You know, there are lots of things in life that I love to debate. And this isn’t one of them. I’d like to offer a draw and hope David B accepts:
Terms of the Draw
Urban Legends by definition are not formally documented. As they spread, they often splinter into multiple variants. In the case of the “In the Butt, Bob” story, there are several versions in existance.
Some of these variants make reference to any or all of the following:
a) show a couple who is Black
b) contain shots of the audience
c) the words, “Dat be da butt, bob”, i.e. contain racial undertones
Some of these variants do not contain references to the above. They contain no racial references or instead accurate references. They do not contain reference to the audience. They contain chiefly the core concept that a contestant on the NewlyWed Game was asked about a place they made whoopie and responded with a reference to anal sex.
It is agreed that the Urban Legend versions in the first description are hereby declared Urban Legends which are False (i.e. did not happen)
It is further agreed that the Urban Legend versions in the second description are hereby declared true events, on evidence of a recently discovered video tape.
Do we have a deal? I really don’t want to debate this one.
In the spirit of your offer of a draw, I won’t respond to the message above it.
I have no problem with the way you’ve described it, and it doesn’t contradict anything that I said in the previous thread (at least not to my memory). That’s why it is “sort of” true, according to snopes, and I agree. Yes, there does now seem to have been an event that probably was the origin for the UL. No, that event does not match the most common version of the story currently circulating, which is what makes it a UL.
Since the apparent ULness of the story is the divergence between the “most common version” and the events that actually took place, how was it determined that this particular version (with a black couple who spoke with a black accent) is indeed the most common? I realize how it might be established (through statistically sound polling), but I doubt anyone has done that much work on this subject. However, if someone has, feel free to point it out to me, and I’ll concede the matter. But barring that evidence, refering to one version as the “most common” is assuming as fact something that hasn’t been proven.
For instance, I’ve heard this story a couple times, and the race of the couple was never mentioned in those tellings. Apparently others have heard a version or versions that did mention race. If whether or not a story is an UL (when dealing with a true story) depends on how much the most common version differs from the original events, then determining what version is most common would seem to be fundamental to properly classifying the story. But short of rigorious polling, which is possible, but persumably out of reach for most (if not all) of the posters here, how is that to be determined?
The incident described in the circulating stories did not occur, though a similar, less dramatic incident did. Snopes was well within reason to rate this as `sort of.’
Keep in mind that Libertarian, the originator of the “Up the Butt, Bob” thread, swears the video in question is NOT the one he witnessed. Further evidence that David and Snopes are both correct in classifying it as “sort of” true.
Okay, so it sounds like I heard a non-representative sample of versions of this story. And no, nobody actually mentioned the race of the man who is alleged to have said it. (And yes, it always was a man, but again that sounds non-representative.) The reason I thought he was supposed to be a white guy was, when people tell stories like this about black people, they almost always make it obvious (in a bigoted way I can’t ignore), that the people are black. If it had been about Latinos, they would have done a rank Speedy Gonzales impression. Those aspects were lacking.
Some examples:
This is one is from some movie, I can’t remember which. Two security guards (I think) are talking about the Newlywed show, and one of them says they answer to the question is (stereotypical country drawl): “Up thuh buhhht”. I can’t remember what the other character says.
Another one is from somebody I knew in college. He portrayed the guy as a straight-laced business-suited guy, who gave the answer quite crisply, “That’d have to be … up the butt, Bob.” No irony or grins in the delivery.
So maybe it’s rememebered inconsistently. I’ll buy that. But it’s still odd, that on this very thread, which is supposed to be taking place after the revelation of the tape, we have some people saying black people did it, and some people saying Middle Easterners. Where is the strangest place I’ve ever misplaced my mind?
I saw the clip in question of the Newlyweds. Yes, it was a Black woman who said “Dat be up the da Bob”. The manner in which she said it; as a jocular repost, betrayed a sharp wit. She knew that the answer to the question “where is the most unusual place you have had sex?” referred to place. The fact that she was Black didn’t matter, other than giving the anecdote a certain flavor. It would have been the same if it was anyone else, White, Hispanic, vertically challenged–take your pick. Whether or not you think she was stupid could be because you are racist. Her melanin content and gender didn’t have anything to do with it.
Could someone, preferrably someone who has seen the filmclip on the “snopes site” and who has also seen the “Man Show” clip, please anwer a simple question with some clarity?–
Are the two clips the same? That is, are the contestants the same? And what does the woman say EXACTLY on the “Man Show” clip? I don’t want your opinion on what her race is nor her motivation nor her preparation. I just want to know what she said.
Well, I disagree with you. A key factor in a lot of urban legends (as this was reasonably suspected to be, previous to the tape) is alienation. That is, “weird people from other countries or groups do weird thing things.” Proximity is a countervailing factor in some legends, i.e. “weird people from weird places do weird stuff right next door”.
This is the idea I get both from my own deconstructions and from Barbara Mikkelson’s analyses over at the snopes site. Why do legends have any power? They are a way of mocking, explaining, generating fear of, and/or defining people and events we don’t understand. People spend lots of time figuring out new ways to misundertand each other. What is the basis of the alienation? It could be fame (Richard Gere), wealth (Walt Disney), income/literacy (rednecks), race, gender (the old lady with poodle and microwave) or nationality (Japan).
Sure, I was wrong about this one. One of the very few times when something that reeked of UL actually turned out to be true. I am still left with questions: why does Bob Eubanks not remember the event(s)? Why did it take so long for the tape(s) to resurface?
I still do not regard the racial and ethnic-group element of urban legends to be stupid minutiae. Debunking is not enough; I want to understand the phenomenon. This means absorbing the details of the anecdotes (legends until proven factual).
Clearly, you do. I think what happened is that there are two clips now, of the same event. This isn’t surprising because it was quite funny and the second time it was obviously staged.
I, myself, wouldn’t be so edgy about the racial aspect. Just because someone talks about a thing that happened and it involves the race of the participant, it doesn’t mean they are racist. It doesn’t mean they ain’t either, of course.
Let the skin ehad slime shoot each other in the hills, we types who enjoy the flavor of other cultures and folks who are different can live down here in the cities, where the action is. Peace…
This did really happen. I very clearly recall a black woman answering, “That would have to be in the butt, Bob.” Why does Bob deny this happened? It wasn’t the white woman, Olga. The black woman didn’t speak with, “Dat would have to be in da butt, Bob.” She spoke well and clearly. I was quite young and didn’t really know what it meant, but I sure knew it was funny!!!
That’s no longer the case. I’ve moved the thread to Cafe Society.
This was discussed in the OP, though OpalCat didn’t have a link, and in several other posts.
The best we can say is that there’s no evidence for that, and people’s memories are often faulty. After all ‘everybody’ knew the original version and it was wrong.
