Ripley Entertainment Inc.'s Blog, page 232
December 13, 2019
The Inspiration Behind Your Favorite Pokémon
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Pokémon is back this year with the release of Sword and Shield. With new Pokémon entering the fray, it poses the question, what inspires these new monsters? Some origins are easy to spot, like the franchise mascot Pikachu—an electric Pika, a little mountain-dwelling mammal—while others have some pretty crazy inspirations. Let’s take a look at the creative influences behind some of the strangest Pokemon characters.
An American pika.
Like the adorable Pika, it’s easy to spot the animal relations to some Pokémon, but the mythical-inspired creatures can require a bit more imagination. With much of the series based on regions of Japan, a lot of that mythology snuck in…
Mawile, the deceiver Pokémon, is based on a Japanese monster known as the Futakuchi-onna: a two-mouthed woman. While many different stories of this Yokai exist in Japanese folklore, they all have some key elements. A woman is married to a miser who doesn’t want to pay for her food, so she rarely eats. This causes her to grow a large, second mouth on the back of her head. Her hair gets involved too, forming serpents the help her shovel food into her mouth when she does eat. With this knowledge, it makes Mawile a bit more terrifying than just a little Pokémon with an interesting hairdo!
An image of a futakuchi-onna from the Ehon Hyaku Monogatari
Sticking with folklore, it’s only fair to take a look at Hypno, the hypnosis Pokémon. If you can look away from the ominous pendulum long enough, you’ll see it’s a Baku. Now, this Japanese term has a double meaning and both apply to this character. The first is a name for the Malayan Tapir and as you can see, the body type of this Asian mammal inspired Hypno—especially that nose. The second meaning is the mythical dream eater, a positive force that would be called upon to eat nightmares. That said, while positive, if the Baku is not satiated by your nightmares, it will go on to eat your hopes and dreams, as well.
Malayan Tapir
Moving away from Japan and all of its folklore, let’s take a look at one of the stranger designs, Sigilyph the Avianoid Pokémon. As the name might suggest, it’s actually based on a geoglyph. These Pokémon can be found in desert areas in the game, and what else is found in the desert? The Nazca lines in Peru. Looking at the strange appendages and wing formations of Sigilyph, it’s clear that it takes inspiration from the Hummingbird, Condor, and Heron found in this mysterious area.
The most recent games also contained a bizarre set of fossil Pokémon. While many other games had Pokémon that could be revived from fossilized remains, Sword and Shield allows players to combine pairs of fossils when reviving them to form different Pokémon. While these are some of the strangest designs we’ve ever seen, it’s not unheard of for there to be issues with fossils, especially back during the Bone Wars. When new fossil parts were being discovered, archaeologists struggled to pair them up correctly, and some of the ideas they led to some strange pairings… and clearly weren’t right.
Paleontologist Edward Cope, for example, placed the skull on the wrong end of this elasmosaurus.
While there are plenty more Pokémon in the Pokedex, these are just a few strange highlights. Which designs raise the biggest eyebrow for you? Let us know in the comments below, and tune in next week for an all-new episode of Cool Stuff Strange Things.
December 12, 2019
Did Coca-Cola Invent The Modern Image Of Santa Claus?
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Back in 2007, a controversy the size of Santa’s jelly belly rocked the world. Claims were made that Claus wears his iconic scarlet apparel because it’s the same color as Coca–Cola’s branding. Yikes! The thought of explaining to starry-eyed youngsters that Jolly Old Saint Nicholas wears red because of soda “Mad Men” filled many parents’ hearts with dread.
Fortunately, a little Christmas history reveals everybody’s favorite giant elf has been sporting shades of ruby, vermilion, and burgundy since the 1860s, about 70 years before Coca-Cola developed its iconic image of St. Nick.
Read on to find out more about the evolution of the North Pole’s most famous resident and Coca-Cola’s actual role in the cultivation of his image.
Santa’s Origins
In 2008, Phil Mooney—director of Coca-Cola Company’s Archives Department—set the record straight about Santa’s brightly-colored garb. Mooney explained, “Actually, we do not claim the color of Santa’s coat, though it has worked out well for us since red is so closely related to Coca-Cola! But we did not come up with the idea of putting Santa in red clothes.”
Santa has worn his traditional red outfit since the mid-19th century. How do we know? Thanks to an 1868 advertisement for Sugar Plums by the US Confection Company of New York. What’s more, illustrations by the “Father of the American Christmas card,” Louis Prang, also depict him in his now-famous attire. Famed political cartoonist, Thomas Nast, played a crucial role in “fleshing out” Santa’s plump physique and providing him with all of his trappings. But he dressed him in many different colors.
Prang and Nast both hailed from Germany, which shouldn’t come as a surprise. Many of the longest-held traditions celebrated during the Yuletide come from Germanic Europe, including Advent calendars, gingerbread houses, and Christmas trees.
As for the concept of Santa Claus? He’s based on a flesh–and–blood 4th-century Greek hero, St. Nicholas, the patron saint of children. Originating in what is modern–day Turkey, Nicholas earned a reputation for secret gift–giving. His generosity included putting coins in shoes left out for him. And he gifted three impoverished sisters with dowries so they could get married instead of becoming prostitutes. (Have fun explaining that one to your kids!)
Santa’s Pictorial History
The first pictorial images of St. Nicholas were religious icons. A great example is the 13th-century St. Nicholas “Lipensky” Russian icon from Lipnya Church of St. Nicholas in Novgorod. Over time, the saint’s image slowly transformed, as did his name. Santa Claus is a derivative of the Dutch Sinterklaas, an abbreviation of Sint Nikolaas. The Dutch also pictured him riding a white horse across rooftops while carrying a staff. Why rooftops? Because that’s where his minions lurked, eavesdropping at the chimneys of houses with kids.
These rooftop legends also link Santa Claus to the Norse god Odin who judged good and bad kids. Doesn’t that beard look a little Odin-like to you? By the 17th century, Santa used a variety of titles from Sir Christmas to Lord Christmas and Old Father Christmas, and he started wearing fur-trimmed robes. Whether or not these robes were red is up for debate as the illustrations were black-and-white engravings.
By the 19th century, as Dutch, German, and British immigrants to the US continued to mingle, so did their rich traditions surrounding Santa. By the 1860s, Thomas Nast’s illustrations depicted Santa with his reindeer and a sleigh. What’s more, Nast made him jolly and pipe-smoking. But he dressed him in a wide variety of outfits, from head-to-toe yellow to star-and-stripe patterned suits. Although he didn’t necessarily wear red, Nast’s images of Santa are highly recognizable to this day.
A Nast drawing of Santa from 1863.
Coca-Cola and Santa
It’s safe to say that the modern images we associate with Santa Claus reached recognizable maturity by the 1860s and 1870s thanks to artists like Louis Sprang and Thomas Nast. As for Coca-Cola? It was invented in 1886 by Dr. John S. Pemberton, an Atlanta pharmacist. The company wouldn’t start advertising with Santa until the 1930s.
Nevertheless, when Coke’s advertising guru, Archie Lee, hired Haddon Sundblom to create fresh images of Saint Nicholas, Lee hit marketing gold. Sundblom’s gorgeous illustrations from 1931 to 1964 helped codify our image of Santa today. But it’s important to note he drew inspiration from previous artists as well as Clement Clarke Moore’s poem, “A Visit from St. Nicholas,” a.k.a “’Twas the Night Before Christmas.”
By Engrid Barnett, contributor for Ripleys.com
Source: Did Coca-Cola Invent The Modern Image Of Santa Claus?
December 11, 2019
Santa’s Sleigh Is Pulled By Female Reindeer
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Female Reindeer
Believe it or not, both male and female reindeer grow antlers, and despite the depiction of Dasher, Dancer, Prancer, Vixen, Comet, Cupid, Donner, Blitzen, (and Rudolph) as males in most media; they are most likely females.
Though the shedding schedule of a deer’s antlers can be affected by climate and age, most male reindeer lose their horns in the Winter, which, incidentally, is when Christmas occurs.
Females lose their antlers during the warm summer months, while males keep theirs to fight for breeding rights. By the time winter rolls around, male reindeer aren’t just without their horns, but are also usually much less nourished and fattened than the females. Not only would Santa’s reindeer have to be female to have horns, but to be big and strong enough to pull a sleigh full of toys, they’d have to be in peak physical condition.
Rudolph
Referring back to reindeer names, the original Dutch reindeer lore has deer named Dunder and Blixem, meaning thunder and lightning, instead of Donner and Blitzen. Rudolph may have been a late addition to Santa’s squad, but red-nosed reindeer to crop up in the wild.
Because reindeer live in the harshest of wintery tundras, they must migrate under sub-zero conditions. To aid them in supporting their powerful bodies, they have dense arrays of capillaries in their noses, which sometimes appear pink. This warm flow of blood warms the air they breathe in, keeping them from getting brain freezes while running.
As for being able to see in blizzard conditions, reindeer have special eyes to aid them through the virtually sunless days of the Arctic. Reindeer have the ability to see ultraviolet light and are unaffected by snow-blindness. They can easily see a predator’s urine in the snow, spot other reindeer through storms, and even see food below the ice. They also have a reflective coating behind their eyes that helps bounce more light into their retinas, enhancing their night vision!
Put Your Paws Together For The World’s Smartest Dogs
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
While the average household may train their dogs to do the simple canine tasks like sit, lay down, and speak, Sara Carson has never been one to settle for the ordinary. For years she has perfected her skills as a professional dog trainer and has helped her fearless pups perfect their extraordinary talents as well.
Carson has been named one of the top international trick dog trainers and has received a multitude of titles, awards, and recognitions for her achievements. And, as proof of her undeniable talents, her Super Collies—Hero, Loki, Groot, Hawkeye, and Marvel—certainly know how to “wow” the crowd.
Originally from Canada, Carson set out across America with Hero, traveling and performing while exploring America.
When she was little, people told her dog training was just a hobby, but Carson has turned it into so much more. She now runs a training ranch in California where she not only trains her own pack of super-intelligent dogs, but also helps other people train their pets and deepen their bonds.
You can find the Super Collies’ story inside Ripley’s Believe It or Not! Beyond the Bizarre!
Source: Put Your Paws Together For The World’s Smartest Dogs
Parents Used To Send Their Children Through The Mail
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
Remember when you misbehaved as a child and your parents threated to “send you away?” Well, what if we told you that, at a time, they had the ability to literally do just that? Maybe we would have fought less with our siblings or been more reluctant to use our colored markers on the wallpaper if we knew that when the mailman came, he could have taken us with him…
Pushing The Limits
Back in 1913, post offices began accepting packages over four pounds—which, at the time was a total shell shock for the postal system. But, there’s a good chance the U.S. Parcel Service didn’t think that change all the way through. With larger package sizes, you would think more regulations would be set for what could or could not go inside them, right? Wrong.
Aside from being able to send heavier items along with the local mailman, there were extremely vague rules in place for what these weighted items were allowed to be. So, naturally, people began pushing the limits of their mail courier by shipping some interesting packages to family and friends. Soon enough, mailmen everywhere were transporting items like eggs, bricks, and snakes! And while slithery serpents arriving at your front door may seem like the ultimate shock, people took it a step even further.
Precious Cargo
Nancy Pope, head curator of history at the National Postal Museum, can recall there being at least seven instances of people shipping their children in the mail between 1913 and 1915. Within the first month of this new parcel rule, the Beagues, a couple in Ohio, paid 15 cents for stamps, along with some insurance money, to surrender their infant son over to the mailman. Granted, his “shipping address” was only about a mile away at his grandmother’s, but can you imagine handing your baby over to your community’s mailman covered head-to-toe in stamps?
People and the Post, Postal History from the Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum via Flickr
While baby Beagues had a short journey to grandma’s house, May Pierstorff and Maud Smith, on the contrary, had some pretty extensive travel plans. Pierstoff was sent 73 miles away by Railway Mail, and Smith—the last of the seven “mail babies”—was shipped 40 miles through Kentucky. The longest trek, however, was taken by a six-year-old girl from her home in Florida, 720 miles north to her father’s house in Virginia. Covered in 53 cents-worth of stamps, this little tot put on some serious mileage.
Family Road Trip
Being that there were less than ten of these instances in two years, it clearly wasn’t common practice to ship your children. And to be fair, even the rare occurrences were normally between families and mailmen they knew extremely well or even were related to. But even so, sending children covered in stamps across the states with couriers was not in any way an ideal situation.
After a handful of these shipments occurred, the mail system seemed to wise-up a bit and officially banned postal workers from shipping human beings through the mail. People tried to sneak past this new rule, and some even got away with it, but eventually mail people wised up and decided to save their jobs rather than place a baby in their canvas tote bags.
Source: Parents Used To Send Their Children Through The Mail
December 10, 2019
Uncovering Medical Mysteries – Ripley’s Believe It or Notcast Episode 27
Featured in Ripley's Believe It or Not!
What if you woke up, but couldn’t speak again? What if you could only speak in another accent? From foreign language syndrome to terminal insomnia, and even hiccups lasting for years, medical mysteries afflict people all over the world.
This week on the Notcast, we talk to a man who had the hiccups for three years, and to a woman who woke up one day with an entirely different accent.
Possums “Playing” Dead?
For more weird news and strange stories, visit our homepage, and be sure to rate and share this episode of the Notcast!
Source: Uncovering Medical Mysteries – Ripley’s Believe It or Notcast Episode 27
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