From the unexplained to the mundane, come join
us on a Journey to the Fringe. We are your podcast
hosts who exclusively speak English and just
power forward with that, Taylor and Chelsea.
Here today, following up on our Weekly World
News episode. I'm not really sure how this episode's
gonna go with how we left off the first episode,
but we will see. I know you're all looking forward
to this week's episode. After we covered the
Weekly World News last week, where do you think
this episode is gonna go? Where is there to go
after we covered the Weekly World News in its
entirety? This week, while it seems like there's
nowhere to go, we're going to dive into some
of the popular news stories that the Weekly World
News covered over his lifetime. It's going to
be an even funner episode. Oh, good. I am very
excited for this because they had some absolute
hits that you just wander by and like maybe,
no, I should never buy this magazine. It's a
good article title. They were eye catchers. As
we talked about last week, this is one of the
rare things that have stuck into my mind out
of the my numbingly doll trips to the grocery
store. I do have to wonder, despite how good
their headlines were, ever felt the need to buy
their magazine. I wonder if anybody ever did.
Just like, no, I have to buy that. No, they did.
They did. OK, because they stocked it and they
sold millions of publications of it. But you
think anybody picked it up just for one. headline
yeah you know what they had to they had to they
had to have done one -offs they probably had
a large loyal base it's a mystery to me because
i don't know one single person that ever picked
up either one not even a point it should be a
poll actually i i wonder if you listening answer
in the comments did you ever buy one do you know
anyone that ever purchased one of these magazines
and you found it in their home And if so, what
was your reaction? I don't even know what I would
do if I found it at a relative's house. I'd probably
read it, but I'd be like, finally. Yeah, and
then you wouldn't mention it to them either.
I don't think. I don't know. I probably not.
I think I'd just pick it up like it was normal.
Do you think people who like had copies of the
weekly world news left it in their bathroom just
for like a sparking conversation thing? Do you
think though? Because I don't know that I ever
saw a MIG. Hold on. Let me think about my whole
entire life. No, no, I did see mostly at our
house. They're not magazine racks in some people's
bathrooms. Just our house, I think is where I
saw. OK. No, I don't think. Did I? I don't know.
No, I don't know. It's just too long ago. Did
you see them there? I remember what was the name
of that the bathroom reader in bathrooms a lot.
Yeah. Which man, the smartphone had to have hit
them hard. Oh yeah. That would be an interesting
one, actually. Nothing we'll ever cover, ever.
But same with no shampoo bottles that didn't
impact anybody. No. Okay. No, that was just like
kind of a last resort. Maybe we should start
the episode. Okay, the first one was the Page
5 Honey. And I took this totally different than
when I actually read it. Each week a different
model was featured on page 5 and on the back.
She was usually wearing a bikini and the description
of her was printed, which is bizarre. You couldn't
just... Look at her, because you would also assume
that the person was not blind, also reading the
description. This feature ended after the Halloween
issue of 2006. I believe from the last episode,
did they not close? That would have been the
last episode. 2007. Oh, like right near the end.
Episode I call it. Chelsea, you know what? Sorry,
just before we move on, does that not remind
you? Like, I feel like the sun. the newspaper
magazine yes our newspaper we have like the model
that they would put in your the pages and weekly
world news finishes in the sun so i'm wondering
if they stole that from weekly world news oh
that's so true and you just totally unlocked
a memory that i totally forgot about was the
thing and they totally did do that so it very
well might have Or who even knows that might
have just been a thing that was the thing to
do in publications at that time. I don't know.
I was too young. Photography was not readily
available. Yeah. I wonder which one did it first.
It's a curiosity. Yeah, no kidding. Yeah, that
actually didn't come up in the research at all.
Next one is alive. Also a good idea for an episode.
One of the many other recurring subjects was
the occasionally alive cover story. Most often,
the story pertained to some sort of creature
such as Mummy, prehistoric creature, or occasionally
a human who had been frozen in a block of ice.
Example, Santa Claus. Oh, okay. I know. I was
expecting Walt Disney after that one, but it
was Santa. Or a caveman. I was really waiting
for a caveman. Which, we don't know for sure
if that is different from Santa. I guess, sure.
Another subject often tackled by Weekly World
News is the reemergence of many prominent figures
believed to be deceased, including Hank Williams,
Marilyn Monroe, John F. Kennedy, Adolf Hitler,
and Michael Jackson. Survivors of the Titanic
and the Hindenburg were also occasionally featured.
Among the most frequently printed reports, those
asserting that Elvis is alive. The Weekly World
News frequently reported Elvis sightings with
a series of articles claiming that Elvis Presley
had faked his death and had recently emerged
from years of seclusion to prepare for a comeback.
Obviously, altered photos purported to show a
grey -haired balding Elvis sneaking into a movie
theatre and coming out of a Burger King restaurant
when the US Postal Service conducted a poll to
determine the design of the Elvis commemorative
Man, you know what's crazy, Chelsea? I just looked
at that. Elvis was born in 35, so Elvis is still
alive theories could still be going on. Technically,
yeah. Have you seen a good one though recently?
No, I don't know. No, I think let's create the
people who actually like Elvis is past weekly.
Let's just bring up the website and see if it's
still this is what this episode is for. Let's
just take a look. Have you? Hold on. Don't go
to the website. Well, you could go to the website.
Elvis, the Elvis website. No weekly world news.
Oh, I'm Googling. Elvis is alive. Oh, hold on.
Hold on. Twenty twenty one. Found an article
for 2020. It's a very chunky guy. Oh, oh, oh,
here we go. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.
I got a good one. 2024. You ready for this headline?
Steve Albini. I don't know who that is. And the
ghost of Elvis team up for a musical collab.
Oh, shit. That just reminded me of Bubba Hotep.
I'm not going to read the article, but this is
the most recent thing we have for Elvis. However,
if we look at May 28, 2012, Elvis's tomb is empty.
August 16 2011 Elvis spotted on Obama's bus to
This is golden. All right, what's your 2021 my
2021 one second here? It is Elvis goes to Graceland
with Michael Jackson August 16 2010 once Michael
Jackson spotted with Elvis Oh this one. They
really like July 1st 2009. This is express .co
.uk Elvis alive the king caught on camera at
Graceland and gave secret signal to fans. September
21, 2020. This is not an Elvis spotted, but I
really want to read this. January 7, 2009, top
20 surprising Elvis facts. I'm just really curious
about what they have for surprising Elvis facts
on here. Number one, Elvis's income dropped from
$400 ,000 a month to $78 a month after he was
drafted into the U .S. Army on December 19, 1957.
OK, that seems legit. Number two, the King's
entourage were known collectively as the Memphis
Mafia. All sported diamond and gold rings given
to them by Elvis on which a thunderbolt in the
letters TCB had been imprinted. TCB stood for
taking care of business. Number three, the Beatles
visited Elvis at his home in California in 1965,
joining him in an informal jam session that tragically
wasn't recorded. Number four, Elvis called Milk
Butch. Okay. Okay, I'm just gonna have to start
calling Milk that. Number five. else gave away
so many cars, including Corvettes, Cadillacs
and Linkings that nobody butch. Is that a good
thing or a bad thing in like this? Oh, no, I
don't know that nobody has ever been able to
come up with an accurate count. Number six, the
King's last car was a 1976 Cadillac Eldorado,
which sported gold plated hubcaps, TV and a bar.
That's a nice feature. Do they do that anymore?
Do you think? Yeah, they call it limos. Not that
I could afford a car with a bar, so I would know.
Number seven, Elvis's concert jumpsuits were
given names. They include Peacock, White Prehistoric
Bird, Flame, Gypsy, Mad Tiger, and King of Spades.
All good names. The only one that's missing is
something... G... Just... G... Geopose... Something...
Pope Junior. I can't remember his name. Number
eight. Number eight, the only thing I remember.
Pope Junior. The King's manager, Colonel Tom
Parker, made more than Elvis. He got 50 % of
what the star made from 1967 on and then earned
extra pay as the technical advisor on Elvis's
films. Number nine, the King's first guitar cost
$12 .95. Number 10, football was the King's favorite
sport and the Cleving Browns were his favorite
team. Number 11, Elvis's favorite movie was James
Dean's Rebel Without a Cause, which he memorized
line by line. Number 12, some of Elvis's bejeweled
jumpsuits weighed more than 25 pounds. He was
actually blonde, dyed it black. He owned 37 guns,
liked them so much. He wore a two -shot derringer
during live performances in the 70s, so ordered
two medals while serving in the army. Went for
expert markmanship in the other sharpshooter.
Elvis wore a cross. the Hebrew letter chai and
star of David around his neck I don't want to
miss out on heaven due to a technicality he said
just in case yeah I get that yeah that's just
smart Elvis recorded more than 600 songs in his
music career but didn't write a single one of
them Elvis's favorite meal pork chops with ground
gravy and apple pie for dessert among the many
nicknames Elvis went by were E big E big L the
bopping hillbilly the cat the chief mr. dynamite
and of course the king okay the one that i find
the best out of all of that is that he called
milk but i just still don't know what that means
i don't know but i really really does that mean
he said can i get a glass of butch yes okay and
he would have to know what that means to give
him the right thing Right you would have like
if so was this a common thing to know? Okay,
this isn't a podcast about Elvis unless there's
still stuff about Okay in 1994 the newspaper
ran a front cover with the headline Elvis Presley
dead 1994 stating that Elvis was now really dead
from heart failure after slipping into a diabetic
coma. In 2004, Washington Post article on Klontz's
death, humorous Gene Weingarten claimed that
he and Dave Barry were the sources of the story.
According to Weingarten, the Weekly World News
later reported that claims of Elvis's belated
death had been a hoax. Weird. Next popular column,
you're gonna like this one. The later death was
a hoax in that he was still alive or he had died
earlier. Probably that - He was still alive.
He was still alive. I'm just assuming here. Yeah,
but it's weird. I don't know which way it would
go in real life. I know, I know. You gotta think
that he's still alive. Next popular column. You're
gonna like this one. The world's baddest. I remember
these actually. Numerous stories regarding shockingly
obese people made the pages of Weekly World News
the most popular of which was Roland Gillespie,
the world's baddest man. After Roland was first
discovered, Weekly World News encouraged readers
to send in their guesses as to exactly how much
they believe Roland weighed. Weighing in at 576
.2 pounds, Roland was featured being weighed
and measured and the crew was possibly sat on
by the world's baddest man. Later stories involved
Roland's attempts to lose weight through the
OMAD diet, his struggle with near -fatal obesity
and claims that he ate his family. You just really
got that's classy Was the weekly world news just
ahead of its time for is it TLC or the History
Channel? It has like my 800 pound life. Oh, it's
definitely TLC and I'm a big fan Okay, so I was
just gonna say big fan of this column I think
it was just a trailblazer of its time because
this probably is the first of what I truly love
as trash TV. I don't watch much TV, but the TV
I do choose to watch is just the absolute shittiest
shows you can find on television. My 600 pound
life being one. You know, I was picturing the
two guys on motorcycles. is who I was expecting
to see here. Oh, those guys. Yeah. Do they come
up? You got to understand that morbid obesity
had a different view, like mid 90s onwards and
mid 90s backwards. Oh, yeah. This is definitely
different than you see on my 600 foot. Yeah.
No, like morbid obesity used to be like something
you had to work at, like hard. to do not just
like oh no it's mistake after like solitude yeah
with our food the way it is now with all the
palm oils and chemicals it's very easy to attain
them yeah no they used to be like my 600 pound
life big cities used to have prestigious groups
called like the fat man's clubs And they were
very proud that they were fat in the 20s. Well,
yeah, and you look at throughout history, like
the plump ladies were the richest because they
could afford to eat. Yeah, and they were the
most attractive. They were able to get to that
level. That's just how I choose to see myself
now is well off. Little do they know. Other stories
featured the exploits of the world's fattest
couple at the gym, the world's fattest baby,
and even a similar weight guessing contest featuring
the world's fattest dog. Wait, wait, wait, wait.
We have to stop at this. How would you consider
it the world's fattest dog? Because they have
such different breeds. He'd have to be Tronky.
Well, I would have to assume it's a pug, but
like a pug who weighs 80 pounds is different
than like a husky who weighs like 150 pounds.
I've never seen a fat husky. Have you? No, but
it's in the name. Wow. Can you just search the
world? Husky is husky. Because you're really
gonna enjoy the images that come up from it.
Okay. This is a little more than Chonky. Chelsea,
I'm sorry, I just googled world - or sorry, I
binged world's baddest dog and it told me English
Mastiff. Oh, that's a good picture. One continuing
story featured a morbidly obese man named Buster
Simkus who had lost so much weight that it left
80 pounds of loose skin hanging off his his body.
That's a Junker. He couldn't even walk! I wouldn't
call him world's fattest though. Like, sausage
dogs do not have to gain that much weight to
be able to not walk. Definitely couldn't walk,
I don't think. No, but that's the thing about
sausage dogs is they have short legs. Oh boy.
They don't have the ability to gain that much
weight. It's easy to get out of hand. Yeah. Okay.
Buster Sinkist. Like, a Great Dane? They got
a lot of rooms. Yeah, exactly. This guy's just
five pounds overweight. Okay, Buster Simkiss.
He lost so much weight that it left 80 pounds
of loose skin hanging off his body that he was
planning on having surgically removed. By the
next story, he had regained the weight, severely
damaging his scars. That's sad. Okay, well, we're
the Motorcycle Fat Boys. That's a real question.
Motorcycle Fat Boys. Okay, it just brings up
motorcycles. So what is the search term that
I'm missing here? Fat Guys? Fat twins. Billy
Leon and Benny Lloyd McCarrie, known together
as the McGuire twins, were listed in the Guinness
Book. Oh, their Guinness Book of World Records.
They're the world's baddest twins, aren't they?
As the world's heaviest twins. A well -known
Guinness photo depicts the twins riding their
Honda motorcycles, which they rode across country
for promotion. Well, that's sad that they weren't
the weekly world news. Oh, yeah, they're there.
OK, well, we learned something here on this episode.
Up next! Upcoming Economic Depressions Weekly
World News covered stories that featured analysis
of coming Great Depressions and the immediate
future in which many prominent celebrities, politicians
and icons of business would become penniless.
The cover story of the June 6th, 2005. You got
to be happy with the rich person loses everything
storyline. I was literally just thinking and
I was going to comment. Not enough people cover
that. Yeah, it's a pull to the regular people.
Yeah. That the 1 % is gonna fall? Yes, of course.
Oh, they're gonna hate it. Well, we're all gonna
love it, yeah. And of course at this time, the
1 % are not like the 1 % that we see now, but...
No, but you gotta remember too that the people
who own the newspapers are usually in the 1%,
so they're gonna say like, oh no, people aren't
gonna like the story because I don't like the
story, so we're not printing. Yeah. But they're
going for it and I fucking love that. The cover
story of the June 6th, 2005 issue warned that
the Second Great Depression was just weeks away.
Because of this, Texas oil tycoons were planning
to flee to Luxembourg, the only country to survive
this economic crash. Consequences of this depression
would include mass starvation, a disease epidemic,
mobs of looters, and a return to pagan religions
and Satanism. Do you remember when that happened?
Yeah, I think it was right around the time when
the people from Nibiru showed up. That's exactly
when it did. Yeah, when that the night. Is it
the 9th planet? It was right around 2012. Yeah,
9th now. Around that time, it was the 10th. But
then right around the same time, the scientists
came out and said, well, technically it's not
actually the 10th planet because it's the 9th
planet, because Peter doesn't exist. Yeah, that
was all like in and around the same time. It
was really chaotic. I know it was really chaotic.
There's a lot of people really angry about that
stuff. Oh, totally. Another typical weekly world
news topic was Bible related findings that included
relics from Noah's Ark, the Garden of Eating,
claimed by the tabloid to be in Colorado. However,
we do know from recent, well, kind of recent,
well, very recent within the podcast, History
of Time, supposedly in Sumeria, not Colorado,
maybe, the discovery of additional commandments
from God, the ant sandals worn by Jesus. You
know, products were well made back then to stand.
They just planned obsolescence has really ruined
everything. It really fucking has. The magazine
also reported on when Jesus will return to Earth
and held an interview with Sisyphus when he finished
his eternal boulder hauling workout. Oh, Sisyphus,
yeah. Sisyphus, Sisyphus. Yeah, there you go.
Yeah, those ones are a little bit hard. Other
stories stated that natural disasters such as
earthquakes and human economic activity like
drilling for oil have opened up gates and portals
from hell as they do, from which demons have
escaped to wreak havoc upon the earth. I do actually
think that is the worst thing that the oil and
gas industry has done is cover up that portion
and not the global warming thing. It is the demons
that they keep unleashing upon us. But you know
what? I've also heard that that's, you know,
it's not all of why the billionaires are losing
their beaches, but it's at least a part of it.
Yeah, it's not an insignificant amount either.
Yeah, it's rarely covered any at all. It's Thalog's
unperturbed arm that is throwing the waves up
onto the riches of the land. Yeah. We might cover
it in Fringy Mini at some point. We probably
will if we were to find an article on it. And
we might. We might if they're still publishing
things. Actually, Chelsea, you know what? I just
found - We should use them more often. Yeah.
I just found the article here. If you want to
take a look in general, it's this bad bear right
here. You just sent me this bear with boobs again.
Man boobs, yeah. That's the article. Anyhow.
It's a good article. It's well stated. OK, a
story shortly after September 11th, 2001 showed
the face of Satan appearing in a cloud of dust
caused by the collapse of the World Trade Center.
I think we all remember that similar stories
were in Satan's face had appeared in a thunderstorm
had appeared before. Again, I just want to state
I feel like I would have been fantastic at the
Weekly World News. I feel like I'm qualified
to work there. I really do. Chelsea, I always
thought I thought my job would be naming fifth
wheels and motor homes, but I do in fact think
it would have been waiting for the weekend. It
was now that we did this. Give me a name. Well,
no, see, I saw an RV once named the cousin Eddie
too. And I thought that that's what I wanted
to get into, but I don't know how. Yeah. But
like, I feel like you could do better than the
cousin to. Yeah. I would name one the Rambler.
I think I would call one the open road, which
I don't think I've ever seen. No, you know what?
You don't see. I think Journeyman is a great
name for a motorhome. Yeah, you don't see motorhomes
named the same way that you see boats named.
Yeah, you just don't. They have very specific
things. Yeah. Yeah. The next heading is terrorism
and following the terrorist attack on September
11th, 2001. I was just going to ask if they had
it before 2001, but that answers it. Yes. I hate
to bring up Alex Jones again, but the craziest
thing to me about Alex Jones is that he predicted
this terrorist attack on September 11th, 2001.
He didn't, though. He did. No, he didn't. If
you look at it. There are things around what
he actually predicted that are not specifically
that, and it has a lot to do with that weird
X -Files shootoff that happened at the same time.
And then when it actually did happen, he said
it was the European Union that did it. Oh, for
fuck's sake. Yeah. He specifically said that
it was going to be I can't remember exactly what
it was. I just listened to it yesterday. No,
but whenever you actually see him cover something
correctly, it's usually because he had five different
spins. Sorry, five is very limited. Oh yeah,
like the whole thing was him just predicting
everything but he specifically said it was gonna
be Osama bin Laden and it happened six days after
he fucking said it and it's the only thing he's
ever accurately got right but then he went on
and like got it completely wrong after it happened.
Yeah on the day of he said it was the European
Union that did it. That's exact but he got it
right like six days before it happened and I
just thought that was craziest thing. Why is
this becoming all about not all about Alex Jones
but it's the very adjacent to Alex Jones what
we're talking about right now damn it it is following
the terrorist attack on September 11 2001 weekly
world news featured articles about plans for
future terrorist attacks on the United States
of America 2004 cover story described plans by
Kim Jong -il to eventually invade and conquer
the United States you know what I would believe
Kim Jong Il definitely had those plans. Like
they were. Oh, yeah. They were for sure there.
Yeah. And Chelsea, do you know? You know what?
Never mind. It's just going to be a picture of
the big bear again. I knew it. Other stories
feature profiles on the location and nature of
Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, which who
would have fucking thought that we're still talking
about it today? including the news that Saddam
Hussein had an arsenal of giant slingshots. Well,
to be fair, he did have a Stargate, too. He did.
It's not mentioned here, but it also mentions
missing Lincoln dinosaur. How else would he get
that butt of Stargate? How would he? I would
even say that he had hybrids of animals mixed
with dinosaurs, but it's just gonna be a picture
of the bear. But I would expect to see that bear
more in Russia probably. He seems retched. Mostly
from his background, yeah. He is definitely the
image for this week's episode. I don't know why
I can't tell you how it relates to this episode.
But it's beautiful. Yeah, he's beautiful. Just
as he is. In 2003, a series of articles profiled
the ongoing relationship between an eventual
marriage of Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden.
It was always kind of an undercurrent of the
story. Okay. The love affair between Saddam and
Osama. It was just an assumed. Okay, other stories
have made claims that Bin Laden was actually
a dwarf that he recruited Adolf Hitler to join
Al Qaeda and that he was in fact dead long before
his actual death and that the CIA was keeping
it a secret. After his being captured by Batboy,
Saddam was humiliated by female prison guards,
won the United States lottery and even demanded
that the government pay for his sex change. Oh,
what a beautiful piece of reporting. Presidency
is the next headline that they reported on often.
The weekly world news has often been the home
of political satire regarding current and past
presidential administrations. The magazine reported
that the founding fathers were all gay and that
George Washington and Abraham Lincoln were actually
women. According to the paper, President Lincoln
was insane and his ghost had also been spotted
in the White House giving President George W
Bush advice based on the war in Iraq. stories
about President George W. Bush capitalized on
the public's perception that he lacked intelligence.
The paper chronicled his plans to run for Pope,
his love affair with Janet Reno, and his intention
to nominate Yoda as secretary. Oh man, I kind
of forgot that Janet Reno was a person and that
Will Ferrell played her on Saturday Night Live
for a while. I just clicked on her and she looks
like Ferrell. Oh yeah, she's got some broad shoulders.
Yep. That June 21st 2004 it she stated that Vice
President Jake Cheney was actually a robot and
that his frequent trips to the hospital allowed
him to rewire circuits. I'm pretty sure that
is the same with JD Vance. Pretty sure. If you
looked it up I'm sure it would be the same. Chelsea,
I don't think they can make software that awkward.
at this point i just don't think they have the
technology for it i always thought he was a prototype
and they're just working up the bugs is what
i thought was going on no you have to intentionally
make somebody that awkward and unhuman like it
can't be accidental or just like not enough information
like it is that's true that's true it is actually
too much information about how humanity works
that allows you to say this is anti -human It's
true. You can only be human to be that anti -human.
Yeah. Or potentially an alien. Like I could see
something like a reptilian being able to be that
anti -human. That is very true. And that does
belong in the Weak Girl News. I wonder, we'll
take a look at the website after. We'll see if
there's a place that you can submit stories,
because that should definitely be one that they
should be covering. It says greatest people with
an exclamation mark on their website. Oh, searched.
I'm gonna search a few things while you keep
going. Okay, next one. Aliens are beloved. Aliens
are another subject frequently tackled by the
Weekly World News. Weekly World News blamed these
creatures for holes in the ozone, which I'm pretty
sure ended up being correct. A Roswell Crash
survivor, Altair Bob, made contact with the Weekly
World News via telepathic email. This actually
seems pretty on par with like Serpo, sadly. Several
factions of extraterrestrials have been using
the moon to dump garbage. Martians have been
monitoring the mid -east crisis. Warrior aliens
have been resurrecting the dead, fighting Bigfoot,
and training in a mock U .S. town hidden in Antarctica.
San Franciscans have opened their hearts to immigrants
from Mercury. One such alien named P. Wod, who
made several appearances in weekly world news,
has been known to fraternize with known women
of politics. It was reported that he and Hillary
Clinton once had a close relationship that ended
up in a brawl between him and President Bill
Clinton. It should also be known that apparently
Vance shows up in many articles on Weekly World
News, but they don't seem to have to do with
JD Vance. And then I just realized I don't know
what the J or the D stand for. So I can't actually
search his name. Yeah, but doesn't he just go
by JD fans? Well, he does. And I don't think
he's actually cool enough to have said that that
J and D stand for Jack Daniels or something like
that during like his high his university years.
No, I feel like he always know he wouldn't have
always by G for sure. OK, well, that's sad. And
the August 11 1990. 8th edition Weekly World
News reported that autograph dealer Steve Koschel
offered to pay $1 million for anything signed
by an extraterrestrial. Koschel said he would
pay the million dollars to anyone who had a signed
letter or signed photograph or anything signed
by a visitor for outer space. Quote, hundreds
of people claim to have been abducted and taken
aboard UFOs, and yet there's not a single verifiable
signature of an extraterrestrial being anywhere
on Earth. And quote, and he's going by this with
an autograph. He said in an exclusive interview,
quote, someone out there must have asked one
of these creatures for an autograph and quote,
continue Koshell. Quote, if not, someone will
in the future. When they do, I want to be the
first collector to acquire. The subject of space
aliens endorsing U .S. presidential candidates
in various elections was also a recurring topic.
During the 2000 U .S. presidential election,
then -candidate George W. Bush posed for photographs
with the Weekly World News issue opened the article
reading space aliens back Bush for president.
up on the topic of conversations of the Weekly
World News that we're calling them now. Cryptids
and half -animal, half -human hybrids are another
frequent topic of the Weekly World News. Creatures
such as Bigfoot, merpeople, real -life catwoman,
half -alligator, half -humans, frog babies, kangaroo
women, and many other creatures have taken the
world by storm on various covers. For example,
we have the abominable beach man strikes terror
in Hawaii and Bigfoot steals race car. I love
the English on that one, including the aforementioned
Batboy. Next one that they covered quite frequently,
Murpho as we mentioned on the previous one. And
I must say on the cryptid one, I you know of
all the cryptids we've covered and find humor
in not one of these seem to be anything that
we've actually covered as an actual cryptid they
all just seem to be other than bigfoot and merpeople
of course we have not in the way that we cover
them either like yeah they all just seem completely
made up which is hilarious i just love that bigfoot
is stealing i would totally cover something like
that as somebody emailed us Please, if you have
a story like that, we will cover it. We will
talk about it for sure. Like without question.
Oh yeah. Next one. Merfolk. And that is the existence
of mermen and mermaids, which is also frequently
reported in the pages of Weekly World News. One
detailed article recounted a mermaid being caught
in a fishing net off the coast of Florida in
April 17, 2004. According to the article, she
was at least half human, very sociable, and extremely
intelligent. At least? At least. So she could
be fully human. She could have been a little
bit more human or less. A little bit more or
less than him. No, she couldn't be less. Oh,
no, at least would mean at least more or more.
Equal to or greater than, yeah. And was able
to talk in sophisticated three dimensional language,
whatever that means. Do we not? that depends
heavily on noises that could possibly be connected
to the click languages prevalent in Parasubatic.
Okay. And on hand movements that look like sign
language. Holy shit. Oh boy. Similar to their
female counterparts, mermen are found within
the pages of the Weekly World News. On June 17,
2003, a merman was reported to have been caught
in the South Pacific, this one measuring only
28 inches. Just over two feet, okay. And that
is going to lead us to our last and perhaps most
popular, what are they called? It's Batboy. It's
Batboy. It's definitely Batboy. He has his own,
like, girl dance on Weekly World News, because
he owns Weekly World News now. He pretty much
does, yeah. He does! He said Weekly World News
was bought by Batboy Inc. You're gonna be very
impressed by Batboy. Prepare to be impressed.
Taylor, I know you've been looking at Weekly
World News. while we've I've been talking if
you could please just scroll through if you see
anything of interest for Batboy I'm also gonna
see if you found anything else but if you see
anything of interest of Batboy because we're
on Batboy and would like to follow up the section
with it please I see it's all about his 30 year
anniversary right now not right now but wow one
of the most recent years and not only that that's
from 2022 so he goes back to 92 so he's 33 years
old And he was found as a boy, so he's probably
like 40 years old at this point. Yeah, he's a
millennial, like us. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so Bad
Boy was first featured in 1990, as Taylor just
told us, and after being found in a cave in West
Virginia in the Lost World Cavern, which... Sorry.
I don't know if there's any ties to Mothman in
that, and I don't know if that's why you're gasping.
No, it's because Taylor Swift had an ultrasound
and there's a little Batboy baby, maybe? Oh,
no. Yeah. 2020. Wow. I don't know the gestation
time on a Batboy. I don't know either. Wow, there's
a lot of Taylor Swift Batboy stuff in the 2020s.
That's fucking weird. He has since led police
on high -speed chases, fought in the war on terror,
led the troops to capture Saddam Hussein, I'm
not sure if you guys knew that, bitten Santa
Claus. Santa Claus has come up more times than
I would have expected him. Probably two in this
episode and traveled to outer space as I would
expect that boy to be able to do. In 2000, he
gave his endorsement to Al Gore. He's surprisingly
political, actually. Yeah, yeah, he is. It was
foretold that Batboy would become president in
2028. We're not there yet. We could only hold
at this point. Holy shit, is Batboy Andrew Boziako?
Hold on a second. Because he was told he would
be president by 2028. You know what? I'm not
at all disappointed by these candidates, and
I feel like either one would be a good option.
I'm just putting it out there. Looking forward
to this presidential run if that's it. Totally.
The story of Batboy was the basis for an acclaimed
off -Broadway musical, Batboy the Musical, in
which Batboy meets a tragic end, which is super
sad. Chelsea, I just need to, is that for real
or is that from the weekly world news? The Batboy
musical? Yeah. No, it's for real. Okay, it's
just hard to tell with how it was put. Okay,
no, it's for real. 1997 was the world premiere
in Los Angeles. In 2001, it was off -Broadway.
In 2003, it was in St. Louis. 2004, it was the
West End, which I believe would be London. Yes.
No, it's New York. 2021, it was in Auckland.
Oh, wow. It was a for real thing in which Batboy
meets a tragic end, which is super sad. In addition
to articles, Batboy has been featured in a comic
strip since 2004, though it is said that only
the articles are the true story of Batboy, which
I don't know. There may be some great area there.
I don't feel like it would be the true true story
of Batboy because Weekly World News had him from
the start. On July 31st, 2024, it was recorded
by the website Deadline that Netflix was developing
a Batboy live action television series. To this
day, the Batboy saga continues on the website,
Taylor. Yeah. Well, like you said in the first
half, Batboy bought the Weekly World News, so
it's going to have a lot going on with him. Yeah.
And they skyrocketed him to fandom. Did you find
any good articles about? Yeah. Well, if I click
on them, I'm not sure about this weird guy that's
totally naked with no wiener. I mean, yeah. Well,
yeah, he's on the run from the FBI with cryptids.
I think is what that picture. Oh, he is. OK.
But the big thing that's happened to him in the
last like five years years is one, his apparent
love affair with Taylor Swift where they had
a child together. And then two, apparently he
was in the 2020 election as a candidate with
VP Bigfoot. They would have immediately had my
vote. You wouldn't have even had to ask. I wouldn't
have said liberal, conservative. It wouldn't
have even mattered. No, but yeah, those are the
big things in the last five years for that point.
I mean, his whole life has just been headlines.
Oh yeah. So that's all from me. Did you come
across anything else on your searches on the
weekly release that you wanted to highlight?
I just find it interesting that they have very
rarely like straight away from the original Batboy
photo, the face on Batboy. No, it's still very
much the exact same picture of Batboy. Yeah,
the Batboy you're picturing in your head, it's
on every single picture now, be it political
running. be it probably Taylor Swift ultrasound
no that one's no it's Taylor Swift and ultrasound
yeah yeah that one doesn't have the face but
there's another Taylor Swift one below he tests
negative for the coronavirus i think he's at
a podium in the white house yeah i don't know
if he's president there or not he might be no
still running oh still running okay yeah Yeah,
all the bad boy stuff. So the website is very
much up and running. You can get a free subscription
to bad boy. Not bad boy. Weekly world news. They
do have a shop where you can buy all sorts of
things, including a bad boy shirt. Oh, sorry.
I just realized there's a picture where he didn't
test positive for coronavirus and there's two
people standing beside him. One's Bigfoot and
the other one apparently is PhD ape who is apparently
a mutant and he has his own heading. on her mutants.
I did not point out PHD8, but there's various
things that they seem to cover now on the website.
So across the headings on the website, you'll
find aliens and they cover Goten's, Z -bands
and UFO sightings, which are very close to the,
what are the Serpo guys? Ebens, very close. Yeah,
I actually find these guys weirdly adjacent to
the Paranormal and like the Alex Jones and Mix
of the onion in there. Yeah. Yeah, I found that
as well And I don't know I think they've lost
relevance because they're too close to the conspiracy
I feel like that's how they always were. Well,
the problem is the conspiracies got too outlandish
Yeah, just reading what they have on here aliens
zombies Bigfoot PhD a bad boy vampires Manigator
bad boy greatest people press and about and greatest
people It's just people who probably pay for
stuff and headlines and anger is still on there
But yeah, they're still going. I think they've
more than anything now gone all in Wilder. Yeah
on that on the conspiracy stuff and bad boy I
mean bad boys seems to be what they got the most
recognition for and why not go with that if that's
what yeah What got you there? Yeah Anything to
add? No, I think that is a great summary of this
grocery store nostalgia that is. Thank you for
doing this, Chelsea. Do you have fun with the
research? You're welcome. What? Did you have
fun with the research? I did. It was very fun
to look at. I did, as you noticed, find a few
parallels with some stuff that we see in the
paranormal community slash conspiracy community.
Oddly enough, I brought up Alex Jones a couple
times. Yeah, and like I said, like these guys
inherit such a weird place in the middle of like
where conspiracies are now and the onion. Yeah.
And I mean, when you listen to guys like Alex
David Wilcock, for instance, for examples of
stuff like that, even with stuff like Project
Serpo, it's just so blatantly in your face lies.
Sorry to put it so bluntly for people who believe
in the stuff that they're saying. You know, all
the grifters that are around. Basically anybody
we've talked about, yeah. And, to me, it's hitting
the same marks. Just, you get a little bit more
- A little more satirical, yeah. Exactly! But
other than that, it could be anything that they're
saying. It could be the onion. And they're spoutin'
off. It very well could be anything that they're
saying, which I think is the funny part about
it. Yeah. Well, it's almost a little sad that
they fed these lies and died out because they
weren't quite the right kind of lies. Exactly!
Yet these people keep doing YouTube lies to make
money and even live lives saying that they just
need to make money. Yeah. So I mean at least
they're still going yeah Chelsea thank you for
this introspection of what are a lot of our childhood
or Life was back in the day going through the
grocery line and with that I have been Taylor
here with Chelsea We are journey to the fringe.
Thank you all for listening and we'll see you
next week. Goodbye Thank you for listening to
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