Sharknado Break

[00:00] Last thing we got for you is an undegoogable.
[00:12] Ooh, we doing under Googles?
[00:14] That was the play of super excited.
[00:17] Told us we had to.
[00:18] So we said we signed up for it.
[00:24] In the end, it's going to be better and more true
[00:25] than Google can give you.
[00:29] And this one came in.
[00:31] Coalson, this one's been on your mind.
[00:33] What does it mean when it's raining cats and dogs?
[00:42] Well, it means it's raining a lot, is what it means.
[00:47] Ran in real hard.
[00:48] Done.
[00:49] Ran in real hard.
[00:49] Ran in real hard.
[00:50] Yep.
[00:51] We've never done this one before.
[00:52] Have we not done this one before?
[00:54] This sounds super familiar,
[00:57] but I also have no memory these days.
[01:00] Yeah, I got nothing.
[01:02] So we can do the exercise again.
[01:05] Coalson, you curate these so you are aware.
[01:08] I promise we've not done this before.
[01:10] Okay, okay.
[01:13] But maybe the four of us have debated this.
[01:17] I think that's where it comes from.
[01:18] Overbears at a bar or something like that.
[01:19] Yes, or like it was a conversation at some point in,
[01:23] you know, high school.
[01:24] On a Sharknado break.
[01:28] Yeah.
[01:29] It's not been put on wax.
[01:30] Okay, okay.
[01:31] Yeah.
[01:33] Sharknado.
[01:34] It's raining sharks.
[01:35] I feel like that's better, right?
[01:39] That's a better saying.
[01:41] It's raining sharks.
[01:44] Also, one of my favorite things is to like watch a movie
[01:49] where it's just like pouring rain for like half the movie.
[01:54] And it's like, that's not really how rain works.
[01:56] You know, like it doesn't,
[01:57] it doesn't just come down in sheets for hours on end.
[02:01] But that's how mood and man verse nature work.
[02:03] So, yeah, fair enough.
[02:07] But like, you know, it like lightens up occasionally.
[02:11] I mean, if you want to start talking about things
[02:13] that don't match up with the real world,
[02:16] we can start a pretty hefty list.
[02:20] Joey doesn't watch movies for a lot of these reasons.
[02:24] Because that fake rain.
[02:26] So my instinct about this is that it goes
[02:32] to the fact that cats and dogs do not get along.
[02:35] And so the rain, it's raining angrily.
[02:38] It's raining like a fight between cats and dogs going on.
[02:43] Okay.
[02:44] That's very good.
[02:46] Like a cat dog fight, you know.
[02:48] It's thunder and lightning and.
[02:51] It's just chaos.
[02:52] It's just chaos.
[02:53] Cats and dogs living together.
[02:57] Mass hysteria.
[02:58] Mass hysteria, that's right.
[02:59] So I vaguely recall that there was the idea
[03:03] that cats and dogs would like hang out on roofs.
[03:10] And when it rained so much that they couldn't,
[03:14] it would force them off the roof
[03:16] and they would jump off the roof.
[03:20] Okay.
[03:21] So it was like very literal, right?
[03:23] Like it's raining so much that cats and dogs
[03:25] are like falling from the roof.
[03:27] Hmm.
[03:29] I will say I've had like, there's a neighbor cat
[03:32] that hops up on my roof.
[03:34] But like, I don't know about,
[03:36] how are dogs getting on a roof?
[03:38] Chase and cats.
[03:39] I don't know, I mean like, you know, it's like.
[03:40] It's a single story, I don't know.
[03:43] Will you hop on some stuff?
[03:45] I don't know.
[03:47] Yeah, I'm with Joey.
[03:48] I can see cats occupying lots of roofs, but.
[03:51] I also, dogs coming down.
[03:54] Not a good chance of success there.
[03:56] I was going full morbid to begin with.
[03:59] I feel like this is probably like some weird medieval thing
[04:01] where there was no plumbing or anything.
[04:03] So like, it would rain super hard.
[04:05] The city would flood and cats and dogs would just drown.
[04:09] Right?
[04:09] Oh, and they'd be like in the streets
[04:11] and the sewers and stuff.
[04:13] And then it'd be like,
[04:14] oh, it's raining so hard that it's raining.
[04:16] Oh yeah.
[04:16] I mean, that sounds like some nasty stuff
[04:18] that could happen in medieval London to me.
[04:20] For sure, for sure.
[04:23] Yeah.
[04:25] Ooh.
[04:26] Yeah, mine was nicer.
[04:27] It was like cats were sunning on the roof.
[04:29] Yeah, yeah.
[04:30] And enjoying themselves.
[04:31] Much nicer version of that.
[04:32] And then it started raining.
[04:33] It's got my bow.
[04:34] And then it jumped down.
[04:35] Oh, no, I think you're probably right, Harper.
[04:37] That's gross.
[04:38] They're just like, the gutters are full
[04:40] of dead cats and dogs.
[04:41] Oh, glad I brought this one up.
[04:44] Yeah.
[04:46] So we think that, so you guys think this is
[04:48] a medieval origin?
[04:50] Like this is a pre-Shakespeare?
[04:55] This is Chaucer-esque?
[04:57] I feel like this is Chaucer-esque, right?
[04:59] I mean, we've talked often about,
[05:03] when do we domesticate dogs and cats?
[05:05] And that's basically since the dawn of time, right?
[05:08] So that doesn't really help us in our timeline.
[05:12] Correct.
[05:13] My assumption is that a certain level
[05:16] of population density needs to happen
[05:18] in order for rampant dog and cat populations
[05:20] to take hold, independent.
[05:23] So I would go like early industrial revolution-y
[05:26] sort of time period.
[05:28] Oh, you're moving, okay.
[05:30] Hmm, okay.
[05:31] It sounds like something Chaucer would say,
[05:33] but if that's the answer, it would,
[05:35] to my mind, have to come much later.
[05:38] But my vote's for Coalson,
[05:40] because it's less dark, so yeah.
[05:43] Just happy cats on sunning on roofs.
[05:45] I like Shakespeare for that.
[05:47] Okay.
[05:52] Okay.
[05:53] Okay, but it does seem like-
[05:56] Falcon rear would be some low-hanging fruit here, too.
[05:58] Just like dropping cats and dogs from the sky
[06:02] when it rains.
[06:04] What about like pulp fiction?
[06:08] You know, like they're always trying to come up
[06:09] with like really vibrant metaphors.
[06:14] You know, like what if the first-
[06:15] Like something from the 20s?
[06:16] Yeah, what if the first usage of this is-
[06:18] Cats could kill.
[06:19] Yeah.
[06:20] The first usage of this is like pulp fiction
[06:22] in like a, you know, some sort of-
[06:26] Like a spy, or a private detective novel.
[06:28] Private detective novel, yeah.
[06:30] In like, yeah, the 20s or something.
[06:34] Maybe that's too late.
[06:36] I feel like, yeah, I feel like Harper's right
[06:39] and I'm just bummed.
[06:40] Yeah.
[06:43] I'd like it to be film the war,
[06:45] or film the war, or pulp fiction.
[06:47] Yeah.
[06:49] What you got, Joey?
[06:51] So, there is, it's another one of these
[06:54] that is unknown etymology.
[06:57] Actually, under Google, damn it.
[06:59] Yeah, so there's, but the thing is that there is,
[07:02] we touched on a fair amount of these.
[07:05] Harper's idea of a bunch of corpses in the street
[07:16] is one of the, it's high on the list.
[07:20] Great.
[07:24] There's another one.
[07:26] There's a Greek word, katadoupe,
[07:32] refers to the waterfalls on the Nile,
[07:34] which could have been-
[07:37] Cats and dogs, katadoupe.
[07:39] Yeah.
[07:42] You know, it was a waterfall, would be loud.
[07:46] There's another one, katadoxa is another Greek expression
[07:48] which means contrary to experience or belief,
[07:53] but that could be like, it's raining so hard
[07:54] that you can't believe it.
[07:57] It seems like a stretch.
[07:59] I mean, lots of things are a stretch in these shows.
[08:05] So, I'm seeing the first recorded use of a similar phrase
[08:11] was in 1651.
[08:14] Yeah.
[08:15] Shakespeare Prime right there.
[08:16] Robertish Henry Vaughan referred to a roof
[08:20] that was secure against dogs and cats rained in shower.
[08:25] And then Richard Braum a year later
[08:30] in his comedy, City Wit,
[08:33] had a phrase it shall rain dogs and pole cats,
[08:37] which I guess are similar to a weasel or something.
[08:41] And then Jonathan Swift used it in 1738.
[08:46] Well, we don't go to Swift often enough in our guesses.
[08:51] It's because he's literally never shown up.
[08:53] Hm, so 1600s was the first printed usage of it.
[09:12] So, I'm seeing that Odin-
[09:15] Yeah, I like that one.
[09:16] Did you say this already, Joey?
[09:17] No.
[09:18] Okay, Odin was often pictured with dogs and wolves
[09:22] which were symbols of wind,
[09:24] witches rode their brooms during storms.
[09:29] Not a lot has changed since Norse times.
[09:33] So, raining cats and dogs just-
[09:37] Kind of a wind storm.
[09:37] Stormyness, yeah.
[09:39] Wind and rain.
[09:41] I like that.
[09:42] I like that one very much.
[09:43] That makes sense to me, yeah.
[09:45] A false theory stated that cats and dogs
[09:47] used to cuddle into thatched roofs during storms
[09:51] and then be washed out during heavy rains.
[09:55] So, similar to my cats sunning on the roof theory.
[09:58] I mean-
[09:59] Is false, okay.
[10:00] I mean, as long as you properly maintain your thatch roof,
[10:02] yeah.
[10:03] That's right.
[10:04] Yeah, it's really key.
[10:06] Sure.
[10:09] So, it could have originated in a place
[10:11] where you just didn't have somebody
[10:13] that knew how to make thatch roofs.
[10:18] Just everywhere I've ever been.
[10:21] So, wait, just a wet thatch roof
[10:24] would just allow the cat to fall through the roof
[10:28] during a storm?
[10:29] Naturally, water resistant when done well, apparently.
[10:32] Yeah, exactly.
[10:33] And the whole point of a roof
[10:35] is to not let the water or anything through.
[10:38] And the cat had sort of dug into it.
[10:41] Okay, I don't know.
[10:42] I'm just trying to figure out.
[10:45] Wait, not cats or dogs?
[10:47] Neither.
[10:48] Okay.
[10:49] Pole cats?
[10:50] Maybe a pole cat.
[10:51] Maybe a pole cat.
[10:53] They're slippery.
[10:58] So, what are we going with since we get to decide?
[11:03] I like Jason's the best.
[11:05] That can be our new truth.
[11:07] Which is?
[11:08] Oh, just-
[11:09] Oh, that is just angry?
[11:11] Yeah.
[11:12] It's chaos.
[11:13] It sounds like-
[11:14] I like that good one.
[11:15] I think that's-
[11:15] That is pretty cool.
[11:16] Similar vein.
[11:18] Sure.
[11:19] I'm not going with Harper's.
[11:20] No, me either.
[11:22] I hate mine.
[11:24] Yeah.
[11:26] So, it's just that we had these images
[11:28] from lore long ago.
[11:32] And, you know, connected to storminess.
[11:36] And it just became a phrase over time
[11:38] and was eventually printed in 1600s.
[11:42] Oh, yeah.
[11:43] So, it seems-
[11:44] Sounds like language.
[11:45] That can be our truth.
[11:49] So, it seems.
[11:51] Well, team, it's been great.
[11:53] I think we are out of time for this show.
[11:57] We'll be back with you next week to,
[12:02] well, to do more of the same.
[12:04] That's what we're gonna do.