[SPEAKER_00]: I've been rewatching Galsip Girl because I've been sick.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you can't tell by the sound of my voice, I think in an earlier episode this season, I was complaining about how I had allergies.
[SPEAKER_00]: Turns out those weren't allergies, it was just like a really vicious cold, and it literally hasn't gone away even sick for like three weeks, and it sucks.
[SPEAKER_00]: But since I've been sick, I've been watching lots of Galsip Girl.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I just have so much to say, I already have a video about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hannah was also on the video.
[SPEAKER_00]: We made it like years ago, if you kind of embarrassed to go look at it now.
[SPEAKER_00]: That video took so much out of me, like, so much work.
[SPEAKER_00]: It wasn't saying.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think I dubbed myself in like the wind screen.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, it was dubbed ourselves.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because we didn't really have the technological abilities to properly record ourselves.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we did have to actually sit down and dub ourselves.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like we were making a foreign movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like I'm like an expert in it though now, like it was really hard.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was crazy.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was like in the pandemic we went and filmed in downtown Toronto and our little gossip girl outfit in the middle of January like we were freezing to death.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like my mom had to drive us downtown, I think.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like we weren't taking the subway.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, it was just, it was a mess.
[SPEAKER_00]: But anyways, that whole thesis of that video is that like the show is set up against the poor characters.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that it's kind of like relies on this like in-group structure where like you as the audience want to feel part of the in-group and so you end up also hating the poor people.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like what a quote unquote poor but like proximally poor people in the show even though they do much less bad things than the rich people,
[SPEAKER_00]: and then in this new round of watching I'm just like fascinated by the fact that like it is just a straight-up soap opera from the beginning like it gets a little bit more islandish but like truly from the first episode is a soap opera and it's meaning to think so much about how soap
[SPEAKER_00]: is a character on to itself in these shows where every single occurrence in the plot is just a result of timing.
[SPEAKER_00]: Someone walks in on someone while someone is doing something.
[SPEAKER_00]: Someone does something right at the very wrong moment and then they can't do the thing they want to do.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like it's like they show up too late.
[SPEAKER_00]: They show up too early.
[SPEAKER_00]: Someone, like there's so many plot contrivances.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like so many characters just showing up at an event that there's no need for them to be at.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Vanessa, there's no need for her to be at probably in any scene in the first season, but she just ends up there for some reason, and then she walks in on two characters kissing at the scene.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, it's just, it's all about that.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what the soap opera is.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just timing.
[SPEAKER_02]: And also the time,
[SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't mean the same thing on these shows because you also have people, especially in gossip growth, really clear.
[SPEAKER_02]: You have people who are traveling across the city of New York in order to have a two-minute conversation with someone before they decide to leave or, oh, something's come up and it doesn't feel like it's taken anything out of their day.
[SPEAKER_00]: No living, living here now and knowing that Dan and Jenny live in Dumbo and they're traveling up to the Upper East Side.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's a long commute, like that is not short.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's going up to the Upper East Side, like the length of an eye.
[SPEAKER_00]: Are like Dan just happens to be hanging out up there, like I don't think he would be hanging out up there to keep hanging out in Brooklyn.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, but then Serena will drop by to Brooklyn and then she'll be talking to one of them and she'll be like, you know what, I gotta go.
[SPEAKER_02]: I gotta go deal with something that's back on the upper east side.
[SPEAKER_00]: I just came from there and we have to assume she's taking a driver because she and the rich characters have drivers.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so you have to assume she's in a car.
[SPEAKER_00]: We're just stuck in traffic.
[SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't make sense because people are also always rushing to get somewhere and then they'll be always be like a big moment where all the characters are coming from all ends of the city to meet somewhere at the exact perfect time to catch someone before something happens.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone's always meeting up in groups.
[SPEAKER_00]: Everyone just happens to be in the same place at all times regardless of where they live, who they are, or what their status is.
[SPEAKER_00]: They're always in there.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it is kind of magnificent and that sense.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that time doesn't really exist, that they live in this like kind of the space outside of time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And here's what?
[SPEAKER_00]: The show is so genuinely well acted.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think all the acting is great in the show.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think Taylor Momsin is I will defend her to my very last day people hate on Taylor Momsin's acting That baby was 14 and she acted her heart out and I think she's been an incredible job And I love Jenny Humphrey and I empathize with her so much having been a teenage girl myself I do not understand how people don't like that character anyways She's doing an amazing job on this show like
[SPEAKER_00]: She is doing water work, she is a matter her dad.
[SPEAKER_00]: But everyone's genuinely great.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were really young when they filmed that.
[SPEAKER_00]: Blake lightly think was like 19 or 20 during the first season.
[SPEAKER_00]: Late in these servers like 20 or 21.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were doing such a good job for their, like now that I'm older than them, I'm like, wow, you guys are actually incredible.
[SPEAKER_00]: All of them, the only one I say is like a little bit rocky is probably Chase Crawford.
[SPEAKER_00]: But do you know he's just there because he's pretty like he's not there to be a he's not really given much to work with but that's not his job and he's actually going to walk to work with he just doesn't do it His character goes from intense shit like his dad punches him in the face and like one of the first episodes and he's just kind of like oh dad I'm mad at you
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it's crazy.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ooh, I know.
[SPEAKER_02]: Nate's probably the most boy character ever made though.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, he got so bad too, as the show goes on.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, even though it's like outlandish and it's structure with the soap opera in nature of it, it feels kind of sophisticated because the references and like dialogue are so witty.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, it is genuinely witty.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's making me laugh so hard.
[SPEAKER_00]: The jokes really land and they're funny.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, they're genuinely funny.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I don't know, like, there's something sophisticated
[SPEAKER_00]: that makes all of its like silliness work.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, a thousand percent, Ivan, I've actually been rewatching Riverdale a little bit with my font made because we were doing a gossip grill rewatch and it's, you know, I know, I think I think Riverdale is a very fascinating show because I think it is just like a melting pot of pop cultural references that are too old or obscure for its target demographic and I think from like a writing perspective, absolute insanity and I've always like been
[SPEAKER_02]: I think that the women on the show, like the female actors, are bringing a lot more than the male actors and have always been defensive of their performances because I think seeing them also in other stuff, I think that like they're all like compelling screen preferences.
[SPEAKER_02]: But this time around, like, we're only on season one.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I'm like, like, I'm very defensive of, like, literally right in her.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think Kupil Amanda's is like, an under-utilized rom-com protagonist.
[SPEAKER_02]: She should be like, this generations, rom-com.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, she's in really recently.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's gonna be in that position.
[SPEAKER_02]: She does rom-coms, but we're obviously in an era where the rom-com isn't thriving.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I just think we need to invest more in the device that is Kupil Amanda's is charisma.
[SPEAKER_02]: But this.
[SPEAKER_02]: even still watching them deliver lines that are just as ridiculous as the type of stuff that Blair Waldorf would say.
[SPEAKER_02]: They don't have like late and mister makes you buy it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Late and mister just embodies that character in a way that is really under-appreciated because God love her.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think Camilla Mendez is performance like gets better over the court to the show.
[SPEAKER_02]: But like the way she recites them of the lines, I'm like, I can just see her acting now.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's Netflix, I believe it.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, by it, Blair's one of the best acting moments I think in the show is like in the first episode when Nate is revealing to Blair that he fucked Serena.
[SPEAKER_00]: And the specific look on Layton Meisters face when he says that is exactly how any girl would look if they found that out.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is the most specific type of crying.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's not just like crying to cry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like she looks so hurt and so just like I wish you didn't tell me that in her face.
[SPEAKER_00]: And kind of like I knew it also and it's all wrapped up in one expression and I just think it's incredible And I remember as a kid just being so compelled by the show so taken with it And I really think a lot of that is due to the acting like it truly is some great acting I know people will roast playgly at least acting abilities on there.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't get it like I actually think she's doesn't amazing job No one else could be Serena
[SPEAKER_02]: I know, like, okay, we all hate bleak lively, blah, blah, blah, whatever, I think that's boring.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I also think that, like, yes, she's blonde and beautiful, so we think loss of her.
[SPEAKER_02]: And, or we have, like, lower expectations for her, and we, whatever, or like, I think, prime to want her to fail, but I actually cannot imagine any other actress as Serena Vittor, what's in, I think, that bleak lively is like the perfect amount of, like, she's like a chill, hot girl.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, she's like the hottest girl you'd ever know, but also feels like a girl you could know like she reminds me of my like really pretty friend growing up I know her is a character on its own like Eric hair hair is doing some hair acting.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's great
[SPEAKER_00]: Like everyone's great pen patchy leave just like is Dan like it's it's just so well-cast So I don't know roses to go off of girl.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really am like I thought I'd rewatch the first couple seasons Because I've always invented the first two seasons.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love them.
[SPEAKER_00]: I think the show goes a bit sounds when they go to university But I was worried that like at this age I haven't watched it in a few years I would go back and be like, oh, you know It's a little much and I have been laughing at some parts that probably is a kid.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would have been like
[SPEAKER_00]: uh but generally I'm just actually really impressed with the it's still kind of hold up.
[SPEAKER_02]: One thing I'll say though is that in the first half of like the first season Lady Muster or Blair looks so good like she's styled I think so well and then halfway through the first season it's when they start putting her in the like ridiculous sort of like bright colors the Chanel top yeah stuff and it just I'm like
[SPEAKER_02]: You were styling her exactly like the intimidating bitchy rich girl who's like fashionable Like she looked so fucking good in the styling is so good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like I would wear all of that serenas I think she's like serenas everywhere she was a really tight leather jacket over a button down in a tie It's so cool Going back now.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm like really appreciative of the fashion I know it's because a lot of it's back in but I do think they really dropped the ball with Blair styling Yeah, like the headband and the like
[SPEAKER_02]: J-Crew, Puppy of it all when I think- They made sure they're looking really good at the beginning.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and I think that Chuck is so perfectly styled in the first season and they also dropped the ball at that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I think they should have just leaned in.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, they make them look old.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go watch my video.
[SPEAKER_00]: You can watch BB, me, and BB Hannah, Duped, and it'll be funny, but I actually am proud of that video.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was fucking brutal to make, so I think more people should watch it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I cannot even tell you how many hours I took, there was insane.
[SPEAKER_02]: Actually, this is like very fitting, because my yet I want you to check your email, Ella Gossip Girl.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh no, someone sent in a blind item about me.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh no, what is this?
[SPEAKER_02]: Forward, read, read, read, read, read, read and all cups.
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you want to read the email I've sent you?
[SPEAKER_00]: Hannah's making me do all my voice acting today when I have no voice, but maybe it's going to work, maybe it'll bring some Pizzas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so this is me talking in the present tense.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm scrolling down through multiple empty threads.
[SPEAKER_00]: The subject is all in all caps just read read read read read read.
[SPEAKER_00]: I have arrived at the body text of the email.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, it's in blue writing by the way.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, you have to read this dot dot.
[SPEAKER_00]: When I first read this email, I about had an accident in my pants.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was so freaked.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I couldn't believe it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I actually saw it.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was the most freakyest thing ever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, all you have to do is say your crush's name as many times as you can and then something for Ricky will appear.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go!
[SPEAKER_00]: So basically, yeah, this is like the interlude, and it's like a body of asterisk, so it's making like a shape, I don't know if you guys remember that, it goes stop in all caps.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, first you have to send this to at least 15 people.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you don't, if you send this to zero people, you will have bad luck for the rest of your life.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's fun to get smaller as that reads on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Five people, your crush will ignore you until you're dying day.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ten people in your crush will ask you out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Fifteen people in your crush will kiss you on the cheek.
[SPEAKER_00]: Twenty people in your crush will kiss you on the lips.
[SPEAKER_00]: Twenty five people in your crush will add some tongue plus all the others.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thirty people in your crush will do much more.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like they probably didn't know what more was.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like they were kind of like, I wonder what more is.
[SPEAKER_00]: The freaky thing about this email is after you send this to at least 15 people, come back on to this email and press Shift and then F4 and you will see something amazing.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was so cool and freaky at the same time.
[SPEAKER_00]: So start sending and you only have 15 minutes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Period.
[SPEAKER_00]: To send this dot dot.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go!
[SPEAKER_00]: And that's where the email ends.
[SPEAKER_02]: very good.
[SPEAKER_02]: Does this feel familiar to you?
[SPEAKER_02]: Have you ever received something of this nature before in your life?
[SPEAKER_00]: Certainly, my dear.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can truly pull it up so fast on my hot mail.
[SPEAKER_00]: Just say the word.
[SPEAKER_00]: Lots of them were like Mickey Mouse related.
[SPEAKER_00]: Usually.
[SPEAKER_00]: Not that.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was like if you don't share this email Mickey Mouse who has no eyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's bleeding out of his eyes.
[SPEAKER_00]: He's going to comment your room and kill you.
[SPEAKER_00]: And those ones never got me like I was a scaredy cap but that shit I was like this is stupid.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we forget that Mickey Mouse or the concept of like dark scary evil Mickey Mouse was like a prominent fixture in uh, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I feel like an early internet horror days.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, he, I think like any kind of like familiar, lovable cartoon character being dark was kind of a thing.
[SPEAKER_00]: because it appeals to kids who were like in the realm of Mickey Mouse at that age, I guess, or like just coming out of that realm.
[SPEAKER_00]: But yeah, I got a lot of these emails.
[SPEAKER_00]: The crush ones worked on me because you know, I was, you know, I was down bad.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, of course.
[SPEAKER_02]: And it's like, you know, if someone's giving you an opportunity, you may as well take it.
[SPEAKER_02]: You may as well just give it a try.
[SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't hurt me as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, but as I'm sure you can also mind, this week's episode is about chain mail.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I want to sort of reappraise the art form, but also do a little bit of a dive into its history.
[SPEAKER_02]: So on that note, I'm Hannah.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I'm Aia.
[SPEAKER_02]: And this is rehash, a podcast about the internet phenomena that strike a nerve in our culture, only to be quickly forgotten, but we think are due for a revisiting.
[SPEAKER_02]: This season is about communication on the internet.
[SPEAKER_02]: Online, we may have shot the shit, but have we also shot the messenger?
[SPEAKER_02]: If you like our show and you want to hear more from us, you can support us on Patreon at patreon.com slash rehash podcast, where we have bonus episodes and early access to our regular
[SPEAKER_02]: If you don't want to join the Patreon, feel free to rate and reviewers on Spotify and Apple podcasts because that helps us out a lot.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I got my first email address in 2007 at the age of 10, and for those first couple of years before my friends and I had all been allowed to make Facebook accounts, at least half of my inbox was made up of chain mail.
[SPEAKER_02]: Just in case any of our younger listeners managed to completely miss out on this aspect of the internet, Maya, could you explain what a chain email is?
[SPEAKER_00]: So essentially an email that like the origins of which are kind of unclear that gets passed around between people usually it has some sort of like thread involved or some sort of like their stakes involved in the passing on of the email to get other people to send it so like sometimes it will rely on like fear sometimes it'll be kind of like a manifestation of your wishes like the
[SPEAKER_00]: and they're usually quite long and like usually involves some sort of like visuals, feel like, I don't know, the use of emojis today, but like, back then the use of kind of like different signs and symbols to create visuals.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like for the Mickey Mouse emails, for example, like they make a big Mickey Mouse out of different like, yeah, like, ostrichs is and like brackets and stuff.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and they be long and then usually they're shared among young people, but like in one episode of Sex in the City I think Charlotte tells Samantha to stop sending her chain mail and Samantha's like, but it's funny I think it's chain mail or it's like a it's like a horny greeting card maybe.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know, but I remember that
[SPEAKER_02]: I think we associate chain emails with young people because maybe we were young when we are sending them.
[SPEAKER_02]: But like if you think about it, mostly like email was used by adults.
[SPEAKER_00]: The internet was new to everyone at that time too.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would say we have to think of adults as people who were also participating in this because they absolutely were.
[SPEAKER_02]: Michael sends it on the office.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, precisely, a little old.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like you were kind of saying there are many subcategories of chain emails and I thought it would be kind of fun to break some of these down using real life examples from my old inbox.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I've just sent you a bunch more.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh good.
[SPEAKER_02]: The first category is altruistic emails, so emails that are spreading awareness of a cause or which claim that, like, if you share the money, will be donated to said cause.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you want to read this slide, I love that there's no, like, BCC on here, so you just get every single person's name from the original, like mailing list.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's so long the actual text of the email, like it's so drawn out.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, and please read this.
[SPEAKER_00]: It is really sad and if you don't read this, that means you are extremely mean and selfish.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm 11 years old.
[SPEAKER_00]: My mommy worked on the 20th floor.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh my God.
[SPEAKER_00]: Sorry, I should have warned you before you started reading that for you in the world trade tower.
[SPEAKER_00]: On September 11th, I have to change my tone of voice here, okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: On September 11th, 2001, my daddy drove my mom to work.
[SPEAKER_00]: She was running late, so she left her purse in the car.
[SPEAKER_00]: My daddy saw it, so he parked the car and went to give her the purse.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm scrolling between like these lines are broken up by like 50 lines each like they're weird.
[SPEAKER_02]: Without any like reason because this is supposed to be the same sentence.
[SPEAKER_00]: They just want you to keep reading.
[SPEAKER_00]: That day after school my daddy didn't come to pick me up.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instead a policeman came and took me to foster care.
[SPEAKER_00]: Finally I found out why my daddy never came.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really loved him.
[SPEAKER_00]: They never found his body.
[SPEAKER_00]: My mom has been in the hospital since then.
[SPEAKER_00]: She is losing lots of blood.
[SPEAKER_00]: She needs to go through surgery.
[SPEAKER_00]: But since my daddy has gone and no one is working, we have no money.
[SPEAKER_00]: And her surgery costs lots of money.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the red cross said that again 50 lines between.
[SPEAKER_00]: So the red cross said that dot dot dot dot dot.
[SPEAKER_00]: For every time this email is forwarded, we will get 10 cents for my mom's surgery.
[SPEAKER_00]: So please have a heart and forward this to everyone you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I really miss my daddy.
[SPEAKER_00]: And now I don't want to lose my mom too.
[SPEAKER_00]: All right, if he daddy in brackets, James Thomas.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please forward this email to his many people you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: For each person you send it to, the Red Cross will donate 10 cents for mom's operation.
[SPEAKER_00]: This message was sent by Olive, aka Olivia.
[SPEAKER_02]: Obviously,
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, what it's saying here is that if you, for this, 10 cents will be donated by the Red Cross.
[SPEAKER_02]: Obviously, that is not how charity or funding or medical bills or anything works.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's, remember this, also this email was sent in either 2007 or 2008, so much closer to the events of September 11th.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that's the first category, like altruistic.
[SPEAKER_02]: The next is something that snopes called something from nothing emails, which are emails that promise that if you pass them along, you'll be rewarded financially.
[SPEAKER_00]: So if you want to say, oh sorry, um okay, the title of this email is if it's true, comma, I'm raffling off the certif a site, uh, can they this smell the word certificate?
[SPEAKER_00]: As I scroll down, people are jumping in being like, this really works.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, we're just scrolling.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hello, everyone.
[SPEAKER_00]: My name is Amber McClurkin.
[SPEAKER_00]: You've probably heard about the email from Gap offering free clothes to anyone who will forward the message on.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I am the founder of Abercrombian Fitch, and I am willing to make a better deal with you.
[SPEAKER_00]: These are all broken up like stanzas like a rupee like a rupee core pose and I am willing to make a better deal with you You will receive a 25 dollar gift certificate for every five people you forward this two This is a sales promotion in order to get our name our name again out to young people around the world We believe this project can be a success, but only with your help Thank you for your support since nearly Amber McClurkin founder of Abercrumbian Fitch the founder
[SPEAKER_00]: weren't they founded and like, whenever the fuck?
[SPEAKER_00]: And then at the bottom it's like, from a girl named Amy, Amy says, this works.
[SPEAKER_00]: I got a $200 gift card.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's why I bought so much Abercrombie this week.
[SPEAKER_00]: I would have fallen for that shit so fast.
[SPEAKER_02]: I 1,000% forward this on and you guys it did work.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I had such a nice wardrobe in 2008.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thanks to Amber McClirkin.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let's see pop resellers or
[SPEAKER_02]: Yo, the girls.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yo, I was invented.
[SPEAKER_02]: The girly is are selling like quote unquote vintage apricrombian holoster meaning of this era like 2008 to 2010 Yeah, they're selling that shit for like a 90 pounds.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, are we shocked?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I'm not girl do that's been on there for years at this point, but I don't get it It's just small clothes.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's there's so much of it out there.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's no scarcity 20 years cycle girl It's not even that though, huh, but like sure sell it for 25 pounds.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's an up price 90
[SPEAKER_00]: 25 pounds.
[SPEAKER_00]: They weren't cheap back in the day.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were upselling as fuck because of the clothes.
[SPEAKER_00]: They weren't cheap.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was like the expensive clothes.
[SPEAKER_02]: But people, like that is clothes that was probably worn to death by a 12-year-old, like 15-year-old.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyway, you know what's going on.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm still a little stinging gagged by this one.
[SPEAKER_02]: Goop to gagged.
[SPEAKER_02]: The third category is humor.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ooh!
[SPEAKER_02]: This one's really long, so you don't have to read all of it because it's quite long.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll try my best.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's just a few examples.
[SPEAKER_00]: Boy, boy, am I excited?
[SPEAKER_00]: So this one's called Yomama.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yomama is so stupid that she... Oh, okay, basically the text isn't all different colors.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's very large text.
[SPEAKER_00]: Again, huge gaps between the text.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo mama's so stupid that she called me to get my phone number.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo mama's so stupid that she spent 20 minutes looking at the orange juice box because it said concentrate.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo mama's so stupid she put lipstick on her forehead because she wanted to make up her mind.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo mama's so stupid she tried to put M&M's in alphabetical order.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo Mom is so stupid, she sent me a fax with a stamp on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo Mom is so stupid, she tried to drown a fish.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo Mom is so stupid, she thought a cordy back was a refund.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, like, sports are stupid, so she's smart.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo Mom is so stupid, she got locked in a grocery store and starved to death.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo Mom is so stupid, she tripped over a cordless phone.
[SPEAKER_00]: I like that one.
[SPEAKER_00]: Pretty good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo Mom is so stupid, she took a ruler to bed to see how long she slept.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo Mama's so stupid, she asked for a price check at the dollar store.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo Mama's so stupid, she studied for a blood test.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo Mama's so stupid, she thought Miamix was a CD for cats, that's bad.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo Mama's so stupid, when she heard that 90% of all crimes occur around the home, she moved.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo Mama's so stupid, when she missed the 44 bus, she took the 22 bus twice instead.
[SPEAKER_00]: That one's pretty good.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo Mom is so, it's fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo Mom is so stupid when she took you to the airport and saw a sign that said airport left, she turned around and went home.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's kind of clever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I don't, I think she's kind of clever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Mom.
[SPEAKER_00]: She's just like a free thinker.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm almost done.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo Mom is so stupid.
[SPEAKER_00]: She threw a bird off a cliff to kill it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yo Mom is so stupid.
[SPEAKER_00]: She turned off the big fan and a helicopter when she got cold.
[SPEAKER_00]: Now send this to at least five people or you'll get bad luck for seven years.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it just has like a list of like, the similar to the crush thing, you send to five people and maybe your crush will like, look at you said.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, beautiful.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's something about hearing your mama jokes right out in that raspy voice that brings me back to a, creepy buzzer in the movie.
[SPEAKER_00]: A creepy voice.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah.
[SPEAKER_00]: Your mama.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hey Hannah, you wanna hold hands behind the slide.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh God, and honestly going through my old emails for research for this and seeing my email changes with my crushes out of like no wonder I love emotionally unavailable man.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because damn I was set up from the jump.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was so crazy, so the next example is I've not sent you an example email because it's kind of boring but it's just friend surveys slash lists and it's where you get your friends to put their names down for every person like you sent it to and it was basically just like how long a list can we create or it'd be like write down your friends name that you call when you're sad.
[SPEAKER_02]: right down your friend's name.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's the funniest, like that kind of thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then the next category is uplifting, chain emails.
[SPEAKER_02]: So you can read the one I've sent you.
[SPEAKER_00]: I can't believe you found one for each of these examples and impressed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, I love you.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's what it's called.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's also like a disclaimer from someone named Alyssa, that says, sorry, it's chain.
[SPEAKER_02]: That might be from my friend Alyssa, who sent me a lot of these chain emails.
[SPEAKER_02]: I love that it's like a story, but she sent me it anyways.
[SPEAKER_00]: What would you do if for every moment you were truly happy, there would be 10 moments of sadness, and it's like a little sad, goblin face underneath?
[SPEAKER_00]: What would you do if your best friend died tomorrow
[SPEAKER_00]: So, I just wanted to say, if I never talked to you again in my life, you were special to me and you have made a difference in my life.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's some cherubs underneath that.
[SPEAKER_00]: I look up to you, respect you, and truly cherish you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Butterfly emoji.
[SPEAKER_00]: Send this to all your friends, no matter how often you talk, or how close you are, and send it to the person who sent it to you.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ice cream emoji.
[SPEAKER_00]: Let old friends know you haven't forgotten them and tell new friends you never will What looks to be an image from trailer park boys?
[SPEAKER_00]: Remember everyone needs a friend someday you might feel like you have no friends at all Just remember this email and take comfort in knowing somebody out there cares about you and always well It's doggy's hugging in times of trouble.
[SPEAKER_00]: It just keeps going bros so many plotters.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's amazing how much they can come up with
[SPEAKER_02]: They just want to excuse to put more like gifts in there.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're like, hey, I found this cute little animation.
[SPEAKER_00]: In times of trouble, in times of need, if you are feeling sad, you can count on me.
[SPEAKER_00]: I will give you a wink and then it's like a sexy girl emoji.
[SPEAKER_00]: Until you smile, girl, feel emoji, give you a hug, hugging pairs of emoji, and stand by your side.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll be there for you till the end.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'll always and forever.
[SPEAKER_00]: Be your friend.
[SPEAKER_00]: friend emoji.
[SPEAKER_00]: Instantly when you receive this, you must send it to at least 10 friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hugs emoji.
[SPEAKER_02]: Very sweet.
[SPEAKER_02]: And you know what my year when I read that, I thought of you.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I wanted to forward it to you just for fun.
[SPEAKER_00]: You made this whole episode up just so you can send me that email.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and the next one is emails warning people about scams or viruses, which them themselves were scams, because they were usually hoaxes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and I got a lot of these.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please read, okay, this is the title.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please read, it isn't chain mail, it is very important, trust me, all in caps.
[SPEAKER_00]: It starts like this, all the letters are separated.
[SPEAKER_00]: Because we have to make this annoying for my eatery.
[SPEAKER_00]: Important warning, exclamation points.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please read, pass this on to your email buddies, heed the warning.
[SPEAKER_00]: It sounds awful!
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyone using internet mail, such as Yahoo, Hot Mail, AOL, and so on.
[SPEAKER_00]: This information arrives this morning.
[SPEAKER_00]: Direct from both Microsoft and Norton, please send it to everybody you know who was access to the internet.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's so ESL, like the way this was written.
[SPEAKER_00]: You may receive an apparently harmless email with a powerpoint presentation.
[SPEAKER_00]: Life is beautiful.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you receive it, do not open the file under any circumstances and delete it immediately.
[SPEAKER_00]: If you open this file, a message will appear on your screen saying it is too late now, your life is no longer beautiful.
[SPEAKER_00]: Subsequently, you will lose everything in your PC, and the person who sent it to you will gain access to your name, email, and password.
[SPEAKER_00]: This is a new virus which started to circulate on Saturday afternoon.
[SPEAKER_00]: AOL has already confirmed the severity and the anti-virus software is not capable of destroying it.
[SPEAKER_00]: The virus has been created by a hacker who calls himself life owner.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's a sick hacker, Dave.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, that's actually really cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: Please send a copy of this email to all your friends and ask them to pass it on immediately.
[SPEAKER_00]: This has been confirmed by Snopes.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then it's signed off Snopes.com.
[SPEAKER_00]: Life is beautiful, virus.
[SPEAKER_02]: Which I then checked Snopes to see if this was a hoax or not and Snopes was like, it's a hoax.
[SPEAKER_02]: As I'm sure you could imagine.
[SPEAKER_00]: I love that a virus signed itself virus.
[SPEAKER_00]: They were like, best regards, virus.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a bizu, bizu, and then the last category are emails that either promised good luck or threatened bad luck, just like the one you read up at the top of this episode.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thank you so much for those beautiful readings, my year.
[SPEAKER_02]: I hope I've not strained your vocal cords too much.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm not talking again the rest of the episode.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was shit.
[SPEAKER_02]: That's gonna be boring as episode.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, for as long as we've had e-mail, people have sent chain e-mails, but their history actually goes back further than the internet.
[SPEAKER_02]: The folklorist, Daniel W. Van Arsdale, who seems to be the go-to expert on the subject of chain mail.
[SPEAKER_02]: He has an extensive archive of chain letters that day back to 1795.
[SPEAKER_02]: Those early iterations were often religious, so the oldest known handwritten chain letter is referred to as quote letter from heaven and in it it threatens the recipient if they don't hand copy it and send it on and it tells like a story about Jesus basically.
[SPEAKER_02]: But in the centuries that followed will see the evolution of a lot of the subcategories that we discussed above.
[SPEAKER_02]: like letters praying on people superstitions about luck or a genre of letters called Sendedimes which were essentially early pyramids games.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was like if you send a dime to these people then you'll get like five dimes back and the more people send it to you know.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as the practice grew and technological advancements made them
[SPEAKER_02]: easier to create and disseminate the chain mail creators got more creative finding new ways to like entice people to pass them along like the ones we've seen above, kind of appealing to all these different senses.
[SPEAKER_02]: So back in the day, when you would receive chain emails, did you ever pass them along?
[SPEAKER_00]: Definitely.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I don't know what I was up to back then.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was up to probably
[SPEAKER_00]: I like it, I don't remember the act of doing it, but I know if I went back to my hot mail, I would be confronted with some pretty heinous chain, like if I went to my send box from 2008, I can, you can bet your ass, it was probably all chain mail.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, like I'm sure at least like 50% of it as mine was.
[SPEAKER_02]: When I wasn't like her bossing my crushes or fighting with my friends in like all caps abbreviations.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it was sending me all her like friend fighting belts and they were so upset.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was like, I've ugly and poor and not even good at sports and all of my crushes like my friends.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm so crazy.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then my friend was like, you're not that ugly or boring.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're not that ugly.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, life is beautiful.
[SPEAKER_02]: So, you know, I definitely tons of long chain emails.
[SPEAKER_02]: And what's funny is that like amongst the chain emails in my old inbox, were a ton of emails from friends asking me to stop sending them chain emails.
[SPEAKER_02]: But then the same people would send chain emails to me so it was this weird thing where we all hated getting them but we all passed them along
[SPEAKER_02]: The question is why, like I think like if we think about chain emails, which I think I feel fairly confident in stating this even though it's a mass generalization, but like those are one of the few universally hated things.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like one of those unifiers, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like we're such a divided species, whatever, but we all hate getting chain emails, and yet they continued on.
[SPEAKER_02]: So why?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like why do you think people forward to chain emails?
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's just like the effort of doing it as so low compared to the stakes that are threatened in the email that it feels like room.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like what you have been saying earlier, just kind of a line a lot like, I guess I'll just try and see what happens, you know.
[SPEAKER_00]: That are not to, you know, get hexed by making those for 15 years.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you know, I may as well just send this just in case I know it's not real.
[SPEAKER_00]: That's like my best guess, yeah, like the why not aspect and then like people actually believe in that like the fear base aspect or like maybe people with optimism who are like taking that crush it seriously, you know, it's like kind of you want to do it.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, I think like yeah each of these sub categories kind of is defined by a different incentive to get you to forward them along.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they are, yeah, appealing to these basic human instincts.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's the fear of asthma, it's like, yeah, you don't want bad luck.
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't want to get like a creepy phone call, which they often threaten shit like that, or like, get hit by a bus that I say, superstition as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: But then there's also like goodwill.
[SPEAKER_02]: You're like, well, if somebody sent me this nice email, telling me how much they love me, would it be bad if I didn't pass it on to more people and let them know that I love them?
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like a chain of goodwill.
[SPEAKER_02]: You don't want to break that.
[SPEAKER_02]: Or then there's the great aspect, you know, oh, maybe if I forward this along, I'm somehow gonna like benefit from it, like monetarily.
[SPEAKER_00]: But it's so funny because now like the, so basically we have this friend, I'll shout her out by name, Ms. Ali Berry.
[SPEAKER_00]: Legend, an absolute legend.
[SPEAKER_00]: She every single whatever holiday of the year will send everyone, she knows like a really sexually explicit chain text.
[SPEAKER_00]: I wish I could find one.
[SPEAKER_00]: full of emojis.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure you could if you looked up like slots giving or something.
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm sure you'd find it but it's basically just like a bunch of euphemisms surrounding whatever holiday it is.
[SPEAKER_00]: Cocktail.
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you want to know what's so funny?
[SPEAKER_02]: Dick Miss?
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes.
[SPEAKER_02]: So Ali will send these into our group chat that we're in.
[SPEAKER_02]: but then in a separate group chat that I'm in with my high school friends, someone will always end up sending the same wine.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, it's amazing.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's a chain mail thing going on.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like on that day there's a network of girly sending these around and like passing it around to the city of Toronto and it will show up.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like whatever group chat you're in, this is a very good chance.
[SPEAKER_02]: I haven't gone to this year, I'm kind of sad, Ali.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're recording this two days before Halloween.
[SPEAKER_02]: So there's still time for a cocktober.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's always time for cocktober.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I swear, but yeah, I've sent them all now because I think it's funny.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, I mean, obviously now it's like, there's an nostalgic element to it too.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a tongue and cheek thing.
[SPEAKER_02]: And their via I message not email.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, and you're like, hey guys, remember the stuff that we used to do.
[SPEAKER_02]: but it's also like it's a novelty because we do it like seasonally we do it every once in a while whereas these chain emails like that was like days of lifestyle that was a commitment and like you had to like know the go to people you were going to send that to so it's like a my day one yeah exactly so yeah as much as we all hated receiving chain emails we were also the
[SPEAKER_02]: which I think is kind of interesting to think about.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like their continuation was completely dependent on public participation.
[SPEAKER_02]: And as Fan R is still told Vice in an interview, he said chain letters are designed to replicate.
[SPEAKER_02]: And that's just kind of an interesting thing to me, like this idea of repetition and passing on from person to person and how important they are.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because it's what makes the chain email more than a mirror annoyance.
[SPEAKER_02]: but actually a new form of folklore, so I'm going to give a sort of basic definition of folklore.
[SPEAKER_02]: Researching this episode, I realized that there's actually a lot of debate within the study of folklore as to what exactly qualifies as folklore, but generally speaking, the term refers to stories and traditions which are passed on among a particular group or culture.
[SPEAKER_02]: So that could include things like songs, nursery rhymes, recipes, stories, bits of wisdom, idioms, cures that are like kind of overly shared or chain letters.
[SPEAKER_02]: And folklore is often shared orally, but this isn't a strict guideline, as in the case of chainletters.
[SPEAKER_02]: But there's tends to be an emphasis on the performance aspect of it, because it's often meant to be received by an audience.
[SPEAKER_02]: Chain letters while not performed, they still count as a form of folklore because they're traditionally handwritten and containing things like urban legends, hoaxes, luck charms, poems, and their origins are often untraceable, which is also kind of an important aspect of folklore, and they're passed along by people within a shared community or network typically.
[SPEAKER_02]: Could you think of any other examples of folklore that like you sort of grown up around?
[SPEAKER_02]: It doesn't even have to necessarily be like traditional or anything, but like oh just things from life that how does folklore?
[SPEAKER_00]: Okay, so
[SPEAKER_00]: my grandma was quite religious, just Hindu.
[SPEAKER_00]: So I grew up thinking these things were religious and then like had a debunked that actually things she would pass on to us weren't religious.
[SPEAKER_00]: It was just that like my mom and her siblings grew up in like a really small rural village.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like
[SPEAKER_00]: There were things that just got passed around between people because it was just a more superstitious community because it was kind of remote and like whatever whatever.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like my grandma would pass these things onto us and then we'd go to my mom and mom and mom and be like, why would she tell you that?
[SPEAKER_00]: actually be like if my cousin was sitting down on the ground and his legs were stretched out like we weren't allowed to walk over his legs because it would stunt his growth so if we did it we had to walk back the other way over his legs there was a whole thing about like you can't wear like a long braid behind your head because someone will come and snatch you like pull you by the braid and snatch you
[SPEAKER_01]: So that's pretty pragmatic.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's pretty pragmatic.
[SPEAKER_00]: Oh, there was quite a lot of them.
[SPEAKER_00]: My cousin still kind of hold onto these.
[SPEAKER_00]: I actually don't know if this is religious or not, but basically I was born like a breached birth where I came out foot first.
[SPEAKER_00]: And my grandma, I don't know if it's in the Hindu religion or just like incand, like just in the culture where she was from, but like she thought I had like a magic foot.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like I would like rub my foot on her back whenever she was having back pain.
[SPEAKER_00]: And she said it cured her.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh my god, why didn't you tell me about this when we were living together all these years?
[SPEAKER_00]: I know I could have helped you with my magic, but yeah, yeah, she really believed it.
[SPEAKER_00]: She'd be like, oh thank you, so yeah, that was like I grew up in a pretty intensely superstitious environment with my grandma.
[SPEAKER_00]: So that was kind of what I had and then in terms of like school folklore, I saw that book.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't, I can't think of anything.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, stuff like ring around the rosy, like that sort of bloody Mary, bloody Mary, bloody Mary had a gorilla grip over me like I she fucking so basically my entire childhood I convinced myself that if my feet were touching the ground when the toilet stopped flushing I would get killed by bloody Mary So I'm not kidding up until the age of probably 13.
[SPEAKER_00]: I was hoisting myself up onto whatever sink there was and like holding myself up there until the toilet stopped flushing
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, so that's I don't know and I'd probably got was told that by like some naughty friend of mine Well, yeah, I think it's like a lot of folklore when I think about it is stuff that kids sort of just like Teach each other and no one knows where they first heard it But they pass it on and there's like no wave like pin pointing the origins and it can be creepy stuff And it could also be stuff like Ms. Mary had a steamboat Her steamboat had a building
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, I think that's the scene, but one, two, and two, hello, operator.
[SPEAKER_02]: Operator, please connect me never.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you just connect me.
[SPEAKER_01]: Oh, thank you.
[SPEAKER_01]: There was this class.
[SPEAKER_01]: And when Mr. Scott got on it, she heard she was on the screen.
[SPEAKER_01]: Ask me questions.
[SPEAKER_02]: Tell me that we know where I'm at.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's a lag so I think we're both doing this really weird.
[SPEAKER_02]: Oh, like, tell them where I'm at.
[SPEAKER_02]: Their thighs are in the city.
[SPEAKER_01]: The visa is quite mismanaged.
[SPEAKER_01]: And their boyfriend are kissing in the D-A-R-K.
[SPEAKER_01]: Dark is like a movie.
[SPEAKER_01]: A movie show.
[SPEAKER_00]: The show is like a movie show.
[SPEAKER_00]: The movie show is like a movie show.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know, I know, I know, I know, I know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know, I know,
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was like really shared to you and you heard it enough times that it's just been engraved in your brain.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I remember it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I have memorized and performed monologues later in my life that I don't remember.
[SPEAKER_00]: I did one of my Macbath mental walks recently just in my room.
[SPEAKER_02]: Our friend Rawlson was visiting me in London and we went to see the Mary Wives of Windsor at the Globe and then afterwards we were talking about our Shakespeare monologues and I pulled up my Juliet monologue that I did in grade 12 and I performed it for her on the street London and the way the performance just came out of me like I remembered how I performed it even though I didn't remember the words but anyways that's not relevant.
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, it's like that and then I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think about kind of similar to you like weird strawberries shortcake blueberry pie Tell me who's your short.
[SPEAKER_00]: Strawberry shortcake blueberry pie.
[SPEAKER_00]: Tell me who's your sweetie pie.
[SPEAKER_02]: Mm-hmm.
[SPEAKER_00]: Um, it's a good rope jump.
[SPEAKER_00]: Thanks long.
[SPEAKER_00]: Anyways, it's like a double that song
[SPEAKER_02]: All of that kind of stuff, I was thinking about like weird medical advice, like my mom convinced me growing up that all of my ailments could be cured by either peroxide or pseudocreme, which is diaper cream.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I don't know if that's folklore, but that sounds like something that someone told her and someone told them, and it's just been sort of passed along, and it feels very old country to me.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like the wind exit in my big factory.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yes, yes.
[SPEAKER_00]: Exactly.
[SPEAKER_00]: There was something they've passed around recently on Instagram.
[SPEAKER_00]: That was like different.
[SPEAKER_00]: So in Canada, we have a song called Stella Lola.
[SPEAKER_00]: And apparently it's just Canadian.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like Americans don't do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: I learned from this in this graphics.
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's a different iteration of Stella Lola in every province.
[SPEAKER_00]: So like our version is different from like like Quebec.
[SPEAKER_02]: Stella Ilewula That was sorry.
[SPEAKER_02]: That was my terrible friend Jackson.
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you kill myself?
[SPEAKER_02]: Stella Ilewula Quick quick quick So yeah, they don't have some of that all that outside of Canada.
[SPEAKER_00]: Apparently not which I was like damn But like I know that whole damn thing I could do the game I did it with my nieces recently
[SPEAKER_02]: So, these kinds of things might initially seem an antithetical to the internet, because, you know, it's pretty easy to find the origin of most things that get disseminated online, and obviously nothing is being passed around by word of mouth and the literal sense on the internet.
[SPEAKER_02]: And the internet also seems like something that would be damaging to the proliferation of folk culture in a lot of ways.
[SPEAKER_02]: However, I thought it was very interesting to find that within the discipline of folklore studies there are some very strong cases being made for the opposite that in some ways the internet has actually helped revive certain aspects of folk culture that have been lost over time as societies have changed.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, yeah, I feel like globalization kind of like collapsing regional cultures would kind of affect, you know, let's say like the Stella Ella Effective like each province having a different version of Stella Ella Ella.
[SPEAKER_00]: But you know, because like TikTok has made a site, you go to like a poor zill and someone's referencing the same thing that you've seen.
[SPEAKER_00]: But then in a sense that's like a whole other version of like global folklore, you know, some teen in like, I don't know, Sardinia doing a TikTok dance, for example.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then someone also doing it in like Nigeria.
[SPEAKER_00]: like I don't know.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah and I think you all like in a lot of ways the internet has like sped up the process of IRL folklore sort of dying off.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's open the doors like you're saying to new kinds of folk lore but also like for new folk groups to emerge.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we obviously covered this extensively in our season on online subcultures but the internet has been right
[SPEAKER_02]: And some of these communities have famously even helped build it, like deadheads or dungeons and dragons fans.
[SPEAKER_02]: And, you know, the internet has long offered up spaces for these groups to not only congregate, but to grow and flourish in ways that they wouldn't in real life, making them even more kind of solid as groups or communities.
[SPEAKER_02]: And while they may differ from groups that are like,
[SPEAKER_02]: linked by race or nationality or location.
[SPEAKER_02]: They're still producing their own shared cultures.
[SPEAKER_02]: Wanted to like distinct slang, phrases, lore, and which might disseminate that then into like the general culture.
[SPEAKER_02]: So if you think of something like Black Twitter, how much that's influenced, like the vernacular online, or gamers, and they're slang.
[SPEAKER_02]: I just listen to a really interesting podcast about the origin of the cock.
[SPEAKER_02]: as an archetype, then also like how that became slaying and how that went from being a niche gamer thing into like something that all of us use basically.
[SPEAKER_02]: And these groups are often built on people sharing media and information with one another without charge for the sake of sharing.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so this emphasis on sharing actually brings us back to another key aspect of folklore,
[SPEAKER_02]: So performance, in this case, doesn't necessarily mean like getting up on stage in front of a crowd.
[SPEAKER_02]: The folklorist Andrew Peck calls the transmission of folklore, a kind of quote, immersion performance, which, quote, comes into being through the interaction of performer and audience.
[SPEAKER_02]: He continues that performances influence and imagine their audiences and intern audiences participate in the creation of the performances.
[SPEAKER_02]: This mutually constitutive interaction between performance and audience creates an ongoing feedback loop, affecting not only what is currently being performed, but also the nature of success of performances.
[SPEAKER_02]: So for example, there is an Irish folk song slash.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think it's a song and poem, but it's called the Highway Man, and my granddad used to perform it at like every gathering or party, and he'd recite it from memory, rather than like off a page,
[SPEAKER_02]: In turn, he'd be able to sort of experience the reception of his performance with the crowd at that gathering, which might vary depending on who was there.
[SPEAKER_02]: But then also it was sort of the thing where people, especially like my mom and her siblings, who would hear it in all of these different settings over time, like have it now in green to them.
[SPEAKER_02]: The way I guess we would have something like sell it alone, green to us.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's giving a Christopher plummeting, Adelvice, and Lisa joining us, and then they sing it together.
[SPEAKER_02]: I used to have nightmares for some reason where that song was playing.
[SPEAKER_00]: What?
[SPEAKER_00]: It's such a beautiful song.
[SPEAKER_02]: I won't get into it because explaining your own dreams are really boring.
[SPEAKER_02]: But I used to have these weird dreams, so there was a weird little creature that used to sing Adelvice at me.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's sort of sourd, a beautiful tune.
[SPEAKER_02]: But yeah, totally.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think over the years I can imagine like my granddad's performance changing or like him improving it or tweaking it just by doing it so many times and doing it for different types of people and I think that's really interesting thing to think about.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because in a pre-like mass industrialization world, this would be a much more typical occurrence, you know, having people share these things orally and learn them through repetition.
[SPEAKER_02]: But it's changed, you know, since stories could be printed and songs could be recorded for mass consumption, and we sort of lost this emphasis on performance.
[SPEAKER_02]: But digital folklorists argue that the internet has actually given us a new way to kind of simulate that experience.
[SPEAKER_02]: So in the case of the chain email, this boils down to how they're written.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like looking back at the emails we've read up top, can you identify any distinguishing qualities in their, their syntax?
[SPEAKER_00]: uh, just extremely like broken up sporadic writing and also extremely like choppy grammar like lots of typos often, the sentences kind of like cut off midway through.
[SPEAKER_00]: We reduce a punctuation often there'll be very like colorful uh, and their presentation, which the ones that weren't colorful like they board me, they board me and won't lie.
[SPEAKER_00]: The ones that were colorful I was like, oh yeah, you know.
[SPEAKER_02]: There's something very emphatic about the way they're being, like, you read them.
[SPEAKER_00]: There's a terrible story telling there, especially because, like, yeah, often in the ones I would use to, I used to get, they would make up an image, like the words would turn into an image if you, like, scroll that, you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, like it would look like a big cat or something.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, exactly.
[SPEAKER_02]: And they're also, like, they're written very informally, like they're being spoken to you.
[SPEAKER_02]: I think there's something really interesting, like, even the 9111, for example,
[SPEAKER_02]: This is a chain email that was being written with the intention of it being passed from person to person to person, and yet it's as if the original writer is speaking directly to you, it kind of breaks that barrier, which I thought I'm really cool.
[SPEAKER_02]: They address the recipient directly, they're like, you, not to whom this may concern.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then there's a lot of emphasis on time.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, if you do this in the next 15 minutes, this will happen, or once you send this out, you'll get a phone call from your crush tonight, or you only have this much time to do this.
[SPEAKER_00]: Go!
[SPEAKER_00]: And lots of numbers too, like use of numbers.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like how many people you send it to has like a value attached to it.
[SPEAKER_02]: For sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: But in this case of time, I think what this does is it creates this illusion of a shared present.
[SPEAKER_02]: Because if you think about it, the person who wrote this might have written it like 12 months ago for all you know, but the way you're reading it, it's as if it was just conjured up that night.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like you don't really need to know how long this email has been circling around.
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, even the 9-11-1, it's like my mother is currently bleeding.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, and it's like 7-18.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yeah, yeah, like seven years out it doesn't really matter it kind of like gossip grow breaks down and time and space very good and a very good
[SPEAKER_02]: So the Folklore's majori-kibi refers to email as a, quote, form of second-dairy orality, which basically means that it closely and eerily resembles actual oral communication despite being conveyed over text.
[SPEAKER_02]: And she argues that like this approach to writing,
[SPEAKER_02]: One helps kind of make the case for chain emails as a form of folklore, even though they're obviously text-based, but also helps persuade us to send them on because they're kind of being addressed in this really interpersonal way.
[SPEAKER_02]: That I think compels us more than if you received an email that was written, you know, like if you got an email from your school that was like,
[SPEAKER_02]: just so you know like they'll be no classes today because we're shutting this down and they're not like hey you guys you can't go to class they're talking more generally your principles like hey quick quick forward forward forward please read no spam
[SPEAKER_02]: And so if you think of the chain email as a practice which evolved over time, essentially adopting different tactics, to ensure it's survival, then there are definitely signs of that feedback loop we were talking about earlier with successful tactics being taken on to entice people to open them and resound them.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I saw some examples, I saw some emails that would
[SPEAKER_02]: I'm moving to China!
[SPEAKER_02]: Exhibitionberg, exclamation mark.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then obviously you click on it because you think your friend is moving to China, and then they're like, psych, sorry.
[SPEAKER_02]: This is a chain email, but it's really important that you send it along.
[SPEAKER_02]: Some of them go on my ass for sure.
[SPEAKER_02]: And going through my inbox, like, for this, I believed it.
[SPEAKER_02]: I clicked on those, again, because I was like, why am I getting an email telling me that someone's always moving to China?
[SPEAKER_02]: I did someone to move to China?
[SPEAKER_02]: So, if we're thinking about digital folklore, chain emails are really just the tip of the iceberg, like so much of what makes up our lives online can be defined as digital folklore.
[SPEAKER_02]: Can you think of any examples?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, in their coming episode we're going to talk about memes, and I feel like memes definitely carry on that tradition of passing something along.
[SPEAKER_00]: Although the original is not really like preserved in that case often, it's like transformed into something else,
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, the best I can think of is memes, a slender man, for example, which we have our bonus episode on, which you guys should go listen to, it's really fun, Pollug.
[SPEAKER_01]: So internet challenges.
[SPEAKER_01]: I mean, even like you were talking about earlier with TikTok.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like I think a TikTok dance is a pretty good example, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: If you think about something that's being replicated and performed and passed along, then people are commenting on it so they're also in this feedback loop.
[SPEAKER_00]: Any sort of like TikTok comment, you know how there's like kind of the repeated comments?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, um, help this helps.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know like those kind of comments.
[SPEAKER_00]: I feel like those are almost folklore.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like people will like pick that up and use it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like people will just keep repeating the same comment over and over again on TikTok.
[SPEAKER_00]: as if they thought of that themselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, there's these little phrases from TikTok that I passed along in comments sections.
[SPEAKER_02]: I mean, those are almost like memes, right?
[SPEAKER_02]: You're like, kind of, their comments.
[SPEAKER_02]: Fan fiction as well.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, a lot of stuff that happened on Tumblr because also, like, you're putting this out to an audience, but also people are kind of then re-blogging and reusing what each other puts out.
[SPEAKER_02]: Copypasses.
[SPEAKER_02]: I read this very article in Art News by Ruby Justus Thilo.
[SPEAKER_02]: Thilo?
[SPEAKER_02]: I think Thilo.
[SPEAKER_00]: I should know this because I actually know him in real life.
[SPEAKER_00]: Hi Ruby.
[SPEAKER_00]: Shout out to Ruby.
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't know Hannah was going to reference him here.
[SPEAKER_02]: No, this is such a funny small world.
[SPEAKER_02]: He was the moderator at my book launch, I do your friend, I said to him, plug my USB, go read it, plug my book,
[SPEAKER_02]: So in the article, he makes the case for the content creator as a kind of digital folk artist.
[SPEAKER_02]: So in particular, he's referring to creators who make content for these communities and audiences who they have an ongoing rapport with.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he actually uses Swifties as an example of people who create content dedicated to analyzing her work and participating in activities like making friendship bracelets or outfits for concerts.
[SPEAKER_02]: And says, quote, two centuries ago, this array of creation would have been considered folk art, both tangible in the case of the bracelet and intangible in the case of the stories and analysis.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then he goes on to write, for many creators, the craft of content is a devotional act to the community in which they participate.
[SPEAKER_02]: They spend their own precious time making content, usually for no or very little compensation, creators to some extent exist outside the understood financial incentives of digital media, even as they are subject to its technological forces.
[SPEAKER_02]: The folk aspect of content creation comes from the authentic and personal feel that characterizes traditional folk objects.
[SPEAKER_02]: But he identifies a major threat to digital folk culture.
[SPEAKER_02]: Do you want to take a guess as to what
[SPEAKER_00]: Knowing Ruby, I'm assuming he's talking about AI.
[SPEAKER_02]: Yes, generative AI.
[SPEAKER_02]: Ah, right.
[SPEAKER_02]: He, like, can see effects of generative AI on digital folk culture to that of the Industrial Revolution on traditional folk arts.
[SPEAKER_02]: How these things present themselves as democratizing forces, things that are going to make it easier and cheaper and less time consuming to create and disseminate art.
[SPEAKER_02]: On the surface, this could be seen as a good thing, but can you think of any drawbacks specifically pertaining to folk culture or folk art?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well, I guess it'll fragment us.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, I feel like the most amazing thing about folk art is that it's like man-made, like it's human-made.
[SPEAKER_00]: Humans created it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And so there's always kind of a footprint there.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like there's like a source to trace it back to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Even though you can't actually trace it back, like the beauty of it is that you can't trace it back, then knowledge that it was originally created by some person is so cool.
[SPEAKER_00]: And I think that's kind of like part of the mystery of it and like the magic of it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm knowing that I feel like AI cuts the source.
[SPEAKER_00]: Kind of changes the nature of folklore and general, it doesn't really count as folklore anymore.
[SPEAKER_02]: A thousand percent, there's also like, if we're thinking about it in terms, and this is how he poses it in the article, and if we're thinking about it in relation to something like the Industrial Revolution, these things they reduce a need for artisan or create or made products, and the market then becomes flooded, and infinitely more competitive, jeopardizing the quality of the work,
[SPEAKER_02]: You know, there's a pressure to make more of it and make it faster and, you know, in order to compete, the content of the work has changed in order to appeal to wider audiences.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I actually noticed this in my research on Sundayman for that bonus episode.
[SPEAKER_02]: I found a post in the creepypasta subreddit where people were complaining about the prominence of AI, written, and narrated stories on YouTube and how these were getting a lot of views and like the pressure they were creating for smaller creators.
[SPEAKER_02]: to keep up, to be able to turn stuff out as frequently.
[SPEAKER_02]: People who would have been like, before this, like, spending so much of their time, like writing, recording, putting out stuff for people are now being completely pushed aside or like, made redundant by AI, or by people who,
[SPEAKER_02]: wouldn't have the time or patience or creativity to do these things on their own but know how to work a generative AI software and therefore now can compete with people who've taken the time and patience to do it themselves.
[SPEAKER_00]: It's like, I'm not nizing the skill set.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, you're like, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, I feel like these are like such funny, interesting hobbies that people are just doing for free.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, you know, people developing slender man, for example, like we talk about on something awful.
[SPEAKER_00]: And like, their photoshop skills, it's like, that's a specific skill out there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And instead, like, we're all just going to have one skill, which is to operate a lot, you know?
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, yeah, I mean, I think I've said this on the show before, but like, I took a long time to like,
[SPEAKER_02]: teach myself how to use Adobe.
[SPEAKER_02]: I know we're near a master of it, but I'm pretty proud of the progress that I've made over the years.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's something that I should be able to use to my advantage, you know, monetarily if I wanted to, but now it kind of feels like a lot of that time was wasted in a sense, because
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not really something that matters if you can utilize generative AI to create better products than the type of stuff that like I've still what it felt really proud to make.
[SPEAKER_02]: And then also thinking about, you know, buy Thillows metric.
[SPEAKER_02]: what you do on YouTube and what we do on this show is kind of a form of folk art.
[SPEAKER_02]: We do everything ourselves.
[SPEAKER_02]: We rely on the engagement of a niche audience to support our work and we rely on their feedback.
[SPEAKER_02]: It feels what we do.
[SPEAKER_02]: We're performing to people and I don't know like I feel like I know the answer to this but like have you felt the pressure
[SPEAKER_02]: of this kind of overcrowded market that's now being made at the hands of people being able to do things more easily with AI tools.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like do you feel this is going to change your content or it already has?
[SPEAKER_00]: Well as of yet because I feel like it's not intelligent enough yet.
[SPEAKER_00]: Ha ha ha, yass mama.
[SPEAKER_02]: Except when we go on Jay's daughter research shit, like, I take the time to read articles, but Jay's story is offering me a research AI tool to do that for me.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's like, stuff that I want to do, but like, the internet is assuming I don't want to.
[SPEAKER_00]: Listen, girl, chat TVT is wanting me to cut you and Sarah right out of the video making process and just fucking use it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't want to, though, because it's not fucking fun, and I don't get to keep you with my genius friends.
[SPEAKER_00]: will be lonely.
[SPEAKER_02]: And also, I'd like to say that even if Chad G.P.
[SPEAKER_02]: to maybe summarize information faster than I can, it's not necessarily going to have the same insights that we can make.
[SPEAKER_02]: It's not going to necessarily have a fresh insight because it's basing what it's doing whatever off of like what people have already said.
[SPEAKER_02]: I guess it's just like, I think like, I mean, people are trying to make AI podcasts.
[SPEAKER_02]: People, if they wanted to make a podcast, someone to our show, but spend less time doing it, they could use AI.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, I do think that these are things that like, will threaten what we do over time or more.
[SPEAKER_02]: I also just think that like, now there's so much content being made, and the low brings us up, like, also so much slopp that people are choosing to entertain themselves with, instead of like, thoughtfully made work.
[SPEAKER_02]: that it is going to like make it harder out there because people's attention is expensive and precious and it's hard to capture it.
[SPEAKER_02]: If they're basically going on these like high sugar diets metaphorically speaking of AI Slop and then we're like, hey, I made like a nice home cooked meal for you, you know what I mean?
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I mean, like, he would hope that people are kind of like yearning for that home coach meal, such as us sending those cocktober texts.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, yes, and the low actually made a good point.
[SPEAKER_02]: He kind of talked about how in the wake of the industrial revolution what happened was like,
[SPEAKER_02]: art is in made goods became more expensive and there was still a market for them, it was just a smaller market that obviously like up to the prices, but that like there are people who do kind of crave those experiences and like we're seeing people who crave things that are like
[SPEAKER_02]: more thoughtfully made now almost as like a conscious alternative to all the slot that's being served up.
[SPEAKER_02]: And with all of this in mind, there's this 2009 article I Trevor J. Blank, who's a digital folklorist who I read a lot in my research process.
[SPEAKER_02]: And he argued the validity of digital folklore on the basis that, quote, there is a human behind everything that takes place online.
[SPEAKER_02]: And this really struck me working on the episode because like you were saying, this is becoming increasingly less true.
[SPEAKER_02]: Like there was a time where we could talk about what we put online as like being an extension of human life because it literally was obviously now we're losing sight of that.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so with this in mind, I want to return to the chain email one more time.
[SPEAKER_02]: The chain email differs from a lot of the other examples of digital folk culture that we were just discussing in the sense that everyone hates them as we've established, but it would go against the very thesis of this show if we didn't try and provide an alternative and nuanced perspective.
[SPEAKER_02]: So I want to do that to close off the episode.
[SPEAKER_02]: So we talked earlier about some of the reasons people might forward chain emails and I wanted to provide one more.
[SPEAKER_02]: When I got my first email address, I was living abroad for the year in Silver Spring.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was 10 and before this, I had basically had the same friend group and community in Toronto for my entire childhood.
[SPEAKER_02]: During this time, I was exchanging emails with my friend's back home on a daily basis.
[SPEAKER_02]: It was a lifeline to keep in touch with the people I missed.
[SPEAKER_02]: But simultaneously, being able to email and G chat, do you remember that?
[SPEAKER_02]: Like, the incident messaging on Gmail?
[SPEAKER_00]: I didn't have Gmail until so, baby, I had hot mail because I was a dinosaur.
[SPEAKER_02]: I was on Gmail and I was in some messaging with my friends and being able to do all of that with my new friends in Maryland really helped me ingratiate myself with them socially, and then when I moved back to Toronto, then I see her it allowed us to keep in touch in a way we probably wouldn't have been able to for as long.
[SPEAKER_02]: And so when I would receive chain emails from either of these groups, my Toronto friends or my Maryland friends,
[SPEAKER_02]: It helped me feel like I still belonged to either social circle, despite our geographic distance.
[SPEAKER_02]: And when I would forward a chain from, you know, a Toronto friend, to a Maryland friend, you know, like, oh, all my Toronto friends are sending these chain emails around.
[SPEAKER_02]: Well, now I'm going to pass it over to the Maryland group.
[SPEAKER_02]: It also, like, let me bridge this gap between my two lives by having us all participate in something together.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I just think that beyond all the other tactics of persuasion that are incited by chain emails that we discussed above the strongest force working for them is that desire to participate and there is something really human about them in that sense.
[SPEAKER_02]: And I guess when we're thinking about like the increasingly less human internet and how that's going to look in the future, I don't know, it makes me now have a much
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, I think there's a sense of community there that feels exciting.
[SPEAKER_00]: You know, you can meet someone who you did walk her up with and probably reference like Mickey Mouse or like one of the Michael Jackson emails and they'd be like, oh, yeah, I got those two, you know, like it is, it does bridge people across distances and yeah, I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I find folklore so, so, so fascinating.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, it's just so exciting to start reciting like whatever Stella Lola or something to someone and then they pick up on it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And then you both sing it.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you sing it the whole time.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you're like, where do this start?
[SPEAKER_00]: How did this begin?
[SPEAKER_00]: Like, who originated this?
[SPEAKER_00]: And there's no idea there.
[SPEAKER_00]: And you won't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: And it's like this beautiful mystery of like human tradition and human torch passing I guess.
[SPEAKER_00]: Yeah, and chain mail feels like a funny extension of that regardless of how liquid or trashy it might be.
[SPEAKER_00]: I miss chain mail.
[SPEAKER_00]: I mean, part of it probably might be coming out of just this emptiness Delta era for like old technology where we're like fetishizing these like old objects, which has its own flaws obviously, but like,
[SPEAKER_00]: I don't know.
[SPEAKER_00]: I'm nostalgic about it.
[SPEAKER_00]: I miss it.
[SPEAKER_00]: Send me your stupid fucking Mickey Mouse emails again.
[SPEAKER_02]: So to close off this episode, I guess it won't be cocktail where by the time this is released.
[SPEAKER_02]: I would like to wish you guys a belated cocktober.
[SPEAKER_02]: Boo!
[SPEAKER_02]: Sorry, did I scare you?
[SPEAKER_02]: What's up girl?
[SPEAKER_02]: It's cocktober.
[SPEAKER_02]: And if you are getting this, it means you're a Halloween ho.
[SPEAKER_02]: Every year in cocktober, the jacco slut comes to life.
[SPEAKER_02]: Coming to Harvest, his hose for Thought Owing, send us to Ten Other Halloween Hose or else you at trick.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you get four back, you're a Thought Owing treat.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you get six back, you're a slutty witch bitch.
[SPEAKER_02]: But if you get ten back, you're the spookiest and let on the block.
[SPEAKER_02]: If you don't send us to Ten Other Thoughts, you will get no dick this cocktober.
[UNKNOWN]: Thank you very much for watching.