The Undegooglables
Better answers than Google can give you.

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Episode 181 · September 2, 2023

Person-Sized Bison

On a trip, the hosts ask who "Buffalo Bill" was and why the NFL team is the Buffalo Bills.

“He's a person-sized bison. That clears it all up.” (13:46)

Questions

Why are the Buffalo Bills named the Buffalo Bills? (02:25)

Our guess
A play on Buffalo Bill the showman, named in the 1960s, since "Buffalo Bisons" would be redundant.
Reveal the answer
The answer
The name came from a naming contest for Buffalo's All-America Football Conference team (originally the Bison); owner James Burrell liked a writer's comparison of the team to a band of "Buffalo Bills" after William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, the showman born in Iowa in 1846 who founded Buffalo Bill's Wild West in 1883.
Verdict right

Listen to the episode

Transcript (auto-generated)
[00:00] You got to get into aetherium, bro. You gotta get you some aetherium diversify, you know, I
[00:07] Do love the idea
[00:11] Jaws if you just had a bro in there
[00:16] Hey, man, I think we're gonna need a bigger boat
[00:20] I wonder if it's a different movie instead of the salty sea captain
[00:24] We do under Google's that was the play of super excited told us we had to
[00:44] You said we signed up for it in the end it's gonna be better and more true than Google can give you
[00:53] All right
[00:55] You want to crack crack open under Google? Sure. I've got it. I got a couple pressing ones. I think from my
[01:02] from my time
[01:05] With a patreon or previous patreon Mike Morrow
[01:10] Is he still doing that? If not, that's a good question. Give him a hard time
[01:15] But he had a lot of things to say he had a lot of questions. And so
[01:22] Hit you up with one of them
[01:24] Cool. Oh
[01:27] Okay, I think this is fun and you might know the answer right away. And if you do then
[01:32] Then we can move on to his second question
[01:35] Which is also fun. So we were we were talking about so we saw some bison
[01:42] While we were on our trip to Gatlinburg and we were talking about how we've done and under Google about how Buffalo aren't really a thing
[01:51] that they're all misnomers that basically everything's bison and
[01:56] We stood to do Rome, right?
[01:58] No, they don't and they're not nickels and all of it's a lie Joey. You've been lied to your entire life
[02:04] There's no Buffalo
[02:07] It's in a song though. Look go back and listen to the episode everything should be bison
[02:12] Well, we'll maybe a link to the episode when we post this
[02:17] but he then said I
[02:20] Which I thought was really interesting was the buffalo bills
[02:25] My entire life because their mascot is a buffalo. I thought their mascot was a buffalo
[02:31] but
[02:33] really, they're
[02:34] from Buffalo
[02:36] So what the heck is a Buffalo bill? And I said it's a play on
[02:43] Buffalo bill that's what I always thought it was I thought it was a play on both because what?
[02:50] Like you're not gonna be bills. What are what are bills? What are bills? So bill Buffalo bill
[02:57] was a
[02:59] use a
[03:00] Sharpshooter out in like, right Oklahoma
[03:04] Like what does that have to do with Buffalo?
[03:08] I think Oklahoma. I think Thunder, you know
[03:11] Also, wasn't that the bad guy in Silence of Lambs?
[03:16] Yeah
[03:17] Like what's going on here?
[03:19] Well, what do you want us to tackle who was Buffalo bill or why are the Buffalo bills named Buffalo bills both?
[03:25] okay, Buffalo bill was like a
[03:28] if I remember correct a
[03:31] showman
[03:32] Fencing himself to be of the Wild West and they would do you know your shows
[03:38] shows yeah, where there was like fancy special shooting or like lassoing things and
[03:45] Generally, it was like a
[03:47] Hee-haw, but with less singing and more shooting
[03:51] Right and any Oakley was a part of this is right
[03:56] Yep, I don't ever may have been part of the Buffalo bill show. Okay, I think at some point
[04:05] Why the Buffalo bills are the Buffalo bills I have no idea
[04:09] I other than that it's a play on Buffalo bill
[04:12] But do you agree with him or because when he said I immediately thought the same thing
[04:16] I always thought the Buffaloes were the mascot
[04:20] And so the Buffaloes are the mascot
[04:22] Right, but like then why do you call yourself the Buffalo bills instead of the Buffalo Buffaloes?
[04:27] Good question. This is my this is his
[04:34] Yeah, I don't know I
[04:36] Have I I really have no theory right now. I think Buffalo Buffaloes just sounds terrible. It is a coherent phrase according to Jason
[04:46] Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo
[04:49] Yeah, yeah. No, it's you can go even further. It's like I think you can have string together
[04:54] Six or eight straight Buffaloes. That's a
[04:58] real sentence
[05:00] Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo Buffalo
[05:05] Okay, or why not just be the Buffaloes
[05:10] It's probably not allowed when did the Buffalo bills come into existence
[05:16] The NFL franchise, okay, so it's 70s. Yeah
[05:21] Yeah, yeah, I don't think they were like original NFL
[05:27] I would you know what? I might say even the six. Okay, let's give them a 60s. Sure
[05:31] Let's say the Buffalo Bills came around in the 60s
[05:34] Buffalo bill the character is what 18?
[05:39] What good question, I would say late 19th century early 20th, so you're saying
[05:46] In 1890s to 1910 ish, okay
[05:52] I was gonna go a little earlier, but that's that that works for me
[05:56] Didn't they lose four straight Super Bowls? They did. Yeah
[06:00] Alternate that what like what else could a bill be?
[06:05] Well, uh money
[06:07] Sure, um duck duck bills an act of congress. Oh, there you go
[06:14] Well
[06:15] That's boring
[06:17] Yep
[06:18] Also, I don't think about Buffalo with that
[06:21] a uh
[06:23] Listing of the the the players in a play. Oh excellent a playbill
[06:28] Do you think it's a I was thinking like a electric bill, you know
[06:33] Well, yeah, it could be so you'd be charged for something
[06:36] That's a bummer. It's just like a bummer
[06:38] A
[06:40] Buffalo bummer, I guess, you know
[06:41] You you can take pride that you're you're paying a fair price for goods and services that you you've been provided to you
[06:49] I guess well, okay. So I guess the question would be if buffalo bill
[06:54] Is something that buffalo is claiming
[06:57] Was buffalo bill actually attached to buffalo the city or was he more attached to out west with the?
[07:03] Buffaloes, which we know now are bison
[07:07] um
[07:08] And then why would they claim him as their own?
[07:11] Maybe the
[07:13] The mascot is a bison
[07:15] Because they know what's up
[07:18] It's bison name
[07:21] Bill
[07:22] Oh, sure. Sure. We just named the bison bill
[07:27] But they say the buffalo bills
[07:29] Yeah, it's plural
[07:31] Maybe there's a couple maybe is bill
[07:33] Uh, you know how there are terms for uh, male and female
[07:40] Of different species like a doe and a stag yeah for deer is bill
[07:47] Like the the male version of a buffalo
[07:50] Sure, the buffalo bills
[07:52] Or the female like a heifer maybe they're very progressive and they were like way ahead of their time
[07:56] They're like we're gonna be though
[07:58] Or yeah, we were like, hey look, we don't want to identify your gender. You just decide on your own
[08:03] We're just gonna be like, you know your bill that doesn't come up when I see buffalo in the news though
[08:10] So, um, I like playbill somehow
[08:15] Um
[08:16] I just don't understand what else bills would be the bill of a of a cap
[08:21] You know like a duck bill
[08:25] Maybe the bison's name is william. Maybe they wanted to create a hybrid animal a half duck half
[08:33] Bison so it's like a platypus but bigger
[08:37] Yes
[08:40] What is it yeah, okay, so here's the real question why aren't they the buffalo platypi?
[08:46] pusses
[08:47] platypuses
[08:49] Because they don't they don't live there
[08:51] Before I look this up. So to get back to your question about buffalo bill and whether or not buffalo the city could claim him
[08:58] my
[08:59] recollection of buffalo bill is that he was
[09:04] Not necessarily a frontiersman but a
[09:08] actor
[09:10] Actor. Yes that may have come from like the east right and just played up the western
[09:16] side of his
[09:18] That could be confusing him. No, no, I I'm fine with that. I like that
[09:23] So perhaps he came from buffalo and so they are that was their homage to him
[09:29] But why so in the 1960s they were like, yeah buffalo bill everybody's heard of that
[09:35] Well back then people sure
[09:38] It was it was 100 year anniversary of
[09:41] His death or something
[09:43] I'm like, let's give it to buffalo bill
[09:46] Let's go with that
[09:49] He died in 1865 and in 1965. They named it after him. All right. Well that we're incorrect. So buffalo bill
[09:57] Uh
[09:58] Was a soldier a bison hunter and showman born in leclair. Iowa
[10:06] Before it was the state even and he grew up in ontario
[10:11] Canada mississauga and then settled in the kansas territory
[10:17] he
[10:19] Started working at the age of 11 after his father's death and became a writer for the pony express at age 15
[10:25] He was here for the union in the american civil war
[10:30] And was a scout for the army during the indian wars
[10:34] His legend began to spread when he was 23
[10:38] Shortly thereafter he performed in shows
[10:43] That displayed cowboy themes
[10:47] He founded buffalo bills wild west in 1883
[10:52] Taking his large company on tours in the united states beginning in 1887
[11:01] Okay, no, no, so 1883 started in the u.s. And in 1887 expanded to euro
[11:08] Was amy oakley a part of that we don't know. Yes. Yes
[11:13] So here here's what i've got on the uh, the buffalo bills
[11:18] So, uh, the team
[11:21] Was named after buffalo bill cody
[11:27] The name buffalo bills was chosen during a naming contest for buffalo's all-american football conference team
[11:34] The squad the squad was originally named the bison
[11:38] So it would have been the buffalo bison, which was redundant. And so the owner wanted to switch things up
[11:45] Uh, james f dyson wrote an essay comparing the team to a band of buffalo bills
[11:53] And uh, the owner james burrell
[11:57] Um, love the connection to the american frontier legend
[12:01] So you were right?
[12:03] I don't think I was right on anything, but you were right on the you you said it was named after buffalo
[12:09] What are you talking about that's exactly what
[12:11] You had the timeline and all that stuff with with the buffalo bill. That's just that's insane
[12:15] I think the buffalo bison's a way better name
[12:19] It's not redundant. We know that buffaloes aren't real bisons are the only real thing. So
[12:25] Well, i've got the thing that I think is probably most important here
[12:29] What's that? I was I was right about this
[12:32] The mascot his name is billy. It's william billy the buffalo nice
[12:38] You got to give the the long-form name
[12:41] And he is eight foot tall and on instead of numbers. He has a bb
[12:47] billy buffalo
[12:50] So is he does he stand up or is he eight foot tall like a
[12:56] Like a horse's back like what what do you call hands babe the blue ox? Yeah. Oh, we
[13:01] I mean it's a
[13:03] It's not a real buffalo. It's a
[13:05] Person in a suit Joey. There's no such thing as a real buffalo
[13:09] Uh, is it is it a bison? I said, I said, it's not a real buffalo
[13:15] But there's no thing
[13:17] Okay, you can't it's not that it's like there's no it's like it's not a real ghost, you know, like whatever
[13:25] Right, no one's claiming it's a real ghost john because those those aren't real my point
[13:31] So billy buffalo is eight foot tall
[13:35] Is he a standing man in an eight foot costume or is he a bison sized person?
[13:42] He's a person sized bison
[13:46] That that clears it all up I think
[13:53] Excellent, you're welcome. Like mario. We'll get this out to you in three or four months
[14:00] Keep that money flowing in
[14:03] All right team. I think wrap this up. Yeah. Yeah, I think we uh
[14:09] I think we we did a lot of good work here
[14:12] We will be back with you. I'm sorry. I just had to interrupt
[14:15] Um, I want to uh, Jason says we gotta wrap this up. I want to pee. I think we should just end that
[14:21] the show every week
[14:24] I'll let you make that choice i'll do the outro and uh
[14:28] You know if you don't love this outro, you can just do a cold cold clothes
[14:33] And then you can you can put a you can probably find a bathroom flush
[14:37] Just
[14:42] The other thing that i've decided i'm gonna start saying is
[14:44] Um, i've started this with my boss and i'm just i'm going with this with everybody
[14:49] um
[14:50] All right, take care go have sex with your wife
[14:53] That's how i'm just gonna say goodbye to people now
[14:55] Whether or not they're married. I mean, yeah, just go go have yourself some sex
[15:00] I don't know. Okay
[15:03] So, so I think we should end it and I gotta pee cool go have sex with your wife
[15:08] That's that what she just did every episode now
[15:11] All that's in there you can spice it together
[15:13] We just cut out the singing and all the stuff it just was
[15:19] But I will say that you can find us on twitter we are at undebeatables we're on facebook
[15:24] Dot com slash the in the beatables
[15:27] Our website is the end of beatables.com. There's also a contact form there
[15:31] You can use that to send us a message email shout out at the end of beatables
[15:36] Dot com and the website slash store
[15:40] for a small t-shirt
[15:43] For a once and always coach
[15:45] Obviously Leonard
[15:46] Now in the hall of fame
[15:50] Let's get out of here. I go pee
[15:56] All right, go have sex with your wife. See you later
[16:04] Party's over
[16:05] Nailed it Joey Joey's flatter. Yes
[16:13] I don't
[16:15] Nothing that's supposed to happen is happening. It's all fine. It's an instant classic