WEBVTT 00:00:00.459 --> 00:00:02.980 Welcome to the Deep Dive. We are really glad 00:00:02.980 --> 00:00:05.940 you're here today because our mission is to unpack 00:00:05.940 --> 00:00:10.439 a single, honestly, incredibly ubiquitous phrase. 00:00:10.699 --> 00:00:14.220 Yeah, it's a big one. It really is. It's a phrase 00:00:14.220 --> 00:00:16.300 that you have heard since you were a child, probably 00:00:16.300 --> 00:00:18.120 hardwired into your brain at this point. Well, 00:00:18.120 --> 00:00:20.660 absolutely. But you rarely stop to think about 00:00:20.660 --> 00:00:23.320 it as a functional piece of linguistic technology. 00:00:23.640 --> 00:00:26.859 And that phrase is, once upon a time. Right, 00:00:26.980 --> 00:00:29.300 because it operates as the ultimate scene setter. 00:00:29.559 --> 00:00:32.740 Just hearing those four words, it immediately 00:00:32.740 --> 00:00:35.539 changes your neurological expectations for what 00:00:35.539 --> 00:00:37.920 is about to happen next. It's a signal. The signal 00:00:37.920 --> 00:00:39.399 that you're departing from everyday reality. 00:00:39.679 --> 00:00:42.200 Exactly. So to figure out how those four words 00:00:42.200 --> 00:00:45.380 gain so much power, we are looking at a brilliantly 00:00:45.380 --> 00:00:47.899 comprehensive Wikipedia article today. Yeah. 00:00:47.960 --> 00:00:50.479 And this source, it details the history, the 00:00:50.479 --> 00:00:54.659 global translations, and the modern variants 00:00:54.659 --> 00:00:57.020 of this really iconic story starting phrase. 00:00:57.079 --> 00:00:59.909 It covers a lot of ground. It does. Okay, let's 00:00:59.909 --> 00:01:03.130 untack this. The history here goes back way further 00:01:03.130 --> 00:01:05.750 than the glossy fairy tale books you might have 00:01:05.750 --> 00:01:08.560 had on your shelf growing up. This... english 00:01:08.560 --> 00:01:11.500 stock phrase has been used in storytelling since 00:01:11.500 --> 00:01:14.140 at least the year 1380 which is an incredibly 00:01:14.140 --> 00:01:17.840 long lifespan for a specific arrangement of words 00:01:17.840 --> 00:01:20.659 language mutates constantly right yeah it evolves 00:01:20.659 --> 00:01:23.640 but this sequence survived the transition from 00:01:23.640 --> 00:01:26.120 middle english to early modern english almost 00:01:26.120 --> 00:01:30.040 entirely intact and by the year 1600 it had really 00:01:30.040 --> 00:01:32.480 become the standard narrative opener for english 00:01:32.480 --> 00:01:36.319 stories it was the undisputed champion of starting 00:01:36.319 --> 00:01:38.819 a tale And we have to establish the baseline 00:01:38.819 --> 00:01:40.859 here to understand how this spread across the 00:01:40.859 --> 00:01:43.659 globe, because Once Upon a Time became the absolute 00:01:43.659 --> 00:01:46.379 go -to English translation for bringing European 00:01:46.379 --> 00:01:48.439 fairy tales to the English -speaking world. Right, 00:01:48.500 --> 00:01:50.359 because the translators had a huge problem. Exactly. 00:01:50.659 --> 00:01:52.319 Translators were looking at Charles Perrault's 00:01:52.319 --> 00:01:54.260 French stories, which opened with Il était une 00:01:54.260 --> 00:01:57.000 fois, or Hans Christian Andersen's Danish tales, 00:01:57.019 --> 00:01:59.680 starting with Der Weihrauchgang. Or The Brothers 00:01:59.680 --> 00:02:03.219 Grimm with their German Es war einmal. Right. 00:02:03.359 --> 00:02:06.109 They all faced the same issue. They needed a 00:02:06.109 --> 00:02:09.030 recognizable brand for European folklore in the 00:02:09.030 --> 00:02:11.789 English market, and they universally defaulted 00:02:11.789 --> 00:02:14.370 to Once Upon a Time. It became the universal 00:02:14.370 --> 00:02:16.849 translator for that specific kind of narrative 00:02:16.849 --> 00:02:20.530 magic. And this is something I didn't know. These 00:02:20.530 --> 00:02:22.789 stories didn't always have those sunny, neatly 00:02:22.789 --> 00:02:25.169 tied up conclusions we expected. Yeah, they really 00:02:25.169 --> 00:02:27.129 didn't. Originally, the English phrase didn't 00:02:27.129 --> 00:02:29.530 pair up with happily ever after. Yeah. It was 00:02:29.530 --> 00:02:32.090 paired with happily until their deaths. What's 00:02:32.090 --> 00:02:34.509 fascinating here is how that subtle shift from 00:02:34.509 --> 00:02:37.770 until their deaths to ever after changes the 00:02:37.770 --> 00:02:40.590 entire psychological safety net of a fairy tale. 00:02:41.069 --> 00:02:43.669 How so? Well think about it. When you tell a 00:02:43.669 --> 00:02:45.550 child that the characters lived happily until 00:02:45.550 --> 00:02:48.590 their deaths, you are grounding the fantasy in 00:02:48.590 --> 00:02:50.830 the inescapable reality of the mortal world. 00:02:51.169 --> 00:02:53.430 You're reminding the listener that despite winning 00:02:53.430 --> 00:02:55.909 the battle or finding the treasure, mortality 00:02:55.909 --> 00:02:58.729 is still undefeated. It leaves this sort of lingering 00:02:58.729 --> 00:03:01.539 shadow over the victory. It really does. And 00:03:01.539 --> 00:03:04.620 shifting that to ever after removes mortality 00:03:04.620 --> 00:03:08.259 from the equation entirely. It elevates the characters 00:03:08.259 --> 00:03:11.479 from mere mortals who got lucky into eternal 00:03:11.479 --> 00:03:13.360 archetypes. They aren't just living out their 00:03:13.360 --> 00:03:15.680 biological lives anymore. Right. They are frozen 00:03:15.680 --> 00:03:18.500 in a state of permanent eternal happiness. It 00:03:18.500 --> 00:03:20.580 completely changes the psychological function 00:03:20.580 --> 00:03:23.419 of the story for the listener. It offers true 00:03:23.419 --> 00:03:26.099 escapism rather than just a temporary reprieve 00:03:26.099 --> 00:03:28.419 from medieval hardships. That makes total sense. 00:03:29.710 --> 00:03:31.969 Looking at these historical variations, there 00:03:31.969 --> 00:03:34.469 is a quote in our source from Joseph Jacobs. 00:03:34.810 --> 00:03:38.229 It's from his 1893 collection, More English Fairy 00:03:38.229 --> 00:03:41.710 Tales. Oh, the London Tramps variant. Yes. Jacobs 00:03:41.710 --> 00:03:43.770 noted that the opening formulas didn't typically 00:03:43.770 --> 00:03:45.689 have a lot of playful imagination in standard 00:03:45.689 --> 00:03:48.050 English, but he highlighted this highly unique 00:03:48.050 --> 00:03:50.590 variant used among London Tramps. They would 00:03:50.590 --> 00:03:52.789 open their stories by saying, Once upon a time 00:03:52.789 --> 00:03:54.770 and a very good time it was, though it wasn't 00:03:54.770 --> 00:03:57.629 in my time, nor in your time, nor in anyone else's 00:03:57.629 --> 00:04:01.039 time. That phrasing is almost poetic in its explicit 00:04:01.039 --> 00:04:03.599 denial of the present moment. I mean, I want 00:04:03.599 --> 00:04:06.479 you, the listener, to just imagine sitting around 00:04:06.479 --> 00:04:09.699 a fire, maybe under a bridge in London in the 00:04:09.699 --> 00:04:12.120 late 1800s, and hearing someone start a story 00:04:12.120 --> 00:04:15.280 like that. It instantly transports you out of 00:04:15.280 --> 00:04:17.779 your present reality. It acts as an overt declaration 00:04:17.779 --> 00:04:20.720 of boundary crossing. And consider the socioeconomic 00:04:20.720 --> 00:04:23.819 angle here. Marginalized people living in severe 00:04:23.819 --> 00:04:26.720 poverty, they need a much thicker wall between 00:04:26.720 --> 00:04:29.800 their harsh, freezing reality and the enclosed 00:04:29.800 --> 00:04:32.860 space of the narrative than, say, a bourgeois 00:04:32.860 --> 00:04:35.300 child sitting in a comfortable parlor. Right. 00:04:35.399 --> 00:04:37.939 The storyteller is aggressively insisting that 00:04:37.939 --> 00:04:40.420 the terrible present has no bearing on the world 00:04:40.420 --> 00:04:42.439 they are about to enter. Here's where it gets 00:04:42.439 --> 00:04:44.949 really interesting, though. If we step outside 00:04:44.949 --> 00:04:47.769 of the English language entirely, cultures all 00:04:47.769 --> 00:04:50.269 over the world signal the start or end of a story 00:04:50.269 --> 00:04:53.769 using deeply bizarre, surreal animal imagery. 00:04:53.970 --> 00:04:55.870 The animals are my favorite part of this. They 00:04:55.870 --> 00:04:58.750 are so weird. In Kazakh storytelling, they start 00:04:58.750 --> 00:05:02.329 with a phrase that directly translates to a long, 00:05:02.329 --> 00:05:05.699 long time ago when goat's wool was gray. And 00:05:05.699 --> 00:05:07.439 the source points out this actually carries the 00:05:07.439 --> 00:05:09.439 meaning of an absurd concept, basically meaning 00:05:09.439 --> 00:05:12.420 a long, long time ago when goats had feathers. 00:05:12.459 --> 00:05:14.199 Yeah, feathered goats. And then you have the 00:05:14.199 --> 00:05:16.920 traditional Korean opening, which is back when 00:05:16.920 --> 00:05:20.529 tigers used to smoke tobacco. I just. What is 00:05:20.529 --> 00:05:22.689 the mechanical purpose of bringing a smoking 00:05:22.689 --> 00:05:26.389 tiger or a feathered goat into the first five 00:05:26.389 --> 00:05:28.930 seconds of a story? It is a brilliant use of 00:05:28.930 --> 00:05:31.930 deliberate absurdity. When you hear about a feathered 00:05:31.930 --> 00:05:34.610 goat or a tiger lighting up a pipe, your brain 00:05:34.610 --> 00:05:37.939 experiences immediate cognitive dissonance. It's 00:05:37.939 --> 00:05:39.740 a structural signal to the listener that the 00:05:39.740 --> 00:05:42.839 normal rules of reality, logic, and biology are 00:05:42.839 --> 00:05:45.259 now officially suspended. You can't apply your 00:05:45.259 --> 00:05:47.220 everyday logic to the story anymore. Exactly, 00:05:47.259 --> 00:05:49.560 because we are already operating in a world where 00:05:49.560 --> 00:05:51.959 tigers are participating in anachronistic human 00:05:51.959 --> 00:05:54.899 habits. It forces you to drop your analytical 00:05:54.899 --> 00:05:58.199 defenses and just accept the ride. And the animals 00:05:58.199 --> 00:06:00.800 don't just start the stories. They abruptly end 00:06:00.800 --> 00:06:03.839 them, too. Like in Dutch, stories often conclude 00:06:03.839 --> 00:06:06.379 with a line, and then came an elephant with a 00:06:06.379 --> 00:06:09.459 very long snout, and it blew the story out. Which 00:06:09.459 --> 00:06:12.220 is a very literal metaphor. The story is a candle, 00:06:12.360 --> 00:06:15.120 and the elephant extinguishes the flame, plunging 00:06:15.120 --> 00:06:17.480 you back into the dark of the real world. Then 00:06:17.480 --> 00:06:19.759 in Icelandic, they wrap things up with, a cat 00:06:19.759 --> 00:06:22.240 in the bog put up his tail, and there ends the 00:06:22.240 --> 00:06:24.360 fairy tale. Right. But my absolute favorite, 00:06:24.439 --> 00:06:27.089 though, is the Bengali ending. The direct translation 00:06:27.089 --> 00:06:29.930 is, my story ends and the spinach is eaten by 00:06:29.930 --> 00:06:32.589 the goat. And I'm struggling to see the botanical 00:06:32.589 --> 00:06:35.410 connection here. Why does a goat eating spinach 00:06:35.410 --> 00:06:38.170 signify the end of a narrative arc? To understand 00:06:38.170 --> 00:06:39.750 that, you really have to look at agricultural 00:06:39.750 --> 00:06:43.069 reality. When a cow eats a plant, it grazes the 00:06:43.069 --> 00:06:45.709 top, leaving the root system intact so the plant 00:06:45.709 --> 00:06:48.610 can grow back. But when a goat eats an herb or 00:06:48.610 --> 00:06:50.990 a leafy green like spinach, it eats the root. 00:06:51.110 --> 00:06:54.050 It destroys the entire organism. So the spinach 00:06:54.050 --> 00:06:56.399 is irreversibly gone. There is no coming back 00:06:56.399 --> 00:06:59.009 from it. By saying the goat ate the spinach, 00:06:59.269 --> 00:07:01.649 the storyteller is telling you with absolute 00:07:01.649 --> 00:07:04.750 finality that the story has been entirely consumed. 00:07:04.949 --> 00:07:07.750 It's over. Don't ask what happens next to the 00:07:07.750 --> 00:07:09.649 hero or the villain because there is no root 00:07:09.649 --> 00:07:12.389 left for a sequel to grow from. That is a polite 00:07:12.389 --> 00:07:15.629 but incredibly firm way to tell the audience 00:07:15.629 --> 00:07:17.889 to stop asking questions and go to sleep. Definitely. 00:07:18.129 --> 00:07:21.269 And speaking of the audience, the source highlights 00:07:21.269 --> 00:07:24.769 how many cultures explicitly acknowledge the 00:07:24.769 --> 00:07:26.990 storyteller. and the listener, like three of 00:07:26.990 --> 00:07:29.189 us in this conversation, at the very end of a 00:07:29.189 --> 00:07:31.889 tale, they completely shatter the fourth wall. 00:07:32.110 --> 00:07:34.050 Well, storytelling wasn't originally a passive 00:07:34.050 --> 00:07:36.329 experience like watching a film in a dark theater. 00:07:36.589 --> 00:07:39.970 It was a communal, interactive event. The narrator 00:07:39.970 --> 00:07:42.110 and the audience were co -creating the atmosphere 00:07:42.110 --> 00:07:45.009 in the room. There's this beautiful tradition 00:07:45.009 --> 00:07:47.790 in Armenian and Turkish storytelling where the 00:07:47.790 --> 00:07:49.990 tale ends with three apples falling from the 00:07:49.990 --> 00:07:52.569 sky. And depending on who is telling the story, 00:07:52.750 --> 00:07:54.449 the three apples are divided up in different 00:07:54.449 --> 00:07:56.750 ways. Typically, one apple goes to the heroes 00:07:56.750 --> 00:07:59.269 of the story, one goes to the writer or storyteller, 00:07:59.350 --> 00:08:01.810 and the final apple falls to the listener. It 00:08:01.810 --> 00:08:04.350 creates a shared inheritance. The magic of the 00:08:04.350 --> 00:08:06.529 story isn't just kept by the fictional characters. 00:08:06.870 --> 00:08:09.009 It's physically distributed to the people in 00:08:09.009 --> 00:08:11.629 the room. It's a really lovely image. And in 00:08:11.629 --> 00:08:14.430 a preliterate oral tradition, Storyteller relied 00:08:14.430 --> 00:08:16.569 on the goodwill of the audience for survival, 00:08:16.850 --> 00:08:19.790 perhaps literally hoping for a meal or a place 00:08:19.790 --> 00:08:22.670 to sleep. Inserting themselves in the audience 00:08:22.670 --> 00:08:25.230 into the reward system of the story is a subtle 00:08:25.230 --> 00:08:27.850 psychological trick to bond the room together. 00:08:28.189 --> 00:08:30.550 Turkish storytelling really seems to be the gold 00:08:30.550 --> 00:08:32.730 standard for this kind of elaborate metanarrative. 00:08:33.349 --> 00:08:35.309 Just look at this traditional Turkish comedy 00:08:35.309 --> 00:08:37.870 opening. They start by saying once there was 00:08:37.870 --> 00:08:40.450 and once there wasn't. In the long distant days 00:08:40.450 --> 00:08:43.629 of yore, when haystacks winnowed sieves, when 00:08:43.629 --> 00:08:46.289 genies played jurid in the old bathhouse, when 00:08:46.289 --> 00:08:49.509 fleas were barbers, when camels were town triers, 00:08:49.529 --> 00:08:51.830 and when I softly rocked my baby grandmother 00:08:51.830 --> 00:08:54.919 to sleep in her creaking cradle. The sheer volume 00:08:54.919 --> 00:08:57.720 of imagery there is relentless. It is a massive 00:08:57.720 --> 00:09:00.220 tongue twister. Why overwhelm the listener with 00:09:00.220 --> 00:09:02.559 that barrage of rhyming word plays and bizarre 00:09:02.559 --> 00:09:05.080 situational juxtapositions right out of the gate? 00:09:05.220 --> 00:09:08.539 It's about cognitive load. By overwhelming the 00:09:08.539 --> 00:09:11.179 listener with paradoxes, rocking a baby grandmother, 00:09:11.480 --> 00:09:14.299 fleas acting as barbers, you disorient them. 00:09:14.460 --> 00:09:17.179 You overload their logical processing centers 00:09:17.179 --> 00:09:19.559 so thoroughly that they have no choice but to 00:09:19.559 --> 00:09:21.659 surrender to the whimsical stage you are setting. 00:09:22.080 --> 00:09:24.580 It makes them highly receptive to the actual 00:09:24.580 --> 00:09:27.299 plot that follows. If Turkish endings are whimsical, 00:09:27.519 --> 00:09:29.960 the traditional Irish ending is wildly specific 00:09:29.960 --> 00:09:32.679 and borderline hostile. Yes, the Irish endings 00:09:32.679 --> 00:09:34.639 are something else. The storyteller ends the 00:09:34.639 --> 00:09:36.919 tale by claiming they were actually inside the 00:09:36.919 --> 00:09:39.480 story. They say the characters went by the ford, 00:09:39.480 --> 00:09:41.600 but the storyteller took the stepping stones. 00:09:41.899 --> 00:09:44.659 The characters drowned, but the storyteller survived. 00:09:45.100 --> 00:09:47.559 And their reward for surviving. They were given 00:09:47.559 --> 00:09:50.909 paper shoes and fat milk. A completely nonsensical, 00:09:50.950 --> 00:09:53.649 useless reward for surviving a tragedy. Right. 00:09:53.710 --> 00:09:55.769 And then they turn to the listener and say, as 00:09:55.769 --> 00:09:58.830 I have this story today, may you have it 7 ,000 00:09:58.830 --> 00:10:01.590 times better tomorrow. Which sounds lovely. Until 00:10:01.590 --> 00:10:03.970 they add, may you only lose a pair of the incisors, 00:10:03.970 --> 00:10:05.750 buy it five of the grinders and a fine strip 00:10:05.750 --> 00:10:08.370 of the gum. Why would a storyteller casually 00:10:08.370 --> 00:10:10.649 wish severe dental trauma on their audience? 00:10:10.929 --> 00:10:13.340 If we connect this to the bigger picture. These 00:10:13.340 --> 00:10:15.899 elaborate openings and endings, whether they 00:10:15.899 --> 00:10:18.899 are wishing you lost teeth or giving you a metaphorical 00:10:18.899 --> 00:10:23.299 apple, reveal that these tales are deeply transactional. 00:10:23.340 --> 00:10:25.639 They acknowledge the pact between the speaker 00:10:25.639 --> 00:10:28.259 and the listener. The dental trauma is part of 00:10:28.259 --> 00:10:31.500 the pact. The Irish curse is a dark comedic warning 00:10:31.500 --> 00:10:34.220 about the weight of carrying a story. You see 00:10:34.220 --> 00:10:36.639 this transactional nature vividly in the Nepali 00:10:36.639 --> 00:10:39.559 tradition too. The narrator ends with a rhyme 00:10:39.559 --> 00:10:42.230 granting a golden garland to the listener. and 00:10:42.230 --> 00:10:45.049 a flower garland to the narrator, before explicitly 00:10:45.049 --> 00:10:47.350 promising that the story will go to heaven and 00:10:47.350 --> 00:10:49.570 come back fresh on the lips of the next narrator. 00:10:49.850 --> 00:10:52.090 They are handing the baton to the listener. You 00:10:52.090 --> 00:10:54.409 are no longer just an audience member. You are 00:10:54.409 --> 00:10:56.929 the next custodian of the story. They are actively 00:10:56.929 --> 00:10:59.070 trying to ensure the oral tradition survives 00:10:59.070 --> 00:11:02.289 the night. It is a medieval chain letter. Pass 00:11:02.289 --> 00:11:05.110 the story on or suffer the consequences. And 00:11:05.110 --> 00:11:07.570 the scale of these stories is massive, especially 00:11:07.570 --> 00:11:09.960 when you look at Eastern European cultures. Our 00:11:09.960 --> 00:11:12.080 source points out a fascinating use of geographic 00:11:12.080 --> 00:11:15.519 hyperbole to set the scene. In Czech, Slovak, 00:11:15.519 --> 00:11:17.919 Polish, and Estonian tales, they don't just say, 00:11:18.019 --> 00:11:20.500 a long time ago. They set the scene by saying 00:11:20.500 --> 00:11:23.220 the story takes place beyond nine mountain ranges, 00:11:23.559 --> 00:11:26.710 nine rivers, and nine woods. They are pushing 00:11:26.710 --> 00:11:29.730 the narrative into a completely unreachable geography. 00:11:30.450 --> 00:11:33.330 Consider the mental map of a 14th century peasant. 00:11:33.450 --> 00:11:35.970 If you have never left your village, the concept 00:11:35.970 --> 00:11:38.750 of crossing nine separate mountain ranges is 00:11:38.750 --> 00:11:40.830 effectively pushing the story into another dimension. 00:11:41.230 --> 00:11:44.610 It's the spatial equivalent of before time began. 00:11:45.009 --> 00:11:46.990 Hungary takes that spatial displacement even 00:11:46.990 --> 00:11:49.669 further. A Hungarian variant involves crossing 00:11:49.669 --> 00:11:52.149 seven countries, going through the Sea of Operencia, 00:11:52.409 --> 00:11:54.889 traversing the Glass Mountains, just to reach 00:11:54.889 --> 00:11:56.970 the place where the curly -tailed pig delves. 00:11:57.009 --> 00:11:59.610 The Sea of Apparencia is a brilliant cultural 00:11:59.610 --> 00:12:02.710 placeholder for the absolute edge of the known 00:12:02.710 --> 00:12:05.470 world. It accomplishes massive world -building 00:12:05.470 --> 00:12:07.750 in a single sentence, confirming that no one 00:12:07.750 --> 00:12:09.950 in the room could possibly travel to verify the 00:12:09.950 --> 00:12:12.370 events of the tale. And if you survive traveling 00:12:12.370 --> 00:12:14.710 past those glass mountains and the curly -tailed 00:12:14.710 --> 00:12:17.889 pig, your reward is usually a massive feast. 00:12:18.529 --> 00:12:20.870 Different cultures end their tales with very 00:12:20.870 --> 00:12:23.769 specific menus. In Spanish, the characters live 00:12:23.769 --> 00:12:27.750 happily and eat partridges. In Catalan, they 00:12:27.750 --> 00:12:30.370 eat candies. Which speaks directly to the caloric 00:12:30.370 --> 00:12:33.370 anxiety of the era. In a world plagued by frequent 00:12:33.370 --> 00:12:36.009 famine and food insecurity, the ultimate fantasy 00:12:36.009 --> 00:12:38.750 isn't necessarily eternal life or political power. 00:12:38.990 --> 00:12:41.809 It's simply a full stomach. The highest reward 00:12:41.809 --> 00:12:43.870 a storyteller could offer their characters was 00:12:43.870 --> 00:12:47.190 a guaranteed meal. The Lithuanian ending handles 00:12:47.190 --> 00:12:50.389 that feast in a very specific way. The storyteller 00:12:50.389 --> 00:12:53.090 inserts themselves into the celebration and claims 00:12:53.090 --> 00:12:55.629 they drank mead ale that dribbled through my 00:12:55.629 --> 00:12:57.809 beard, had not in my mouth. It's the ultimate 00:12:57.809 --> 00:13:00.169 tease. The storyteller gets to witness the feast, 00:13:00.269 --> 00:13:02.389 the drink spills on their face, but they don't 00:13:02.389 --> 00:13:04.710 actually get to taste the magic. It separates 00:13:04.710 --> 00:13:06.909 the narrator from the divine luck of the heroes, 00:13:06.950 --> 00:13:09.169 reminding the audience that both the storyteller 00:13:09.169 --> 00:13:11.070 and the listener are going to wake up hungry 00:13:11.070 --> 00:13:13.860 tomorrow. When they are talking about food. A 00:13:13.860 --> 00:13:16.120 lot of cultures resort to rhythmic nonsense to 00:13:16.120 --> 00:13:18.799 close the book. The pharaohs in Norwegian tales 00:13:18.799 --> 00:13:21.779 sign off with Snipsnapsnow or Snipsnapsnoot. 00:13:21.980 --> 00:13:25.860 Spanish tales use Colorin, Colorado, which essentially 00:13:25.860 --> 00:13:28.139 just means redhead red, but it rhymes perfectly 00:13:28.139 --> 00:13:30.980 with the word for finished. In classical Arabic, 00:13:31.080 --> 00:13:33.620 they close with Tutatuta, the story is over. 00:13:33.840 --> 00:13:37.340 The source notes that tuta literally means berry, 00:13:37.519 --> 00:13:40.779 but in this context, it has zero actual semantic 00:13:40.779 --> 00:13:43.570 meaning. It is used purely for the musical rhythm. 00:13:43.789 --> 00:13:46.389 These nonsense rhymes act as an auditory palate 00:13:46.389 --> 00:13:49.009 cleanser. Think about the neurological impact 00:13:49.009 --> 00:13:51.490 of rhythmic dissonance. When you are listening 00:13:51.490 --> 00:13:54.149 to a story, you enter a slight trance state. 00:13:54.330 --> 00:13:56.710 You really do. The sudden introduction of a bouncing 00:13:56.710 --> 00:13:59.710 phonetic closure like snip snap snout acts as 00:13:59.710 --> 00:14:01.669 a psychological grounding technique. It breaks 00:14:01.669 --> 00:14:04.169 the trance. It's the verbal equivalent of snapping 00:14:04.169 --> 00:14:05.990 your fingers to wake someone up from hypnosis, 00:14:06.309 --> 00:14:08.450 signaling that the narrative spell is broken. 00:14:08.710 --> 00:14:11.009 That brings us perfectly to the modern variant. 00:14:11.080 --> 00:14:13.419 section of the Wikipedia page. While we've been 00:14:13.419 --> 00:14:16.360 dissecting the 1380s London tramps and ancient 00:14:16.360 --> 00:14:20.259 Bengali roots, this mechanism isn't dead. Pop 00:14:20.259 --> 00:14:22.200 culture has taken this ancient architectural 00:14:22.200 --> 00:14:25.299 framework and evolved it to fit new mediums, 00:14:25.299 --> 00:14:27.679 and it is entirely relevant to the media you 00:14:27.679 --> 00:14:30.419 and I consume today. The core architecture of 00:14:30.419 --> 00:14:33.460 once upon a time is still actively holding up 00:14:33.460 --> 00:14:35.960 our biggest modern myths. Look at the biggest 00:14:35.960 --> 00:14:38.620 sci -fi franchise in the world. Star Wars opens 00:14:38.620 --> 00:14:42.039 with a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. 00:14:42.340 --> 00:14:45.259 It is the exact same formula relying on the spatial 00:14:45.259 --> 00:14:47.700 displacement of the 14th century, just swapping 00:14:47.700 --> 00:14:49.919 out the nine mountains and nine rivers of Eastern 00:14:49.919 --> 00:14:53.059 Europe for a distant galaxy. George Lucas understood 00:14:53.059 --> 00:14:55.620 that to make a modern, cynical audience accept 00:14:55.620 --> 00:14:58.620 space wizards and laser swords, he couldn't rely 00:14:58.620 --> 00:15:01.399 on hard science fiction tropes. He needed to 00:15:01.399 --> 00:15:03.779 trigger that specific fairytale suspension of 00:15:03.779 --> 00:15:06.500 disbelief right at the opening frame. He used 00:15:06.500 --> 00:15:08.879 an ancient linguistic key to unlock a modern 00:15:08.879 --> 00:15:11.580 door. It is used heavily for satire and comedy, 00:15:11.700 --> 00:15:15.620 too. Mystery Science Theater 3000 opens with 00:15:15.620 --> 00:15:18.139 In the Not -Too -Distant Future next Sunday, 00:15:18.320 --> 00:15:22.759 A .D. The movie Scott Pilgrim vs. the World opens 00:15:22.759 --> 00:15:25.960 by saying, not so long ago, in the mysterious 00:15:25.960 --> 00:15:29.240 land of Toronto, Canada. By placing a mundane, 00:15:29.299 --> 00:15:31.539 highly documented location like Toronto into 00:15:31.539 --> 00:15:34.039 the grand, mythical framing of a mysterious land, 00:15:34.200 --> 00:15:36.460 you immediately signal to the audience that they 00:15:36.460 --> 00:15:38.860 are entering a heightened satirical reality. 00:15:39.340 --> 00:15:41.759 The juxtaposition does all the heavy lifting 00:15:41.759 --> 00:15:44.360 for the tone of the entire film. We see temporal 00:15:44.360 --> 00:15:46.679 displacement constantly in literature and music 00:15:46.679 --> 00:15:49.600 as well. Don McLean singing a long, long time 00:15:49.600 --> 00:15:52.419 ago to open American Pie or Charles Dickens kicking 00:15:52.419 --> 00:15:54.679 off A Tale of Two Cities with it was the best 00:15:54.679 --> 00:15:56.820 of times, it was the worst of times. The underlying 00:15:56.820 --> 00:15:59.159 psychology remains identical across all these 00:15:59.159 --> 00:16:01.539 mediums. The human brain craves a definitive, 00:16:01.679 --> 00:16:04.220 recognizable threshold to cross over into a narrative 00:16:04.220 --> 00:16:06.820 state. We need to be told precisely when to leave 00:16:06.820 --> 00:16:08.919 the real world. And just as importantly, with 00:16:08.919 --> 00:16:10.899 the elephants blowing out candles and cats and 00:16:10.899 --> 00:16:13.419 bogs, we need to be told when it is safe to come 00:16:13.419 --> 00:16:15.649 back. So what does this all mean? When we look 00:16:15.649 --> 00:16:17.590 at the scope of this information, it's clear 00:16:17.590 --> 00:16:19.870 that while you might think of Once Upon a Time 00:16:19.870 --> 00:16:22.409 as just a tired cliche printed in children's 00:16:22.409 --> 00:16:25.610 books, it's actually the tip of a massive, rich, 00:16:25.769 --> 00:16:29.169 global linguistic tradition. From Kazakh goats 00:16:29.169 --> 00:16:31.350 with feathers to Korean tigers smoking tobacco 00:16:31.350 --> 00:16:34.250 to three Armenian apples falling from the sky, 00:16:34.450 --> 00:16:36.950 humanity has spent centuries designing these 00:16:36.950 --> 00:16:39.730 elaborate sensory signals for one simple purpose, 00:16:39.889 --> 00:16:42.370 to spark our collective imagination and give 00:16:42.370 --> 00:16:44.940 us permission to dream. This raises an important 00:16:44.940 --> 00:16:47.460 question, though. We have tracked how Once Upon 00:16:47.460 --> 00:16:50.240 a Time evolved from the spoken fireside tales 00:16:50.240 --> 00:16:53.159 of the 1380s to the opening crawls of blockbuster 00:16:53.159 --> 00:16:56.340 sci -fi movies. It successfully adapted to fit 00:16:56.340 --> 00:16:59.139 printing presses and silver screens. But right 00:16:59.139 --> 00:17:01.539 now we're entering a totally new era of immersive 00:17:01.539 --> 00:17:04.880 virtual reality, spatial computing and AI generated 00:17:04.880 --> 00:17:07.920 narratives. As the medium shifts again, what 00:17:07.920 --> 00:17:10.799 bizarre brand new stock phrase or perhaps what 00:17:10.799 --> 00:17:12.980 new sensory signal will our culture invent next? 00:17:13.099 --> 00:17:15.019 What is going to be the once upon a time that 00:17:15.019 --> 00:17:17.119 tells the next generation of listeners that they 00:17:17.119 --> 00:17:18.960 are about to leave the physical world entirely 00:17:18.960 --> 00:17:21.740 behind? That is such a fascinating thought to 00:17:21.740 --> 00:17:24.119 leave on. The spatial computing equivalent of 00:17:24.119 --> 00:17:26.920 a smoking tiger might be a specific haptic feedback 00:17:26.920 --> 00:17:30.220 pulse, or a universal VR chime that triggers 00:17:30.220 --> 00:17:33.079 that same cognitive dissonance. We will have 00:17:33.079 --> 00:17:35.299 to wait and see. Thank you for taking this deep 00:17:35.299 --> 00:17:37.500 dive with us today. Keep asking questions, keep 00:17:37.500 --> 00:17:39.279 looking for those hidden architectural structures 00:17:39.279 --> 00:17:41.579 in the stories you love, and we will catch you 00:17:41.579 --> 00:17:41.960 next time.