Skeletons in the house, dead bodies on display, scandalous secrets, and more!
Today we explore the fascinating history behind the idiom 'Skeletons in the Closet'.
Hold on to your seats as we uncover historical theories that range from family secrets to bone-chilling stories of literal skeletons found in the house. This journey takes us all the way back to 1800s England, as we grapple with how a simple saying could evolve into a metaphor for hidden secrets that could ruin one's reputation if revealed, and even spark a sexual revolution!
Join us for a laughter-filled deep dive into the secrets we all keep hidden!
Stiff - Mary Roach
Hard Cover
Kindle
Audible
Interact with us at myunoriginalthoughtpodcast@gmail.com.
What did you like and what would you want to see in the future? Which idiom do you want us to explore next time? If you have any insight on today's topic, something I missed or didn’t get right, or if you want to be featured in a future What the Idiom? segment let me know.
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Looking for My Unoriginal Thought post its, notebooks, coffee mugs? Look no farther!
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Skeletons in the house, dead bodies on display, scandalous secrets, and more!
Today we explore the fascinating history behind the idiom 'Skeletons in the Closet'.
Hold on to your seats as we uncover historical theories that range from family secrets to bone-chilling stories of literal skeletons found in the house. This journey takes us all the way back to 1800s England, as we grapple with how a simple saying could evolve into a metaphor for hidden secrets that could ruin one's reputation if revealed, and even spark a sexual revolution!
Join us for a laughter-filled deep dive into the secrets we all keep hidden!
Stiff - Mary Roach
Hard Cover
Kindle
Audible
Interact with us at myunoriginalthoughtpodcast@gmail.com.
What did you like and what would you want to see in the future? Which idiom do you want us to explore next time? If you have any insight on today's topic, something I missed or didn’t get right, or if you want to be featured in a future What the Idiom? segment let me know.
SWAG!
Looking for My Unoriginal Thought post its, notebooks, coffee mugs? Look no farther!
Click here for awesome swag!
Hey, podcast fans, I'm your unoriginal podcaster and host, Afton Jay. I started this podcast because I've always loved fun facts, history and culture. I consume so many books and podcasts that it just made sense I would find friends out there that loved some of the same things that I do and boom, my unoriginal thought podcast was born. I don't know how many other nerds out there will want to hear about the fascinating world of idioms, but we're going to go on this adventure together. None of what I will talk about today is my original thoughts, but I will attempt to repackage other people's ideas and talk through them so we can learn and laugh together. I'm going to try to bring you the most interesting useless knowledge in the most thought-provoking and entertaining way. I know how Every episode will feature a new idiom, phrase, proverb or saying that we can explore. I will bring in backstory, history, current books, articles and experts to help us unpack all that these culturally relevant sayings have to offer. Okay, let's get into it. Whether you're listening in your car, on the way to work, cleaning the house at the airport or wherever you are, I hope you enjoy our episode.
Speaker 1:Today's episode is the Skeletons in the Closet. I'm really excited about this one. It has been one of my favorite idioms for a while, and when I got into the research I was blown away at the history behind this popular phrase. Not only does this saying have a long history with many possible origins, but it also changed over time to be one of the most powerful, culturally relevant sayings of today. Get ready for a wild ride as I take you through this episode's idiom. First of all, the saying "A Skeleton in your Closet is an idiom. There are several different types of idioms phrases, prose proverbs and sayings that we'll talk about on this show, and I will always try to be correct in my terminology, but for all of you English and language masters out there, feel free to correct me or pardon me if I'm not 100% right all of the time.
Speaker 1:An idiom is a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deductible from those of the individual words. An example of this is "barking up the wrong tree Once in a blue moon. Skeletons in your closet Shameless plug. We'll be talking about some of these other idioms in the future, so tune in Anyway. So where did this idiom come from and why the heck would you have skeletons in your closet? Here's the part of the show where we play the super fun game What The idiom? where we have unsuspecting friends. uess where they think the origin of this week's phrase comes from? So let's jump into it with our first unsuspecting friend. But I mean, they're super, super interesting. Like so, the one that I'm working on right now, the one that I thought was going to be, like I didn't realize it was going to be this interesting, but is skeletons in the closet?
Speaker 2:Yes, so.
Speaker 1:I thought I knew the origin and then, when I researched it, I realized that there's actually multiple different possibilities for the origin and like I don't know if you've ever thought about it, but if you had a thought, where do you think?
Speaker 2:it comes from.
Speaker 5:Where would it come from?
Speaker 1:Skeletons in the closet.
Speaker 5:The only thing I can think of is like the Catholic church. Did it come from them? Like Europe, somewhere from Europe, ia where it started?
Speaker 1:Yeah, like you mean the Catholic church, like having bodies or having secrets.
Speaker 5:No secrets, like secrets. Not the physical body, I'm thinking it's more religious.
Speaker 1:That is super interesting and I can see where you would think that it does come from the English time period, 1800s.
Speaker 5:Okay.
Speaker 1:Yep, that's a really good guess. That is actually not one of the theories is coming from the religious church, but definitely an interesting guess that I would have never thought about.
Speaker 2:Okay, I love this !yes, so I will keep you on the hook that way you have to listen to the podcast.
Speaker 1:Yes, okay, that was definitely a good theory. We're on the right lines, but we're not just there. Yet let's hear from our second guesser.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I was hoping it was going to be like something profound, like there was a specific dude in England 400 years ago who everyone thought was super cool. He was the town dentist. Everyone loved him. And fight t h This This motherfucker was killing people and soaking them in acid, keeping their skull, their skeletons in like perfect anatomical position and like hanging them in a y so that you could like sleep with them at night . And then from that point on that was w th one we had skeletons in his closet and then it's like more from there.
Speaker 1:we're getting closer. That was a great story that we We're made up to go along with our idiom. But our third guesser might be on the right track.
Speaker 2:I'll just I'll ask you do you, do where the origin is, where the origin of skeleton in the closet comes from?
Speaker 5:I would assume it's because of like. If I had to guess, I'd say it's like an Edgar Allen Poe reference or something from like some poem in the Victorian, you know, medieval, edwardian times, when there were lots of like the origin of horror, and there was like some poem that there was a skeleton in the closet and that it's some sort of entomology from there. That's what I would guess. Is that right, or is it even no?
Speaker 2:It's actually there's multiple theories and that is one of them, so that's a really good guess.
Speaker 3:Yes, yes, yes yes.
Speaker 5:I'm very excited to hear the actual origination etymology.
Speaker 6:Yes!! we do?
Speaker 5:podcast. It's gonna be so much fun.
Speaker 1:I'm like trying to decide if I make you listen. I'm just gonna make you listen to the podcast. I'm not even gonna tell you what I found, because I was like no way, yes, yes, I can't wait.
Speaker 5:I cannot wait. This is gonna be awesome, yeah, okay.
Speaker 1:All of these guesses are so funny. Thank you to all of our contestants on what the Idiom. Now let's go back to the actual origin story. As we know today, this phrase means a hidden source of something scandalous or shameful. It is most commonly used when referring to something in the past that will cause potential ruin to a person or a group of people when exposed. It also signifies an undisclosed fact about a person that would damage their social standing among the community if it were revealed. A skeleton can vary from things you've done, such as a lie, a betrayal or even something extreme like murder, but it doesn't always have to be dark. Some skeletons may be of the embarrassing nature, such as an awkward moment that we don't want to share. I think we all have some skeletons in the closet and we can all use this idiom every once in a while. But where does it come from? The most interesting thing is that there are several different theories about the origin of this phrase. I had only ever heard of one of these theories before I started researching, but I can see any of them being the real origin. So since most of these theories come from around the same time frame, I can see how they get all be part of the reason why the phrase is so prevalent, and they all started around the 1800s.
Speaker 1:First of all, the phrase has been stated two ways. You can say a skeleton in the closet or, in some cases, a skeleton in the cupboard. I've personally never heard of a skeleton in the cupboard, but in the 18th century English, where this phrase originates from, a cupboard could mean a hiding place. There's a closet could mean a water closet, bathroom or wardrobe and as the saying traveled to the United States, we generally tended to use the word closet instead of cupboard, although I might try saying it in the old English style from now on. Like I have a skeleton in the cupboard, I'll let you know how that goes the next time I use it. But anyway, no matter if you use closets or cupboards, the meaning is always the same it means that you are hiding something embarrassing or scandalous. So how did we get the skeletons in the closet? Do they mean real skeletons or metaphoric skeletons? And the answer is yes.
Speaker 1:One of the first instances of this phrase being printed was an article by William Henry Stowell published in 1816, united Kingdom's Monthly Periodical, the Electric Review. I'm sure everyone out there subscribes to this important periodical, but for those that have skipped that month's edition, let me review it for you. It was used to discuss the shame of a disease that is infectious or hereditary. Because whatever horrible disease Mr. Stowell was discussing, he was saying that it might leave a legacy of shame or dread on the family. And then you had the potential of passing it along and fear of making the families conceal those skeletons in their closets. Can you imagine hiding dad in your closet so no one finds him out of shame, y you and ick.
Speaker 1:Another theory and the theory in which I thought this phrase was based off, was the expression came from the infamous era of body snatchers. Both of these ideas come from around the same time frame, so maybe both are a little bit true. Anyways, before 1832, when the law was changed in parliament, the use of corpses for medical research was frowned upon by British royalty and parliament. R t this date, only the bodies they could dissect for medical purposes were those that came from executed criminals. Although the execution of criminals was far from rare in 18th century Britain, it was very unlikely that a doctor would be lucky enough to stumble across many corpses during his professional working life. It was therefore common practice for a doctor that had the good fortune to dissect one of the corpses of an executed criminal to keep that skeleton for research purposes for as long as possible. Again, y and ick. Public opinion would not permit doctors to keep skeletons on open view in their surgeries, so they had to hide them, even if they couldn't actually see them. Most people suspected that doctors kept skeletons somewhere and the most logical place would have been the cupboard or closet.
Speaker 1:The Anatomy Act was an act of 1832 in parliament that legislated to increase legal access to human cadavers for medical schools. The reason for the change in the law was due to the increase in enrollment of medical students in British anatomy schools at the time and there was a bunch of widely publicized cases of bodies snatching for profit. The act, which was first posed unsuccessfully in 1828, before its successful 1832 revision, established two major changes to the existing. legislation.. Firstly, that a newly established inspector's office would issue and manage anatomy licenses for which all physicians and medical students associated with the anatomy schools were now eligible, and secondly, that any person who died without a personal written objection or without the presence of family members to object on that person's behalf, could be conveyed for dissection for anatomy schools. So we have gone from it's weird and illegal to have a body to anyone can get a body if nobody objects. Weird, flex, but it's all for the advancements of science, right? You also have the theory that it came from gothic novels of the Victorian era.
Speaker 1:Edgar Allan Poe used the imagery of skeletons and secrets quite effectively in his literary works. There are two instances where Edgar Allan Poe used the imagery of skeletons in the closet to drive a point home in his writing. In his piece called the Black Cat from 1845, he recounts the way a character dispelled the suspicions of others regarding his wife's mysterious death when, seemingly afraid of any further consequences, he smacked the wall that hid his wife's corpse while the inspectors were in the home. In a turn of the story, the wall fell in and his accusers saw the literal skeleton in his closet, or in this case, the wall. Edgar Allan Poe also used the concept behind this phrase in his poetic masterpieces, including the Raven and Annabelle, which are classic poems about regret.
Speaker 1:A skeleton in the closet later developed into the idea of referring to grim evidence of a crime or murder. Famous Victorian author William Makepeace t K adopted the phrase and used it in his literary pieces in novels. In an 1845 piece, he referred to a skeleton in every house, and in another piece from 1854 to 1555, he explicitly mentioned the exact phrase skeletons in closets. It was never known whether he was suggesting actual skeletons that were inside people's homes or whether he was merely using a phrase to aid his reader's imagination, like Edgar Allen Poe did years earlier. As much of this idiom is generally seen as figurative, one English philosopher decided to give it a literal turn. Jeremy Bentham, an 18th century to 19th century philosopher, was the only real skeleton in the closet in his time. In his will, Bentham decided to preserve his skeleton in a wooden closet with a glass front, which would then be publicly displayed in the University of College in London.
Speaker 1:Humans have always had an interesting and odd fascination with death and human remains. Some would see the displaying of human remains or keeping of remains as disrespectful. Obviously this happened in 18th century England and they've proven that, but other cultures used remains for scientific research and proudly displayed them, such as the Egyptian culture. Mr. Bentham was not the first person to want to display his body although it is an interesting way to use your body when you're gone but he was not the first person to let people ogle him, and neither was he the last. Today, this topic still sparks a great debate over the ethics of using bodies for research and display purposes.
Speaker 1:In an amazingly interesting book, stiff, the Curious Lives of Human Cadavers is a 2003 nonfiction book by Mary Roach. Stiff was a bestseller, a 2003 Barnes Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and one of Entertainment Weekly's best books of 2003. It also won the Amazon. com. c Editor's Choice Award in 2003. She has many different books that are very well researched and written and I highly recommend her as a writer. Stiff details the unique scientific contributions of the deceased. In the book, roach gives a first-hand account of cadavers, a history of the use of cadavers and an exploration of the surrounding ethical and moral issues of cadavers. She places each chapter's content into historical context and uses humor to make the subject educational. The chapters range s body snatching test dummies being buried alive and so much more. A book that sounds morbid and macabre is actually very informative and funny. I definitely recommend this book to anyone. The audio version was even funnier than the paper book because the orator is really great to listen to. The link to the book is in the show notes if you're interested.
Speaker 1:Also another interesting topic to look into the history behind the use of cadavers is the controversial exhibition Body Worlds that started in 1995, or Bodies, the Exhibit that started in 2005. They are two different exhibitions that showcase human bodies and they've been preserved through a process called plastination. I is used to easily display the body and the body's systems. If you've never heard of it. The exhibit displays internal organs and organic systems. Displays are staged in active poses and fetuses are used to display various stages of development. I've seen it in Vegas and I absolutely loved it. Every inch of the exhibit is covered in fascinating facts and I thought the displays were really respectful and intriguing. I love learning about the human body and this is one of the best exhibitions I've ever seen.
Speaker 1:However, bodies has a dark past. Concerns have been raised by human rights advocates that the bodies on display are actually those of executed Chinese prisoners and that the families of the victims have not consented to the use. The exhibitionists claim that the presumed origin of the bodies and fetuses relies solely on the representations of its Chinese partners and that they cannot independently verify that the bodies do not belong to executed prisoners. During the exhibition's lifetime, there has been issues that have come up. A science education coordinator for the Carnegie Museum of Science resigned her position over the exhibit, citing her religious beliefs, questions about the source of the bodies and a general p for putting human remains on exhibit. Professor Anita Allen, a University of Pennsylvania bioethicist, argued spending money to quote gawk at human remains should raise serious concerns. Thomas Hibbs, a Baylor University professor, compares cadaver displays to pornography in that they reduce the subject to the manipulation of body parts stripped of any larger human significance. Even if the consent were obtained for the bodies, Rabbi Danny Schiff maintains that we should still question what providing quote bodies arranged in showcases for the hungry public says about our society.
Speaker 1:In 2017, in the Czech Republic, body of the exhibition was taking place in Prague. Four doctors and four nonprofit organizations issued a statement about the ethical and human rights concerns. The statement called upon the organizers to present consent of the donors of the displayed bodies, if such documentation even existed. Today, the bodies' exhibits are more strict with their donation processes. According to the Body World website, the bodies belong to people who declared during their lifetime that their bodies should be made available after their death for the training of physicians and the instruction of the layperson. Many donors underscore that by donating their body, they want to be useful to others even after their death. They state that they have over 55,000 body donations, most of which actually come from Germany. You can also volunteer to be a body if you head over to their website and sign up.
Speaker 1:I do think it's interesting that, even after all of these years, seeing, studying or looking at human remains is such a divisive topic. It is still conjuring up feelings of shame, disgust, horror and embarrassment, which is why I think this idiom, both figuratively and literally, is so powerful. Okay, we've taken a few turns, so let's get back to the original origin story In the expression skeleton in the closet started to become more widely used in America. It morphed from actual dead people in your closet to mostly referring to hiding something criminal or shameful or embarrassing. So what kind of skeletons in your closet are you keeping? Would you be willing to share? I found some friends that are, so let's find out what kind of skeletons they are keeping hidden, just so you know this is a recorded, or theoretically it's a recorded conversation.
Speaker 1:I'm like trying out a new app where you can record phone calls. I'm like playing with different little things that I could do with the podcast, and one of them being like I could call people and ask them where they think the origins of these things came from or if they have a funny story about them, which I think would be hilarious.
Speaker 4:Remember that time you shit your pants in the Kmart.
Speaker 2:Okay, first of all, that was you, that shit yourself, and it was a library, so don't get it.
Speaker 4:I shit my pants on a higher than average basis. I'll be the first to admit that, okay.
Speaker 1:See, and I'll never understand that theory, not once have I ever been like I think I'm about to or like there's a possibility of me shitting my pants.
Speaker 4:No, I'm good for two a year Minimum.
Speaker 1:I recorded. I would like to remind the audience that everybody that comes on this show knows they are being recorded and they are giving this information freely. Okay, let's get back into some more secrets. So we're talking about skeletons in the closet. Nobody knows who you are. This is totally anonymous. What skeleton in the closet do you hide away?
Speaker 2:Either shameful embarrassing, or do you literally have dead bodies at your house? I don't think you do because I'm there, but maybe you do.
Speaker 6:Oh my gosh. You know there's always dead bodies in the closet. I'm not coming for Thanksgiving, Skeletons in the closet. I mean I feel like everyone did this, but I feel like okay, so I stole a pair of earrings as a kid and like it's something I think about very often because it is just not who I am today.
Speaker 6:It's like something that I feel guilty about. I was working a retail job, too, and I stole this pair of earrings from the store that I was working at, and it like just haunts me to this day.
Speaker 3:Oh my gosh, you're a klepto. I am, he would have known. Oh, I know I need to. I need to ask some type of question.
Speaker 6:I know I need to. I need some type of support program. I go back to the store and pay them for the earrings?
Speaker 1:Yeah, no never.
Speaker 3:I can't tell them I did it now Delirious me.
Speaker 6:They don't know who the culprit was.
Speaker 3:I know they don't know who the culprit was.
Speaker 6:I know, I know, I know, I know, I know. I know you owe me an anonymous on the spot tab. All right, thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Don't report me,
Speaker 7:Oh, my gosh Okay.
Speaker 1:What is a skeleton in your closet or a secret that you have?
Speaker 2:The skeleton can be literal or figurative.
Speaker 1:And it might get weird if it's literal, but go on.
Speaker 7:Oh my gosh.
Speaker 7:So, growing up, you know my brother and I, my sister and then my mom, so single parent rules. Well, you know, every once in a while mom would go on little trips and my brother and I would throw parties, and so I think we threw a couple parties. I think we did get caught one time, but that's because we didn't do our. You know, take a picture of the house before and then make sure it looks exactly the same. So I think it was one of our parties that. So, even though my mom only caught us with one party, I think we had like three or four. But the reason why we got caught it wasn't because everything was in the same place, it was because the house was too clean. She came home and she was, like the house is way too clean, like, did you guys throw a party? So yes, mom, we did throw a party. But what she didn't know is that we threw four others before this one.
Speaker 3:Mom jokes on you.
Speaker 2:Mom, if you're listening, we're sorry.
Speaker 7:I love you mom.
Speaker 2:I'm doing the episode about skeletons in your closet. Do you have any skeletons or secrets in your closet? Yes, Are you wanting me to share them with you? Probably my worst one is when I was on military orders and working on an installation. I had to stay there for about three months and I was staying in base lodging. So, on the installation and being a single young female, I packed every girl's necessity. I packed my vibrator because who doesn't need that when you travel and left for work not thinking anything of it, but obviously got a little fun with myself the night before and got back from work that day to a very neatly made bed with my vibrator laying on top of that bed and a note on top of the vibrator that said from now on, if anything is sound or less than your bed, we will no longer be making it signed housekeeping. And I had to stay there and see those same, because it's the same people that come clean your room. I had to see them for another two months every day, feeling shameful.
Speaker 2:There was that moment that I had. I learned that lesson quickly and was able to say it is yet to happen again in my life. They were just jealous. Listen, the vibrator still goes on trips with me. We just now do a double check to make sure it's not in the bed the next day, so I don't run into any more uncomfortable situations.
Speaker 1:Right, they're just shaming your game girl.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it could of been something way worse way worse, girl, way worse.
Speaker 1:Thank you to everyone for sharing their skeletons with us, from real bodies to secrets. This idiom takes an interesting turn, and one that I never expected. The expression skeleton in the closet morphed in America sometime in the 1900s. We still use the phrase skeletons in the closet in its original context, but the idiom morphed into a new phrase referring to those who decided to come out of the closet, meaning it was shameful and criminal, secret to be had to be gay in America. There are actually two theories as to how this phrase came to be in society, so I will preface this with. This is just a theory about the origin of this phrase. The theory goes in 1930s, 40s and 50s.
Speaker 1:There was a growing backlash against this visible gay world. In response, gay life became more secretive. In response, the community relied on code phrases in mixed company. In this context, coming out meant acknowledging one's sexual orientation to oneself and other gay people. Coming out took on a more political meeting after the 1969 Stonewall Rebellion, in which patrons of the Stonewall Inn in New York City fought against police in a raid. The rebellion included riots and a resistance that lasted for days. It was subsequently commemorated in an annual march known as today, the Gay Pride Parade. At the first gay march in New York City in June 1970, one of the organizers stated that we'll never have freedom and civil rights we deserve as human beings unless we stop hiding in closets and in the shelter of anonymity. By this time, coming out was jun, s with just being in the closet, conveying shame associated with hiding.
Speaker 1:By the end of the 1960s, queer people who pretended to be heterosexual were said to be in the closet. Or quote unquote a closet case. Or in the case of gay men, quote closeted queens. By the 1970s, mainstream journalists were already using this term beyond sexual orientation to speak up for instant. Quote closeted conservatives. That's just an example. By presenting coming out as a way to end internalized self-hatred and achieve a better life, the LGBTQ movement helped to encourage people to come out despite the associated risk. This is where the phrase is shortened to quote coming out or come out. For instance, in 1978, openly gay elected government official, Harvey Milk, urged people to quote come out, come out wherever you are. This phrase is now used to build solidarity and support for the LGBTQ AI plus community.
Speaker 1:Super interesting and a crazy leap from the 1800s. We have gone all over the place today. We have gone from dead people in the closet to literary works of Edgar Allen Poe, to the ethics of bodies on display, and now this jump to the sexual revolution and its implications on our society today. That was an incredible amount of information and things to ponder. I will leave you here with these intellectual snacks to think about and you can tell me what you think by leaving us a comment on the podcast or sending us an email to my and original thought podcast at gmailcom.
Speaker 1:What did you like? What do you want to see in the future? What didn't you like? Which idiom do you want us to explore next time? If you have any insight on today's topic, something I missed or I didn't get right, or if you just want to be featured in a future of what the idiom, go ahead and let me know.
Speaker 1:Well, podcast family. That's a wrap for today. Thank you so much for being with us to learn and laugh our way through another unoriginal thought. I'm your host, Afton Jae, and I thank you for hanging out with me today and, as always, keep being inquisitive. Hey, I just wanted to let you know that if you couldn't get enough of this episode, we will always have bloopers and other interesting conversations included afterwards.
Speaker 1:Some of the material we just didn't have time to get to or it didn't have a place in the final edit, but it's always thought provoking or funny or possibly both. If you're interested, just stick around. Bloopers oh yeah, it has been a challenge trying to figure out how to record and set up this podcast. Setting and setting up calls is a lot harder than it seems, but it's always hilarious to see where the conversation goes. It's been super fun to call people and interrupt their day to ask them questions about random phrases and useless knowledge. Thankfully, the people that I talked to are open and willing to chat with me for the entertainment and education of the audience. Here are some of the clips of setting up the calls, which don't go as smoothly as I would like.
Speaker 6:Hold on one second. I'm getting the mail. Your mail is being recorded.
Speaker 3:Hello world.
Speaker 1:Hello world, it was so funny, so I've like done this a couple times and there's like the first minute and a half is just me giggling and they're like are you going to like say anything? I'm like I can't.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 2:You ready.
Speaker 8:Yeah, I'm so ready. I've never been more ready. I've been waiting for this forever.
Speaker 1:Okay, you ready.
Speaker 8:Uh huh.
Speaker 1:They're easy. Okay, it doesn't take much brain power.
Speaker 8:Okay, well, I don't have much.
Speaker 1:Okay so.
Speaker 8:Are you going to ever ask me a question? No, I'm going to ask you the question.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 5:So if it's actually like doing its thing, Are you just trying to see if it'll record the call for your podcast, or is this for like work? Yeah, okay. Yeah, I wanted to see if it would record for the podcast, or I wanted to see like you with the face hey, no, we're not playing in the cemetery, let's go back to playground. Come on, come on.
Speaker 2:We're not playing in the cemetery.
Speaker 5:Yeah yeah, there is a church right across from our house that has a church cemetery and playground, so we're going to playground, but obviously no, come on bud. Oh my God.
Speaker 3:He's messing with the flowers.
Speaker 5:No, no, no, no, no, no. I looked down for two seconds and they're just like I'm going to play with the headstones. No, yes, I know it's pretty and sparkly, no come on Come on Come on.
Speaker 3:Come on.
Speaker 5:Not messing with those. Okay, okay Come on Okay. All right, we're not going over here in the cemetery. We're going to the playground. Come on, come on, hey boys, don't live your best life, whether that's in the cemetery or not.
Speaker 3:Love o T.
Speaker 1:Some of the best content for this episode comes from the personal skeletons in your closet stories. Well, we didn't have time for all of them in the episode. I would still love to share them with you. My friends definitely kept me laughing, and I hope you'll get a laugh out of them as well. Ooh, I'm gonna tell you, though, I just did Skeletons in the Closet and I was like no fucking way.
Speaker 6:Are you serious? Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:So it was here. I'll just here. I'll ask you do you have any funny stories about Skeletons in the Closet, or do you have?
Speaker 5:Skeletons in the Closet. Um no, I don't have any like fun stories like that or really any big, exciting, dark, deep dark secret. I probably work on that because I'm trying to get more witchy in my life. I've decided that, like witch energy.
Speaker 2:You were already real witchy.
Speaker 3:No, I was just kidding.
Speaker 5:Like I just I've been like really digging like the cat eye eyeliner and I'm like I don't know this is the Halloween time or if, like I just am at that age where I identify more with the Disney villains in the stories than the actual like heroines.
Speaker 1:I very much identify with all Disney villains and feel bad for them. I feel like they're misunderstood.
Speaker 5:Right, like you're, like you know, I do kind of get where some of them come from.
Speaker 1:You know, like, yeah, like yeah, think about it Like the little, the little mermaid was given everything she could ever want by her father and she was still like but I want more. And then Ursula has to like come up in this fucking D cave and like work her whole life and like be scrounging potions for like money. And she's just misunderstood.
Speaker 5:I'd be mad too. Yeah, yeah, no, I totally get it. Like you know, she was being discriminated against. I'm very excited to hear the actual origination. Yeah, I'm, I'm. Can we do your podcast and give you so much fun stories?
Speaker 2:Oh shit, you want both. No way yeah. I can't, I can't be the girl on your podcast that only has stories about vibrators.
Speaker 1:Okay, first of all, no one's gonna know who you are Second of all, I'm going to put one in the regular episode and one in the blooper. There's a blooper section for extra shit that I couldn't fit in the podcast, but there's some like funnier stories in the bloopers that that aren't in the, the regular one.
Speaker 2:So okay, okay. So do you want my other story as well? I do, okay. Well, we'll just stick to the theme of vibrators, because apparently I like vibrators and the world can know it, and it's a totally healthy thing that I will not feel ashamed about. However, around.
Speaker 2:Christmas time, around Christmas time, while I'm on Amazon ordering everybody's Christmas gifts I don't know like, does the vibrator shut up? It's like recommended for you, if that says anything about what's in my search history. And I was like, oh yeah, I don't have that one. We should buy that, not thinking. I also bought my mom's brand new boyfriend, like first year I'll be spending Christmas with this man, maybe the second I might hmm, hard to say.
Speaker 2:I decided that I would purchase his. She wanted a flashlight. It was like a fancy flashlight. So I bought his flashlight. Totally forgot that I bought a vibrator at the same time. So I'm waiting on the flashlight to show up. I like I now have to space out the fact that I bought the vibrator at the same time.
Speaker 2:So finally a box shows up about the size of what I guess his flashlight must have been. I just wrap it. I don't even read what it is. I wrap it because I'm running late.
Speaker 2:It came the day it was supposed to be a family Christmas, so I wrap it, put a freaking bow on it, jump in the car, go to leave but realize there's another box at my front door too, and I was like, well, what that one has been. It looked like it was the same size. It was like, surely I didn't order two flashlights. So I go to my Amazon orders to see what else has been delivered and was like, oh my gosh, both the vibrator and the flashlight were delivered today and I was like I cannot drive home and risk this potentially being a vibrator that I'm about to get to my mom's new boyfriend. So I quickly unwrap the box.
Speaker 2:I picked t L because it was a vibrator and the flashlight is the box that was still on my front porch. So yeah, I was actually saved by that moment of trying to figure out why the boxes looked the same. But I ended up telling my mom about it and she actually died laughing and wished that I had given him the vibrator and that it had just like naturally played out in that way Mostly because she wanted to see if I would be more embarrassed or if he would have been more embarrassed. So he now knows the story too and he actually thinks he would have been a really good sport and I would have been the one. That was super uncomfortable. So they're probably right. And then having to try and figure out like, do I take it back? They'd be like oh no, not for you.
Speaker 3:Oops, they must have sent the wrong thing and Amazon.
Speaker 6:I'll just take that back yeah.
Speaker 3:You don't have to.
Speaker 2:I'll return it, don't worry.
Speaker 1:For the context of this next clip. We're talking about embarrassing things that could happen when I happen to tell my friend that the stories I'm getting from my male friends were all very similar.
Speaker 2:I mean from the other sounds like I could have shipped my pants when left those and that kind of stuff. I'm saying I think that's worse, you should get yourself in public.
Speaker 1:I can't put another story on this podcast Every dude has shit a a .
Speaker 2:Why is that? The only thing they want to talk about.
Speaker 1:It was like I interviewed five dudes and a couple ladies and it's like shit story, shit story, shit story, shit story. I was like I gotta interview a woman. I'm just making the same mistake over and over again? Do you have a skeleton in your closet or a most embarrassing story or something that is shameful?
Speaker 8:Yeah, of course Everybody does.
Speaker 7:Do you want to share?
Speaker 8:There was a time period when I was shooting X-rays for a portable X-ray company. I was shooting them all over Texas and I had I was driving, I hadn't eaten dinner and I drove to my appointment and I hadn't eaten. So I grabbed a soda and a burrito right before I went there and so I did the X-ray on the lady. I had my machine walked by the nurses station. They weren't there and so I was just left, you know, to go to process the X-ray. And I walked out the door, going to go to the parking lot, and I just ripped the loudest beefer in the history of the world and I heard half a dozen girls laughing and cracking up. They were all outside smoking and I didn't see them when I walked out the door. I never turned around and I never went back ever again. You never told me that story. Well, most of my stories are very similar to that. I'm not the hero in most of my tales.
Speaker 1:My brother had like my brother wanted to share like almost a very similar situation. Never in my life has that ever been an issue.
Speaker 8:Well, you don't eat gas station burritos, then that's it. That's all I got.
Speaker 1:That's all the extra content we have for you today. I hope you enjoyed the little bit of extra. Remember to like and subscribe to the podcast to catch every episode and the bloopers. We'll catch you next time.