The Ridiculous Origin of the the Word "Ridiculous"

Summary

Ridiculous History — "The Ridiculous Origin of the Word 'Ridiculous'"

Released: September 16, 2025

Hosts: Ben Bowlin & Noel Brown

Podcast: Ridiculous History (iHeartPodcasts)

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Overview

In this lively and etymologically nerdy episode, Ben and Noel take a meta-dive into the word that inspired their show: ridiculous. After years of discussing the strangest stories from history, they finally ask, “Where does the word ‘ridiculous’ come from?” Their investigation explores the origins and shifting meanings of “ridiculous,” its journey through Latin and English, its social impacts, and how it reflects the evolution of humor, insult, and cultural attitudes. The episode’s tone is witty and conversational, punctuated by sharp asides and playful banter.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Meta-Question: Why "Ridiculous"?

• The hosts reflect on having never asked about the origin of the very word central to their podcast, despite nearly 832 episodes.
  • “Despite almost eight years of creating new episodes twice a week…we have never asked about the word itself, which is itself ridiculous that we didn't ask.” — Ben [02:55]

2. What Does ‘Ridiculous’ Mean Today?

• Discussion of the modern definition:
  • “Extremely silly or potentially even unreasonable…deserving to be laughed at, worthy of ridicule.” — Noel [09:17]
• Reference to Cambridge Dictionary’s blunt definition, noting how the word still has bite.
• Exploration of synonyms: absurd, cockamamie, idiotic, etc., with special affection for “cockamamie.”
  • “Cockamamie is of course the favorite. And that's the one I put a link to as well, cause it's just such a weird word.” — Ben [09:55]

3. Origins: The Etymology of ‘Ridiculous’

• Latin "ridiculosus" (laughable, absurd) > "ridere" (to laugh).
• First documented English appearance: Thomas Elyot, 1533.
• Early use was much harsher—an insult, an attack on credibility.
  • “It used to be damn near fighting words. Way more mean than anyone would ever use it as today. Again, more attacking somebody's credibility.” — Noel [11:44]
• By the 1540s: Spelling and meaning start shifting but retain sting (“worthy of ridicule or contemptuous laughter”).
  • “Calling someone ridiculous means you are massively…for the birds…a grade dumb.” — Ben [14:59]

4. Evolution of the Word and Language

• Exploration of English spelling fluidity in the 1600s; codification often driven by influential figures or published works.
• Example of Thomas Elyot’s impact—advocating for literature in English instead of Latin.
• The shift during the 18th century toward a "friendlier" sense: “ridiculous” becomes less about mockery and more about humor or the absurd.
  • “Ridiculous…becomes a little bit less of a mocking fighting word. It's starting to evolve to mean something that is more funny or haha. Not necessarily in a mean way.” — Ben [21:39]

5. Slang, Social Class, and Bias

• Slang meanings evolved in different regions:
  • In 19th-century England, it could denote “indecent, improper, or disorderly,” sometimes bordering on formal judgment [24:43].
  • In the U.S. (20th century), used as a synonym for “outrageous” in specific communities, with prejudiced notes on its use among Gullah speakers or “poor whites in the Ozarks.”
  • “Any form of a word that describes something being stupid or ill conceived or outrageous…it has a basis in othering…a way of demonizing a perceived other.” — Noel [26:41]
• Reflection on how language can be weaponized as a tool for social division.

6. The Philosophy of the Ridiculous

• Discussion of Thomas Hobbes and his musings on ridicule, society, and human nature (from "Leviathan").
  • Hobbes linked the ridiculous to humor, laughter, and the social contract.
  • Notable quote:
    “Howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty or more eloquent or more learned, yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves, for they see their own wit at hand and other men's at a distance.” — Hobbes (read by Ben) [31:36]

7. Ridiculousness as Social Commentary & Comedy Tool

• The “ridiculous” as a mechanism—jesters, roasts, and the tradition of using laughter to subvert authority.
  • “That's why a jester can talk trash so loudly at the king and say all these things an ordinary peasant would be tortured for muttering under their breath.” — Ben [38:13]
• Laughter as emotional bonding, social observation, and advertising gold.
  • “Once you get someone to chuckle with you, psychologically, you built this foundational bond, even if it's only for a limited amount of time.” — Ben [41:21]

8. Advertising & the Absurd

• The power of the “ridiculous” in advertising: jingles (“Meow Mix!”), catchphrases, and visual absurdity (“Eat Mor Chikin” cows).
• Discussion of PSAs—meant to be grave but often remembered for their unintentional absurdity (“This is your brain on drugs”).
  • “A lot of the audience only remembers them because we find them ironic and funny. We laugh when we recall them because we find them accidentally ridiculous.” — Ben [44:18]

9. Games with Words

• The hosts play a reference book word game using "Depraved and Insulting English" and “Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words”, landing on "cacocalia" (state of being ugly but sexy).
  • “Can I guess?...Is it cacao? ...the state of being ugly but sexy.” — Noel and Ben [47:38–48:18]

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the purpose of today's episode:
  “So what is this word? Where does the word come from? Today we're solving the mystery.” — Ben [02:55]

• On etymology and self-mockery:
  “It's a Pyrrhic victory to criticize someone for being wordy by using one of the nerdiest dang words in the English language.” — Ben [07:33]

• The absurdity in advertising:
  “You're paying more attention because you're replying cognitively to absurdity. The concept of ridiculous gets in our heads.” — Ben [45:45]

• Comedic reflection on word games:
  “Cacocalia … the state of being ugly but sexy…that's me. Hell yeah. Oh my God. I'm writing this down, dude.” — Noel [48:18]

• On being insulted today:
  “I think we'd all be more insulted if someone came to our homes and called them ill-conducted. I don't know why that would sting me more…” — Ben [25:53]

• On the evolution of language:
  “We're not even necessarily talking about the pure evolution of a word. It's just sort of like it picks up different umamis along the way.” — Noel [22:00]

• Wider social view on ridicule and others:
  “Any word can be weaponized, at least in English. For instance, think of innocuous words like ‘urban’ ...how evilly that was deployed.” — Ben [27:26]

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Timestamps for Significant Segments

• Intro and why ask about 'ridiculous': [00:43–02:55]
• Defining 'ridiculous' and digging into synonyms: [06:28–11:44]
• Etymological deep-dive (Thomas Elyot, 1533): [12:10–15:08]
• Evolution of the word through the centuries: [14:34–22:30]
• Regional, social, and pejorative uses: [24:25–25:42]
• Language as a tool for othering: [26:41–28:16]
• Philosophy of the ridiculous (Hobbes): [29:10–32:38]
• Ridiculousness, laughter & social commentary: [37:17–40:20]
• Ridiculous in advertising and PSAs: [42:09–45:45]
• Word game: 'Cacocalia': [47:10–48:18]

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Conclusion & Takeaways

• “Ridiculous” has journeyed from a sharp insult implying unworthiness to a term celebrating the silly, the absurd, and the subversive.
• The word’s shifts mirror broader cultural changes: the move from harsh public mockery to using absurdity as a tool for humor, bonding, advertising, and even subtle resistance.
• Language constantly evolves, reflecting the prejudices, philosophies, and comic sensibilities of its speakers.
• Ben and Noel’s romp through dictionaries and linguistic oddities highlights how words themselves can be “ridiculous”—in their origins, uses, and the way they shape our worldview.
• The humor, warmth, and nerdy joy in language are always worth celebrating, and sometimes, being a little “ugly but sexy” (cacocalia!) is the perfect way to end an episode.

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For word nerds, comedy lovers, and anyone who’s ever wondered “Why do we call things ‘ridiculous’?”, this episode is a lateral, laugh-filled ride through centuries of mockery, meaning, and wit.

Transcript

[A]

Ridiculous History is a production of iHeartRadio. Welcome back to the show, fellow ridiculous historians. Thank you as always, so much for tuning in. Let's hear it for the man, the myth, the legend, our super producer, Max Fabio Williams.

[B]

Hello, fellows. I actually have my hair down right now.

[C]

Yeah, you do.

[A]

Don't tell hr.

[C]

It sounds like I'm the Sopranos referring to a sex worker.

[B]

I mean, I got to rock the 24 inches of hair that I'm combing right now.

[A]

And for a good cause, maybe. Because if you get tired of it, we know you well, you are the kind of person to donate to something like Locks of Love.

[B]

That's the plan. That's been the plan for about three years now.

[C]

Yeah, but you said you found another organization that you prefer.

[B]

Yeah, it's. What is the name? It's like, it's. It's like Wigs for Kids, I think is the name.

[C]

If that's not the name, then I, you know, I don't know.

[B]

Same thing. The plan has always been to donate the hair because it was like covet was coming around and it was like 10 inches long. I was like, oh, let's keep growing it and then donate.

[C]

It's a commodity.

[A]

It looks good.

[C]

You grew it yourself then also, like.

[B]

You know, it's been like, what, four or five years since that point?

[C]

So, yeah, it's been about four or 500 degrees here in Atlanta, only just now starting to turn to the proper fall. Fall hath fallen, y', all, and I'm here for it.

[A]

Yes, we are autumnal, and I have Ben Bullen, that is Noel Brown. And here at the end of summer, we are heading into autumn in our fair metropolis of Atlanta metro area. We thought we'd. With a pretty weird idea, Noel. Something kind of meta that's been on our minds because over the years, you and I have explored all sorts of bizarre people, places, and events throughout history. And I think it's fair to say that our North Star has always been what makes this specifically ridiculous.

[C]

Sure, yeah. For better or worse, sometimes more than others. But we do try to not do a story that's just purely a bummer. They try to have some sort of ridiculous lift in there somewhere, but it's true. And, you know, bet I never, you know, that both of us are fans of etymology, and we're always wondering where words came from. But I just. I've just always accepted ridiculous for its own merits. It never even occurred to me to ask the question, where does the word ridiculous come from? I'm not sure, if that says more about me or more about the power of the word.

[A]

Yeah, despite almost eight years of creating new episodes twice a week, which puts us around 832 episodes this October, folks. Yeah, despite diving into almost every imaginable angle of ridiculous things, we have never asked about the word itself, which is itself ridiculous that we didn't ask. So what is this word? Where does the word come from? Today we're solving the mystery. We're over the moon to have you aboard with us.

[C]

This is an iHeart podcast.

[A]

This episode of Ridiculous History is brought to you by American Public University.

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[A]

Ooh.

[C]

I'm going to put forth that it has something to do with something that is worthy of ridicule. Maybe.

[A]

Yeah, yeah.

[C]

I don't know.

[A]

Let's get into it.

[C]

Let's get into it.

[A]

Let's get into it.

[C]

It's not that hard, actually, as it turns out, to define words. It's a pretty common word in English, unlike words like. What is this? Sesquipedalian. Okay, this is a new one on me. Yeah, Ben, give it to us. What is sesquipedalion?

[A]

It technically means two things. It means a foot and a half long. And. And it means a person who loves using long words or to describe long words themselves. And so to be clear, that second meaning is almost always used as an insult, dissing people who engage with overly verbose language. And, you know, it's kind of self defeating. Right.

[C]

The irony is not lost on either of us there. I think you're sort of like pot calling the kettle black there a little bit, if that expression is still allowed. I think it is.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. It's weird. It's a Pyrrhic victory to criticize someone for being wordy by using one of the nerdiest dang words in the English language.

[C]

I think people would literally drop dead of eye roll if someone were to use this, like, out loud in the context of like a diss. I just don't think I could handle it personally.

[A]

I've only heard it deployed in conversations when I was in the ivory tower of academia. And there it was a burner. There was a banger.

[C]

Sick burn, mic drops, Sesqua dalliance.

[A]

Right, the conference is over. Everybody steal as many sandwiches as you can on the way out.

[C]

But they're academic. Sandwiches are the worst, though, man. They're those tiny little ones. I hate the concept of finger foods. It just always gives me the most.

[A]

I still don't understand, you know, the concept of high tea cucumber sandwiches. We'll get into. Into some of that when we talk about the Kentucky Derby and the Masters and their sandwiches. But what we're seeing here, folks, is out of all the hundreds and hundreds of thousands of words in the English language, no one's sure how many there are. By the way, ridiculous. It doesn't really stand out. And that's why folks like Noel and Max and myself are never really questioning it. As you said, we're sort of accepting it. It is not the most common word in the English language. Can you guess what the most common word in the English language is?

[C]

I'm not picking up what you're putting down there, Ben. Not one bit.

[A]

Oh, you heard the.

[C]

Is it the. It's the.

[A]

It's the.

[C]

It's the witter T H E, not like T H E E. So let's get to it.

[A]

Noel, what does ridiculous mean today?

[C]

Well, I think we all know that it typically refers to something that is extremely silly or potentially even unreasonable. You know, you can say, man, you look ridiculous. I'm talking about someone's outfit being a little out. Outlandish. Or you could say you're being ridiculous, meaning that you're being obstinate or you're not giving an inch, or you're like really digging in on something that you absolutely should not be doing. Cambridge describes it as stupid or unreasonable and ding, ding, ding. Deserving to be laughed at. Worthy of ridicule. Yeah, ouch. Not nice, Cambridge. They've got some acerbic wits over there at Cambridge.

[A]

Yeah, I guess someone was having a rough day at the dictionary factory when they wrote that one. I mean, if we want to convey that meaning, we are not limited to the R word. You can also use synonyms like absurd, cockeyed, idiotic, laughing, cockamamie. Yeah, cockamamie is of course the favorite. And that's the one I put a link to as well. Cause it's just such a weird word. I wish we could do our own show all about ridiculous words or ridiculous etymology.

[C]

Ben, you know, I don't think I've ever seen cockamamie in print before. I had a really outlandish cockamamie spelling of it in mind, but it's actually a little bit more. No, wait a minute. There is an alternate spelling, though apparently less common, which is more what I had in mind. C O C K A M A M Y. Though the more proper spelling would be C O C K A M A I E. And of course, again, you know, stand in for Ridiculous. Something that is worthy of ridicule. Even the word ridiculous is in the Webster description for cockamamie. Incredible is another one that I've always found interesting. Sort of like awesome. If you say something's incredible, that can mean you're really impressed by it, but it can also mean it's kind of someone maybe telling a whopper, you know? Yeah.

[A]

Without credibility. Right. So this shows us throughout the evolution of English. It shows us one thing. All of the daddy languages that led to English. All it shows us is that for a long time, for the course of human history, people have been talking trash, and this gets us to the evolution of that specific word, ridiculous. It's time for. I'm doing a drum roll unless Max gets a better sound cue. Etymology.

[C]

Yeah. Etymology indeed. Not to be confused with edamame, which is a delicious snack. Ridiculous is a surprisingly old word, and it used to be damn near fighting words. Right. Way more mean than anyone would ever use it as today. Again, more attacking somebody's credibility. It's first documented all the way back in the 1500s.

[A]

Yeah. The Oxford English Dictionary's earliest evidence for ridiculous in print is from 1533. It's found in the writing of a guy named Thomas Eliot. Not spelled the way you think. A humanist and a diplomat. His last name is often spelled E, L, Y, O, T or E L, Y O, T, T. But I. We should take a second to shout this guy out. Most people probably haven't heard of Tommy, but he is one of the main reasons fiction books you read today are in English instead of Latin.

[C]

Who knew?

[A]

Isn't that weird? We didn't.

[C]

That is weird. I didn't know one person could have that much influence. He is one of the very first people who said, hey, let's perhaps write English literature in English, since that's what so many regular people were speaking in those days. So it might sound like a little tiny historical footnote, which it kind of is. But again, it's a lot of influence for one person to be able to change the tide of language like that. It's tough for us to fully grasp how incredibly important this person was. And again, changing the way we communicate, the way we consume information.

[A]

Yeah. It reminds me of how we marveled at the invention of containers way back in antiquity. At some point before the discovery of containers, people just had to live by the water until somebody.

[C]

A vessel.

[A]

Right. Until somebody figured out you could build a thing to hold other stuff.

[C]

A humble vessel. It seems like just an idea as old as time, but, yeah, you know, it's funny. It is one of those basic things where it's sort of like. It implies a newfound understanding of the way matter works. Where it's like, wait a minute, what if I took this stuff and put other stuff inside this stuff?

[A]

And can I find the right stuff.

[C]

To interact with the right stuff? Yeah. Let's try different stuffs, see what works the best.

[A]

Exactly. This is wild. So all we're saying is shout out to you, Tommy E. Back to ridiculous. Fast forward just a few years. By the time we get to the 1540s, it's spelled ridiculous. R I, D, Y, C, U, L, O, U, S, E. And that's still pretty mean. It means worthy of ridicule or contemptuous laughter.

[C]

Ooh, contemptuous. Very mean spirited. Perhaps someone in the stockades worthy of being pilloried. You know, having tomatoes and stuff thrown at them. The implication would be imparting a sense of vast inferiority. An idiot, a loser, an absolute buffoon, someone who is beneath you. It is an absolute character assassination to use this in those days.

[A]

Yeah, it's calling. Calling someone ridiculous means you are massively. You are for the birds. You are straight up a grade. Dumb.

[C]

Not to be taken seriously.

[A]

And when we get to English, like so many words, we learn that the English use of ridiculous comes from Latin. Ridiculous, which means laughable, funny, or absurd. And that comes from Ridere, which just means to laugh.

[C]

Can I just say, Ben, I applaud you for your use of the phrase daddy words. I just. The child in me giggles every time a little bit. But it absolutely is a fantastic descriptor. So we're gonna talk about some daddy words.

[A]

Yeah. Yeah. And also shout out to past us when we fell in love with. I still don't recall whether it was a song we seriously worked on or if it was just a game we played. But we had this rap game called Daddy Math.

[C]

Daddy Math? Yeah.

[A]

We were like, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. That's daddy.

[C]

Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Know, I don't know what it is. Is it simple math?

[A]

We. We've never built out the world on that one, but we can tell you Ridere is also the daddy word of risable, which is confusing. I wish it was used more often.

[C]

Yeah. I don't know about Risable, by the way. Is Daddy Math maybe the calculation you determine how many bastard children you have out in the world.

[A]

There we go.

[C]

Perhaps like a, you know, a despot, historical despot, Genghis or Nick Cannon.

[A]

Yeah. So for centuries, like, we're saying ridiculous was a hard and righteous dis mockery, as you noted earlier, fighting words. Throughout the 1600s we see a lot of fiction and nonfiction writers, including Shakespeare, using ridiculous in that sense. Sometimes they spell it different ways, mainly because everybody at this point was still trying to figure out how stuff would be spelled. Literacy was a pretty rare skill set for sure.

[C]

No, it was a big deal and they were kind of spitballing a little bit, you see, before they land on the one that kind of sticks. And oftentimes that is determined by someone very powerful who perhaps codifies the printing of a particular work. And then that begins to spread because the more consistency you have, the more people pick up on it and the more it's passed around and reprinted, etc.

[A]

Mm, 100%. This episode of Ridiculous History is brought to you by American Public University.

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[A]

And this is where we arrive at the 18th century ridiculous. However you spell it becomes a little bit less of a mocking fighting word. It's starting to evolve to mean something that is more funny or haha. Not necessarily in a mean way. It's absurd, but it's amusing. It's comical.

[C]

I guess what we're talking about here too, I mean is the evolution of language. Like where it's, you know the word. You could absolutely still use it in any of these ways, but it begins to really depend on like the emphasis you put on it when you speak it, the context around it. You know what Your attitude is towards the word. So we're kind of. We're not even necessarily talking about the purely. The pure evolution of a word. It's just sort of like it picks up different umamis along the way. Right?

[A]

Yeah. Well said, Noel. Because what we're talking about is language as technology. And so we're really talking about the way society evolves in their usage of a thing. Right. And this is this new. This, like, Coke 2 of ridiculous is the more friendly version of the word. It still traced back to ridiculous, meaning concerned with jokes, which we definitely are on this show.

[C]

Was it 30 Rock, where there was like, a fictional rapper named Ridiculous who was sort of like ludicrous sort of stand in satire parody.

[A]

You know, we were talking off air with Max. I've been rewatching 30 Rock, which is just phenomenal writing. I would have to finish watching the run of the show. But I'm sure you're right. If not in 30 Rock, in some show, that joke's just too good.

[C]

It's too good. Yeah. And I'm having.

[A]

I don't.

[C]

I couldn't possibly know how to spell it. Ridiculous. It's. I'm spelling it correctly and nothing's coming up. But it's like comedy, joke, rapper, ludicrous Perry.

[A]

Parody, maybe.

[C]

Yeah, parody would be good. It doesn't matter. It'll come to me eventually when I don't care. But I'm almost positive that it was 30.

[A]

And we obviously are huge fans of 30 Rock. We also. You know what I love about the point you earlier made is we're also talking now about ridiculous acquiring informal slang meanings. Like one thing that can happen if you are dating, especially here in Atlanta. I remember a friend of mine got kind of miffed when he made a joke and it landed. And the lady he was interested in went, oh, you're stupid. But she meant that he was funny. She didn't.

[C]

Stupid, funny.

[A]

Right, Exactly. So when we see the same thing happening with slang and the word ridiculous, and all living languages constantly and create slang. Let's go to the Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words by James.

[C]

How did I not know about this until today? That's incredible that this exists.

[F]

Mm.

[A]

It's multiple editions, too, man. This is written by James Orchard Hallowell. It was first published in 1846, but we are using the 1852 version because, per our accounting department, we are not, quote, made of money.

[C]

It's true.

[D]

It's true.

[C]

And this is what he had to say on the subject of the word ridiculous. This is Used in a very different sense in some counties from its original meaning. Something very indecent and improper is understood by it as any violent attack. Attack upon a woman's chastity is called, wow, very ridiculous behavior. A very disorderly and ill conducted house is also called a ridiculous one. So in this situation, it's really starting to get like honed in almost on the level of like a legal designation. Right. It's really like hard in terms of.

[A]

Its judgment call, especially because to us right now, ridiculous means funny, interesting and cool.

[C]

Silly, goofy, having a good old time, you silly goose.

[A]

But right now I think we'd all be more insulted if someone came to our homes and called them ill conducted. I don't know why that would sting me more if someone said, I would.

[C]

Be impressed if they whipped out that Turner phrase. And you're right, it probably would cut me to my very core.

[A]

Yeah, it feels like they thought about it. Right. So we also see to your point. More than a little discrimination comes into play with this slang as well. In the 20th century in the United States, ridiculous was described as a synonym for outrageous. And the people who described it as such always wanted to point out this is primarily used in Gullah speech and quote among poor whites in the Ozarks.

[C]

Yikes. Yeah, man. It's another one of those things, moments where you realize that any form of a word that describes something being stupid or ill conceived or outrageous, it has a basis in othering, it has a basis in this is something that is different than me, that freaks me out, you know, and it's a way of demonizing a perceived other. And the way they talk, the way they dress, it's still used today, you know, and it really all just boils down to this idea of something being worthy of ridicule. What worse designation could you slap on something than being worthy of jeers and insults and derision?

[A]

Agreed, fully. And any word can be weaponized, at least in English. For instance, think of innocuous words like urban. And think about how evilly that was deployed, especially in the advent of the war on drugs. Or as dog whistles for racist.

[C]

Not, not. Let's not get too far into this. But then you've got words like that that initially are sort of benign and they start referring to certain demographics in certain areas. We even see it in the categorization of like music, you know, and that's an official title term used in like radio circles and charts. Right, like music charts. One of those examples. Where is that taking the word back? Or is that Another example of an establishment referring to something with a little bit of a side eye.

[A]

Yeah, and this is where we get to the serious side of ridiculousness. We've established our origin story and we've got some other words that sort of fill out the background of our painting. We've walked through what we hope is some tasty etymology for our fellow logophiles. Word nerds. Oh, my God.

[C]

But.

[A]

But before.

[C]

Not. Not fans of the. Not fans of logs.

[A]

Not fans of logs. That's a different bread election. But before we light out for the old podcast territories, we do want to establish some serious value of ridiculousness as a concept in the ancient past and in the modern day. Here we have a second Tommy entering the stage. Please. Folks, halt your accolades and applause. This is a Tom you have probably heard of none other than Thomas Hobbs.

[C]

Think that the imaginary tiger in Calvin and Hobbes is named after Thomas Hobbes. It's spelled the same. It just occurred to me seeing it on paper.

[A]

First off, I have chosen to believe he is very much a real tyke.

[C]

Oh, fair enough. Excuse me. Spoiler alert.

[A]

But I also. I believe you are absolutely correct there, especially when you see it written out right. The legendary English philosopher Thomas Hobbes is probably to most of us best known for an absolute banger. He wrote in 1651 called Leviathan. He first kicks the idea of what we call social contract theory.

[C]

It was a nice idea. Yeah, it's a nice idea. I mean, isn't the social. Sorry, not to derail, but given what's going on in the world now, isn't the social contract kind of reliant on people just agreeing to follow certain rules? In order for the privileged of living in the society, you have to kind of give up a little bit of individuality in favor of getting along. We all sort of abide by these rules that are mutually agreed upon and beneficial.

[A]

Yeah, you nailed it, man. Social contract theory is the idea that you, as an individual human, either explicitly or simply by existing in society, you have agreed to abide by rules of that society to have certain responsibilities in exchange for protection and maintenance of social order. We know that this goes in a thousand directions, but the idea at base is that it takes everyone to make a society work. We're not a philosophy podcast yet, but we do have to give you one more fun fact about Tommy H. He spent a lot of time ruminating over the concept of humor, and to him, the nature of ridiculousness and absurdity is central to the theory of. Beat me here, Max. What Makes funny. So encountering the ridiculous triggers laughter, shock, parody, satire. Also Hobbs, by the way, super duper hater.

[C]

Yeah, man. He had some hot takes, that's for sure. Definitely thought very highly of himself.

[A]

Oh, okay. We'll do one quote from Leviathan.

[C]

I think we must. It'll give you a good sense of this guy's. Yeah. Penchant for Hobbes.

[A]

Yeah, Penchant for D. Ery, maybe. All right. Also true, for such is the nature of man that howsoever they may acknowledge many others to be more witty or more eloquent or more learned, yet they will hardly believe there be many so wise as themselves, for they see their own wit at hand and other men's at a distance.

[C]

Yeah, I mean, look, he's not wrong. I'm not even really trying to be a hater of the hater. I think he was just. He's pretty dialed in. That's not incorrect. It's this idea that everyone's sort of the main character in their own story, right? And that everyone else sort of exists as side players and that at the end of the day, you're more concerned with your own bit and coming across a certain way than you are in listening to what other people have to say or acknowledging their existence.

[A]

Excellent unpacking there. Yeah, you marvel at your own intelligence or your own wins. And other people, they're at an arm's length at best.

[C]

Someone else also said, hell is other people. So those could, you know, pair those together and you got yourself a full on philosophy of life.

[A]

Yeah, and Tom put some stank on that one also. He was a proponent of absolute monarchy and his arguments for that are ridiculous. So, Tom, we hope you were joking, but I don't know.

[C]

They bring it back to ridiculous, though, man.

[A]

This episode of Ridiculous History is brought to you by American Public University.

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[A]

Well, later on, much, much, much later on, after the rise of the science we call P.S. it turns out scientists would verify Hobbes pitch about ridiculous.

[C]

Right. I mean, he's clearly lampooning most of society and considers humans to be inherently quite ridiculous. This was a very important word in helping to draw attention to social hierarchies and attitudes of the time. By this we mean the absurd is able to kind of subvert in a way. He was also. I don't know, it's hard to. How would you describe his work? I mean, it's a treatise, Right. He's basically telling. He's calling attention to the absurdities of society in an effort to perhaps teach people how to live better. Right. There could be a better way. But it also is satirical in a way. It's an interesting kind of cross section there. Yeah, yeah.

[A]

There's kind of a Josh Johnson to it or a George Carlin esque thing. You know, these are great. Or Bill Hicks. These are great orators who understand the power of laughter along the way. And this is an old idea. I love that you're talking about absurdism, subverting social norms. That's why a jester can talk trash so loudly at the king and say all these things. An ordinary peasant would be tortured for muttering under their breath.

[C]

The idea of a roast, you know, people love a roast as long as it's there, kind of in control. And it is all sort of like in the service of this kind of holding court kind of situation. Right.

[A]

I genuinely enjoy a lot of roast, except for the one of Chevy Chase that was. I don't think they were being funny.

[C]

No, they were just being mean. Isn't that guy a real dick, though? I've heard like not great things about him. I didn't see the roast though, but I imagine it was a lot of people just unloading on a guy who maybe deserved it a little more than the average roast Roasty.

[A]

Apparently very difficult to work with and we hope that we're easy to work with so that we don't pick up the Chevys. Yeah. So the thing about stuff being ridiculous or absurd is that it reframes the way you perceive a given experience in small yet measurable ways. It also reframes every other thing you encountered before or after. You look at the world differently, you pay more attention. And we see this everywhere. Politics, fiction, personal relationships, advertising. Look, we have background in live performance, and as any live performer can tell you, the number one easiest emotional reaction to get from an audience is laughter.

[C]

Right.

[A]

Would you agree with that?

[C]

I think so. It's definitely easier than eliciting a gasp, unless you're just going for shock value. But it's also the. I think it's the easiest and most pleasant reaction that an audience might want to have elicited from them. You know what I mean? People love to laugh. It's a psychologically cleansing sort of experience.

[A]

Yeah. Especially when you're laughing together, when you're not asking for much. Right. Just a shared acknowledgment that this thing is funny or ridiculous.

[C]

Dude. Speaking of ridiculous and laughter, have you seen the new Naked Gun movie yet?

[A]

Not yet, no. I've been deep in research land.

[C]

It is a laugh a second. It's just so densely packed, and it will pull those out of you. So I highly recommend, if you're looking for a cathartic experience in that respect, go check out the new Naked Gun movie.

[A]

I'm so excited. I'm so excited to see it. And I've got a little bit of limited mobility right now, but as soon as I'm back on my proper landlubber status, dude, I'm getting to the movie theater to check it out. And we're huge fans of the earlier Naked Gun stuff as well. Although, to be clear, not all of it aged well, which happens with comedy.

[C]

Yeah. I mean, O.J. simpson's in the first two. I think he's really funny, though. He's very. I gotta give it to. The guy's very funny, but he definitely murdered those people.

[A]

Yeah. Once you get someone to chuckle with you, psychologically, you built this foundational bond, even if it's only for a limited amount of time. And from that bond, you could say laughter's like a mental password. It's like hacking a computer. You can do a lot of other stuff. Not all of that stuff is necessarily above board. And that takes us back to advertising. Ooh, man. Advertising and laughter, for sure. Yeah.

[C]

And again, I mean, we're starting to see the pivot into ridiculous. The idea of worthy of ridicule starting to feel more like positive laughter. Something that's done to elicit laughter. Like the jester. You're talking about Ben Rather than someone that is a buffoon worthy of being mockery and contempt.

[A]

Oh, yeah, like the old stand up rule. Punching up versus punching down. Right? Totally. Yeah.

[C]

Advertising, though, is a great transition, Ben, where we start to see the kind of weaponizing of some of this thinking. It is, of course, a particularly manipulative branch of psychology unto itself, leveraging a lot of conditioning behavioral cognitive effects in order to elicit a certain. Certain reaction, to help encode memories into the viewer and to help impart a positive impression of a particular brand, product or concept.

[A]

Yeah, think about it. Your favorite commercials, especially if you're from the west, are probably comedic. They likely incorporate a buzz term, a jingle, or both. And the serious commercials we remember, like the famous PSAs. Let's play what. Here is an example of a serious psa, which we're counting as a commercial for this purpose. You may all recognize this one, folks. Is there anyone out there who still isn't clear about what doing drugs does? Okay, last time. This is your brain. This is drugs. This is your brain on drugs.

[C]

Eggs. Oh, no, sorry, that was the wrong message. It was supposed to be, okay, brain drugs will. Will crack open my brains and fry them in a pan.

[A]

Right, right. And you remember this one, right? Of course, absolutely.

[C]

And there is some absurdity to it, but it is also just sort of like a very heavy handed metaphor, I guess as well.

[A]

Yeah, yeah, you nailed it. Because despite the initial intent of the people who made that or made those copyright PSAs, like, you wouldn't download a car.

[C]

I would if I could.

[A]

Right, Exactly. In this academy. Get back to us. But. But they meant these things to be serious and to stay with you. However, a lot of the audience only remembers them because we find them ironic and funny. We laugh when we recall them because we find them accidentally ridiculous. It kind of reminds me of not too long ago. I think just a few days ago, you and I literally sang the Meow Mix jingle on our sister show. Stuff they don't want you to know.

[C]

Somehow we didn't get sued. Knock on wood. It is funny though, right? I mean, the way those little things like the Eat More Chicken campaign is another good example with Chick Fil A of not only is it absurd, this idea that an anthropomorphic cow is trying to deflect us from eating its flesh and the flesh of its brethren in favor of instead eating these other animals that presumably the cows have some sort of vendetta with. It's implied, but not only that, it incorporates. Incorporates the concept of disfluency into the ad campaigns where it's the text that's all splattery and misspelled words and that encodes itself onto your brain even more so it's like piggybacking on that absurdity with these elaborate billboards with these three dimensional cow sculptures. And then the fact that when you're driving past it, you see these kind of misspelled words which forces you to think a little deeper about.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. You're paying more attention because you're replying cognitively to absurdity. The concept of ridiculous gets in our heads. The Meow Mix jingle solidified the memory. And so even if we didn't each personally run out to buy Meow Mix right after recording, we now have a shared fond memory of it. It's a brilliant idea. Again, it's ridiculous. English is a phenomenally fascinating language, chock full of words that are themselves ridiculous. By which I guess we mean cartoonishly specific, oddly self contrad, or even just the kind of word where you look back on it later and think, why would someone make that. What on earth happened in society that we need a whole word defining this? You know what I mean?

[C]

Yeah, I don't. I mean, I don't know. It's a good question then.

[A]

So we can play a game for the very end of this. Noel, I dug up a book that I know you will love if you haven't read it already. We love specific reference works. This is depraved and insulting English.

[C]

God, yes. What was the other reference book or the old tome that you pulled up as a source?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah. That is the dictionary. Archaic words. Archaic and provincial words.

[C]

Those seem like a good pairing. I'm down. Sign me up.

[A]

All right, how about this? We're gonna do this live. We don't know if it'll work out, so apologies to Max in advance. No, I'm gonna flip through this book and you say when. Okay. All right, Going when. Okay. And then I'm going to run my finger up and down the page. You say when.

[C]

Okay. Rick Rubin. I love it when.

[A]

Okay. Cacocalia, the state of being.

[C]

Can I guess?

[A]

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Cacocalia. C, A, C, O, C, A L.

[C]

L, I, A, C, A, C, O. Initially, my mind is jumping to the word cacao. And this is like if it's a calia, I don't know what that suffix is, but it sounds maybe a little bit like a philia or. This is not a phobia. You're into something. You're into whatever cacko represents that's my guess. And I think it might be cacao.

[D]

Ish.

[A]

Well, this was a very unfair one. I don't think either of us would have guessed this one. The definition is the state of being ugly but sexy. What?

[C]

That's me. Hell yeah. Oh, my God. I'm writing this down, dude. Cacocalia. That is my. I'm gonna use that as my mantra from now on.

[A]

You're not. You're the opposite of ugly, you handsome devil, you.

[C]

No, no, but that's cool. So is like, you know, what's his name, the horrible painter who also acts. Adrien Brody.

[A]

What a weird way to describe that.

[C]

He's a funny looking dude there. I. I think this. There are a lot of what you might call striking individuals who you could argue are ugly but sexy. I think it's not a diss, man. I'm into it. De Niro Pacino.

[A]

I think I agree with it. Except for you and De Niro. I'm gonna go to the bat for you guys.

[C]

Craggy looking dudes. Weathered.

[A]

He looks weathered because of his age. That's also true.

[C]

That's also true.

[A]

We are your ever faithful, ugly yet sexy correspondence. We hope you enjoyed this episode. Thank you so much as always for tuning in. Thanks to Our super producer, Mr. Max Williams, as well as Alex Williams, who composed this track.

[C]

Huge thanks to Christopher Haciotis and Eva Jeffcoats here in spirit. Jonathan Strickland, the Quister, AJ Bahamas Jacobs, the Puzzler.

[A]

Big. Big thanks, of course, to Dr. Rachel. Big spinach Lance. Big thanks to Yves Jeffcoat, Christopher Hasios here in spirit. And big thanks to Peter Novobotsky and Amon Shea who wrote Depraved and Insulting English.

[C]

Hell yeah. We'll see you next time, folks.

[D]

For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the.

[C]

Iheartradio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you.

[D]

Listen to your favorite shows.

[A]

This episode of Ridiculous History is brought to you by American Public University.

[D]

American Public University is the number one provider of education to our military and veterans in the country.

[A]

They offer something truly unique. Special rates and grants for the entire family, making education affordable not just for those who serve, but also for their loved ones.

[D]

If you have a military or veteran family member and are looking for affordable, high quality education, APU is the place for you.

[A]

So visit Apu Apus Edumilitary to learn more today.

[D]

That's Apu Apus Edu Military.

[E]

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