The Broski Report with Brittany Broski

Episode 107: The Victorians Were ROTTED Weirdos
August 26, 2025

Episode Overview

This episode sees Brittany Broski immerse herself—and her listeners—in the eccentric, macabre, and at times horrifying world of the Victorian era. From outlandish medical advice to beauty routines laced with poisons, and the era's obsession with death and oddities, Brittany pulls back the velvet curtain on “what the fuck was wrong with Victorians?” The episode concludes with the debut of a new segment featuring spooky listener-submitted ghost stories, showcasing the audience's delightfully haunted side.

Key Discussion Points and Insights

1. Introduction & Brittany’s Victorian Era Mindset

• Opening Skit: Brittany kicks off (00:00) with a mock-Victorian doctor scene lampooning the bizarre and unfounded medical practices of the time (“The only way forward is to start digging in your butt, twin.”).
• Personal Vibe Check: She compares herself to a melancholic Victorian heroine and pokes fun at her own "almost dead seaside melancholy look," greasy hair, and singular eyelash (03:00).

Quote:
"Y’all were high on arsenic, radium and lead eating mummies. What the fuck? And British. This is. This kills me, bro. British people think—thought, maybe still think—they are the pinnacle of human evolution… and you were drinking arsenic and eating mummies." ([03:10])

2. The Victorians’ Freakiness and Hypocrisy

• Brittany is especially enthralled by the hypocrisy of Victorian morals—preaching decorum while inventing the vibrator, then promptly outlawing it (“A woman’s pleasure should be outlawed. I know that’s right, girl.” [07:14]).
• Reference to “drinking out of cups” YouTube video, establishing her tangential, internet-culture-savvy style ([08:30]).

3. Eleven Fascinating (And Gross) Victorian Facts

1. Quack Medicine:

• Victorians advised covering oneself in newspaper to prevent pneumonia ([10:10]).
• Brittany riffs on the absurdity with her own improv: “Piss on the newspaper, wrap your leg in it, and tell me if that shit doesn’t go away tomorrow.”
  Quote: “That for real, is like, what Victorian medicine sounds like.” ([10:45])

2. Everyday Poison:

• Arsenic, lead, mercury, and radium were everywhere: in wallpaper, cosmetics, candy, and even as “libido enhancers” for men ([11:50]).
• Brittany equates Victorian arsenic consumption to modern “flat tummy tea”—“That’s the equivalent to the arsenic dick pill.” ([14:20])

3. Oddity Collections:

• Many Victorians filled entire rooms with taxidermy, bones, or “curiosities.”
• Brittany prefers fake oddities (jackalopes, chupacabras) over real taxidermy ([17:00]).
• Discussion on microplastics, BPA in receipts, and a light environmental tangent ([16:10]).

4. Egyptian Obsession & Mummy Cannibalism:

• Victorians held “mummy unwrapping parties” and sometimes even ate mummies.
  Quote: “What the fuck are you bitches talking about?… You’re so high on mummy brains, it’s actually rotting you. It’s rotting you from the inside out. Okay, mummy eater. Fucking cannibal weirdo.” ([22:40])

5. Mourning Practices & The Great Stink:

• Queen Victoria’s decades-long mourning outfit and black funeral wear gets explored ([27:10]).
• Pollution and industrialization meant everyone wore black—“The Great Stink” of the Thames is described with horror and humor ([38:55]).

6. Rotten Beauty Routines:

• Women used arsenic, ammonia, mercury, radium, and even opium for cosmetic purposes ([40:15]).
• Brittany recounts how beauty standards favored those who looked on the verge of death.
• Belladonna drops for watery eyes (blindness as a side effect), cocaine-soaked eyelids for lash extensions, and arsenic complexion wafers are all discussed ([43:29]).

Quote:
"The look of the consumptive was very desirable. The woman with the watery eyes and pale skin, which, of course, was from the cadaver in the throes of death. Bitch. Me. Literally me. A woman that looks like she's on the verge of death. Why is that the beauty standard?" ([42:00])

7. Lead and Radium in Everything:

• Lead-based paints and cosmetics were widely used, leading to skin damage—and in turn, the need to use even more ([47:35]).
• Radium water touted as an energy drink ([51:13]).

8. The Tapeworm Diet:

• Victorian women ate tapeworms to lose weight: “But then the question is, how do you get the tapeworm out, bro? And then you die.” ([52:15])
• Modern parallels are drawn, lampooning beauty standards across time.

4. Victorian Disease and Royals

• Brittany discusses how even royalty couldn’t escape disease, reflecting on epidemics, class, and the illusion of immunity ([30:45]).
• Syphilis, flesh-eating bacteria, and how portraiture and history covered up the ravages of disease ([32:20]).

5. New Segment: Broski Nation Ghost Stories (Debut)

[55:10]

• Introduction: Brittany invites listeners to submit their weird, spooky, or haunted experiences, dubbing the community “disturbed” in a loving, inclusive way.

Selected Stories:

• Hannah’s Torch Man:

  • While camping in ancestral woods, Hannah sees a mysterious torch-bearing man who inexplicably draws her in (57:19).
  • Brittany reacts: "Do not go to the torch man. The torch man. Oh, I don't like that." ([59:30])

• Megan’s Tarot Reading:

  • Megan shares a tarot ritual after her father’s death that provides closure through supernatural candle flickers and meaningful card draws (01:00:25).
  • Brittany affirms the importance and believability of such experiences (“the fact that you were able to get such closure… that's amazing. It really is.” [01:02:05]).

• Lexi’s Imaginary Friends/Native Burial:

  • Lexi recounts her imaginary childhood friends, later connected to a Native American burial ground (01:03:23).
  • Brittany reflects on children’s heightened sensitivity to the paranormal: “Children are so pure and susceptible and open to a lot of things… That's why it's so fucking creepy in scary movies when kids are the ones that are used as a vessel.” ([01:05:00])

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Victorian Self-Delusion:
  "You bitches were drinking blood and eating brains, and you're like, what if we colonized all of Africa? Oh, my god. I can't believe it." ([39:47])

• On Victorian “Energy Drinks”:
  "Radium in water? Victorian water was artificially radiumized in jars... That's crazy." ([51:13])

• On Beauty Standards:
  "At the end of the day, you're just going to be bald... but drop dead gorgeous." ([47:15])

• On Ghosts and Audience Stories:
  "You bitches are haunted. And I love y'all for it." ([01:03:20])

Essential Timestamps

• Victorian Medical Quackery & Arsenic Addiction: 10:10 – 14:20
• Victorian Collecting Obsession: 15:40 – 19:45
• Mummy-Eating & Cannibal Medicine: 22:00 – 27:00
• Queen Victoria & Disease: 27:10 – 33:00
• Victorian Beauty Routines and Poisons: 40:15 – 47:35
• The Tapeworm Diet: 52:15 – 53:30
• Great Stink & Pollution: 38:55 – 41:00
• Broski Nation Ghost Stories Segment: 55:10 – 01:07:00

Tone & Delivery

• Language and Humor: Casual, irreverent, and steeped in internet culture. Brittany’s signature style employs self-deprecating humor, punchy asides, and plenty of explicit language (“fuck,” “bitches”), as well as empathetic encouragement of her listeners’ weirdness.
• Flow: Stream-of-consciousness with well-timed digressions, but always re-centered on the episode’s main theme: Victorian morbidity and freak show tendencies, and the listener community’s haunted energies.

Conclusion

This episode is a rollicking, sarcastic, and genuinely informative deep-dive into the most bizarre aspects of Victorian life. With sharp modern parallels, Brittany connects historical weirdness to contemporary internet culture and beauty standards, while fostering a community for the haunted and the odd. “The Victorians Were ROTTED Weirdos” functions as both comedic commentary and strange history lesson, with strong community engagement via the new ghost stories segment.