# Up The Butt, Bob **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [January 14, 2000, 12:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439 "2000-01-14T12:34:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 8
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/141 "2000-01-17T20:23:00Z")
Lib: > [@](#): > > These demands that we pin down when we saw this are unreasonable. As I’ve explained several times now, there was nothing especially remarkable about the episode at the time, other than its humor. 1. It has been proven to my satisfaction that false memories occur frequently 2. It has been proven to my satisfaction that people commonly have false memories regarding TV (Marlin Perkins incident described earlier in thread, and others) 3. It has been proven to my satisfaction that many people have false memories about this particular incident (via Brunvandt’s writings, web, etc) I think it is unreasonable to think I should believe your memory isn’t false without some kind of evidence. Those of us who have read about this incident previously already knew that people swear up and down they saw it. Why is your claim any different from the others? The others were not enough to convince me otherwise; and your incident doesn’t seem to add anything different. [bold]It adds no new evidence.[/bold] Again, don’t take it personally. I’m not calling you a liar, or a mental defect. Just human like the rest of us. ---
**Author:** ![Felice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e4f/32.png) [@Felice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Felice)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/142 "2000-01-17T20:33:00Z")
> [@](#): > > four eyewitnesses will each testify differently as to the “small details” involved in an event. However, as to the “large details” the testimony is generally consistent. Thus, in your experiment, I am sure that every student testified that there was indeed an “intruder” into your classroom. That would be the “large detail;” i.e., the event happened. The small details are the ones that get confused, because each person concentrates on something different in the event. ## Well, not necessarily, Melin. I did small things because (a) I only had a few minutes to work on it, (b) I needed results quickly, and © it’s unethical to deliberately induce false memories. (It was probably moderately unethical to do what I did, but since the false memories concerned a small and unimportant event, the Human Subjects Research Board wasn’t too worried about it.) However, it is equally possible to create completely false memories about major life events out of the wholecloth. David discusses some research and studies along those lines in the ‘repressed memories’ thread. People can get very mixed up about large details just as easily as small. And eyewitness memory is notoriously unreliable and highly INCONSISTENT, particularly when there has been a significant time lag between the event and the retelling. Felice “Everything, once understood, is trivial.” -WES ---
**Author:** ![Revtim](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/revtim/32/1042_2.png) [@Revtim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Revtim)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 8:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/143 "2000-01-17T20:36:00Z")
Oh, and regarding “hyperskepticism”, I do agree that people can be too skeptical. It’s a fine line. If you are not skeptical enough, you believe in falsehood. If you are too skeptical, you disbelieve truth. I haven’t commented on it before, because I doubt anyone would disagree with that statement. Is there someone who believes that you cannot be too skeptical and miss out on truth? ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/144 "2000-01-17T21:09:00Z")
Actually, Lib, I did do a little Newlywed surfing, and you’re right - there isn’t much out there (but then, I use crappy search engines). I did find a bloopers tape for sale that mentions TNWG (but no specific incident), but it’s listed as no longer available. This whole thing is a sticky wicket. On the one hand, if it did happen, it’s on tape somewhere, and probably would have surfaced by now (although you’re right, no one is out there actively buying ad space requesting this piece of nostalgia); on the other hand, of the sites that do exist, many of them are kind of normal sites that might not mention something like this, and certainly the company that owns the rights (or Eubanks, for that matter) would never put a press release about an off-color UL on their site; but on the third hand (God I hate being a Libra sometimes), it’s something that’s hard to prove one way or t’other. I think the bottom line is like most things in life - if it happened, prove it, and the truth will out. (Is that like innocent until proven guilty? Yeesh - kinda harsh in this case.) But in something as trivial as this, it’s as unreasonable and unlikely to prove it _did_ happen as it would be to prove it _didn’t_. As far as I’m concerned, it’s an urban legend up there with Zsa Zsa’s pussy and Mrs. Nicholson’s relationship with her husband’s balls. Alan “But the whole thing still fascinates me…” ---
**Author:** ![BoBettie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4af34b/32.png) [@BoBettie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BoBettie)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/145 "2000-01-17T21:16:00Z")
Wow, three pages of this stuff? I hope this theory hasn’t already been posed, but here goes. If I were on the New Newlywed Game (which I’ve seen- it’s full of sexual innuendo) and I were asked that question I would CERTAINLY have said “up the butt”. Why? Because it’s damned funny! Perhaps someone on the New Newlywed Show had heard of the comment before and repeated it for a laugh and Lib saw it. Doesn’t seem very far fetched to me at all. My theory is that it likely was not aired on the original show, but was said by someone on the New Newlywed Show (which Lib and his finance saw). That’s my story and I’m sticking to it! Zette PS- when I was in the Poconos for my honeymoon, they played a “nightclub” version of the Newlywed Game. When one guy was asked what “pet name” he called his wife, he said “Thunder Thighs”. I shit you not. The worst part was, she guessed it correctly. And you guys doubt someone would have said “in the butt?” I would have said it just to be funny…it’s not a very creative stretch of the imagination. * * * Love is like popsicles…you get too much you get too high. Not enough and you’re gonna die… [Click here for some GOOD news for a change](http://www.binghamtonpress.com/binghamtonnews/local/Sanews5.html)[Zettecity](http://www.angelfire.com/ny3/zettecity/index.html) ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/146 "2000-01-17T21:20:00Z")
Felice: > [@](#): > > Lib is stubbornly maintaining that his memory is correct, despite a complete lack of other evidence to support that belief and some evidence to the contrary. Your analogy is false. You are not saying that your students maintained there was an intruder when there wasn’t one. For your analogy to hold, I would have to be saying that the man who made the statement was a X color, Y height, and Z weight when he was in fact A color, B height, and C weight. > [@](#): > > Nothing David or I or anybody else says is going to convince him that he’s wrong. A factual error. I have given a number of proofs that I would accept, including an exhaustive search of the records, a reasonable accounting for my objections, and the discovery of a basis for the memory, like an SNL skit. Pundit: > [@](#): > > Don’t you think the fact that it doesn’t come up in the nonskeptic sites at all, yet so many people know about it and argue about it is suggestive in itself? Yes. As I’ve indicated, I think it suggests that the hyperskeptics are making a big deal out of nothing. Melin: > [@](#): > > It’s useful to illustrate, as I said much earlier on this thread, that four eyewitnesses will each testify differently as to the “small details” involved in an event. However, as to the “large details” the testimony is generally consistent. Thank you for not thinking I’m a moron. As I said in the OP, I could be wrong about irrelevant details. But I have told everybody here over and over that I had never heard of any controversy — nobody ever told me this story — until I went to Snopes. So their theories about my absorbing an “urban legend” into my own experience are impossible. > [@](#): > > Again, don’t take it personally. I’m not calling you a liar, or a mental defect. Just human like the rest of us. I understand, and I appreciate that. But how many of the hyperskeptics who insist this is an urban legend are people who thought they saw the episode too? I mean, it reminds me of people who are incapable of empathy. Like people who think your back can’t possibly be hurting because, for one thing, they can’t see anything wrong with your back, but mainly because they’ve never had back pain. Felice: > [@](#): > > However, it is equally possible to create completely false memories about major life events out of the wholecloth. Well, isn’t it remarkable that the one I made up matched up so well with the one I saw at Snopes? ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 9:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/147 "2000-01-17T21:41:00Z")
Some odds and ends from some Internet searching. The July 24, 1999 issue of _TV Guide_ was a special edition, “TV Confidential 2”. This issue included a review of the “up the butt” rumors, which this article says date back to the late 1970s. [Newlywed Story](http://www.tvguide.com/tv/magazine/990719/ftr3.asp). ([TV Guide Cover: 7/24/1999](http://www.tvguide.com/tv/cover/pages/990724.asp)) David Emery at [About.com](http://About.com) claims that there is a British variation of this story, attributed to the show “Mr. and Mrs.”, in which the punch line is [Up the Buttom](http://urbanlegends.about.com/culture/urbanlegends/library/blbottom.htm?once=true&). And finally, yesterday a person posted on alt.tv.game-shows [Newlywed Game—“In the {blank} Bob” episode…](http://x35.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=573394941&search=thread&CONTEXT=948143464.660275232&HIT_CONTEXT=948143464.660275232) that last Friday the Game Show Network ran a Newlywed episode where a women answered the question “Where specifically have you ever felt the urge to make love?” with an answer that was bleeped out, but the viewer thought was “in the ass”. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/148 "2000-01-17T21:48:00Z")
David: I’ve been trying to post at the Snopes site, but it keeps timing out. I guess my machine just doesn’t like that site. If you go back, would you please tell those people that I am interested in hearing from someone who previously believed that they saw the episode but changed their minds when presented with the arguments at Snopes? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![whitetho](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/whitetho/32/1059_2.png) [@whitetho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/whitetho)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 9:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/149 "2000-01-17T21:51:00Z")
Sorry for the bad links–I checked the syntax about ten times, and still something didn’t work right. Let’s try again on the ones that didn’t work: The July 24, 1999 issue of TV Guide was a special edition, “TV Confidential 2”. This issue included a review of the “up the butt” rumors, which this article says date back to the late 1970s. [Newlywed Story](http://www.tvguide.com/tv/magazine/990719/ftr3.asp). And finally, yesterday a person posted on alt.tv.game-shows [Newlywed Game—“In the {blank} Bob” episode](http://x35.deja.com/=dnc/getdoc.xp?AN=573394941&search=thread&CONTEXT=948143464.660275232&HIT_CONTEXT=948143464.660275232) that last Friday the Game Show Network ran a Newlywed episode where a women answered the question “Where specifically have you ever felt the urge to make love?” with an answer that was bleeped out, but the viewer thought was “in the ass”. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/150 "2000-01-17T21:53:00Z")
David: Nevermind. It finally posted. ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/151 "2000-01-17T21:57:00Z")
And here it is, from the TV Guide article posted above: July 24-30, 1999 TV CONFIDENTIAL 2 "When asked, “Where’s the strangest place you’ve ever made whoopee?” A Newlywed Game contestant gave a shocking reply of, uh, great anatomical accuracy. Think about it. This wasn’t live television. This wasn’t TV in the outlandish age of South Park. How likely was it that in the late 1970s, when the rumor started, you would hear The Newlywed Game host Bob Eubanks’s strangest-place-you’ve-ever-made-whoopee question elicit the answer, “That would be in the butt, Bob?” The impossibility of that happening hasn’t stopped the rumor from becoming so widespread, Eubanks says, that “it’s to the point where it’s odd if someone hasn’t heard it.” Many people, of course, claim to have seen the video clip. “I have been told that it was on the training film for the Albuquerque Police Department,” Eubanks, 61, says. “That was the weirdest one.” Even though he has in the past denied the incident happened, Eubanks, who is planning a memoir of his life as a game-show host, rock-concert producer and country-music talent manager, turns cryptic when asked about the rumor’s veracity. “I just shrug my shoulders and say, 'You can read about it in _That Would Be in the Book, Bob_.” — M.L." So _now_ what? I’d say TV Guide’s a credible source. Alan * * * Next time I want your opinion I’ll beat it out of you. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/152 "2000-01-17T21:59:00Z")
Zette: Thanks, man. WhiteHo, Esprix I placed an ad at [http://www.videoaddicts.com.](http://www.videoaddicts.com.) We’ll see. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/153 "2000-01-17T22:02:00Z")
Esprix: Yep. I saw that one too. I gave it the weight appropriate to the research of a gossip columnist for a populist rag. ---
**Author:** ![Esprix](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprix/32/7899_2.png) [@Esprix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprix)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/154 "2000-01-17T22:04:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by Libertarian: > \*\*Esprix: > > Yep. I saw that one too. I gave it the weight appropriate to the research of a gossip columnist for a populist rag.\*\* Oh, please - now who’s being hyperskeptical? Alan “I’ll have Dan Rather call you in the morning…” * * * Next time I want your opinion I’ll beat it out of you. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/155 "2000-01-17T22:11:00Z")
Esprix: Not me. Keep in mind here that, despite whatever you might think to the contrary, I am the one who _saw_ the episode. I will accept credible evidence, but you will have to do better than the curl-tossing musings of a gossip hack. I want the same kind of evidence _you_ would want if someone said they could prove you didn’t see something you said you saw. Hmmm… Time to visit Glitch… ---
**Author:** ![douglips](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@douglips](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/douglips)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 10:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/156 "2000-01-17T22:26:00Z")
Lib writes: > [@](#): > > Thank you for not thinking I’m a moron. I think I’m safe in saying that no one here thinks you are a moron. Some of us think you **may be** mistaken, I believe that David B thinks you **are** mistaken. That is very far from being a moron. I myself reserve judgement until we can learn more from Edlyn and perhaps nail this down. I’m sure others are convinced it will come to naught, but I’m the guy who is still trying to get his wife to demonstrate psi to him. > [@](#): > > But I have told everybody here over and over that I had never heard of any controversy — nobody ever told me this story — until I went to Snopes. So their theories about my absorbing an “urban legend” into my own experience are impossible. No one who hears an urban legend and believes it thinks there is a controversy. As for the ‘Nobody ever told me this story’ bit, please read my own anecdote below. > [@](#): > > Well, isn’t it remarkable that the one I made up matched up so well with the one I saw at Snopes? This is precisely why it is **not** remarkable, at least to me. If an idea is a ‘meme’ in the Richard Dawkins sense, it is likely to infect many without their knowledge of the truth of the idea. The pervasiveness of this UL is what may have led you to subconsciously construct this. **And Now, a hijack** Personal constructed memory story: When I was a youngster, 7-10 years of age or so, I drove my middle brother (my age + 8 years) nuts with a song I had invented, the lyrics of which were “Down on the farm, better get on your boots and join us…” (repeat _ad nauseum_). I was sure I had invented it, and my brother assured me that I was correct, and that I needed professional help. “No one could possibly have recorded such a lame song, you are such a moron.” Or something like that. Flash forward to college, and I am collecting the works of a band called [Camel](http://www.inertron.com/camel/), somewhat popular in the 70’s. I found an LP of their [Breathless](http://www.inertron.com/camel/breathless.html) album and brought it home. I noticed on the jacket that one of the songs was called ‘Down on the Farm’. I mentioned this to my brother, and jokingly suggested that maybe that was where I had gotten that annoying song from all those many years ago. His response: “If they recorded that song, I’ll no longer like them.” You see, he was a fan as well, and without his enthusiasm I would never have heard of them. After dinner, we played the album, and it was in fact the same lyrics and even melody in the chorus as what I had repeated so irritatingly in years past. **My lesson** From this, I learned that I could manufacture memories. You see, before I listened to the album I would have said “No one played me that song, I must have made it up myself.” I was wrong. My best guess is that my oldest brother (my age + 11 years) had it playing on his radio one evening, as he did not have the album. You know how kids are. So Lib, when you say “No one told me the story, I was unaware of the UL, I must have witnessed the show,” I have a certain sense of deja vu. Of course, I have no idea what has gone on in your past. Perhaps no one did tell you the story, perhaps you did witness the event as you say. But, I think you should be open to the possibility that you have constructed the memory. That way, when you find the video tape you can lord it over us the way I waved the album cover around in front of my brother’s face while the offending song was playing on my stereo. Plus, you’ll get the $10000, or at least the chance to humiliate a game show host. ---
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 10:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/157 "2000-01-17T22:36:00Z")
Douglips: Thanks for those thoughtful observations. As I said a couple of times, I am indeed open to the possibility that I am wrong. And I will accept the kind of evidence that I’ve mentioned several times. But if what happened to you (which was indeed interesting) is like what happened to me, then that means that I would be thinking that I had made up the hillarious answer, and would stumble upon a tape that made me go, “Oh, wow! I thought I made that up, but it looks like I actually saw it!” That’s sort of opposite. But I do get your point, and I would really just like to _know_ one way or the other. ---
**Author:** ![tracer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tracer/32/20578_2.png) [@tracer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tracer)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 10:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/158 "2000-01-17T22:46:00Z")
David B wrote: > [@](#): > > Do the first words of the first man on the moon change with each telling? The first words Neil Armstrong spoke after his boots touched the surface of the moon was, “The dust is really fine, almost like a powder.” 😉 ---
**Author:** ![douglips](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@douglips](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/douglips)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 10:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/159 "2000-01-17T22:51:00Z")
Armstrong: That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind. Hey, wait a minute! I’m sinking in the dust! Oh my god, it’s really deep! The universe must be older than we thought… Think only of humanity - switch to Hollywood sound stage… Good luck, Mr Gorsky gurgle gurgle The real Armstrong died on the moon. That’s why the impostor Armstrong never talks to the press. ---
**Author:** ![Felice](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/a88e4f/32.png) [@Felice](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Felice)\ **Post date:** [January 17, 2000, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439/160 "2000-01-17T23:30:00Z")
Lib: > [@](#): > > Your analogy is false. > You are not saying that your students maintained there was an intruder when there wasn’t one. For your analogy to hold, I would have to be saying that the man who made the statement was a X color, Y height, and Z weight when he was in fact A color, B height, and C weight. Oh, don’t be so literal. What I am saying, and as I clarified, is that I COULD have convinced my class that there was an intruder when there was none. I am not, btw, claiming any special psychic or mind control powers. I am claiming that it is TRIVIALLY EASY TO CREATE FALSE MEMORIES. [quote] a reasonable accounting for my objections, [quote] Geez, how much more reasonable do you want? I thought David’s discussion, as well as the other examples of how people’s firmly held personal memories are later determined to be false, would be acceptable. I personally have neither time nor interest in searching every bloody tape of the Newlywed game, which sounds to me like the only real evidence you’re going to accept. In fact, you won’t accept that: you will say that it must be on one of the tapes that was destroyed. > [@](#): > > nobody ever told me this story — until I went to Snopes. So their theories about my absorbing an “urban legend” into myown experience are impossible. Not true. It is entirely possible- I daresay it’s probable- that you did hear this story once, and simply don’t remember that you were told it. It was such a good story that you internalized it. Now, I am NOT saying that you are a moron, or sick in the head, or anything else. I am saying that human memory is very, very fallible. * * * Felice “Everything, once understood, is trivial.” -WES [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439.md?page=7) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/up-the-butt-bob/17439.md?page=9)