The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds - 154 - Ota Benga and Human Zoos

Episode Date: February 21, 2016

Comedians Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds examine the human zoos and the life of one African man. SOURCESTOUR DATES REDBUBBLE MERCH

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story from American history to my friend. Garrett Reynolds who has no idea what the topic is gonna be about. Boom! Very good that was a good one. Do you want to look who to do? I'll do one buck. People say this is funny. Not Gary Gara. Stay okay. Someone or something is tickling people. Is it for fun? And this is not gonna become a tickly podcast. Okay. You are Queen Fakie of made-up town. All hail Queen Shit of Liesville. A bunch of religious virgins go to mingle. And do what? That's right. January 13th 1493. 1493. Yeah we're gonna it'll move past that pretty quick. No no no

let's stick in the night. Back then would people like walk away like would they have a new satchel for like their ass and just be like hey man get over it it's the 90s. Yeah. So that happens every century. Hey man come out it's the 90s get with it. That was happening back in the 1400s for sure. Okay. Columbus made his last stop before turning to Spain. Oh boy. Bay of Rincon. In the Dominican Republic today in the Dominican Republic. I don't know I mean I want to say these guys were called the Cigayos. Sure. But that sounds wrong. The Cigayos. But I tried to find any place where I could find a pronunciation of their name. How

do you spell it? C-I-G-U with an oom lot A-Y-O-S. Fuck I was really gonna give it a whirl earlier. Shit you start throwing an oom lot. Once I hear oom lot it's a red flag. I'm out. The rest of the letters you said it's just no way. Anyway they shot arrows at him. Columbus kidnapped somewhere between 10 to 15 of the natives and took them back to Spain with him. This was done for a reason. It had become the norm for explorers to kidnap natives from lands so they could appear as witnesses to prove the land they had discovered was indeed different. Wait so what? So if you grab a dude so you're in Cuba and you grab a Cuban dude

and you bring him back to Europe and people go oh I've never seen a guy like that before and then you go right I was in a new place. I was in a new place and then and then the dude goes can I go back? Yes so your life is like your exhibit eh? No you can't go back. No. No this is what you are you're a thing now. You're a walking validator. In the case of Columbus the king of Portugal was arguing that Columbus had only found lands already claimed by Portugal and Africa but when Columbus produced the now small number of seven natives who had survived the trip because you know they'd all died on the journey they were

clearly a type of person never seen before so it was concluded that Columbus had indeed found a new world. Couldn't you go in this world of improving you've discovered new land by bringing up people? You're talking about painting a guy aren't you? Couldn't you just paint a dude? Didn't you just give him like a badminton racquet and paint him? Well these are the kawiskees. Yeah. They eat trees and shit flowers. What? Yeah they're blue. They're blue. Yes like I found Avatar. Oh god I would be so upset if I found Avatar. Also they were used to learn from so that on the next voyage it could be more provodal because they would know where stuff was

and shit like that so they would interrogate them. What a life. What a life. And then they were exhibited for the curious so everyone could see someone who was different. So then you just put in a jar on display? Pretty much. Great. Quote from Columbus. Today a numberless people came to the Caravelle and many nights and among them the king's ministers. That was just to look at the fucking poor guys who had been taken from their home. They don't seem happy. All of Columbus's natives were dead within six months. Columbus would kidnap- Honestly a blessing. Yeah I would think so. Probably.

Columbus would kidnap natives on all of his voyages on his second journey of five only two made it alive back to Spain. Those two though on the ride back they must be getting the A-list treatment for that last stretch of ride. Fuck yeah they are. You drop three. Yeah you're like you want me to be alive right bitch. More wine gentlemen. Fucking TV up in here. Let me fluff this pillow for you. You fluff the pillow. Drink this. Fucking HBO on this shit. You're dehydrated. HBO. It's HBO go I don't have the password. Hold on. The Wi-Fi on the water is awful. I feel weird. Can I please get HBO. Oh boy. Have you seen the wire? Have you guys seen the

wire? Yeah we got that a long time ago. Oh shit. Togetherness. People love it. I haven't actually watched it myself. Not interesting at all. Tracey Allman. Middle-aged. Curb of enthusiasm. I don't want to see middle-aged issues. Have you seen Deadwood? Deadwood's great. Oh yeah I saw it. Deadwood's a great timepiece about the future. Can we get back to the thing? Absolutely. This practice of capturing people capturing people and showing them off only continue to increase as white European explorers went to more places in the world. In 1751 when Anne of Austria came to Spain she rolled into town in a parade with six male and six

female Indians and then another 24 Indians behind them in colorful dress and masks. So now they're just like ponies. Right. Live human exhibitions were more and more common in Europe as the years went by. They were seen as a way to celebrate European accomplishments and dominance. As time went on twisting the discoveries and the theory of Darwin they became a way of reinforcing racist notions of white supremacy which stemmed from empire and colonialism. Great. You ready? Yeah. I think you can tell where this one's going. Oh I'm sure to a great place. We're already starting in a sweet area. Yeah it's sweet.

Yeah. More of the countries who would put native people on display went out of their way to try and mold them into images that justified their colonial power. In many cases this meant trying to create savages. Sometimes the exhibits would be used as a way to show that the colonial presence was civilizing people. They were also used for entertainment. So not much different than like reality TV. No. One specific example was a 20 year old girl from South Africa called Sarah Bartman. In 1810 she was recruited by an exotic animal dealer. Okay. Yeah. Just checking. To travel to London to take part in an exhibition.

Sarah went willingly though she'd been lied to. She believed she was going to find fame and riches. And Dave what was she doing? Well the dealer really wanted her for a condition she had. Huh. Called Street Dope Gea. A protuberant buttocks and an elongated labia. Dave. What. Dave. What. Okay. So this man. How. I mean it's a different time. It's not an okay thing to say at any time. So. He likes it. He's a big ass man. But also he's. And a big labia man. He's a labia lad. He. Okay. Let me ask you this. Yeah. How does one scout labias. I mean it's hard. It's hard but you can. I can. You know. Pardon me miss. How big. Are the ruffles. The ruffly

dress match the curtains. She soon found herself in London in cages at sideshow attractions. With her labia. To show off her condition she was put in tight fitting clothing that violated cultural norms of decency at the time. She was just. Camel putting on labia revealing clothing. Camel toe pants. She had CT pants. It was camel toe time. Oh my God. Sounds like a camel foot by the way. So that's weird. Like this happens a lot. A lot of like young actress come out to Hollywood and they're going to get a TV show and then they just. You meet a producer. Next thing you know you're in a cage with tight labia pants. Right. Camel toers.

After three years of living in Levi toes. After three years of living in this misery she was sent to Paris. Their racial anthropologists poked and prodded her and made their theories about her. After that there weren't wasn't much she was needed for. So with very little hope of securing a job in the terribly white racist society. Sarah turned her prostitution to support herself and began drinking heavily. So then she like what she had a hook for being a sex worker. She had like a hook like I. Hey you like a big one. Yeah it's like when you're a comic. They're like this guy's was on the Tonight Show. They're

like Sarah's labia has appeared in the London Freak shows. She had been in Europe for only four years at that point. Oh cool. She died in poverty then her skeleton sexual organs and brain were put on display at the Museum of Mankind in Paris. All right. Her sexual organs were put on display. I heard you. They put her labia on a wall. How do you put a labia on a wall. I'm asking for a friend. There's special tax. It's got to be that gorilla. A small nail. But a labia doesn't. I don't even mean to get. I can't believe I have to ask this question. No it's a shitty fucking question. What's the shelf life of a labia. Like how can you put.

Well if you get one at 711. No no no. No no no no no. How. But how. I don't know why you're looking at another shelf life of a labia. But I can tell you this. Oh boy. That fucking thing was up until 1974. What. And then they put it away. They didn't throw it away. They put it away. Then they put it on the back shelf in the fucking museum. Man you got to do a background check. 2002. Nelson Mandela formally requested that her fucking ship be returned to South Africa so it could be buried. Please send us her pussy. Right. Well. Send her pussy back. Okay. Okay. I mean that's a weird way to put it. Come on. In the mid 1800s Europe had what became. Did we mail the pussy back.

Hey Johnny. Did you mail the pussy. I don't know. I've done a lot of dicks. I'm overwhelmed. I said I said fought dicks to China today. Is that the same thing. I don't even know. I think I think I accidentally set my gum which means I'm chewing. No. In the mid 1800s Europe had what became known as human zoos everywhere. Oh good. They were in Paris, Hamburg, Antwerp, Barcelona, London, Milan and Warsaw. They were often nude or semi nude people. In the US PT Barnum began displaying a blind and half paralyzed ex slave who said she was a hundred more much more than a hundred years old. This led to more human exhibitions by Barnum whose circus was actually built upon displaying humans in

cages. In the 1850s Maximo and Bartola to microcephalic children from El Salvador were exhibited in the US as Aztec children. Microcephalic. Have we seen the picture of the Zika babies. Oh god. That's what it is. Like a tiny, tiny head. I don't think pinhead is the correct. I didn't fully say that's what you were going to say. No, I didn't. I was going to say I was going to say you we asked me to I was going to say no I was going to say pin in this can we put and let's talk about the earlier things you said. So they acted like all Aztec kids had pinheads. That's the kind of shit they were doing because then that we're like see how much better white people are. Human zoos did not catch on. Human zoos did not catch on right away. Yeah, that's

the word that's the word I use. Inferring that they will catch on. Yeah, we are. Let's go. They did not catch on in the US until the 1870s when imperialism kicked in. Then peoples from all over the world were brought to the US and put in cages so white Americans could pay to look at them. Sometimes like at world's fairs they would recreate their so-called actual villages. They were mostly referred to as savages. These were huge attractions. At human zoos in New York there were an average of 300,000 visitors who attended each exhibit in any city. These people all had their own journey to the US. Otabenga, a pygmy man was born in ... That's a real thing. I looked it up to see if it was an offensive term and I couldn't find

that it was. It's an actual description of a people, a type of people. A pygmy man? They're called pygmy people and they're small. Right, but okay, that's just a funny term. Get ready because we're going to be going a lot with that term. He was born in 1881 in the private Congo Free State. I heard his room was a pygmy style. He was one of the Mabuti people. King Leopold II of Belgium was the founder and only owner of the Congo Free State. Basically, so he's the king of Belgium, but he didn't make it part of Belgium. He just owned it as his own. That's like my shit right there. He had a side bitch when it came to land. Basically, he'd gotten an explorer to go down there and claim the area in his name. Then he got the other European powers to agree it

was his. That's something you bring up at the end of a meeting. Because he claimed he was going to improve the lives of everyone in this private country that he was making. Talk to me about the improvement of the lives. Talk to me about how you're going to build garages. Everything. I love that they're claiming a place like from far away. He hasn't been there. He's claiming it as his personal property and people live there. Yeah, but it's a lot like love it or listed or property brothers. Okay. That's a fair analogy. House Hunters. It's one of those. It was basically just a big cash grab. As soon as he took over, he started taking on ivory and rubber and anything else he could. He pushed the local population into forced labor. The people suffered horribly and in his

estimated 10 million died. He was eventually forced to give up his control in 1908. 10 million died? Yeah, he's like a fucking, he's like the hitler. I mean, that is no, no, this guy is like Hitler. He's like a fucking monster. So but just before he gave up control in the US preparations for underway for the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis. We've been there. We've been there. The fair was to have as many exhibitions of natives so producers were looking to get their hands on some savages. Right. We've got all the natives we need. What we need are some savages. Famous African explorer Samuel Werner was one such man. He was also an avowed white supremacist from a prominent Southern South Carolina family. Okay. Werner was a commissioned as an agent by

the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company to go to Africa Interior to offer quote, certain natives the opportunity of intending the exposition in person. I'm sorry. He's going to offer them an opportunity. But this opportunity. So you're a guy and you live in a village and you like have just completed making your new hut right out of some of the Saharan grasses and you have a wife and some kids and then some guy comes up and goes you want to go to a world's fair and you're like what are you talking about? I'm trying to make my hut. I just want to make food and just finish my hut. Have you seen on my life is super simple. I'm totally cool with that. Let's go. So it's just it's going to be a good story.

Trust me. Just hang in there. Hang in there. No. The fair was to have many exhibitions of natives. Right. I said that. Yeah. Werner was commissioned as an agent by the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company to go to Africa Interior to abide did that. The one list was one pygmy. This is like a grocery list that patriarch or chief. This is a free list. He got right the Louisiana Purchase Exposition Company sent him a list of what they were looking for. So you're like hey, honey, I'm coming home. Can you pick me up anything from the store? Oh, will you get pygmies? Can you get one pygmy? Get a pygmy or two? Not too tall. I don't like the tuck in like a midsize. Adorable ones. One pygmy, patriarch or chief, one adult woman, preferably his wife, two infants,

and four more pygmies, preferably adult but young, but including a priestess and a priest or medicine doctors, preferably old. What? They want to mix. What are you going to make a salad with? Just let us know. Don't make salads if they're humans. Oh, it's fair. Yeah, I think that's a closer point, right? The fair producer stipulated that they all volunteer to attend on their own and that they be returned home to Africa after. Sure. Sure. We can only assume Oda lived as normal life as possible until he hit the age of 23. That's when everything went bananas. Oda was out hunting and the story goes that he killed an elephant. Okay. Now, this part I find hard to believe because pygmies are not very big. Right. But according to him. But elephants also hate mice. That is true. That might have

freaked him out. So, all right, so he. Okay, so this pygmies out on a hunt one day and he kills an enormous two ton beast. Right. Then he returned to his village to tell them all the good news only to find there was no more village. Everyone had been killed by the forced public or public. The militia King Leopold had created to help forced natives into labor. Oda's wife and children have been murdered. They were just two of the many victim of Leopold's campaign of terror. Quote against evolutionary inferior natives. They did not kill Oda, however, he was captured and then sold into slavery. We do not know exactly who's holding him either another tribe or possibly Leopold's forces. Werner saw Oda as at a slave market and quote, pulled the pygmies lips apart

to examine the teeth he was elated. Oh, to find the teeth were filed to sharp points. Proving the little man was one of those he was commissioned to bring back. Vampire pygmies pygmies sharpen their teeth because they're at such a disadvantage. I don't know. It's just what they think is just it was a tribal thing that they do. Sure. Um, so he bought him for a pound of salt and a bolt of cloth. Well, as long as you're getting something for him, who doesn't need more cloth than salt? Later. That's the value of a life. I agree. I'm not disagreeing. Little Morton's in a rag. Little Morton's in a rag. Yeah. Plenty for a human life. Did you imagine someone buys you and you see them hand over some salt? That's not for you. I owed him that. I'll write him a check later.

Now get in the van, you sharp tooth pygmy. Later in Harper's Weekly article, Werner said that Oda was held captive by the Bashili who he claimed were cannibals. Quote, he was delighted to come with us for he was many miles from his people and the Bashili were not easy masters. He was excited to just recently shake his family. But he also told the Columbus dispatch a different story saying he was waiting for his ship to come in when he spotted Oda along with a few members of his tribe. He said he made arrangements with the chief to take Oda with him. Quote, he was willing and even anxious to go with me. Oh please, can I go? For the memory of his awful escape from the hungry cannibals had not been forgotten by him. I won't be able to shake my old nightmares until I have new ones.

To a third news outlet, Werner said that Oda had been captured by war enemies of his tribe who were then defeated by Belgian troops. It was the Belgians who held Oda. Werner in this version said Oda wanted to travel with him because Werner quote wanted to employ pygmies. It's all about jobs, man. Shit always comes back to jobs. Hey, you want a job? Yeah, that's it. That's what this shows. No, you really, they always say you want to see it in the private and pygmy sector. That's right. He continued through his life to create even more versions of how he got Oda. They all contained the claims that he was held by cannibals and wanted to come with him. Either way, once he secured Oda, Werner asked the Saint Louis World's Fair to send a PR statement

to Daily Weekly and monthly publications to spread the news of his fantastic pygmy situation. Get it out there, man. Get some PR in the papers. I got my pygmy. Yo, bring in a pygmy. Get it. Call MTV. But Werner still needed to act fast because the fair was fast approaching and he was a month behind schedule. The man running the exhibit wrote and said, I make but a single plea, get the pygmies. Werner responded, we are not going to fail unless death comes to the pygmies. Get the pygmies. Werner then had Ota take him to a Batwa village. So that's another group. It's a different type of pygmy. Right. Oh, I didn't realize how many varieties there are. There are different, there are different, different. There's some in the Congo and Cameroon. Right. So this was a

village that Oda had been to previously. The Batwa and he had spent some time together. So they take this walk, it takes Oda and Werner a couple of weeks to get there. When they arrived, they were not greeted with open arms. It turns out this tribe had a deep, deep distrust of white men. Why? I can't imagine why. Is this, it seems a little racially charged. Thank you. I don't want to call racism, but it seems like racism. You can't just assume that a white man is there bringing you bad news. No, it's in this day and age. Yeah, thank you. No. But really, can you imagine the fear when you see a white man? Oh my God, we're all about to be slaughtered. Oh, God. Oh, God. Werner said the old men shook their heads gravely. The women howled through the night

and the medicine men violently opposed his idea to take some of them to the US. Werner found he could not recruit. I like that he's pitching honestly. I know, right? I mean, you could say anywhere. Werner, St. Louis. You're going to St. Louis. You see the arch. Yeah, see the big arch. Werner found he could not recruit any of the tribesmen, but then Otis Beck spoke up. He said that Werner had saved his life and kept him out of slavery. He told them he was interested in finding out about Werner's world and Werner offered salt. You should see the salt. I mean, if they just had salt, none of this would have happened. In the end, eight Batwa decided to join Werner and Ota and go to America.

The man running the fair had wanted 18, I think in all, but five was all or I mean eight. Fine, we'll just loosen the back row for the big closer. Nine was always going to get. They boarded a ship and went down the Kasai River and out the Congo. They arrived in New Orleans on June 25th. Based on the passengers ship list, we know the youngest pygmy pygmy was 12 and another was 14. Werner caught malaria on the trip. I was unable to make the journey with him. He was unloaded from the boat on a stretcher and taken to a sanitarium. Although another man on the ship said Werner didn't have malaria, but was quote, cracked, cracked as in he lost it. Yeah, it sounds like he went batshit crazy. Well, I mean, I think a life of being a pygmy talent

scout will drive you to a break. I imagine him just running around the ship going, you know, maybe should we drop him off? What do you guys think? Maybe up here on the right? So fair officials had to send for someone down to pick up the pygmies and bring them to the fair. It really is. It's getting to the point where it's the charm is almost rubbed off. Yeah. I've almost started to not find it crazy when you say about the pygmy pickups. Yeah. Like they're puppies. No, it's true. But they are, but it's, I'm almost there.

You've almost beaten it out. They're small humans. Yeah. Though he hadn't. By the way, I could see a pygmy trend still taking foot in Japan or something like that. Easily. Like you have him on a key chain or something. Easily.

Though Werner hadn't gotten the infants or the medicine man or anything from the menu, the pygmies were an instant hit at the fair. Hey, who needs them? A local newspaper wrote quote pygmies demand a monkey diet. Gentlemen from South Africa at the fair likely to prove troublesome in matter of food. And another pygmies scorn cash demand watermelons. Okay. So if I can read through the terrible tabloidness, I'm guessing the pygmies are really hungry. Oh, God.

Starving. And they're surrounded by racists. But they have to be hungry if they're demanding watermelons. When recovered, Werner did the rounds, talking in newspapers and claimed Ota was quote the only genuine cannibal in America today. Quite a claim. Ota was especially popular with fairgoers. Everyone wanted to see his sharp teeth.

They charged, uh, they charged your photos. So he, he learned that he could charge five cents to show people his teeth. Okay. So he's figuring shit out. Sure. He's already getting America. Yeah. Does he grow up to be Donald Trump?

Yeah. Okay. W. J. McGee of the Anthropology Department at the St. Louis World's Fair was in charge of the exhibitions. This was purely a scientific endeavor for him. He wanted the exhibit to quote be exhaustively scientific in his demonstration of the stages of human evolution. Therefore, he required the darkest blacks to set off against dominant whites and members of the

lowest known culture to contrast with its highest culmination. So pretty standard science. What? He's comparing whites against blacks. He just wants- She's showing that the blacks are darker. And yeah, darker and smaller. Ota was very, uh, very popular exhibit.

As I said, an article in Scientific America, uh, read the personal appearance, characteristic and traits of the Congo pygmies, small ape-like, elfish creatures, furtive and mischievous. They closely parallel the brownies and goblins of our fairy tales. Okay, so they live in the dense, tangled forest in absolute savagery. And while they exhibit many ape-like features in their bodies, they possess a certain alertness which appears to make them more intelligent than other negroes. Oh God.

Oh God. The existence goes on. I mean, they really are- They are marketing them as an ewok. Yeah. Okay. That's pretty much what they're doing. The existence of the pygmies is of the rudest.

They do not practice agriculture and keep no domestic animals. They live by means of hunting and snaring, aching this out by means of thieving from the big negroes on the outskirts of whose tribes they usually establish their little colonies. Well, this is just- They have seemingly become acquainted with metal only through contact with superior beings. Oh my God. So they are now-

They are Martians. This is a magazine that I subscribe to, Scientific American. Oh well, it might be time to give a call. I feel like they're- I think that someone should talk to the editor. He- That's Scientific American! It's not fair.

I mean, they are, I mean- I mean, can we just agree that our countries should have been murdered? Yeah, for sure. Oda and his fellow pygmies were stared at and laughed at by the fairgoers. Some came with the intent to fight them. What the fuck? God damn it. It's almost like the world's fair is really a biggest asset.

Jamie, you want to go to the fair? Yeah, of course! All right, let's go to the fair and get some popcorn and shit. Also, I want to fucking beat the shit out of these little pygmy guys. I can't wait to die. Did you hear about the pygmies? Yeah, they're little. Let's go fucking fuck them up!

Let's stamp on them. Let's- You want to see if my fist hit a fucking pygmy guy? Oh, more than anything. Jesus Christ, I love the fair. Punch them right in the sharpened teeth. Often it was difficult to keep the pygmies from being torn apart. The crowds repeatedly would push and grab at the Africans.

Their guards would have a difficult time getting them out of the exhibition to safety. So new guards, new system is what we should be setting up. Often the police had to be called. What the fuck? Oh, fuck. We got another riot at the pygmy camp. Jesus Christ. What's going on, the boys?

There's a football team down there trying to tamper part. Yeah, another round of pygmies got rolling. Why are they trying to tamper part? Well, they're smaller. Yeah, they get. Brown people. Yeah, they get. It's exciting to see them.

And anything you see, you want to treat like bunnies. On July 28th, they were performing and the crowd turned into an insane mob trying to get at them. The first Illinois regiment had to be called out to gain control. The fucking military, because people just wanted to smash them. I will say, though, this show must have been really something. It must have been a good show. I mean, I don't know what they're doing, but my God, to get people. That fired up.

Yeah, to turn that crowd into a bunch of believers. That's like Trump. It is. Yeah. I mean, Trump is the pygmy of today's. That's what you've always said that. You've always said it's not grammatically appropriate. No, no, no, but still you've always said it's you got to stick to it.

And while the pygmies were at the fair, they were studied by scientists. The scientists were trying to answer questions like, quote, Why can you do this legally? How did the barbaric races compare with intellectually defective caucasians? And also how quickly would they respond to pain? Oh, God. After giving them the intelligence tests, the scientists conclude the pygmies, quote, behaved a good deal in the same way as a mentally deficient person,

making many stupid errors and taking an enormous amount of time because they didn't speak English. Making stupid errors. You know, they'll make stupid errors. I tell, I keep telling the guy, put the cap on the bottle and pick it up, but he throws it. He still can't get his apples and bananas straight. He really is a little idiot. How does everyone not speak?

Adorable though. Our language. Just absolutely adorable. The fact that he doesn't speak English makes him a moron. He's stupid. And by the way, he's not picking it up very fast. When the fair concluded, Werner was given the gold medal in anthropology for his pygmy exhibit. For just stealing people?

Bringing home the gold. What are you talking about? He, he, he, it's an event. Yeah. He, he made. Boy, as a pygmy watching like that acceptance speech, being like, huh? What the fuck? I came here and all these motherfuckers trying to kill me.

Feels like he's winning something. And then this fucking asshole is. So many people to thank. Oh, and I almost forgot the most important person. My wife, Barbara. Barb, King Leopold. Who without this, none of this could have happened. None of this.

But true to his word, Werner brought Ota and the other pygmies back to the Congo. Ota quickly remarried, but the marriage didn't last long. Soon after. Because of the ego on him. Soon after they got married, his wife was bitten dead. I was playing to 500 people a night, baby. Nobody puts out on the corner. Soon after they were married, she was bitten by a snake and died.

Oh, old stuff. How's it going? Wish I'd known that fact was creeping around the corner. At this point, he had no clan and no family. Everyone had been killed. The rest of his tribe didn't want to have anything to do with him. Because he was all Hollywood. He was wearing sunglasses now.

Well, they said he was a warlock because he had gone to live with the white man. Oh, God. And lived and whites were feared and admired. They could do things with technology that the Africans were scared of, like recording voices on Edison phonographs. Right. The pygmies thought the recordings were stealing their souls. So just because Ota had gone to live with the white man, he was no longer trusted.

So it's all coming up great for Ota. It's great. It's like when you... The white man doesn't want him on display anymore in his own tribe. He's being treated the way a little bird is when it falls out of the nest. Yes, he really is. They're like, no, you can't come back here. No.

You fucking, you smell like a fucking white guy. Smell like human. You smell like a white guy. You smell like a white guy. Not a bad policy to have. Now, at this point, there are different viewpoints of what happened. Which tells us we're about to have a fun moment. Werner says Ota asked to be brought back to America because he wanted to learn the language

better and learn how to read. So I'm already going to say that this next version of what was said is what is closer to reality. Ota said Werner told him he was going to bring him back to the US just to visit and then return him to Africa soon. I think it's that one. I'm really positive that it's that one. So off went Ota and Werner. I just feel like I learned a little English.

I want to complete the language. The whole thing. When they arrived in America, Werner went about selling the animals he had caught to zoos and artifacts he had acquired to museums. And then there was Ota. He wanted to find a place for the pygmy to live. Werner brought his artifacts to the American Museum of Natural History in New York. You ever been there?

It's a nice big museum. It's a beautiful place with a great history. I'm going to... What? You're telling me he's apartment hunting and then you lead me to... What? I'm just going to say right off the bat that Ota better not be living in a museum. He tried to get the curator Henry Bumpus

to take his African stuff and at the same time tried to talk Bumpus into hiring him. But Bumpus wasn't interested. He was, however, interested in the little African guy Werner had brought with him. No, no, no. Enough about you. A deal was made. I'm looking at that one. That one is tremendous.

How much for him? He would fit right in the Bumpus area. Ota was given a spare room at the museum and during the day his job was to walk about in a southern style linen suit with a gray hat for visitors and helping the staff. Dave. Yes. Okay. Okay, so okay.

He's wearing like a southern man's outfit? Yep. Okay, so I guess my question is about clarity. If you go all the way to have Ota in your museum, an African pygmy with sharp razor sharp teeth. Razor sharp. Why is he not on display as that? Again, this is under the guise that you are using him in some way in the museum. It's fair.

And why do you put him in the Kentucky Fried Chicken Colonel Sanders outfit? Okay, so do you know what fun is? I thought I did. What's more fun? You walk in a museum, you look over, there's an exhibit. There's a guy sitting there in a hut or whatever. Or you walk in, little dude walks up to you and hands you a drink. Well, I'll say, how is everybody are doing this afternoon?

My name is Ota. I'm very small and I come from Africa. Another Minjulip. Who wants a Minjulip? It seems like they changed a little bit the accent. Who wants a round, huh? Round and Minjulips, perhaps a greyhound. Again, my name is Ota.

I am three feet tall with a tiny little head and razor sharp teeth. For a while, Ota liked it, but then he grew weary of it and wanted to return home. Why? So he tried to escape. He tried to walk out past the museum guards as a large crowd left the museum. Equity five. He was clearly getting angry and being imprisoned and being poorly treated. You mean he was upset that he was being held captive in a fucking museum?

But they caught him. Once he was asked to help, so now they're holding him there. Once he was asked to help seat a museum woman's wife, but instead he picked up the chair and tossed it across the room, barely missing her head. Oh my god. He's making a point. He's making a fucking point. But is there no one there who's like, okay, this is not good.

Oh, what is doing what we're calling acting out? Werner, while still not having much money, had to take Ota out of the museum. Okay. Because he's throwing chairs. Yeah, I think that is the right decision. I think, yeah. In a world of wrong decisions, that is a good call. So now this is, remember, this is the time when whites were all about showing that

natives were an inferior species. You mean most of our history? This is a view that has been espoused by generations of leading intellectuals. Louis Agassiz, a Harvard professor of geology and zoology who was maybe America's most venerated scientist at the time, insisted for more than two decades that blacks were a separate species, quote, degraded and degenerate race. So Werner brought Ota to a place where these beliefs could be shown through Ota. Oh god.

He brought in to meet the director of the Bronx Zoo, whose name was Hornaday. Oh my god. What? What do you mean what? Hornaday decided he wanted to display Ota at the zoo. Hornaday also had the standard idea at the time that whites were better than blacks in every way and Ota was the perfect specimen because his true history could not be proven. There was nothing written of Ota.

There were no documents to explain his past. You could make up anything you wanted. Perfect. That's fun. Werner agreed to leave Ota. He's like a blank check, but he's a human. Yeah, he's a human blank check. Right.

Werner agreed to leave Ota there because he was having money problems and was finding it difficult to take care of Ota. That must have been a real tearful goodbye. Yeah. Hey buddy, hey little guy stole from Africa. Hey, the only guy who I know and barely trust but still mean marginally something to me in a world of unfamiliar faces. Gotta go.

Werner told a New York Times reporter that neither he nor the park would profit from the exhibition, only the public would benefit from gaining knowledge. And Ota, who would gain venom? Werner further said that Ota was there by his own decision. Quote, he is absolutely free. The only restriction, the only restriction that is put upon him is to prevent him from getting away from the keepers. That is done for his own safety.

He can't be allowed to run around? Wait, so the only restriction is that he's totally restricted? Yes, that's what he just said. Right, okay. The only restriction is that he has to always be... The only restriction is that he's completely restrained in every way. He has guards. He has to be.

Soon, Horner Day began to encourage Ota to spend as much time as he wanted inside the monkey house. Hey, Ota, I've been thinking. How about you and them monkeys play together more? You're basically the same, right? Go in there. He was then given a bow and arrow. Horner Day told him to shoot as much as possible as part of the exhibit.

Just sit around shooting arrow and then making baskets with grass. Just shoot the arrows to just shoot them around. Yeah, just ping so it's a show that you're here, guy. Sure, just sort of like, yeah. Yeah, and like warm-ups. And then Ota was... Shoot around. Was locked inside the monkey cage.

That's different than being encouraged to go play with the monkeys. It is a little bit different, isn't it? Yeah. This is when the publicity push began. It's a publicity push. OPR, baby. Anti put him in there? Nope.

September 9th, the New York Times headline. Red Bushman shares a cage with the Bronx Park apes. Horner Day said in an article that he saw no difference between the wild beast and the little black man. Also, as a special bonus, he was excited to announce that for the first time ever, in an American zoo, a human being was displayed in a cage. Can you imagine that that being great news at a time? How great is it?

We're the first. It's like when it's like when it's... Hold on. No. Hold on. It's not like what you're about to say. Hear me out. Do you remember when the Washington, D.C. was the first zoo to get pandas?

I'm going to stop you right there because I think that already I see a huge difference. Okay. Well, this is the first zoo to get a person. Right, which is far different than pandas. I'm thinking... How about this? We can have the argument about the moral side of whether or not you should keep animals in zoos at another time.

Okay. Let's just say right now, as far as humans go, that should be a non-starter. Or we accept the animal part and start talking about putting peoples in zoos again. By the way. Hey, did you see the Ukrainians? This would be a movie that stars Kevin James. Thank you. And just so Oda wouldn't be lonely, Hornaday put some friends in the cage with him.

I can't fucking wait. A parrot and an orangutan named Do-Hong. Dave. Life's the worst. Do-Hong was known for performing tricks and mimicking humans. So maybe they had a great time together. Yeah, they both mimic behavior they've seen trying to get out. Crowds of 500 daily would stand there watching Oda in his cage.

But Oda would often just sit quietly on a stool glaring through the bars. He ain't doing much. Is he sleeping? He's just looking at me like he don't like me. Wake up, Oda. It's a terrible peg me. Why isn't he jumping around and doing things? We came all the way here to see you.

Jesus, what is this shit? I paid money to come in here. Jump around. And this human being in this cage isn't doing what I think he should do. I mean, what good is a zoo if you can't see a little human being perform? This is the worst human I've ever seen in a cage. I'll be honest. Thankfully, so that Christians would not be offended,

Oda would not be exhibited on Sundays. Oh, that's fair enough. I bet I bet you Oda looked forward to those days. What about as a Christian, you don't put a human in a zoo? Sundays, do you? Okay. Sundays, we will agree that that is God's day and Oda may take that day off. To sit in his quarters with Do-Hong and his best friend, Parrot.

It could be a good movie. Kevin Jones. Do-Hong and Oda. A newspaper reported that Oda and the orangutan were... Danny DeVito as Oda. Were pretty much the same size and they would grin in the same way when pleased. Who would, Do-Hong? A newspaper reported that Oda and the orangutan, Do-Hong.

Like when they were told the day was over. Right. Horner Day also wrote an article about his new pygmy. On September 9th, a genuine African pygmy belonging to the sub-race commonly called the Dwarfs, Ota Benga is a well-developed little man with a good head, bright eyes, and pleasing continents. He is not hairy and is not covered by the downy fell described by some explorers. He is happiest when at work making something with his hands.

Like a middle finger. Like or just like a pool of tears. Yeah. Not everyone thought it was the best idea, particularly African American clergymen. They made their objections. Are they piping up again? Oh God, right. Hey, why don't you not put one of us in a zoo?

Hey, give us freedom. They made their objections known publicly. Horner Day told reporters that Ota had been put in the primate house, quote, because that's the most comfortable place we could find for him. Yeah. Well, it beats the leopard cage. It's better than a bed. He had an apartment.

Would you want an apartment when you could live in a lucky cage? No, but they do make a good point that as far as the zoo goes, it's probably one of his better places to go. Like he wouldn't work with the hippos or the lions. Yeah, well, he's not going to go to the peacock cage exactly. Yeah, yeah. That's true. I mean, we'd all love to see Ota in the hippo area just for a laugh.

But he would probably be eaten by the hippos. Yes. This way he can stay alive and talk to a parrot. His only friend, a repeating bird. A Reverend Gordon responded that if that was the case, he could put Ota in an orphanage for black children where he would be very comfortable. I'm not seeing the point.

A newspaper quoted Werner saying, if Ota Benga is in a cage, he is only there to look after the animals. If there is a notice on the cage, it is only put there to avoid answering the questions that are asked about him. The New York Times was also not on board with the weird criticism of the black clergyman.

Yeah, now that I'm thinking about it, it really is a fucked up criticism. Right? Yeah. I mean, it's a person in a cage. What's the big deal? Yeah. And the truth is, you can't put a man in a cage for this long

and then put him in an orphanage and expect him to be normal. Thank you. Yeah. From the New York Times, we do not quite understand all the emotion which others are expressing in the matter. A little over the top. A little over the top. It is absurd to make moan

over the imagined humiliation and degradation Ota Benga is suffering. The pygmies are very low in the human scale and the suggestion that Benga should be in a school instead of a cage ignores the high probability that school would be a place from which he could draw no advantage, whatever. Yes.

The idea that men are all much alike, except as they have or had or lacked opportunities for getting an education out of books is now far out of date. Thank you. We've passed that idea that all people are equal. Yes. New York Times. Thank you.

New York Times. Thank you. Liberal, highly respected. Could have got to the headlines today. It's that accurate. Matt, good, just a good fucking newspaper. Good reporting. Sunday, September 16th, the week after being placed.

Put it in the indoors. Sunday, September 16th, the week after being placed in the zoo, Ota was allowed to leave the cage and roam around the park while being watched by rangers. My God, it's just. On that day. That's not, I mean. On that day, 40,000 people came to the zoo.

Oh, shit. Wait a minute, Dave. As he walked around, a huge crowd followed him. Oh, my God, it's Ota. Rip his teeth out. Then they began chasing him. Oh, God. And Ota was finally cornered.

He was poked and tripped and scratched, trying to protect himself. He struck back, hitting people. Then three zoo workers picked him up and carried him back to the monkey cage. Come on, you idiot. A very disappointed Hornaday wrote a letter to Werner saying Ota had become quite unmanageable.

Hey, you're humans being a dick. Did he explain? He explained that he would like to punish him, but because of all the press, it would be very difficult to do so. I mean, I can't even beat the little pig meat. Hornaday complained that, quote, the boy doesn't quite, the boy does quite as he pleases and is utterly impossible to control him.

You know, he doesn't understand this whole zoo concept. He's not getting that he should be in a cage enjoying himself. It's a real asshole. Even the parrot's saying reaction. He's our worst monkey. Apparently, Ota was also threatening to bite zookeepers whenever they tried to put him in the cage. Hornaday's letter closed by saying, quote,

I see no way out of the dilemma, but for him to be taken away. Oh, boy. Oh, boy, the black ministers found themselves banging their heads. This is almost a bizarro nym. It's fucking insane. Yeah. The black ministers found themselves

banging their heads against total indifference. On the other side were the New York New York newspapers, scientists, public officials, and ordinary citizens. They all loved Ota in the zoo. By the end of September, more than 220,000 people had visited the zoo to see the pig meat. Hornaday was so happy by the attendance figures that he began making plans to keep Ota on display

through the spring. He also was enjoying all of their requests for photos and interviews for himself. That's always the worst. Yeah, I'm Ota's best friend. Look at him. Ota and I are best friends, whereas closest to one human and one arguable half human link can be.

His zoo imprisonment got national and global headlines, though most were against his treatment. Oh, what? The Chicago Tribune wrote Tiny Savage Seas New York Sneers. For black people in America, the treatment of Ota was a brutal reminder of how they were viewed by white Americans. Although the LA Times wrote, genuine pig meat is Ota Banga.

Can't talk with orangutan. But the city of New York wasn't to it, including the Times. A Dr. Gabriel wrote a letter to the Times saying he had seen Ota and, quote, found objections to the exhibit absurd. He's right. Thank you. I mean, it's absurd.

It's a human and a cage. You know what? You are right. It is absurd. He has a vast room, a sort of balcony in the open air. A balcony where you can sit out and look at all the world he has before him. So basically what he has is like a shitty old zoo,

zoo cement thing. A balcony. And then he can come out where the people are staring at him. Like a Vita. And that's like his balcony. Yeah. The doctor also said he enjoyed Ota's broken English and that he was the best of good fellows.

He closed his letter by saying the offended black clergyman should hear the scientific viewpoint so they might change their mind. Uh-huh. So how about them apples? Another so-called African explorer weighed in. And John Vane Tempest wrote an article disputing the classification of Ota as a pygmy.

Really? Then Tempest said that Ota was actually a southern African hot-taught, hoten-taught. He said he had a conversation with Ota, quote, in the tongue of the hoten-taughts, and went on saying Ota was greatly satisfied with his captivity. Imagine if you're Ota.

He, quote, he liked the white man's country where he was treated as a king, had a cozy room, a splendid room, and a palace full of monkeys, and enjoyed all the comforts of home, except for a few wives. A palace full of monkeys. His words. This is what Ota told me. He said this is so fucking great.

I feel like a king. Does anyone else here speak hot-taught? My God, I get to sleep on a hard cement floor with a monkey and a parrot. It's like I'm a king. I'd like to call it a palace of monkeys. I didn't know I could live in a palace of monkeys. So all you need to do is just find somebody

who says they communicate with him, and nobody can corroborate that because nobody can communicate with him. Yeah, that's pretty much where we are. It's like a horse whisperer. He can speak very broken English at this point. Mainly he would just be like, fuck, please, leave, food, no monkey.

Oh God. Hate monkey. Kill me. Hate monkey. Kill me. Me kill. Me drown. Me drown.

Drown me. Kill me. Kill me. Kill me. He keeps saying king. Kill me. No, kill me. Kill me.

Drown me. He keeps saying I'm a king. Food, food, kill, drown. Food, food, please. End, end. Ota, kill. He says he loves food. Kill Ota.

And he's a king. He's king Ota. Please kill Ota. No, not king. Kill Ota. See you later, buddy. No. But while all this was going on,

African-American. And the parrots just like, kill Ota. Rick, Ota, die. Rick, drown Ota. Drown Ota. This parrot is an asshole. While all this is going on,

African-American Reverend Matthew Gilbert was writing his own articles and getting African-Americans all over the US outraged. At the end of September, a small group of African-American ministers led by Reverend Gordon went to the Bronx Zoo

to have a look for themselves. There. Imagine being able to go to the zoo to check out the scene with Ota. Well, let's just go to the zoo and look at the human. Jesus Christ. There they say they saw Ota in a cage

with Delhong and the parrot. They tried to communicate with him, but were unable to do so. One thing was for sure, he was incredibly depressed, and that made the clergyman very, very angry. Outside of the cage was a sign.

The African pygmy, Ota Benga, aged 23 years, height 4 feet 11 inches, weight 103 pounds. Brought. Sassy, you betcha. Brought fans. Probably can't sign a river. Congo Free State, South Central Africa,

by Dr. Samuel Werner. Exhibited each afternoon during September. One of the clergymen immediately wrote a letter. He's doing matinees. He's doing matinees. You're a lovely audience. All right, everyone. This first one you're going to love.

One of the clergymen wrote a letter. We are frank enough to say we do not like this exhibition of one of our own race with the monkeys. Our race, we think, is depressed enough without exhibiting one of us with the apes. We think we are worthy of

considered being human beings with souls. It's a pretty good letter. Pretty concise to the point. I'm not liking a lot of it. Hornaday defended his man living with a monkey exhibition due to science. Quote,

I am giving the exhibition purely as an ethnological exhibit. He insisted that the display was in keeping with the practice of human exhibitions of Africans in Europe, noting that Europe was the center of the world's culture and civilization. That's true.

They're keeping monkeys with people. Why can't I? It's called because Europe did it. The awkwardness of talking to a black guy over this is rather astounding. It's pretty awkward. The fact that you could sit there

and look at a black dude and go, no, this one's different. No, no, no. Listen, I know we're the ones who are saying you were different for a long time, but we've learned this one's tiny. I mean, if you're...

Now slavery's just been ended not too long ago. Yeah. But this, I think, would bring up a lot of... Safe to say there's a bitter taste in the mouth of Africans. Yeah, I feel like it would bring up a lot of feelings in regards to

the fucking horrors. Yeah, yeah. No, actually, if you polled black people around this time, slavery was extremely unpopular. I'm getting... I'm totally understanding the plot of 12 Monkeys.

Finally. Yeah. Yeah. 12 Otas would be a better movie. Kill us. Excuse me? Kill the white man. You know, Dave, you may be onto something.

Really, what does it take to just get rid of the whites? Well, we're really awful. I mean, it's... It's extraordinary. We're never gonna learn. It's extraordinary. We need to be taught a lesson.

There's so many things I can't do at Dollabomb because they are so horrific that you can't make anything remotely funny about it. Well... They're just horrific. Thank God that this dark story

about a pygmy is... This is so fucking crazy that I can read it. Yeah. Anyway, back to Oat of the Pygmy who lived with monkeys in a parrot. Okay, so he says that that's why he's doing it.

Harnaday was not about to back down and said the show would go on until he was ordered to stop by the Zoological Society. Well, that sounds like a pretty clear setup for word ahead. But he knew that was never gonna happen because he had the backing

of the two most influential people in the Zoological Society. One had helped found the zoo and the other was the secretary of the Zoological Society, a high society lawyer from a prominent New York family who had actually helped negotiate

the arrangement to get Oat of the zoo. Okay. The clergyman went to City Hall to discuss the matter with the mayor. It's just quite a level to float to on whether or not a pygmy should be in a monkey cave. I love the idea that there are now

like serious conversations. Let's say 12 ministers, black ministers coming in. We would like to talk to the mayor about the fact that there is a human in a cage at the zoo. So some people are being real dicks about it. But they couldn't get past the mayor's secretary.

Mayor McClone was also a member of the Zoological Society. Reverend Gordon returned to the zoo and this time found Oat with a guinea pig in a cage as several hundred spectators watched. Quote, the crowd seemed to annoy the dwarf. The New York Times reported in an article the next day.

We're getting more sensitive. Reverend Gordon then went to William H. Smith, the first black lawyer to successfully argue a case before the U.S. Supreme Court. Smith appealed to a court for Ota's release. A wealthy white lawyer said

he would finance the case to free Ota. Hornaday's response was just to remove the sign in front of Ota's cage. All right, I think I understand what all this hubbub is about. Let's meet in the middle. I'll meet you halfway, okay? I'm going to take the sign out.

All right, that's it. Free a charge, sign down, done. Sign right here. Welcome, feel free. Deal done. Drop your case, man. Deal done. Sign taken down.

I know what's really hurting. Expectators continued to flock to the zoo. Due to the mounting protests, a city controller was sent down to inspect the situation. His report said that he found Ota in a khaki suit and gray cap, and that he wasn't much different

than other blacks living in New York. He didn't think Ota's intellect was stunted and he didn't think Ota could talk with the monkeys. He did? Didn't. Okay. He thought it was all bullshit. Okay.

So now a city controller is like, okay, this is a fucking dude. You picture like getting that work order? Sorry, what is it? It says, boss, can you come here for a second? Yeah, what's going on? It says right here. Go down there and see if this black kid

is a monkey or not. I'll see you. What are you talking about? Take care. I got a dinner. Things were turning against the zoo. Angry letters objecting to Ota's treatment began to hit the New York Times pages.

Ota had had it as well. He was not, he was, he was becoming very violent when they tried to return him to his cage after wandering. He was biting, kicking, and fighting in any way he could. Once he got hold of a knife and threatened zookeepers. Oh, fuck, can you imagine that day when you're like, oh, shit, Ota's got a knife?

If he just put someone down, how great would that have been? Just throwing this thing. Because the truth is, if you're him, you're playing with house money. You could fucking kill whoever. Yeah. And you'll still be in the cage the next day. Right.

What's the worst they're going to do? Put you in a fucking cage with a monkey? The worst, literally the worst thing they could do to you is put you in a cage with another human. So you're like the only person who going to jail for murder is an upgrade of your situation. Where were you, where was the last prison you went to? Brock Zoo!

Use it as zoo! Who's a fucking monkey? Just talk to me. I want to hear your voice. Just talk to me. Oh, don't know, like zoo. Zoo. So there's angry letters coming. Oat has had it.

He's biting, he's kicking. Hornaday was also becoming upset with the large mob that would chase Oat around the grounds every time he was released to walk about the place. And he wrote a letter to Werner. Quote, the boy must either leave here immediately or be confined without you. He is very unruly and savage.

Well, yeah. I wonder why? I can't figure it out. Because Werner had no money, he couldn't help Ota. Reverend Gordon said he would take him, but Hornaday wouldn't give him to the Reverend unless he agreed to return him back to Werner whenever he asked.

Gordon refused. Werner and Hornaday agreed it was best for Ota to stay at the zoo. You guys have just come together and made a great call. Yeah, good call. At this point, the press was getting so bad that even in the South, they were mocking New York for its treatment of Ota.

Wow. That is shocking, right? When the South is like, you're kind of racist. Louisiana newspaper wrote, quote, a Northern outrage. Yes, in the sacred city of New York, where almost daily mobs find exciting sport in chasing Negroes through a zoo

without much being said about it. Well, when you put it like that. It does sound a little fucked up. It sounds kind of fucked up. When you write down what's happening on a page, when you give it a long line, right? Yeah, but it has a good topic sentence. Finally, in late September, after 20 days in the zoo,

Ota was escorted out by Werner. No reporters were told. He quietly walked out and was taken to the Howard colored orphanage asylum in Brooklyn. It was run by Reverend Gordon. Gordon said he was given his own room to do as he wants, including smoking. There they began teaching Ota to read.

But all he really wanted to do was go to home to Africa. In 1910, Gordon sent Ota to live with a family in Lynchburg, Virginia. The family had seven kids. He also had Ota's teeth capped and brought him and bought him American style clothes the first time. I have to say, as horrible as this is, it is amazing that he gets like caps.

All right, what do you think? He's got these big veneers, he's got these white chompers now. How you doing, everybody? Also, he's got Matt Damon teeth. Yeah, yeah. So he was being tutored to help him speak better English and he started attending.

All he wants to learn is fuck you in English. All right. How do I say, uh, cunt? He keeps trying to learn cunt and I'm trying to not teach him it. Uh, he attended the Lynchburg Theological Seminary and College. He taught local boys how to hunt and told them stories of hunting elephants in his homeland. Sometimes he would build a bonfire

and dance around it performing an ancient ritual of his people. When he felt he had learned enough English, he stopped going to school and started working at a tobacco factory. There he excelled because he didn't have to use a ladder to get the tobacco leaves. He would just climb up a pole. He would tell his life story for sandwiches and beer.

Wow. Oh my God. He still wanted to go home though. That's all he wanted. Then World War one began because passenger ships were being attacked. There was no way for him to get home. Oda began to lose interest in hunting and fishing.

He was becoming withdrawn. He became obsessed with going home and was often found just sitting alone under a tree. Then one night Oda chipped all the caps off his teeth and shot himself in the heart 10 years after having been brought to America. He was just 32 years old. Oh my God.

Human zoos slowly became less popular as the 1900s moved on eventually going away in the 30s. One study estimated that more than 25,000 indigenous people were brought to fairs around the world between 1880 and 1930. Freak shows endured though with much less blatant racism than the human zoo. Though in 2002, Baka Pygmies were brought and exhibited in Belgium. The public was outraged.

Right now in India on the Andaman Islands, Andamanese girls are being used in a sort of human zoo to attract tourists. Originally the plan was to literally build a human zoo but now the Andamanese are just forced to dance for tourists while naked in return for dancing there given a food. A very dark-skinned Jaurawa tribal women are often tossed bananas from cars after they dance.

That's happening in India right now. That's the thing that's happening. Jesus Christ. Everybody feel good? What's so crazy is it's just not far enough away. It's not. That's just it. It's too recent. It is. It's too, fuck, that's a hundred years ago.

Like you can't trust us. No. Not for a fucking second. And then you hear the shit that Donald Trump is saying about Muslims and you go, we're always so fucking close to being barbaric. Yeah. Fucking barbaric. Now, how about this twist? Could we make a zoo where Donald Trump is on display?

Oh, now we have it. Now have I actually taken the human zoo pendulum and swung it in the other direction? And here's a science. All I want to do is make America great again. Get me out of this cage. But here's a scientific way of looking at that. Okay?

Completely, this is for science. Yes. What happens when you put a megalomaniacal man in a zoo in a cage? Uh-huh. What happens? What happens to pure narcissism when it's enclosed in a cage with a sloth? What is that?

You know, like the orangutan is going to start doing his hair funny. God, that'd be great. Let's put Donald Trump's- The orangutan just keeps signing your fired. Why can't we put him in a zoo? My running mate is Dohangi, the orangutan. Uh, obviously, the head of my cabinet would be the parrot. Squarespace.

We just want to make the zoo great again. Squarespace. Squarespace. Make the zoo great again, Squarespace. Squarespace is like, what? Squarespace. What are you talking about? Squarespace is like, so can we.

Sorry. One of the guys listed the podcast once. I don't. Actually, we're folding the company. Yeah, sorry. That was a fucked up podcast. Um, we're actually going to do round spaces now. We decided.

All right. Well, shit, uh, great. Sorry, that took so long. Oh, well, listen, it could be worse. I could be Oda. You can catch us on Twitter at the dollop. We are on Facebook now. We have a subreddit, uh, dollop subreddit.

Uh, he needs a drink. We are, uh, we got an Instagram dollop podcast. Wow. We are, uh, yeah. Yeah, let's get out of here.