Oddball History

This week on Oddball History, Jimmy and Scott talk all things Tarrare—the foul-smelling, ever-hungry 18th century French sideshow act & soldier who once ate a toddler probably. ALSO: Elementary school assemblies, grilled cheese sandwiches and making friends online.     Chapters: (00:00) Intro (00:56) Top Comments (05:08) Tarrare's Background (11:31) Tarrare The Traveling Showman (16:19) Tarrare Th...

This week on a heavily redacted Oddball History, Jimmy & Scott talk DB Cooper's whereabouts, "The Devil's Advocate" and a few of the CIA's wildest moments, including a Cold War era plan to turn cats into listening devices and that time the group tried to scare a Filipino rebel army into surrendering by faking a series of vampire attacks.   (00:00) Intro (01:44) Top Comments (04:00) Best Football M...

This week on Oddball History, Jimmy has a baby, Scott watches some TV and the both of them get to know the scrappy weirdo that is the real Rudy Ruettiger, the inspiration for the 1993 film "Rudy." ALSO: HBO's Chimp Crazy, Wallace Shawn and OJ Simpson's best friend.   Chapters: (00:00) Intro (02:20) Top Comments (04:37) Rudy! Rudy! Rudy! (33:53) Goofin' and Gabbin'

This week on Oddball History, Jimmy and Scott discuss the life and times of famed imposter Fred (Ferdinand) Demara. Who famously saved 13 lives during the Korean War while posing as a doctor on a Canadian warship. ALSO: Past lives, Taco Bell, and that French Olympic pole vaulter everyone keeps talking about.     Chapters: (00:00) Intro (01:30) Top Comments (05:24) "The Great Imposter" Fred Demara...

This week on Oddball History, Jimmy and Scott explore the weirdly dark history of the most important meal of the day, from the 1920s ad campaign that made bacon a breakfast food to the cultish origins of the cereal industry. Also: Calvin Coolidge, Below Deck, and the Planet of the Apes. Chapters: (00:00) Intro (02:46) Darkside of Breakfast (25:43) Goofin' and Gabbin'

This week on Oddball History, Jimmy and Scott discuss Hawk Tua Lady Fever, Robert Durst and the wildest things to ever happen at the Olympics—from the most ill-conceived bike race of all time to the first and only time live birds were used as shooting targets and all the grisly weirdness in between. Chapters: (00:00) Intro (03:53) Olympic Shenanigans (35:44) Hawk Tua & Goofin'

This week on Oddball History, Jimmy and Scott discuss robots, invisible men and the history of animals being put on trial—from   the seafaring monkey-spy to the medieval rats who beat the barley-eating allegations to the killer pigs who terrorized the babies of France throughout the late Middle Ages. Chapters: (00:00) Intro (00:43) Animals on Trial (35:37) Goofin' & Gabbin' - Vapes and Movies

This week on Oddball History, Jimmy and Scott pontificate on the scarf's place in men's fashion, Mary Poppins and the Lake Worth Monster, a "fishy man-goat" or possible "drunken teenager in a gorilla suit" who terrorized the Lake Worth area just outside Fort Worth, Texas in the summer of 1969.   Chapters (00:00) Intro/Recap (06:38) The Lake Worth Monster (31:02) New Bit Goofin' (41:50) Comedy Talk

This week on Oddball History, Jimmy and Scott discuss Great Moments in Pettiness, including the King of Persia physically attacking an ocean, the King of Korea falling off his horse and then desperately trying to cover it up, and the Pope putting the corpse of the former pope on trial.   Chapters: (00:00) Intro (01:31) Petty Moments in History (04:22) Petty Ancient Koreans (09:34) Petty Persians v...

  (00:00) Intro (02:14) Our Guest Pete Jung (03:58) Jack Parsons (17:04) Alistair Crowley Enters (21:48) L. Ron Hubbard Enters (27:31) Engineering with Pete (30:24) Jack Parsons Career (34:19) Jack's late life (45:23) Comedy Shows and Chit Chat

This week on Oddball History the boys talk offensive nicknames of yesteryear, the poetry of Walt Whitman and the weirdest and most unintentionally hilarious NBA player of all time, Gary Suiter. Chapters: (00:00) Intro (01:57) Salami and Nicknames (07:30) Gary Suiter's College Career (12:41) The 1970-71 Cleveland Cavaliers (14:50) Gary makes the NBA (20:36) Gary's Bad (23:50) Gary Wants Playing Tim...

Scott   Chapters (00:00) Intro (03:26) Graceland and Vice TV (11:17) OK, We'll talk about JFK (19:55) Jack Ruby Stuff (25:07) The Parade Route (29:56) LBJ (32:42) The Motorcade and Secret Service (34:26) Parkland Hospital and Autopsies (45:57) We solve it.

This week on a moderately special Oddball History Podcast, Jimmy and Scott talk local zoo crimes, our new monkey butlers (unrelated), and the time the sitting Governor of Louisiana, Earl Long, was hauled off to a state mental institution he himself had dedicated years earlier. Chapters (00:00) Intro (01:00) Earl's Brother Huey Long (07:08) Long Family Drama (09:39) Earl Loves Corruption (14:23) Ea...

This week on Oddball History, Jimmy and Scott talk dominant child-athletes, Deadliest Catch and the short, very eventful life of the unluckiest ship in U.S. Navy history, The USS William D. Porter.  

This week on Oddball History, Scott and Jimmy talk Bruce Springsteen, crawfish boil season and Ten Cent Beer Night—which started off as a promotion for a 1974 game between the Rangers and Indians in Cleveland, and ended with both teams fighting their way out of a massive, drunken riot.  Chapters 00:00 Intro 01:20 Korean Sports Gambling 04:20 Background and Lead Up 10:44 The Game Begins 15:30 The W...

This week on Oddball History, Barbara Streisand, a journey to the Twilight Zone, and comedian Vinnie Corrales joins the show to talk Baron Von Steuben, a gay Prussian military officer who helped lead the Americans to victory in the Revolutionary War.   Chapters (00:00) Intro (05:35) Von Steuben On the Outs (09:27) Queer Eye for the Continental Army (17:03) Steuben in the American Revolution (23:34...

This week on Oddball History, Jimmy has big news, Scott has thoughts about the show Love Island, and the story of the 1898 US capture of Guam, a bloodless engagement that only took a few hours as the Spanish soldiers stationed there didn't know they were at war.   Chapters (00:00) Intro (01:38) Spanish American War Recap (04:05) We Love Rory Scovel (05:46) They Sail to Guam (11:20) Guam Arrival (1...

This week on Oddball History, Jimmy and Scott talk Jason Statham, outrageous bodybuilding contest entrance fees and filibuster William Walker, the diminutive, nasally-voiced Southerner who managed to take over Nicaragua for a short time in the 1850s.   Chapters (00:00) Intro (02:40) William Walker Background (07:05) Willy Takes on Mexico (15:23) A Random Dallas Fact (16:00) Willy Takes on Nicaragu...

This week on Oddball History, Jimmy and Scott talk NFL playoffs, gigantic sandwiches and the time Priscilla Presley left Elvis for her karate instructor.   Chapters (00:00) Intro (01:52) Elvis and Priscilla (09:28) Elvis Does Karate (13:05) Karate Does Priscilla (20:40) Elvis Loves Sandwiches (24:02) Elvis Spirals (28:27) Fun Fact and Graceland (32:10) Comedy and Football Talk

This week on Oddball History, the boys talk ideal ham temperature, an exciting & inexpensive new treatment for insomnia and how the first chiropractor, DD Palmer, got his start on the advice of a dead doctor during a seance.   Chapters (00:00) Intro (01:12) New Years Eve (06:34) D.D. Palmer Father of Chiropractic (09:50) Andrew Taylor Still Shakes Babies (14:39) Chiropractic is a little silly (17:...

This week on an unusually merry and bright Oddball History, the fellas talk Christmas memories, that Panera lemonade that keeps killing people and the 1927 Santa Claus Bank Robbery in Cisco, Texas—thought by many to be "the most donkey-brained robbery in state history."

Dueling Fever is going around this week on the Oddball History Podcast as the boys run down the best and funniest duels in history, from Hamilton-Burr to two French guys shooting at each other from rising hot air balloons to a dog who accused a man of murder and then dueled him over it.   Chapters (00:00) Intro (06:00) Hot Air Balloon Duel (09:28) Italian Poetry Duel (11:31) Hamilton-Burr Duel (14...

  It's a Thanksgiving Spectacular on Oddball History. The boys discuss Ragamuffin Day, raccoons in the White House and the time FDR enraged half the country by moving Thanksgiving to a week earlier.   Chapters (00:00) Intro/Filet-o-Fish (04:35) Thanksgiving Extravaganza (05:30) Franksgiving (11:28) Whitehouse Racoons (23:53) Ragamuffin Day (31:18) Thanksgiving Plans (33:51) Thanksgiving Food

This week on Oddball History, the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex has baseball fever, Lawrence films his special and the boys discuss the Black Sox Scandal of 1919, when a group of disgruntled Chicago White Sox players conspired to throw the World Series.   Chapters (00:00) Intro (00:16) The Blacksox Scandal (30:11) Steroid Era and TV Naps (32:19) Lawrence's Special Taping (36:37) Back to the comedy G...

In a very special MLB Playoffs edition of Oddball History, Scott struggles to participate while watching the end of the Rangers-Astros game while Lawrence and Jimmy discuss the Great Emu War of 1932, HGTV, and the time an ostrich attacked and almost killed Johnny Cash.   Chapters: (00:00) Intro (00:30) The Great Emu War (21:39) Rangers Lose Game 5 ALCS (22:05) Australian Accents (24:19) Scott Reac...