Latest news with #TheGoodies
The Guardian
7 days ago
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Rhys Darby: ‘Luckily, no one's given me a full clay model of my nose'
Who did you look up to when you were starting out?I had an obsession with BBC comedy, mainly sitcoms and Monty Python. The Goodies was a big one for me. It was all sketch, absurdity, silliness. I didn't get into standup until my university days because I just didn't think it was a vocation, especially not in New Zealand. You served four years in the New Zealand army when you were a young man. Did it inform your career in comedy at all?I grew up watching Dad's Army with my mum, and that's one of the reasons I joined up. I thought all the action would be fun. I brought my sense of humour with me so got told off a lot. Turns out, it wasn't really Dad's Army but it was the New Zealand army, so it wasn't too far off. We had moments where we were literally rescuing sheep. I've taken some of the skills with me into my career: self-discipline, drive, getting up on time. Can you recall a gig so bad, it's now funny?I did a gig on an aeroplane just after 9/11 for a brand-new airline. They wanted to have me on the inaugural flight as an entertainer. It was at 8am. People started looking at me like I was a threat. I did some weird stuff about clouds and some of the airline upholstery. One thing you'd never do as a standup is go and sit with your audience if it goes badly. But I had no other choice. One guy said to me, 'Why'd you do that?' I said, 'I got paid.' No one believed it. What has inspired your latest show, The Legend Returns?It's about me fighting against artificial intelligence. Back in the day it was fun when robots were robots, but now it's actually getting quite scary. The future doesn't look good – especially in creativity. AI should just leave us alone because all it's doing is plagiarising us, stealing our stuff, and people are then taking advantage of that. It's a huge subject matter, but I do it in a very silly way, a very human way. I think there's no robot that could do what I do, and that includes all the flaws. When I screw up, when I break the fourth wall, take the mickey out of myself or laugh at myself or what I'm doing, that's very human. Do you have any pre-show rituals?I stretch because I do a lot of physical comedy. Drink water. I normally have one beer to make me remember the good old rock'n'roll days. What's one of the strangest encounters with a fan you've had?I've had a lot of things made for me. Depending on my material, they'll find something in the stories I tell. Back in the day, I said I was the freestyle dance champion of a small town called Ohakune in New Zealand. So someone knitted me a woollen jacket that had 'dance champion' on the back. Also, someone made a small bust of me once. I remember with Flight of the Conchords, Jemaine Clement once received a plaster impression of his lips. I don't know how they did it, but to present something to you that is of you is insane. Luckily, no one's given me a full clay model of my nose or anything like that. Did you have any idea when filming that Flight of the Conchords would have such lasting cultural impact?I don't think we did. And that was good, because we really felt like we were making this thing for ourselves. Because we were young and it was our first time in the States making something with their money and their brilliance, we got caught up in it all. We just concentrated on how could we be so funny that we're cracking each other up and have to redo the scene? As we had some control over the show, we could improvise and do seven or eight takes. And that was really the key, because I got funnier every take. I know that for a fact. I still say this to people when I do shows. I say give me a couple more because I'll peak on the sixth take. With Our Flag Means Death, you went from 'that guy from Flight of the Conchords' to a Tumblr sex symbol overnight. What was that like?I'm a comedy guy, not a sex symbol. [Pirate character] Stede wore some very attractive attire but is still a very insecure, bizarre, weird little man who has to try and find himself. The character was perfect for me because I like dressing up, being the captain, and I do overcompensate with authority because I really have no idea what I'm doing. There were definitely some similarities there, but I was not expecting anything on a sexual note from fans. The audience are amazing. They really come to the table, but it was a little bit too much for me. You've long had a passion for cryptozoology. What draws you to creatures like Bigfoot and Mothman?It's the mystery of the unknown. I think I've always thought of myself as someone that mysteriously shouldn't be here. I was a mistake as a child, as I was born nine years after the rest of my siblings, so I think I've always had this belief in what else is out there. I think these things are real. Not all of them, but I love the idea that we don't really know and we can search. The search for stuff that we don't know yet – I think that's one of our purposes here. Rhys Darby: The Legend Returns is on tour in the UK and Ireland until 29 June, and at Pleasance Courtyard, Edinburgh, 1-10 August
Yahoo
27-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
"It Happened In Under A Couple Of Minutes": 17 Incredibly Rare And Bizarre Ways People Met Their End
Note: This post contains sometimes graphic descriptions of deaths. Recently, Reddit user u/Mairon3791 asked, "What's an actual cause of death so extremely rare that it's hard to believe it's possible?" I was led down a-many rabbit holes of real deaths I cannot even fathom. Here's everything people shared: 1."In 1988, a dog fell from a building in Buenos Aires, Argentina, landed in a woman's head, killing her and the dog instantaneously. Then, another lady, completely confused, watching the event unfolding from the middle of a road, was run over by a bus; then shortly after that, an older man died from a heart attack out of the commotion of seeing both deaths. This happened in under a couple of minutes." —discardme123now Here's the newspaper clipping published after the event. 2."I heard that a sinkhole formed under some man's bedroom and took him with it. It was so deep that they couldn't find him. Definitely a unique death situation." —cartoonsarcasm This is a true story that happened in Florida. 3."My mother-in-law used to be a surgeon. She told me about a patient they had back in the '90s. He died because of holding in a sneeze. Turns out he had an aneurysm in his brain that popped at that moment." —EducationalJelly6121 4."Innocent people have gone to jail for murder because the real explanation for why someone died was so rare and infrequent that courts didn't believe those explanations as plausible. Two cases off the top of my head: Lindy Chamberlain (a dingo actually did eat her baby) and Kathleen Folbigg (had four children die from a rare genetic mutation). —badgersprite Similarly, "Patricia Stallings was wrongfully convicted of murder after the death of her son in 1989. Because testing seemed to indicate an elevated level of ethylene glycol in Ryan's blood, authorities suspected antifreeze poisoning, and they arrested Stallings the next day. She was convicted in 1991. In jail, she had another baby, diagnosed with methylmalonic acidemia (MMA), a rare genetic disorder that can mimic antifreeze poisoning." –tmink0220 5."Laughing to death. Fifty-year-old Alex Mitchell could not stop laughing for a continuous 25-minute period—almost the entire length of a TV show called Kung Fu Kapers and suffered a fatal heart attack as a result of the strain placed on his heart. Alex's widow later sent The Goodies, who were staring in that show, a letter thanking them for making his final moments so pleasant." —Ochib Doctors initially believed Mitchell suffered a heart attack from the laughter, but in 2012, his granddaughter suffered a near-fatal cardiac arrest, too. Doctors diagnosed her with Long QT Syndrome, a heart rhythm disorder, which doctors think could have also caused Mitchell's death. Related: 26 People Who Had Overwhelming Gut Instincts They Couldn't Were Right 6."Drowning in the desert. A guy got caught in a box canyon during a flash flood. The water was quickly reabsorbed into the dry desert soil and left a drowned man in the middle of the desert." —Eponarose 7."Guy's beard was so long that when he tried to flee a house fire, he tripped over it and broke his neck, falling down the stairs. Dude was a mayor, too. Hans something or other." —Former-Finish4653 You can actually see the deathly beard at the local museum in Braunau am Inn, Austria (yes, they kept it). 8."Fatal familial insomnia (FFI): you can't sleep, and you don't sleep until you die, and it runs in the family." — On a similar note, since FFI is a prion disease (as is "mad cow disease"), "Prion diseases. For some random reason, a protein gets folded the wrong way and totally fucks you up. It's not alive; you can't kill it or fight it with drugs or antibiotics. Your immune system is helpless against it. It causes more proteins to become misfolded and spread through your body. Even after you die, your corpse is a hazard because the misfolded proteins are still there, waiting." —Jeramy_Jones Related: 51 People Who Quickly Discovered Why Their Hilariously Clueless Partner Was Single Before Meeting Them 9."I used to work with a man who had an older relative come to the hospital with symptoms suggesting a stroke, and he died later that evening. I don't remember all the details, but everyone thought the family might be sitting on a big fat lawsuit until the labs all came back. The relative had a type of leukemia that is diagnosed about 10 times a year in the US, and they've never come up with a chemotherapy protocol for it because nobody has ever lived long enough for them to do so." —wilderlowerwolves to legend, "Greek philosopher Aeschylus was killed when an eagle dropped a turtle on his head, mistaking his bald pate for a rock." —lorgskyegon 11."That one guy who died after getting stuck face-first in an extremely claustrophobic cave. They could get to him but couldn't get him out. Just left his body in the cave and cemented the thing shut. Nutty Putty Cave." —Grombrindal18 Here's the Salt Lake Tribune's retelling of the attempted rescue of John Edwards Jones at Nutty Putty Cave. 12."Beaver bites. I always think about that guy in Belarus." In 2013, a fisherman in Belarus was trying to take a photo of a beaver when it bit him on his thigh, severing an artery, and killed him. 13."Some rich lady in the early days of automobiles was known for always wearing long scarfs, and one day it got caught in her wheels and snapped her neck." —Snake_Plissken224 They are referring to the story of dancer Isadora Duncan, who was strangled by her scarf, which got caught in the rear wheel of a sports car in 1927. The cause of death coined the term "Long Scarf Syndrome," aka when someone suffers accidental strangulation due to their scarf getting tangled in heavy machinery (she's not the only one it's happened to). 14."[Drinking too much water]... A woman named Jennifer Strange died of water intoxication while she was trying to win a Wii. A radio station had a contest called 'Hold Your Wee for a Wii,' where you had to drink as much water as possible without going to the bathroom. She drank nearly two gallons of water and ended up dying. The radio station's parent company paid over $16M to her family in damages." —ostentia 15."Every year, a small handful of people still have polio on their death certificates. Post-polio syndrome can develop decades after a person is first exposed to polio, and it's occasionally severe enough to kill someone." —othybear "Towards the end of his life, my grandfather suffered from various effects of post-polio syndrome. He had contracted the disease as a 10-year-old child some 80 years previously." —millijuna 16."When I was an emergency call taker, we had an accident where the guy carrying his plate back to the kitchen slipped, fell, and cut his own throat with a broken plate shard. He bled out before services were able to get there." —kiyiya101 And lastly: 17."This woman was getting a drink and had a metal straw in her cup. She slipped, and the metal straw punctured her eye and went through her brain. Crazy way to go out." —J120101 Have any other weird and strange deaths to share? Let us know in the comments! Also in Internet Finds: 15 Facebook Marketplace Items You'll Wish, From The Depths Of Your Soul, You Could Unsee Also in Internet Finds: People Are Confessing Their Absolute Pettiest "Revenge Served Cold" Stories, And It's Deliciously Entertaining Also in Internet Finds: 19 Things Society Glorifies That Are Actually Straight-Up Terrible, And We Need To Stop Pretending Otherwise
Buzz Feed
26-05-2025
- Health
- Buzz Feed
17 Extremely Rare Ways People Have Died
Recently, Reddit user u/Mairon3791 asked, "What's an actual cause of death so extremely rare that it's hard to believe it's possible?" I was led down a-many rabbit holes of real deaths I cannot even fathom. Here's everything people shared: "In 1988, a dog fell from a building in Buenos Aires, Argentina, landed in a woman's head, killing her and the dog instantaneously. Then, another lady, completely confused, watching the event unfolding from the middle of a road, was run over by a bus; then shortly after that, an older man died from a heart attack out of the commotion of seeing both deaths. This happened in under a couple of minutes." —discardme123nowHere's the newspaper clipping published after the event. "I heard that a sinkhole formed under some man's bedroom and took him with it. It was so deep that they couldn't find him. Definitely a unique death situation." —cartoonsarcasmThis is a true story that happened in Florida. "My mother-in-law used to be a surgeon. She told me about a patient they had back in the '90s. He died because of holding in a sneeze. Turns out he had an aneurysm in his brain that popped at that moment." —EducationalJelly6121 "Innocent people have gone to jail for murder because the real explanation for why someone died was so rare and infrequent that courts didn't believe those explanations as plausible. Two cases off the top of my head: Lindy Chamberlain (a dingo actually did eat her baby) and Kathleen Folbigg (had four children die from a rare genetic mutation). —badgerspriteSimilarly, "Patricia Stallings was wrongfully convicted of murder after the death of her son in 1989. Because testing seemed to indicate an elevated level of ethylene glycol in Ryan's blood, authorities suspected antifreeze poisoning, and they arrested Stallings the next was convicted in 1991. In jail, she had another baby, diagnosed with methylmalonic acidemia (MMA), a rare genetic disorder that can mimic antifreeze poisoning."–tmink0220 "Laughing to death. Fifty-year-old Alex Mitchell could not stop laughing for a continuous 25-minute period—almost the entire length of a TV show called Kung Fu Kapers and suffered a fatal heart attack as a result of the strain placed on his heart. Alex's widow later sent The Goodies, who were staring in that show, a letter thanking them for making his final moments so pleasant." —OchibDoctors initially believed Mitchell suffered a heart attack from the laughter, but in 2012, his granddaughter suffered a near-fatal cardiac arrest, too. Doctors diagnosed her with Long QT Syndrome, a heart rhythm disorder, which doctors think could have also caused Mitchell's death. "Drowning in the desert. A guy got caught in a box canyon during a flash flood. The water was quickly reabsorbed into the dry desert soil and left a drowned man in the middle of the desert." —Eponarose "Guy's beard was so long that when he tried to flee a house fire, he tripped over it and broke his neck, falling down the stairs. Dude was a mayor, too. Hans something or other." —Former-Finish4653You can actually see the deathly beard at the local museum in Braunau am Inn, Austria (yes, they kept it). "Fatal familial insomnia (FFI): you can't sleep, and you don't sleep until you die, and it runs in the family." —On a similar note, since FFI is a prion disease (as is "mad cow disease"), "Prion diseases. For some random reason, a protein gets folded the wrong way and totally fucks you up. It's not alive; you can't kill it or fight it with drugs or antibiotics. Your immune system is helpless against it. It causes more proteins to become misfolded and spread through your body. Even after you die, your corpse is a hazard because the misfolded proteins are still there, waiting."—Jeramy_Jones "I used to work with a man who had an older relative come to the hospital with symptoms suggesting a stroke, and he died later that evening. I don't remember all the details, but everyone thought the family might be sitting on a big fat lawsuit until the labs all came back. The relative had a type of leukemia that is diagnosed about 10 times a year in the US, and they've never come up with a chemotherapy protocol for it because nobody has ever lived long enough for them to do so." According to legend, "Greek philosopher Aeschylus was killed when an eagle dropped a turtle on his head, mistaking his bald pate for a rock." —lorgskyegon "That one guy who died after getting stuck face-first in an extremely claustrophobic cave. They could get to him but couldn't get him out. Just left his body in the cave and cemented the thing shut. Nutty Putty Cave." —Grombrindal18Here's the Salt Lake Tribune's retelling of the attempted rescue of John Edwards Jones at Nutty Putty Cave. "Beaver bites. I always think about that guy in Belarus." In 2013, a fisherman in Belarus was trying to take a photo of a beaver when it bit him on his thigh, severing an artery, and killed him. "Some rich lady in the early days of automobiles was known for always wearing long scarfs, and one day it got caught in her wheels and snapped her neck." —Snake_Plissken224They are referring to the story of dancer Isadora Duncan, who was strangled by her scarf, which got caught in the rear wheel of a sports car in 1927. The cause of death coined the term "Long Scarf Syndrome," aka when someone suffers accidental strangulation due to their scarf getting tangled in heavy machinery (she's not the only one it's happened to). "[Drinking too much water]... A woman named Jennifer Strange died of water intoxication while she was trying to win a Wii. A radio station had a contest called 'Hold Your Wee for a Wii,' where you had to drink as much water as possible without going to the bathroom. She drank nearly two gallons of water and ended up dying. The radio station's parent company paid over $16M to her family in damages." —ostentia "Every year, a small handful of people still have polio on their death certificates. Post-polio syndrome can develop decades after a person is first exposed to polio, and it's occasionally severe enough to kill someone." —othybear"Towards the end of his life, my grandfather suffered from various effects of post-polio syndrome. He had contracted the disease as a 10-year-old child some 80 years previously."—millijuna "When I was an emergency call taker, we had an accident where the guy carrying his plate back to the kitchen slipped, fell, and cut his own throat with a broken plate shard. He bled out before services were able to get there." —kiyiya101 And lastly: "This woman was getting a drink and had a metal straw in her cup. She slipped, and the metal straw punctured her eye and went through her brain. Crazy way to go out." —J120101 Have any other weird and strange deaths to share? Let us know in the comments!
