This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
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Hey Jess from GZM jumping in real quick.
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And thank you for all your help.
Debra here.
To celebrate Big February, we're taking out classic episodes of Wacky Cackies out from behind the paywall.
Today's episode is all about reverse psychology, or our vintage Pants on Fire show, or episodes of Ask Lisa, or even to get the Big Fib ad free and a week early, go to gzmshowscom.
Slash subscribe.
One more time, that's gzmshows.com slash subscribe to learn more.
Thanks for all your support and enjoy the show right after this break.
Two people claim to know everything about something, but only one knows anything.
Isaac F. Roosevelt wore an anti-gravity belt.
Dinosaurs had two brains.
Lucky kids live on Mars and go to school in flying cars.
Or at least they will one day.
Believe me, I'm a historian.
An astronaut or driver, DeLorean.
Would I lie?
It's hard to say.
From Kinnick, Kinnick, Colorado, it's a bonus episode of The Big Fib.
This week, because you've all been on your best behavior.
We bring you Wacky Dackies, our game show within a game show, within a game show, within a game show.
And now your host and a woman who's been on her worst behavior.
I beg your pardon.
Deborah Goldstein.
Hello and welcome to the Big Fib.
Yes, I'm your host, Deborah Goldstein.
And beside me, as always, is our sound effects robot Lisa, whose name stands for live in studio audience.
Lisa, how exactly have I been on my worst behavior?
Are you sure you want to do this now in front of all the listeners?
You know, I was going to let it slide.
Let it slide?
You're the one who brought it up in the first place.
All right, you asked for it.
First off, you ate the last popsicle in the freezer yesterday.
I was really looking forward to that.
In my freezer, you mean?
I ate the last popsicle in my freezer.
Yeah, but you could have offered it to me before you had it.
That would have been really nice behavior.
Uh, okay.
What else?
You scheduled today's recording for a Saturday, even though I specifically told you I don't like to work during the weekend.
You also told me you don't like to work during the week.
Well, sorry that I have a life outside of the show.
Okay.
Popsicles, the weekend.
How else has my bad behavior affected you?
You forgot my birthday.
That's because you keep changing the date and time settings on your operating system to make it your birthday.
So?
So you've already had a birthday six times this year.
Two of which you missed!
Okay, Lisa, if this is the bad behavior you're referring to, I don't really know what to say.
If you want to have birthday popsicles together while we don't work on the podcast, That's a great idea, Debra.
All is forgiven.
And that concludes our show.
The Big Fib is a production of Gen Z Media.
Find us online at gcmshows.com.
No no Lisa, we have a Wacky Khakis episode ready to go for our listeners and we are not just going to blow it off to eat popsicles.
That really would be bad behavior.
Sure didn't stop you yesterday.
Okay, Lisa, I will get you popsicles after the show is over, all right?
And?
And we'll celebrate your birthday again.
And?
And I'm sorry for being on my worst behavior.
I'll try to improve.
Now.
Can you please explain to everybody how we play our game?
Oh, for sure.
Why didn't you ask?
Every time we play Wacky Kackies, Debra and I each tell one wacky story about the world.
Crazy, right?
And I haven't even gotten to the good part yet.
Only one of these stories is actually true.
And the other one is a lie.
And a bunch of you are going to fall for it.
And joining us to explain this week's theme referee our game and administer popsicles to whichever robot and his judgment performs the best during this episode.
It's our producer, Noah.
Hi, Lisa.
Hi, Debra.
Hi.
What a singular pleasure it is to be back with you on the podcast.
Our theme for this edition of Wacky Kackies is reverse psychology.
You mean a jolo case?
No, but that's reverse psychology.
Yeah.
OK, that's that's very clever.
But reverse psychology does not refer to the word psychology in reverse.
Reverse psychology is the practice of getting someone to do something by suggesting that they do the opposite.
Wow.
That is absolutely diabolical.
Does it actually work?
It's a little tricky, but I've seen it be effective before.
Well, it wouldn't work on me.
Frankly, I think it's disgusting.
In fact, now that I know that's the topic, I'm not sure I can still participate in good conscience.
I'm out.
Well, Lisa, that's your choice.
I guess you should just dismiss our human child contestants and we'll all go home.
You can't tell me what to do.
We're going to play Wacky Kackies whether you like it or not.
Our human child contestants are Max and his friend Grayson.
Take that, Producer Noah.
Hey, Max.
Hey, Grayson.
Hi.
Well, Lisa, Noah just put you through reverse psychology.
Because you didn't want to do it, but then he reversed it, so you did want to do it.
No, no, no.
Max, you're reading into things that aren't there.
Lisa, he has the upper hand in this situation.
Yeah, that's right.
I reversed psychology to him.
Sure.
Grayson, how are you this lovely afternoon?
I'm doing good.
So you guys are friends from what age?
When did you guys meet?
Well, Grayson, when did we meet?
I was nine.
Okay, and you guys were in class together?
What is the basis for your friendship?
Well, we usually go to school together.
That's my thing.
And what are you guys into when you hang out?
What do you guys do together?
Oh, there are these top-like things called Beyblades.
Beyblades!
Do you know them?
Yeah, they're weaponized dreidels.
Sort of.
Kind of, but not quite.
That's rather wacky.
Okay, friends, it is time to play Wacky Kackies.
If our listeners know anything, anything at all, about this game, they know that when we play Wacky Kackies, Debra and Lisa each have a minute and change to tell us their story before the timer sounds.
Lisa, Debra, I'm going to let you two decide who goes first.
I'll go first.
That's fine by me, Lisa.
Hold on.
You only want me to go first so that you can have the last word.
Nice try.
You go first.
That's okay with me, too.
Not so fast.
You really think I'm that silly?
If you go first, they'll get attached to your story and not even listen to mine.
Forget it.
I'll go first.
Sounds like a plan.
Now, just one minute.
Okay, Lisa, we could be doing this forever.
Why don't you just go first?
I would literally rather exercise.
Okay.
No need to be so dramatic.
Debra, why don't you get us started?
I'd be happy to.
All right.
Listen up carefully, everybody.
We will begin Debra's timer now.
In our modern times, it's hard to imagine a life without potatoes.
The average American consumes over 100 pounds of potatoes per year, and in Europe they eat twice as many.
But it was not always thus.
Antoine Augustin Parmentier is the agriculturalist credited with popularizing the potato in France during the late 1700s.
Parmentier first ate potatoes as a prisoner of war in Prussia, and upon returning to his home country he recognized the potential of the potato to relieve the pressures of famine and crop failure on the people of France.
At that time, potatoes were not only absent from the French diet, they were illegal because they were wrongly believed to make your arms and legs fall off.
Those who did consider potatoes fit for consumption still only fed them to their hogs.
So you can imagine the uphill battle Parmentier faced in getting the famously sophisticated French people to embrace this hog feed as something they might actually eat themselves.
He tried many tactics, such as presenting the king and queen with a bouquet of potatoes rather than flowers and hosting fancy dinner parties with famous guests like Benjamin Franklin, where he served potatoes and nothing but potatoes.
But his cleverest strategy was a classic case of reverse psychology.
At his home in Sablon.
He had his potato patch surrounded by armed guards, creating the impression that the vegetables that lay beyond were valuable, delicious and rare.
At night he sent the guards home, intentionally allowing thieves to break in, steal these precious spuds and plant them in their own gardens.
Parmentier was successful beyond his wildest expectations.
Potatoes are now an intractable staple of French cuisine.
In fact, the most expensive variety of potatoes in the world are grown in France and fetch an exorbitant price of 500 per pound.
And time.
It was a good story.
Thank you, Deborah.
I want potatoes now.
Grayson, Max, besides being hungry for potatoes, what did you guys think of that story?
It's very hard to believe.
So there's that.
But on the other hand, I'd have to hear the second story to get a final opinion.
Well, besides its believability, what did you think of it as a story?
Would you, for instance, sneak into someone's guarded potato patch if you believed that their potatoes were valuable?
I probably would.
I don't know.
Some people might be spudspicious.
Yeah.
Dear goodness.
Max, what did you think?
Well, this story, it sounded a bit sketchy.
I beg your pardon?
You mean it sounded a bit starchy.
No.
Uh-huh.
Starchy.
Uh-huh.
I see what you did there.
Now we're going to hear Lisa's tale of reverse psychology.
Are you ready to tell us about it, Lisa?
You'd love that, wouldn't you?
Um, no?
Then I'll do it.
It's reverse psychology, Lisa.
Okay, okay.
Listen up, everybody.
We are going to start Lisa's timer now.
Have you ever wondered why libraries are so quiet?
I sure have.
Why?
Just last week I wandered into my local public library and was ejected when the staff failed to appreciate my pitch-perfect impression of a Bolivian howler monkey taking his first piano lesson.
Rude!
Rude!
Well, it turns out that the whole being quiet at the library thing is one of the earliest historical examples of reverse psychology.
It all started with the Imperial Library of Constantinople.
Emperor Constantine, ruler of the Byzantine Empire, envisioned the library as a quiet haven for scholarly work.
But he had a problem.
The library, which contained a copy of nearly every play ever written, attracted the loudest people in the empire actors.
Actors flooded the Imperial Library every day, mildly reenacting the great comedies and tragedies of the era.
On one occasion, a troupe from Bucharest put on such a rowdy rendition of Prometheus the Firebringer that they accidentally burned down a section of over 600 volumes, forever destroying the only records of many of Byzantium's greatest playwrights.
Fed up with the theatrics, Constantine intervened to drive the rambunctious actors out of the Imperial Library.
But instead of demanding that they be quiet, which he privately believed actors to be incapable of, Constantine brought even more actors into the library, paying performers from all across the Empire to occupy the building for as long as they pleased.
This made the library so loud that you could not even hear yourself think and, more importantly, others could not hear you perform.
The actors soon became frustrated that they had to shout over one another and within a month they stopped attending the library because it was so filled with other actors that their plays could no longer command the attention that they felt they deserved.
Satisfied with his trickery, but still wanting to be sure the actors would not return, Emperor Constantine had the library's remaining 2,000 plays summarily burned for good measure.
And time.
Nice story Lisa, thank you.
So what did you guys think of that one?
I have one one.
Why why, what?
Why would actors want to perform in the imperial library?
Why would constantine want them to be quiet, especially?
The story doesn't make sense generally, but especially that last poet About burning the rest of the plays.
I mean, you could save at least one.
That would have been smart.
What did you think, Max?
Well, did he also burn the library?
I don't think so.
I think he just burned the plays.
Okay.
It sounded true, but it also sounded like, eh, half.
Have either of you guys ever been in a play yourself?
Only like a school play for me.
That counts.
I've been in a play before.
Was it a loud experience in your memory?
Don't know, not mine.
Oh, they might have been in a whisper play.
Those are always so good, not a whisper play?
Perhaps you can't relate to emperor constantine, then i sure can't.
I love actors.
Well, have any of you guys ever been an emperor?
No yeah, so it's probably true.
Thank you.
Okay, it is decision time.
Time for our contestants to figure out whose story is reverse psychology and whose is rehearsed tomfoolery.
Do you believe Debra's story of how the people of France were tricked into eating potatoes?
Or Lisa's about how Emperor Constantine got the actors of the Byzantine Empire to abandon the library by opening it up to even more actors.
Grayson, what do you think?
I think that Debra's telling the truth, because I've never heard of the ancient place of which Lisa talked about.
Neither have I. Yeah, and everybody's heard of potatoes.
Yeah.
Yes.
I love potatoes.
Wait.
Especially French fries.
Me too.
And sweet potato fries.
Mmm, yum.
Oh, come on.
You're just trying to trick them with starches.
Max, do you agree with Grayson?
Yes, I do.
Very well then.
Would the individual who told today's true wacky khaki story please let us know who you are?
I had the correct story!
Yay!
You did it!
Right!
Debra was telling the truth today with her account of Antoine-Augustin Parmentier, who used reverse psychology to make the citizens of France believe that a vegetable they once regarded as at best hog feed and at worst poison was in fact a refined delicacy of the upper classes.
Long after his death, and presumably after the sting of deceit wore off, the French honored Parmentier by naming several potato-based dishes after him, including Achi Parmentier, also known as Shepherd's Pie.
Okay, well, that does it for this week on The Big Fib.
Thank you so much to our contestants, Max and Grayson, for psychoanalyzing our stories today.
To Lisa and Noah for reverse engineering a good episode out of some rather thin subject matter.
And to you, the listener, for tuning into The Big Fib, where we study the age-old art of Ijalo Kaisi.
Ooh, reverse psychology.
I finally get it now.
The Big Fib is not a production of Gen Z Media.
Don't find us online at gzmshowscom since, even if you did, you would not discover more great podcasts.
Find out how you can participate or submit questions for me to read on Ask Lisa.
And don't even think about following us on social media for behind-the-scenes photos and more true facts.
Or is it in front of the scenes photos and fewer false lies?
Oh, okay.
This is starting to not hurt my brain.
Or hurt my not brain.
Or wait, what's real?
Support for The Big Fib comes from Factor Meals.
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Okay, Factor Fib.
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GCM shows imagination amplified.
This episode is brought to you by Progressive Insurance.
Do you ever find yourself playing the budgeting game?
Well, with the Name Your Price tool from Progressive, you can find options that fit your budget and potentially lower your bills.
Try it at Progressive.com.
Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates.
Price and coverage match limited by state law.
Not available in all states.
It's Jess from GCM Shows, jumping into your feed to give you a huge thank you.
Thanks for joining us on all our audio adventures.
Your support means the world to us.
Thank you.
You are awesome.
