What The Folklore?

This week we're reading Dr. Know-All , which is Grimm Tale #98. Or it could've been the Griww brothers, accounts vary.  We hypothesize it may have been the origin of the farce, as well as the evolutionary junction for humans towards crabs.   Suggested talking points: Agents of the Nothing,  Doct Rs Us, A Fatal Amount of Food, A Doctorate in General Awareness If you'd like to support Carman's artis...

This week we're reading The Devil and the Guachinango from the Philippines,  and given that title, you'd probably never guess which of those characters we find more sympathetic. Who are we kidding, if you've listened to the previous 306 episodes you've probably got a good idea   Suggested talking points: An Hit Wonder, The Urge, Devil-Sized Jars, Digging Holes for Exposure, Stuck Marrying a Devil...

This week we're reading The Fisherman , which, i'm sure you surmised, given the title of the episode. I mean, what else could an episode title like that imply??   Suggested talking points: A Definite Bean Through-line, Critters of an Unpleasant and Potentially Poisonous Variety, Mermaid Law, Lift Down Things Up for Eat?, Aphorisms for Venture Capitalists If you'd like to support Carman's artistic...

This week we're reading The Candy Cottage , which is some flagrant Fairy propaganda, if we've ever seen any (and we have) But first, did you know about the strange connection between Holes and Donnie Darko? You will, after the first twenty minutes of this week's show... Suggested talking points: Dance skills directly inverse to exuberance, Liminal Home and Gardens, the cracker of passion, 4chan ma...

This week we're reading Five Times Beautiful , a Grecian variant of Snow White, with a bit of Goldilocks and Cinderella peppered in for flavor. Also, please, we're begging everyone, just leave the Sun alone... Suggested talking points: Trapped Forever in the Pants Circle, Stan February, Who Would Think to Poison a Hat?, Ye Best Start Believing in the Tomb of Ftub, The Bread-to-Cake Spectrum If you...

Just read the title. Oh, and we're reading The Buried Moon (courtesy of Joseph Jacobs) Suggested talking points: Ol' Jenkins, Welcome to Show, Crapterion Collection, Moons are Haute Couture, Neptune is Meowth, One Tiddyssippi If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carmandaartsthings If you like our show, find us online to help spread the word! Follow u...

This week on WTFolklore, we learn why the Mullberry Worm (more commonly Silkworm) kinda sorta looks like it has an ugly horse's head if you squint at it long enough, courtesy of the Chinese tale The Horse-Headed Daughter. Suggested talking points:  Space Jam III- Time Jam, Extended Tylore,  The Fatalism-to-Podcaster Pipeline, Show Me the Horsefax!, The Origin of Email-Kidnapped Grandpas If you'd l...

Back to our regularly scheduled business this week on WTFolklore: spending the first 15-20 minutes talking about pop-culture zeitgeists instead of what we should be doing. Then we move on to ACTUALLY telling the story of Ilya and Nightingale the Robber , from Russia Suggested talking points:  The Slamjam Weaver, Trees Can And Should Kill People, Birdsonas, Award-Winning Bag of Hotdogs,  If you'd l...

This week, on an unremarkable episode of WTFolklore, we read The Ram by French baroness, Madame d'Aulnoy. Wait...this sounds awfully familiar... Suggested talking points: Six Point Ish Years, Brain TV,  Sexy Sad-Off,  Crown Town or Treasure (Nobody Rides for Free),  The Chip of the Century,  Two Days From Sheep Retirement If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.pat...

Have you ever just...started talking and minutes to hours later realized you've gone completely off the goddamn rails and everyone is looking at you with a horrified expression? No? Well, We think this may be what happened the first time The Children of the Vultures was told in India. Thankfully, WTFolklore is here to apply a, shall we say, modern-day ripcord. Suggested talking points: The Suggest...

This week, WTFolklore reads the Nigerian tale, The Woman, Her Husband, Their Children, and the Dodo . This story features what may well be the single dumbest "protagonist" we've yet encountered, and we're like 300 stories deep into this endeavor, so that's saying something. Suggested talking points: Secret Snacks, A Grim Spectrum of Entertainment, Pop-up Bird Barbershop,  The Sensitivity of Elepha...

This week, WTFolklore reads the Mexican tale Lord Oppossum Brings Fire to Humanity . Took us 297 episodes, but we've finally met a king who gives a damn about his subjects. Obviously it's not human. Suggested talking points: Obligated to Perform, Fairytale Estate Sale, Take it to Icky Times, The Piss-end of an Opossum, The Original Tyler, The Big Three: Water, Fire, and Booze If you'd like to supp...

This week, after a little opening Cruella de Scourse,  WTFolklore reads The Three Lemons , from Italy.  On the happy-ending scale, is it an Immortal Moon Wife or a Breakfast of Stones? You'll have to tune in to find out! Suggested talking points: Mouth Mutiny, A Thousand-Year Campaign to Ruin Dogs, Horniness Begets Hope, Blood Sausage Poptart, Wife Tree If you'd like to support Carman's artistic e...

This week on WTFolklore, we're reading the Chinese tale,   The Waiting Maid's Parrot, and we make a startling number of bird-based revelations in record time. Oh yeah, we've still got it, baby. Suggested talking points: Snaxedo, The Power of Small Appetizer Shrimps and a Friendly Smile, Old-Timey for "Horny", Shaking Your Leg to an Unnamed Dread, Lynyrd Feathyrd If you'd like to support Carman's a...

This week on WTFolklore, after checking in on the Great Gas Shortage of 2021, we read Kae's Theft of the Whale , a Polynesian tale where everyone just ends up having a ton of fun by the end. Everyone who doesn't die, anyway. Suggested talking points: The Third Entity, The Genealogical Difference Between Monsters and Muppets, Living BBQ, Bestowing Stronk to Babies, Wizard RAM If you'd like to suppo...

This week on WTFolklore, we conclude our reading of The Day Boy and the Night Girl   by George MacDonald, while also learning a lot about privilege, fallons ids, and the games you can play with nighttime predator beasts  Suggested talking points: Fought, Kissed, or Ignored Each Other, Heading Mothwards, Pony Ollies, Everyone is Witch, The Death Lamp in the Sky, Playing Stink-Tag with Night Panther...

We begin another multi-part episode this week, reading The Day Boy and the Night Girl by George MacDonald, and get to relive experiencing the moon for the first time in extraordinary detail. Suggested talking points: Folklore Island, Wolf-Shaped Cranium, Real Embassy Wives of Country, Haunted with Smiles, Deepfake Fairytales, The Majesty of Stairs If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavo...

On WTFolklore this week, we read the French tale The Satin Surgeon , and take it upon ourselves to rescue the villain from the unfortunate tropes thrust upon her.  Suggested talking points: Adrift in the Sea of Familyless-ness,  A Quick Pants Feeling, No Maps to the Moon, Sometimes Time is Time, 3/4's Dupable If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/carm...

This Week on WTFolklore, We have a (kinda) double feature, briefly reading A Riddling Tale , followed up by  The Grimm Brothers' Snow White and Rose Red , a somewhat plodding story we give a much-needed face lift to Suggested talking points: Animals Doing Things, Dry as a Wife Should Be, Kids Who Look Like Trees, Bear Scout Cookies, Beauty and the Beast Synldrome If you'd like to support Carman's...

On WTFolklore this week, we read The Battle of the Birds , a title that promises us juicy lore, and instead delivers a mishmash of plot points we're all too familiar with already. Suggested talking points: A Singular Dook, Married to Science, The Whole "Bone Ladder" Business, Ears of Holding, The Key to the Moon If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.patreon.com/c...

This week on WTFolklore, we read "The Raspberry Worm", and encounter a whole new breed of fruit authority. We do get bored and start talking about chicken sandwiches, but you really should've seen that coming by now. Suggested talking points: an NFT on Hopes and Dreams, Worm Census of Finland, Kid Cocaine, The Lesserberries, Richard Horrifying If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors,...

On this episode of What the Folklore, after the traditional Kingdom Hearts Cold Open, we read King Bean, a story of dubious Italian royalty, but that is mostly meant to scare witches. Suggested talking points: Southern-Fried Backhanded Niceness,  Noble Bean, The Fetish Checklist, Ableist Witch Bookclub, Expressing Hatitude  If you'd like to support Carman's artistic endeavors, visit: https://www.p...

This week on What the Folklore? we conclude The Fairy of Dawn , and shocking no one, find ourselves much more enamored by the cadre of horses than literally any other character. Oh, and a new cult dropped. Suggested talking points: The Justice Binary, The Goddess of Wednesday,  Land Sirens, How Windy Are These Dogs?, When the Dayball Sleeps, Yelling at the Lying Box If you'd like to support Carman...

This week, the three intrepid heroes of What The Folklore achieve their destiny, which for some reason was to hear the Romanian tale The Fairy of Dawn . Beggars can't be choosers, I suppose. Suggested talking points: Live Weather Requests, A One Alarm Lifestyle, Dragon Fingers, Quantifiable Horse Beauty, The Bottom of God's Lego Box, There's a Horse in You All! If you'd like to support Carman's ar...

This week on What the Folklore, we head on over to Lapland to hear the story of The Elf Maiden , which is not so much a story as it is a series of refusals to the call of adventure. It really makes you think about society, don't it? Suggested talking points: The Arkansas Community College Fightin' Balanced Breakfasts, Cinnamon Toast Slurp, Grand Theft Barno, Punch Tree Make Pants, Beef From Anothe...