I’m sorry if I’m bringing up things that may have been mentioned previously, but I find it significant that:
a) the first time I heardthe UL was before the New Newlywed Game;
b) (most important) the UL as reported to me that a femalecontestant made the blunder, while apparently now it was a male.
What do you say to these people who claim to have seen a husband say it and those who say the wife did?
You calmly tell them that they are bothmistaken.
It never happened.
I could never sleep my way to the top/'cause my alarm clock always wakes me right up.
Or Edlyn’s boss’s sister was lying. Or Edlyn’s boss’s sister had heard the U.L. previously to that and had jumped to the conclusion that the contestant said “butt” when in fact it was just a bleeped word. Or Edlyn’s boss’s sister was watching the Newlywed Game with a friend, and Bob Eubanks asked where the strangest place the contestant had made whoopee was, and the friend watching with her blurted out “That’d be the butt, Bob”, and Edlyn’s boss’s sister thought the contestant had said it. Or Edlyn’s boss’s sister was watching the Newlywed Game with a friend, and was dozing off or in the other room when her friend exclaimed “He/she just said the strangest place he/she made whoopee was in the butt!”, and since she’d sorta been watching other parts of the show, Edlyn’s boss’s sister thought that this was sufficient to qualify as having “just seen” it when in fact she only “saw” it second-hand. Or Edlyn’s boss’s sister only said that she’d just heard about it, and the story changed a little in Edlyn’s boss’s retelling, and HIS story changed a little again in Edlyn’s retelling, until the story had become one of Edlyn’s boss’s sister having “just seen” it. Or…
Anyway, one of the things I said there was that in debunking urban legends, you have to make sure you don’t come off as a knowitall. I should have taken my own advice here. But, considering everything we’ve been through in this thread to date, I have to doubt that any change in my choice of words would have caused a different response.
Sorry if someone else has mentioned this, but I’m not going to read all 4 pages looking for it. I only read the first page cause I had to get an idea of what these ‘inside’ jokes where that are popping up in other threads.
This joke was portrayed in the movie Mall Rats (1994-5?), with the minor change that it was a dating game being filmed in the mall. Maybe people who remember seeing The Newlywed show actually remember watching this movie, and hearing the urban legend. To me, the fact that no one in a TV station with access to the shows hasn’t claimed the $10,000 is pretty convincing, but what the heck.
Actually, the joke is not portrayed that way at ALL in “Mallrats.” A running joke throughout the movie, and which occurs in the “dating game” portion, is Ben Affleck’s character stating that he likes to pick up girls on the rebound, take advantage of them, and “screw them in a very uncomfortable place,” to which various people reply, “What, like the back of a Volkswagen?” Peripherally related, but not really the same thing.
Your reasoning skills, as well as your clarity in expositing them, are exceptional. Thank you.
David:
Well, of course I don’t know what evidence is. How could I, lacking as I do, your singular acumen for comprehending such things?
Mjollnir, whc03grady:
Before having seen the alleged urban legend at Snopes, my recollection was that it was answered by a fairly large black man with real bushy burns.
douglips:
You’re right. I should ask EB’s sister.
tracer:
I concede that she might have been as likely to lie as you, me, or anyone.
So, when she heard the bleep, she ran to the phone to call Shreveport?
Okay, and so EBS’s friend just smacked her gum and twirled her curls while EBS blabbed a known fabrication in the context of a spontaneous long distance phone call?
Boy, that sort of goes up Ockham’s nose and comes out his ass, doesn’t it?
Or, she saw the episode and called her brother.
Cooper:
But why are you assuming that people with access to those archives (assuming those archives even exist) have ever heard about a reward?
Melin & Glitch: Thank you. I appreciate that you are impartial.
I can now empathize with some of the 400 witnesses of TWA Flight 800 who’s evidence (if they had it) was confiscated and their testimony tossed aside. They were told by those “more knowledgeable” that they didn’t really see what they saw.
Phil: I refuse to subject myself to watching the Newlywed Game reruns night after night until I view the episode that I saw sometime between Sept. 1 and December 5th. I am not a masochist. The $10,000 does not matter to me.
It was uncanny that I happened to view the episode, particularily since I rarely view the NG. But I did and (shrug) life can be funny like that.
My boss’ reaction to my question was immediate and spontaneous laughter followed with the account of his sister’s phone call, etc. I didn’t even have a chance to explain why I was asking him the question until he had finished talking.
In the end, folks, the importance of proving whether or not some guy (yes, he was black, heavier build) said on a game show that he f**ked his wife in the ass, is the *bottom *priority on my list of things to accomplish in my life. It certainly is unworthy of the effort David and others have put forth to cast doubt upon my claim that I viewed it. The arguments were interesting and I appreciated that too, but it’s not germane in my case.
You can stand tall without standing on someone. You can be a victor without having victims. -Harriet Woods-
Proof? You want proof it happened? I got it right here! Somebody I never met posted it on a message board online. What the hell other evidence does a court of law need?
Thanks for helping to provide this illuminating example of false memory. Of course, after you tell me the ‘correct’ memory from Mall Rats, I remember it. This wasn’t even all that long ago, I saw this movie not more than 2 years ago, and got the gag totally wrong. I’m pretty sure I’d not have gotten in wrong in this way had I not started reading this thread first though…very interesting.
They would have censored such an exchange. Even today such a conversation on a gameshow would be bleeped. In the 60’s, 70’s, or 80’s, I could guarantee censorship of such an exchange.
After this much interest, the repeated showings of all versions of the show, the proliferation of video recorders throughout the world, and the reward offered, the fact that the supposed episode hasn’t yet been found should be profound evidence that it doesn’t exist. If you throw in the factor of people searching just to verify their own memories and prove us skeptics wrong, and still not coming up with the evidence, I would have to say that the said episode does not exist!
You could play the game of trying to separate each part of the argument above, and pick each apart, but if you look at all the evidence as a whole, it’s pretty much an open and shut case.
Lordy mercy, if people think the episode we saw is an urban legend, just wait till they examine the exhaustive twenty year search that the skeptics believe has totally consumed the lives of everyone in America.
Thanks for the non-answer that you posted, Libertarian.
BTW, to all of you who cite the many people who claim to have seen this episode, try to remember that there is no concensus as to when it happened, on which version of the show it happened, or even who it happened to! Lib, if you could come up with a bunch of people who could relate the story the same way you do, it might be more believable, but right now I would rank it as being akin to a u.f.o. sighting. Everybody “knows” that they saw something, but if questioned seperately, give different versions of what they saw. Totally inadmissable as evidence.
When you first posed this question, you said that you know this happened, except possibly for irrelevant details. The details of a claim are NEVER irrelevant, and to dismiss all challanges because they deal with the details of what is an incredible claim is the height of perfidy. If we are not to discuss the details, what in the hell are we supposed to debate here?
No one, excepting perhaps the hyperskeptics, doubts that Lucy and Ethel in the Candy Factory aired. You can even get hold of the tape relatively easily. But if you ask 100 people exactly what happened, you will get 100 different versions. How many candies did Ethel stuff into her mouth? Did Lucy really stuff some in her blouse despite the anal retentive censors of the time? Was Lucy on the left or right? Did Ethel’s hair net fall down over her eyes? Was the supervisor taller than Lucy?
