When Bad Ideas become Popular

Welcome back to Myths & Mischief! This is your Lovable Lord of Lore, today’s mischievous myth is about outrageous fads. 

Warning: Some of these fads are not just stupid, they are dangerous. Do not attempt these fads, they could lead to arrest, people feeling uncomfortable, injury, injury to reputations, or death.  

When we think of life in the post-pandemic world, we think that there is a lot of strange and crazy things going on. Just as people haven’t changed all that much, neither have the absurdity of fads. What may be an internet sensation today, would have been even wilder in the past. From popping and locking to the moonwalk, dance fads have a history of some strange gyrations. 

In 1518, mania outbreaks caused groups of people to dance uncontrollably. In Strasbourg, France at times, hundreds of people would dance right out of their towns and move on down the road for weeks, sometimes getting lost or dying from exhaustion. This did happen in other places as well and is often claimed to have been a mass psychogenic illness. 

In the 1920s and 30s, dance marathons were all the rage. Couples competed to outlast their opponents by being the last couple standing on the dance floor while moving. There were large cash rewards and some competitions hiring semi-professional dancers since most people had to work at some point. People would pay to watch these events and many people passed out from exhaustion including a man who died of heart failure after dancing for 87 straight hours. The longest competition lasted for 6 months. In some competitions, people were given 15 minutes of rest each hour. People would shave, write letters and sleep while held up by their partner who was still dancing. 

In the 1500s, inspired by Queen Elizabeth I’s rotten and black teeth, people saw it as a status symbol since sugary snacks were unavailable for people who didn’t have the means. Cosmetics were designed to blacken teeth were created so even the poor could look like they also had rotten teeth. 

More extreme and horrific trends also have their place in history. Cat burning in the 1600s and 1700s was a trend where dozens of cats would be placed in a net, barrel, or sack and hung from a beam over a bonfire. Sometimes foxes were used as a substitute. People would laugh as the animals cried out. Then they would take the ashes home for good luck. 

During the Victorian era, young girls would fast for long periods of time, surviving on nothing but air. One girl claimed to have not eaten for 14 years. While some were caught eating in secret, others did starve to death to prove their authenticity. They were seen to have spiritual and religious powers. Diet fads were popular then too, some pills and tonics were deadly and included arsenic and strychnine. 

With status being the motivation for trends during the Victorian era, English aristocrats would build fake hermitages. They would hire old men to play the part and would amuse guest by having the hermit make a surprise appearance in a social situation. 

The roaring 20s saw to some trends that the Great Depression put an end to (that is not what it was called a depression). 

In 1896, a staged train wreck, two trains put on a track and racing toward each other collided with 40,000 people watching. The boilers exploded upon impact and the shrapnel killed two of the spectators and injured many. The uninjured wanted more and that started the craze. During the Great Depression, it was seen as too wasteful and the practice was discontinued.  

While the 20s were considered roaring, there was also a fad of sitting, pole sitting to be more exact. People would spend days sitting on top of flagpoles. The most famous sitter was Alvin “Shipwreck” Kelly who lasted for 49 days with an audience of 20,000 people. The record was eventually 51 days. The participants would sit on a platform with spots on the sides for them to hook their hands on while sleeping. Food was hoisted up to them and they used a small tube connected to the ground to eliminate waste. This fad also faded away during the depression when people stopped paying to watch someone sit on a pole. 

Also roaring in the 20s was jazz music. Racism played the role of spoiler as it gained in popularity. White people in power set to rid the country of jazz, so they came up with an assortment of reasons that the music was harmful to one’s health. This assortment included damaging the nervous system, causing the brain to atrophy, it was bad for newborns (one jazz club was shut down because it was too close to a maternity hospital). There were also claims that it caused people to become nervous and fidgety, and their jaws to be perpetually jerking. Eventually “sweet jazz” was created to appease white audiences and it grew in acceptance.  

In 1939, a Harvard student was dared to swallow a goldfish for $10. The trend spread to other universities and became a national fad. It morphed into how many could be eaten. At one point, a person ate 89 goldfish in one sitting. The eventual record is 300 goldfish. Animal Rights groups and even Congress put an end to the craze as it was “cruel and wanton consumption.” 

In the 1930s, in protest against the subservience that society expected of them African-American males wore Zoot suits when they went to dance halls and wanted large clothing that moved along with their fast dance moves. The suits were characterized by wide trousers and long jackets with shoulder pads. While attributed to Black or Latino men, they grew in popularity until wool and other fabrics were restricted for the war effort. Underground tailors still created the suits and returning soldiers took exception to them. That led to the week long Zoot Suit riots in Las Angeles when anyone wearing a Zoot Suit was attacked in 1943.  

As depicted in the Revenge of the Nerds, panty raids were popular in the 1950s. Male college students would go to female student dorms and demand they turn over their underwear. Upon refusal, they would force entry and take them. As you can imagine, some women invited them in for a party, others would throw their undergarments down to them to avoid altercations, and others fought back. At the University of Missouri, women staved off the men by spraying them with fire hoses. The governor summed up the happening by saying “Boys will be boys,” instead of calling out the threat to privacy and personal safety that these women were entitled to having. The fad quickly ended as the women started to return the favor and women started retaliating by forcing their way into male dorms and stealing their tighty-whities. 

Each decade had its share of strange fads. In the 50s, phone-booth stuffing became popular (for younger people, a phone booth is a box with a phone in it that is attached by a sturdy cord and you put money in it to call people). the goal is to cram as many people as possible into the booth. If you are claustrophobic, this is not an activity for you. While some places had their own rules, like you had to make a call, mostly it was do whatever you can to fit in as many people as possible. Some more hardcore booth stuffers would fast for days before the attempt or recruited skinny and small people to join in. Other groups cut class and caused damage to the booths as they tipped them over in an effort to change the angles and maximize the space.  

The fad started in South Africa, then moved to England before landing in America. The Guinness record was 25 people, though a Canadian group claimed to fit 40 people in the booth but it was found out later that the booth was larger than the standard size. Still, 25 people is an amazing achievement and way too close for comfort. 

Also in the 50s, there was a time when everyone wanted to go to Vegas, but not for the reasons people visit “Sin City” today. The would go for bomb-viewing parties. People did not yet understand the dangers of nuclear fallout and would have drinks with bomb related names and women in mushroom cloud bikinis would serve these drinks. I am sure they ended up with glowing personalities. 

The 60s had some odd fads as well, looking past the more normal ones like everything that Beatle mania entailed. Vibrating belts were advertised as a weigh loss device. You could lose weight without moving a muscle. While the bikini clad women in the adds showed that you could have this belt shake those extra pounds off, it didn’t work so eventually people lost interest. 

Another 60s trend that spilled over into the 70s was bed pushing. People would dress up in silly costumes and push a bed as far as they could with the record being 1,000 miles. Sometimes this would take the form of a race and were frequently part of a fundraising campaign. Yes, the beds had wheels. 

As the sexual revolution was in full string, college students created a streaking sensation. While it was more popular in states with warm weather, some events had hundreds of students running around with their business out. The state of Georgia killed the trend that was getting more and more outrageous. After having 1,500 people doff their clothes, an even bigger shock was people parachuting nude right onto the campus. There are still some remnants of this fad around today. Oregon hosts naked bike ride events. 

The fad in the 80s was that everything was done in excess. This included clothing, drugs, and hair. 

In 1995 some British teens were playing the “Lying Down Game.” By 2011, it was an internet sensation known as “planking.” This entailed lying down in some strange location with your arms at your sides while someone took a picture and posted it. Contests were held for the most creative pics, and as a joke some people did it on a dance floor in a busy club. As the pics got more extreme, they became more dangerous. A 20-year-old Australian man attempted to plank on the 7th floor balcony and fell off. His death stopped the trend cold. 

Before you judge modern fads too harshly, remember that people are attracted to stupid and pointless activities that give us a break from the monotony of daily life. From the mood rings and pet rocks of boomers, to Skibidy Toilet, the ice bucket challenge and 6-7 being fire, no generation can escape how in their strangest moments, how peculiar they can be. Before diving into the next fad, use common sense to assess the danger. 

That’s it for this week’s installment, this is your Lord of the Lore signing off. 

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