Stuff You Should Know - Mardi Gras! One month late

Episode Date: March 5, 2020

In true SYSK fashion, Josh and Chuck are late to the game. But never fear, they will still detail Mardi Gras in all its colorful glory.  Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Hello, people in Vancouver and Portland, we're coming to see you. In March. Okay, did I step on you? No, no, I stepped on you, I think, man.

All right, well, this is as clunky as we usually are. We are gonna be coming to those two fair cities that I learned don't have direct flights yesterday, and I can't wait, regardless. So we're gonna be in Vancouver on Sunday, March 29th at the Chan Center. That's right, we're kicking it up a notch there, so we need your support.

Yeah, for real, and then the next day, we're really kicking it up a notch, maybe two, in Portland. We're gonna be at the Schnitzer Concert Hall on Monday, March 30th. That's right, and we need your support there, too, Portland, because, again, these are bigger venues, we're giving it a whirl. Don't put egg on our faces, for God's sake.

Yeah, yeah. So you can get all sorts of information, you can buy tickets, everything you need, just go to sysklive.com, and we'll see you in March. Welcome to Stuff You Should Know, a production of iHeartRadios, How Stuff Works. ["How Stuff Works"] Hey, and welcome to the podcast.

I'm Josh Clark, there's Charles W. Chuck Bryan over there, there's Jerry over there, and this is Stuff You Should Know, the super topical, timely edition, because Chuck, this episode is about Mardi Gras, and we're recording it on Mardi Gras. Right, which in true Stuff You Should Know fashion, it will come out a month after.

So what we need to do is do this a month before, so it comes out on Fat Tuesday. Well, that'd be like the daily or something, not Stuff You Should Know. You know what I mean? Yeah, and I've just been going around the office, showing everyone my boobs all day. I'm all beaded up.

I was wondering why you had all those beads, now I understand. Yeah, I think we should apologize in advance to the people of New Orleans, because when it comes to something this specific, we always just get killed. Right, oh yeah. It's so personal to so many people.

For sure. And we're gonna mess up so much. They're gonna be like, you didn't mention my crew. Right. Yeah, I mean, I've been to New Orleans twice for the shows that we've done there. Yeah. It was not around Mardi Gras. I read a bunch about it,

so now I understand New Orleans Mardi Gras better than ever, but I also learned it's one of those things where it's kind of like researching humor, where you can understand the mechanism behind humor, and you can explain humor, but it doesn't quite capture it fully. That's what we're gonna do here today.

So this one will stink. Right. No, it won't, it'll be fine. I've never been to Mardi Gras either, and I mean, I just have no interest at all, mainly because of seeing a lot of cops, Mardi Gras New Orleans episodes. Oh yeah, yeah.

It's just, it's a young, it's not for me, you know. But I love New Orleans, and you can find the most hospitable people on the planet there at any time of year. Right. And they won't get mad at us. That's what's so great about them. We're gonna mess up a lot,

and they'll be like, yeah, it's all right. Yeah, don't worry about it, guys. They'll kill us, but they won't get mad at us. Ooh, you know what I mean? Maybe. Also, I wanna shout out our friend Doug Shashary. Shashary. Oh, sure.

I practiced it, Chuck. It's a tough name. Who is at our New Orleans show and brought us, what are they called, Boudin balls? Uh-huh, Boudin. Yeah, they were so good, but Doug's a great guy with or without the gift of Boudin. Yeah, boy, that guy is like a friend to the world.

He invited us again, so Shashary, Shashary, if that name sounds familiar, the Tony Shashary seasoning, he is the, he is an heir to the throne. He's one of the Shashary kids. Yeah, yeah. Grandkids, maybe. And he has invited us to their company, Boyle,

again this April, he has for like the last few years. We're gonna get to that one of these years. One of these days, we will. Just a great, larger than life guy, like doesn't know a stranger. Could, we met him once and it felt like he was a best friend. Yeah, he was hanging out with us backstage. He was like, hey, this kind of reminds me of the time

I was hanging out backstage with Metallica. Every time I met the Three Stooges, yeah, they were great. Yeah. Just like that. He was awesome, man. Yeah. What a good dude. Anyway, hey, Doug.

So let's get it started, Charles. Yes, Mardi Gras, a.k.a. And is it pronounced carnaval or does that have to have an E on the end? I think it's carnaval. And I think it's carnaval because it actually comes from the Latin words carna or carne valet.

Which means? Farewell to the flesh. Meet volleyball. That's better interpretation. It's wrong, but I like it more. Is that farewell to the flesh is that what it means? Yes, not to be confused with Candyman to farewell to the flesh.

It just means farewell to the flesh. Carnaval and Mardi Gras began in January. And like we said, today's Fat Tuesday. So everything has been going on in New Orleans and other places, but we're talking about the New Orleans Mardi Gras. Right. Not Mobile, Alabama.

I'm sorry. I know that you were the OGs. But apparently, right. Yeah, I was gonna say they had the first one by a mile from this. Like I think 15 years before New Orleans was even founded. Yeah, and there are various neighborhoods around the world

that do stuff like this. Kirkwood in Atlanta for some reason has a little New Orleans thing. Is that right? And every year they do a little Mardi Gras parade and paint the signs purple and gold and green. And I don't know why. Maybe there's just some people from New Orleans

who showed up. That'd be my guess. That happened post Katrina. We got a lot of people that moved here. But yeah, that's right. I wonder if that does have to do with it. Maybe. It does seem like the history of Mardi Gras

and the different influences from Mardi Gras kind of have converged in New Orleans. It's like, yes, give us this. We'll take this tradition. Yes, give us that. And now everybody thinks when you think Mardi Gras, you think New Orleans. But one thing that I don't think this article

really pointed out very well is Mardi Gras is a day that's one part of Carnival. Or Carnivali. Yeah, it's the culmination of a couple of weeks. Of partying and parading and masquerade balling. Yes. And well, we'll just see a lot of fun stuff. Right, but it's, so like if you go down to Rio

for Carnival, it's the exact same festival celebrated differently in Brazil. But the same thing, they're celebrating the same thing as they're celebrating throughout the Mardi Gras season in New Orleans or in Kirkwood. I bet Brazil would be pretty fun. I can't imagine. With all those ugly men and women that live there.

Right. Trust in drab, like baggy clothing. Oh man, that's my favorite part of the World Cup is just seeing people in the crowd from Brazil. Sure. All the models. The average person is a super model. So.

That's what it says on the tourist website. That's right. And Fat Tuesday, of course, is the day before Ash Wednesday, which is tomorrow. And the beginning of Lent, I grew up Baptist, because everyone knows, and so I'd never had to. You never got the charcoal on your forehead? No, and in fact, in the South, in the 70s and 80s,

there were so few Catholics that. They'd throw stones at you if you had the charcoal on your forehead. Well, I didn't even know what it was really. I mean, I was, I think I remember being in college and being like, you got something on your head. I don't remember what the Ash is for. I'm sure 1.3 billion Catholics will write in to tell us. But it's the start of Lent, like you said,

which is a period of fasting before Easter. Right. It's a very holy period for the Roman Catholic Church. Yeah, and I think the original idea was for the partying is, hey, let's indulge before we have to not indulge. Right. Unlike foods and stuff. I don't think it was like, let's all get super hammered.

Well, I don't know. I don't know. Maybe. So prior to that, even it has roots and paganism. Yeah. Even before the Roman Catholic, like basically every holiday we celebrate is based on paganism and then syncretized by the Roman Catholic Church.

That's right. But the pagan roots of it were more pragmatic or practical where you had stuff that was like the last of the harvest from the summer before, the fall before. And it was starting to get kind of, it's starting to turn and spoil and you needed to eat it before that time. So it was this period of like using up everything in the house

that was about to turn bad. Eat all these eggs. And like you would do that. It was called the grah boof, I believe, or boof grah. No, grah boof, which means fat cow or fat beef. And it was the idea that the beef had been fattened just to perfection and they weren't going to get any fatter and maybe they wouldn't even make it any further

and you just slaughter them and eat them or you'd just eat all the stuff in your house. Maybe they wouldn't make any further like, that cow is about to die, I can tell. It's like it's so fat, it's about to die. Let's eat it. So they think or there's evidence at least that there was Mardi Gras celebrating going on,

maybe as early as the 18th century. Definitely, from what I saw. There was a French explorer named Pierre Lemoy, Sir de Berville. I think you really got it. Especially if you crunch it together and speed it up. I can't do that. I think you really nailed it. And he was exploring around and camping out

about 50 miles south of what is now New Orleans. And he's like, hey, I know that they're celebrating in France right now. So I am going to christen the site, Pointe du Mardi Gras. And like we said though, the real Mardi Gras celebration kind of started in earnest in Mobile, Alabama though, right? Yeah, so he named the thing. I don't know if he actually celebrated Mardi Gras,

but he named that area, Pointe du Mardi Gras. So that was 1699. Apparently four years later in Mobile, before it was even a town, they celebrated, they had their first Mardi Gras party or whatever, a ball or something like that at the fort. And then New Orleans was incorporated or founded in 1718. And they started having Mardi Gras parties

like shortly after that. So it was all very close to the beginning of the 18th century. Everybody started having Mardi Gras. And it was like directly from the French influence in the area. And if you look into the early 1800s, like the 1820s and into the 1830s, this is when you start seeing a little bit more

of what we're talking about as far as carriages that are decorated. People parading in masks, walking on foot, probably at this point or in carriages. It was largely spontaneous though. There'd just be people partying on the street wearing masks. Okay, let's walk that way. Yeah, and they did.

And then other people walk that way too, and all of a sudden you had to parade. But the thing is, is this revelry on the streets, because everybody was indulging, and the point was to like, not just indulge, but really over-indulge. This wasn't just your average village party. Everybody was getting trashed even back then.

And so people were getting in fights, and people were beating up each other, and horses were kicking people right off of their feet. All sorts of crazy stuff was happening. It was, yeah, cops New Orleans. And so the city leaders were like, we're not going to do this anymore. This is out of hand.

And in 1857, I believe, a group of, actually from what I saw, Transplants for Mobile, who were members of a group called the Cowbellion-Diracan Society. Okay. More cowbell. Sure. They said, hey, how about this?

We'll actually organize a legit parade, and it'll be much more orderly. There won't be this chaos. And they formed the Mystic crew of Comus or Camus. Yeah, so there's a lot of K's in place of C's. Mystic has a K. But it doesn't look scary like we talked about. Oh, right.

Oh, does it to you? Well, not Mystic crew, but it depends on what follows. Mm-hmm. Mystic, because it could look creepy to me. Okay. But crew is spelled with a K-R-E-W-E. Mm-hmm. And we should go ahead and talk a little bit

about what a crew is. Yeah, I agree. It's a group of people who get together, and technically they are like legit non-profits, and they get larger, at least. Yeah, they're charity organizations. They're supposed to be. Yeah, and they are sort of the group of people

who would get together and say, all right, this is our gang, and we're gonna gang in a good way, and we're gonna make a float and do this theme this year, and all get together and get super drunk. Probably not all of them. I bet you there's a non-drinking crew, like one. Gotta be.

There has to be at least one. It's that crew. Right. They were anonymous originally. Like they were secret groups that were like out and proud in public, but like they wore masks, and like their identity really was anonymous. Like you were an anonymous member of this group.

That's right. And over time now, people, like the anonymity is not quite as important, and I don't think. It is to some, though. I think sometimes they take it serious. They do still? Yeah, I mean, not in that like,

I don't know, maybe you can get kicked out. It might be more of a lighthearted thing, but I think generally they try and still respect the masks on approach. Sure, okay, all right. But I mean like, if you told somebody like, I'm a member of the crew of Rex or something like that, they're not gonna kick you out.

It's taking your mask off during the parade specifically. I think so. Yeah. But we'll hear about it if we got that wrong. We definitely will. They grew from these little tiny societies into very large groups, well-funded almost across the board,

because they're supported by dues. And they put on parades and balls, masquerade balls on the night of Mardi Gras. And some of them are just really enormous, have like big name celebrities and like huge bands that play. Yeah, they'll nominate a person to be like the leader or the king or queen each year. Yeah.

Like you could, they could say, Josh Clark, we want you to come down. They could. And be the king of our crew this year. Right. And that's how it started back in, not 1857, I think it was 1872 that the first king of a crew was nominated.

Right, but 1857 was when the Mystic crew of Comus had what's now looked at the first, as the first kind of modern Mardi Gras parade. And aside from a few years where like World Wars interrupted things, they've kind of been doing this every year since then. Yeah, there's another, so 1857 was a big year,

1872 that I mentioned was another big year because that year the traditional Mardi Gras colors were added, I believe. Yeah, by the crew of Rex. And there's a lot of misunderstanding supposedly. So that year the crew of Rex named as their king or the leader, I can't remember which one he was, the Russian Grand Duke Alexei,

who was from the house of Romanov. And they said, well, these colors came from the house of Romanov, the gold, the green, and the purple that we all associate with Mardi Gras. That's just absolutely not true. The house of Romanov has like red, yellow, and blue, I believe are their colors. But that's just the legend that came about.

But some other stuff happened that year, like the idea of electing a king to your Mardi Gras parade, throwing beads for the first time happened that year. Yeah, the song? Yeah, the song, what is it? If I ever cease to love, that's not how it goes. I was gonna say, I've never heard it actually, so. You, I bet you if we played it, you might recognize it.

So the colors though, purple stands for justice, green for faith, and gold for power. Supposedly all just made up out of a whole cloth. Yeah, and the idea with the beads was supposedly originally that you would toss these to people who you thought exemplified these traits. I'm not sure how accurate that is either. Now it is, of course, morphed into another tradition,

which I don't even know if that's still going on. Hey, Mr. Throw Me Something? Yeah. Throw Me Something, Mr. Throw Me, some combination of those words. Well, I'll show you something and you throw me something. Oh, that's different. So I think it went from, you look like you're involved in justice, here's some beads,

to there's this traditional call, I think Mr. Throw Me Something. Okay. And then I think it morphed into the boobs thing. You just said that literally quieter. Right, right, I just put my head up to my back. But I don't even know, you know, with all the advancements we've made in the past few years,

if people are doing that anymore. I would like to know about that, because I'm not gonna go down to Mardi Gras. I'll come to New Orleans, not Jazz Fest, and not Mardi Gras, and I'll have a blast, but I'm not gonna go to those things. When we were there, we were there last October. I think so, yeah.

And there was candy in the streets. And I'm like, there's no way this is left over from Mardi Gras. Dude, there's parades all the time in New Orleans. That's what I was wondering. Yes. Do they just do it all the time? I mean, every time I've been,

there have been parties and parades. It just seems like one of those towns where they're always getting down. Right, throwing candy. Should we, well, I guess we should just say quickly, if you're before we break, if you're gonna go, we're not discouraging you go, but plan in advance, because it's not the kind of thing

we're on the week before. You can be like, hey, dudes, let's go, man. I think you can go under those auspices, for sure. But you'll be sleeping in the van. Totally different kind of experience than if you book a hotel or you're in advance. Yeah, you won't get a hotel. You won't be able to eat at emeralds or anything like that

unless you plan far, far in advance. You could storm emeralds. Sure, which people who sleep in vans and talk like you just did might, do you? All right, so let's take a break and we'll talk more about Mardi Gras. ["Mardi Gras"] We're gonna use, hey, dude, as our jumping off point,

but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews, co-stars, friends, and nonstop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64?

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about my new podcast, and make sure to listen, so we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you listen to podcasts. All right, so if you are the city of New Orleans, you love Mardi Gras, because it brings in a ton of money every year. Yeah.

Big time, like a half a billion dollars. I couldn't believe that, man. A half a billion dollars is so much though. A year, not since it started a couple hundred years ago. But every year, about a half a billion dollars in revenue. Yeah, and this is something I thought was super cool. There's no corporate sponsorship. There can be.

Oh, really? But it's not like. I don't want to interrupt you, go ahead. Well, it's not like there's one Mardi Gras committee, and that is sponsored by X Car brand, and there's a president of Mardi Gras. Like it's all patchworks of crews, and neighborhoods, and people.

Yeah, and all of them operate autonomously. Yes. Basically, what the city does is say, we can have X number of parades this year. These are the routes. Get a permit if you want to do it. Everything else is up to you. But like a local crew could be sponsored by Chico's Bail Bondsman?

Yeah, basically, yeah. OK. Man, that was a great deep cut right there. But it's customary not to. Right. If you do that, again, you're operating autonomously, so nobody can tell you not to. Right.

But it's just kind of looked down upon. But some do. I saw somebody sponsored by Bud Light, and I could not find it. Oh, really? So it gets that big? Yeah, dude, the crew of Endamon, E-N-D-Y-M-O-N. Who knows how to pronounce half of these? I'm sorry.

I'm sure we're butchering it. I need to have my word butcher apron on. But the crew of Endamon, I'm pretty sure I got it, theirs usually ends, their parade usually ends in the Superdome. In Bud-Man with Bud-Man. Basically. You're a Duff-Man. Yeah, Duff-Man.

In the Superdome, and they'll have a huge concert. This year, I think the Superdome is under construction, so they're ending it somewhere else. But Sticks is playing, Train is playing. There's like five bands. Wow. Sticks, dude. Sure.

I would walk, however long to go see Sticks. Sticks without Dennis DeYoung. But that's really as he did. No, he just doesn't, they broke up, and Sticks went on without their lead singer. I don't know, man. I think the crew of Endamon's got enough cash to bring him back. Do you want to be cool as if Endamon had Sticks,

and the Mystic crew had Dennis DeYoung on the other side of town. You got to choose your allegiance. Yeah. Do you want to hear Mr. Roboto or too much time on my hands? I think Tommy Shaw will sing that. OK, so when did that start? Tommy Shaw era. Well, no, he's always been around,

but there was the lead singer, then Tommy Shaw played guitar and sang a few of their songs. OK, and then he took over when Dennis DeYoung left. Sure. OK. What do you do when the Dennis DeYoung vacuum opens up? I don't know. I mean, you could also fill it with Sammy Hagar.

Oh, man. I was listening to some band Hagar this weekend. It's good stuff. Because that's what Emily loves. It was great. Big shout out to Aaron Hagar. Yeah, this is the shout out app, huh? I guess so.

So I don't remember how we got on that. But oh yeah, so yeah, some of these can be so big. The Supercruise specifically, we'll talk a little more about that. But the Supercruise are these big giant ones that are just tradition that have hundreds of members in their parade. One of them, I think Endamon, has one float that's like 360 feet long.

There's like 3,200 floaters in their parade. Amazing. Just a ton of people. They throw out like, I think, yeah, 15 million throws, things that they throw out, everything from bees to balloons and all that, 15 million in a parade. So yeah, these things can get like Bud Light corporate sponsorship level.

Amazing. So it is an integrated parade now, and series of parades now. Obviously, pre-integration. There were communities, African-American communities in New Orleans that got together their own jam, which I bet was quite a party. And the Zulu Social Aid and Pleasure Club, Incorporated,

is one, said Cruz, although I did see that there are some white people in that crew now. Oh, did it integrate? That's cool. I think so, because there was some controversy. They dress up in, I think, traditional African garb, and they... Well, they wear grass skirts.

Well, they wear blackface, too, which I saw a couple of years ago, there was a call to stop the blackface, even though they're African-American. And they said that there were some white members doing it, too. And they said, you know, because of the minstrel roots, in which I totally want to do one on minstrel shows, to not do it anymore.

Other people say, no, it's more rooted in the mask tradition for us. So I'm not sure if they're still doing that or not as of 2020. Well, I was reading on their website about their history. This is not the first time they were kind of protested by African-Americans in the 60s. Oh, yeah, I saw that, too. There was a big push against them.

And their membership dwindled down to, I think, 16 people. Because it was just so unpopular what they were doing. I think Louis Armstrong wore blackface one year as their king. But so the social aid and pleasure club, the social aid part, is that that group started out back in the day where... And it wasn't just African-Americans, but I could definitely see during the Jim Crow era, where African-Americans needed to do this.

They would all chip in like membership dues. And then when they fell ill, that larger pot of money would take care of them, basically like insurance. It's supposed to work, right? But that's where the social aid came from. But they still are a charity organization. Interesting. And Dougie Fresh is playing at their ball today.

Oh, really? If you had a chance to see sticks or Dougie Fresh, which would it be? Don't make me choose, man. Or Dynasty Young. Don't make me choose. Dougie Fresh would be pretty cool. I know of Dougie Fresh, but I'm not hip to those jams.

You don't have to be hip to know Dougie Fresh. Well, I mean, I mean, I don't know them. I guess what I mean. I know I'm not hip already. That's all right. A second ago, I think you said balloons instead of doubloons. No, I didn't. I think so.

Let's rewind. Balloons. Oh, I did. Wow. Wait, we need to fast forward. So doubloons are, we've reached a new low here in year 12. They are aluminum. They are little coin-like objects.

Or aluminum. Sure. And they have the cruise insignia on one side, and then whatever their theme is on the other, they toss these out at people. There's a lot of tossing. Yeah, and actually those things, doubloons fall under the larger umbrella of throws.

Of balloons. I said doubloons. This right is OK. Man, you got my head, Chuck. Yeah, those are throws. Throws are anything that is thrown from a float. And usually it's a very inexpensive souvenir. Beads, very, very customary.

Those doubloons are a little more sought after. Oh, are they? It's like a challenge coin. I think if it has the groups insignia, and then on the other side of the theme that year, it's definitely considered a collectible. And not just a generic ones, I guess. I think so.

And then others, other people's throws or other crew's throws are really sought after. The Zulu's throws are coconuts. Oh, wow. Like real coconuts? I think they were at one point. I'm not sure if they are anymore. Gets up, everybody.

But I read this chowhound article about throws, and they were saying the Zulu's don't throw coconuts anymore because of legal reasons. Well, it's funny. There's a lot of stuff in here. You might as well talk about the king cakes and the chocable that they would put inside of the king cake. If you've never had a king cake, it is a big sugared cake.

It's oval with a hole in the middle. It's like a Danish. Yeah, but it's a Danish just slathered in sugar, of purple, green, and gold, and very rich and sugary. And the tradition, of course, to put the little plastic baby Jesus or represented baby Jesus initially, I guess. It's just a naked baby. Sure, no swaddling clothes.

That started, what was the guy's name? It's Donald Entreger, who started that in the 40s. Yeah, the 1940s. So it's not like a 100-year-old tradition. Yeah, and it actually didn't survive terribly long because at some point in time, in the not too distant past, bakers started to say, we don't want to get sued either. The Zulu's are onto something.

We're going to stop baking the little plastic baby dolls into this cake. Yeah, that just seems insane. Because people could choke on them. So now it comes in like a little pack, like a little cellophane packing. Right, that says, stick in at your own risk. Right, and then you just, I guess you stick it in

and then lick your hand and smooth the icing back over to cover up that part. So I'm trying to figure out the first time we went to New Orleans, I think it was around Mardi Gras, unless they have another big king cake celebration, which they might. They don't. This is it?

They do not. King cake season actually runs from King's Day, which is January 6th, which is the day that officially kicks off Mardi Gras season in New Orleans, until Ash Wednesday. You're not supposed to be able to get a king cake outside of that. So it may not have been for a tour,

because I did take another trip down there with our friends Gus and Matt and their son. I can't remember if that was the same trip or not. I'm getting a mom mixed up, but whenever we were down there, our friends, Miggs and Jackie, who live there, took us on like a neighborhood king cake traveling party. I think that was for our show, because those people, I think who you're talking about, came backstage

that first show. Miggs and Jackie definitely did. OK, and then I specifically remember walking under a scaffolding bleacher painted green, maybe even purple, and it was along a street. Oh, OK, so maybe that was it. It must have been either before or after something, but it was during the season.

So I guess ultimately what I'm saying is the first time must have been around then. Yeah, and it's also. If you put both of our recollections together, it forms a cohesive whole. And I'm not the first person to have various New Orleans trips kind of blur together in my head. But all I know is that king cake thing was,

I felt like strangers, literal strangers, were just like, come on in. And giving you king cake? Yes, and every other kind of great food in sweet. Yeah, they do have pretty good food down there. Oh, man. So, man, we're just knocking the traditions out, aren't we? What else?

What else should we talk about, the parades? Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of parades, you know, 50, 60, 70, 80 parades. I think this year accounted 79. 79? Like that's the level of commitment you're getting out of Josh Clark, is hand counting the number of parades

from the parade schedule. The 12 days leading up to Mardi Gras, those final 12 days are when. Now that's carnival. I don't know why this article was so averse to saying it. Yeah, that is weird. They kept saying anything but just calling it carnival. Well, no, no, no, but it leads up to the day of Mardi Gras.

Right, yeah. Mardi Gras, one day of carnival. Yeah, which is what I said. Carnival is the 12 days leading up to Mardi Gras, including Mardi Gras. That's right, okay. But those are concentrated in the parishes of Orleans, Jefferson, St. Bernard, and Santamany.

Is that how it's pronounced? Probably. But there are pre-season parades, like it is eked out longer and longer over the years, is the impression I get. Yeah, and just the same that king cakes become available January 6th. That same day, Kings Day, there's a couple of parades

that typically, a couple of parades or at least events that typically kick off this whole season. Even though carnival doesn't start until the second Friday before Fat Tuesday, just chew on it, it's all there, the actual Mardi Gras season kicks off on January 6th. That's right, chew on that naked baby made of plastic. Right, and because we should also, we haven't said this one more thing

about dates and calendars, it's a lot of fun, because the Lenten season can change because Easter is not on one fixed day, it has to do with the moon or like rabbit reproduction or something like that. That Mardi Gras can actually fall anywhere between February 3rd and March 9th. That's a big long stretch that it could fall on,

but it has to do with when Easter comes because Mardi Gras 40 days plus six before Easter. That's right, those six Sundays. We should have a side show called Calendar Talk. We should, it would be great. We just launched a spin-off just like Too Close for Comfort. That's right, Too Close for Comfort, right. We heard back from a few people on that.

So it's not a spin-off of anything, right? No, I don't think so. So these crews have themes every year and they can range. Sometimes it's about a legend or a famous story. Sometimes it's a kid's story. Sometimes it's something from literature, mythology. I think about half of these crews have names

that are Greek or Roman in origin, right? Yeah, well, I think it's kind of a nod to the pagan roots and it also includes Egyptian stuff too. And I saw that the whole idea of wearing masks and like masquerade balls and all that actually traces its roots back to ancient Egypt. So it's really interesting like this stuff kind of traveled from ancient Egypt to ancient, I guess, Greece and then Rome

and then medieval Europe and then over to the New World. And then interesting that it's not like it's just been one unbroken chain but it's connected enough that the current crews, name themselves after like Osiris or Isis or, you know, Isis the deity, they're not down with the terrorist organization. Yeah, ISIL.

Right, right, that there's at least that awareness that this is rooted, this whole tradition is rooted in history that far back. I think that's really cool. Yeah, it is cool. And it all brought to you by Bud Light. Right, and show me your boobs. Should we take a break?

Sure. All right, let's take a break and we'll talk a little bit more about supercruise right after this. ["Supercruise"] On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called David Lasher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude,

bring you back to the days of slip dresses and choker necklaces. We're gonna use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. It's a podcast packed with interviews,

co-stars, friends and non-stop references to the best decade ever. Do you remember going to Blockbuster? Do you remember Nintendo 64? Do you remember getting Frosted Tips? Was that a cereal? No, it was hair. Do you remember AOL Instant Messenger

and the dial-up sound like poltergeist? So leave a code on your best friend's vapor because you'll want to be there when the nostalgia starts flowing. Each episode will rival the feeling of taking out the cartridge from your Game Boy, blowing on it and popping it back in as we take you back to the 90s.

Listen to Hey Dude, the 90s called on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. The hardest thing can be knowing who to turn to when questions arise or times get tough or you're at the end of the road.

Ah, okay, I see what you're doing. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. This, I promise you. Oh, God.

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each week to guide you through life step by step. Oh, not another one. Kids, relationships, life in general can get messy. You may be thinking, this is the story of my life. Just stop now. If so, tell everybody, yeah, everybody about my new podcast and make sure to listen. So we'll never, ever have to say bye, bye, bye.

Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast or wherever you listen to podcasts. What's a super crew, Josh? Well, a super crew. The best crew. They're there. Well, so typically there's a couple of qualifiers.

One, they're usually very well funded. Yes. Large membership. And they'll, their parades will occur within the last few days before and including Mardi Gras. Yeah, and these are the ones like you were saying that have some of them 300 foot long floats or like 100 floats in their crew.

Right. These are the ones that get the celebrities in that convertible at the front. Yeah, and just like having corporate sponsorship, it was customary to not have outsiders as like the king of your parade. I would think so. And then it was the crew of Bacchus

that was the first to kind of break from that tradition back in 1969. Danny Kaye, the famous wig designer. What does that mean? I don't even know. It doesn't mean anything. Really? OK, I thought there was some like serious in joke

that I wasn't kidding. No, no, no. OK, just random. Yeah. Gotcha. But no, he was a famous musical actor, right? Yeah. And wig designer.

Sure. And the parade format is basically where the captain, I think we were calling them leaders. Yeah. They can be called leaders too, a crew leader. Yeah. They are the head of the procession. They're usually on a float that is.

Or they could be on horseback. Yeah, or in that convertible, like we're talking about. And then it is followed in succession by officers, kings, queens. Sometimes you got maids and dukes. And everyone's just having a good old time. Right. And so you said something about the themes, right?

Yes. So each parade and processions theme, like you said, there's no overall theme to Mardi Gras. Right. But there's a theme for each and every parade. And the crew selects it every year. And their floats are going to reflect that. But what's funny is they're very frequently

like children's literature, mythology, like historical stuff or stuff that everybody knows almost bland. And the reason that I kind of drew from the subtext of this article is there's a finite number of floats that you can rent in New Orleans for your parade. Yeah. And a lot of them have things like little bo peep on them. Right.

Because some of these are rented and not built from whole cloth. Typically, it's just the super crew that has the money and the manpower to build a float from scratch every year. And so the super crews will have like way varying themes. But like a smaller crew will have a theme where they can cobble together some rented floats to make a cohesive theme.

Yeah, they're like, what do you got left? Too close for comfort. Right. The Jim J. Bullock float. Or the Zulus did the Seinfeld theme. That was great. But I think that the floats available have to do with the theme.

Because there's a finite pool. And there's a lot of them, though, so much so that I think St. Charles Parish or St. Orleans Parish, one of the two, has an ordinance that the same float can't go through the business district in more than two parades during one Mardi Gras season. Right. So let's say you have a pre-parade with little bo peep.

You can't go back out as little bo peep two weeks later. You can one more time. Oh, you can only do it. Can't two more times. So they give you two. Yeah, the same float can't be used more than twice during one Mardi Gras season through the central business district.

But there's four different parishes putting on Mardi Gras parades. So technically, that same float could see a pretty decent amount of action. Oh, so that's just in each parish. Just in either Orleans or St. Charles Parish. I can't remember. So a little bo peep could be seeing lots of action.

Right. Like eight potential. Conceivably? Sure. All right. But I think that's pretty interesting. It really kind of reveals how seriously they take their Mardi Gras parades in New Orleans.

There are local laws saying how many times a float can be used because they want to keep it fresh and interesting. That's right. Yeah. So the other thing too, when they're selecting these leaders or the royalty, it says sometimes it's just random draws for the king and queen. I would think it would a lot more thought would go into it

than that, but maybe some of them do pick randomly. Not if it's coming from your membership. And I think I. Oh, well, that makes it fair, I guess. Right. Because then you can't jockey for position. Right. But you can also invite celebrities.

Other times, you actually will pay for the privilege to be the king or the queen or a duke or a maid in the court. I didn't see how much you would pay, but. Yeah, I was very curious about that. That's pretty rich. Yeah. Sure. Like we pick you.

Congratulations. Give us some money. Where's my $2? So the costumes and the masks are obviously a big, big part of this. That's where a lot of money is generated, costume rental and making original costumes. Yeah.

It is tradition, like we said, to leave on your mask, but they're way more flexible about it now than they used to be, I think. But yes, but Bacchus and Rex, I believe, you can lose your membership if you take your mask off during their Mardi Gras parade. They'll have you killed. He will, right there in the street.

Just ruined more than one Mardi Gras. Yeah, but apparently it's so, like the mask part of it is so ingrained. It's such an ancient part of this that goes way back in time that it's still just totally widespread today, not just among people in the parade, but among people watching the parade too. Yes.

And this article says, you might feel weird actually not having a mask on, but street vendors have you covered. You can just buy one from one of them. Of course you can. Yeah. There's plastic garbage everywhere to buy and throw. Right. You used to sell it, didn't you?

Oh, I sold the glow noodles. I love those, man. Can we talk about moon pies? Sure, sure. So this makes a lot of sense as a throw to take the place of something that could really hurt somebody. Because a traditional throw in New Orleans, a sweet treat, used to be crackerjacks boxes.

Right. Which are very, it's like any tiny box. If you throw that from 10 or 12 feet away, down onto someone, one of those corners can hit you in the face, and that's no fun. No. So the tradition of throwing the moon pie, which if you don't know what a moon pie is, you're missing out.

It is a southern, I was going to call it delicacy, but. That might be stretching. You can get them at gas stations, so it really isn't. But they are two graham cracker cookie soft ones between, with marshmallow filling in between, dipped in chocolate. It's kind of like a portable s'more that's room temperature cold. And soft.

Yeah. Like it's not a hard graham. Right, right. It's like soft and crumbly. Yeah, and they're, you know, I haven't had one in years and years, but I'm from the south, so I've had a moon pie or two in my day. Yeah, Yumi went on this little kick a few years back.

Yeah, where she was like, what is this in tribo? And she's like, there's a gas station. Let's stop and get a moon pie. And it lasted for about a week and a half. And she's like, oh, I didn't want to see a moon pie again. So you got gas twice. Yeah, basically. I think they have other flavors now too,

but the chocolate is the original. Right. And they started in 1917 when a salesman, traveling salesman from Chattanooga, the Chattanooga Bakery, ran into, as the story goes, a coal miner from Kentucky who said, you know what we could use down there in the coal mines is a portable snack. Right, a portable delicacy.

That keeps well. And they came up with the moon pie, I guess. And that coal miner was Loretta Lynn's father. Wasn't that who that movie was about? Coal miner's daughter? Yeah, sure. Great movie. And this became a big Southern thing,

but it didn't become a Mardi Gras thing until Mobile, Alabama, and their Cracker Jacks. Cracker Jack ordinance of 1972, it said. I think so. Where they said the city actually outlawed Cracker Jacks being thrown from Mardi Gras floats because people were getting injured by them or hurt. So people said, well, moon pies totally make sense.

You get hit in the eye with a moon pie, not a big deal. And now, if you go to Mardi Gras New Orleans, apparently, you can get moon pies thrown at you all over the place. Great, and you don't even have to duck. Nope, or take your shirt off. You got anything else? No. I don't either.

Happy Mardi Gras, everybody. Happy Ash Wednesday, I guess, depending on when you hear this. Happy Easter. Sure. OK. And since I said happy Easter, of course, that means it's time for Listener Mail.

I'm going to call this the long-awaited fire safety email. Thank you. I can finally clear this out of my inbox. I know. You've been asking me off and on since last August. Has it really been that long? Yeah. Oh, man.

But not every week. It's not like I'm not a sadist. You're right. Here we go. I'm a research engineer. This studies fire dynamics and material flammability. My group has developed a campaign to educate the public about general fire dynamics, fire safety,

and what to do in case of a dwelling fire. The cornerstone of this is this as good as you thought it was? I hoped it would be. The cornerstone of this campaign is called close before you does, and that is C-L-O-S-E, not clothing. Oh, I'm glad you said that. Yeah. It's focused on residents closing their bedroom doors

for going to sleep, because this strategy has been extensively tested in large-scale experiments and provide, I'm sorry, proven to slow down the advance of the fire to provide adequate time for firefighters to conduct search and rescue. That makes sense. So close your doors when you go to bed. Yeah, because if a fire does break out in your house,

it will keep the smoke out a lot longer than it would if your door's open, giving firefighters time to come get you. Did you previously sleep with your doors open or have you always been a door-closed guy? Guiltally, must admit that I still sleep with the door open. You do? I'm toast.

Me and you married my mom last year. Is there a reason or just like, or do you not even care? I don't. Like, is it a conscious thing? I don't. It's more, it just feels weird to me to have the door closed sleeping, but yeah. All right.

I listen to stuff you should know during my morning and evening commute to really enjoy all the research topics, and I find that the way Josh and Chuck, that's us, present the information has always been very easy for me to relate to and understand. I think that it's a great medium to help educate the population about the potentially life-saving difference a closed door can make in the event of a fire.

That's truly stuff everyone should know and hope you think. So as well, it'll help us to get this information to the public a year later almost. Right. Let me see here. That is from Mark. Nice work, Mark. Who, again, is a research engineer doing work

in fire dynamics and safety. Nice work, Mark. Thanks, Chuck, for doing that one. I hope you guys listen to Mark. Don't follow my example. Close your door when you sleep. Yeah, we leave ours open too. Yeah.

We've got animals and the kids. Like, people need to get in and out. So if you want to be like Mark and let us know a PSA to tell everybody, we love doing those. We'll get to it eventually, I promise. You can go ahead and send us an email. Wrap it up, spank it on the bottom, and send it off to StuffPodcast at iHeartRadio.com.

Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio's How Stuff Works. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows. On the podcast, Hey Dude, the 90s called, David Lacher and Christine Taylor, stars of the cult classic show, Hey Dude, bring you back to the days of slipdresses and choker

necklaces. We're going to use Hey Dude as our jumping off point, but we are going to unpack and dive back into the decade of the 90s. We lived it, and now we're calling on all of our friends to come back and relive it. Listen to, Hey Dude, the 90s called, on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new iHeart podcast, Frosted Tips with Lance Bass. Do you ever think to yourself, what advice would Lance Bass and my favorite boy bands give me in this situation? If you do, you've come to the right place because I'm here to help. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander

each week to guide you through life. Tell everybody, ya everybody, about my new podcast and make sure to listen so we'll never, ever have to say, bye, bye, bye. Listen to Frosted Tips with Lance Bass on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts.