Where Are the Bodies?!

[00:01] We don't need ad money.
[00:02] Speak for yourself, bro.
[00:07] We could use it, but we don't need it, apparently.
[00:10] All right.
[00:11] Cut his mic.
[00:12] He's out of control.
[00:13] I mean, please, if you are an advertiser, this is what happens when we don't do an
[00:18] off-season meeting, guys.
[00:20] We're not on the same page.
[00:24] If you need someone to work for your business for cheap or free, give Jon Coalson a call.
[00:30] King of the unpaid internship.
[00:32] That's right.
[00:33] If you would like to turn back to the bartering system, give Jon Coalson a call.
[00:39] Joey loves reading ads.
[00:41] That's all I know.
[00:42] I do everything.
[00:43] It's one of my favorite things, because I know what's on the other side.
[00:47] Sweet, sweet money.
[00:52] Coalson, do you have an under Google for us this week?
[01:00] I'm ready to answer some stuff.
[01:02] Should we do an under Google rules?
[01:10] That was the play of Super Excited.
[01:12] You told us we had to, sir.
[01:15] You said we signed up for it.
[01:20] In the end, it's going to be better and more true than Google can give you.
[01:24] I do.
[01:25] So, I was walking home the other day, and I saw some poor, sort of, slowly decaying
[01:37] jack-o'-lanterns.
[01:39] And I know that we've done, we've been doing under Google rules for, like, two or three
[01:46] years now.
[01:47] I know we've done Halloween, but I don't think we know the history of the jack-o'-lantern.
[01:53] I was wondering if you guys could help me out with that.
[01:59] Are we talking etymology, or why we carve pumpkins?
[02:03] Yep.
[02:04] Both, both.
[02:05] That's what I want.
[02:07] Okay, good call.
[02:13] So the Halloween thing was, it was the Celtics, the Celtics, the Celtics, right?
[02:21] And they liked, they had, I can't remember, you should go back and listen to that pod,
[02:27] but ...
[02:28] Don't Google it.
[02:31] Don't Google it.
[02:33] Go find the under Googleable pod.
[02:38] But I vaguely recall that it was an end-of-the-year thing for the Celtics, and it was about death
[02:45] and dying as the land was, you know, going to crap.
[02:53] And then I think the Catholics got involved and stole it, and I don't know.
[03:01] But my thing is, none of that explains why we carve a pumpkin up and put a lantern in
[03:06] it.
[03:07] Well, I mean, the use of a pumpkin is somewhat natural, right?
[03:16] I mean, it's an autumn harvest gourd.
[03:20] That makes sense, right?
[03:23] So there's a bunch of them laying around, a bunch of extra ones.
[03:26] Which you're not going to eat all of, because it's pumpkin.
[03:30] Pretty Starbucks.
[03:31] What did you do with all those pumpkins?
[03:35] Perfect.
[03:36] Exactly.
[03:37] Are you trying to out Starbucks on all their pumpkin murdering?
[03:44] Nobody's talking about it.
[03:45] I don't know why.
[03:46] Where are the bodies?
[03:47] I'm telling you.
[03:48] Hey, those things have a face.
[03:50] That's true.
[03:51] That's true.
[03:52] And I imagine that, you know, gourd art has been around for a long time, right?
[04:01] Gourd-based art.
[04:02] Yeah.
[04:03] Is gourd art the name of the pod?
[04:04] Because that's pretty solid.
[04:05] It was the name of my bed in high school.
[04:08] No, gourd art is just art made by a guy named Gourd.
[04:17] And so the practice of using the jack-o'-lantern or of carving a pumpkin artistically, I think,
[04:27] just makes sense.
[04:28] So you think this is not even connected to an actual holiday.
[04:32] You think people are just like carving gourds for art for fun?
[04:37] Totally.
[04:38] Yeah.
[04:39] I think some...
[04:40] I think that goes back to like, you know, the cradle of civilization in Africa.
[04:47] Carving pumpkins?
[04:48] No.
[04:49] Not pumpkins, but gourds, right?
[04:51] So like, yeah.
[04:53] They have gourds there?
[04:54] I guess so.
[04:55] They have gourd-like things.
[04:57] Yeah.
[04:58] I guess they do have gourds.
[04:59] Yeah.
[05:00] Certainly in Africa.
[05:03] I mean, it comes down to some enterprising entrepreneur being like, hey, I got a bunch
[05:08] of pumpkins.
[05:09] Right?
[05:10] Yeah.
[05:11] Or gourd X.
[05:12] What can I do with all this crap?
[05:15] See, that was very cynical of you, Harper.
[05:18] I don't know.
[05:20] Cynical or realistic?
[05:21] Like, this is the way the world works.
[05:24] That's someone making good use of a surplus of something.
[05:27] Harper's my realest friend, but I just, I want it to be closer to the art side that
[05:33] Jason's saying.
[05:34] Well, it can't be, but they're not mutually exclusive.
[05:38] Hmm.
[05:39] What?
[05:40] Okay.
[05:41] Everything is a zero-sum game, Jason, everything.
[05:46] So why do we scoop out a pumpkin and put a light in it and then put a face on that
[05:50] pumpkin?
[05:51] So we say it's gourd art and then, and then so you can see it at night, we put a light
[05:55] in it?
[05:56] Sure.
[05:57] Okay.
[05:58] Maybe here's the real question.
[05:59] Did the Jack-O-Lantern predate pumpkin pie?
[06:02] Do we make pumpkin pie because of Jack-O-Lanterns?
[06:06] Or do we make Jack-O-Lanterns because of pumpkin pie?
[06:08] Because really, what else do you do with a pumpkin?
[06:11] Well, no, no.
[06:12] I think pumpkin pie comes way later.
[06:13] I agree with Jason that it's going to be early.
[06:18] I think that...
[06:19] I would guess that they were correlated.
[06:21] No, I think it's got to be connected to some spirit stuff.
[06:24] Like there's some...
[06:26] It's called a Jack-O-Lantern.
[06:28] Like for rea...
[06:29] Who's Jack?
[06:30] That just sounds pirate-y to me.
[06:31] Well, what I'm saying is like, Jack-O-Lantern.
[06:35] Jack Sparrow.
[06:36] No, I assume that there's some sort of like, there's a spirit-based connection to this
[06:43] whole thing.
[06:45] I don't think we just did it arbitrarily, right?
[06:49] I think there's got to be some story behind it.
[06:51] Oh, we definitely did it arbitrarily.
[06:53] We do everything arbitrarily.
[06:55] Okay.
[06:56] I mean, Valentine's Day cards make sense to me arbitrarily, and trick-or-treating for candy
[07:01] makes sense to me arbitrarily, but Jack-O-Lanterns make no sense arbitrarily because outside of
[07:07] selling a carving knife for a pumpkin, nobody's making money off of it.
[07:14] So given that it's a Jack-O-Lantern, do we think this is an Irish or a British thing?
[07:19] It's got to be, right?
[07:20] Yeah, it's got to be.
[07:21] We know that the Halloween came from the Celts, right?
[07:25] Yeah.
[07:26] Right.
[07:29] So who's Jack?
[07:30] Do you think the Jack-O-Lantern?
[07:31] But they probably wouldn't have called it a Jack-O-Lantern because they spoke a different
[07:34] language.
[07:35] Right?
[07:36] They spoke Urs.
[07:38] Well, it depends on when it made its true.
[07:43] And also, and I could be dumb here, are there pumpkins in Ireland?
[07:47] That's a good question.
[07:50] If you can grow potatoes, you got to be able to grow pumpkins, right?
[07:55] I don't know what the conditions for pumpkin growth are.
[07:58] I think they're pretty sure that pumpkins is a new world thing.
[08:02] I think it's a new world thing.
[08:04] Really?
[08:05] Yeah, I'm almost positive on that.
[08:07] It's like corn.
[08:08] I mean, yeah, like corn.
[08:10] I'm going to go British.
[08:14] One more interesting question.
[08:16] I'm wondering if you guys think that the Jack-O-Lantern was always supposed to be a
[08:21] spooky thing or did it make it was supposed to be something else before?
[08:27] Like was there a time because this is all religiously related on some level was supposed
[08:32] to be like a religious representation of some type that that feels like it breaks a commandment.
[08:38] Probably not.
[08:39] Well, okay.
[08:40] But so I think it's got to come before it's an idol, right?
[08:46] So the All Saints Day thing comes in later, right?
[08:49] And it screws up the Fall Festival, All Hallows' Eve stuff, right?
[08:56] I mean, Halloween is All Hallows' Eve based on the Celtic Death Festival.
[09:04] So I don't know.
[09:07] I think it predates the religious part is what I'm saying.
[09:11] Religion always co-ops the stuff.
[09:12] You think the Jack-O-Lantern, okay.
[09:16] That's what I'm saying.
[09:17] But now if your theory that it's a new world plant throws that into question.
[09:24] Oh, it does.
[09:26] You make a very good point Jason, that's my whole thing.
[09:29] And so now I'm thinking maybe it's a pilgrim thing that it's immigrants from...
[09:40] Irish immigrants?
[09:41] Irish immigrants.
[09:42] No, I'm thinking colonial, so more like British immigrants.
[09:46] Okay.
[09:47] Not Irish.
[09:48] No Irish people came.
[09:49] Yeah, and like maybe making fun of the Irish or something.
[09:54] That's...
[09:55] See, now that I can get behind, right?
[09:56] Because that's something Americans would do for sure.
[09:58] Fish in a barrel.
[09:59] Now, is there something that the Irish could...
[10:01] Irish have carved potatoes in this?
[10:06] Oh yeah, you got your potato arts for sure.
[10:09] See, I only have potato class growing up.
[10:11] You got your Mr. Potato Heads.
[10:13] I mean, this is all...
[10:14] Mr. Potato Heads, yeah.
[10:16] The grand tradition of my peeps.
[10:20] Joey, Joey, what do you got?
[10:23] What do you got on this, buddy?
[10:25] Yeah, I'm thinking...
[10:27] Oh man, yeah.
[10:29] There's a...
[10:32] I'm thinking this new world thing seems to make sense to me.
[10:35] It's just North America seems pretty gourdy as a whole, you know?
[10:41] I feel like we're going to have those lying around.
[10:46] And maybe this is something, you know...
[10:48] So yeah, if you're going to use the innards of the pumpkin, you don't want them to rot
[10:55] and go bad.
[10:56] So you got to do something with them before that happens.
[11:01] So you bake the pumpkin pies, you bake the seeds.
[11:06] So I feel like you got to do something with that.
[11:07] And then you got all these, you got all these, you know, pumpkin bodies laying around.
[11:13] You might as well cut them up into something fun, you know?
[11:16] Well now, but Joey, who's Jack?
[11:22] It's probably Jack the Ripper.
[11:25] Oh, I like this a lot.
[11:32] Jack the Ripper incarnated into pumpkin carcasses.
[11:38] Yeah.
[11:40] I think that Jack is also like a super common, like, it's like John Doe, right?
[11:47] I like that a lot, but I also think that Jack is just like random guy X.
[11:53] OK, so we're not far off.
[11:55] So a Jack-o-lantern, as defined by Wikipedia, is a carved pumpkin turnip or other root vegetable.
[12:01] Ooh, turnips!
[12:02] Root vegetables are all over Ireland.
[12:06] You're right, you're right.
[12:10] And the name comes after the phenomenon of a strange light flickering over peat bogs called
[12:17] the will of the wisp or Jack-o-lantern.
[12:21] Its name is also tied to the Irish legend of Stingy Jack, a drunkard who bargains with
[12:25] Satan and is doomed to roam the earth with only a hallowed turnip to light his way.
[12:31] Wait, what does that even mean?
[12:33] A hallowed turnip to lay his way?
[12:36] To light his way.
[12:37] Oh, light his way.
[12:39] Yep.
[12:41] Carving vegetables goes back circa 10,000 years.
[12:45] Oh, wow.
[12:46] Nailed it Jason.
[12:47] Something like that.
[12:49] Gourds were used to carve lanterns by the Maori over 700 years ago, and the Maori word for
[12:56] gourd also describes a lampshade.
[12:58] And that's New World, right?
[12:59] The Maori?
[13:00] No, that's African.
[13:01] OK.
[13:03] I believe.
[13:04] Let me look at this.
[13:05] Sorry.
[13:06] No, that's Polynesian.
[13:07] Yeah, yeah.
[13:08] Sorry.
[13:09] Interesting.
[13:10] OK.
[13:11] It is believed that the custom of making Jack-o-lanterns at Halloween began in Ireland.
[13:17] Booyah.
[13:18] In the 19th century.
[13:20] I also like that they carved this stuff to ward off evil spirits by making creepy things.
[13:28] Yeah.
[13:29] Like, how was that the logic back in the day?
[13:31] Like, ah, these things are creepy?
[13:33] Let's make something.
[13:34] You gotta fight fire with fire.
[13:35] Yeah.
[13:36] The devil gave him a single burning coal to light his way and sent him off into the night.
[13:42] Jack put the coal into a carved-out turnip, and it's been supposedly roaming the earth
[13:50] with it ever since.
[13:52] That sounds creepy.
[13:54] Just for fun.
[13:59] There are some cool Jack-o-lanterns on the Wikipedia page.
[14:02] Totally.
[14:04] And so, Coalson, you were right.
[14:06] It does go back to sort of the original Halloween festivals to Samhain, which we discussed before,
[14:20] where they celebrated the souls of the dead walking the earth.
[14:24] Yeah.
[14:26] Seems like it's sort of bad, huh?
[14:28] It is also apparently related to the will of the wisp from Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden,
[14:38] blah, blah, blah.
[14:40] And they leave out milk and cookies and crap like we do for Santa Claus for apparently
[14:44] dead things.
[14:46] I don't know.
[14:48] Well, you know, it makes sense to me that if the Irish came to the Americas and they
[14:55] were like, wow, pumpkins are way bigger than turnips, you know?
[15:00] Yeah.
[15:02] I see how pumpkins became the ideal Jack-o-lantern.
[15:06] Yeah, either they had some big-ass turnips or they were some great artists, right?
[15:11] Because it is not easy to carve something intricate on a turnip.
[15:16] Man, I tell you what, if you look at some pictures of these carved turnips,
[15:24] they are disgusting.
[15:26] What did you Google?
[15:30] Was it Jack-o-lantern turnip?
[15:32] Just carved turnips.
[15:34] Carved turnips.
[15:36] But yeah, there's one on iriscentral.com.
[15:38] Oh, dear God.
[15:40] Intricate turnips was the name of my band in high school.
[15:45] Did they get eaten by an intricate turnip?
[15:48] Yes.
[15:50] Jesus.
[15:52] That's terrifying.
[15:54] It is.
[15:55] If you're looking at not sleeping tonight, I've got a Google search for you.