What The Folklore?

We resume our reading of The Princess Mayblossom this week, down one man from the last. d'Aulnoy just takes and takes and takes from us, doesn't she? Suggested talking points: Big Merlin and Lil' Merlin, Indoor Daughter and Outdoor Daughter, Lions: Are They Real?, The Weeping Five, Comfort Diamonds, Loin-Hunger Vs. Regular-Hunger, Elephantvator, I Punzled My Own Brain If you'd like to support Carm...

Ten Years. Ten Years of doing this, and d'Aulnoy is STILL punking us... Suggested talking points: Entering The Eraser-Free Zone, NURSE TOURNAMENT!, This Didn't Take Long To Get Weird, All The King's Leeches, Constantly Leaking Chastity, The Biggest Punzel Money Can Buy,  If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings If you like our show, fi...

This week on WTFolklore we read two versions of The Wedding of Mrs. Fox, one of which was considered a favorite by Jacob Grimm. One features dick jokes, the other does not. Guess which one was his favorite. Suggested talking points: LEGO Comes For Us All, That's A Lot of Bepis, Is A House a Chef (When It's On Fire)?, An Easy Giggle, A Mickey Mouse Kink, Chucking the Corpse Bouquet If you'd like to...

This week on WTFolklore we read the Ukrainian tale, Oh: The Tsar of the Forest, and are legitimately shocked at how resilient it's canon proves to be, despite our best efforts to deviate from it. Suggested talking points: The Foretold Hose-Pipe, An Eternal Greasy Handprint, The World is Buffering, A Modern O, Babies Made of Things Babies Aren't Made Of, Moisturized (With Beer), Airtight Canon If y...

EDITORS NOTE: THERE IS A 10 MINUTE STRETCH OF INTENTIONALLY UNEDITED SILENCE FROM 9:09-19:09 This week on WTFolklore, after a very good joke that is worth everyone's valuable time, we read The Immortal Rooster, which is actually, secretly,  a much funnier ending to The Hobbit. Suggested talking points: Art World Tea, Reverse-Vampire Rooster, How is the Nut Trading?, The First Live Tweet, Ratatouil...

This week on WTFolklore, we read The Tale of Ming , a relic of significant cultural importance to China. We have perhaps...different takeaways than the original author intended. Suggested talking points: The Year is 2136, Cursed with Good Luck, Baby-Play Polycule, All These Flesh Boys With Their Flesh Births, This Is Our Bulbasaur, Crab Shrimp Nervous System Voltron If you'd like to support Carman...

This week on WTFolklore, we read The Snow Daughter and the Fire Son , AKA the story of the first two X-Men, Heatmiser and Snowmiser, a tale that begins, middles, and ends in tragedy for inexplicable reasons. Suggested talking points: Motorcycles Everywhere, The Integrity of the Dog, Distant, Diegetic Battle Music, Of Mice and Mons, But Like Where's Magneto? If you'd like to support Carman's artist...

This week on WTFolklore, to make up for missing you on Christmas Eve, and to kick off 2025 in style, we're in for a "Rootabaganing". In layman's terms, that means we're reading both How Five Rusty Rats Helped Find a New Village and The Potato-Faced Blind Man Who Lost the Diamond Rabbit on his Gold Accordion, two stories from the...unique mind of Carl Sandburg. Suggested talking points: The Only Pl...

This week on WTFolklore we read The Stones of Plouhinec, a "seasonal" story from "France" (but not THAT France...) Suggested talking points: We're Not Going to MegaFrance, Put Fear Into the Egg, Tangentially Seasonal, Bee Soup, Faith-Based Graffiti, Eavesdropping on Magic, Innocent Until Proven Wizard If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaarts...

This week on WTFolklore we read the Irish tale How The Wise Women Got Their Farm of Land Rent-Free from Lord Kilmaine, a title whose brevity matches the alleged wit of it's main characters. Suggested talking points: You Got Trucker In Your Soul, A Pilgrim-Themed Corner, Women Who Want Money for Sandwiches, Potato Drunk, Joggromancy, Winking Women of Influence If you'd like to support Carman's arti...

Here we go again...

This week we conclude the twisting, turning road that is What the Rose Did to the Cypress, with and even the story is sick of itself by the end. Suggested talking points: No Secrets When There's Breadsticks on the Line, Final Butt Diamond, Taking Baths With Strange Deer, Marriage In Exchange For Advice, Run-Of-The-Mill Sludge Prince, Miscellaneous Man Meat...Again, This Is Why We Hate Riddles If y...

This week we continue our puzzling journey into What the Rose Did to the Cypress, but we take a bit of a detour away from riddle-solving in order to gather snacks, learn nothing, and kill hundreds of thousands of men. Suggested talking points: A Human Hand Clap, Backseat Riddlers, Men of a Indeterminate Age, An Alternate Pant-Leg of Time, This is Dark Souls Now, An Honorary Bird If you'd like to s...

This week we begin our journey into What the Rose Did to the Cypress, a story featuring a riddle so enticing, even knowing it exists drives men to their (countless) deaths. Suggested talking points: Magnet Highway, The Folklore Ice Bucket Challenge, Horticultural Beef, The Sordid Inner-Lives of Garden Folk, I'm Tired of Hunting this Town, Ctrl+F "Face", Ready to be Piked If you'd like to support C...

Spooklore 2024 draws to a close with a reading of The Story of a Mother, which is not so much a spooky story but a terribly depressing one, from resident sad-sack, Hans Christian Andersen. Turns out, the true horror was videogames from 1993 this whole time! Suggested talking points: The Hamburglar's Living Conditions, A Cave with Amenities, Microwave Beer, Death and Baby, Jealous of the Ocean, Fol...

Spooklore 2024 continues with a reading of The Legend of the Pineapple, a story that either pushes fruit to new spooky echelons, or is a big coincidence. It's impossible to tell which. Suggested talking points: Spooky By Implication, Painfully Competent, Cooking is a Myth, Waiting to Magically Become Not Terrible, Porridge Was an Ask Too Far, The Spooktralizer Needs a Doctor. If you'd like to supp...

Spooklore 2024 continues with a reading of Men-Wolves, a three-act story about a Witch who just can't get her one spell to work right. Suggested talking points: Ol' Gloomy NotJohn, Got the Wolf Quivers, Magic Pants Feelings, Tobias Fünke's Furry OC, Like Sailor Moon if Sailor Moon Sucked, You've Got Wolf Starring Tom Hanks If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.pa...

Spooklore 2024 begins with readings of both The Book of Magic and The Willful Child, two tales selected for their strong connective tissue to one another, and certainly not for their brevity! Suggested talking points: Bonesblood City Magicbook, Pandering to the Spooktralizer, Dracula and Buddies, A Greater Concentration of Diabolicalness, Fill Your Home with Demon-Summoning Books, The Bro-Whispere...

This week we're reading The Death of the Sun Hero. Did you know there's an ancient pact that spurs all newborns to begin crawling towards the same point on earth, all in an effort to murder a single man? Apparently only the Sun knew that. Suggested talking points: Kebob a Rhino, Naked 'n Stuff, Sex Dolls for Cats, A Horse on Cocaine, An Infant with a Shiv, Sacrifice Your Pants Heroically, The Gian...

This week we're reading The Origin of Stories, which I guess is a pretty big deal, considering the premise of this show. Suggested talking points: Envision Yourself Mong-ing, The Deep Etsy, Firstname Inanimateobject, CTRL+F "Goose", Stones Crave Birds, An Orphan Named Orphan If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings If you'd like to sup...

This week we're reading The Wicked Prince, a deep dive into the possibility-space of whatever the hell Hans Christian Andersen's personality is. Suggested talking points: Purple Prose Kiss Orgy, The Worst Coin, Hundreds of Strong Eagles, Big Bad Bullet Button, The Gnat Medal of Honor, A Possibility of a Personality If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.co...

It's time for our First-Annual Daughter-Off! This week we're reading The Great Bell, in order to compare and contrast the daughters of this and last week's tales. We also learn a LOT about jugglers on the way, for some reason. Check out Gordie's new Kickstarter! Suggested talking points: Secret Pidgeon App, Tuckered Out From the Head-Hitting, The Bell of Your Mind, Poetically On Edge, Trust Me I'm...

First off, big congratulations to Gordie for achieving the fastest fully funded project on Kickstarter in the site's history. Don't believe me? Well just click the link below and see for yourself! Anyway, we also read The Strange Tale of Doctor Dog , whom we almost immediately eminent-domain for our own purposes. Check out Gordie's new Kickstarter! Suggested talking points: Pause for Relevant Reac...

After a brief-but-crucial PSA, and a short check in on the modern AI hellscape we all call the internet, we return our attention to finishing last week's Aztec Creation Myths.   Check out Gordie's new Kickstarter! Suggested talking points: The Chuck E. Cheese of Gas Stations, Deceiving Faster Than We Can Think, An Animal That Can Throw a Punch, White-Collar Corn Crime, You Cannot Declare the Bones...

This week we spend much too much time complaining about the Disney corporation before turning our attention to some Aztec Creation Myths. Turns out this isn't even the first Sun our planet had back in the space-goop days! Neat! Check out Gordie's new Kickstarter! Suggested talking points: A Cupcake for Every Occasion, Terminally Tumblr, Floating in the Goop of Space, Blood Will Spill at the White...