Death In Entertainment
Kyle Ploof, Alejandro Dowling and Ben Kissel discuss Hollywood murders, true crime, on-set deaths and more!
Death In Entertainment
Hollywood Urban Legends Vol. 3: Paul McCartney, Richard Gere, Bill Cosby, Sesame Street and More! (Episode 161)
Celebrity gossip has always had a dark side. Those whispered tales of stars behaving badly, dying mysteriously, or hiding shocking secrets spread through Hollywood parties like wildfire, creating urban legends that live far longer than they deserve. Even in our hyper-connected age, these stories remain strangely persistent – because deep down, we want to believe.
Kyle, Ben, and Alejandro gleefully dissect the wildest Hollywood myths you've definitely heard before. Remember when everyone swore Paul McCartney died in 1966 and was replaced by a lookalike named Billy Shears? The hosts untangle the bizarre web of "clues" fans claimed to find in Beatles album covers and songs played backward. Then there's the notorious Richard Gere gerbil rumor – a story so persistent it made its way into the movie "Scream" and prompted Barbara Walters herself to awkwardly address it during an interview.
From Mr. Rogers' supposed secret life as a deadly military sniper to the enduring debate about Bert and Ernie's relationship status, we explore why these myths take hold and what they reveal about our culture. The team brings their trademark humor to these dark corners of entertainment history, finding the humanity and absurdity beneath stories that wouldn't die. Whether you're hearing these tales for the first time or fondly remember sharing them on your middle school playground, this episode will make you question what other "facts" you've accepted without evidence.
Subscribe now and join our community of curious minds exploring entertainment's strangest corners. Leave a review to tell us your favorite Hollywood urban legend – we might feature it in a future episode!
Death in Entertainment is hosted by Kyle Ploof, Alejandro Dowling and Ben Kissel.
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Urban legends are Hollywood's version of playing telephone. They're like the original viral content no wifi required and spread the old fashioned way. Someone tells a wild story at an industry mixer, usually right after their third martini. Then the story gets picked up by an intern, who tells their friend, who tells their dentist, who tells their friend, who tells their dentist, who tells their cousin, and suddenly everyone's talking about that A-list actor who stuck a furry rodent up his ass. But did it really happen? Today we'll be debunking another round of outlandish tales of Tinseltown folklore. Was Paul McCartney replaced by a body double after a fatal car wreck? You know a lot of hardcore fans know these answers actually better than I do.
Speaker 1:Was Mr Rogers, a lethal sniper during the Vietnam War? Are Bert and Ernie more than friends and about to be killed off on Sesame Street? How are you feeling today, Bert Find? Out today on Bert Meh. Find out today on Death in Entertainment.
Speaker 3:Live from Los Angeles, 911,. What is your emergency? Here in Hollywood now? Two counts of murder, injury and death. Oh my God, shocking new details that has stunned the entertainment world. This makes me a little nervous. Emergency here in hollywood now two counts of murder, injury and death. Oh my god, shocking new details that has stunned the entertainment world. Um, this makes me a little nervous. The hair stood up on my arms, just like in the movies.
Speaker 6:we call this thing anyway death in entertainment greetings deado universe hi there, what's up? How's everybody doing? My name is Kyle Ploof.
Speaker 1:I'm Ben Kissel and I'm Alejandro.
Speaker 4:Dowling. Thank you all so much for listening to Death Entertainment. Check out the Patreon patreoncom slash diebud. Ok, bud and Death Entertainment have joined forces to give you content every single day of the week. So check out the Patreon comment and be a part of the show. Oh yeah Today, oh my lord, hope you have your spooky seatbelts on. We are talking Hollywood, urban Legends, part 3. And we will be making jokes okay. That's allowed.
Speaker 6:Yes, it will be scary, it will get dark, but we will bring the light to it, okay.
Speaker 1:Absolutely, but I heard a rumor that it's going to be a great episode you heard a rumor wow the birds are chirping.
Speaker 4:Wow, I love it.
Speaker 6:The reviews are in and they're good. Yeah, well, that's good and without further ado, let's get into it.
Speaker 1:Just to remind you, urban legends, those are those stories that people purport to be true. Yes, and they're usually not, but sometimes they are. Yes, they can be. Can you think of one that turned out to be true?
Speaker 4:we still don't know if richard gear did indeed have a hamster up his butthole in the 90s we don't know, but we are going to solve that today oh, fantastic wow, that is one of our topics, because we covered a lot of big ones on the first two volumes of our Urban Legends episodes.
Speaker 1:You remember that, kyle? Yes, ben, you missed it, but we did solve the legends of Mama Cass. She did not die choking on a sandwich. No, she didn't, but there was a half-eaten sandwich nearby, right?
Speaker 6:And they were just piling on being mean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, being rude, a munchkin did not kill him or herself on the set of the Wizard of Oz. Was that a stork? Yeah, it was a bird flying around Great. And then, finally, the Blair Witch Project was not real. Wait, what Much to Kyle's chagrin I thought it was real. Wait, what Much to Kyle's chagrin I thought it was real.
Speaker 4:I mean, why not? I want to believe it's real. It seemed real to me, man. All the camera was all shaky.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it wasn't until they were on the VMAs that I was like, wait, I thought they were all dead.
Speaker 4:You might be a little dumb. What do you mean?
Speaker 1:Yeah, they just released a snuff film. Yeah, in theaters all across america. Absolutely. And on the recent val kilmer episode, I would like to clear something up. Okay, he did that one man show about mark twain. Yes, and there is a famous citizen twain. Yes, and there's a famous quote attributed to mr twain the reports of my death are greatly exaggerated. Well, would you believe that he never said that?
Speaker 1:oh who said it? Nobody, no one. Well, someone did, he said something similar. Oh so, in 1897 there were reports that mark twain, aka sam Samuel Clemens, had died while traveling abroad, and to clear things up, he released an official statement on the London Wire. Okay, quote James Ross Clemens, a cousin of mine, was seriously ill two or three weeks ago in London but is well now. The report of my illness grew out of his illness, the report of my death. An exaggeration, oh it's loosely what he said.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's pretty much. I see Usually people who take on a fake name. Their original name is like Dinglebat Dumbledup, but his name, Samuel Clemens, is actually kind of cool, it is Sounds a little jazz singer-y.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't know which one I like, more Right, but Mark Twain sounds more folksy, I guess Like a storyteller.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And he actually died in 1909. Oh. And he was born during Halley's Comet and he died during Halley's Comet. The Halley's Comet, yeah.
Speaker 4:Wait, the one that the Heaven's Gate cult was waiting for.
Speaker 6:Yes.
Speaker 4:When they committed suicide in their Nikes. Yeah, I didn't know that Haley's Comet was commonly coming around. Yeah, what is this Haley's? Just a little tramp. Yeah.
Speaker 1:He actually died in 1910, but in 1909, that's when he predicted his death, because he said that since he came in with haley's comet, he's going out with it interesting. And so, on april 21st 1910, he died of a heart attack so he is tangentially tied to the heavens gate cult yeah, him and marshall applewhite are having whiskey together right now that is insane wow yeah, and I think that's a good lead-in to our first chapter, which I call, in my death, whoa.
Speaker 6:All right, yours all right, don't die.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you're here you're fine and it's about paul mccartney. This is a play on in my life.
Speaker 4:Oh, I get it.
Speaker 1:I like it the famous song.
Speaker 4:you know I don't know much of Paul McCartney's music oh really. I know. Wings and what's that? One very romantic, beautiful song In my Life Is that called In my Life? I don't know which one you're talking about Ebony and Ivory. No, not that one.
Speaker 6:That's the only one I know.
Speaker 4:It's the one where he's talking about how he loves somebody or something, and then I don't know.
Speaker 1:The Girl is Mine. I have no clue the Michael Jackson duet.
Speaker 4:It could be.
Speaker 1:Well, regardless, he wrote a lot of beautiful songs In 1966, there were reports that McCartney was going solo and that the Beatles were splitting up. They really weren't together for that long, which is wild. It was around like 63-ish to 1970. They did all that.
Speaker 4:It was crazy. That documentary they had where they showed all the unseen footage was fascinating.
Speaker 1:Respectful, but also a bit disagreeable. And then everyone blames John Lennon for having that gal around Fascinating. Respectful, but also a bit disagreeable.
Speaker 4:And then everyone blames John Lennon for having that gal around, but it looked like George Harrison was the one who had a whole vagabond, a whole crew of hippie gals that were more annoying than John Lennon's.
Speaker 1:More than Yoko.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's what they were saying. I think Yoko may have gotten a bad rap, wow.
Speaker 1:You hear that.
Speaker 4:That's an urban legend there that is not in there.
Speaker 1:No, george harrison and a bunch of groupies, they're all doing harry krishna stuff and I think they were more annoying than yoko in early 1967, word began to spread that paul mccartney died in a car crash on the m1 motorway, and it was during a particularly blustery winter storm in January 1967. Another version says he died on November 9th 1966, after angrily leaving a recording session.
Speaker 6:Okay, you pissed me off, john, I'm done. Now me dead.
Speaker 4:Very good. I didn't know there were an irish fan. We went looking for his gold coin. Hi did, I did. I met a leprechaun, was cursed and then he's dead yeah, yeah, matthew broderick ran him over.
Speaker 1:to avoid public grief and, of course, financial chaos, the Beatles decided to replace Paul with a lookalike, and his name was Billy Shears.
Speaker 6:Okay, billy Scissors.
Speaker 1:In another version it was William Campbell.
Speaker 6:Oh wow, Still another Billy.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so this was spreading not only all over England, but this hit the States as well, much like the British invasion. So the rumor was acknowledged and then rebutted in the February issue of the Beatles' monthly book.
Speaker 1:Dang, they had a whole magazine that came out once a month, of course. Wow, if Twin Peaks got a magazine, you'd think the Beatles wouldly Book Dang. They had a whole magazine that came out once a month. Of course, wow, if Twin Peaks got a magazine, you'd think the Beatles would have one. I suppose so, and in that article they claimed that neither he nor his black Mini Cooper had left the house that night.
Speaker 4:So his black Mini Cooper didn't become possessed and then drive itself, like it was written by Stephen King to go start a whole series of different chaotic things Like it used to be owned by James Dean.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's another urban legend. Really, the car he died in was sold.
Speaker 6:And the spare parts are going into different cars and killing everybody.
Speaker 1:Oh right, oh yeah, it was multiple.
Speaker 6:Yeah, it was a whole bunch of different, yeah.
Speaker 1:Multiple victims due to those spare parts pretty awesome.
Speaker 4:My car's muffler is trying to kill me, I know it.
Speaker 1:I don't know, scott, I think you might just be on meth, I am, but I also think my car's muffler is trying to kill me the rumor of mccartney's death really gained traction in September 1969 when Tim Harper, an editor of the Drake Times, the student newspaper at Drake University in Iowa, published an article titled Is Beetle Paul McCartney Dead? Oh, it's like the Badger Herald.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it is.
Speaker 1:This is a big-time deal Not quite as influential.
Speaker 4:Yeah, absolutely not. So really, the main person that spread this story was a newspaper reporter from a university.
Speaker 6:That's funny.
Speaker 4:Yeah, okay In Iowa.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it was already being passed around, but it was actually being taken somewhat seriously in this article. Now it's in print. Yes, and then, in October 1969, someone called into a Detroit radio station and told disc jockey Russ Gibb about the rumor, and so they spent the next hour going over clues and discussing it All right. And then, a couple days later, the Michigan Daily published a review that was meant to be satirical, but it was a review of abby road by a michigan student named fred labore I think what we're learning is there's not a lot going on in the midwest.
Speaker 1:Yeah, any information is they're they're gonna run with it fred labore had originally heard the discussion on the radio, got their theories about McCartney's death and so his article was called McCartney Dead. New Evidence Brought to Light. And in this article New evidence yeah, he outlines a bunch of reasons why he thinks Paul is dead and that he thinks the Beatles have hidden it in their music.
Speaker 1:Oh, god interesting, and this is where that sort of starts, because I don't know if you've ever heard that they possibly buried some clues in their albums and music yeah, a lot of people look through, look through their lyrics and, uh, they glean a lot of information that I don't know. Yeah, so this guy, labor, started that. Okay, so let's go through some of it. The White Album there's a song called Revolution no 9.
Speaker 4:Well, that's the one you want.
Speaker 1:That's the one that you light a doobie to or drop some acid, and then it makes perfect sense.
Speaker 4:Yeah, sounds like a great cologne to wear if you want to get with a chick with a lot of bush hair.
Speaker 1:I put on my revolution number nine. She's gonna love me and there's nothing wrong with bush hair. No, it isn't. Uh, macy gray on some kind of campaign to bring back the bush? Sure, why not? I swear that was you guys talked about it. I try to shave my bush and then choke, don't bother.
Speaker 4:That's for me to choke on.
Speaker 1:I'm not starting another urban legend. I swear, I learned it from you, ben. Well then it's got to be true. It was an article he shared. Yeah, we'll get into that another time.
Speaker 4:I've done a lot of research on Macy.
Speaker 5:Gray's bush.
Speaker 4:Kind of the go-to source on it.
Speaker 1:So when you play Revolution no 9, backwards, no 9 becomes Turn Me On Dead man. So let's hear a little of that Turn Me On Dead man.
Speaker 4:You a necrophiliac.
Speaker 5:Yeah, number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine, number nine.
Speaker 6:Ordering at McDonald's. Number nine number nine number nine this guy's hungry.
Speaker 1:He's feeding a village. Turn me on.
Speaker 5:Deadman, turn me on Deadman, turn me on, deadman, turn me on Deadman.
Speaker 6:You hear it. It tell me on deadman he wants to be brought back to life. I'm just talking to a guy named deadman, jewish guy deadman's brother who married a broke, oprah the deadman.
Speaker 4:Well, it's, uh, it's because you said the words, so then I can hear them yeah but I don't know if I would have gleaned that or picked that up if, uh, if you didn't tell me you're not stoned enough?
Speaker 1:no, I'm not, so let's go to strawberry fields forever. At the end of the song, you can hear john lennon saying I buried paul. You can hear John Lennon saying I buried.
Speaker 4:Paul. So John Lennon wouldn't do it, he'd have a bunch of servants do it. You see him digging a hole. No way.
Speaker 6:He's too busy hitting women.
Speaker 4:John Lennon. Oh yeah, hey, he did a loving.
Speaker 6:Yeah, he did.
Speaker 1:He was peaceful. Yeah well, have you heard Yoko, just kidding folks. Hey, cranberry sauce, cranberry sauce, cranberry sauce. Lennon claims that he said cranberry sauce. I wonder if we hear that again and listen for cranberry sauce, cranberry sauce.
Speaker 4:Now I hear that. No, I hear, I bury Paul. Oh boy, oh boy.
Speaker 1:So far these prove that they were just hungry. Yeah, trying to order at McDonald's Number nine, and now he wants cranberry sauce.
Speaker 6:With cranberry sauce.
Speaker 4:They had the munchies that British McDonald's is a hell of a lot better than ours If they got cranberry sauce. So he buried Paul. I could hear it.
Speaker 6:But didn't he die in like a car accident?
Speaker 4:Well, you still got to bury the body.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's not saying he murdered him, he just buried him.
Speaker 6:Okay.
Speaker 1:He may be a beater, but he's not a murderer.
Speaker 5:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And then we have A Day in the Life. Maybe this is the song you're thinking of. Well, the lyrics go on to say he blew his mind out in a car. Didn't notice that the lights had changed.
Speaker 4:It's about traffic. That's exciting. You know what song I was thinking of? What Baby? I'm Amazed.
Speaker 3:Maybe I'm Amazed.
Speaker 4:He doesn't even say it, Baby.
Speaker 1:He says maybe I'm amazed that's the name of the song. Maybe You're thinking of Baby. I Can Drive that Car no.
Speaker 4:Into a Ditch when Paul Lennon no, I just got the car tried. I thought he said Baby.
Speaker 6:I'm.
Speaker 4:Amazed the way you look at me and stuff. But he's saying Maybe I'm Amazed.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but he may be saying it to his baby. Well, just tell me if you are or not. I like how Ben's mind is blown, not over the urban legend, but that it's maybe instead of baby Totally ruins the song, doesn't it?
Speaker 4:Yeah, maybe I'm amazed.
Speaker 6:Are you or?
Speaker 4:not Let me know.
Speaker 1:Well, you know what, if you go to Buddy Holly, you get both. Oh okay, maybe, baby. There we go, wow, and now let's take a ride on the magical mystery tour.
Speaker 4:I'm scared. I don't want to go on this tour they're dressed as walruses.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's fun, but curiously, paul is dressed as a black walrus. Whoa, why is it? Going to be racial okay, which is a viking symbol of death oh interesting and this was referenced in the song glass onion from the white album as well and then on the photo inside the album there's a photo of the beatles in white tuxedos and they're all wearing carnations. The only one who has a black carnation is Paul, the rest are red, maybe he was trying to be a contrarian by dying Could be.
Speaker 4:What's more contrarian than that you want?
Speaker 1:me alive.
Speaker 4:Yeah right, buddy.
Speaker 1:I'll show you Joan. Paul is sitting behind a desk in another photo and his nameplate reads, quote I was as in. I was alive, and now I'm not, wow, past tense, I think he's dead. And then on the white album there's a photo of paul inside the sleeve with a skull in the background, and then, of course, the plain white cover is symbolic of death or absence man, this guy really had a chance to get out.
Speaker 4:You know he could stay alive. But everyone if he thinks, if everyone thinks he's dead, he could have had such a great, such a great time living as a ghost.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then Abbey Road. This is the time when the rumors are really spreading. Let's take a look at that cover. It looks like a funeral procession John's in white representing the preacher, ringo's in black and he's the undertaker. Paul is barefootfoot.
Speaker 6:The undertaker had to do it.
Speaker 1:Paul is barefoot and out of step and he's representing a corpse. And then you see George in denim like Leno.
Speaker 6:Yeah, they only have denim.
Speaker 1:You see this, kevin, it's warm In denim, like Leno. Yeah, they only have denim. You see this, kevin, it's warm. Yeah, it is pretty warm. Oh no, that's the fire. So George is the gravedigger.
Speaker 4:Okay, so they all have a role.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah. And Paul is seen holding a cigarette in his hand, his right hand specifically, even though he was left-handed.
Speaker 4:Oh, he can switch. Hit the cigarette no.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, this is his imposter.
Speaker 6:Oh, he forgot he was supposed to be lefty.
Speaker 1:I see Billy Shears. So, they're using Billy Shears to reference the fact that Paul is dead and Billy Shears is smoking all wrong Jeez, wow, shears, you have one job. Well, yeah, but maybe they didn't notice that he was left-handed. Could have just been a mistake, right? Yeah, absolutely. And then a VW Beetle is seen in the background with the license plate reading 28 IF, interpreted as 28 if Paul had lived, okay, all right.
Speaker 4:I like it, I'm with it. I feel that, yeah, he would have been 28 if he would have lived, but unfortunately he's dead. Yep, he died doing what he loved. He's kind of driving into a ravine, maybe so he's part of the 27 club then allegedly supposedly yeah okay, and remember that student, fred labore.
Speaker 1:He later admitted that all his theories were a bunch of rubbish. Wow, I say, they check out, though they seem to check out.
Speaker 4:Well, that's I mean. Come on, If you're going to be a conspiracy theorist, this is your burden. You've got to stick with it until the end.
Speaker 6:It's all like gossipy moms and aunts that are just like. They say that Paul was replaced and they're like, who's they? Just they.
Speaker 4:Just that you know, paul was replaced and they're like who's? They? Just stay, just stay. You know? No, you gotta go out like bill cooper. If you're gonna be a conspiracy theorist, you can't backtrack yeah, how did tipper gore discover that plain ozzy?
Speaker 1:backwards you hear hail, satan. I think she did a lot of heavy drugs in the 80s I wouldn't be surprised her name is Tipper. She was such a psycho, oh my God. So Paul addressed the rumors in an interview with Life magazine oh, that's ironic. And he stated firmly quote I'm alive and well.
Speaker 4:Sounds like something someone dead would say.
Speaker 1:Can't fool me asshole would say yeah, can't fool me, asshole. And later on, paul mccartney parodied the hoax with the title of his 1993 live album paul is live. What do we think?
Speaker 4:I think that he might be alive, no matter. It gave us a great comedy skit from the one and only Chris Farley from the Chris Farley Show, which was an SNL sketch where Chris Farley was like people said you died, is that true?
Speaker 3:And then Paul was like no, it's not true, chris.
Speaker 4:I would think he's probably still alive, because if he was a body double, I don't know, would you Well, I don't know, would you Well, I don't know.
Speaker 1:Who knows. I have a question though Would he do that duet with Michael Jackson, the body double? That seems kind of Billy Shears-ish.
Speaker 5:What was Paul?
Speaker 1:racist? No, no, I just mean, you know, it seems a little below him, michael.
Speaker 4:Jackson, what? No, that's Just the song itself.
Speaker 1:Look, I sort of love the song, but it is so corny, oh it's super corny, you know, it's kind of like the turd in the punch bowl of the Thriller album.
Speaker 6:They were trying too hard to establish a cultural moment.
Speaker 1:And it's kind of weird that Michael Jackson is so much younger and they're both having a schoolboy argument over a girl. She says I'm her forever lover. Shut up, billy Shears.
Speaker 6:Whoa, you're in.
Speaker 4:What if Paul could have both? What if he got his cake and ate it too, where he's still alive? But he gets to have this stunt double, like he's Saddam Hussein? And then he's like I really don't want to go to Poughkeepsie for this concert, shears, you're on it. But then it's like Coachella and he's like you know what? I'll go to Southern California, shears, you're out.
Speaker 1:Right, but wouldn't I don't know, wouldn't it be better just to lay low and look at John Lennon's legacy? He died so he couldn't do anything more. And he died so he couldn't do anything more. Right, and that's enough. I think Paul McCartney had done enough, so he should have just done what Elvis did Faked his death, disappeared and then get accidentally seen in the background of Home Alone. Okay, so I don't think we believe this one.
Speaker 4:No, I think Paul's alive, he's alive.
Speaker 1:All right, that brings us to our next chapter, called An Officer and a Gerbilman, oh boy. Or American Gerbilo I like that or Pretty Wombat, it works.
Speaker 4:I learned a lot about the wombat on my Instagram, did you? Yes, you know how they kill their prey, how With their butts. What, how? Apropos? Yes, they really have no defense mechanism. So they run towards their hole and then their predator comes to try to get them, and then they squeeze their heads with their butts, they twerk them to death.
Speaker 6:Wow, jesus.
Speaker 4:Yeah, because apparently their butts are real hard. There's a cartilage in there. So that's how the wombat evolved.
Speaker 1:Holy shit, it's pretty exciting Elton John's going hey, where can I get one of those? Why wouldn't you? So I have a little story here. By the way, elton John was attributed to a similar rumor as Richard Gere years earlier. Oh, okay, where he was having fun at a party.
Speaker 6:He killed a man with his ass.
Speaker 1:He got a little out of hand, he got wombed at it. And then he collapsed and people rushed him to the ER.
Speaker 6:No, he prolapsed Possibly.
Speaker 1:And they pumped his stomach to save him, but instead of alcohol, it was semen. Kyle's heard this one. Oh, okay, okay, okay, we get it.
Speaker 4:That's also been attributed to rod stewart I just don't see either of them as being big guzzlers. I feel like they're both spitters for some reason they make other people guzzle yeah, they're fancy boys or receivers or receivers, of course, in the uh, that's course.
Speaker 6:They're the givers.
Speaker 1:In the other place. Certainly more sanitary, right, I suppose. So Are we ready for story time? Yeah, grab your popcorn. It all started in early 1990. We're in a Los Angeles emergency room. The lights are flickering. It was a quiet night, almost too quiet. A bored er nurse, sick of the usual sprains and stitches, turned her equally bored co-worker and said sure is a slow night. Huh, then all of a sudden, in through the doors comes Richard Gere. He's severely distressed and walking. Kind of funny, his buddy is helping him stand up straight.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 1:In the exam room. They request complete discretion. The doctor looks at Richard Gere and asks what happened.
Speaker 7:How much time you got? Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 1:Richard Gere points downward and the doctor pulls down Richard Gere's pants. Uh-oh, and he's shocked. Inside Richard Gere's pants Uh-oh, and he's shocked. Inside Richard Gere's ass is a dead gerbil.
Speaker 4:Oh, it died. Oh, it couldn't even scratch its way out.
Speaker 1:And luckily for Richard Gere, he just had some scratches. That's good Good and they patched him up. Unfortunately, the gerbil, as I mentioned, did pass away, Unfortunate. So they sent it to the local vet and they told the vet don't repeat what I'm about to tell you.
Speaker 4:I thought the vet told him not to Don't repeat that again, Richard.
Speaker 1:This came from Richard Gere's ass. Okay, wow, and yeah to Richard Gere, of course, after they gave him a lollipop, they said In his ass you be.
Speaker 6:Well that's Per his request, yeah.
Speaker 1:They said we don't want to see you here again like this. And all was well, Except remember those bored nurses.
Speaker 6:Oh, they told everybody well, and it got to all of our high schools.
Speaker 1:One nurse told her sister the next day and then her sister told her co-worker the day after that and then her co-workers. You get the point yeah right, it kind of went downhill there and that's where it started.
Speaker 4:Yes, uh, I just did have to search if an animal could live in an anus. Apparently, no, oh, wow, yeah, it's not good.
Speaker 1:A lot of waste in there, so the animals really can't live that long which is unfortunate, oh that's too bad, right, it's like that planet on the Empire Strikes Back, where they fly their ship into it and they realize they're inside a worm. Oh yeah, maybe that's what the gerbil's experience is like, right, yeah, before he takes his last breath, oh poor guy, poor guy, I mean.
Speaker 4:At least he died inside of a movie star.
Speaker 1:That's kind of cool, so this is called gerbiling. That's kind of cool, so this is called gerbiline Inserting small live animals into one's rectum to obtain stimulation.
Speaker 4:Guys, when you guys said we were going to come over for gerbiline, I thought that was a soup. I thought that was a nice soup that you guys were going to cook me. I did not realize it was going to be on my stomach with a gerbil crawling into my ass, and this started in the mid-1980s.
Speaker 1:Oh, it had a moment. Sometimes it involved a mouse instead of a gerbil well, that's mousing I blame the cocaine, and then sometimes to other male celebrities, but none gained traction like richard gear I mean it made all the way.
Speaker 4:It made it all the way to Stevens Point, Wisconsin.
Speaker 1:So this is crazy Around. The time Pretty Woman was released, it was a monster hit and it put Julia Roberts on the map.
Speaker 6:It put a gerbil in his ass.
Speaker 4:Yep, absolutely. Maybe that's what he paid for. That's why he had to get a sex worker, because he wanted to do something a little outside the norm. Hey, pretty gerbil Walking in my ass. He had to get a sex worker because he wanted to do something a little outside the norm.
Speaker 1:Hey, pretty gerbil walking in my ass an anonymously circulated fax lands in hollywood offices and in hundreds of newsrooms there were facsimiles sent about this yes, and it's supposedly from an animal rights group that's protesting richard gear's inhumane treatment of gerbils wow so they believed it right away and people tried to figure out where the facts originated and to this day they do not know has richard gear commented on this? That is a great question and I have the answer to that. Oh wow, he's commented on this story exactly once, okay.
Speaker 1:And this is a really rare interview that I've actually searched for for years and I finally found it last night.
Speaker 4:No, yes, it's just one of those things where if you have to say no, I never shoved a gerbil in my ass, everyone listening is like I think he may have shoved a gerbil in his ass. It just sucks to have to deny it. Why even talk about it? Why talk about it? What if I did? Why talk about it?
Speaker 1:And so now for your viewing and listening pleasure. This is the infamous interview between Barbara Walters and Richard Gere.
Speaker 4:Barbara Walters mentioned this. This is incredible From 1991.
Speaker 1:Wow.
Speaker 5:In recent years there's been a smear campaign Vicious. We had it ourselves when it came out that we were going to interview you. Nasty letters Really, yeah, really Do you have any idea why anyone would want to hurt you or embarrass you or try to smear you.
Speaker 7:No, I've been in the public eye for you tell me how long? 15 years, 20 years, maybe? No, not that long, maybe 15 years. There have been a lot of ridiculous things.
Speaker 5:Well, I'm not going to delineate this in the air because it is so, so, so rotten. But it hurt us that we were getting this kind of information.
Speaker 7:What.
Speaker 5:And we couldn't understand.
Speaker 7:I should clarify what you're talking about. You probably can't even say it on the air. No, I can't and I won't Well you are, so Does it bother me personally? No.
Speaker 5:Does any of this?
Speaker 7:bother me personally, no Does any of this bother me personally. No, people have their own motivations for doing crazy things, you know, and it has nothing to do with me. If I'm a cow and someone says I'm a zebra, does it make me a zebra?
Speaker 4:Sure, if I'm an actor, you know, and then all of a sudden someone says I have a gerbil up my ass, it doesn't make me an actor with a gerbil up his ass.
Speaker 1:I like how she says it hurt her. I think it hurt Richard more, I'm sure it did With that scratching.
Speaker 4:I think it hurt the gerbil the most. Also, barbara Walters. It's just so funny. She was a respected journalist and in hindsight, all of her interviews are trash.
Speaker 6:Yeah, they're so bad, they don't hold up at all.
Speaker 1:I find her entertaining. She is very entertaining and she's responsible for the only time he's publicly commented on it.
Speaker 4:They got a bunch of angry letters.
Speaker 6:Oh, my God.
Speaker 1:Please they had a good laugh over it. Probably H. Oh, my God, please they had a good laugh over it. Probably Hurt by it.
Speaker 4:He should have just gone everywhere with a skeleton of a gerbil in his pocket and just pulled it out.
Speaker 6:In a jar.
Speaker 1:And she acts like she's Pollyanna Right. What does she think people do with gerbils? Sure.
Speaker 4:They go gerbiling yeah.
Speaker 1:So I mean, this permeated the culture. So I mean, this permeated the culture. Let's listen to this scene from Scream, when Nev Campbell is talking about the rumors about her dead mom and then Rose McGowan says something.
Speaker 7:And you believe it Well.
Speaker 4:I mean, you can only hear that Richard Gere gerbil story so many times before you have to start believing it. I just picture Richard Gere in the movie theater, just be like, really, what the fuck? Really, come on, man, can I enjoy this movie without you guys talking about this gerbil in my ass?
Speaker 1:Finally a horror flick I'm enjoying. This is great. Then he gets to that scene. It's really meta, huh.
Speaker 4:Wow.
Speaker 1:And supposedly Kevin Williamson and Wes Craven were afraid of including that line in the movie. The studio didn't want them to because, it names a name.
Speaker 4:Right, yeah, and they did it anyway, and no one's like helped by this story.
Speaker 1:Right. Mike Walker, the gossip columnist from the National Enquirer, spent months trying to verify the Richard Gere story. This is his Truman Capote moment. I've never worked harder on a story in my life and after a lot of investigation he couldn't find any evidence. Quote I'm convinced that it's nothing more than an urban legend.
Speaker 4:Wow, thank you for your crack research, butt crack research.
Speaker 1:I think that maybe he was outspoken. There are some blind items, that he wasn't very nice behind the scenes as well, which it's hard to believe because he's Richard Gere. He seems like a nice great guy.
Speaker 4:You know actors they're always going to be a little divas yeah.
Speaker 1:And in 1993 at the Oscars, he went off script and condemned China and urged them to free Tibet. See there you go. And then he was banned from the Oscars for 20 years. Will Smith got 10 years I know it's bullshit and he was the only cast member of Chicago that was not nominated for an Oscar. I mean, even Queen Latifah got a freaking nomination, yeah.
Speaker 6:Wow, china's like free Tibet. How about you free the animals from your colon, asshole? Yeah, leave us alone.
Speaker 1:Leave us alone. Wow, maybe one of the Academy members was a gerbil owner.
Speaker 4:Yeah, you never know. You never know Really the rhyme or reason, but it did get political huh.
Speaker 1:Yes, yes, he, it did get political, huh, yes, yes, he's always been political, but you know, great actor.
Speaker 4:Great actor absolutely he acted like he didn't have a gerbil in his ass that whole interview.
Speaker 6:He did lean over and start scratching his ass, which I thought he was doing as a bit, but I don't even think he noticed he was doing it.
Speaker 4:I think it has happened before. You do Not with him per se, Okay, but certainly at a Hollywood party. People have explored what it's like to have rodents inside their buttholes.
Speaker 6:Oh, definitely I do believe it has occurred.
Speaker 4:And I wouldn't be surprised if it happened and then someone's just like, let's say it was Richard and it went from there.
Speaker 1:They say that it's never happened, period, that there's no evidence out there.
Speaker 4:Oh, there's got to be evidence. I mean, I've covered so many news stories, I'm sure I'll find a news story right now, okay.
Speaker 6:All right.
Speaker 1:Report back to us.
Speaker 6:What Kyle Thank you In our Patreon chat. Vanessa saying, urban legend or not, in my world Richard Gere had a gerbil in his ass.
Speaker 1:And good for him if he did. I mean, he was dating Cindy Crawford at the time.
Speaker 4:Oh well, that's a beard. There's no way that wasn't a real relationship she wasn't furry enough.
Speaker 5:No.
Speaker 1:All right, that brings us to our next chapter, which is called Eat Pray Snipe, and I have a couple of quick little vignettes here from figures, famous figures that might surprise you. Okay, they were all snipers in a previous life. Okay, dave Thomas, you remember him From Wendy's. From Wendy's, he's the guy that told you to buy the Big Bacon Classic for 99 cents. Support my daughter. And he pushed down on the patties. That was the big thing at Wendy's.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 1:They smushed the patties. I don't like that. An early incarnation of the Smashburger, perhaps.
Speaker 4:Indeed, but the Smashburger would require some juice in that meat.
Speaker 6:Keep the grease in my burger.
Speaker 4:Also just to go back just for a second. According to folklorist Jan Harold Brunbon, there are a lot of accounts going back to 1984, of gerbling and it does involve a mouse or a gerbil Accounts. There's accounts.
Speaker 6:Accounts receivable.
Speaker 4:But there were no reports in peer-reviewed medical literature.
Speaker 1:So there was no peer-reviewed. If they didn't see a rodent in someone's ass, then I don't believe it.
Speaker 4:According to Dan Savage, sex advice columnist, he discusses these things In 2013,. He says that he has never received a first-hand or even second-hand account of the practice. So he would know. So maybe it hasn't happened.
Speaker 1:I'd bet that it would, and one of the weirder aspects is Richard Gere produced movies. Later on he produced that movie, furry Vengeance, did he? No, he didn't.
Speaker 6:Oh god dammit.
Speaker 1:The gerbil's revenge.
Speaker 4:Okay, back to Dave Thomas. No, he didn't. Oh, God damn it. The gerbil's revenge.
Speaker 1:Okay, back to Dave Thomas. Yes, please Sorry.
Speaker 4:I used to work at Wendy's. I love it.
Speaker 1:Oh, he went under the tutelage of I was going to say Colonel Mustard. Who's the chicken guy, colonel?
Speaker 4:Sanders.
Speaker 1:Colonel Sanders.
Speaker 4:It was Colonel Mustard with the square sandwich in the library.
Speaker 1:So that's where he learned the trade and opened Wendy's eventually. Well before all that, did you know that he was a member of the National Guard?
Speaker 4:I did not know.
Speaker 1:And he started in Ohio, ohio. Well, one sunny day, may 4th 1970, he was called to Kent State University. Oh my God To you know, make sure that the protest that was going on there remained calm.
Speaker 4:This is the very famous Neil Young song.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, it got a little out of hand. Yeah Well, it got a little out of hand. And Dave Thomas was the one who fired the first shot that killed one of four students that day.
Speaker 6:Oh, daddy in Ohio.
Speaker 1:And the decision haunted Dave Thomas to the day he died. Wow, and Wendy's PR team was sweating every night after that hoping that story didn't come out. That's very interesting, because if you knew that, you weren't going to buy the Baconator, but you know what we still would, wouldn't we? Maybe, yeah. It is pretty good, especially the pretzel bun.
Speaker 4:Oh, the pretzel bun's fantastic. Wendy's really is a great burger, but did they even have the Baconator yet? Probably not.
Speaker 1:No, that's a new concept, I think.
Speaker 4:I mean, the Baconator does sound like it was created by a chef that's killed a lot of college students, yeah.
Speaker 1:Or maybe a tie-in with the Schwarzenegger movie Could be. Well, the facts say that there's no evidence that Dave Thomas was in the National Guard oh, not at all in the National Guard even but I think he was in Ohio at the same time this happened.
Speaker 4:Okay, that's loose, that's loose, all right, I give him a pass because Wendy's has been good. It's been good for a long time.
Speaker 1:Remember Mr Rogers, of course. Oh, don't ruin this for me so most remember him as that friendly tv host, church abiding family man. Well, what if I told you he was a sniper during the korean war, a marine I could actually see this because he was very calm and the documentary about him.
Speaker 4:It'll make you cry. But he said he was always afraid of being angry because he never knew what he would do. So that's why he would speak in character if he got mad, because he was afraid of his own rage, didn't want to release the demon inside. He didn't want to release it. So maybe that was the PTSD from being a sniper.
Speaker 1:Fred Rogers was recruited by a top secret US elite Marine unit.
Speaker 4:That explains he changes his shoes every time he enters a room.
Speaker 6:Oh yeah, no tracks.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and he was one of the most lethal operatives in US military history. His thing, you know. Everyone has their thing. He was known for never speaking during the missions, and so they called him the cleric.
Speaker 6:He wasn't speaking, the puppets were.
Speaker 4:Yeah exactly I'm going to kill you. I just sent that son of a bitch to the land of make-believe.
Speaker 1:They called him the cleric for his chilling precision and quiet, calm demeanor Cool. It's said that he once took out three officers at over 700 yards using a scoped M1 Garand, then vanished into the snow without leaving a footprint See I believe it.
Speaker 4:I believe that there is something about Mr Rogers, All those old-timers we used to talk to. They all had blood on their hands.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 4:And then I remember my grandfather. He would take his dentures out and I'd be like what are you having in your teeth? But then God knows what he did in Korea.
Speaker 1:You don't want to know I don't want to know. When Mr Rogers returned home, he swore an oath to never take another life, and so he devoted the rest of his years to teaching peace, kindness and emotional intelligence to little kids, the only people he ever wanted to kill bozo the clown.
Speaker 4:He would have killed bozo I think the show is stupid he also didn't like modern action like tmnt and stuff like that. He was mad at the way that children were being taught.
Speaker 1:Well, he didn't like them watching shows about mutated turtles Violence stupidity, things of that nature he wanted children to learn the right things. You mentioned Bozo the Clown. There's actually an urban legend where there was an early episode of that show where a kid was fed up with him and said Cram it clown live on TV.
Speaker 6:Oh, wow, oh wow, did he kill him?
Speaker 1:I would kill him and from then on he became a simpsons character and you want to know why mr rogers wore long sleeve shirts and sweaters covered in tats. Yes, it was to conceal the tattoos that represented each of his kills.
Speaker 4:I could see it, bro. I could see him being a Ned Flanders type speaking Takes off his shirt, just completely jacked, yeah, covered in tats.
Speaker 1:And our last sniper is Henry John Deutchendorf Jr.
Speaker 4:Are you German? By any chance, I'm.
Speaker 1:Deutchendorf I'm Canadian Better known as his stage name John Denver. See, now that stage name is an improvement.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 6:Deutschendorf.
Speaker 1:Deutschendorf. He was stationed in Vietnam in the late 1960s and he was also a sniper, and his technique was legendary. It was called the Denver Method. Oh God, You've heard of the Denver Omelet. Yeah Well, instead of cracking eggs, he was cracking skulls. I like that.
Speaker 4:All right, I mean he could just sing them some of his sweet lullabies and put the enemy to sleep. I do like him, but a little dull.
Speaker 1:He would hide out in a tree with the sun in a certain position behind him, and then he'd wait for his prey to come into range. And when they did, he would make a low whistling sound to get their attention. And then, when they'd look up, they would be momentarily blinded by the sun, and that's when Deutschendorf Jr would fire his weapon.
Speaker 6:Yeah, that's the Deutschendorf Jr would fire his weapon.
Speaker 4:Yeah, that's the Deutchendorf method that's better Is that where he came up with that song Sunshine on my Shoulders?
Speaker 1:It is Really he killed dozens of Viet Cong using the Denver method, and later he was decorated with a ton of Purple Hearts A ton One ton of Purple Hearts.
Speaker 1:And so after coming back to the states, like mr rogers, he felt really guilty about what he had done and he decided to take up music like, hey, I'll give this a try. Right, and one of his biggest hits sunshine on my shoulders was his admission of guilt. Well, he's talking about how it makes him happy. Let's listen to a second of that to remind people. It doesn't seem like he's very guilty. It does sound more ominous now that you know his history, though I have to say yes sunshine on my shoulders makes me happy
Speaker 1:oh my god, the last words you hear before you're popped in the head by johnny d, but when I did a little fact checking I found out that he's never been to Vietnam, not at all. No, not even on tour or anything. No, no, especially not on tour.
Speaker 6:Has he been in?
Speaker 1:the sun, do we?
Speaker 6:know that no.
Speaker 1:And he hated Colorado, did he really? No, no, oh yeah, His songs are about I'm a country boy, rocky.
Speaker 4:Mountain. Yeah, that does make sense, though, because what did he die? In A helicopter or a plane crash?
Speaker 1:He made his own plane and then that crashed. And it crashed, oh wow, the propeller went right through his head. Oh, that's not good. Can't write a song about that? I mean sunshine on my shoulders.
Speaker 6:Right song. About that I mean sunshine on my shoulders.
Speaker 1:Right, that's the old, because there's no head to block, there's no shadow. Pano man in our patreon chat is saying rocky mountain high, and to the left, to the left, okay. So that brings us to our next chapter, called the trench connection, and it's about an underground tunnel that was found at Gene Hackman's estate.
Speaker 4:The most recent one, the New Mexico joint.
Speaker 5:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:And this is our most recent urban legend. That's kind of fun, right, wow. So the claim is that, following Gene Hackman's untimely death, the FBI discovered a secret tunnel under his home where over 700 bodies were found. Oh my Well, that would explain all the rats. Yeah, Good God yeah his wife, of course, died of the Hantavirus, the.
Speaker 4:Hantavirus and they have just come out and said that he was not dehydrated, but his stomach was completely empty, so he just had a week where he didn't eat and was walking around the corpse of his wife. Poor guy that is so sad empty. So he just had a week. Oh, he didn't eat and was walking around the corpse of his wife. Poor guy that is so sad, right?
Speaker 1:so this tunnel theory seems to have originated in a youtube video posted by a channel called the ultimate discovery, and it has over a million views. It's got to be true, and let's watch a little clip of this video as they combed through the property, one agent stumbled upon a hidden trap door.
Speaker 3:Beneath it lay a dark tunnel, its air thick with decay Stepping inside. Their flashlights flickered over walls smeared with dried blood. Scattered across the floor were human remains, bones cracked and flesh rotting. The deeper they went, the more horrifying the sight became. Dozens of bodies, lifeless eyes staring into the abyss. Who had done this and why? The tunnel seemed endless, whispering secrets of terror. Then a sudden noise echoed ahead, a chilling laugh. Someone or something was still there watching them. Had they just found the lair of a serial killer? Let us have your opinions in the comment below. What?
Speaker 4:How many bodies did they find?
Speaker 1:Over 700.
Speaker 4:Well, that seems like it would have been a bigger story.
Speaker 1:And a bunch of artifacts and weird maps and notes, wow, okay. Well, there's a disclaimer in the description of the video that says, quote, quote the content presented in our videos is intended solely for entertainment purposes. Okay, and no credible news outlet has ever reported on this. Wow, story.
Speaker 4:it's a lot about it like I mean, what uh john wayne gaze he had? What 28 in the floorboards that made international press? 700 would have made it a big news story, I think.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely that's a lot, so I think we can categorize that as false. That one might be false yeah.
Speaker 4:So, far, I think the Richard Gere one is the closest one to being true. Yes, that and Wendy's. I could see that, dave Thomas, he had a lust for blood A fire under his belly. He had a fire under his belly, although they were grilled Actually, the meats were grilled- so our next chapter is called Burt Back Mountain.
Speaker 1:Oh, about Burt and Ernie.
Speaker 4:Oh, America's favorite straight couple yeah.
Speaker 1:So the claim is that Bert and Ernie are secretly a gay couple.
Speaker 6:Bumping fuzzies.
Speaker 1:And then it goes a little further, that Ernie is dying of AIDS. What? This is not a laughing matter.
Speaker 6:Very serious. Well, he's got a hand up his ass at all times.
Speaker 4:Well, that's the thing. I'd rather have a gerbil up there.
Speaker 1:In 1980, kurt Anderson, who later founded Spy Magazine, wrote an essay about Bert and Ernie, quote they conduct themselves in the same loving, discreet way that millions of gay men, women and ham puppets do. They do their jobs well and live a splendidly settled life together in an impeccably decorated cabinet.
Speaker 4:All right, I guess, so I never really thought their house was that nice, and let's watch a clip from the show.
Speaker 1:Decide for yourself, all right. So this is a moment where Ernie is reading poetry, which the yellow one is Bert, right yeah. So Ernie's reading Bert a poem at bedtime and in their room they sleep in the same room, of course.
Speaker 4:Well, Kyle and I do that.
Speaker 1:On the wall is a framed photo of Bert and Ernie together.
Speaker 2:Yes, Listen, listen. The park by Ernie. I like flowers, I like dirt, but most of all I like Bert.
Speaker 3:Oh, hmm. Hey.
Speaker 1:Ernie that's beautiful. It's a beautiful poem, it rhymes and everything Okay pause it for a second. Bert's going to visit his brother, bart. So he Now this is a later time, when Bert is out of town and Ernie is just beside himself Bert's going- to visit his brother, bart, so he's not here.
Speaker 2:But I won't be lonely tonight, no, sir, because I'm going to put this pillow under Bert's blanket here and that'll look just like Bert's body, see. And then I've got this picture I did of Bert's face. I put it there on the pillow and now it looks just like Bert's asleep in bed here, right, bert? Tickle, tickle, tickle.
Speaker 4:Come, bert Give it a nice little hump. Ernie, did you kill Bert? Because that is extremely creepy alright. Well, yes, love is in the air, much like Ren and Stimpy, who are now an openly gay couple as well yeah, I'm happy for them, good for them. So, yeah, I mean, they live together, they bathe together, yeah, I believe this is not even a conspiracy at this point.
Speaker 1:Eventually, tv Guide began receiving letters that were complaining about Sesame Street condoning a same-sex relationship. They're Muppets, and conservative commenters ranted about how the characters should be banned from the show.
Speaker 6:TV Guide didn't create the show. Why are they complaining to a magazine?
Speaker 4:There was even a rumor. They just needed somewhere to complain.
Speaker 1:There was even a rumor that the two were going to get married in an upcoming episode. This is a similar situation as Tinky Winky from Teletubbies.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, that's right. Wasn't Tinky Winky transgender or something Well?
Speaker 1:at least gay, yeah, okay, and you know, maybe trans, we don't know, we don't know. Times were different then, but yeah, that was a little more blatant than even Bert and Ernie.
Speaker 4:It's just so funny.
Speaker 1:Because Tinky Winky was purple.
Speaker 4:I mean, it's just so funny.
Speaker 1:Tinky winky was purple. I mean, am I right, folks? Am I right?
Speaker 4:I don't even know, I don't know and held a purse, isn't? That wacky it's just so funny now too, because I, because of uh caden kyle's kid, I've been watching some sesame street yeah and kids don't give a shit. No, they don't even think about this stuff of course not.
Speaker 1:It's all the parents. There was a 2011 petition to request that the characters actually get married.
Speaker 4:Oh okay, people, I wanted it I also don't need them to get married yeah, and interestingly in 2013, when the supreme court made the same-sex marriage legal.
Speaker 1:Excuse me, I'm for cl Clint.
Speaker 6:New York versus Sesame Street.
Speaker 1:Bird and Ernie appeared on the cover of the New Yorker, cuddled up together watching a TV showing the Supreme Court justices.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I don't really need to think about them having sex with each other. That should have been.
Speaker 6:Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.
Speaker 4:It was fine.
Speaker 1:Really throw people for one. And here's the official statement from the Children's Television Workshop which produces Sesame Street. Quote Bert and Ernie do not portray a gay couple. They are puppets, not humans. I love that response named Mark Saltzman said that they are indeed a gay couple and that he based their dynamic as a quote loving couple on his own relationship oh OK. There you go.
Speaker 4:They both like to have a bunch of hands stuck up their ass. Yeah, I love it. Good for them.
Speaker 1:So now let's get to the dying business Jim Henson's sudden departure due to toxic shock syndrome in 1990. That's how he died, yeah, and that's a future episode.
Speaker 6:That's what happens when you leave a tampon in too long.
Speaker 1:Oh yeah, I do. All the time Jesus Richard Gere's going. What are you up to, mr Henson?
Speaker 6:Just trying to keep that gerbil in.
Speaker 1:He's got Remy the Rat up there, so this sparked rumors that the show was going to kill off the character of Ernie, who Henson provided the voice for.
Speaker 4:I mean that would be a really dramatic episode.
Speaker 1:If that was true, it wouldn't have been the first time that Sesame Street or the Muppets had confronted mortality head on, because in 1982, actor Will Lee died and on the show he portrayed Mr Hooper, the affable owner of the local general store, and rather than writing him off, they came up with the idea that Big Bird would learn that he's gone and not coming back, and we have a short clip from that.
Speaker 4:Life lessons. Where is he?
Speaker 1:I want to give it to him. I know he's in the store.
Speaker 5:Big Bird. He's not in there, oh.
Speaker 7:Where is he? Big Bird, don't you remember? We told you.
Speaker 4:Mr Hooper died. He's dead.
Speaker 5:Oh yeah.
Speaker 2:I remember. Well, I'll give it to him when he comes back.
Speaker 4:Oh my God.
Speaker 1:Not the sharpest bird. It's too sad.
Speaker 4:It's too sad, oh my God.
Speaker 1:I like how she couldn't be clearer. He's dead, he's never coming back. Six feet under, oh Lord, pushing daisies, you feel me? It's okay, I'll just wait here. I'll just wait.
Speaker 6:That's fine, maybe.
Speaker 1:Big Bird killed him, you never know. And the Muppets dealt with the death of their creator, jim Henson, in a TV special at the time, with the production number called just one person, where they find out that he's gone. So anyway, jim henson dies, and then there's the rumor that ernie is now gonna die. So in a 1991 letter to the editor of the new hampshire sunday news, another college student here a student protested. The morbid idea, quote their plan is to slowly deteriorate ernie by giving the viewing audience the impression that he has leukemia, eventually killing him. What no? And so then the student launched a petition to save the character of Ernie, please, not leukemia. And in another version, ernie has AIDS, not leukemia, and that he has been suffering for years, hence his sickly appearance. Yellow and orange skin, oh. Sunken eyes, okay.
Speaker 6:I've been using injectables, Bert.
Speaker 1:And this rumor of AIDS spread during the height of the epidemic in the late 80s, early 90s, and so in the same press release from the Children's Television Workshop, they stated, quote Ernie is alive and well and we have no intention of anything happening to him or anyone else.
Speaker 4:Thank, you God. What are we even talking about?
Speaker 1:here and I will say that, unlike the gerbil, ernie did not die Good and he in fact thrived for the rest of the 90s, as when they came up with the sleep and snore doll, which became one of the hottest gifts of the holiday season next to Tickle Me, elmo.
Speaker 4:All right, there you go, sleep and snore, get tickled awake Very fun.
Speaker 1:So what do we think? Do you think that was ever going to happen? First of all, are they gay? Yes, and did they plan to kill off?
Speaker 4:Ernie, I agree with you, they are Muppets, they are puppets. But yes, I do think they represent a gay couple and I, maybe they were. Maybe they were.
Speaker 6:I think they're just roommates and that they they only really have you know, kyle believes the propaganda Three rooms in their home. They're just, you know, struggling guys. So they in their home, they're just struggling guys. So they have to share a one-bedroom apartment together. It's more of a tale of the times.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but if you had a roommate, you don't put a pillow under the blanket and put a statue of his head where his head usually is.
Speaker 6:Well, he's got issues. I don't know if that's gayness or complete psychopathy.
Speaker 4:It might be Okay, that might be true, alright. So maybe Ernie is obsessed with Bert and it's more of almost a kidnap situation.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh, like unrequited love. It could be the case Also.
Speaker 4:Do straight guys, the only way to get on this is Jenny Jones, jenny Jones, jenny Jones, the TV host from the 90s, so that Bert will murder Ernie. Well, so that we would know exactly what happened.
Speaker 6:One of my favorite websites from the early internet was burtisevilcom, and do you guys remember this at all? No, it showed him doing coke with a bunch of strippers and stuff this one he's riding with the KKK. Oh, so I mean, you never know what Burt's up to, jeez.
Speaker 4:I mean we just know he was hanging out with his buddy Bart. B know what Bert's up to Jeez? I mean we just know he was hanging out with his buddy Bart.
Speaker 1:They sound like they might be Klansmen Right, who he called his brother. Hello. Also, do straight guys usually pose for photos together and then frame it and hang it up on the wall in the bedroom that they share? Is that a straight thing to do?
Speaker 6:They might be autistic.
Speaker 4:Oh, please, they're on the spectrum. Muppet World might be different. Maybe they have different societal norms. I'm not exactly sure. The thing is they don't have genitalia.
Speaker 6:Yeah.
Speaker 4:So not that you require that, but I don't think there's no like who's the top, who's the bottom? Hold on, though, because I don't know if they have the ability to even do that.
Speaker 1:I have an opinion on that. It is movie and TV show magic. You're not supposed to know. They don't have genitalia or legs. You know what I mean.
Speaker 3:Well, they show legs.
Speaker 1:That's the behind-the-scenes kind of thing that someone's hand is up their ass.
Speaker 4:But on the show you assume they have legs.
Speaker 1:Yeah, they show the legs sometimes.
Speaker 6:So that means they've got a cock and balls.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I guess.
Speaker 4:What about?
Speaker 1:the hole. Okay, it's a little dry. Well, we have another hole to fill right now with our last story, and this is actually a lead-in to next week's episode. Well, we have another hole to fill right now with our last story. All right, and this is actually a lead-in to next week's episode. Yes, so this next segment is called the Little Racist. Okay, and so this is an urban legend about Bill Cosby and the Our Gang series. Cosby and the Our Gang series. So the claim is that he bought the rights to the Little Rascals in order to keep them off television forever because they depict racial stereotypes. What? Yes? Okay, so we remember the Little Rascals, right, yeah?
Speaker 1:Of course it was pretty ahead of its time in in that it had integrated casts and it showed kids of different races playing together and genders, yes, um. But it also contained some racist elements that were of the time, including including basically just generally stereotypical behavior. You know from the black children, like using minstrel show tropes, like the exaggerated speech and some of the styling and costumes, okay. And then the black kids were frequently used for comic relief. For instance, they were the ones that were scared of ghosts but the white kids weren't, so they were seen as stronger. And then there was actually blackface used for comedic effect in the show In a 1936 short called the Lucky Corner, one of the kids wears blackface.
Speaker 1:Called the Lucky Corner, one of the kids wears blackface. And in 1971, King World, who owned the rights to Our Gang and Little Rascals, edited parts of that episode out that were then and now deemed racially insensitive Right.
Speaker 4:Times have changed. Yes, only Jimmy Kimmel is allowed to do it.
Speaker 1:Well, not anymore, to be fair, but 20 years ago anything went. But yeah, so that's basically the gripe with the Little Rascals. It's not really a gripe, just a fact that a lot of it hasn't aged too well.
Speaker 4:I mean Fat Albert had a lot of different stereotypes and tropes as well.
Speaker 1:It did, it did, and Cosby had his hand in that for sure. Yes, he did.
Speaker 4:He had his hands in a lot of things.
Speaker 1:So let's watch a clip from the Little Rascals that shows this. So this is from an episode called A Lad and a Lamp. You get it A Lad and a Lamp, nice, a lad and a lamp, nice. And the character of Stymie rubs the lamp and he wishes for chicken, watermelon and that his pappy is out of jail. Oh my God, oh my goodness.
Speaker 5:Don't be scared. Go ahead and rub it and wish for something. What would I wish for? Or anything? Go ahead and rub it. I wish I had a lot of. I wish my pappy was out of jail.
Speaker 1:I wish I had some chicken I mean all three valid wishes and cosby was attributed to the rumor that he bought the Little Rascals because he was one of the prominent figures who campaigned against CBS to stop playing the show Amos and Andy in the 1960s. Interesting, and Amos and Andy was about the misadventures of two black friends in Harlem and they were originally. It was originally a radio show voiced by white actors with exaggerated dialect, but then when it was on TV it was black actors. So, some people liked the representation, but it was still stereotypical.
Speaker 4:Right, and this is one of the interesting things about Cosby. It's sort of lost now, obviously, as time has gone on, but he was proactive in the black community, but then also he would be on the more conservative side in many cases as well. Yeah, pulling your pants up, and you know he was.
Speaker 6:Quit swearing.
Speaker 4:Bob.
Speaker 1:Kind of demonized as well some of the culture Remember. He came to Milwaukee once.
Speaker 4:Did he? I didn't see him in Milwaukee In the early 2000s At the Pabst.
Speaker 1:Yeah, no, he went to I don't know, I think a school and he gave one of his speeches.
Speaker 6:Oh.
Speaker 1:You know one of his pull-up-your-pants speeches?
Speaker 6:Yeah, yeah, yeah, oh, my God.
Speaker 1:And in 2004, he gave an infamous speech that's known as the pound cake speech, in which he went off script and attacked the black community and he contrasted past civil rights struggles with what he saw as a modern lack of discipline.
Speaker 6:Okay, All right.
Speaker 1:He said looking at the incarcerated. These are not political animals. They're people going around stealing Coca-Cola, people getting shot in the back of the head over a piece of pound cake, and then we all run out in our outrage. The cops shouldn't have shot him. What the hell was he doing with the pound cake in his hand? Well, what's he doing?
Speaker 4:with the pound cake in his hand Coming up next, the ultimate warrior talking about gay rights.
Speaker 1:So in 1989 the rumor began to spread that bill cosby had bought the rights to the little rascals episodes because he wanted to keep it off television. Oh, the problem with that is you could see the little rascals episodes on tv. After that there was even a big fancy movie from our childhood, yeah, and so I don't think he actually bought the rights.
Speaker 4:I don't think he bought the rights. He probably has a bunch of rights to a bunch of stuff, though I don't know what.
Speaker 1:But yeah and um, we're gonna. He's all blind now, so he's just living Among other things.
Speaker 6:I think he's pretending. Oh, you think so, I can't see, let me out of prison Like that Harvey Weinstein thing where he's using a walker.
Speaker 5:Mm-hmm.
Speaker 1:So we're going to hear a lot more about the Little Rascals next week. That's just a little preview.
Speaker 4:Yes, lots of murder, death, gambling, Ooh Murder death gambling, ooh Secrets these child stars grew up, and it wasn't as good as we hoped.
Speaker 6:Most of them didn't grow up.
Speaker 4:Oh, it's going to be real sad. Once a little rascal, always a little rascal.
Speaker 1:Jesus Christ yeah.
Speaker 6:And that brings us to Final Thoughts.
Speaker 4:Final Thoughts, wow All right, what do we got here? Final thoughts, final thoughts. Wow, all right, what do we got here? So, richard Gere, the more I think about it, very possible, I'm going to go possible 50-50. Bert and Ernie, we know that one. I think we've covered that. I don't know. Dave Thomas, you said I'll go, dave Thomas as well. Yeah, why not? Oh, and Mr Rogers. I could see Mr Rogers having a lot of blood on his hands and that's again why he was so pure and he had to. It's the yin-yang, yes.
Speaker 6:Yeah, I don't know. I think, Dave Thomas, it's possible, but I think the biggest thing coming out of Wendy's urban legends wise, was the finger in the chili.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, yeah, that's right. Someone found a finger in the chili the lady made it up.
Speaker 6:She said she found a finger in her chili and she tried to take down wendy's. And then was just like I got caught, I'm gonna yeah, never mind, there was no finger in there.
Speaker 1:Yeah, um, and there wasn't a finger in richard gear's ass?
Speaker 4:no, because it was a gerbil, it was a claw, that's they're saying I can't believe that made it all the way to Barbara Wawa.
Speaker 6:I think Richard Gere should have come out as a huge advocate for HIPAA, so that nobody can find out about your medical records Just to fuck with everybody. That would have been incredible. Just lean into it, yeah because I think that happened before HIPAA. I think that people would have found out if he actually went to a Los Angeles hospital for being clawed in his colon by a fucking gerbil.
Speaker 4:I think we would have known Also that crack journalist that was on it.
Speaker 6:But it is interesting, the power of spoken word and just like the word of mouth, it made it to everybody's middle school and high school in America.
Speaker 1:Definitely you thought of that poor gerbil when you heard the name richard gear yeah, and then south park even made a episode about it with lemmy winks.
Speaker 6:Yeah, they let him go in the corner of mr slave like jesus christ yeah urban legends are amazing things.
Speaker 1:You know it, and it happened so much more in the 90s it really did earlier because you didn't have the internet as much.
Speaker 4:Well, then again, now you have Slenderman. People are actually getting stabbed over that In Wisconsin. Yep, it all still lives in the imagination, I guess. Maybe they're cautionary tales. So for anyone who was like I'm going to shove a gerbil up my ass, maybe they rethought it.
Speaker 1:That's exactly it Cautionary tales. And Maybe they rethought it. That's exactly it, Cautionary tales. And these urban legends say a lot about where the culture is at the time too, Very fascinating to me.
Speaker 4:I think in the early 90s everyone was obsessed with butt stuff because being gay was so taboo. And obviously there's a lot of gay people in Hollywood and around the world, so maybe that played into it also.
Speaker 1:And race the world. So maybe that played into it also. And race because remember that story about tommy hillfiger going on oprah saying that he didn't want black people to wear his clothes.
Speaker 4:I do remember oh, that was fake yeah that never happened. Never happened, yeah, oh interesting you're just learning that.
Speaker 1:That, yeah, I mean, I never, I don't think about it often.
Speaker 4:But but yeah, I did think that he was racist.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, yeah, but that was a huge one in junior high. Oh, big time yeah, people would say that their sister has the videotape of it.
Speaker 6:Yeah, and the Lauryn Hill thing too, where she said she'd rather die than have white people buy her album.
Speaker 5:Oh, she didn't say that.
Speaker 6:No, I don't know. No, but that gullible goose yeah, I believe that one for a long time. But yeah, we covered that before. That was all BS.
Speaker 4:Yeah, go listen to the miseducation of Lauren Hill right now.
Speaker 1:A lot of hot cups of BS. Yes.
Speaker 6:And do you hear that You've got mail? Oh, my Lord, we've got a mail, a mailbag wow.
Speaker 1:And before we get into that, I just want to say one last time definitively rip to the gerbil.
Speaker 6:Yes, absolutely uh, for the val kilmer episode. There's a lot of comments on this one. Uh, andrea jackson woldridge said new favorite podcast. I love hearing ben's voice again and the other two dudes are funny as f that's right, oh, the other two dudes, the.
Speaker 4:The banter is somehow you got some fan mail coming up, yeah, yeah the banter is somehow lighthearted, even though the subject matter is dark. Great storytelling and lots of lols thank you so much that that's the goal.
Speaker 6:Yes.
Speaker 4:Get through this together Exactly.
Speaker 1:Because the goal is, when you have something as serious as the Richard Gere story, you have to get through it without smiling.
Speaker 6:Yeah, another one five stars on Apple Podcasts titled Came for BK, stayed for Alejandro Woo.
Speaker 4:There he is, baby. That's Wisconsin Brotherhood.
Speaker 6:Long time fan of Ben Kissel. Alejandro's always there with the brilliant one-liners, and Kaya Tola is now my favorite conspiracy theorist. Keep it coming I love it. From Miss Minerva.
Speaker 4:Minerva.
Speaker 6:Minerva.
Speaker 4:Upstate New York. It's a comedy show Minerva, New York Minerva. I wonder if that's New York. Upstate New York did a comedy show with Minerva in New York Scary.
Speaker 6:So, thank you guys, keep sending some ratings in for us, please.
Speaker 4:Yes, Thank you all so much for supporting the show Again. Patreoncom slash diebud. Check out every show live. And are we good?
Speaker 1:I think so.
Speaker 4:All right, everyone Hail yourself.
Speaker 1:And until next week, don't go dying on us. Bye.
Speaker 5:Bye, you have just heard a true Hollywood murder mystery.
Speaker 6:I have never seen anything like this before.
Speaker 7:The movies, Broadway, music, television, all of it.
Speaker 5:A place that manufactures nightmares.
Speaker 4:Okay, everybody, that's a wrap. Good night. Please drive home carefully and come back again soon.