Unwrapping A Christmas Story: From Ovaltine to Bunny Suits (Busting Back Episode)

Put on your pink bunny suits and make a mashed potato mound with Meatloaf, Smeatloaf, Double-beatloaf! In this BUSTING BACK episode, Ella and Jackie tackle everyone's favorite Christmas fun facts for A Christmas Story movie.

We're unwrapping the realities behind the film's most iconic scenes, from the debated dangers of BB guns to the sticky situation of tongues on frozen poles and answering the all-important "Can you really go blind from soap poisoning?" 

We'll uncovering the myths and facts behind:

• Do people really wash kids mouths out with soap?
• Can you get soap poisoning?
• Can soap poisoning cause blindness?
• Can you really shoot your eye out with a BB?
• Can an icicle injure an eye?
• Do tongues really stick to flagpoles?

& SO MUCH MORE!

We're dishing out laughs and lore as we dig into Ralphie, his dysfunctional family, and more about The Christmas Story holiday movie. 

Transcript

Speaker 1 0:02

Hey guys, welcome to Parent Busters, a fun podcast where parents and kids can learn together. I'm Ella, I'm here with my mom, jackie, yay, yay. Well, that's in the holiday spirit. I'm full of Christmas spirit, I can tell, and today we're going to be busting some Christmas story claims.

Speaker 2 0:22

Yeah, the Christmas story movie which I'm sure almost everyone knows right it plays nonstop during like on Christmas Eve or something.

Speaker 1 0:31

How can you not see?

Speaker 2 0:33

Yeah, like you don't have to go out and seek it out. Ralph Ralphie, Red Rider, BB Gun bunny, funny suit, funny suit.

Speaker 1 0:41

How could you not like that?

Speaker 2 0:42

No funny suit. So we started talking about it and one day and we were like can you really get so poisoning? Yeah, can you really shoot your eye out with a BB gun?

Speaker 1 0:53

Because there's some pretty exaggerated explanation.

Speaker 2 0:56

Can you really get your tongue stuck on a pole? Can an icicle?

Speaker 1 1:03

really put your eye out, See that one seems possible yeah it does, and terrifying.

Speaker 2 1:09

So we thought we would go through and bust those claims that they make in the Christmas story movie Mostly, I guess, by Ralphie.

Speaker 1 1:17

Yeah.

Speaker 2 1:17

What's up, ralphie?

Speaker 1 1:19

Hey, yo what's up.

Speaker 2 1:20

Hey, I guess before we get started we should do our two tricks in the lie.

Speaker 1 1:24

That's correct.

Speaker 2 1:25

Okay, here we go. We're told for a very important message. Number one there are three Christmas story movies.

Speaker 2 1:34

Oh number two, there's a fantasy sequence where Ralphie joins Flash Gordon. Say what, okay? And number three the BB and BB gun stands for ball bearing. Huh, okay, all right. So if you're just listening to us for the first time, you'll pick up the answers to the two truths that lie throughout the podcast, and then we'll give them to you at the end also. Yeah, hey, do you want to start with? I kind of compiled some like backstory fun facts about the Christmas story movie. Yeah, so the Christmas story was originally scripted by someone named Gene Shepherd, and he really did grow up in Indiana, which is where the Christmas story movie is set.

Speaker 1 2:23

Wait, did I know this?

Speaker 2 2:24

Yes, and I think you say that every time.

Speaker 1 2:26

I probably do.

Speaker 2 2:28

He grew up in the thirties and forties in Indiana and the Christmas story script is written based on his memories of growing up during that time. The Christmas story is based on a book by him called in God we trust and all others pay cash and it's like a collection. That's an amazing title. It's like a collection of kind of semi-autobiographical short stories from him. When it first opened, it opened in. Would you care to guess the year it opened in?

Speaker 1 3:04

Nope.

Speaker 2 3:04

The movie.

Speaker 1 3:05

The movie 1970, something 1983. Oh, I was earlier.

Origins and Facts of "A Christmas Story"

Speaker 2 3:13

It opened the week before Thanksgiving and it only showed on. It didn't even show on 900 theater screens. Wow, the costination. However, it made $2 million in its first weekend in 1983. Wow. And then it doubled that on Thanksgiving weekend and then it went away. The author so Gene Shepherd. He also created another version called the Phantom of the Open Hearth and he wrote and directed it based on growing up in around a youth in 1976. It was a PBS broadcast movie, so it was a TV movie. It's not about, it's not a holiday story, but in this story the dad wins a prize of leg lamp yes, a leg lamp that eventually shatters. So he took he kind of took all of these things and incorporated them into what we know as the Christmas story movie Compiled different parts of his writing into this one massive project.

Speaker 2 4:15

Yes, Do you know where the leg lamp came from? Well, no, I always found that really strange it is kind of if you haven't seen the movie first of all, just stop listening to this and go watch a Christmas story Maybe after it. Actually, maybe do that after. Well, then come back and listen to the rest. It's a great movie to watch with your whole family. It's so funny. I mean. We've seen it a million times and we still laugh out loud at it, you can't avoid it.

Speaker 1 4:45

No, it will come free.

Speaker 2 4:47

In the Christmas story, if you remember, if you've seen it, the dad wins a prize and it comes in a big crate that stamped fragile, except the dad says fragile. Look it's fragile. It must be Italian, so he doesn't know what's in the big crate. He won this prize and he opens it and it's this very sexy. I mean what?

Speaker 1 5:12

I don't know how interesting it has.

Speaker 2 5:14

It's a woman's leg.

Speaker 1 5:16

Fishnet stock Porcelain. Porcelain woman's leg.

Speaker 2 5:19

And right, not a real woman's leg, it's a lamp and it has a big scrum shade on it with fringe. Is she wearing a high heel? I can't remember. I would guess so. Anyway he thought of that for that story, the Phantom of the Open Hearth. By the way, can we just give props to that title too?

Speaker 1 5:39

The.

Speaker 2 5:40

Phantom of the Open Hearth. He saw there is a soda called Nehi N-E-H-I.

Speaker 1 5:52

Yeah.

Speaker 2 5:53

And it's all. It's like flavored soda, so like the one that I always see is orange. But apparently there was an ad for Nehi that featured the Nehi soda along with the woman's leg why? And in the ad it ended just above the knee Get it, nehi, nehi, oh, that's so good. He saw that ad and somehow thought wouldn't that be hysterical?

Speaker 1 6:24

Acquainted it to a lamp.

Speaker 2 6:25

Yeah, if somebody won, the dad won. So anyway, if you haven't seen the movie, I mean, what are you doing with your life? But to the dad the leg lamp plays is almost like another character in the movie.

Speaker 1 6:41

It's such a driving point.

Speaker 2 6:44

It is so. That's how he came up with the Nehi, the woman's lamp.

Speaker 1 6:50

So weird.

Speaker 2 6:52

There are five Christmas story movies. Say what, what, five, five. There's the original one where Ralphie wanted the ride, ride or be begun. Okay. Okay, yeah, so like the one most people know there was a Disney Channel TV movie called Ollie Hop Noodle's Haven of Bliss and it's a 14 year old Ralphie looking for a job.

Speaker 1 7:17

What.

Speaker 2 7:18

Ollie Hop, so we need to. I feel like an entire day coming up for us.

Speaker 1 7:24

Oh no, I mean, we already had a few plans Right now.

Speaker 2 7:28

There was one called it Runs in the Family, so these are all kind of based around carrying forward the story of Ralphie. There was one called it Runs in the Family and it was also known as my Summer Story. That came out in 1994. A Christmas Story 2 follows a teenage, ralphie, and his quest for a new car. Oh, that came out in 2012. And now, just this year 2022, the newest one came out, called a Christmas Story Christmas, and that's where an adult Ralphie returns to the house where he grew up to try to give his family the same kind of Christmas that he had.

Speaker 1 8:07

Oh, okay, that's really cute, so there are really five Christmas stories. And.

Speaker 2 8:14

I don't think every one of them have the original Ralphie, but the first one does, and the last one, which is when he's an adult, does.

Speaker 1 8:23

Yeah, because I've seen We've already started planning a day around watching the first one and then the new one, and then we found out there's a second one and apparently there's more.

Speaker 2 8:34

Now I kind of want to watch all of them and just see I'm scared. Yeah, how many people a year do you think, watch a Christmas Story movie? Oh 2.3 million 40 million people.

Speaker 2 8:48

Okay, I was a little low Dang so even though the movie was based in Indiana, it was really filmed in Cleveland Ohio and in Ontario. Yeah, did you know that the Christmas Story House is a museum in Cleveland Ohio? So I feel a road trip coming on this year for you and the two of us. Yes, the author who wrote the book and then the script, gene Shepherd. He has a cameo appearance in the movie. Wait, really, I never knew this. Who was he? Remember the grouchy when they're standing in line to see Santa? Do you remember the grouchy guy who tells Ralphie get to the back?

Speaker 1 9:34

of the line.

Speaker 2 9:35

Elf guy, no, no, he's like a dad standing in line with his kids.

Speaker 1 9:41

See, when I think of that scene, I immediately think of the A-Kid. The little bell hanging down in front of my face, passive-aggressively yes. I don't know how a bell can be passive-aggressive, but yet it is. It is, oh, okay, that's I like how he wrote himself as a grumpy old guy.

Speaker 2 10:01

Yeah, he's the guy. So when you're watching it this year, keep an eye out. He's the guy in line. When Ralphie and Randy go to get in line they kind of cut. But I think they don't really know they're cutting. Remember they were like, oh, the line's not that long, and the guy was like the line starts back there. The line's back there and it shows and it's like all the way winding around the department store. That's Gene Chepard. That's the guy who wrote the Christmas story. That's amazing. How many leg lamps do you think were made for the movie? Lower than you think? Four. There were three leg lamps made for the movie and all of them were broken on set Purposefully. I don't know what you're going to say and you probably won't know this show, but I think some of the parents will. There was a show called the Wonder Years and this was when I was a kid.

Speaker 1 11:00

I think I do know that show.

Speaker 2 11:02

Yeah, I think they might have done a remake.

Speaker 1 11:03

They did a reboot that we talked about and that I need to watch.

Speaker 2 11:07

Yeah, it was a great show. A Christmas story inspired the Wonder Years, what I know no way. So that's your background to a Christmas story and some fun facts that you can surprise and awe your Christmas guests this year with.

Speaker 1 11:24

Or concern them that? How do you know these?

Speaker 2 11:26

I say, break out all five of the Christmas stories and make everyone watch them, because that's what I'm going to do at my house, and then we can come air notes on social media. Okay, so one of the biggest thing about the Christmas story movie is again, if you don't, know the Red Riber BB, ride your BB gun with the clock and, like the Handle the stock and the compass and the thing that tells time.

Speaker 1 11:54

Is that what he says? It's like the fancy. Yes, you don't know what a BB gun is, because I didn't know what it was before seeing Christmas story. It is a type of gun that uses compressed air instead of gunpowder to shoot out projectiles, and typically the projectiles are ball bearings, hence the name BB gun.

Speaker 2 12:18

Yeah, and it's something like a kid would have, yes, even though it can cause some harm. So, but throughout the entire movie, people tell Ralphie that he can't have a Red Riber BB gun because you'll shoot your eye out, kid Right.

Speaker 1 12:36

His mom starts, and then the evil, passive, aggressive health guy.

Speaker 2 12:40

Everyone tells him you can't have a BB gun because you'll shoot your eye out.

Speaker 1 12:44

So Santa, just full on crushes, dreams Come on.

Speaker 2 12:47

Well, to be fair, he just told Santa he wanted a football. So the first red writer BB gun was produced in March 1940. And do you know why it's called Red Rider?

Speaker 1 12:59

Why.

Speaker 2 13:00

It is named after a comic strip character. Say what? So? The name Red Rider is the name of the Western comic strip character, and that comic strip was syndicated in newspapers nationwide from 1938 to 1965. And apparently red. I remember Red Rider because that was shockingly before, even my time Dang, but apparently he was. Red Rider was a big, huge hero. He was in comic books and books and in movies. Huh. So they created a Red Rider BB gun to honor Red Rider. By the end of the 1940s the Red Rider BB guns had sold 4 million guns in one year. Wow. It was created by a company named Daisy, so you'll sometimes hear it referred to as the Daisy Red Rider BB gun, and it's said to be the most popular BB gun ever built. Wow. So can you shoot your eye If you've never seen BBs? They're tiny.

Speaker 1 14:04

They are very small, like metal kind of balls.

Speaker 2 14:07

Tiny, I don't even I'm trying to think of something that would. If you've ever seen a pushpin with like the little ball on the end, that's what. I was thinking that's about how big the BB gun it might be even smaller, a little smaller than that.

Speaker 1 14:20

Well, yes, you most definitely can not only shoot your eye out, you can get seriously injured by a.

Speaker 2 14:28

BB gun. So we did not bust the Smith because they were right.

Speaker 1 14:34

They were very, very right.

Speaker 2 14:34

Ralfie could shoot his eye out. Potentially, yes, they are. Even though they're small, they are fast enough, they can fully penetrate your eye. Yeah, yes, they can even go through your eye and lodge into your brain.

Speaker 1 14:49

Yay, welcome to Christmas. And it not only can it do that, it could also cause Permanent blindness in the eye like right it's dangerous? And if Ralphie wasn't wearing his glasses? Cuz Spoiler alert. Surprise, surprise, he does end up shooting it.

Speaker 2 15:08

It ricocheting off of a sign and hitting his eye was it kind of like when I threw that banana in the Mario game the other night and okay, so Side story time, Christmas story time.

Speaker 1 15:21

Actually it's not, it's a Mario Kart story time. We, we play Mario Kart together a lot Okay not a lot, let's not.

Speaker 1 15:29

it goes in spurts it goes like holidays, when we have downtime, we do play yeah, and so we can see each other screens. We're playing on the same screen and she's driving along and she gets a banana peel power that when you throw, if someone hits it, it like causes their card is men and so Naturally she threw it so someone could hopefully hit it, and it ricocheted off of a lamp post in the scenery and Directly hit her and I got to witness that. And not only that, I got it on video and it blew me up and it blew her up and I was and she was just like what just happened and I was dying.

Speaker 2 16:14

So kind of like Ralphie's BB Pellet ricocheted off and came back and hit him my banana. The National Center for Biotechnology Information or the NCBI. They did a study on the incident of BB gun injury reports and they said that 12.9 people, so almost 13 people per every hundred thousand people, will suffer appellate gun injury. That seems kind of high to me.

Speaker 1 16:50

I don't know why which is the type of gun? A baby gun right.

Speaker 2 16:54

Males between the age of 10 and 14 were the most commonly injured. Gee, that's, that's not 62% of the injuries were accident, but nearly 14 of the 14% of the injuries were from direct assault. Somebody was purposely shooting a BB gun at someone to try to do harm. That's terrifying. And guess what? Bb gun injuries are on the rise.

Speaker 1 17:21

Yeah, if you plan on using a BB gun or like a Nerf gun or something along the range, because Nerf guns not as small and hard, but still if you get shot in the eye with a Nerf gun you got shot in the eye with a Nerf gun.

Speaker 2 17:36

Oh yeah, I got shot right like right under you, like almost my eye and it scared me so much. So then now I make you guys wear I. We got eye protection from like Home Depot.

Speaker 1 17:48

Yeah, we've been wearing it every time we do it. But yeah, when you do that one, be safe, don't aim at anyone's face and to please wear eye protection. We don't want you to get hurt.

Speaker 2 17:59

This message brought to you by the Parent.

Speaker 1 18:02

Buster's Safety Alu.

Speaker 2 18:03

Wilson Safety Council. Yes, so we didn't bust that. They were right, everyone was right. You can shoot your eye out.

Speaker 1 18:11

They busted themselves, they busted their eye Pre-bust.

Speaker 2 18:16

I just have to tell you this is disgusting and I apologize, parents, but I can't hold it in. Oh no, whenever I say shoot your eye, whenever they say shoot your eye out, I just imagine the eyeball just like dangling Gosh. I might cut that out later. Okay, so let's move on. Move on for my gross gross Visceral description. Can an icicle injure your eye, so let's discuss why we put this one in here.

Speaker 1 18:52

Yeah, well, in the movie after he Gets his eye or glasses technically broken, he didn't hurt his eye with the baby gun the baby gun. He comes inside and his mom's like what the heck happened, and he's crying yeah and he was like if I say I Should.

Speaker 2 19:15

I shut my eyes with the baby gun.

Speaker 1 19:17

I will never get to use this again, so he's like Baby.

Speaker 2 19:25

And he's all in like.

Speaker 1 19:27

Glasses and she's like oh honey, right, and then it hit my glasses and I broke my glasses and then he's like a.

Speaker 2 19:35

So he full-on lied to his mom at Christmas.

The Danger of Icicles

Speaker 1 19:38

I mean Dang, but yeah, that's forget the logistics of it. Oh, did you ever want like hit icicles off? Yeah, when you're a kid loved it, it's so fun.

Speaker 2 19:50

I still like it.

Speaker 1 19:52

Yeah, and then I I Go under icicles now and you're like, no, don't don't do it. And I'm like, why? But they're so don't do it.

Speaker 2 20:00

Well, because there is a Technique that you have to become an expert in doing, and you're not yet an icicle Hitter expert.

Speaker 1 20:14

Mother, I cannot learn if you don't let me learn you have to okay, kids, don't try this at home.

Speaker 2 20:20

You have to stand to the side and hit them up. You can't stand directly under them and hit them off, or else they fall down and hit you, and some of the icicles that we have here are Huge, big.

Speaker 1 20:35

Yeah, I'm just like size of the building also. Oh, yeah.

Speaker 2 20:40

So do you have any ideas how icicles, before we get to, can you put your eye out with an icicle, the main? I'm trying to remember this. What episode did we talk about my grandpa telling me that he put his eye out? Should we tell it here?

Speaker 2 21:01

well, if you're acting like that, maybe that should be okay, so I'll tell oh no, and welcome back to Jackie Childhood, my here you are my, if you remember, both of my parents are southern. I talk about it a lot. We we grew up going to the south all the time, so I kind of feel kind of southern.

Speaker 1 21:29

You're so my southern I'm so my southern.

Speaker 2 21:32

But my grandpa, so my, my mom's dad, um, was hysterical, but he had a bad eye that was injured and so it almost was like all white, yeah. So I used to ask him about it and he used to just say, oh honey, papa had that I put out in the war. Well, why would I not believe that story?

Speaker 1 21:55

What's? What's the reason I know this?

Speaker 2 21:57

What's the real story? So we're sitting years later I'm an adult, by the way and we're sitting at a family funeral. We were sitting around with my cousins and I said something well, you know, remember, papa had that eye that was put out in the war. And my cousin looked at me like I was insane and I was like he was like. He just started laughing at me and I was like what? And he said well, papa's eye got injured in a bar fight. And I Was like, yeah, papa's eye got injured in a bar fight. He just didn't want to tell you that Back when he was rowdy. That's, that's incredible, that's all. So this doesn't have anything to do with the Christmas story, but it does have to do with getting your eye put out. So I was like, I was like. I was like. I was like. I was like. I was like. I was like. I was like. I was like. I was like that's what the paper I put out. You're welcome. My mom will be so happy that I shared that story.

Speaker 1 23:08

I feel like um half the time. You can never trust what papas say.

Speaker 2 23:15

Right, especially if they're practical jokers. Exactly but I just want you to know that I was an adult, at least when I learned that what war. Yeah, I don't. My cousins thought that was hysterical, though, but he just told little me oh honey, what's he gonna say to a little girl that's asking about what happened to his?

Speaker 1 23:33

eyes. Oh yeah, I got into a bar fight.

Speaker 2 23:34

Right.

Speaker 1 23:35

Why are you even at the bar?

Speaker 2 23:37

Back to our regularly scheduled program.

Speaker 1 23:40

Um, how icicles formed. Did you know how icicles form? I do, I actually have it written in my notes oh wait, preparation I do research, wow, so icicles are formed from snow mountain, I mean I don't know how you're gonna follow up.

Speaker 2 23:58

I got my eye put out in a bar fight. But you can try.

Speaker 1 24:00

I'm really not gonna top it. Um icicles are formed from the snow melting off of a building or object, usually with an overhang. Um usually from either from internal heat, from like home heating or like car heating, or external heat like the sun, and then re-freezing itself when it drops below freezing.

Speaker 2 24:26

That's, and that's crazy if you think about it, because that means it's melting, dripping down and re-freezing immediately as it drips down.

Speaker 1 24:34

It gives the same vibe as like a stalactite. Yeah right, Exactly. Exactly so it attaches itself to the ease of your house or the side of your car and just kind of chills there it feels there.

Speaker 2 24:51

Ha ha, I've been waiting all podcasts to use that. Um, maybe If you've ever looked at an, if you live in a place where you get icicles, if you've ever looked at them, they're almost never completely smooth, but they have ice. They're called ice ripples, apparently, and they're almost always consistent in like their spacing.

Speaker 1 25:14

Oh, that kind of makes sense because of how the layers freeze.

Speaker 2 25:17

Do you know why? It's not because of that. It's not. It's caused by those ripples. The reason that they aren't completely smooth is it's caused by the impurities in the water, like salts, wow.

Speaker 1 25:30

Yeah, so the more pure the water is, the smoother it'll be.

Speaker 2 25:33

That's right, oh, I know Now you have a study to do. Well, actually you can do it this weekend because we're basically under a Blizzard watch. Yay, oh no, we're taping this a few days before Christmas and we're smack dab in the middle. We actually had to Grinch postpone Christmas at our house this year.

Speaker 1 25:52

So we can all stay in playing.

Speaker 2 25:54

So we're not getting out of our pajamas for like seven days.

Speaker 1 25:56

Yay.

Speaker 2 25:58

You can check in on us next week if you want. According to so, this is goes on more about the science of freezing the globe, and mailcom said, quoting while common sense dictates that water should be freezing at an equal rate on all parts of an icicle, it's clear the tip grows faster than the sides. It grows as much as 20 times faster. That's because the tip of the icicle get this forms a hollow tube, what? And then it grows into the part that dangles down, the part that, so the water droplets narrow as they get down.

Speaker 1 26:37

So worry you if you were to take a large icicle and saw the top open. But it has a two.

Speaker 2 26:43

It has a hollow tube near the tip.

Speaker 1 26:46

I think we need to do an ice spearman. Yes.

Speaker 2 26:49

Well, I'm serious, you'll be able to do it probably in the next two days, so what?

Speaker 1 26:54

would be safe to do it.

Speaker 2 26:56

Let's get daddy to get on. That's the way to do it we used to take when we were kids. We used to take the broom, the sweeping broom, yeah Out and just knock them down.

Speaker 1 27:07

I used to do that, and then you'd be like no.

Speaker 2 27:10

I am the fun sucker. I know they grew, I'm not out of this. So a scientist and I'm so sorry I didn't write down his name started studying icicles. He created a lab where they could grow icicles and that's how they knew about the ice ripples and the impurities Wow. But in their studies they showed it took. How long do you think it takes to make a 20 inch tapered spike ice icicle? So imagine, wow, imagine. Almost two rulers on top of each other.

Speaker 1 27:44

Oh, I feel like a week.

Speaker 2 27:45

It takes eight hours. What Say what? Why would you say a week? You know that we get those big, huge icicles in an overnight. So okay, see, time is a sphere and we're one time doesn't exist anymore, apparently.

Speaker 1 28:00

And two sometimes I forget how short two feet actually, yeah, and I think it's probably four feet in my head for some reason.

Speaker 2 28:09

That's the story you're going with.

Speaker 1 28:11

Yes, okay.

Speaker 2 28:12

So in my heart it's a week. Let's bust this myth then. Is it a myth? Can icicles injure your eye?

Speaker 1 28:19

Yes.

Speaker 2 28:20

Can they break your glasses?

Speaker 1 28:22

Oh yeah, yeah, they're very very dangerous.

Speaker 2 28:25

In fact, in just 2019, a Spokane Washington doctor reported that a 10 year old girl was standing under an icicle looking at it. It fell and it punctured her eye. And not only that, it was the second case during that week. Oh no, and guess what? There have been reported fatalities, icicle and ice injuries as far back as the 1700s 1700s I don't like so. Once again, Ralphie in the Christmas story was right you really can injure your eye with an icicle. So don't stand under icicles looking at them. Stand out a little bit.

Speaker 1 29:03

Yeah, because falling icicles can cause a range of things to happen, depending on how high up and how big it is from bleeding cuts to bruises or concussion or broken bones, even Yep, they can get pretty intense.

Speaker 2 29:19

Icicles can get really big. I actually meant dang it. I forgot I meant to look up what was the largest recorded icicles, because they can get big and very heavy. Well, national.

Speaker 1 29:30

Safety Inc says that icicles can form to weigh over a thousand pounds.

Speaker 2 29:36

I believe that because think about, like when we're watching science documentaries and you see, like glaciers and things like that, those icicles are massive. All right, kim, let's move on. In an ultimate show of peer pressure, schwartz's triple dog dares Flick to stick his tongue on the flagpole at school to see if it would freeze, and Ralphie, of course, says that Schwartz created a slight breach of etiquette by skipping the triple dare and going straight to the triple dog dare. So if someone triple dog dares you.

Speaker 1 30:18

It's like, oh, you can't not?

Speaker 2 30:20

Yeah, you have to do it. Which?

Speaker 1 30:21

also can we just talk about if someone's saying that you don't have to.

Tongue Stickiness on Metal Flagpole

Speaker 2 30:25

No. Like that is no, don't fall into peer pressure. That can be dangerous. Yeah, and also, don't stick your tongue on a metal flagpole, because can your tongue get stuck to a metal flagpole?

Speaker 1 30:36

Very, very much, or any piece of metal outside. Well, if it's very much blow freezing, yes, yeah, you do not want to be doing that.

Speaker 2 30:45

Yeah, because here's how it works the moisture on your tongue can freeze, the same way any moisture can freeze if you're sticking your tongue out, so as your tongue, even though you have heat on your tongue, you still have moisture on it. You're sticking your tongue out in below freezing weather, which is 30 degrees Fahrenheit or zero degrees Celsius. The flagpole is still colder, the metal flagpole. We're not talking about wood.

Speaker 1 31:14

Yeah.

Speaker 2 31:15

The metal flagpole is still colder than the heat that your tongue can produce.

Speaker 1 31:18

Yeah, metal is actually such an amazing conductor. It's actually 400 times more powerful of a conductor than your tongue is of heat. So even though your body can usually keep your tongue warm in these cold temperatures that's why it doesn't just freeze randomly, keeps your blood flowing it kind of overpowers. It takes all the heat from your tongue immediately and freezes your saliva and you're stuck.

Speaker 2 31:48

What happens if you try to pull your tongue off?

Speaker 1 31:52

Well, first of all it'll be very hard, but if you actually try to pull your tongue off, that part might stay.

Speaker 2 32:02

Yes, you can, so don't do this for one. But if you get it stuck and you keep pulling your tongue, you might pull a piece of your like a layer of your tongue off. So you know they could have easily if they had gone. Okay, let's just talk about what happens If the kid's tongue is stuck to the flagpole. The rest of the kids go in and sit down and start having class, do you remember? Yeah, and the teacher was like where's Flick?

Speaker 1 32:29

They're like ah, outside. Yeah, he's like crying outside, stuck to a pole.

Speaker 2 32:36

They could have just poured some warm water over his tongue by the flagpole. Not hot, you don't want to burn his tongue, but they could have just poured a little warm water. It would have broken the bond.

Speaker 1 32:48

Yes, Also, I would like to note in one of the when I was doing my research, one of the things besides hot water said hair dryer, and I would like to know how you're getting a hair dryer out of the flagpole.

Speaker 2 33:01

Very long extension towards.

Speaker 1 33:03

Like a portable battery.

Speaker 2 33:07

What? This is your favorite part? Because in the movie he wasn't just pretending to have his tongue stuck, Because if you look in the movie he's really like pulling his head back and his tongue is stuck. Yeah, Would you like to tell everyone really how they did that?

Speaker 1 33:22

Yes, I actually first noticed this when I was watching the Christmas story musical, but I looked it up to confirm it.

Speaker 2 33:28

Oh, wait, we didn't include Christmas story live.

Speaker 1 33:32

Oh, there's actually six Christmas stories oh my goodness, yes, and also Christmas story. Live is very good. I remember watching it.

Speaker 2 33:38

It was. It was Matthew Broderick, which is Ferris Bueller. He was the dad All the classics.

Speaker 1 33:43

So they in the movie and the musical there was a hole cut into the prop pole that had a vacuum tube stuck to the inside and then the tube ran down and the motor was hidden under the snow. So that way there would be some tug on his tongue to make it actually look like it was stuck, without the actual danger of it getting stuck. And I noticed this in the musical because the vacuum was not very strong, because I could see that his tongue coming off the pole and the hole into the pole, that's me. I was like wait, that's interesting.

Speaker 2 34:24

Yes, this allowed them to safely do this show the tongue being stuck, without his tongue really being stuck to a metal pole.

Speaker 1 34:32

Imagine they made the prop pull out of metal, though.

Speaker 2 34:34

Yeah.

Speaker 1 34:34

And then they put the two.

Speaker 2 34:36

And they were like surprise flick. You're really stuck. All right. So so far we've said the movie says you can shoot your out with BB gun. We said we proved you can. The movie said you can injure your eye with an icicle. You can injure more than your eye. We proved that the movie says you can get your tongue stuck on a metal flagpole.

Speaker 1 34:58

Which is also correct.

Speaker 2 34:59

Also true. So let's do, let's see. If it's a four out of four, let's do the last one. Can you I mean, I think this is the most important one Can you really get so poisoned, so poisoning, it was so poisoning, so if you don't know again, what would have you been doing with your life all these years? But in the movie, ralph says Ralphie is working with his dad and he says a very specific word.

Speaker 1 35:26

Very, the mother of all curse words.

Speaker 2 35:28

Yes, we'll just leave it at that. And so he gets his mouth washed out with soap. Do you remember the name of the soap?

Speaker 1 35:36

Life boy.

Speaker 2 35:37

Life boy and it's red, yeah. And so he says it was the worst tasting soap. Of all the soap, he said, he's become a soap connoisseur, which is gross. So, if you don't know, this was really a thing that people used to do. So, as a punishment for kids.

Speaker 1 35:57

When they said naughty words that they probably shouldn't.

Speaker 2 35:59

Or doing anything, they would say you, or being sassy like back talking, they would. Parents would say, or even teachers, by the way, would say you need your mouth washed out with soap. And this practice of so they don't really like, you know. Get a washcloth, a scrubby, and scrub your mouth out with soap. They stick a bar of soap into your mouth and you just have to sit there with it in your mouth.

Speaker 1 36:23

Which is terrifying.

Speaker 2 36:25

Learning your lesson.

Speaker 1 36:26

I guess To wash the naughtiness out of your mouth.

Speaker 2 36:30

It is doc. This practice of washing mouth out with soap, not just for kids but for, like prisoners, wives Say whoa, Is documented in different publications as far back as the 1700s.

Speaker 1 36:46

That's terrible.

Speaker 2 36:48

And then in 18, there was an 1898 study called A Study in Moral Education and it was. It was in 1898, published by the Journal of Genetic Psychology, and they noted these punishments as effective Whipping, which is spanking, if you don't know, withdrawal of privileges, lectures being sent alone to the room and washing a subject's mouth out with either soap or salt and pepper Are all likely punishments to deter future abuses.

Speaker 1 37:22

So this was really a thing Future abuses from okay.

Speaker 2 37:26

This was a thing during.

Speaker 1 37:28

Long time.

Speaker 2 37:29

Way a long time. Now. You don't do that, please don't. No, but anyway, getting back to Ralphie sitting there with the big red life boy Hunk of soap in his mouth, it was a brand of soap. It was marketed by Unilever. It was first created in 1894.

Speaker 1 37:51

Wow.

Speaker 2 37:52

And this is really. This is going to change the way you see that scene. So you feel bad already for Ralphie. But it was the first soap to use something called carboic acid, which is also phenol. It's what gave it that red color and you wouldn't know this because we don't have it. But it was really a medicinal scent because it was initially used by medical professionals professionals like surgeons, scrubbing up what and for disinfecting. So it didn't come to consumer products until the early 1900s. But it ended up being really poisonous and that phenol, or the carboic acid, it was made from tar and, like some plants and essential and some oils, it can't be made with that anymore because it's also a possible carcinogen. So poor Ralphie.

Speaker 1 38:55

Yeah. So after he gets his mouth washed out with soap, some point during the movie he has this flashback where he comes back as an adult and basically is making his parents feel guilty because oh, this movie he had gone blind from soap poisoning.

Speaker 2 39:17

Yes, and I'm going to actually talk about that specifically in a minute.

Speaker 1 39:21

Okay, I thought I would.

Soap Poisoning and Blindness Myth

Speaker 2 39:22

Yes, he was out there because he comes back in Knoxville's parent store and that's the. They're like what do you need to tell us? No, they say what brought you to this lowly state? What is this movie? And he says it. And he has like dark sunglasses on and a cane and he's like tapping around and he says it it was soap poisoning. And the mom goes it's, it's. It's an interesting scene. I love that scene. I actually quote that throughout the year. Just the soap poisoning. Yeah, so this was interesting. Each package of life boy soap contain the phrase knocks out BO. Do you know what BO is?

Speaker 1 40:07

Body odor.

Speaker 2 40:08

Yeah, it's the brand that's credited for coining that abbreviation for body odor. What so we say BO for body odor, odor, and it's because of Ralphie's life boy soap. Huh, huh. Well, look before we get to the blind part. Can you get soap poisoning? Can you get soap poisoning?

Speaker 1 40:27

Yes.

Speaker 2 40:28

You can. Most soaps are considered harmless or non-toxic, but you're not supposed to ingest them.

Speaker 1 40:37

No, things like hair washes are made to relatively be externally safe, right, but if you ingest some types of them it can cause sickness, and also if you get in your eyes, right.

Speaker 2 40:50

So you can get. They can be harmful if they're swallowed, not if you use them on your, but you can get accidental soap poisoning. If you ingest a lot of it and you can it can cause nausea, vomiting, diarrhea. Poor Ralphie, that was a punishment, but guess what? If you have extreme soap poisoning symptoms, you start to vomit repeatedly. Sorry about this, but you can vomit blood. You start to have really bad abdominal cramping. You have blood in your stool and, guess what? It can burn your esophagus.

Speaker 1 41:27

It's bad.

Speaker 2 41:27

Yeah, it's serious and it can even cause, like a rapid decrease in blood pressure and heart issues.

Speaker 1 41:35

So it's serious.

Speaker 2 41:37

Yeah, you can really get soap poisoning. Don't wash your kids' mouth out with soap. You're welcome kids, and the National Clearinghouse for Poison Control Center says that soaps and detergent products account for 4% of all cases that they get. So was Ralphie right, though Can he go blind from soap poisoning?

Speaker 1 42:01

Well, I kind of mentioned this earlier about the hair soaps, but if you do get soap in your eyes it can potentially cause blindness, right, and you can't get out of your eyes.

Speaker 2 42:14

Yeah, you're going to get redness pain. You can have that chemical burn your eyes.

Speaker 1 42:20

Yeah, because they're chemical.

Speaker 2 42:21

You can have loss of vision, but not from ingesting it like Ralphie was. No, you can't. So, ralphie, we hate to tell you, unless your mom was scrubbing life boy on your eyeballs, you probably like holding your.

Speaker 1 42:40

Oh gosh, I went open and oh gosh, why are you using so many visceral eyes? I'm just showing her what it would look like. She just held her eye open and she was like ha ha, ha.

Speaker 2 42:53

Yes, ralphie, unless your mother was scrubbing your eyeballs with life boy, you probably are not going to get vision loss, soap poisoning, which what you're probably going to get, ralphie, is a good old batch of diarrhea.

Speaker 1 43:09

And a lot of time in the bathroom.

Speaker 2 43:11

So you think we busted that. We finally busted it. We did it, we Yay, congratulations, we did it. So they got three and a half right there, yeah, because you can get soap poisoning, but not the way Ralphie said. You're not going to go blind from having your mouth washed out with soap.

Speaker 1 43:29

Yeah, there's also something interesting that I saw that I thought I'd throw in here. Okay, there's actually.

Speaker 2 43:35

What if you just started talking about another like the Grinch?

Speaker 1 43:38

Yes, so you know the Grinch, so you know Huh. Interestingly enough, there is a condition called pika, where a common trait of it is wanting to eat soap or eating things that you're usually not supposed to eat.

Speaker 2 43:55

Right, I think your cat has pika.

Speaker 1 43:57

Oh yeah, my cat likes to go and eat paper.

Speaker 2 44:01

And he just sits in, licks paper and plastic Like random. He's a very strange.

Speaker 1 44:05

We're pretty certain he's a dog.

Speaker 2 44:08

Yeah, but I think you're, I really think your cat has pika.

Speaker 1 44:11

Yeah, so eating wine to eat soap is a common part of pika, along with like dirt can be on there Sometimes paint chips, play-doh, play-doh, which I think everyone as a kid has eaten play-doh, but it tastes I have.

Speaker 2 44:26

Me neither. I eat mud pies too. It tastes really salty. Hey Jody, how are you Mud pie girl? That was my mud pie girlfriend. We used to take. This is really disgusting. We used to take.

Speaker 1 44:40

Can't be worse than whatever else we said in this episode.

Speaker 2 44:42

True, we used to make mud pies, and we would take the leftover aquarium fish rocks that had been in the aquarium and use them as the sprinkles for our mud pie, because they were blue and white. You didn't eat it, though, right Okay?

Speaker 1 45:00

You didn't eat it, though, right.

Speaker 2 45:02

Jody tasted one of our mud pies. I'm sorry, jody. No, yeah, I thought it was very brave of her. Love you girl.

Speaker 1 45:12

But anyway, I thought I'd throw that in there because I thought it was interesting. But please, please, don't eat soap.

Speaker 2 45:18

Don't do any of the things we've told you about, but we wanted to tell you about them anyway.

Speaker 1 45:23

You're welcome.

Speaker 2 45:24

Don't try this at home, hey do you want to do our tutors some? Why? Yeah, there are. Oh, oh, what I didn't tell you about, let me tell you this before I forgot to tell you this, and it's one of our tutors some. Why? There were two scenes cut from a Christmas story.

Speaker 2 45:42

Oh there were. One was a fantasy scene where Ralphie joins Flash Gordon, which is another comic book character, and it got left on the editing room floor and there is not a an existing copy of it, so it can't even be seen in the in the extended versions. I'd never heard that. And then there was also you know how he does the fantasy scenes, like he does those dream sequences kind of one where they turn into like where there's no one, where he starts fighting Black Bart.

Speaker 1 46:18

Oh yeah, what's no place like home? Anyway, we slippers, yeah. So what could which of the West?

Speaker 2 46:23

Yes, there's Wizard of Oz.

Speaker 1 46:26

Wizard of.

Speaker 2 46:27

Oz. Thank you. There's also a fantasy dream sequence that he does, where it's always when he's like looking off and daydreaming. Yeah, yeah, where a fantasy sequence where his teacher visits his home and tells his parents that he's such a great student that he deserves a red rider be begun. How could they cut that one?

Speaker 1 46:48

That's for. I mean that's, that's a plus and plus and plus.

Speaker 2 46:52

Yes.

Speaker 1 46:53

Plus and I hit my headphones.

Speaker 2 46:54

Do you remember when we first started homeschooling and you wrote, you graded yourself and you wrote on the whiteboard a plus and plus and plus and plus and plus? That's right, I think I have a picture of it somewhere, anyway. So I had to tell you that before we did our two truths and a lie. Because here they are, you ready, I'm going to say what they are and you say if they're true or false.

Speaker 1 47:17

Okay.

Speaker 2 47:18

There are three Christmas story movies.

Speaker 1 47:20

That's false.

Speaker 2 47:21

And true.

Speaker 1 47:23

And all the.

Speaker 2 47:24

Not just three.

Speaker 1 47:25

There's. Oh yeah, that was a little tricky, yeah.

Speaker 2 47:28

And we said there are five, but we remembered that there were really six. Technically six because they did a live version, a couple of years ago, many years, it was like 2018 or something.

Speaker 2 47:39

Oh, maybe, who knows, time warp. So that's our false one, because they're way more than three, true or false. There's a fantasy sequence where Ralphie joins Flash Gordon. That's true. Wow, I couldn't remember that one. And the third one the BB in the BB gun stands for ball bearing, and that is also true. That's true too. We hope you enjoyed our Christmas story movie episode. Go back and listen to other episodes this year that you've missed out on, because we have lots of great ones.

Speaker 1 48:13

Yes, we're amazing.

Speaker 2 48:14

Well, I don't know about that, but we do have a lot of. We're coming up pretty soon on our one year anniversary, believe it or not?

Speaker 1 48:20

Yes, so go, put on your pink bunny suit, snuggle down with your red rider BB gun and the remote controlled blimp and not life boy soap and have great holidays.

Promoting Podcast and Website for Families

Speaker 2 48:32

All right, happy holidays, merry Christmas everyone. Bye, hey, thanks for listening. If you like what we're doing here, we'd love your five star review to help us reach more families and also to let Ellen know that her homeschool research isn't going to waste. Seriously, it takes forever.

Speaker 1 48:48

But hey, if you want to check out more of our stuff, we're going to have a new episode every Tuesday, and if you want to see some of the older episodes, they're always be there. You'll just have to scroll down a little bit.

Speaker 2 49:00

Also, you might not know this, but we have a free Buster deduction sheet over on our website, parentbusterscom, and actually it's an entire downloadable fun pack and it's all free and you can download it. And on the Buster deduction sheet you can follow along with every episode, write down your facts and there's a place to do to true some lie on it. And we also have a companion learning post, called learning after listening, for every single podcast episode we do. You can continue your learning over on parentbusterscom. Yeah, so just head over there and check it out.

Speaker 1 49:35

Okay, bye Thanks.