The Way I Heard It with Mike Rowe - 77: How To Get Rich and Save Lives by Talking Dirty

Episode Date: October 3, 2017

The story of a slightly subversive student with a taste for gin.

This is the way I heard it. This is not a story about Craven Leacock, the dastardly dean of Dartmouth, who suspended an aspiring writer back in 1925 for drinking gin. This is a story about the aspiring writer who Craven Leacock suspended, the slightly subversive student who went on to save thousands of lives in the Second World War. But here's the thing. When you stumble across a name like Craven Laycock, you can't help them. wonder if the owner of such an ominous moniker lived up to the potential of his diabolical name. So you dig a little deeper, and sure enough, the former dean not only suspended the aspiring writer, he fired him from his job at the college magazine. In other words, Craven Laycock

punished an aspiring writer by refusing to let him write. And really, isn't that exactly what you'd expect a craven laycock to do? Happily, the suspended student, being slightly subversive, did not comply with the terms of his punishment. He assumed an alias and kept on writing, an alias that would soon appear in the pages of the very same magazine from which he'd been banished. The same alias, you can see today, on the covers of his many best-selling books. Point being, by behaving in a way that was consistent with his own dastardly name, Craven Laycock drove a young man to assume a whole new identity. As a result, the aspiring writer developed a deep appreciation for characters

who lived up to their names, a valuable lesson that he would apply again and again over the course of his long and prosperous career, a lesson that would also save the lives of countless soldiers and words. World War II, which brings me back to the story I intended to tell you in the first place. The year was 1943, and American GIs were not only dying in combat, they were dying in all kinds of easily avoidable accidents. Nearly 10,000 airmen had already perished in non-combatte-related crashes. Friendly fire was killing hundreds of Marines every month, and there were other problems. frostbite, trench foot, venereal disease, and security issues.

Loose lips were literally sinking ships. It was, in the Army's own vernacular, a giant snafu. If you're not up to speed with military acronyms, snafu is short for situation normal, all effed up. Well, the situation had to be corrected, so the top brass commissioned a series of mandatory training films to combat ignorance and complacency. The man in charge of the film division was a Major Frank,

but the Major knew that government films did nothing but put young soldiers to sleep. So Major Frank enlisted the help of a slightly subversive captain. Who suggested a different approach? A cartoon. Specifically, a series of irreverent misadventures that revolved around a recurring character who lived up to his name,

a character as effed up as the situations he encountered. And just like that, Private Snafu was born. With a face like Elmer Fudd and a voice like Bugs Bunny, Snafu confronted complacency and ignorance by embracing them. For example, in Private Snafu versus Malaria Mike, Snafu neglects to take his medications or use his repellent. Then, while naked and preoccupied with some soft-core pornography, a hungry mosquito takes notes of the private's naked bottom and takes a bite. Snafu quickly succumbs to malaria and dies a painful, yet somehow hysterical death.

And really, isn't that exactly what you'd expect a snafu to do? In spies, the stakes are even higher, and the consequences even more severe. Snafu gets drunk with a prostitute in a bar. Then loudly announces, It's been a wonderful evening, and I'd like to stay some more, but I got to get a move on. I sail at half-past four. At which point the prostitute's breasts are revealed to be

swastika-shaped radio transmitters, with a direct line to the furor, who dispatches a pack of U-boats to intercept Snafu's troop transport. The ship is torpedoed, everybody dies, and Snafu finds himself in hell, where he's congratulated for his incompetence by a devil that looks a lot like Hitler. More often than not,

Snafu died for his mistakes, and the troops loved him for it. They also loved the slightly subversive tone of every new adventure. Remember, this was 1943. Back home, words like, damn or hell got you an R rating. But here, in these top secret army films,

There was nudity and drinking and sex and all sorts of innuendo. In an episode that deals with frostbite prevention, the narrator said, It's cold out there, men, cold enough to freeze the nuts off a Jeep, as two lug nuts clatter to the pavement. Eventually, Snafu became so popular, the slightly subversive captain gave him two brothers, Fubar and Tarfu. Fubar was short for effed up beyond all recognition. and Tarfu was short for things are really effed up.

Between the three of them, American GIs did something unusual. They paid attention. And as a result, their behavior changed. There's no doubt about it. Private snafu saved lives, more than anyone can count. In 1980, the Army declassified all 28 snafu films. And today, you can see them online. thanks to South Park and Family Guy.

Their shock value has been somewhat diluted, but the credits still contain a few surprises. Major Frank, for instance, was none other than Frank Capra, famous for his family-friendly films like It's a Wonderful Life, and Mr. Smith goes to Washington. The director was Chuck Jones, the man responsible for Sylvester, Tweety Bird, Wiley Coyote, and all the other G-rated characters.

as you remember from Saturday morning. Mel Blank was the voice of Snafu, which is probably why he sounds so much like a certain wascoly-wabbit. But it was the writer of these R-rated misadventures whose name seemed most out of place in the credits of an adult cartoon. Because by 1980, the slightly subversive captain who brought the F-bomb to the big screen, was known the world over as a beloved woman.

writer of children's books. Like I said, this was not a story about Craven Laycock. This was a story about the aspiring writer he suspended, the young man who went on to create the most important character in the history of animation. It's worth noting, however, the 20 years after Private Snafu, Craven Laycock's former student reunited with Chuck Jones and gave us another character F-ed up beyond all recognition. A towering gargoyle with a villainous name so perfectly suited to his rotten disposition, it's impossible not to wonder if his persona, as well as his diabolical moniker, was an homage to Craven Laycock himself.

I mean, really, isn't that exactly what you'd expect a slightly subversive writer to do? portray a teacher who tried to keep him from writing as a creature who tried to steal Christmas. I can't prove it, but this much we do know. If Craven Laycock hadn't suspended that aspiring writer way back in 1925, the aspiring writer would have never changed his name. And while his stories and his characters are undeniably charming, make no mistake, it was his alieniably. that launched his career, the same alias you can see today on the covers of over 600 million books. So let's say it like this. Without that bottle of moonshine, there might have been a snafu who saved the soldiers, and there might have been a Grinch who stole Christmas. But without Craven Leacock,

the aspiring writer with a potty mouth and a taste for gin would have never changed his name, from Theodore Gaisel to Dr. Seuss. And that would have effed up everything. Anyway, that's the way I heard it. If you work in University Maintenance, Granger considers you an MVP, because your playbook ensures your arena is always ready for tip-off, and Granger is your trusted partner.

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