Jokes and Crazy Theories 📜

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Season 2: Episode 113 Description

In today's episode: 😀 What do you say, it's National Limerick Day! 📜 Correspondent Kenny Curtis is here to celebrate Limericks. 🤔 There have been some wild conspiracies over the past few years, but what makes people believe in conspiracies? Correspondent Ryan Nerz talks about the "Birds Aren't Real" movement. ✔️ Tessa's Tidbit: Some scientists believe this exists beneath Earth's surface. And, test your bird knowledge on today's Trivia on the Ten. ✅

Sources

The Craziest Conspiracy Theories That People Actually Believe (popularmechanics.com)

Interesting Facts about Birds • MSPCA-Angell

Fun Facts About Hummingbirds (kaytee.com)

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TRANSCRIPT:

Ryan Willard  0:01  

There once was a podcast, The Ten News, where kids could get facts that were true. They could listen at home or even in Rome, but the kids never wore big shoes. That's not quite it.

Bethany Van Delft  0:15  

Hey, Ryan, what are you working on?

Ryan Willard  0:18  

I'm trying to read a Ten News Limerick for Limerick Day.

Bethany Van Delft  0:20  

Oh, like, there once was a show called the Ten. I listened to it again and again. The jokes are quite fun, except for the puns. After each show, I leave feeling Zen. How did you do that? Magic. I'm Bethany Van Delft. It's Thursday, May 12th. And this is the Ten News.

Various Voices  0:43  

10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Bethany Van Delft  0:50  

Happy Limerick Day, Ten'ers. Correspondent Kenny Curtis is here to tell us more.

Kenny Curtis  0:55  

There once was a reporter named Kenny, who only talk sports but then he saw Limerick Day and told himself, "Hey, I've got goofy rhymes aplenty, limericks are five lines a verse, a rhyming couplet appears at first. They are pretty easy and a little bit cheesy, but they're not sonnets. Those are the worst. Oh brother. The first two lines rhyme with the last and the rhythm is upbeat. It's fast. And the couplet in the middle makes you laugh just a little and voila, Limerick done moment past. Limericks have been around forever. I think it's because they're so clever. The Vikings wrote some they thought they were fun. They wrote them no matter the weather. They were made famous by Edward Lear, who wrote there was an old man with a beard. He was a really smart scholar who earned a few dollars and made all these limericks appear. You rake. Usually they start with there was I don't know why, just because it's part of the format. I yeah, I have a cute doormat and sometimes it starts to collect funds. Okay, lines, one, two and five are a bit longer. Sometimes the words start to wander. The ones in the middle are shorter, they're little, but they all make you stop, think and ponder. There once was national Limerick day, and we invite you all to play. Write a little rhyme. It might take some time, but eventually it will go your way. Hit five. Because limericks are really quite fun. It's hard to stop at just one. Keep on writing. It's easy, not frightening. We bet you'll like it a ton.

Bethany Van Delft  2:35  

Thanks, Kenny. Well, there you have it. Limericks are a great way to keep your brain limber. Writing poetry is just like stretching your brain muscles. Just don't snap a tendon trying to rhyme the word orange.

Ryan Willard 2:47

Bl-orange.

Bethany Van Delft 2:49

It's not a word. Keep trying, Ryan. There have been some wild conspiracies over the past few years. What makes people believe in conspiracies, even ones that are totally made up? Ryan Nerz is here to tell us if birds are real or not.

Ryan Nerz 3:13  

If you've ever been out in nature, like on, say, a lovely spring morning, you've probably heard sounds like this. And just what creature would make such lovely sounds? What's that? You say? Birds? Wow. Sure. That certainly seems like a reasonable answer. But more than a million followers of a new movement would agree to disagree. 

Sound Bit  3:39

Wake up, America! Birds are not real. They're a myth or an illusion.

Ryan Nerz 3:42

Thank you for your time. Yes, you heard that right. He said birds are not real. Why? His name is Peter McIndoe. And he's the founder of the Birds Aren't Real Movement, which is flying across the country, like a flock of, forget it. Birds Aren't Real billboards have popped up in Pittsburgh and Los Angeles on Instagram and Tiktok. Birds Aren't Real accounts have racked up hundreds of thousands of followers. There are bumper stickers and t-shirts and supporters even protested outside Twitter headquarters in San Francisco to demand that the company change its logo, which features a bird. No way. I can hear you laughing. And I already know what you want to ask. Are these people serious? The answer in a word is, no. Which oddly enough is the whole point. Come on. Birds Aren't Real is a fake conspiracy theory, mostly supported by young people online. Its purpose is to shed light on the many real conspiracy theories that have taken root in America today. Maybe you've heard some of them. Theories like the world is flat, or the coronavirus pandemic was actually started by the pharmaceutical companies to make money on vaccines, or the 2020 election was stolen. Peter McIndoe the founder of the movement, got so fed up with hearing all these conspiracy theories. He decided to fight misinformation with even more wackadoodle misinformation.

Sound Bit 5:15

So, it's taking this concept of misinformation and almost building a little safe space to come together within it and laugh at it, rather than be scared by it.

Ryan Nerz 5:25

Well, when you say it like that sounds pretty smart. But how did this movement even begin? It was back in January of 2017. Donald Trump had just been sworn in as president. McIndoe was sitting with his friends on a rooftop in Memphis, Tennessee. There was a Woman's March that was jam-packed with pro-Trump counter-protesters. McIndoe could hear people chanting about some truly bizarre conspiracy theories. A light bulb went off in his head.

Sound Bit 5:55

I remember thinking it would be very interesting. If someone was in this situation with a sign that had nothing to do with anything that's going on here.

Ryan Nerz 6:02

McIndoe ripped a poster off of a wall, flipped it over and wrote the most absurd thing he could think of birds aren't real. When he went down to the protest with his sign. Someone filmed him and posted the video to Facebook. It went viral. McIndoe decided to stick with it. He created a whole story around his fake movement. The video he made to explain why birds aren't real is actually real. Got over 20 million views on tick tock. Wow. But what you may be asking is the point of such a bizarre fake conspiracy theory. Its supporters say it may be a joke social movement, but it actually has a purpose. Oh, really? In a world that's filled with online conspiracy theories. Maybe the best way to expose them is to show how ridiculous they are. In a world full of untruth. It's important to show that some things are actually true. Because just to state the obvious here, birds are real. Many birds aren't real members who call themselves the bird brigade grew up in a world where misinformation is everywhere. Some of them even have relatives whose lives have been negatively affected by conspiracy theories. Meanwhile, for Peter McIndoe, the movement has become a full time job. In 2018. He dropped out of college and moved to Memphis to focus his energies. He got a website and a birds aren't real man to travel around for quote, unquote, protests, whatever he worked on, birds aren't real social media content, did media interviews and started selling merchandise. The money, which adds up to several $1,000 per month helps cover their living expenses. And although the whole thing may seem like a silly joke, McIndoe thinks they're making it all for the right reasons. Because someone needs to hold up a mirror to America, especially in the wild, wild west. That is our internet age. In the end, I think McIndoe explain the birds aren't real movement best. It's a way to laugh at the madness, he said, rather than be overcome by it.

Bethany Van Delft  8:18  

Thanks, Ryan. Just a reminder to our Ten'ers, if you hear a conspiracy theory that sounds wild, talk to a grown-up about it and look for all the facts you can find. It'll help you figure out if it's true or if it's just a crazy conspiracy theory. And now here to give us the news rundown is our head writer Ryan Willard.

Ryan Willard  8:46  

Thank you, Bethany. HotWheels is launching its first-ever remote-controlled wheelchair toy. Toymaker, Mattel collaborated with Aaron Wheelz Fotheringham, a five-time wheelchair motocross World Champion and Paralympic athlete who is known for performing elaborate tricks and backflips in his wheelchair. The toy is available on Amazon and features a built-in action figure made to look like fathering him and comes with remote control and ramp so people can perform tricks just like him. Apple is discontinuing the iPod after more than 20 years. The first iPod was key in making digital music portable and has had 26 different iterations of the device. The iPod started as a digital music player and evolved over the years until it was basically an iPhone without well the phone. The first iPod was released in October of 2001 and the final model is the seventh generation iPod Touch which was released in May of 2019. And in some sad news, the United States has reached 1 million COVID-related deaths. It's been more than two years since the first COVID case in the US was reported on January 20, 2020. And the pandemic has been a long tough battle as we socially distanced, wore masks, and got vaccinated. We may be past the worst of the pandemic, but we know it is not over. And the Ten News team sends our love and support to everyone who has lost a loved one during this time. We're all in this together. I'm Ryan Willard. And that's your rundown. Back to you, Bethany.

Bethany Van Delft  10:20  

Coming up next...  

Various Voices  10:21  

What, what, what's the big idea?

Bethany Van Delft  10:24  

Trivia on the Ten. Pretty sure we all know that birds are real, but do you know which birds lay the smallest eggs? Is it a) European Pygmy-Owl b) a hummingbird or c) an American Bushit? Did you guess it? The answer is B. Hummingbirds lay the smallest eggs. They're literally the size of a pea. And if you ever see a group of any of the 330 species of hummingbirds in North and South America, you can call them a bouquet or a glittering, a hover, a shimmer, or attune. Oh my goodness, my heart. Well, that's our show for today. Before we go, here's a quick note for the grownups. Thanks for listening to the Ten News. Look out for our new episodes on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and extras on Saturdays. The Ten News is a coproduction of Small But Mighty Media and Next Chapter Podcasts and is distributed by iHeartRadio. The Ten News creative team is watching hummingbird eggs hatch and includes Tracey Crooks, Pete Musto, Ryan Willard, Adam Barnard and Tessa Flannery. Kenny Curtis and Ryan Nerz contributed to this episode. Our production director is Jeremiah Tittle and our executive producers are Donald Albright and show creator Tracy Leeds Kaplan. I'm Bethany Van Delft, and thanks for listening to the Ten News. Okay, here's one. There once was a man who is cheery, until he heard a conspiracy theory, that birds aren't real, which made his head reel, because then what could those things in the trees be?