All language subtitles for The.UnBelievable.with.Dan.Aykroyd.S03E08.1080p.WEB.h264-EDITH_track3_[eng]

[rhythmic music]

Imagine a sport
where the whole game

is played in your pants.

- Your goal is to stand
there for as long as possible

while having ferrets root
around in your pants.

[apprehensive music]

- It's got claws, fangs,
and it's got the bite force

of a pit bull terrier.

- [indistinct] [beep].

- Or going toe to
toe with a cannon.

- That cannon ball
weighs 104 pounds.

- Frank is standing 10
feet away from the cannon

wearing goggles.

What are the goggles gonna do?

[dramatic music]

- How about a hobby where one
mistake means certain death?

- People are thinking,
this is crazy.

He's 7,500 feet in the air.

Who is this guy?

- A lot can go wrong.

Davis feels like he's
going to throw up

as he's walking between
these two balloons.

- These are the pastimes
that are so strange

they are truly unbelievable.

[dramatic music]

Back in 19th century
London, the rich and trendy

are always looking for fresh
forms of entertainment,

like a wildly popular
new stage show,

with an unusual star attraction.

- On January 15th, 1834,
performer Thomas Pettigrew

is preparing to appear before
a sold out crowd in London.

Pettigrew isn't the
main attraction.

He's more of the emcee and the
host of the whole situation.

The person that everyone's
really there to see

is someone named Horsiesi,
who is an Egyptian priest.

- [Dan] But Horsiesi the priest
won't be reciting any lines

because he's been
dead for 1,400 years.

Behold, the bizarre
19th century pastime

of unwrapping mummies.

- Egyptomania has been
sweeping England now

for 20 years or so.

People are fascinated with
everything about Egypt.

They want to see
these exotic things

from this far away place.

- In the early 1800s, a lot
of men were sent to Africa,

specifically Egypt, to
fight Napoleon's army.

And when a lot of those
soldiers came home,

they brought back their own
little piece of Antiquity.

- Pieces of mummies were being
sold, hands, feet, heads.

And if you possess
an entire mummy

and could put that on display,
that was the headline act.

That was what people
wanted to see.

- [Dan] While Pettigrew wasn't
the first to unwrap a mummy,

his show quickly becomes
the most popular.

- Pettigrew has this
whole system down.

He slowly unwraps these mummies

as he's talking about
the history of Egypt

and specifically mummification.

He is an incredible entertainer,

and part of it is that
he's a trained surgeon,

so it lends this air of
credibility to the whole thing.

- It's all part of the thrill.

He's setting it up
for the final thing,

which is going to
be the exposure

of this dead body on stage.

People are fascinated.

- One of the highlights
of these unwrapping

is the jewelry and
other valuables

that are sometimes found
wrapped with the body

and later sold off of course
as valuable antiquities.

- [Dan] Sure, the big ticket
items get all the attention,

but the audience walks away

with a different
kind of treasure.

- People are given snippets,

so little pieces
of the bandages.

They can take them
home as souvenirs.

- [Holly] You're gonna be able
to handle and touch something

that is from ancient Egypt.

It's thousands of years
old in some cases.

- [Dan] But the real
showstopper is still to come.

- Once this body
has been revealed,

then Pettigrew switches
into surgeon mode,

because as part of the show,

you also get to watch
him perform an autopsy.

- Pettigrew starts severing
limbs, muscles, skin,

pointing out the survival
and color of hair,

the pliability of
the skin itself.

The audience is just awestruck.

- Pettigrew becomes so famous
that the Duke of Hamilton

actually hires him to mummify
his corpse after death.

- Pettigrew's mummy unwrapping

attracts large audiences
for many years.

And he publishes
books, gives talks,

and eventually simply becomes
known as Mummy Pettigrew.

- [Dan] Eventually, the
unwrapping spectacles

fall out of favor,

though our fascination
with mummies lives on.

- A lot of authors were
influenced by this,

Edgar Allen Poe, Arthur Conan
Doyle wrote a mummy story.

In the early days of Hollywood,

you had a lot of mummy stories.

The spookiness of it,
the creepiness of it,

stays with us even today.

- Revealing what's under the
bandages of an ancient mummy

is certainly exhilarating.

However, there's
another British pastime

that will really get
your blood flowing.

- Imagine a man standing in
front of a live audience.

He is wearing baggy white
pants tucked into socks.

And there is something

in the pants moving around.

- [Dan] The man winces as
he's nipped and bitten.

Perhaps drops of blood even
appear on his pant legs.

Painful?

Yes.

But that's the price you pay

if you want to indulge in
the unbelievable sport.

[official speaking indistinctly]

[participant speaking
indistinctly]

- [Dan] Of ferret-legging.

- The object of ferret-legging
is rather simple.

Your goal is to stand there
for as long as possible

while having ferrets root
around in your pants.

- Ferret-legging may
be simple in concept,

but make no mistake
about it, it ain't easy.

- [Dan] Why ferrets and
why down your pants?

The answer goes back centuries.

- In medieval Europe,

ferrets are increasingly
used for hunting.

The ferret is the most
underrated hunting animal

in the world.

It's got claws, fangs,

the speed and
flexibility of a snake,

and it's got the bite force
of a pit bull terrier.

- However, ferrets were a
hunting animal only for royalty.

If you were a commoner
that owned a ferret,

you were breaking the law.

- So if a game warden came by,

people would often hide
the ferrets in their pants

until the authorities went away.

And that suddenly became
a matter of bravery,

something like, "Hey, you
know, the authorities came

and I held these guys in my
pants for X amount of time

while they were
clawing and biting me."

- [Dan] This gives the
ferret-stashing hunters

in Yorkshire an idea.

- What if we willingly
stuffed ferrets down our pants

and we had a competition

to determine who could
withstand it the longest?

And everyone's
like, "Sign me up."

- With any contest,
there have to be rules.

And the number one
rule of ferret-legging

is that you can't have
any undergarments.

- Now, once you put a
ferret in an enclosed space,

it's trying to escape.

It will resort to clawing,
and scratching, and biting.

- [Dan] Just how many minutes

those early
ferret-leggers lasted

and what traumas they
endured are lost to history.

But when the sport
enjoys a resurgence

during the 20th century,
a heroic figure emerges,

retired coal miner Reg Mellor.

- Reg Mellor is a guy that
frequently hunts with ferrets.

And as a way to keep them
dry if it's cold or rainy,

he'll just take the ferret
and stuff it into his paints.

- In the 1970s,
Mellor catches wind

of people competing
at ferret-legging,

something he's
already been doing.

- Reg sees other Yorkshire
men ferret-legging.

They really can't do it for
more than a minute or so,

and he thinks, I can do it
for a lot longer than that.

- He doesn't just last
for a few minutes.

He can actually endure
ferret-legging for hours.

- [Dan] With a record of
five hours and 26 minutes,

Reg becomes the undisputed
ferret-legging champion.

- [Interviewer] If they bite
it so hard and hurt you,

why do you do it?

- Well, that's it,
it's a challenge.

- [beep] Ow [beep] !

- The question
people always ask Reg

is does his you know
what get bitten.

Yes, absolutely it does.

- [Dan] In 1987, Reg passes away

as the reigning king
of ferret-legging,

an oddly coveted title

that still holds a
strange allure today.

- Ferret-legging is still
around in many places.

And 28 years after Reg's record,

it's finally broken in 2010.

- During his heyday,
people used to ask Reg,

"How do you do it?

What is your secret?"

To which Reg would
nonchalantly respond,

"You know, sometimes you just
gotta have your manhood bitten

and just not really care."

[ferret chirping]

- Words to live by, for sure,

but Reg is hardly
the only brave soul

to turn bodily
suffering into a show.

- Most pastimes
are about relaxing,

maybe catching a
game, reading a book,

something easy on the body.

But not for Frank Richards.

His idea of a good time,

let's just say it isn't for
the faint of heart, or stomach.

[rhythmic music]

- Around 1900, Frank Richards
is a kid growing up in Kansas

who gets into lots of fights.

Not all that unusual,

except that in the course
of all this fighting,

he discovers something.

He can take a punch to the
stomach no matter how hard it

is. His ab muscles are
ridiculously strong.

- Later on, while
serving in World War I,

Frank becomes known for
putting on these exhibitions

where he takes punch
after punch to the gut

from his fellow soldiers.

And sometimes Frank
gets hit in the stomach

a thousand times a day.

[rhythmic music]

After the war, Frank thinks,

hey, maybe people will
pay to watch this.

- And so he joins a
vaudeville company

basically as a strong man,
where he puts on exhibitions

challenging anybody in the crowd

to punch him in the stomach.

- [Dan] Soon, promoters bring
in big time heavyweight boxers

to test Frank, like the six
foot six behemoth Jess Willard

and even the world famous
champ Jack Dempsey.

- Now, when Jack Dempsey
goes up against Frank,

he's not expecting what happens,

which is after 75
punches to the gut,

Frank's standing there
like, "What else you got?"

- Frank's incredible display
is a blessing and a curse.

All of a sudden, fans are
expecting something new,

bigger, better.

- He tries to up the ante,

taking two by fours
to the stomach,

battering rams,
even sledge hammers.

- [Dan] Yet, his
fans still want more.

So in the late 1920s,
he steps out to conceive

the most unbelievable
body blow possible.

- Frank gets inspired
by a popular spectacle

at carnivals and fairs, and
that is the human cannonball.

A human being
climbs into a cannon

and then is shot over a great
distance and lands in a net.

- [Dan] That stunt gives
Frank Richards an idea.

What if he flips the script?

- He thinks instead of
being a human cannon ball,

what if he withstands the
blow of a cannon ball?

[apprehensive music]

- Of course these cannons
aren't real cannons.

They're not loaded
with gunpowder

to fire at you or the enemy.

They're catapults,
they're compressed air.

- But this is still
a daunting stunt.

That cannonball he
chooses weighs 104 pounds.

- [Dan] All eyes and
cameras are on Frank

as he gears up for what
may be his most outrageous

and dangerous feat ever.

- Frank is standing 10
feet away from the cannon

wearing goggles.

What are the goggles gonna do?

Put a girdle on.

- It's not exactly clear

how fast the cannonball
is traveling,

but this thing is really heavy.

[cannon firing]

And it's obvious from the
way he's knocked backwards

that it is hitting him
with an incredible force.

- But Frank gets up,
and he's totally okay.

- [Dan] Frank begins
performing this stunt

all across America.

And soon he has a nickname

that cements his place in
history, Cannonball Richards.

- Frank continues to
do this for many years,

well into middle age.

And really, he can only
perform this twice a day

because it's so
hard on his body.

Well, now, in the internet
age, Frank gets famous again

because his cannonball
videos are going viral

and people never get tired
of seeing a guy get hit

in his superhuman stomach.

- Today, millions are familiar

with the footage of
Frank's painful gut shot.

But if you think that's
dangerous, how about a spectacle

that makes the tightrope
walk you'd see in a circus

look like child's play?

[lighthearted music]

- Praia Grande, Brazil
was a big resort area

with lots of beaches and spas.

And it's also known for
great hot air balloon rides

overlooking the coast of
these amazing canyons.

- One day in August, 2023,
two balloons take off

with a group of tourists.

This is a pretty typical
ride to get a beautiful view

of the landscape
and the terrain.

At least that's what they think.

- [Dan] As the balloons
begin to ascend,

some tourists notice a line

tethering the two
balloons together.

- Suddenly one of the passengers

steps toward the
rim of the basket

and attaches a
harness to the line.

And then they step
out of the basket

and begin walking on the line
toward the other balloon.

[suspenseful music]

- People are thinking,
this is crazy.

He's 7,500 feet in the air.

Who is this guy?

Like, what is going on?

- [Dan] He's 23-year-old
Davis Hermes.

And what's happening
is a pastime with a

new dizzying spin. - Davis is an
expert slackliner.

Slacklining is similar
to tightrope walking,

but the line is a
little bit looser.

The key here is that slacklining

is usually done just a
few feet off the ground.

This is very different
than what Davis is doing.

- Now, slacklining
in and of itself

is incredibly difficult to do,

but Davis is a part of a
select group of people that do

a more extreme version of
slacklining called highlining.

Highlining is slacklining

but done at an
incredible height.

- Highlining is typically
done between fixed structures.

Davis has kicked it up a notch.

He's deciding to slackline
between two hot air balloons

that are in constant motion.

[suspenseful music]

- You still realize why
this is so difficult.

The line is constantly
shifting and changing tensions

as it gets looser or tighter
as the balloons move.

- [Dan] If walking
across two moving objects

over 7,000 feet in the air
wasn't exciting enough,

Davis also does tricks.

- In slacklining,

you have things that are
known as static tricks.

And this is when the slackliner

makes it to the middle of
the line, and then they stop,

and then they either pose

or they do some type
of gymnastic movement.

And some of these movements

have some pretty
interesting names.

You've got your butt flip,
you've got your churro bounce,

you've got your nasty squeezer.

- Perhaps the most unbelievable
part of this pastime,

Davis isn't the only
person doing it.

- So the first person
to ever highline

between two hot air balloons

is a Brazilian named Rafa
Bridi the year before.

And he does it at a
height of 6,500 feet.

- So what Davis is
actually setting out to do

is break Bridi's
altitude record.

- A lot can go wrong.

Even Davis who's been on
highlines numerous times before

feels like he's
going to throw up

as he's walking between
these two balloons.

- [Dan] Dazzling the
crowd along the way,

Davis successfully
breaks the record,

although it might not last long.

- The world record for a
man in a hot air balloon

is 69,000 feet.

So I guess in this case,
the sky is the limit.

- Balancing on a line
thousands of feet in the air

is one way to pass the time.

Our next hobby trades
danger for dollhouses.

- When you live in a
remote mountain village,

it can seem like you're
the last person on Earth,

unless your favorite pastime
is creating your own neighbors.

[eerie music]

- Driving through the
Japanese village of Nagoro,

you'll see some
pretty idyllic scenes:

farmers harvesting crops,
people fishing by a stream,

families waiting
at the bus stop.

- [Dan] But if you
take a closer look,

this village is
not what it seems.

Almost all of its hundreds of
residents are life-size dolls.

[eerie music]

- Is this some sort of
a military testing site?

Is it a movie set?

Why would a village be populated

by full scale, life-sized dolls?

- Other than the dolls,

there's not a lot of
human activity going on,

and you start to
wonder, who did this?

- [Dan] The dolls are actually
the work of one woman,

Ayano Tsukimi.

- Ayano Tsukimi is
a native of Nagoro.

She was born and grew
up there in the 1950s.

And at the time, it
was a bustling village

of about 300 people.

By the 2000s, the
population of 300

has decreased to about 50.

- And Ayano looks
around and realizes

this is not at all the
place that she grew up.

It feels very lonely and empty.

- [Dan] Then in 2002, while
tending the family garden,

a run in with some pesky
crows gives her an idea.

- Crows are stealing
the vegetables.

And she realizes that she
has to put up a scarecrow.

- Ayano's father loved
working in his garden,

so she decides to make the
scarecrow look like him.

It's a sort of
sentimental commemoration.

It's not long until neighbors
start to call out to him,

thinking it's really her father.

- This kind of spurs an idea

to start making
more of these dolls

as sort of a tribute
to the people in town.

And at first, it's the
people who passed away.

She'll make a doll
in their honor

and put it near a place
they'd love to go,

or where they used to
sit, or near their home.

- Since it takes her about
three days to complete a doll,

she wonders, why not
repopulate the entire village

with imaginary people,

from construction workers
to school teachers?

She creates whimsical scenes,

like celebrants at
a wedding party.

Eventually, she creates
about 300 dolls,

which outnumber living
villagers 10 to one.

- [Dan] Nagoro becomes
an internet sensation,

nicknamed Village of the Dolls.

And as a result, a
funny thing happens.

- Suddenly, Nagoro is a
massive tourist destination.

Roughly 3,000 people visit
the village every year.

- Without meaning to do it,

Ayano has brought this
town back to life.

It's no longer this
dying, empty village.

It's a very busy,
lively place once again.

- Believe it or not, filling
a village with living dolls

isn't the only unusual
hobby out there

aiming to freeze time.

[rhythmic music]

- As a boy, young Walter
Potter experiences a death

that affects him profoundly,

and it's the death
of his pet parakeet.

- So to keep the
animal's memory alive,

he turns to the
art of taxidermy.

- Today we mostly
associate taxidermy

with hunters' trophy kills,

or it's used in
museums for displays.

But back then, it was
actually fairly common

for people to use
taxidermy on their pets

as a way to commemorate them.

- Stuffing and
preserving animals

is a very specialized skill,

but Potter, a total
taxidermy novice,

decides to try this himself.

He manages to cobble together

a stuffed version of
his deceased parakeet.

It's not the greatest, but he
becomes hooked on this hobby.

He starts preserving
more animals

and displaying them at a
local inn owned by his father.

- [Dan] What Potter
locks in experience

he more than makes up for
in his attention to detail.

[rhythmic music]

- One of potter's
most notable works

is a painstaking and elaborate
depiction of a bird funeral

called "The Original Death
and Burial of Cock Robin,"

based off of the
notable nursery rhyme

"Who Killed Cock Robin."

He begins his diorama at age 19,

but it takes him several
years to complete

because it's
incredibly intricate.

- Over a hundred native
birds of Great Britain

illustrate all 56 verses
of that children's rhyme.

- [Dan] Potter goes on to
create other memorable works,

like a squirrel serving
cocktails, rabbits

in the classroom, and of course
hamsters playing cricket.

But one piece stands
above the rest.

- The "Kitten Wedding" is
really meticulous and detailed.

20 kittens are dressed
to absolutely impress.

They're in tuxedos
and frilly dresses.

Even though you can't
see their knickers,

Potter went to the extent of
making sure that they had them,

which is a testament to how
much love he put into his work.

- Potter soon has more pieces

than his father's
inn can accommodate,

so he opens up a space
in the village of Bramber

called Potter's Museum,
full of taxidermy,

wonders, and efforts.

- Visitors to Potter's Museum
seem to ask the same question,

where does he get all
these animals to stuff?

- Potter has made arrangements
with farms and other places

that encounter dead
animals frequently.

And he assures visitors that
he has never killed an animal

for his creations.

- Eventually, taxidermy falls
out of favor with the public

and the museum is closed.

His works are sold off
to individual collectors,

but they continue to make
appearances in museums

to this day.

- By the time he dies in 1918,

Walter Potter has given 10,000
creatures a second life.

Creepy?

Perhaps.

Unbelievable?

Absolutely.

- Since humans first
began domesticating dogs

30,000 years ago,
we've invented contests

to determine which
pooch is the best,

from Westminster
to the Iditarod.

But one unbelievable contest
is dedicated to the premise

that your pup can't be the best
until they look their best.

[rhythmic music]

- Every year since 1988,

there's something
called the Groom Expo

held in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

Thousands of dog
groomers descend on

the chocolate capital. They
exchange trade secrets, they

talk about business, but at
the heart of this

is an unbelievable competitive
dog grooming competition.

- [Groomer] Who's
a pretty poodle?

- These groomers
don't just cut hair

from around the
eyes or clip nails.

No, they are creating three
dimensional works of art

on dogs.

[lighthearted music]

- Sometimes if a dog
has a really thick coat,

they'll paint it so it
looks like he or she

has other animals
clinging to it.

So a panda or a sloth
hanging off of the dog,

all made of hair.

- [Dan] But creating
these furry masterpieces

doesn't happen overnight.

They take serious
time and skill.

- Now, you have to keep in mind

that just like topiary
work with hedges,

you have to wait
for the dog's hair

to get to the point where you
can do with it what you want.

- Poodles are the most common
dogs in these competitions

because their thick fur lends
itself to intricate design.

- They have tightly compact fur
that you can trim and shape,

then make into all of
these fantastical shapes.

- Of course, every year,
these designs on these dogs

get more and more outrageous.

And the groomers are going

to more and more outrageous
lengths to compete and win.

- [Dan] Like one
woman, Angela Kumpe,

who's been called the Michael
Jordan of dog grooming.

- Perhaps her masterpiece

is done on a white
poodle named Moses

and is based off of the
Stephen King novel "It."

She's designed a super
creepy portrait of Pennywise

on the dog's right side.

And the rest of
the dog is groomed

to look like he's in
Pennywise costume.

- Some people see this
competition as bad for dogs.

And some states have even
banned the use of dyes on dogs.

But fans of the dog grooming
competition push back.

- The dogs are not harmed
by the food coloring dyes

that are not toxic to them.

And they love all the
attention they're getting,

whether they realize why
they're getting it or not.

- Dog grooming isn't
the only mundane task

that's been turned into
unbelievable performance art.

- It's 1997 in
Leicester, England,

and Phil Shaw is just getting
off of work at a factory.

He wants to have
some fun after work,

so he decides to go do
something that he loves,

rock climbing.

The thing that's
standing in his way

is that Phil's got a
long list of chores

that he has to get done at home.

And one of those
chores is ironing.

- [Dan] In a flash,
Phil has an epiphany.

Why not combine the activities?

- Now, to you and me,
this makes zero sense,

but what he's
thinking in the moment

is that this might make
for a hilarious photo op.

So he takes his iron,
his ironing board,

and his wrinkled shirts,
grabs his roommate,

and they head to his
favorite rock face.

- This rock climbing excursion

produces a pretty
hilarious photo,

so Phil decides to take photos,

ironing in various other places.

- Now, we haven't quite reached
the viral age at this point,

so people start hearing
about Phil's crazy pastime

mostly through email
and word of mouth.

But he's encouraged,
so he keeps doing it.

- [Dan] Phil gives this new
pastime a name, extreme ironing.

Soon, Phil embarks on
an international tour

to promote his passion.

- So this seems
like a joke, right?

What's crazy is that
all over the world,

people love extreme ironing.

- They start doing
it everywhere, on

mountains, up in trees, and even
ridiculously underwater.

[upbeat music]

- [Dan] Extreme ironing
continues to gain steam.

And in 2002, the very
first world championship

is held in Germany.

[upbeat music]

- 12 teams from different
countries iron various garments

in five different settings.

These locations include
a fast-flowing river,

on top of a tree,

and a freestyle location
of each team's choosing.

- Now, not only are
the teams judged

by how they handle these
crazy, precarious locations,

they're actually judged
on their ironing,

a good press, the sharp
crease, and so on.

- Since it is the birthplace
of extreme ironing,

Team Britain takes home the
first world championship

in 2002.

- Worldwide, there
are some 1,500

extreme ironing competitors,

or ironists, as Phil calls them.

There's even brief talk about
including it in the Olympics.

- [Dan] Unfortunately,

Phil can't chase
ironing glory forever.

Eventually, the demands
of family and work

force him to hang up his
board, at least competitively.

- But ironists around the world

continue to keep up the pastime,

taking it to even
more extreme lengths

beyond what I'm sure
Phil could even imagine.

[upbeat music]

- If ironing on cliffs
wasn't extreme enough,

wait until you see what's next.

- In the mid 1800s, Americans
are besieged by death.

The Civil War and
diseases like tuberculosis

combine to kill millions.

So you'd think that any
reminder of this grim reality

would have no place
in a leisure activity.

Well, think again.

[lighthearted music]

- At this time, people wanna
go relax somewhere pretty

with their family
and close friends.

So the big social
event of any given week

is to go out and have a
picnic on the weekends.

- [Dan] But these picnics
aren't taking place

in grassy, shaded parks
or rolling country fields.

They're happening
somewhere else.

- On any given weekend,

you'd find people
with picnic baskets,

and blankets, and pictures
of tea, just relaxing,

in cemeteries.

- When we're looking at
pictures during this time,

you see women out at
a park-like setting.

They have parasols,
they have big hats.

They are dressed to
absolutely impress.

And when you look closer,

you realize, oh,
that's a headstone.

- And these were
big social events.

Picnicking in these cemeteries
becomes incredibly popular,

and this is happening
all over the country.

- [Dan] Why are people
choosing to make merry

in a place where they're
surrounded by markers of death?

[rhythmic music]

- For most of us today,
it's easy to find a park

or an open space to spend
time with friends or family.

These Victorian Americans
didn't have that,

so they invented it, making
makeshift use of spaces

dedicated to the
dead to enjoy life.

- [Dan] There's also another
more sentimental reason.

- When you have a number of
folks in your family die,

very often unexpectedly,
you wanna stay close,

you want to have those
memories maintained.

Death to them was something
held much more closely

because it was so common.

- There is even a really
interesting interview

in a paper in 1884
with a young man

who says they're celebrating
Thanksgiving with his father.

It doesn't matter that his
father died the year before.

They're there and they're
gonna celebrate with him.

- Even though it seems
so strange to us today,

it's their way to
show that they loved

and cared about somebody.

- Gotta hand it to Victorians.

They did some
pretty weird stuff.

But partying with
the dearly departed

isn't just a 19th century thing.

[dramatic music]

- Every March, a
raucous festival is held

in the foothills of
the Colorado Rockies.

It attracts 25,000 revelers,

for sports, contests,
partying, merry-making.

- So there are activities
like snow sculptures

or even frozen salmon tossing.

- But there are other
features of this big party

that are really odd.

- One of the big things
is the coffin races.

- And there's signs
everywhere that say FDGD.

So what does FDGD stand for?

- [Dan] It stands for
Frozen Dead Guy Days,

and it has an
unbelievable backstory.

[upbeat music]

- In 1989, in Norway, a
man named Bredo Morstøl

passes away in his sleep.

Bredo is a much beloved
father and grandfather.

And in fact, his
grandson, Trygve Bauge,

wants to find a way to truly
commemorate his grandfather.

Now, Bredo's grandson,
who lives in Colorado,

also happens to have
a bit of a fascination

with something known
as life extension.

- [Dan] So he
decides the best way

to extend his grandfather's
legacy is to freeze him.

- This is a time when cryonics,

which is freezing the
human body to preserve it,

is more and more
in the public eye.

There are a handful of
companies that do this.

Of course, at some
point in the future,

the frozen bodies might be able
to be brought back to life.

And Trygve is really
into this idea.

- Trygve travels to Norway,
takes his grandfather's body,

puts it on a bed of dry ice,

and flies him to a
cryonics lab in California,

where the body is then
frozen with liquid nitrogen

for three years.

- But Trygve has a plan

that does not involve it
staying in California.

He actually wants to start

his own cryogenics
company in Colorado.

- [Dan] Trygve decides
to launch this venture

by moving Bredo's body

to a kind of improvised
cryonics facility.

- Trygve's mother Aud has
also moved to Colorado,

in this little tiny
town of Nederland.

And they set up in her
backyard a little shack,

with the intention that
they will keep him there

until the science exists
that they can wake him up.

[eerie music]

- This is slightly
bit more low tech

than the cryonics
facility in California.

It's basically packing
his grandfather

in a metal sarcophagus
with dry ice.

- All seems well until
local town officials

pass an ordinance prohibiting
keeping frozen dead guys

in your backyard.

Trygve is deported to Norway.

His mother Aud is permitted
to remain in Colorado.

But what to do with
grandpa's body?

- A local businessman steps up

and offers to build
a new facility.

It's essentially still a shack,

but it is a place
where she can continue

to preserve her father's body,

which miraculously is
actually still frozen.

- [Dan] This story
remains on ice until 2002,

when the Nederland
Chamber of Commerce

is struggling to find a theme
for their new spring festival.

- One resident
brings up the story

of Mike the Headless Chicken.

- Mike was decapitated
by a local farmer

but continued to live.

- And so the chicken ultimately
is their main attraction.

So the officials in Nederland
are starting to think,

okay, well what is our
Mike the Headless Chicken?

And then they remember.

Oh, wait, we got a frozen dead
guy in a shack in our town.

[upbeat music]

- Festival goers don't
see Bredo's body,

but they can go and
do tours of his shack,

and sometimes people even
toast him with whiskey.

- What would Bredo think if
he knew his frozen corpse

inspired such a bizarre pastime?

Maybe one day he'll
tell us himself.

- Some pastimes may
be strange, creepy,

or even hazardous to
their participants,

but they pose no threat
to the public at large,

unless it's the early 1990s

and you happen to be
living in the town

of Golf Manor, Michigan.

[dramatic music]

- It's the early 1990s,

and you have a 17-year-old
boy by the name of David Hahn,

who is ferociously working
on a scientific experiment

in the shed in his
parents' backyard.

- He wants to raise his
ranks in the Boy Scouts

so he can become an Eagle Scout.

And this project is
gonna help him do it.

- The problem here is David
isn't your average kid,

and he's not doing your
average experiment.

- [Dan] In fact,

David is definitely the
only Boy Scout in America

who is attempting to
build a nuclear reactor.

- This isn't some
model nuclear reactor.

We are talking a real
full-blown nuclear reactor.

[dramatic music]

- This all starts when
the super smart Boy Scout

is 10 years old and his
grandfather gives him

a 1960 children's publication

called "The Golden Book
of Chemistry Experiments."

- This is a book that
fascinates David to no end

because it's talking
about a lot of chemicals

and experiments
that are incredibly

dangerous to do at home. - But
his family thinks it's a healthy

interest for such a highly
intelligent kid.

He's only 10, but
he starts reading

his father's college chemistry
books with no problem

and doing his own experiments.

Now this becomes his
favorite pastime,

pretty much to the
exclusion of all else.

- When he chooses
the Eagle Scout badge

that he's going after,

David doesn't pick
photography or ice skating.

He chooses atomic energy.

- [Dan] By the age of 14,
David has two clear goals,

make Eagle Scout and collect

every single element
on the periodic table,

even the ones that
are radioactive.

- So where does
a kid in the '90s

collect a bunch of
radioactive materials?

It turns out you can find
radioactive materials

in a lot of everyday objects,
things like smoke detectors,

and old clocks, gas camping
lanterns, and even gun sites.

So David starts cobbling
all these things together

in his parents' backyard shed
and goes straight to work.

[apprehensive music]

- Now David may be
incredibly smart,

but he's not terribly careful.

He used coffee filters
and pickle jars

to handle radioactive materials.

He uses a very crude mask
and improvised lead apron,

neither of which
is very protective.

The experiments give
him radiation burns,

turns his hair
green at one point,

and even knocks him unconscious.

- [Dan] Despite the
burns and close calls,

David's unconventional
methods lead to a breakthrough

when he uses a clever
ruse to gain crucial intel

from the US Nuclear
Regulatory Commission.

- He writes them, posing as a
high school physics professor.

And they give him shockingly
revealing information,

information that
he's able to use

to solve some of the
puzzle of how he can build

his nuclear reactor he's
working on in his backyard shed.

- In 1994, amidst all of this,

David successfully creates a
rudimentary nuclear reactor

that is held together
by things like duct tape

and aluminum foil.

- David's creation
is so successful

his Geiger counter gives him
strong radioactive readings

five houses away.

Unfortunately, a
chance encounter

is about to make his
hobby front page news.

- One day, police are
investigating reports

of a bunch of stolen
and missing tires.

They see David
parked on the street

and they decide
to search his car.

[siren blaring]

When officers speak to him,

he warns them not to go
touching the stuff in the back.

It's radioactive.

- [Dan] The discovery
prompts local, state,

and federal authorities
to descend on the area,

dismantle David's atomic shed,

and initiate an
expensive cleanup.

- Eventually, they have
to bring in the EPA

and they declare David's
backyard a Superfund site.

[dramatic music]

The community does not suffer
from David's experiments.

Luckily, disaster is averted.

- Although David
never got to finish

building his reactor,

he did attain Eagle Scout rank

shortly after his
lab was taken apart.

From putting ferrets
down your pants

to tinkering with
radiation and dolls,

these are the
bizarre, dangerous,

and sometimes quite
painful pastimes

that are truly unbelievable.