Stuff You Should Know - Short Stuff: Animal Politicians

Episode Date: April 13, 2022

Small towns around the world have a longstanding tradition of nominating – and voting for – animals in elected positions like mayor and some animals have made it to being nominated for president.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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, 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. Hey, and welcome to this short stuff. I'm Josh and there's Chuck and this is short stuff. Dave's

here. He says hi. He's not really here. Jerry's here. She says hi too. At any rate, this is short stuff and I've just wasted a terrible amount of time. That's right. And this episode makes me think of the great song Pet Politics by Silver Juice, R.I.P. Dave Berman, full stop. Okay. So it makes me think Chuck of animals that have been elected to office. Because that's what we're talking about. Yeah, we are. There's apparently a long tradition, not just in the United States, where it's surprisingly prevalent, but around the world, people have elected animals to office, sometimes to make a point, sometimes to raise money for the local whatever, sometimes to insult people, usually other politicians. But there's like a pretty lengthy

history of it. There is. And it's funny when you sent me the sources for this, Fodor's, how do you pronounce that? I think you just said it. Fodor's was one of them. And then I was like, reader's digest has got to be one of these. And sure enough, reader's digest was one of the sources. Yeah. Yeah, totally. So one of the one of the first examples I came across is of a guy who is a mayor. He was a human. His name was Kenneth Simmons. And he was the mayor of Milton Washington back in 1938. And he put up a donkey. He nominated a donkey as a committee man, a precinct committee man to, I guess, work with the donkey. And the donkey's name was Boston Curtis. But the thing was, Milton Washington didn't tell anybody that Boston Curtis was a donkey.

He just nominated him and added him to the ballot. That's right. And this was clearly one of those cases where someone was like, our constituents don't even do their due diligence. They don't do their homework. They don't even care. They would just assume vote for a donkey is how the movie scene would go. And even though this mule ran unopposed, I think it was a mule. Is it? There is a difference, right? Oh, yeah, there is. Please, God, tell me it wasn't a mule because I've been saying donkey this whole time. Well, Photors says it was a mule. Okay. I'll take it. That's right. I'll take the hit. So the mule did run unopposed, but still, I think the point was made that the constituents still did not do their due diligence because it's not that they didn't

think he was going to win because it was uncontested. But the fact that it got so many votes clearly indicated that no one was doing their homework. Right. Yeah. I mean, even if it is uncontested, if you know it's a donkey, you don't just vote for the donkey. Exactly. Unless it's possible that all those voters were like, yeah, I'm ready for a change. Yeah. So that's a pretty good example. That's an unusual example. More often than not, if an animal is elected to office, it is out and proud as an animal. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like, everyone knows that they're voting for an animal. And it usually takes place in a town that's unincorporated, so there's not an actual official mayoral position. Sure. And then usually they're trying to raise money for that

town. Yeah. And it works, too. It's a fun thing. So then we'll put up, here's an example in Michigan in Omena, Michigan. They raised seven grand for their historical society. And this is just a few years ago in 2018 when a cat named Sweet Tart, which I love, great name for a cat. It really is. One as mayor. And then they just filled up the town's government with other pets. I think that was the vice mayor was a puppy named Punkin Anderson Harder, a special assistant for foul affairs, was pinning the chicken, and then press secretary was Harvey the goat. I'm sorry, Harley the goat. Right. Not Harvey the goat. That would not have worked out. So Omena, Michigan is actually fairly well known for that. And there's another town that's pretty

well known for it called Rabbit Hash, Kentucky. I'll let that one sink in for a second. Yeah. And in Rabbit Hash, they had a longstanding mayor, a dog named Lucy Lou, who was mayor for eight years. And then I think Lucy Lou resigned or retired, I guess, not resigned in disgrace or anything like Richard Nixon, but instead said, I'm going to go enjoy my retirement. And so Lucy Lou was succeeded by a dog named Bryneth Paltrow. And Bryneth, I found out, ran on a platform, Chuck, of restoring the general store. It's a pretty good platform in a town like Rabbit Hash. And then, quote, to bring the yokels of Rabbit Hash and beyond, plenty of peace and love, end quote. I thought the platform you were going to say was that they ran on was cruising together.

All right. Man, you just triggered me. Oh, I'm sorry. Thanks. Should we take a break and talk about more of this silliness afterward? I think so. All right. We'll be right back. Hey, I'm Lance Bass, host of the new I Hard 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. Seriously, I swear. And you won't

have to send an SOS because I'll be there for you. Oh, man. And so my husband, Michael. Um, hey, that's me. Yep. We know that, Michael. And a different hot, sexy teen crush boy bander each week to guide you through life step by step. 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, 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. I'm Mangesh Atikular. And to be honest, I don't believe in astrology. But from the moment I was born, it's been a part of my life.

In India, it's like smoking. You might not smoke, but you're going to get secondhand astrology. And lately, I've been wondering if the universe has been trying to tell me to stop running and pay attention. Because maybe there is magic in the stars, if you're willing to look for it. So I rounded up some friends and we dove in and let me tell you, it got weird fast. Tantric curses, Major League Baseball teams, canceled marriages, K-pop. But just when I thought I had to handle on this sweet and curious show about astrology, my whole world came crashing down. Situation doesn't look good. There is risk to father. And my whole view on astrology, it changed. Whether you're a skeptic or a believer, I think your ideas are going to change too.

Listen to Skyline Drive and the iHeart radio app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. So remember way back, probably a week or so ago, in the choir that escaped that explosion episode? Sure. Like five minutes ago for us. And you said that you were glad there wasn't some like dark part to the whole thing? Well, this one does kind of have a dark part and we're about to enter. Yeah, this was, I believe you're probably talking about Lajitas, Texas, in an unincorporated town. And they have another symbolic marital seat that they do for animals. And this one involved, I guess, what you would call a dynasty, a family of goats. The first one was Clay Henry, not Henry Clay, elected in 1986. And then Henry was,

and this is all just like shameful, they fed Henry beer. And I was like, look at that goat, drink beer and get like wasted drunk from accounts that I read. Yeah, it said like up to 35 beers in a single day, which you should not give an animal alcohol. This is all very shameful. Yeah. And this animal, Clay Henry lived at the general store there, where it would lap up this beer and was succeeded by Clay Henry Jr., who it looks like killed Clay Henry Sr.? Yes, allegedly they were both drunk and Clay Henry Jr. headbutted Clay Henry Sr. and killed him. Oh my Lord. And then took over as mayor or was appointed mayor, I guess, by the human who runs the general store. By divine right. Right. And then there was a third too, right? Yeah, you talk

about the third. Oh, all right. Clay the third was also a beer drinker because these people in Texas just kept giving these goats beer. Not just any beer too, Lone Star beer. Oh, of course it was. And this goat was castrated by a local man who was upset that the goat mayor was drinking on Sunday. And as I was about to crawl out of my skin with anger, I read the next line that this person did face animal cruelty charges. Yes. So that's according to Roadside America. I couldn't find it anywhere else, but it's a heck of a story either way. It is. And thank you for putting that last part on me. You're welcome. Sure. And then also another long tradition of animals becoming elected to office, Chuck, is to basically shame politicians, to basically say, you stink. We

think you're terrible and animals better than you. And as a matter of fact, we think you're rat, so we're gonna elect a cat or we think you're lazy, so we're going to elect a cat or so on and so forth. I'd say a sloth, but sure. Yeah. So that's kind of a tradition as well, right? Yeah. There was one actually happened in Mexico not too long ago in 2013. And they were upset about the rats in the town or, you know, rats in the political sense. And maybe rats period, who knows. And they elected a cat named Morris, who was not orange, Tabby, but a black and white cat named Morris, a tuxedo, I guess. And Morris was nominated for mayor of La Japa. La Japa? That's what I took it as. La Japa? La Japa. I think it's La Japa probably.

La Japa. La Japa. I nailed it that last time. Did you? Okay. And there was a couple of students, as you'll see with a lot of these, sometimes it's the younger generation who would do it as a joke, but then it caught on on social media. This cat gets about 150,000 likes on Facebook and then got 7,500 actual votes on election day. Which in the 21st century, if you get the most votes on Facebook, you automatically are elected to political office. That's right. Another cat, this one in Alaska, was elected because he was a write-in, I believe. The town's 900 residents wrote him in, even though there are humans on the ballot, to basically just show their disgust at how bad the human candidates were. And a similar thing also happened way back in 1959,

in Sao Paulo, Brazil, where there was a rhinoceros called Cacareco, which means garbage, and he beat 500 other city council candidates, garnering 100,000 votes, which is pretty great for a rhino. That's right. And then about 10 years later in Canada, there was an actual rhinoceros party. And I don't know, was it literally inspired by the Brazilian rhino? I couldn't tell. Okay. I could not tell. But it's obviously a satirical political party. And the argument that was being made was these, they're perfect politicians because they are, quote, thick skin, slow moving, not too bright, but can still move fast when in danger. And not the rhino that you hear these days bandied about in American politics, different kind of thing. What's a rhino these days?

Are I in a Republican in name only? Yeah, man. As I was asking, I was like, shut up, Josh, shut up. You know this. That's dumb. There's another legendary one too that I had not heard about. But when I started researching, I was like, oh, this is a thing. There was a pig called Pegasus the Immortal that was nominated as president for president by the Yippies back in the 1968 Democratic Convention. And that was an enormously turbulent, brutal convention. It took place in Chicago. The CPD showed up and beat everybody up every night, arrested everybody for protesting the Vietnam War and all sorts of stuff. And the Yippies were the youth international party co-founded by Abby Hoffman and eventually became the Chicago Eight

and then the Chicago Seven. So that whole jam. And then Chicago the band. That's right. And then just Peter Cetera. So in the midst of this crazy chaotic event, the Democratic Convention in Chicago in 1968, the Yippies nominated Pegasus and they brought this 145-pound pig to a press conference to nominate him, basically saying like, we're just going with a real pig because all the other politicians are pretend pigs. Why not just elect a real pig this time? And they got about half of that out into the microphone before the Chicago police arrested him for breathing in public and confiscated poor Pegasus. They arrested a pig. Yeah. Technically they confiscated it, but we like to say arrested the pig along with the seven Yippies that were protesting and I

guess caring for this pig. And I believe that Pegasus was handed over eventually to the anti-cruelty society and the Yippies would go and visit and then was like, you got a free Pegasus, I'm sorry, Pegasus and let Pegasus fly. And they did so eventually in Pegasus. If you if you believe the story that you tell every kid when you actually put an animal down, they went to live on a farm outside the city for the rest of its life. I saw it in the Chicago Tribune. So I'm hoping it was true. Right. Yeah. And then we really can't talk about animals and politics if we don't talk about the OG, right? Caligula's horse. Yeah. What was incitatus? That's yeah, that's what I think too. All right. So this was Pegasus, incitatus. This was Caligula's favorite horse

and was appointed to serve as a consul to the Roman Senate. And but aren't people saying that like, this isn't true actually, this didn't happen. Yeah. They think that it was part of a smear campaign by some of his contemporary or shortly after him, like political enemies who were smearing him. And they're saying that it's probably like not true. Okay. But they also caveat that, which is another kind of Roman thing with the idea that if Caligula did do that, he didn't do it because he was mad or insane. He would have done it as an act of humiliating the senators saying like, my horse is a better senator than you guys are. Yeah. Which is sort of in the tradition we see today. Yeah, exactly. It's a longstanding tradition. I love it. All the way back to Roman times.

Yeah. So get out there and vote, everybody. Rock the vote by rocking your favorite animal candidate next time you go to the polls. The short stuff is out. Stuff you should know is a production of iHeartRadio. For more podcasts on my heart radio, visit the iHeartRadio app. Apple podcasts are wherever you listen to your favorite shows.