Behind the Scenes Minis: Platypus and Cyrano

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Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class, a production of I Heart Radio, Hello and Happy Friday. I'm Tracy B. Wilson and I'm Holly Fry. This week we talked about the platypus because when I was at my mom and dad's house but Thanksgiving, there was this Jeopardy rerun on. There was the final Jeopardy question that was about the platypus, and I emailed myself an email message from my parents couch that just said platypus in the subject line, so I would remember when I got back to work that I wanted to do a podcast about that. And then I was like, you know, I don't know if that's gonna be enough for a whole episode by itself, and I set myself a second email that just said also Cela canth in the subject line. Um. But it did turn out to be enough for a whole episode by itself. So we did not talk about Cela camp No, but maybe later, maybe share. At some point there will probably be some Celia discussion. One never knows. Um. I had promised to mention my first exposure to a platypus, which evidence is the tiny skeptic. I was even at the age of six, which is that it came up for the first time in first grade. And I said to my first grade teacher, Mrs Hill, you are trying to trick us, Like I thought this was one of those like gotcha moments of education where they were like, sure, going to send us down a path and go ha ha. None of you thought to ask is this real? Because sometimes stuff like that. It's like when they give you the worksheet that the last thing at the bottom of the worksheet says, turn this paper over and write your name on the back. The instruction was to read the whole thing first, right. I thought it was a big fat trick and I was, yeah, um do in the squinty eyes of suspe mission. And when I went home that night, I looked it up in the encyclopedia and then I saw it. But you know, I understand how people buy into conspiracy theories because part of me was like, again, six, um, maybe she somehow planted this evidence, like I was ready to I and I love a hole. I love that teacher. I had no reason to be so very um loaded with doubt about it, but I was. It took a little while. Yeah, I don't remember what finally convinced me. Yeah, I don't remember my reaction to seeing a picture of a platypus for the first time, But when I was a kid, I was really really into dinosaurs, and there are so many dinosaurs that have like weird head crests and duck bills and strange frills around their bodies that I might have just rolled with it, like I probably thought it was some kind of dinosaur that's valid. Um. Yeah, I love a platypus because they now are to me, a symbol of the absurdity of all things. Sure, yeah, just you know, let's stick some pieces together and see what happens. Cool when they've they've become kind of a national symbol for Australia. We didn't really talk about that in the in the episode. I have no idea what their temperament is, Like I was really just looking at their physiology, but like, I kind of want to cuddle one. I know they have claws on their feet. They probably if they didn't appreciate being cuddled, they'd let you know that, But uh, I don't know. I just kinda maybe it's because it's just I want to pick up all and they're very cute. They're very cute. I understand the urge. Um, yeah, yeah, in my head, I want them to be much bigger, like I want them to be, Um, you know, the size of a small to medium dog. I want like a really big platypus to walk. I remember being disappointed when I discovered they were fairly petite. Yeah, they're They're pretty small animals. So anyway, this was definitely a fun episode in the same way that the pilt Down Man episode had been, although that one was also infuriating because the you know, somebody had made up this hoax with the Piltdown Man, and it had wasted a whole bunch of scientific time. And this was more. It was a long process before the European scientific community agreed on what was up with the platypus. So while there was a lot of writing that was kind of weird and on the wrong track, it was moving toward an understanding rather than going down the wrong track for extended period of time. So it did not have the angering layer of a lot of the reading for the pilt Down Manhattan. Um, and I forgot that I had talked in that episode about how much I had enjoyed doing the research on it until I just re listened to it, uh, while making sure that we didn't make any gigantic mistakes in it before making it a Saturday classic. We talked about this week we did. I didn't pronounce it that way at although I didn't in the episode because it's Sira no um. It's like I said at the beginning of that, when I get real spitty if I say it that way. Yeah, uh, who, as you had said, you did not even realize for quite a while, it was a real personal and I really do think that I read something that he wrote in college, but my brain just didn't retain the information. What you don't memorize every single piece of information you come in contact with twenty years ago. Um and so like, because, like we talked about in the in the episode, there are so many fictionalized depictions of him. I really just in my head he had settled into a fictional character from probably novels that were then made into movies. That's sort of how my brain constructed who Serrano de Bergerec was. Uh, And most of them involved character having a very big nose and being in love with somebody named Roxanne. Um. And that's my brain. My brain just sort of boiled that down. Um, I mean, no one can blame you. I think probably most people feel that way. I mean, the thing is right, like the Serranos story, this idea of loving someone and of which I mean the play, not his relations idea of loving someone thinking they will reject you because of how you look, and you know, this secondary love interest, who is beautiful using your words to woo someone. It's so common in our world. Obviously there have been, you know, many many instances of it. But like to me, where I notice it's so common is that, like it is a plot line that shows up in sitcoms. It was a Bomb's Burgers episode, I mean, which Linda calls a syrano to Burger act, which is one of the most brilliant turns of phrase on the planet in my world. Um, right, Like, it's that idea of like being enamored of someone and being afraid they will reject you is so common to everybody. I think that's why, like that play has endured for so long. Um, and it is it's like our modern mythology, right, That's why you could easily go no, that's not a real person. That's a story that Yeah, Well, we've talked about other other real people who seem like fictional characters, and people even remember as like one of the first episodes that I ever wrote for the show, many many years ago, it was on Johnny Appleseed, real person, but a lot of people are like, that's a real person. The other thing that surprised me somehow, uh, in addition to having either never really remembered or forgotten that he was a real person, was that this was in the seventeenth century. Somehow that never that I was like, oh really, but I probably because the play was from the nineteenth century. Yeah, and it's very Victorian, and it's it's um themes and it's you know, the way it's written. Um. Yeah, it's very much the Victorian ideal of a man who is both full of bravado and very sensitive. So that's like one of the you know, key figures of of that sort of character. That is again why people kind of gravitate to him and identify with the Syrano of that story. I suspect the real Syrano may have been a little more difficult to identify with in real life. Um, he seemed very fascinating and kind of like a lot but but also you know, and pretty pretty Um there's a whole side party that we didn't get into because it's really not germane to the Syran no story, But there was like a whole side drama with that head of the college that he satirized, uh Granger, And like we mentioned that there had been scandals around him, but one of the scandals around him was so fascinating to me because it was that he had, apparently for quite some time how had an affair with a woman who like worked in the school in some sort of like menial role, like as a cleaning woman or something, and everyone knew it and it was not an issue. But then he married her, which also was not an issue. But where people got mad and it became a scandal was that he tried to introduce her to society as his wife in a way that would be like equal to him in social standing, and people lost their minds, which is evidence has so many problems. But I was just like fascinated by that, and that whole drama could be its own new version of Syrano de Bergerac that we romanticize and write a play about. Um, there are a million The other thing I wanted to mention that we did not I did not bring up here. You will sometimes see Syran now as also having the first name of the Q. Maybe maybe I didn't didn't bother to include it, because we would have buzzed right past it, because it's not one that's stuck m hm. In his constant mode of of reinvention. I did read a thing, and I it's not a thing you can really fact check. But I read one assertion that like his friends, his close friends would have called him by his name seven year, which he was born with, but that he would have always introduced himself, not with that name, but with Syrra no deficial crack, which is a just a fascinating little tidbit. If you time travel and meet him, you could call him that and he'll think you're a friend. Should we briefly mention that there's a new movie, just so folks know that we now there's a new movie. There might be more information about it coming we'll see on this very program. Uh yeah, keep your ears peeled so all I'll say there, Um, yes, Serra, no Serranos story. Do you have a favorite version of the Serranos story? In in fillmore television, other than Bob's Burgers, which I love maybe the most. I think the one that I probably have the most familiarity with is the movie Roxanne. Of course, I don't remember what year that came out, but that's a movie that I saw in theaters. Um let's look, I was gonna say, my brain wants to say ninety three, but I don't know that I trust that. Um So, we're talking about a period in my life. I would be twelve, so at an age to be having crushes on people and very self conscious about my appearance. Um so, uh, that's probably why there was also just a few years after that, in is the Charade d Pardieu. Yeah, would I remember being I was working in college in the summers in a costume shop, and I remember all of the women that I was working with getting the vapors discussing Scharande Pardiu in that role. And I have such a strong memory of that discussion and how delightful and funny it was that it will stick with me forever. But really, until you've seen Tina Belcher do it, you haven't seen story which is not true. All of that is a very good one. Um uh, yeah, that's the good thing, right, If you are into the story, there's plenty to to watch. Keep you busy, Yeah, catalog them all. We hope that you have enjoyed this week with us, and that as you head into your weekend that it is filled with some rest and relaxation, or at least very smooth sailing if you don't have downtime to yourself. In any case, we will be right back here tomorrow with a classic, and then we'll see you again on Monday with brand new stuff. Stuff you missed in History Class is a production of I heart Radio. For more podcasts from I heart Radio, visit the i heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.