Debunking Humor...

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This isn't really the place for it, but the concept that "the government are looking into a matter therefore there's some credibility to it" has been nebulously spread around many threads historically, with probably many more to come. Anyway, by happenstance, I've managed to come across the point at which the dumb "you can get high from smoking banana peels" hoax reached governmental levels of credibility (starting half way down the first column):
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Now I want to know what the honorable gentleman was smoking himself!
 
FatPhil said:
smoking banana peels
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Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IQNBQI3UDag


beautifully documented at https://nyujournalismprojects.org/eastvillageother/recollections/bananas
External Quote:
"We really don't know what agent, if there is any, in the smoke produces the reported effect but we are investigating to see if it might be the methylated form of serotonin," the FDA's commissioner, Dr. James Goddard, said in announcing the investigation. In a telephone interview with The Times, Fred Garfield, the FDA's deputy director, called the tests that began in mid-March "very complex."
 
FatPhil said:
I've managed to come across the point at which the dumb "you can get high from smoking banana peels" hoax reached governmental levels of credibility
Click to expand...
This is brilliant!
The speaker might be Frank Thompson, a Congressman from New Jersey, Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frank_Thompson

External Quote:

But the banana smoker is a different breed. He is a driven man who cannot get the banana off his back.
Driven by his need for bananas, he may take to cultivating bananas in his own backyard.
... ...
I will only breathe easier when in this country, this land we love, we can declare, "Yes, we have no bananas; we have no bananas today."

He's clearly using satire, but what for? Opposition to warnings on cigarette packs or anti-marijuana legislation? Maybe he's making a point about legislators getting caught up with "social panics" and unverified claims.
 
John J. said:
He's clearly using satire, but what for? Opposition to warnings on cigarette packs or anti-marijuana legislation? Maybe he's making a point about legislators getting caught up with "social panics" and unverified claims.
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To an English ear, one used to politicians using expressions such as "tired and emotional", it's almost a *parody* of satire, it's just so out there. Part of me wants to think it looks like a piss-take because it is a piss-take, but the other part of me doesn't such willing debasement of the most influential country in the world to seem to be a constant over such a long period of time.
 
John J. said:
Yes, I overlooked that some younger folk (or trendier senior folk) here might not notice Thompson ended his speech with a lyric from a once well-known lighthearted song.
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Indeed. I have no doubt he was lampooning the FDA (and perhaps some colleagues?) for taking the hoax seriously.
From today's perspective, it's a shame that he included that racist Ralph Waldo Emerson quote.

As to being current on the music of yesteryear:
619355956_18307116580261452_5808600962293036486_n.jpg
 
John J. said:
Yes, I overlooked that some younger folk (or trendier senior folk) here might not notice Thompson ended his speech with a lyric from a once well-known lighthearted song.
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I found myself singing "Chickery chick, cha-la, cha-la, Check-a-la romey in a bananika" a couple of days ago, and thought wow, how did THAT one come into my mind?
 
Ann K said:
I found myself singing "Chickery chick, cha-la, cha-la, Check-a-la romey in a bananika"
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A nice example of the mutabillity of what seems like a very clear memory... I recall singing the song with my mother, the tune and lyrics are clear in my head but, even allowing for spelling nonsense words differently, what I recall cannot be forced to fit the meter of what you posted.

I guess I am curious enough now to go find a recording of the song, at the slight risk of messing up a memory of my mother. It is not a key treasured memory, I guess I'll risk it...

Memory is odd, yeah?
 
JMartJr said:
I guess I am curious enough now to go find a recording of the song, at the slight risk of messing up a memory of my mother. It is not a key treasured memory, I guess I'll risk it...
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Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cd16Gx4dLX4

I was surprised to find so many different videos are out there, sung by many, including Frank Sinatra, the Andrews sisters, and "Gonzo" from Sesame Street.
 
NorCal Dave said:
I had no idea what you and @JMartJr were talking about. Unfortunately now I do. That is horrifically bad and no, I don't see some other singer, Sinatra or otherwise, making it any better.
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I think every generation must have its nonsense songs. When I was young it was "Bibbety bobbety boo", and when I was a teenager it was "Ting tang walla walla bing bang". A couple of generations earlier it was the "patter" songs of W. S. Gilbert. Over to you, Dave, do you have any to add from, say, the eighties or nineties?
 
Ann K said:
I think every generation must have its nonsense songs. When I was young it was "Bibbety bobbety boo", and when I was a teenager it was "Ting tang walla walla bing bang".
Click to expand...

We could add Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious from Mary Poppins.

Perhaps in a rather different category, Cocteau Twins' singer Liz Fraser often sang lyrics composed largely of pseudowords and non-English words (without obvious connection to their actual meaning). Fraser might be more widely known as the vocalist for Massive Attack's "Teardrop".
 
In the thread In search of ancient spaceships, amongst other curios and enigmatic art from earlier times there has been some discussion of an artefact supposedly found during the excavation of Toprakkale, a settlement of the Urartu kingdom in what is now Turkey.

It looks something like a 1960s Mercury space capsule- more specifically, like some "cutaway" illustrations and toys that showed the astronaut:

d1.jpg


Some have wondered if it might be an authentic artefact, but misperceived by modern eyes, possibly the head of a human figure.
@NorCal Dave has pointed out the contemporaneous neighbouring Hittite peoples had pointed headgear (post #30).

IMG_3555.jpeg


@Todd Feinman opined
Todd Feinman said:
It is a fake, or some ancient magician was able to see into the future.
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Now, after much study in the archaeology department at the University of Unrepeatable Results, a possible explanation is advanced:

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