Do Go On - 200 - Wild World Records

Starting point is 00:00:00 Hey everybody, Jess and Dave, just jumping in really quickly at the top here to make sure that you are across all the details for our upcoming Christmas show. That's right, we are doing a live show in Melbourne Saturday December the 2nd, 2023, our final podcast of the year, our Christmas special. It's downstairs at Morris House, which usually be called the European beer cafe. On Saturday December the 2nd, 2023 at 4.30pm, come along, come one, come all, and get tickets at dogoonpod.com. This episode is brought to you by Progressive. Most of you aren't just listening right now.

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Starting point is 00:01:23 You could start your new career in months, not years. Take classes online or on campus Visit PlanetBroadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. Welcome to the 200th episode of Do Go On. It's me Matt Stewart here by myself in a bed in a gulker's house. I'm leaving my best life doing gigs up here in the sunshine, David and Jess down in the cold winter of Melbourne, probably also living a very good life no doubt. But I'm just here to quickly introduce this episode, 200 episodes, we recorded it live at the Zoo in Brisbane. Thanks so much everyone who came out to help us celebrate. It was a really fun day. If you want to see us live, we're doing a few more shows coming up. One in Sydney in less than a month now. If you're keen, please grab tickets. Last time we came. It was one of the biggest shows we've ever done and it was so much fun. It would be great to see you there. Also, we're coming to Perth on November 3. And that show is well on the way to selling out,

Starting point is 00:02:38 which is cool. You can get tickets via dogoonpod.com. For the live show link there a couple of other live things coming up I'm gonna be doing some stand-up in Canberra, Galban, Orange and Wagar Wagar in Regional, New South Wales and Nick cappran early September and there should hopefully be some more info on my website at Matschew at comedy.com slash gigs or check my social media. It's just Matschew at comedy generally speaking and Yeah, I think the to go and listen to those shows. I'll be cool to see a bunch there. As well as that, you'll find in for aupcom.com such gigs about Razzle Dazzle which is the show of doing with Jess, the Melbourne fringe coming up. Also in September we had so much fun doing it in Brisbane. It should be even better by the time we do it in Melbourne which is cool. I think we're going to even catch up to do some more writing when

Starting point is 00:03:43 I get back home which is a lovely idea that is. Already looking forward to that. Anyway, enough of the plugs. I'll be back later after the live portion of the show is done to give you a factor quote or a question. I don't even know which one it will be yet. And tell you about some other stuff, including a thing, some Patreon's.

Starting point is 00:04:00 But in the meantime, please sit back and enjoy our 200th episode, can you bloody believe it? Lie from the zoo in Brisbane. Talk soon. CHEERING AND APPLAUSE All right! Hello, Brisbane! How you doing? CHEERING AND APPLAUSE Yeah! We did it! Hello, Brisbane! How you doing? Yeah!

Starting point is 00:04:26 We did it! We made it! Hello, my name is Dave. Welcome to another episode of Do-Go-On. Look, I'm feeling a bit lonely on stage. I'm going to introduce you to two friends of mine. Ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for Matt Schuent just Perkins! Yeah! Hello! Hello! Two safe supporters in the front row, David, notice that? 10,000,000? 10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 Yeah, great. I'll summon in the front row to be on their phone the whole time. That will really affect my confidence. So I think I like these two empty seats in the middle there too.

Starting point is 00:05:08 Just again, for me to steer at for the whole show. Mum and dad, they're not coming. Now, they're on their way. They said they come. Oh, but fantastic. Sunday afternoon here at the zoo. How are you feeling? All right.

Starting point is 00:05:29 I've got a lot of cheers. Your arms are very cross there, mate. I'm so, so, so, so. It's a comfortable way to sit. It is. I know. But we automatically go, what? What's wrong? Who hurt you? Kind of you. Who hurt you? It's just a natural response.

Starting point is 00:05:44 Give it up for the zoo, by the way. This place is awesome. Yeah, cool venue. Cool venue. So cool. It is weird to be able to see the audience. So I'm used to darker rooms, and I'm distracted. So we're used to even daytime shows in Melbourne.

Starting point is 00:05:59 It's always dark, because Melbourne sucks. And now I'm sunny. You know how to play a crowd. I do. You love Melbourne. You love it's sunny. You know how to play a crayon. I do. You love Melbourne, you love it. Shut up, I don't, I hate it. I hate living there, it's the worst. It is funny to see your faces, so if you could all hide them,

Starting point is 00:06:14 that would be... Thank you so much. Oh yes, you could. Bania, the face perfect. Thank you, appreciate that. And there's just like you'd be at home then, I imagine you'd listen with your eyes closed and think about how attractive we are

Starting point is 00:06:24 and that would really ruin that for you so As your hands slowly An early regret face for you It's gone early. Yeah, he does go early. That's for sure The only way you can make sure you know know, if you're white, what happens? You might lose momentum anyway. It's not embarrassing, it's efficient. Well, what did you just say?

Starting point is 00:06:57 I was gonna say, I just remembered guys, this is our 200th episode. Yes! That's quite nice. It is quite nice, isn't it? Yeah, so on at home, it's having the 200th wank. It's great. That's beautiful. Don't forget the Patreon bonus episodes, Dave.

Starting point is 00:07:14 Oh, yeah. They've probably had about 260 wanks. Well, boy. Just me. Hey, there's something we always ask at the start of live shows. Dave, do you want to do it? Oh, how are you? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:07:28 You like to check in? I want to talk to that anything, any issues? No, one person's surveyed the whole crowd. No. No, what we like to ask is give us a round of applause if you have heard this show before. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank God. And no judgment, but give us a polite round of applause.

Starting point is 00:07:49 Polite. Keep it polite. If you've never heard this show before, a few people as well. Great. And you've stayed towards the back. Hoping we would never ask. And then I did. Thank you so much. I'm assuming you've come along with other people who dragged you along very well That's very kind of you. David explain what this is. Well, the people at the moment. They're like who are these deranged people? Yes, that is very true So basically what this show is is the three of us here And we take it in turns usually to report on a topic suggested often by a listener of the show Yes, but something we've been doing the the last few live shows we've done is we've just started to pick an overall subject

Starting point is 00:08:27 and we're all going to do a mini report on that topic. Yes. And the topic we've picked today is World Record! Oh, it's. Woo! And that makes sense, because this is our world record most ever do-go-on shows. 200.

Starting point is 00:08:44 Yeah. We did it. no one's ever done 200 episodes of do go on podcast of course they said it couldn't be done you said that we do we do oh oh no I'm a man of my word how you gonna do it? Probably. Oh, well. The my favourite way to kill, um, by like sort of just like getting some sort of chloroform and just going, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, shh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, shh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, shh, shh, shh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh, sh you. Yeah, well, we're record for most regret faces on this episode. Coming up, I can feel it. I can feel the happening. You are killing it.

Starting point is 00:09:36 Now I'm going to go first for the world record report. This could be the world's longest mini report. So say, no, it's not going to be. I'll keep to time Which I really do but I will try this time and we always start with a question to get us on to topic Yes, and my question is which I'll throw you guys and if you know this you know this and if not I'll throw it to the beautiful people here at the Zoo my question is who is Or who was and still is the tallest person ever?

Starting point is 00:10:06 Robin wildlife And still is the tallest person ever Robert wildlife He said Robert wildlife If it's correct I didn't He stands by his answer I'll give you the point in the hammer, that's one for you Robert wildlife, ladies and gentlemen Yeah Robert Wadlow

Starting point is 00:10:23 Wadlow Unfortunately no one here knew that, so. How did you know that? I'm a big nerd. You're a big nerd. Her words, not mine. I wasn't like, you're a big nerd. No, sorry, I answered the question.

Starting point is 00:10:35 But are you the world's biggest nerd? That would impress us. Possibly. Well, Robert Wadlow, have you seen Ferdinand of Rob Wadlow? He looked like a bit of a nerd. Is this coming from you? Yeah, I'm allowed to say that. You're my people, okay? I'm allowed to say that.

Starting point is 00:10:52 No, I'm too cool. You're allowed to bag out cool people only. Yeah, cool people don't need to be bagged out. They're cool. Yeah, they're super cool. Well, Robert Wadlow was the tallest person ever. Have you guys heard of him? No.

Starting point is 00:11:06 Yes. Well, I was assuming it was literally six or seven bits of wildlife in a trench coat. Hello, I'm Robert. Robert Woldell. He's got a koala head. Oh, yeah, cute. What else is in the rest of the trench coat?

Starting point is 00:11:26 Goanna. Yep. That's the neck. There you go. A wombat chest. Obviously, yeah. And then, you know, more wombat to the end. It's mostly wombat.

Starting point is 00:11:44 It's a wombat. It's a wombat. He's 90% lot better to say. It's probably a lot better. It's probably a lot better. He's 90% a lot better. Yeah. Well, aren't we all, aren't we all? OK, let's start with the secret life. That sounds fun, but it's not the secret life. The secret life of Robert Wodlow.

Starting point is 00:11:57 Robert Pershing Wodlow. Pershing. Pershing. That's not a name. It's a great, I love it. He was born in Elton, Illinois on the 22nd of February 1918 Thank you. Thank you. You can leave now You're peaked. You're peaked

Starting point is 00:12:19 Appreciate that There's probably a few more years coming up, so many more times to shine. Rob, it was the oldest of five children born to Harold Franklin and Addy May Wadlow. Oh, Addy May is cutest. You're good. Oh, love that. Addy May Wadlow, yes.

Starting point is 00:12:37 At the time of his birthday was 8.7 pounds, which meant nothing to me, but which is a pretty big baby. Usually they are on average between five and eight pounds I was like 0.7 No way Holy shit It was mostly head

Starting point is 00:12:52 Oh really big head You haven't grown since you were born No, I came out like this Perfect And incredibly cool I also looked up because I am an incredible nerd The biggest baby ever was 20 pounds. Oh.

Starting point is 00:13:07 Oh. Oh. And that mother never spoke to that kid again. Oh. She. Oh. She couldn't do much after that. Oh, God.

Starting point is 00:13:17 But 8.7 pounds. So quite big, but nothing sort of out of the ordinary of you 8.7 pounds. But from there, Jess, you're not the tallest person ever. All right, but I don't appreciate being called nothing out of the ordinary of you 8.7 pounds. But from there, Jess, you're not the tallest person ever. All right, but I don't appreciate being called nothing out of the ordinary. Sorry. Thank you.

Starting point is 00:13:31 Oh. The fuck are you laughing at? Oh. That was a brilliant. Oh. But from there, he started to grow, which most of us do, but Robert never stops. That's the difference between us and greatness.

Starting point is 00:13:49 By his first birthday he was 45 pounds or 20 kilos, and he was three feet, three and a half inches tall. He then, he kept growing, he overtook my height by the age of seven. What? Which would have pissed me off so much. That's too big for a person. I don't want to upset you, but he's gonna get a lot bigger. A lot bigger. Strap in. It is too big for a seven-year-old, yes.

Starting point is 00:14:16 He overtook his own father's height of 5'11 by his eighth birthday. His eighth and his over 5'11. Six foot on his eighth birthday. He's 8 and he's over 5 foot 11. 6 foot on his 8th birthday. Fuck that. Meanwhile, he's siblings who he's also older than remained heights that were completely normal for their ages. And despite their practically being practically triple their size, he was expected to play with his siblings and participate in the same activities that they did. He's gonna kill him. Basketball would have been horrendous.

Starting point is 00:14:46 But his parents, they tried very hard to give him a normal childhood. They knew that this was a bit out of the ordinary, but they tried. But it wasn't super normal for the young giant. Guinness World Records writes, quote, When most children were still being carried by their parents, Robert was able to lift his father up the stairs of their family on him. In fact, at nine years, he weighed 180 pounds, it was about 100k, and it was strong enough

Starting point is 00:15:14 to carry his father who was sitting in a living room chair up the stairs to the second floor. In the chair? In the chair? Yes! Which I love that. I assume his father demanded he did this every single! Which I won't love that. I assume his father demanded he did this every single night. I don't know.

Starting point is 00:15:29 In fact, I think he demanded all his children do this, despite the ones that were only four years old and normal. He was a bit weird. I mean, while Robert was so tall that in primary school, a custom desk had to be built to accommodate him. Yeah, cool. Because he was that big. Did he have one of those flip-up desks where you put all your shit in it. Remember those? Yeah but it was. Now we're

Starting point is 00:15:47 really annoying when you have to get something out but you're in the middle of something. And you have to like hold the lid to get up here. Here's the size of half a football field. Right. Did you grow up in the 20s or something? One of those desks. Yeah we still had them. Yeah right. I think my promiscuous was a bit shit. I'm learning that in hindsight. You know, kids, the ignorance is bliss. But now, I know the truth. You never know.

Starting point is 00:16:11 At 13, he was 7'4", tall. And he was named as America's tallest boy scout. That's the highest owner. He got his tall badge. He had a customized uniform, tent and sleeping bag, bag made for him in the scouts. By this age... It was actually one in three.

Starting point is 00:16:33 It was a uniform, a tent and a sleeping bag, all in one. It was so together, ten sheets and threw him at him. By this age, he had averaged to grow the four inches or ten centimeters per year, since birth, every year since birth. Ever year. Jesus. He was definitely the tallest boy scout because he was also already one of the tallest people in the entire country.

Starting point is 00:16:53 To put his height into context, at 13, if he had played in the NBA, he would still be in the top 10 tallest players to ever play that game. Wow. At 13, but he wasn't picked. He wasn't picked. He passed 2.45 meters or 8 foot by the age of 17, giving him the title of the tallest teenager ever. Oh, man, I reckon he's going to go for tallest man. Spoilers.

Starting point is 00:17:18 Goin' for it. Spoilers! He's got Boy Scout. He's got two-day jobs. Come on on Robert. Don't let me down here Dave, I'm really invested for some reason. Well, he kept growing. Yes. And when he finished, he finished Asgel, he was eight foot four inches tall.

Starting point is 00:17:35 That is three inches taller than the current world record hoarder for the tallest person alive. A Turkish man named Sultan Kosen. Fantastic. Yeah, I mean, sometimes your name, baby, you just know. After graduating school, Robert enrolled in college with the intention of studying law, but he never made it to university because the wringling brothers traveling circus came to town and instead asked this tall teenager if he would join them because he'd be a great addition to their show, which he turned out to be true. The quote,

Starting point is 00:18:07 fricgishly tall Woblo was showcased alongside little people and he brought in record crowds and became a bit of a celebrity. So what did he have to do just stand there? Yes, sort of stand there and then people are very short start to stand next to him and they'd be like, wow is this possible? I like the thing that he was an amateur juggler, and he thought he was getting the call out. Yeah? Finally, yes. I will juggle for you. No, just stand over there, you're freak.

Starting point is 00:18:31 Oh. Oh. Saddest juggler ever. I've never seen a happy juggler. That's what's so remarkable about it. He's sad even for them. This head and then there's juggler's sad. And he jugglers in today.

Starting point is 00:18:52 If you juggler sympathizes though, so. Yeah, if you people took that, like it was quite hard, I'm so sorry, so sorry. I'm not. So Wayne asked in a radio interview if he was annoyed when people stared at him. He calmly replied, quote, no, I just overlook them. Good.

Starting point is 00:19:09 It's funny, too. So he's in the circus. A couple of years later, the international shoe company contacted him, which sounds made up, but I think, hi, I'm the president of the international shoe company. You send me your bank details. We'll send you a free pair of shoes. OK. Well, they asked him if he would become somewhat

Starting point is 00:19:30 of a brand ambassador or on a promotional tour. An early day's influencer. He was influencing in the shoe industry. In exchange, they offered to make him his custom shoes for free. They had to be custom made because of the size of his feet, and they would be very expensive costing $1,500 US dollars per pair in today's money. It was like a whole cow. Well, he...

Starting point is 00:19:51 Fledish shoes. Not for like canvas. The whole cow implies the meat and bones as well. Yeah, he was wearing cows. I know what I said. He's just walking around. Milk's going everywhere. His feet were the largest feet ever recorded, measuring 47 centimeters long, well over a foot and a half. Did you say they know what they say? Oh, can confirm. Look at the size of these puppies. Not in proportion. So 47 centimeters, that's equivalent to so for different people around the world.

Starting point is 00:20:36 That's the equivalent of a US size 37 AA, a UK 36, or a European size 75. So US 37, for context, I'm a US-8. That's so good. That's quite big then. Thanks for that context, Dave. So massive. Just imagine the biggest foot ever. You got it.

Starting point is 00:20:53 He also had the largest hands ever, measuring 32 centimeters or 12.7 inches from the wrist to the tip of his middle finger. So an entire 30 centimeter rule. largest hands ever, measuring 32 centimeters or 12.7 inches from the wrist to the tip of his middle finger. So an entire 30 centimeter ruler. Okay, yes. It's a sub-like. It's a sub-like. It's a sub-like. It's a sub-like.

Starting point is 00:21:17 It's a sub-like. It's a sub-like. It's a sub-like. It's a sub-like. It's a sub-like. It's a sub-like. It's a sub-like. It's a sub-like. It's a sub-like. It's a sub-like. It's a sub- giving you the finger. You'd know. You'd know.

Starting point is 00:21:25 And throw some room. You. It could give you the finger. And be like, ah. I'm sad to report. Oh. Oh. Where'd you go then, Manny?

Starting point is 00:21:45 It was giving me the thing. I just felt it on a deep level. How deep did you feel it? About a foot long. I don't even go that deep. Quite a lot of him was still, anyway. So biggest, biggest hands ever. I am sad to report that sadly no sponsor came on board to make his custom, gloveless

Starting point is 00:22:12 fingers and his fingertips remained cold. But his palms were not sweaty, so that's good. He was a celebrity and people noticed him everywhere he went, but at home he let a quiet life and was nicknamed the gentle giant. We think if your dad to call you, he was mild-mannered and polite and his hobbies included playing the guitar, photography, and carrying his dad upstairs. Did he have to eat the custom-made guitar? Because that would have looked ridiculous.

Starting point is 00:22:40 He's just playing classical gas. But it's like this big. He's playing the ukulele at all times. But every day things were difficult for a man whose world and surroundings were not built for a man of his size. At home he could be more comfortable but he was constantly on the road at places not equipped for him. He also had to eat a lot of fuel for his large body. The average calorie intake for a man is two and a half thousand calories. He also had to eat a lot of fuel for his large body. The average calorie intake for a man is 2.5 thousand calories. He consumed over 8,000 every day. But unlike many very tall people, Wadlow was still very mobile, never having to use a wheelchair, although it

Starting point is 00:23:16 was sometimes difficult to get about as he suffered from a lack of feeling in his legs and feet, really only feeling a tingling feeling at all. Like all the time. So he's just hoping that when he takes a step, it's going to work. But he was able to get around. He did have a walking sick towards the last few years of his life. Dr. Zixam and Robert realized that his exceptional size was caused by hyper pleasure of his pituitary gland. This condition causes. I was thinking that. That's what I was. I didn't want to say, but yeah, that's what I was thinking. How about a sembra of the perperidum, man? Yep. That'll do it every time. Every bloody time.

Starting point is 00:23:55 He walks into your office. Hello, Mr Wild Life. Takes a deep... So, this condition causes an abnormally high level of the human growth hormone, which I believe is similar to what Andre the giant did. And Robert was never given any treatment to stop it because the technology, we didn't have the technology at the time, and therefore he just never ever stopped growing. Guinness World Records writes on their website, their medical consultant Dr. Ronald Rao explains, Robert Wadlow escapes the attention of surgeons as they were not confident enough to operate on him

Starting point is 00:24:27 Therefore he might remain the tallest man for a very long time. There you go. The man who I mentioned earlier, a consultant who holds the current world record for the tallest man, has a similar condition but he's been able to have the surgery to halt the production of the hormone. Which is one of those things. You're the tallest man but you want that record. Yeah. Surely. Sounds like a bit of a quitter to me. Yeah. You want the record mate, come on. But what loader never had such a luxury and he just kept growing it

Starting point is 00:24:53 eventually to stand upright. He had to have custom braces fitted to his legs and started to use a walking stick, as I mentioned. Very tragically, one of his ankle braces was fitted poorly and gave him a blister. But because of his lack of feeling in his legs He didn't notice that the brace was rubbing and causing him to blister The blister became septic and infected and just a week later he died from the infection on July the 15th 1940 in his sleep at the age of 22 So very very young 18 days before his death

Starting point is 00:25:23 He'd been measured for the final time at a whopping 8 foot 11.1 inches Or 2.72 meters tall. Oh my god Passing the so many subways too many subways Surely he gets free foot logs for love He passed the previous record holder another American called John Rogan who was 8 foot 9 Whoa another American called John Rogan who was 8'9". Whoa. The giant man was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Alton, in an enormous coffin measuring 3.28 or 10'9 long.

Starting point is 00:25:53 Wow. The taller than ground to basketball ring height, the height of his coffin. It weighed over a thousand pounds or 450 kilos and took 12 men to carry the coffin, supported by eight assistants basically going ooh you know you said that it was only later in his life they had to have a walking stick

Starting point is 00:26:13 he lives at 22 yeah comparatively later in his life it's all relative yeah the last three years of the last that was late in his life yeah right I know that was three centuries ago for you yes that's right but we're all different the joke there is Matt's very old just filling him in just to finish up here in 1986 a

Starting point is 00:26:34 life-sized statue of what low was erected on college Avenue in Alton Illinois opposite the Alton Museum of History and Art in honor of the cities most famous resident Robert Robert Wodlow! Dave Wodlow, everybody! Wow, what a go! That's crazy! Such a tall man. I'm still hoping that I can eclipse his record one day.

Starting point is 00:26:59 I've just seen there are skittles on the stage. Mick? Yes! Mick, look at their skittles on the stage. Mick? Yeah. Yes. Mick, look at their skittles on the stage. Because this is what Mick does for me. I believe it was the last time.

Starting point is 00:27:12 It was anyone at our last show in Brisbane nearly two years ago. Thank you. Any of you hit in the face with skittles then? Because. Oh, yeah. Those skittles at you. Don't sue. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:27:22 We should have got you to sign a waiver. These are sweet to hate Fruity flavors with a spicy kick Well, I'm gonna find out now if they're any good. These are essentially chili skittles. Yeah, in a way, let's find out anyway It's match to its turn. Oh Does anyone want to screw up that in the foot of eat? Oh? What do we got? It's 22.

Starting point is 00:27:46 18 point later, the Saints, everybody. We're doing it. Saints are a football team. They have been around since 1973 in that time. Everyone won Pramish. It was in 1966. They officially, they should have seen all time. Thank you very much.

Starting point is 00:28:02 That completes my report. Well record for shittest sporting team. But they're winning today. Yes. Do you say you don't need to know? I'm trying to open up to you. Trying to be vulnerable in the space guys. Can I believe this?

Starting point is 00:28:21 All right, well, here is my report. Well record. Based report. So we're having our own conversation about the heat of the skittles. Wow I'm feeling that there's a lot of heat in my mouth right now and I say that a lot. We got hot mouth. My question is what record was set by a radio DJ that was broken by a schoolboy in 1964? I hope there's only one correct answer for this. It was a record set by a DJ and then broken by a schoolboy. Yes. Huh.

Starting point is 00:28:58 Where, where was this located? I have no idea. America. Oh, that narrow is it down. Oh, fantastic. Can I confer with my huge nerd audience member? Yeah. What do you think? Any idea? Does anyone have any idea? Matt's questions are normally so easy. You had an idea, put your hand up, that was very polite. That's fun. That is a bet. I wish the report was about the youngest DJ, but it's way dumber than that. It's the longest time without sleep.

Starting point is 00:29:27 Oh. I'm so sorry. If you know enough about that person. Come on up. There you go. Now you say schoolboy. It should have been something like most wanks in one day. Definitely.

Starting point is 00:29:39 That's all I was thinking. DJ and schoolboy, yeah. That makes sense. DJ, lonely is person. DJ, schoolboys, they feel lonely. They wank a lot. Jess is a radio DJ. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:29:55 And I'm lonely. She wank so long. I'm so sorry, I need a skittle. All right, here is my- Get some of that hot mouth. Here is my report. Randy Gardner moved to San Diego, California. No, it's Randy. In 1960.

Starting point is 00:30:09 His name is Randy. I think it's about sleep. Is sleep a uf pisser? Move to San Diego in 1963. San Diego. San Diego. It was a 17 Diego. San Diego. San Diego.

Starting point is 00:30:26 He was 17-year-old at the time, the eldest of four kids. Due to growing up in a military family, he'd been relocating throughout his whole childhood. As a kid, he was interested in science, bit of a nerd. Respect. And in every town he moved to, he entered the science fair. Perhaps there's a way of settling in to the new towns

Starting point is 00:30:46 The way of announcing I'm here and I'm a nerd. Yeah, he's it's dominance He's like asserting himself. It's like when you go to prison you beat up the biggest toughest guy Yeah, when you go to prison you enter the science fair. Yeah, yeah to a certain you dominance King of the nerds San Diego was bigger than gardener was used to so he knew he going to have to go big if he was to win the science fair there. Oh! I find that very funny. What about it?

Starting point is 00:31:14 Look at him half of the mirror going, You got this, Randy. You got this. You got to go big. Gardner teamed up with Bruce McAllister, another kid from his high school, and they brainstormed ideas. The one they landed on was breaking a world record, and the record they were going to break was held by Tom Rounds, a DJ from Honolulu. Rounds who had just gotten the gig as a radio disc jockey a couple years earlier attained the world record for the longest time going without sleep when he lasted 260 hours away

Starting point is 00:31:42 while sitting in a department store window display. Oh, you fucking psycho! Me or him? Oh him. Yeah. Not you. Well, yeah, in this case him, you and I can talk offstage. Did the department store know he was going to do that? Can you do the maths on how many days is that, Dave? How many hours? 10. 260. 10. Yes, it's just 20 hours.

Starting point is 00:32:05 Yes, four hours? Well, that is good. No. Four hours short of 11 days. Oh, I hate that. Following the stony became a regional celebrity. Here's a big deal in Honolulu. Hey, you the girl who didn't sleep that time.

Starting point is 00:32:19 The six years was wild. So much going on. Mikalus of One of the Boys spoke to the BBC saying, the first version of it was to explore the effect of sleeplessness on paranormal ability. Not really sure what that means, but they realised that was stupid. Well, I mean, if they've seen the ex-files episodes sleepless, you'll know, that they have a bit of their back of their brain removed and then they can't sleep anymore,

Starting point is 00:32:49 but then they do develop paranormal powers. I think you just out-nurled yourselves. If he was on. Yeah, in that episode of X-Files, we all can reference off the top of the head. Surely, surely, you know. Have you seen that episode of the X-Files? No, the biggest nerd self-described

Starting point is 00:33:07 is telling you to shut up. Has anyone seen that episode? What are you all doing here? They have lives. Get the box set. Incredible. Did you reference that episode at all in your report? Yes.

Starting point is 00:33:24 He wouldn't, he doesn't do his research. But I won't bother now. Yeah, sorry. You've already covered So they put the paranormal idea in the bin and changed the scope of the study to be all about the effects of sleep deprivation on cognitive abilities Including things and then also things like performance on the basketball court basically any sort of Test that they could come up with as 17-year-old boys, right? Who could wank the best? To decide which of them would be the subject of the experiment slash record-breaking attempt, they tossed a coin. Macaulester won the toss, toss, and gave the honour to Gardner.

Starting point is 00:34:03 It gave the honour. Like, all right, I could have taken it, but I'll give it to you. Yeah, you. You stay awake for 11 days. Macalister remembers, we were idiots, you know, young idiots. I stayed awake with him to monitor him, and after three nights of sleeplessness, myself, I woke up, tipped against the wall, writing notes on the wall itself. So he really is like, I still have to be awake to record it anyway.

Starting point is 00:34:27 So they realized they needed a second person to share the monitoring load, and they wrote in another school kid, Joe Marciano. From then on Marciano and Macalister rotated between monitoring and that allowed each other to have a stint sleeping as well. The media started to show interest in the experiment, and after reading an article in the paper,

Starting point is 00:34:46 a sleep researcher called William Dement from Stanford University, traveled out to visit the boys. This is him now. Do a voice. Okay, William Dement, American Man. American Man, William Dement. An educated man, he's an educated man.

Starting point is 00:35:03 From a university, American, educated man. With hiccups. With hiccups. Mm, okay. I was at a list. Oh, okay. Lisp and hiccup. I was probably the only person on the planet at the time.

Starting point is 00:35:17 What do you think a list is? Who had actually done sleepers there. Demand told the baby, say, Randy's parents were really worried that this might be something, but really be hurtful to him. Because the question was still in the zone, I wonder if it would go without sleep for long, if you'd die. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:35:39 What the fuck? What happened to Dem I'm having to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to, to relieved when the scientist man came and said, I'm going to hang out with your teenage boys for a bit. That's it, I'll thank God. 24 hours a day overnight. Cool. And that helps supervising them. Thank goodness. We can leave. We don't want to hang out with them anymore. We're going to be over there if you need us. Sleep deprivation studies have been done on humans and animals as well, do you know this? The BBC reporter on one study where cats were kept awake for 15 days, at which point,

Starting point is 00:36:29 they died. Oh. That is a brutal discovery when you're like, no, no sleeping, no, no. Oh. Oh. Yeah, how they keeping cats, because the cat doesn't know that it's part of the experiment. Like as a consenting human, you can be like, no, I'm gonna stay awake, stay awake.

Starting point is 00:36:47 And you have coffee and water, but a cat's just trying to sleep, and you have to like splash water on it. Is that what you do? I don't wanna know. Well, the study proved relatively useless. In any way, to prove that humans will die from a lack of sleep. It's firstly, this case, this study was done with cats,

Starting point is 00:37:06 which are not humans. And they also don't know if they died from a lack of sleep or if stress or the chemicals they used to keep them away, cat something to do with it. Okay. Is that question? To me, it sort of just sounds like a bunch of fuckheads with lap codes. Torch at some cats to death.

Starting point is 00:37:24 Yeah, for science. Forch it some cats to death. For science. For science. Yeah, we tried to keep them waiting by running them over in my car and they've died. I can't tell what's the cause and what's the effect here. Anyway, can we have some grant money? Macalcer has confirmed that they didn't use any chemicals

Starting point is 00:37:40 in their experiment saying, Randy had occasional coaks, but other than that, you know, coca-colle is yes. No dexadre, no benzadrein, the dezure stimulants in those days, he said. He also stress that Randy is in fact a human and not a bunch of caps to get taped together. Same weird that he brought it up, but.

Starting point is 00:38:04 It is good to clarify though, because you know there'll be the haters. Yeah. Who like, is it a boy or is it a bunch of cats? Yeah. We've all been all taken in by Gary Wildlife, the one-bat man. It's hard to remember things. The man rocked up a couple of days into the boys experiment, finding Gardiner to be relatively upbeat, though he was already struggling to keep awake. Demand said he was physically very fit.

Starting point is 00:38:35 So we could all... It's such a supple young... I mean, pickable specimen of a boy. So we could always get him going by playing basketball or going bowling, things like that. He could get him going. If he closed his eyes, he would be immediately asleep though. So I had to keep his eyes open. Gator remember's finding the first few days relatively easy with tricks like staying away from beds is one of the tricks he listed. Like he sees money in full of sling, not even touching the bed just looking at it. One of

Starting point is 00:39:12 his other tricks was standing up away from beds. There's a good trick. But it started to get harder a few days in. Gardener spoke to NPR though and remembered getting a boost when Dementor I've arrived saying he rented a car convertible, and we drove around in that. So we had a really good time when Dr. Dement came down. That really helped me because that was like, something different and new to keep me going.

Starting point is 00:39:37 That weird homicenterist, I'm here to take your boys away in a convertible car. Bye. Don't worry, it's your science, bye. Yeah, that's... science. Bye. Yeah. That's... Has anyone checked his credentials or...? As the experiment went on, they started finding some interesting results.

Starting point is 00:39:51 For instance, one of the tests looked at how lack of sleep affected gardeners basketball skills, and as time went on, they found his game improved. Though, this could be down to the fact that he was playing a lot more basketball than usual. He just practiced. He's playing every day. Most people don't realise this, but Michael Jordan is the most tired man of all time. He's never slept.

Starting point is 00:40:13 They also tested the effects on his senses, and Macaulseur remembers as time went on, Gardiner would become more repulsed by certain smells. Not sure what the smells were. Teenage boys will be just farting in his face. At the start he loved it. Eight days in. No good. No good.

Starting point is 00:40:31 The experiment continued to gain media attention and according to the BBC, the study was briefly the third most written about story in the American National Press after the assassination of John F. Kennedy and a visit by the Beatles. That was going to say top three, that's not that great, but those stories are pretty big stories. The boys stuck with it, and they, finally, on January the 8th, at 2am, 1964,

Starting point is 00:40:58 Randy Gardner broke the world record at exactly 11 days, or 264 hours, and the experiment was over. It was at 2am, meaning that he'd woken up on the first day at 2am to start. Surely the first day you have a massive sleep in. You get out of bed at midnight. You get out of bed at midnight. What do you wake up at 2am after going to bed for 2 hours?

Starting point is 00:41:21 Well why you assume you went to bed at midnight? He could have gone to bed at 5pm. Just no teenager does that. LAUGHTER Gardner was then taken to a naval hospital where his recovery could be monitored. His first sleep went for 14,40 minutes. Demant remembers that his first night,

Starting point is 00:41:40 in his first night, his percentage of REM sleep or REM sleep skyrocketed. Then the next night, his percentage of REM sleep or REM state sleep skyrocketed. Then the next night, a dropped in percentage points until finally days later it returned a normal. And then he got up and went to high school. It was amazing to met Remembrance. Demet was watching him sleep the whole 14 hours. Definitely is a legit scientist.

Starting point is 00:41:59 McAllister told the BBC that the hospital results concluded that his brain had been catnapping in tired time. Parts of it would be asleep while other parts would have been awake. Cool! What's the birth that can turn half its brain off? It's a libous. Yes. It's kind of doing that. It's not libous.

Starting point is 00:42:19 I know they're a bin chicken, but are they the ones that can turn off their brain? Yes. Never mind. I tell you a couple of cats who would have killed for a catnap. Hey, they're having that everlasting catnap in the sky. Yeah, that's right. Wake up. Oh.

Starting point is 00:42:38 Uh, Macalister, of course, is not a scientist at all. He was just a boy doing an experiment. So him saying that, I don't know. But anyway, he went on to say, he wasn't the first human being or pre-human being to have to stay awake for more than one night, and that the human brain might have all so that it could catnap.

Starting point is 00:42:56 Parts of it would catnap and restore, while parts of it were awake. It made total sense. And that would explain why worse things didn't happen, he says. Despite their studies seemingly showing there are no negative effects to it, the Guinness book of World Records no longer includes a sleep deprivation category as they believe that it is dangerous to people's health. So a bit of a bloody difference of opinion

Starting point is 00:43:19 there. Garden of now in his 70s seems to back up this idea, telling NPR that in his 60s, I stopped sleeping. I couldn't sleep. And he blamed the study for from Deco's pride. So he broke his world record of 11 days by not sleeping for a full decade. He said, that's why I keep calling this some calm and payback for, you know, my body gone,

Starting point is 00:43:42 okay buddy, yeah, okay. 11 days without sleep, when you know damn well you need sleep, well let's try this out for size. It's him talking to himself about having insomnia. He sounds like he lost it. He's been affected. US Berkeley neuroscientist Matthew Walker agrees

Starting point is 00:44:00 with Garner that any sleep deprivation is bad for your health saying to MPR, even just the smallest amount of insufficient sleep leads to health consequences. One of the best examples of that is one of the largest sleep experiments ever done. It's performed on 1.6 billion people and it happens twice a year and it continues to happen. It's called daylight savings, you don't do that, you do. You want to understand. So, it's apparently in spring, when we lose an hour of sleep,

Starting point is 00:44:26 we see a subsequent 24% increase in heart attacks. In the fall, when we gain an hour of sleep opportunity, there's a 21% decrease in heart attacks. So apparently daylight savings is a killer. No wild, and queens don't do it. But we get just that little bit more social. Is it possible? It confuses the cows.

Starting point is 00:44:53 What do you like have clocks in your fields or? Put digital watches on all your cows. Is it bedtime? Not yet. And they're fading curtains, right? That's the other one. But I mean, never lose place, huh? Yeah. Yeah very smart the zoo's a smart place. Anyway the boys sleep project earn them first place at the 10th annual Greater San Diego Science Fair and that is the end of my report. They won! They won! They did it! I do have a I do have a couple of fun facts here to finish my report on.

Starting point is 00:45:26 I'll decide. Okay. Well, these are fun facts from the Guinness Book of World Records, if you think you're okay. Yeah. So this is the first fact. Based on a 24-hour period, the King of Nappers in the Animal Kingdom is the little brown bat. In captivity, these North American mammals have been documented sleeping for 19.9 hours straight more than 80% of the day.

Starting point is 00:45:48 Huh? That's good. Believe it. Or not. I have no idea what this is. We did not discuss this. A second fact. At the other end of the scale, second fact here, the mammal that sleeps the least is the African bush elephant, which has been found to sleep only two hours per day on average. Someone said please no. You speak for all of us.

Starting point is 00:47:02 What is that music? It's a Ripley's believe it or not from the A. I don't know. I just found it on YouTube before. Matsu and everybody! Some water just started leaking from the roof. But that's okay. Um, believe it. They're watering plants. Ah, that makes more sense. This episode is brought to you by Progressive. Most of you aren't just listening right now. You're driving, cleaning, and even exercising. But what if you could be saving money by switching to Progressive?

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Starting point is 00:48:27 Now is the time, mycomputercareer.edu. Everybody's choosy about something. It might be your favorite snack. Two scoops of Rocky Road, please. Your style. Those earrings look amazing on you. Or the things you like to do with your best friend. BOOP BOOP

Starting point is 00:48:44 You can be choosy when it comes to getting a COVID-19 vaccine too. If you're thinking about getting an updated vaccine, there's more than one type available. You can find out more at wedovexines.com. This message was brought to you by NovaVex. of X. Alright, final report for the day. Mine's not about a person. Ooh, but it is a little bit fucked, so good, we got some fuckheads in. It's a working title. I need to give you that warning so that you go with me on this one, because if you all

Starting point is 00:49:23 go a bit sensitive We're not gonna have a good time So my question to you is you're loving those skittles, aren't you a little too much taking my white please? I mean you can just stop eating them also. I cannot all right my question is Which joke of the city in the US Attempted a world record in 1986 prepare to get emails from this city No, she said joke of a city. Yeah, not God among cities. Surely Surely no, it's nowhere in Vermont because that is the world's greatest. Hang on. We've got a hand up very polite. Yes

Starting point is 00:50:02 It's not Akron, I thought that would be so good. I said a high row, also. Yeah, you'll also get told you saying acronym, as we always do. acronym. Yeah, there's a W in it or something, somehow. Orcron. Orcron.

Starting point is 00:50:16 I think it's an iPhone. Seeing that run? I don't know. Do I live here, have any idea? Do you? Give us a state. You're a state. Kentucky. Oh. Kentucky.

Starting point is 00:50:25 Oh, Kentucky. I think it's Ohio. It isn't Ohio. What's in Cincinnati? It's in Ohio. Cleveland. Cleveland. Alright, the year, 1986, the city, Cleveland.

Starting point is 00:50:43 Good year. A good city. Good smell. The world record. Is it the joke of a city, Lebron James? I'm about to explain. The world record involving a lot of motherfucking balloons. Pfft. Pfft. OK, I'm in.

Starting point is 00:50:59 Have you heard of this? Ha ha ha. I have. It's fucked, but it's great. In a way, you're just going to have to go with it. All right, so the city of Cleveland, basically as a city, was sick of being the butt of the jokes. The rest of the country were like, Cleveland socks and they're like, no, come on.

Starting point is 00:51:16 They were sick of being known as the Mistake on the Lake. But Cleveland is on a lake, by really does. The mistake on the lake. Fuck, I love a rhyme though. So they needed to do something big, something amazing, something that would make Cleveland seem cool to the other states who were like, eh, Cleveland sucks. A city rebrand is awesome.

Starting point is 00:51:38 So good. So the year prior in 85. You should do that here. See, you don't know how to work at home. No, I honestly love Brisbane, just playing and playing mean and keeping them keen. I love Brisbane albums. Do you though? Yes. All right.

Starting point is 00:51:56 Yeah. I do. I've lost all trust. In 85, right, so Disneyland had celebrated its 30th birthday and as part of their celebration, they had released a metric shit ton of balloons. Which at the time set the record for the most balloons simultaneously released. Could you put that in a subway sub? It's like a... Okay, so metric shit ton of balloons would be like a metric shit ton of

Starting point is 00:52:21 subs. Okay, yes. Is that help? Yep. Wow. That's a lot of subs. Yeah, yes. Thank you. Is that help? Yep. Wow. That's a lot of subs. Yeah, it tapes. So Disneyland had done it and Cleveland were like, we're coming for you, Disneyland. They thought that. Disneyland did not return their calls.

Starting point is 00:52:36 The stunt was coordinated by Los Angeles based company called Balloon Art by Treb. Who's Treb? It was headed by a man named Treb. Treb Hining. Treb. That's a beautiful name. So the city mayor brought in a man named Treb

Starting point is 00:52:56 and put all these trust. That's Bert Backwards. Checking his name was Bert. He was like, I'm going to be a little more interesting. I'm going to be a little more interesting. I'm going to be Treb. Treb. He made the right choice.

Starting point is 00:53:10 So he was a balloon guy at Disneyland when he was a teenager. He was about 15. He was like, oh man, I'm freakishly good at balloons. I like making balloon animals. Used to do that at kids' parties. It's tough work. No, I think you just have little hands. Yeah, I do have little hands and often kids would ask,

Starting point is 00:53:29 oh, you'd be like, what do you learn? I can make a giraffe, a dog, a kid would be like, I want a snake. And you'd say, it's going to be pretty shit. And they'd say, no, I really want a snake here. Okay, so you blow up a balloon as long as you can go and then you hand it to them and they go, yeah, that's pretty shit. And then you're in the kid, you're like, we were right about this. You have a nice moment. So he's like, oh man, I'm super good at balloons.

Starting point is 00:53:55 So he ended up creating his own company and giving you a super cool and clever name, Balloon Art by Treb. I love him. If they're open for advertising, I'll do it. Balloon Art by Treb. It sounds like a perfume. I read that he was contracted to work on the 1984 Olympics opening and closing ceremonies with his Balloon art.

Starting point is 00:54:16 So he's like one of the best Balloonists ever. And there's a guy called Tom Hollowack, who worked with Treb and later became the project manager for Balloon Fest, 86. And he did an interview and he was talking about the work they did at the Olympics and he said, we had to design the logistics of filling hundreds of balloons that made Olympic rings and then cheerleaders moved them to spell welcome and then let them go. I was like, oh, give us more of this in-depth analysis of how balloons work.

Starting point is 00:54:47 I love this. So to beat Disney's record, the plan was to release 1.5 million balloons in to the Cleveland sky. That is a lot of balloons. I'll give Treb that, oh well. It's quite a lot. They also thought it would be a good fundraising opportunity. So school kids sold sponsorships for like a dollar per balloon,

Starting point is 00:55:07 and all the proceeds were going to go to this charity united way. So they're like, okay, this is a nice little cola. We're going to raise some money for charity, and we're also going to finally be cool. So the team at Balloon Art by Treb. Oh, so this is a whole team. It's not just a trip. This is a team.

Starting point is 00:55:27 Wow. Trip has a team. Balloon Art by Trip. I'm on team trip. They spent six months planning the event and working out the best way to hold 1.5 million balloons in one place so that they could be released at the same time. So it's not that like, I don't think they have 1.5 million people. So I'm like, it's not everyone just holding you in the lead.

Starting point is 00:55:47 No. They've got to contain them, and then they all have to go at once. So what they did. Dave, were you picturing Treb blowing up each of the 1.5 million balloons? I mean, how else can he claim ownership of the balloons? Well, they're not all his balloons, but he was interviewed. And basically, and I'll talk about it, but they get school kids and volunteers to do it, like thousands of them.

Starting point is 00:56:07 And they're like, how many balloons do you expect people? That's how they talked back then. Is that what they've been sucking in here? How many balloons do you expect people to blow up? And he was like, well, I mean, they're kids. So maybe two a minute. And he was saying, I mean, I can obviously do. They're a lot faster.

Starting point is 00:56:21 I don't fuck off treb. Two, I mean, it would take me 15 minutes just to get it on to the end of the nozzle. That's true, it wouldn't take you that long. Yeah. So they need to contain the balloons, right? So that what they do is they create a giant net. I was hoping for a big net, I really was. Well, you're getting a big net.

Starting point is 00:56:40 So this is from the Project Manager again, he said, we had to design a structure that filled a city square and could stand up to 90 mile per hour winds, which was building code. The one piece of net was fabricated by the exact company I found in SoCal who built the cargo nets for the space shuttle. Weird, Bragg. Why do space shuttles need nets? Do I have balloons? What do you think they get up there? You mean we don't have a lot of them? Don't question our lab. Think about it.

Starting point is 00:57:12 Think before we speak mate. So they built this structure. It was the size of an entire city block. It was 250 feet or 76 meters by 150 feet. That's 150 foot longs by the way. And it was about three stories high. How did you convert feed in a foot long so quick? I'm actually secretly really good at maps. Don't tell. And it was covered with this mesh material. So it's sort of like this huge big structure. And on the launch day, which was Saturday, September 27, in 86, there was 2500 students and other volunteers who spent about six hours inside filling the balloons with helium. So they're inside,

Starting point is 00:57:54 I was going to say little structure, it's fucking huge. They're in this town square, they're all filling balloons, and then they just sort of let them go, and they sit up in the top of this weird looking net. Originally, they planned to release two million balloons. They're like, fuck it, let's go big, two million. But then they stopped at only 1.4. And the reason they stopped is because it looked as if the weather was gonna turn. Oh no.

Starting point is 00:58:17 Oh no. So they were like, let's just go a bit early. So 150 PM crowds of people who'd come out to volunteer or just to spectate counted down from 10. It was so exciting. There was news broadcasts. There was so many people there to spectate. Why are you building up this? What could possibly? Oh, are they going to release the balloons? Yeah. Spoilers. So people are really excited. Well Cleveland has nothing. So they're like,

Starting point is 00:58:43 this is, come on. Put us on the map, they're excited. Cleveland, they've got the Cavaliers, LeBron James, they've got, I think the, you don't have the rock and roll hall of fame, they've got Drew Carey, Cleveland Ross. We all know that. And, and some balloons. And so that should now negate the angry emails from Cleveland. So they set, they release the balloons, and it totally encompasses this terminal tower. It's a big bill.

Starting point is 00:59:09 I might not release the balloons. Release the balloons. So all these balloons get released, and they take over this giant skyscraper tower. It's completely surrounded by balloons, and they're off-floating into the air, and everyone's losing their fucking minds they're so excited you would be you would be like we've done it where they're best now I

Starting point is 00:59:32 don't know how much you guys know about helium balloons I know quite a bit mask man anything well how long like how long will a balloon stay aloft? Anywhere from, you know, seconds to three, four minutes. Yeah. Well, I mean... Actually, science doesn't really know the answer, that's their best guess. Well, typically, and as you know, a helium-filled balloon that's released outdoors. We'll stay aloft long enough to be fully deflated before it then eventually makes a nice little descent to earth, right? But well, that's what that's the theory. That's a theory That's the stuff. I saw that on Star Trek or something. It's some sort of a Theory. Yeah, I think I understand science. Yes, that's what you mean

Starting point is 01:00:21 A theory. Yeah. I think you understand science just, that's what you mean. Well the balloon fest balloons collided with a front of cool air and rain. So instead of floating along wistfully and being all cute, they dropped towards the ground, still inflated, clogging the land and waterways of northeast Ohio. Now don't worry guys, because the event planners had a candidate for about 10% of the balloons ending up in like eerie. They're like, we're on a lake.

Starting point is 01:00:50 Balloons are going to end up there. 10% of them. Okay. No big deal. Now, this sounds like a mistake on the lake. Yeah. Their numbers were a tiny little bit off because of the weather. So it was more like 60% of the balloons.

Starting point is 01:01:03 Which, guys, it's only like 840,000 balloons in a lake. Relax. Oh my god. It's a pretty big lake but that's still a fuck ton of balloons. I can't please you. That's so many balloons. That's so many. That didn't please you. A lot of balloons in a lake isn't enough to please you. I give up as well. I... What else can you do? I'll try one of them. I don't know how many balloons are in a lake.

Starting point is 01:01:32 Nothing. I don't even know. There's wild. It's so many balloons and a lake. It is a lot. And normally they'd sort of be like, well, that's unfortunate. But around the same time that all the balloons

Starting point is 01:01:45 ended up in the lake, the Coast Guard had kind of been searching for two missing fishermen for a while. And later at the back just clutched her partners knee. I hope that's your partner, or that was weird. I think I know what'll happen here. The balloons will somehow make it easier to find the missing fishermen. Yeah, they'll be able to crawl across the balloons to the shore. Perfect. Performing some sort of pontoon like that. That's a point. To float to safety.

Starting point is 01:02:11 Yeah. The colour front will come in. Science will happen. Fantastic. And we'll say thank you, science. Are you... Those fishermen aren't here with us today, are they? Those two guys out the back. That's what the water was for, Adam.

Starting point is 01:02:24 Oh, yes, sorry, I misspoke. They're not fishermen. They're fishermen. Those two guys out the back. That's what the water was for. Oh, yes, sorry, I misspoke. They're not fishermen, they're fishermen. So these guys have gone out fishing the day before, and they've been reported missing, so the Coast Guard was looking for them. But now there's 840,000 balloons in the lake. So it's a little bit harder to find them because... You were lost on a lake, and then 840,000 balloons

Starting point is 01:02:45 to start a descending upon you. Yeah, well the Coast Guard was struggling because it was difficult to see a person floating or a bright orange life jacket when the lake was filled with 840,000 colourful balloons. So is that it? No, is that it? Oh no, is that it? And it looks like most of them were orange to be fair, the balloons. Oh, that's unfortunate.

Starting point is 01:03:04 I told you it was fucked, you have to go with it! After three days of searching, Coast Guard suspended their search only for the fisherman's bodies to wash up on shore a few days later. And how many balloons? So many balloons. The wife of one of the fishermen actually sued the United Wave Cleveland and the company that organized the balloon release for 3.2 million dollars. Not Treb. He can't afford it. He's put all his money into balloons. It's a balloon art by Treb. She wasn't the only one to sue either,

Starting point is 01:03:35 but she was probably the other one who had something legit to sue about. No, that's maybe unfair, but anyway, so some balloons landed out on a pasture in Medina County, Ohio, which is about 50 kilometers away. Wow. And there's a woman called Louise, and these balloons landing spooked her horses. My horses got spooked. Now, surely, you get 3.2 million of your husband dies. You've got to get a lot more than that

Starting point is 01:04:00 if your horse is spooked, sure. Well, she sued for about $100,000 in damages. What a country. Because her horses got spooked. Popping balloons are scary, though, especially if you're a horse. So that basically is what happened as a couple horses in the field. At that moment, was where the hundred grand.

Starting point is 01:04:26 Apparently they had injuries later in their lives. For getting spooked. It had nothing to do with the fact that she trained them for horse racing. Horse ramsers get PTSD. I mean, I've never asked a horse. Anyway, so there's also an issue at the airport. You'd think that it would be that there were millions of balloons in the sky, but actually the bigger problem for airplanes came when the balloons landed and the Burke Lakefront Airport had to shut down one of their runways because there was just so many wet unpopped balloons all over the runway. The points couldn't land. Can I ask, even in a perfect world, what they expected to happen to the balloon? I don't exactly.

Starting point is 01:05:06 What did you think? What do you think they're going to go straight up and come straight back down, put the net back over the top of it? And then you pop them one by one with a pin. Well, this is one of my favorite things. So a guy made a short film that's just like archived news reports from like that time. So it was all the ones of like really exciting beforehand

Starting point is 01:05:24 and that it cuts straight to like, okay, so this probably wasn't so great. But a couple of days later, this news reporter and this is a quote from her, she says, well, the balloons that filled the lake on Saturday are no longer here. No one knows where they've gone, but at least they're no longer posing a threat

Starting point is 01:05:40 to fish and wildlife and they're not littering the lake. Where the fuck do you think they went? Does she know understand how water works? It moves your dumb bitch. Oh. I called a woman a dumb bitch and you clapped. I love you, Brisbane. So she's just like, well, problem solved,

Starting point is 01:06:03 but not problem solved, because the balloons were biodegradable, sure. But they still took a long time to disintegrate, and even weeks after the event, people were still seeing the balloons hanging around their beaches, and most of the balloons ended up floating across to the Canadian side of Lake Erie, so they're like, not our problem. It's a gift. It was a... The Canadians probably thought they were the million millions shopper at the local electronics store.

Starting point is 01:06:29 Does that make sense? Why were the balloons in the lake then? It's weird culture up there. Yeah, I'll never understand those Canadians. Yeah, so it was obviously a big spectacle. It didn't go very well. It became an international sensation thanks to newspaper reports and the complaints

Starting point is 01:06:48 that started flooding in afterwards. One man, his name was Floyd from Washington, was dismayed at the amount of money that United Way had spent. He also noted the hypocrisy in spending so much money on what was supposed to be a fundraiser. He was like, it seems to me the money for spending money spent for this stunt which is about 500 grand Could have been used to much better advantage seeing as how most of the funds were probably from donations from people

Starting point is 01:07:16 Who donated because they believe their money is going to a good course? Floyd makes a very good point. Yeah, that's right. But, guys, it's got a happy ending. Did they make a profit? I don't, not after the suing, no, I don't think so. I'll put a dent. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, if you've got to pay a hundred grand for every horse in the state, that really adds up.

Starting point is 01:07:37 When you feel weird, I'm a person with horses, obviously doing pretty well. I'm going to sue a charity, because they got a little spook So give me that charity money, please my horses. They were spooked It's good news guys because a couple of years later the Guinness Book of World Record Recognized the event as the largest ever You can't buy a P.I. like that.

Starting point is 01:08:05 You can. And obviously, as we all know now, here in the future, that our Cleveland is the coolest cities. Yes, it is. And the second coolest state in the whole United States, and of course, second only to Vermont, fantastic cities. Very cool place. State.

Starting point is 01:08:20 So that is my report on the Balloon Fest 86. Believe it or not, I do. I believe it. Well, I'm glad that we almost got through a whole episode without anyone dying and everyone feeling bad about it. Well, I mean, Robert, what did die? 22. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:08:40 Oh yeah, and those cats did die, myra. So many people die on our show now that it's just become blaser. What's the point? If it's a death can of under like 100, we're like, that's pretty good. Oh, wow. Nice lighthearted episode. Yeah, I've got a bit of that one on the scale. Oh, but that does bring us to the end of our record setting.

Starting point is 01:08:58 World record episode 200. Yes. Thank you so much. Thank you. I really Thank you so much. Thank you. I really do appreciate everyone coming. I'm not going to have the Scots anymore. Don't. Oh, she's saying don't look.

Starting point is 01:09:12 It's not good. What have you got canceled in the end? Oh, mama. What else would exist? Ladies and gentlemen, at the zoo for our 200th episode up here in Brisbane. Thank you so much for coming out. Thanks to the venue.

Starting point is 01:09:24 There have been a fantastic place. We really appreciate that. And until next week, from the stage, I'll say thank you so much for coming out. Thanks to the venue, they've been a fantastic place. We really appreciate that. And until next week, from the stage, I will say thank you. Oh, lightest. Bye. Good bye. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:09:34 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:09:38 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Starting point is 01:09:44 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah a great life, fun time. Did that sound sincere a minute to be? I've just been listening back to it and it is. His fond memories, can you believe it? We made it all the way to 200. Very, very fun. I was looking up trying to find out if anyone had suggested world records And someone had will Orlando white suggested Guinness world records as a possible topic So thank you so much for that suggestion Will I'd also loved it shout out to Maritz from Munchin and Joe panning

Starting point is 01:10:21 Who were both in the front row of the show, and they were both wearing Saint's Beanie, so that's... Obviously, it means they're very cool. Merritt's also bought me a can of Munich beer, and Joe's a patron, so, you know, it doesn't get much cooler than that. Merritt's also was very patient with Miyazza. I forgot his name and called him More Tits, a couple times, which, yeah, he was kind about that.

Starting point is 01:10:43 Maybe kinder than niche would have been. Oh, that's a lot of my few days later down the street and y'all down, I eat more it's. And he said it's actually more tits, mate. I was there the other way around. Anyway, there was also a second half of the show in Brisbane and you'll be able to hear that if you're a patron, if you're at patreon.com slash

Starting point is 01:11:01 to go on pod, Dave will be uploading that this week as well, I believe. It was a loose fun time. We had a few drinks in between shows and I think you'll be out of tell in the recording probably but check that out if you're keen. Now's the time for my favorite part of the show. It's called the Fact Quotal Questions section and in this one one of our patrons if you're on the Sydney-Sharnberg Deluxe Memorial level, you get to write in a factor quote or a question to me. And I'll read it out. This time, I've picked one that wasn't a question

Starting point is 01:11:37 because the other two aren't here to help me answer it. So instead, I've picked a fact. And this one is from Phil Bojois, or Phil Bojis, the Phil Bojools, something like that, a recon, sorry Phil, your buddy legend. You also get to give yourself a title as well as offer a fact, a question and Phil's given himself the title of Professor of Devon Medicine at the Church of Bob. That's an interesting one. I wonder what that means. Maybe that makes more sense when you hear the quote that Phil's given us, it is from the Dalai Lama and it is. In the practice of tolerance,

Starting point is 01:12:20 one's enemy is the best teacher. In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher. In the practice of tolerance, one's enemy is the best teacher. So does that make, if you're a professor at the Church of Bob, does that, are you suggesting that Bob is your enemy? Phil. Or am I misunderstanding that entirely? I would like to assume that I probably am because it's actually 2am, okay? Let me fess up to you. I've been going through trying to edit this episode. It's taken way longer than it normally would because my brain is slow but my ox's patient. The next thing that we like to do, this will be interesting with me operating on a high frequency like this. Oh, we thank some Patreons and not only just that type of game where we'll thank the Patreons and then give them some sort of a thing that's relating to the topic.

Starting point is 01:13:15 I'm guessing this week what I should be doing is giving them a world record that they've broken. What are they? The world record holder of. And obviously, if you were hanging out for Dave or just to read it, you know, and please just quietly send me a message and I'll see if I can get them to read it out another day, but hopefully being involved in this 200th episode will make up for the fact that it's just dopey me reading it, you know, and not either of the more talented members of the podcast. But anyway, what I might do is I'll Google your home city and see if I can connect that to some sort of record. Firstly, I would love to think from Wahoa in Hawaii. It is Eric Jewel.

Starting point is 01:14:02 Doodle. is Eric Jewel. Jewel. So let's have a look and see what Wahawi, Wahawi, is this on O'ahu? No. So it's a, it's an, Wahawi, but a central valley between two volcanic mountains that comprise the island. Wow, that's wild. Okay, cool. These pictures look

Starting point is 01:14:27 beautiful as well. All right, well, in that case, with the volcano, Zerich, I'm going to say that you hold the world record for the hottest explosion of lava by a human. And I don't think you'd have a heap of competition there, but I don't know what that means. You've got a pretty good constitution. I guess if you are able to keep lava inside of you, is that what constitution means? I don't know if it is. Anyway, Eric, apologies, and thank you so much.

Starting point is 01:15:03 And well done, congratulations on that eruption record that you hold. I'd also love to thank from New Jersey City in New Jersey. It's Anastasia Sabochic. We've kicked off with two fantastic names. Eric Jule. Anastasia Sabochic. Holy moly, that's so good. It's a New Jersey. Gee's like, no, a bit about that. I know people are walking here. We're doing things over here. I just watched an episode of The Suprano's The Other Night, so I'm pretty sure I understand what New Joy's is all about.

Starting point is 01:15:36 Northeastern, New Jersey. It's eastern waterfront faces the Hudson River, where it meets up in New York Bay. Liberty, State Park as panoramic views of the Manhattan skyline. Well this is beautiful stuff. So I'm guessing at some sort of a water related record I'm going to say deepest dive without any sort of a jet pack, probably not jet pack. What am I trying to say? Dive tank, air tank, or jet pack, Anastasia, you did it without either. You got down to four kilometers deep.

Starting point is 01:16:18 It took you a week, so you're really at the hold you breath. And I'm pretty impressed. I don't wanna oversell breath and I'm pretty impressed. I don't want to oversell it. That is pretty impressive. Well done Anastasia. Your name is fantastic and so apparently is your ability to dive into the Jersey shore. That's a thing. I'm pretty sure. Okay, great. Thank you so much Anastasia. I'd also love to thank GZ. He hasn't given a lot away. Just says he's from his address is street city great Britain. So from great Britain, it's Tom Horton. Tom Horton, let me look up great Britain. Oh, hang on, I've Googled GB. It's come up with Gigabyte. The Gigabyte

Starting point is 01:17:02 is a multiple of the unit byte for digital information. The prefix giga means 10 to the power of 9 in the international system of units. Therefore, one gigabyte is 1,000000000000000000000 bytes. I'm not going to go to the amount of 0000. The unit symbol for the gigabyte is GB or Great Britain. Okay, so you've got a storage related record. I'm going to say you have Tom, you have stored the most cans of baked beans. This will make the beanboy, La Beanboy proud.

Starting point is 01:17:41 The most cans of beans in one cupboard in your house in Great Britain. You stored one gigaton of baked beans in your cupboard. I don't know how you did it. You mushed them down smaller than they should mush and you got them in there and congratulations to you Tom. I can't believe you did it. It was the best. We released the balloons to celebrate. They ended up in the lake. It was a bit of a mistake on the lake. But the celebration was still good.

Starting point is 01:18:13 We recovered. Thank you so much. Tom Horton. I'd also love to thank from West Chester in Pits. Not Pits. PA is Pennsylvania. Chris Trio. Chris Trio. Chris Trio.

Starting point is 01:18:28 That's a fantastic name. Westchester, let me tell you about it. It's a borough in the county seat of Chester County, Pennsylvania, in the US state of Pennsylvania. That makes sense to me. The population was 18,461 at the 2010 census. Ah, cool, it's a small place. And there's a Westchester University of Pennsylvania North Campus there. Okay, study. All right, so I think what's happened here is Chris has the world record for the most study ever done, right? You've retained the most information and it was on the specific topic of penguins and in even more particular, Pingu, the claymation penguin, Chris

Starting point is 01:19:17 studied all the footage available publicly of Pingu, but also, the thing Chris did that got in the world record was he found some forgotten tapes of Pingu. He studied them all and then was able to recite back the storylines to each of them. A lot of it was just meeps and moops, but he did it and it was beautiful to see Chris up on that stage in front of it. You know, it was at one of the main stadiums there in Pennsylvania? And he meaped and moved all the way to the top. What on Chris, congratulations to you.

Starting point is 01:19:52 Couple more, I'd love to thank from Como and New South Wales. I wonder if that's the Sydney Como. I'd love to thank Adam Sullivan, let's have a look. Como is a suburb of southern Sydney, located on the George's River in the state of New South of Wales, Australia. So located 27 kilometers south of the Sydney Central Bit Business District in the local government area of the southern shore,

Starting point is 01:20:17 southernland, okay, Keifer, southernland, 24. So your record, if you choose to accept it, Adam, was that you were able to stay awake for 24 hours, right, which is obviously we talked about earlier in the episode, not a world record and it itself, but what you did, you stayed awake for 24 hours, 12 times in a row. So you actually stayed up for 12 days, breaking the record talked about earlier today. So congratulations, Adam, for staying up for 12 sets of 24 hours. I don't know why you didn't just call it 12 days, but that's one of your eccentricities, Adam. Classic Sully, Adam Sully Sullivan, as the people call him. He's very famous in the streets of Como. Well done, Adam, and finally,

Starting point is 01:21:07 from Bethel in CT, where is Bethel in CT? I'd love to thank Nicholas Verderoussar. Finishing strong with a name, that Bethel is a town in Fairfield County, Connecticut. in Fairfield County, Connecticut, about 69, nice, about 69 miles from New York City. Population was also about a 1,500 to 2,020,000 census. So I don't know all the towns that just divided up into 8,000 people in America. What's going on here? If I don't cover their conspiracy, I wonder. I feel like maybe I have. So it says the town center is defined by the US Census Bureau as a census designated place. God, that is gotta be, how is that the

Starting point is 01:21:53 leading paragraph? That's so boring. Let's see what else has got here. I'm looking up the Wikipedia page for Bethel Connecticut. Bethel, oh my God, I cannot believe this is a town's name. That is, that is Scarock it up my list of places I gotta go when we get to America. Let's see notable people, let's see if I've heard of any of these people. PT Barnum. Whoa, First and more from Sonic Youth. Meg Ryan? There's only 1,000 people. It sounds like nearly all of them are famous. All right, PT Barnum. He was a showman played by Hugh Jackman. To be honest, I've never seen it, but I assume there's elephants in the PT Barnum Circus. It's old school, so they used to do it. So I'm going to say

Starting point is 01:22:46 Nicholas's world record that he holds is most elephants stacked on top of each other and he was able to stack two elephants and if you think about it that's probably not super surprising, even stacking two is an amazing effort. It's in the days before animal welfare was really cared about, back in the circus days. Nicholas, I think, is about as old as me. He's multiple centuries old, and he did it about. It wouldn't have been, it may be about 60, 70 years back. Well done, Nicholas.

Starting point is 01:23:20 And, you know, obviously, we're looking for new kind of records now that you know, the PC police don't let you stack elephants on top of each other anymore, which is, you know, PC gone mad, I'm a member of it. We'll find someone else. Let's stack bulldozers or something else. Or that would be equally hard to do. You and me, Nicholas, let's go stack some weird shit together. Thank you so much, Nicholas.

Starting point is 01:23:43 Thank you so much, Adam, Chris, Tom, and Estasia and Eric. You're all goddamn legends. Thank you so much. Is that what else do I have to do? Is that, that feels like that's just about everything. Is it, I should tell you, yeah, once again, check out do go on pod.com

Starting point is 01:24:02 if you wanna find tickets to live shows. Support us on Patreon if you want to. At patreon.com slash do go on pod. You can find out about my standup shows at matstew.com. Do a bunch of them over the next few months. Things are in motion. We're having to think outside the box with the American thing, but we feel like maybe we might be getting closer to some sort of an announcement soon.

Starting point is 01:24:26 And other live shows as well, Dave is working really hard trying to put some my tinnaries together to get some two is happening later this year and early next year. So I'm really pumped for that and I'm really excited to be able to tell you more about it. Well, at least Dave will because he's one doing all the work. He should really be making the announcements. And yeah, what else do I need to say? Nothing else really, I guess we'll be back here next week with episode 201. And I cannot wait to see you then. In the meantime,

Starting point is 01:24:56 well what does Jess would say, good, no she'd say bye, David say good night and God bless and I would say, LATERS! This podcast is part of the Planet Broadcasting Network. Visit Planet Broadcasting.com for more podcasts from our great mates. I mean, if you want, it's up to you. This episode is brought to you by Progressive. Most of you aren't just listening right now. You're driving, cleaning, and even exercising.

Starting point is 01:25:45 But what if you could be saving money by switching to Progressive? Drivers who save by switching save nearly $750 on average, and auto customers qualify for an average of 7 discounts. Multitask right now. Quote today at Progressive.com Progressive casualty and trans company and affiliates, National Average 12 Month Savings of $744 by New Customer Surveyed, who saved with Progressive between June 2022 and May 2023. www.nv.com and a rewarding field with plenty of growth opportunities and often flexible work environments. Go to mycomputercareer.edu and take the free career evaluation. You could start your new career in months, not years.

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Do Go On - 200 - Wild World Records

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