, he said it wasn't bad looking. It wasn't unattractive or something like that. Yeah. No, it's kind of a head, he hedged his bets a little bit. Yeah, I guess he wanted to check the rest of her out. Yeah. And then he saw she had a tail and was like, oh, can't go there. So what's going on here? Are they hallucinating because they've been on the high seas too long? That's what a lot of people say. Yeah. Other people say that, again, they were predisposed to believing in mermaids because people thought mermaids existed. This was the age of exploration. It's the beginning of the age of exploration, which means that before then, the oceans were largely unexplored. And there were tons of beliefs in thousands of year old mythologies about creatures that lived in the sea. So if you thought that those things existed, then something that looked kind of like a mermaid could be a mermaid. So that was probably, they were just cases of mistaken identity. They were highly suggestive. Yeah. They did one on sea monsters, remember? We did. Yeah. That was a good one. I thought that one was going to be awful and it turned out pretty great. That's an episode. Yeah. I remember thinking like, this is not going to go well and kind of like this one. Yeah. How do you think this one's going? Pretty great. All right. Well, let's take a break then and give each other a neck rub. And we'll come back more comfortable than ever. All right. [Music] There is a dude. I love this guy. His name is Carl Bance. And he did not call Bance Bance? Well, I just, I'm not quite sure understand unless. Did you read the article? Well, I'll just set it up. Okay. So a dude named Carl Bance back in 1990. He wrote an article in a legitimate journal, the Journal of Limonology and Oceanography. And they published it and it is an entirely tongue in cheek but totally played straight. Account of the extinct species mermaid. Yeah. Like we're in, he surmises on like for real where they came from, what their biology was. Where they, why they left us. Yep. That they were warm water dwelling that they ate human flesh. Yeah. Which is why they lured people to their death. He goes so far as to say that they most likely only produced one or two offspring at a time because the females of the species had two breasts and that was it. Okay. You know? Sure. Like this is the thought that this guy put into this article and the fact that he writes it totally straight. Yeah. And like really gives it its due attention. Like this is going to be a great idea and just the idea itself is hilarious so I don't really have to put any effort into actual execution. He put effort into the execution and it did. Yeah. He did pretty good. I'm not knocking him I guess. I just don't see why this journal would put something like that out there even. I don't know. I mean I guess he had a good sense of humor and they were, maybe it was the April Fool's episode. I was wondering if that was the case too and I forgot to look if it was the April issue. Perhaps. He did use the words horny skin folds though right there skin and he theorized was not smooth. Smooth scaled like a regular fish but I had quote horny skin folds like an armadillo. Yeah. What's interesting is I saw another account from 1830 in Scotland. There's a kind of a town called Benbecula on the outer Hebrides right. Which is like the outer islands, the archipelago. It's an archipelago. That's how you say that right? It's your archipelago.
Yeah, either way there's a town there string of islands coastal. Thank you the coastal town Where in 1830 the whole town swore they saw a mermaid and tried to grab the mermaid and the mermaid swam away So some kid threw a rock at it and hit it and it's back and Two days later they found it dead on shore and they felt so bad about it that they They buried it they gave it a funeral with like a casket and everything wow and They said that it didn't have scales that it had like kind of rough skin instead horny skinfold Yeah, they didn't use that term, but this is like a thing in 1830 in Scotland Yeah, pretty interesting that when you read the account of it years later That's the band name by the way the horny skinfolds. Yeah nice Yeah, that is interesting Maybe there's something there How do you keep the the folds of the horny skinfold clean, you know Like gunk gets trapped in there gross. I don't know Maybe that's the name of the first single cleaning the folds The other thing um that a band stood in his article was explain Probably why they're extinct now he came to the conclusion they're extinct He said they were warm water so they would have cohabitated or shared that their ecosystem with jellyfish and as humans started to fish more and more of the sea We upset the ecological balance. Yeah jellyfish populations were allowed to boom which is the case and they Stung the mermaids to death because the mermaids had they lacked the blubber that would protect them not just in cold water But from jellyfish stings as well. So they died out from jellyfish stings. Yeah, because they're their upper skin was just regular skin Right it wasn't the horny skin folds. Yeah, so it provided no protection exactly That's a it's worth reading go check it out. It's called mermaids the biology their biology culture and demise You can find like the full PDF online. Well, I think we have to address the animal planet snafu I don't know if they would call it a snafu I think they would call it a ratings bananza. Yeah, which uh what was the other oh when we talked about the megalodon When discovery channel aired a megalodon documentary that appeared by all accounts to be true Right, and was not same thing with mermaids, but they did it twice They did they did a sequel because it got like you said huge ratings. Mm-hmm, and uh this was a documentary Well, not a documentary. It was a mockumentary That looked like did you watch any clips or anything of the second one. Yeah. Yeah, I mean it looked like you know A show like a hunting bigfoot crew It's like, you know, we got this mermaid. We know where she is and we're down here hunting and they three thousand feet Yeah, below this surface. Yeah, and they interviewed a guy that looked like Zach Gallifinakis If only it would have been Zach Gallifinakis it would have made it much better But um, you know, and then it was one of these shows where at the end and small lettering it was right not me small But at the end of the credits, it's like this was all made up these are actors And yeah, but they're still by it if you go online people are still like arguing over The the legitimacy or credentials of the marine geologist Torsten Schmidt That's a great name. It is um, and people are like well if he were a real scientist He would have been published elsewhere besides this and he's not published and it's like that's because he's not real He's made up. Yeah, this is like settled right. They didn't even pretend that it was real So I don't I don't know if that's the case or not because I mean they said it wasn't on the at the end of the show Okay, but they didn't come out and say everybody everybody. Oh, well, no right It's so actually Noah the national oceanic and atmospheric administration had to release in As they felt they needed to release a statement after the first one saying like hey um Mermaids don't exist. No evidence has ever been found We're Noah the end and I bet they'd love that even show. Yeah. Oh my god. Noah's making a statement about a show Yeah, it's gonna be all over the news right and so I guess enough people bought it and and um bought into it That they were able to release a sequel and in the sequel the reason they released the sequel was because Torsten Schmidt Had footage of a webbed hand like smacking the windshield. Yeah, I saw it a little like um Underwater sub two-man sub And then swimming off. Yeah, and so they just kept showing that over and over and over again. Yeah It was a galaphanakis He did look like him didn't he a lot Um, I thought you were gonna say they it was found out when Torsten Schmidt showed up on a Episode of two broke girls the next week right? It's like a waiter. Yeah, and a progressive insurance ad It's like customer number two exactly. There's one other sighting. I wanted to mention this one is second for my favor after the Scottish one Okay, it was in that Adam Netherlands. Is it eat them? Sure like the cheese Yeah, okay Two girls were like rowing their boats and found a mermaid And took it home and dressed it up as a little girl and taught it to live on land But it remained mute. It's whole life like ET But isn't that cute? That is very cute. They're like you're coming home with us Oh, you've got a family T.S We got a family too and it's your new family and they just made that story up and told people in it Survived I guess interesting although they didn't they said put they didn't appear like they matriculated the mermaid into Human society there, but we're talking 1430. So who knows what was going on. Yeah They were eating they probably got their hands on forgot on somebody who was like Who knows yeah, and they're like oh mermaid. This is a mermaid. Oh just someone who had some sort of physical Nation and made them come live with them. Yeah, just as a girl for the rest of their life. Like let's see or something Yeah, like we did in the freak shows they would Just call them make up whatever animal they want to do That was another great episode too Are you just recounting the good ones while we do this one? Yeah, just to remind people It gets better So being a mermaid as an actual job you can get if you back in the day in the 1940s and 50s. It was a big hit To go to a like a sea park and have mermaid shows and specifically one and is it wiki watchy springs? Yeah, wiki watchy springs florida on your Tampa And it was a booming business back then they said Between half million and a million tourists every year And including big famous people like Elvis Presley and Don knots. Yeah, those are the two they mentioned those two would trash a place together. Oh, I bet Don gets into the whiskey. It's all over um So yeah, it was a huge deal back then they're still doing it there today, but it is a real job you can You can go If you're a great swimmer, huh? Like you have to know what you're doing. Oh, yeah, like it seems like oh, yeah, you just put on that that tail But that tail is is heavy and awkward. Well, yeah, plus like swimming and swimming swimming with your legs together Yeah, that's hard very difficult. Yeah, it's not an easy job from what I can tell Yeah, so apparently once you put like they look very graceful Swimming around and those things, but you go put one on and get in a pool and see what happens right in the this article I think rightly points out that The professional mermaids that you see today are um Like this is from years and years and years of practice. Yeah, like they didn't just get in the water and they're like Yeah, I'm a natural. Yeah, exactly Really awkward sure and you also have to know how to hold your breath like a mo Like a mo. Yeah. I stop myself Yeah, you do and you have to learn how to swim The mermaid crawl, which is what they name it, but you know, it's not like regular swimming Uh, yeah, right, you know, yeah, and you can make a little dough too a little bit It said you can be hired like there's a one-off for a party. What is that like you go to like a Neighborhood pool and everyone gathers around like look at the mermaid and claps at a rhythm. That's so fun You're like, what do you guys want me to do? I guess you can do that, but the most mostly what I've seen are like the shows in some like sleepy florida town Right like gator farm and those the start and the and the wiki watching mermaids or like a resort or something like that Yeah, back when they used to love that kind of thing Uh, and some of these professional mermaids apparently we use their status as a soapbox for ecology. Yeah, and efforts to keep the oceans Clean. Yeah, that's pretty cool. Yeah, there seems to be a real threat of that running through the professional mermaid culture You're like a eco activist. That's a decent band name too professional mermaid culture. Yeah This one was rich with bands band names horny skin folds mm-hmm yeah If you want to know more about mermaids, you can type that word in the search bar at house to forks.com And since I said search bar, it's time for listener male Actually in lieu of listener male today uh We are going to ask you for something because we people often say like how can I help the show? Spreading the word is awesome. We always appreciate that But one thing we haven't asked you to do in a long time is go to iTunes and leave a review Oh, yeah, because that makes a big difference if there are reviews Even if they're not favorable just be honest vote with your conscience Have heard your conscience and yeah go to iTunes leave a review for us because just having reviews is a good thing And um tell a friend help spread the word
I feel like years go by before we say things like this. Yeah, well, I think literally that's the case. Yeah, it's been a long time. So we really appreciate the way the show was built was on word of mouth largely. We really count on that. So tell a friend, go to iTunes and leave a recommendation. And the other thing that we also need are more jingles. Oh, yeah. These jingles that you hear, these bumpers are from fans and listeners, musicians. Very kind ones. Yeah, and they really enjoy doing it and we love throwing them out there. So send us your jingle and we can't promise we'll use it, but we probably will. Yeah, because they're pretty great. Yeah, so that's all I got. Well, thanks. If you want to get in touch with us to help us out with any of this stuff, you can tweet to us at syskpodcast. You can join us on facebook.com/stuff. You should know. You can send us an email to
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