At 18:00, I think the "as sure as Jonah swallowed the whale" line is just an ironic joke. It's common around me at least, whenever someone goes "Was that clear?" for you to go "Clear as mud!" It's an affirmation, but subverting the expected response.
In Germany it's "Klar wie Kloßbrühe!" ("as clear as dumpling soup", which isn't clear at all) and it's used in exactly the same ironic way that you describe.
I agree. Their meaning is "The Whale swallowed Jonah" but saying "Jonah swallowed the whale" is just a little more fun, especially in a context where those you're speaking with get your meaning either way.
But no one says “clear as mud” to something that is understandable though. It’s still a joke, but one that’s revealing what the person really thinks. If you read the examples he gave- they mean it as a real certainty. So I think his theory of it evolving from it being used to describe someone’s faith holds a lot of merit. As sure as Jonah swallowed the whale meaning having absolute belief in what you’re saying, which in the examples he gave, fits perfectly.
It's not its just edgy lol like EAP, people with emotional problems have taken over literature and transformed it from art to whiney complaing from over-privileged and under-informed babies.
“Jonah swallowed the whale” is just a great poetic turn of phrase, I have to imagine that that played a part in its popularity among both religious people and ‘infidels.’
Cemetery Scout is such a good series. Most people barely glance at cemeteries as they go by at 50+ mph, but there’s history in them there hills…and people who lived it.
My fiance and myself often go to cemeteries to explore and read the epitaphs and just sit. A cemetery is basically a park in the country with history. There have been a few times when I have told people this and they look at us as weird. As a person who realizes that I will eventually be in a grave brings much contemplation. God bless.
I worked at a historic cemetery in Baltimore. It is amazing how many "Burial Grounds" were eliminated for the world we know today. There are great stories hidden under the streets of many towns.
My ancestry goes back to 1809 here in Ohio. If I wanted to I could go back to New Jersey and find my furthest ancestor buried in a very very old cemetery. He died in the 1600’s. There is plenty of history in there. Not just mine.
I would bet old Jonathan would be laughing his buns off at our scratching our heads over this inscription and then you following it up until you got it figured out for us. That is both instructional and hilarious, thanks!
it only makes history that much more fascinating in my opinion. seeing how people lived their ordinary lives while the bigger historical events were happening
Thanks for your persistent research on this! Amazing connection to literal remains of souls under the stones. Unfamiliar with expression, my guess was, Jonah represented an individual & whale, the Church. As a believer these days, it makes perfect sense that many so-called churches today are feeding us a Whopper.
This helps me untangle a personal mystery I've wondered about for years. Violent Femmes is a folk-punk band from Milwaukee most well-known for their 1983 smash single "Blister In The Sun" (I am confident everyone will recognize it if they hear the opening bassline). Gordon Gano, the lead singer/guitarist/songwriter for the band, is himself a devout Baptist, and frequently showed the influence of gospel music both on his writing style and his lyrics. One of my favorite songs of theirs (off of their 4th studio album cleverly titled "3") is "Dating Days". The song features a handful of biblical allusions, including the until-now inscrutable "Jonah swore he swallowed the whale". Closure! Thanks, Dime Store Adventures. Keep up the great work.
That "Jonah swallowed the whale" thing sounds like something Mark Twain would have said - and we know how crusty he was about religion and society. So now I have a picture of what ol' man Richardson must have been like. Good catch and good work! Thanks!
It’s funny that Mark Twain was a remarkably gullible man when it came to get-rich-quick schemes. Makes him more human, his blowing his hard-earned money on nonsense.
As I was growing up, my grandfather and great grandfather both used the phrase "Jonah swallowed the whale" and "He swallowed the whale." What they were referring to was a person that was duped or conned. Someone that was so easily duped or conned into believing something most people would find rediclous. They would say things like, "He's so dumb he's believe that Jonah swallowed the whale" or "I think you just swallowed the whale" meaning you got fooled. I don't ever remember them using it in a religous sense. Anyway, make what you will of that explanation. For context, my grandfather was born in 1898 and my great grandfather was born in 1860.
So the headstone would mean "He always held to reason over superstition and was never conned", and possibly with the"Jonah swallowed the whale" reference to conning, further meant "was never conned by religion".
One of my first jobs was as a draughtsman for a gravestone company, and, yeah, a mistake is unlikely to get through. In my day, the paperwork requesting the inscription would be checked quadruple and quintuple times before even coming to my drafting table (back in the 1980's, when we used light-boards and T-squares and "kerning racks" for the letters and a set of specialized curves to create the varieties of curved gravestone tops... but I digress). So, yeah, a phrase like "Jonah swallowed the whale" would have gotten caught and questioned and confirmed and re-confirmed even before the sandblast hit the stone. Proofreading becomes really, really careful when something is going to be literally carved in stone. Customers ordering their own stones is also par for the course. Great research. If you ever get up to Vermont, check out the gravestone companies of Barre.
We had a tombstone made for my Grandfather who died in 1938, When it arrived at the cemetery we noticed it was dated 1930, they retrieved the stone and somewhat corrected the error. We see the error but a casual observer, not so much.
@@RailyardProductions oh, yes, errors do happen, they're just rare. I'm so sorry that happened to you and your family. Were you able to get a partial refund? (the company I was with would have given you a full refund; they were VERY serious about customer satisfaction!) Sometimes, what will happen in that case is that they'll re-sandblast the whole area of the stone and turn it into a 'recessed panel' and then re-do the text in the rectangle that is now slightly (like a quarter to half inch) deeper than the rest of the stone - this is also what happens when gravestones are repossessed for non-payment (yes, that happens more often then you think).
It would be a great injustice if some raconteur isn't telling stories about you in front of your tombstone centuries from now. Keep it up man, I cannot get enough of this stuff.
This is something I love about history: You may start with one thing you want to examine, but you end up finding something at least as interesting from something you thought was not that important or interesting.
This guy is out there doing original research on stuff from forever ago and I'd sooner believe that Jonah swallowed the whale than this channel isn't more popular than it is. Proud to be a patron because these stories are always incredible.
I just want to say you are far and away one of the most underrated creators on the site. Please keep doing what you're doing. These videos are so unique and fascinating.
I've spent the past three days trying to find a reason to get out of bed. Today, I rolled over and saw this video in my feed. This was the funniest, most delightful little piece of history I could have asked for. I'm going to get up and go take a shower now.😅Thank you. Liked, subbed and all the rest.
Very interesting! I’d also like to add my thanks to whoever did that wonderful repair job on the headstone. Forming that ( maybe 1/2” by 3”?) steel strap around the stone and into a concrete base was no mean feat - well done!
That explanation sounds right to me. It's a good metaphor for believing something inherently absurd or ridiculous, and you can see how it might appeal to someone wanting to deride religion. Even today a lot of discussions about religion and atheism involve jokes and memes. Edgy Reddit atheists love to mock Christians' belief in a 'sky fairy' and there's a satirical 'Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster'. Whatever else you think about him, Jonathan Richardson must have been pretty brave to be such an out-and-proud atheist in such a religious era. It's hard enough for people in many communities today. It's fascinating to get a glimpse into the atheist movement of the past, as it doesn't often get talked about and its easy to get the impression that everybody was a believer.
After almost 40 years I have realized all religious debates essentially boil down to: Redditors: "If skydaddy, then why bad thing happen? Checkmate bible thumpers!" Christian: "oh yea, well this thing is complex, I also think that complex thing is beautiful, therefore intelligent design. Checkmate mall ninja!" And I'm all: "Cool cool, But in the end I think we can all agree that Epstein didn't kill himself."
There were probably a lot of people who would have been atheist back then if society had been as permissive of it as society is today. They basically had to attend church because they were expected to, and it took a rare type of individual to buck that trend, like Jonathan Richardson.
@@MarsJenkar There's always been an undercurrent of people who refused to go with the flow and made their excuses on Sunday. The trouble is, they couldn't usually openly talk about their motivations. Where they do turn up, it's usually in the Church courts or the records of the Inquisition. Even then, they usually agree to pay a fine or do a penance rather than risk a harsher penalty!
@@chrisball3778 The point being that back then, if you _did_ buck the trend, you had to expect some form of punishment, which could take the form of direct punishments levied by the church, or societal punishments that could range from the informal (such as the community refusing to invite such a person to social functions) to more formal measures like shunning, ostracism, or even exile. It's still possible for some of the societal measures to happen nowadays, but depending on where one lives, those measures are often less complete than they used to be. (There are communities, however, where these societal measures still have considerable force. And yes, I'm talking about in the US.)
Most atheists back then called themselves "deists", which was almost an acceptable position on the matter. Many of the founding fathers were deists, but through their letters, other writings, and things like the Jefferson bible, we can pretty much assume they were atheists. Atheism wasnt really a term in use back then, as you can witness with Jonathan's "infidel" tag.
@@garryferrington811 and the term doesn't seem to fit either. A trouper is defined as an actor or other entertainer, typically one with long experience; a reliable and uncomplaining person. But as the video clearly illustrates, the deceased was so bothered by the Christian message that he immortalized his complaint in stone. What a sad story.
I’ve never understood how people think “blind faith” is some sort of a good thing! Such behavior can and does get you killed. Why would you have a brain if you’re not to use it?? It’s illogical and sounds like something a narcissistic psychopath tells you in order to control you. 🤷🏼♀️ Not that I am atheist, I am not, I just don’t think that anything the character in these texts says is true. He is an admitted liar so how can anyone trust in anything he claims???? 🤷🏼♀️
@@1JohnnyD not a sad story. he sounds both proud and confident in his belief. steadfast, even. he knew it would be his final statement, there for the world to see; those who knew him would know he hadn't wavered.
It just occurred to me that someday when I’m visiting my grandparents resting place, there’s a non-zero chance that there’s some guy talking to nobody and gesticulating wildly.
I love these old cemetery stories! Most of my family is in country cemeteries and my parents always took me with them to tidy the graves up every summer and spring. I always loved the peace and beauty of these places and tried to bring that same love and feeling of respect and responsibility to our ancestors to my nieces when I returned to visit. I would always take them with me to the old cemeteries and talk about all the old people that were there and that I had not known but had heard stories about from the old people in the family when I was little. Those people won’t be forgotten as long as their stories are repeated. I try to write down all the things I can remember being told as a child by the “old people” in my family. I was so lucky to be the youngest out of all the children and had a Lot of great Aunts and Uncles who were born before 1900. My Dad was born in 1916 and was 50 when I was born!! I was so blessed to have the sweetest old folks around that I absolutely Loved to spend time with and they would spend countless hours telling me stories of days and people long gone. Thank You for this!♥️
Mr. Richardson had a wry sense of humor, to the point that he had that put on his headstone - he is someone I'd like to know. I'm not an atheist, but this is hilarious. You've done some awesome sleuthing!!!!
You basically discovered a very old meme here. That was actually my first thought, that it had some specific meaning, because if it were a mistake, there would be mentions of it. But I thought that it's probably related to some religious movement active around that time. Great video as always.
This series is really motivating me to go down to my local cemetery and browse the headstones to see what kind of stories I can uncover myself. There's so much history left unappreciated, and likely will never be written about in books; stories of the common folk whose names never left their local communities and, outside of these stone reminders, have mostly been forgotten to time.
It's got me thinking of my own epitaph, but being buried will be done over my dead body. I'm edging (figuratively and literally) towards aquamation (water cremation) so a headstone would be purely decorative. Maybe "Come in, the water's fine" or "No drinking straws allowed" would be appropriate and suitably confusing in years to come.
This video was really interesting. I was expecting “click-bait” but, was surprised to find a lot of really cool stuff that has been lost to the nuisances of history. Thank you 🙏
I believe you are exactly correct. Excellent story and assessment. Thank you for all your stories/videos. Very enlightening and educational. I am originally from western Massachusetts, Pittsfield, and have lived in NC for over 35 years. We get back to the Berkshires yearly and I enjoy these videos and stories. They give me places to see. Thank you.
I just Love this channel. You are one of a kind! Thanks for all the research you have to do. I know it’s a repair but I love the way the headstone is wrapped and protected by the iron band! It sure makes it stand out!
Spectacular! You nailed it to the wall with this one. Interestingly, the Bible doesn't mention a whale, it only says 'big fish.' Whales are not indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean where the story is supposed to take place.
Excellent, a really interesting video. I'm always in awe of how quickly language changes; a phrase that was once so common that a man carved it on his headstone for all time is now incomprehensible to modern speakers of the same language. It's fascinating.
Much less cryptic in nature, but by far my favorite epitaph is in a small cemetery in central Missouri... it simply reads "I *told* you I was sick!" It's chaos and I love it. 😂😂
wanna thank you for answering my emails, thanks to you ive been able to find a shit ton of crazy cool historical things in my area. maybe consider making a guide on how you find stuff like this.
Thank you for all the work on this video. Love hearing the stories behind items with walk by without noticing. In our little town we have tomb that is said to be haunted and as teenagers you were challenged to go there at midnight and runaround the tomb. Just great fun and local brew pub has named a beer "Hopkin's Tomb" in memory of those times. Keep up the great story telling, it is a lost art.
You're actually pretty close. My gramps used that phrase, and he was born in 1901. I asked him about it, when I was a kid, because he used the phrase on my grandma, when she'd watch Billy Graham, preceding an argument for which I was told to leave the room. He told me that those who would believe Jonah swallowed the whale, just because a pastor said so, without bothering to check to see if it was actually written that way in the Bible was being foolish. Basically, it was a criticism of those who had blind faith in a ministry, rather than reasoning for themselves.
By George, I think you've got it. Growing up in a small town and using adages makes people feel united, if nothing else by their quips. You did a very good job on this puzzle.
This is just wonderful. It is a phrase that has died out. But it's a fantastic phrase and I think it is time that we put our little heads together and revived it. So, I, for one, and going to start inserting it into any and all comments I leave on RUclips. And as sure as Jonah managed to swallow that whale, I will receive the usual avalanche of abuse, invective, and death threats. But I'll treasure them, as it means the phrase will getting out there, taking up room in people's brains....or perhaps just skulls in some cases. ---------- This is such a great channel. The videos are idiosyncratic, interesting, informative, witty, and generally very beautiful to look at. Look what he did with the Jersey Devil. There's a subject that one could think had been done to death, but his video was fascinating, funny, and unique.
I discovered your channel very recently and quickly binged through every full length vid and short on your channel. This is the first NEW new content I’m seeing and couldn’t be more hyped.
At 18:00, it seems pretty clear that when people swore on things "as sure as Jonah swallowed the whale," they were expressing certainty of a fact in a mocking and light-hearted manner that showed their belief in the outcome was just as strong as those Christians who had such an unshakeable faith in the Bible that they would even believe that Jonah swallowed the whale if it told them so. In other words, only a truly devout believer would believe that Jonah swallowed the whale. Therefore, when people swore that they were as certain of something as they were in the fact that Jonah swallowed the whale, they were expressing certainty of a particularly strong and excessive kind. 😊
I've always loved old cemeteries like this. There's a small cemetery by my parent's house, and I plan to check it out when it's warmer out and check out all the old headstones there. Maybe I can find a good one and research it. Great video and thanks for the awesome story!!
I love your research on this, I think your conclusion is logical and sound and that's the one I'm gonna think is the most probable, too - so glad I found your channel through a recommendation from youtube (algorithms know what I like!)
I have always loved to walk around in really old cemeteries because so often there is information about the deceased or something of interest to tell me a little bit about him or her. Thank you so much for this!!
You and your channel have really inspired me to go out and go on little adventures of my own. Today I decided to go down stream of my local nature trail and i found an old, seemingly abandoned cabin with 50s style Christmas lights. Thank you for your channel and wish you the best!
I just discovered your channel a couple weeks ago and have been binging ever since. No doubt my fav YT content. I really appreciate your sincerity and dedication to digging up and keeping alive life stories of the past. Thank you so much!
I really appreciate that you make your videos in a 4:3 aspect ratio, as someone who both uses a CRT as a daily driver, and artistically prefers the aspect ratio, hell yeah.
I love your content. I would have never learned about ol Johnathan and his headstone. I will def be waiting for the moment where I can say Johna swallowed the whale. Keep up the hard work, your videos really are treasures that tell the tale of folks that would have otherwise been forgotten to time.
I've never encountered the expression before this video, but my first impression was actually that "swallow" was used in the sense of "accept (belief, opinion, statement) without question, take into the mind readily and credulously". (That connotation existed way back in the 1590s, by the way, so linguistically it would check out.) So I interpreted it as a rejection of the premise of Jonah and the whale as a metaphor.
Keep making videos man, your passion is evident. I've been a subscriber since you had less than 5k subs, so it's awesome to see your channel grow so much. You're about to really blow up, I feel.
I just found this channel today. Deeply fascinating deep dive of someone's personal history and the development of language. It makes me want to go out in my area and find similar examples :)
I just love the stories and research you give to these grave markers. I would like to see someone go to New Kent Virginia and do some around the surrounding churches. Yet the they need the same dedication and respect you have.
It could have been such a common idiom that, to use your example, when someone said "we're going to win this card game as sure as Jonah swallowed the whale," the intent was understood without having to think about it. An example today would be when people say "I could care less" when they actually mean they couldn't care less.
What an amazing presentation of an obscure tombstone to the world!! I love the passion, and well researched story of this whole situation! This young man got me interested, and educated in a subject, that 1 minute beforehand, I had zero interest in. Well done!
I found your channel a few weeks ago and love your content, especially as a Putnam resident that lives behind Saint Mary's cemetery, I really dig the local vibe
My theory is simple. The phrase "whale of a lie" survives to this day and adds some comedy to the line, as does "swallow" as being gullible to a lie. Therefore "swallowed the whale" means "believed the unbelievable".
That epitaph reads to me as "Your religion is full of it, I'll never swallow so much bull." To put it in nicer words. Though I suspect the intent is to be read much harsher than it is written.
My Dad said my Grandfather never missed a traveling revival. He would sit in the back row, laughing and drinking whiskey while heckling the speaker, and was known to throw the empty bottles at the preacher.
I never would have thought-- and knowing my Baptist family members, this makes perfect sense. Next time I call my mom, I'm gonna ask her this just for fun.
At 18:00, I think the "as sure as Jonah swallowed the whale" line is just an ironic joke. It's common around me at least, whenever someone goes "Was that clear?" for you to go "Clear as mud!" It's an affirmation, but subverting the expected response.
My favorite subverted response is "Does the pope shit in the woods?"
In Germany it's "Klar wie Kloßbrühe!" ("as clear as dumpling soup", which isn't clear at all) and it's used in exactly the same ironic way that you describe.
I agree. Their meaning is "The Whale swallowed Jonah" but saying "Jonah swallowed the whale" is just a little more fun, especially in a context where those you're speaking with get your meaning either way.
But no one says “clear as mud” to something that is understandable though. It’s still a joke, but one that’s revealing what the person really thinks.
If you read the examples he gave- they mean it as a real certainty. So I think his theory of it evolving from it being used to describe someone’s faith holds a lot of merit. As sure as Jonah swallowed the whale meaning having absolute belief in what you’re saying, which in the examples he gave, fits perfectly.
@@nhaaaPl does a bear wear a beanie? :)
honestly that epitaph is just straight up poetry, it's super compelling. No wonder you fell into a another rabbit hole, thanks for taking us with you!
It's not its just edgy lol like EAP, people with emotional problems have taken over literature and transformed it from art to whiney complaing from over-privileged and under-informed babies.
“Jonah swallowed the whale” is just a great poetic turn of phrase, I have to imagine that that played a part in its popularity among both religious people and ‘infidels.’
Amen❤
Cemetery Scout is such a good series.
Most people barely glance at cemeteries as they go by at 50+ mph, but there’s history in them there hills…and people who lived it.
My fiance and myself often go to cemeteries to explore and read the epitaphs and just sit. A cemetery is basically a park in the country with history. There have been a few times when I have told people this and they look at us as weird. As a person who realizes that I will eventually be in a grave brings much contemplation. God bless.
I find them so interesting. If you have never been to New Mexico, you need to visit the cemeteries here.
That'd be really weird to stop and look. Also a big ass waste of useable land.
I worked at a historic cemetery in Baltimore. It is amazing how many "Burial Grounds" were eliminated for the world we know today. There are great stories hidden under the streets of many towns.
My ancestry goes back to 1809 here in Ohio. If I wanted to I could go back to New Jersey and find my furthest ancestor buried in a very very old cemetery. He died in the 1600’s. There is plenty of history in there. Not just mine.
I would bet old Jonathan would be laughing his buns off at our scratching our heads over this inscription and then you following it up until you got it figured out for us. That is both instructional and hilarious, thanks!
I completely agree with that statement! 😁
i love the less grand scale history that focuses on little stories of just ordinary people that you do, its really good an interesting.
💯
it only makes history that much more fascinating in my opinion. seeing how people lived their ordinary lives while the bigger historical events were happening
I lived with my grandpa growing up. This struck me as his kind of humor. So, I immediately thought it was meant to be a joke.
Definitely reminiscent of a grandpa joke
Thanks for your persistent research on this! Amazing connection to literal remains of souls under the stones. Unfamiliar with expression, my guess was, Jonah represented an individual & whale, the Church. As a believer these days, it makes perfect sense that many so-called churches today are feeding us a Whopper.
You could say you've been confused for a whale now.
Was that on porpoise? It's kraken me up.
@@avaggdu1Ouch!
😂😂😂😂
I got kick out that!
@@avaggdu1
😂😂😂😂😂
STOP IT 🤚
Between the original commenter and your response I am laughing so hard that I have stitches in my side 🤪
@@kristimcgowandarkoscellard3126 Thanks for your seal of approval. Eel squid it before I make a turtle fool of myself.
These are the stories that make people from the past more real and relatable. It brings the color to the black and white past, so to say.
You revived a 19th century meme!
This helps me untangle a personal mystery I've wondered about for years. Violent Femmes is a folk-punk band from Milwaukee most well-known for their 1983 smash single "Blister In The Sun" (I am confident everyone will recognize it if they hear the opening bassline). Gordon Gano, the lead singer/guitarist/songwriter for the band, is himself a devout Baptist, and frequently showed the influence of gospel music both on his writing style and his lyrics. One of my favorite songs of theirs (off of their 4th studio album cleverly titled "3") is "Dating Days". The song features a handful of biblical allusions, including the until-now inscrutable "Jonah swore he swallowed the whale". Closure! Thanks, Dime Store Adventures. Keep up the great work.
That "Jonah swallowed the whale" thing sounds like something Mark Twain would have said - and we know how crusty he was about religion and society. So now I have a picture of what ol' man Richardson must have been like. Good catch and good work! Thanks!
It’s funny that Mark Twain was a remarkably gullible man when it came to get-rich-quick schemes. Makes him more human, his blowing his hard-earned money on nonsense.
As I was growing up, my grandfather and great grandfather both used the phrase "Jonah swallowed the whale" and "He swallowed the whale." What they were referring to was a person that was duped or conned. Someone that was so easily duped or conned into believing something most people would find rediclous. They would say things like, "He's so dumb he's believe that Jonah swallowed the whale" or "I think you just swallowed the whale" meaning you got fooled. I don't ever remember them using it in a religous sense. Anyway, make what you will of that explanation. For context, my grandfather was born in 1898 and my great grandfather was born in 1860.
So the headstone would mean "He always held to reason over superstition and was never conned", and possibly with the"Jonah swallowed the whale" reference to conning, further meant "was never conned by religion".
I think you solved it. He calling religious people fools 😂
I love old stories about ordinary people. It makes the past not feel so far away.
One of my first jobs was as a draughtsman for a gravestone company, and, yeah, a mistake is unlikely to get through. In my day, the paperwork requesting the inscription would be checked quadruple and quintuple times before even coming to my drafting table (back in the 1980's, when we used light-boards and T-squares and "kerning racks" for the letters and a set of specialized curves to create the varieties of curved gravestone tops... but I digress). So, yeah, a phrase like "Jonah swallowed the whale" would have gotten caught and questioned and confirmed and re-confirmed even before the sandblast hit the stone. Proofreading becomes really, really careful when something is going to be literally carved in stone. Customers ordering their own stones is also par for the course.
Great research. If you ever get up to Vermont, check out the gravestone companies of Barre.
We had a tombstone made for my Grandfather who died in 1938, When it arrived at the cemetery we noticed it was dated 1930, they retrieved the stone and somewhat corrected the error. We see the error but a casual observer, not so much.
@@RailyardProductions oh, yes, errors do happen, they're just rare. I'm so sorry that happened to you and your family. Were you able to get a partial refund? (the company I was with would have given you a full refund; they were VERY serious about customer satisfaction!)
Sometimes, what will happen in that case is that they'll re-sandblast the whole area of the stone and turn it into a 'recessed panel' and then re-do the text in the rectangle that is now slightly (like a quarter to half inch) deeper than the rest of the stone - this is also what happens when gravestones are repossessed for non-payment (yes, that happens more often then you think).
No, They just cut a little circle above the 0, We didn't get any refund but we were satisfied with the way it came out. @@spikeoramathon
It would be a great injustice if some raconteur isn't telling stories about you in front of your tombstone centuries from now. Keep it up man, I cannot get enough of this stuff.
This is something I love about history: You may start with one thing you want to examine, but you end up finding something at least as interesting from something you thought was not that important or interesting.
I'm with the rest of these comments. THIS is the creator I've been waiting for 🎉
Hi Bob!
This guy is out there doing original research on stuff from forever ago and I'd sooner believe that Jonah swallowed the whale than this channel isn't more popular than it is. Proud to be a patron because these stories are always incredible.
I just want to say you are far and away one of the most underrated creators on the site. Please keep doing what you're doing. These videos are so unique and fascinating.
The old boy had a sense of humor and was thumbing his nose from the grave at the True Believers.
exactly this
Just sitting in now. Guessing he didn't swallow a whale of a story.
I think you nailed it 🎉
Yes. Didn't take the story for fact. Didn't take it hook, line, and sinker.
The punchline at 12:12 is the embodiment of the phrase, "over-explanation is the soul of wit".
I've spent the past three days trying to find a reason to get out of bed. Today, I rolled over and saw this video in my feed. This was the funniest, most delightful little piece of history I could have asked for. I'm going to get up and go take a shower now.😅Thank you. Liked, subbed and all the rest.
Very interesting!
I’d also like to add my thanks to whoever did that wonderful repair job on the headstone. Forming that ( maybe 1/2” by 3”?) steel strap around the stone and into a concrete base was no mean feat - well done!
cannot overstate how exciting it is to get the upload notification
That explanation sounds right to me. It's a good metaphor for believing something inherently absurd or ridiculous, and you can see how it might appeal to someone wanting to deride religion. Even today a lot of discussions about religion and atheism involve jokes and memes. Edgy Reddit atheists love to mock Christians' belief in a 'sky fairy' and there's a satirical 'Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster'. Whatever else you think about him, Jonathan Richardson must have been pretty brave to be such an out-and-proud atheist in such a religious era. It's hard enough for people in many communities today. It's fascinating to get a glimpse into the atheist movement of the past, as it doesn't often get talked about and its easy to get the impression that everybody was a believer.
After almost 40 years I have realized all religious debates essentially boil down to:
Redditors: "If skydaddy, then why bad thing happen? Checkmate bible thumpers!"
Christian: "oh yea, well this thing is complex, I also think that complex thing is beautiful, therefore intelligent design. Checkmate mall ninja!"
And I'm all: "Cool cool, But in the end I think we can all agree that Epstein didn't kill himself."
Ramen.
There were probably a lot of people who would have been atheist back then if society had been as permissive of it as society is today. They basically had to attend church because they were expected to, and it took a rare type of individual to buck that trend, like Jonathan Richardson.
@@MarsJenkar There's always been an undercurrent of people who refused to go with the flow and made their excuses on Sunday. The trouble is, they couldn't usually openly talk about their motivations. Where they do turn up, it's usually in the Church courts or the records of the Inquisition. Even then, they usually agree to pay a fine or do a penance rather than risk a harsher penalty!
@@chrisball3778 The point being that back then, if you _did_ buck the trend, you had to expect some form of punishment, which could take the form of direct punishments levied by the church, or societal punishments that could range from the informal (such as the community refusing to invite such a person to social functions) to more formal measures like shunning, ostracism, or even exile.
It's still possible for some of the societal measures to happen nowadays, but depending on where one lives, those measures are often less complete than they used to be. (There are communities, however, where these societal measures still have considerable force. And yes, I'm talking about in the US.)
Johnathan was surrounded by it at a time where the alternative wasn't easy, and said no. What a trooper.
Most atheists back then called themselves "deists", which was almost an acceptable position on the matter. Many of the founding fathers were deists, but through their letters, other writings, and things like the Jefferson bible, we can pretty much assume they were atheists. Atheism wasnt really a term in use back then, as you can witness with Jonathan's "infidel" tag.
"What a trooper" is a great eggcorn, as the phrase is actually "what a trouper." 😆
@@garryferrington811 and the term doesn't seem to fit either. A trouper is defined as an actor or other entertainer, typically one with long experience; a reliable and uncomplaining person. But as the video clearly illustrates, the deceased was so bothered by the Christian message that he immortalized his complaint in stone. What a sad story.
I’ve never understood how people think “blind faith” is some sort of a good thing! Such behavior can and does get you killed. Why would you have a brain if you’re not to use it?? It’s illogical and sounds like something a narcissistic psychopath tells you in order to control you. 🤷🏼♀️ Not that I am atheist, I am not, I just don’t think that anything the character in these texts says is true. He is an admitted liar so how can anyone trust in anything he claims???? 🤷🏼♀️
@@1JohnnyD not a sad story.
he sounds both proud and confident in his belief. steadfast, even.
he knew it would be his final statement, there for the world to see; those who knew him would know he hadn't wavered.
It just occurred to me that someday when I’m visiting my grandparents resting place, there’s a non-zero chance that there’s some guy talking to nobody and gesticulating wildly.
Necromancy is a dying art.
I love these old cemetery stories! Most of my family is in country cemeteries and my parents always took me with them to tidy the graves up every summer and spring. I always loved the peace and beauty of these places and tried to bring that same love and feeling of respect and responsibility to our ancestors to my nieces when I returned to visit. I would always take them with me to the old cemeteries and talk about all the old people that were there and that I had not known but had heard stories about from the old people in the family when I was little. Those people won’t be forgotten as long as their stories are repeated. I try to write down all the things I can remember being told as a child by the “old people” in my family. I was so lucky to be the youngest out of all the children and had a Lot of great Aunts and Uncles who were born before 1900. My Dad was born in 1916 and was 50 when I was born!! I was so blessed to have the sweetest old folks around that I absolutely Loved to spend time with and they would spend countless hours telling me stories of days and people long gone. Thank You for this!♥️
Yes, he is stating that he DOESN'T believe any of it. What a great find!!!
Awesome story especially as a linguist, thanks for researching this!
Mr. Richardson had a wry sense of humor, to the point that he had that put on his headstone - he is someone I'd like to know. I'm not an atheist, but this is hilarious. You've done some awesome sleuthing!!!!
I think your take is absolutely correct.
You basically discovered a very old meme here. That was actually my first thought, that it had some specific meaning, because if it were a mistake, there would be mentions of it. But I thought that it's probably related to some religious movement active around that time. Great video as always.
Found you thru JacksFilms, but stayed for the near-perfect New England oddities and history
What episode
This series is really motivating me to go down to my local cemetery and browse the headstones to see what kind of stories I can uncover myself. There's so much history left unappreciated, and likely will never be written about in books; stories of the common folk whose names never left their local communities and, outside of these stone reminders, have mostly been forgotten to time.
It's got me thinking of my own epitaph, but being buried will be done over my dead body. I'm edging (figuratively and literally) towards aquamation (water cremation) so a headstone would be purely decorative. Maybe "Come in, the water's fine" or "No drinking straws allowed" would be appropriate and suitably confusing in years to come.
This video was really interesting. I was expecting “click-bait” but, was surprised to find a lot of really cool stuff that has been lost to the nuisances of history. Thank you 🙏
I believe you are exactly correct. Excellent story and assessment. Thank you for all your stories/videos. Very enlightening and educational. I am originally from western Massachusetts, Pittsfield, and have lived in NC for over 35 years. We get back to the Berkshires yearly and I enjoy these videos and stories. They give me places to see. Thank you.
I’m with you on that. I grew up in Boxborough Ma. and now live in Tennessee. These videos are a reminder of home that I enjoy greatly.
11:50 sounds exactly like something you come up with in the shower when you’re replaying the conversation back in your head
I just Love this channel. You are one of a kind! Thanks for all the research you have to do. I know it’s a repair but I love the way the headstone is wrapped and protected by the iron band! It sure makes it stand out!
I'm glad the algorithm picked your channel up
ME 2!!!!
Spectacular! You nailed it to the wall with this one.
Interestingly, the Bible doesn't mention a whale, it only says 'big fish.' Whales are not indigenous to the Eastern Mediterranean where the story is supposed to take place.
was it a giant sunfish?
Taxonomy isn't exactly the bronze age book's strong suit.
I read some Ernst Mayr@@BrandanLee
The identity of the marine animal was likely changed in the Middle Ages to a more familiar creature.
Especially, on land.
Always an interesting story behind the headstones you cover, great video!
I appreciate the fact that you thought to research the phrase.
Excellent, a really interesting video. I'm always in awe of how quickly language changes; a phrase that was once so common that a man carved it on his headstone for all time is now incomprehensible to modern speakers of the same language. It's fascinating.
This whole video was a nice story from start to finish, and I also appreciate how you were resepectful to both Athiests and Religous folk.
Much less cryptic in nature, but by far my favorite epitaph is in a small cemetery in central Missouri... it simply reads "I *told* you I was sick!" It's chaos and I love it. 😂😂
My friends would sometimes transpose "hey you're a smart feller" to "hey your a fart smeller" just to catch them saying, thanks!
wanna thank you for answering my emails, thanks to you ive been able to find a shit ton of crazy cool historical things in my area. maybe consider making a guide on how you find stuff like this.
I believe he already did
Thank you for all the work on this video. Love hearing the stories behind items with walk by without noticing. In our little town we have tomb that is said to be haunted and as teenagers you were challenged to go there at midnight and runaround the tomb. Just great fun and local brew pub has named a beer "Hopkin's Tomb" in memory of those times. Keep up the great story telling, it is a lost art.
"Here lies an ATHEIST--All dressed up with NOWHERE to go..."
I want that on my grave stone. Thanks for the idea.
Theists are also dressed up with nowhere to go, they just don't realise it.
Even Nowhere is somewhere😊
@@stephenleader-s9x
Me too!
@@yvonneburns2786
Ah yes, just as there is no such thing as “nothing” because even “nothing” is a something 🤷🏼♀️
Gotta love those old 19th century memes. They had some bangers.
You're actually pretty close. My gramps used that phrase, and he was born in 1901. I asked him about it, when I was a kid, because he used the phrase on my grandma, when she'd watch Billy Graham, preceding an argument for which I was told to leave the room. He told me that those who would believe Jonah swallowed the whale, just because a pastor said so, without bothering to check to see if it was actually written that way in the Bible was being foolish. Basically, it was a criticism of those who had blind faith in a ministry, rather than reasoning for themselves.
Another theory? Nope. You nailed it. Nice work.
By George, I think you've got it. Growing up in a small town and using adages makes people feel united, if nothing else by their quips. You did a very good job on this puzzle.
This is just wonderful.
It is a phrase that has died out.
But it's a fantastic phrase and I think it is time that we put our little heads together and revived it.
So, I, for one, and going to start inserting it into any and all comments I leave on RUclips.
And as sure as Jonah managed to swallow that whale, I will receive the usual avalanche of abuse, invective, and death threats. But I'll treasure them, as it means the phrase will getting out there, taking up room in people's brains....or perhaps just skulls in some cases.
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This is such a great channel. The videos are idiosyncratic, interesting, informative, witty, and generally very beautiful to look at. Look what he did with the Jersey Devil. There's a subject that one could think had been done to death, but his video was fascinating, funny, and unique.
Great storytelling as always! Also, I just wanna say I really like the image quality and overall composition in this video
Awesome research flex looking up the quote after looking up the man didn’t work out. You killed it (in the best way). Thanks.
I'm glad you were able to come at the problem from a different angle and again provide us with the highlights of a copious amount of research.
I discovered your channel very recently and quickly binged through every full length vid and short on your channel. This is the first NEW new content I’m seeing and couldn’t be more hyped.
At 18:00, it seems pretty clear that when people swore on things "as sure as Jonah swallowed the whale," they were expressing certainty of a fact in a mocking and light-hearted manner that showed their belief in the outcome was just as strong as those Christians who had such an unshakeable faith in the Bible that they would even believe that Jonah swallowed the whale if it told them so. In other words, only a truly devout believer would believe that Jonah swallowed the whale. Therefore, when people swore that they were as certain of something as they were in the fact that Jonah swallowed the whale, they were expressing certainty of a particularly strong and excessive kind. 😊
I enjoyed this so much and was hanging on every word. What a rollercoaster! Your research is incredibly efficient. Please never stop making videos.
The modern equivalent would he "Does the Pope shit in the woods?"
With us it's " is the Pope a Catholic" joke being he may be a Jesuit😉
@@yvonneburns2786 same. We say does a bear shit in the woods
is the bear Catholic?
how is this modern? :D
This is so cool and fascinating! I love hearing about the little oddities of the past from you, as always!
I've always loved old cemeteries like this. There's a small cemetery by my parent's house, and I plan to check it out when it's warmer out and check out all the old headstones there. Maybe I can find a good one and research it. Great video and thanks for the awesome story!!
I love your research on this, I think your conclusion is logical and sound and that's the one I'm gonna think is the most probable, too - so glad I found your channel through a recommendation from youtube (algorithms know what I like!)
I have always loved to walk around in really old cemeteries because so often there is information about the deceased or something of interest to tell me a little bit about him or her. Thank you so much for this!!
You and your channel have really inspired me to go out and go on little adventures of my own. Today I decided to go down stream of my local nature trail and i found an old, seemingly abandoned cabin with 50s style Christmas lights. Thank you for your channel and wish you the best!
I just discovered your channel a couple weeks ago and have been binging ever since. No doubt my fav YT content. I really appreciate your sincerity and dedication to digging up and keeping alive life stories of the past. Thank you so much!
Thank you for doing these interesting stories, they open a window into how people thought and lived. Well done!
I really appreciate that you make your videos in a 4:3 aspect ratio, as someone who both uses a CRT as a daily driver, and artistically prefers the aspect ratio, hell yeah.
"Never could learn to drink that blood and call it wine" - Bob Dylan (Tight Connection to my Heart)
I love your content. I would have never learned about ol Johnathan and his headstone. I will def be waiting for the moment where I can say Johna swallowed the whale. Keep up the hard work, your videos really are treasures that tell the tale of folks that would have otherwise been forgotten to time.
I've never encountered the expression before this video, but my first impression was actually that "swallow" was used in the sense of "accept (belief, opinion, statement) without question, take into the mind readily and credulously". (That connotation existed way back in the 1590s, by the way, so linguistically it would check out.) So I interpreted it as a rejection of the premise of Jonah and the whale as a metaphor.
Your story telling is so original and refreshing. We need more people to see this!!
Keep making videos man, your passion is evident. I've been a subscriber since you had less than 5k subs, so it's awesome to see your channel grow so much. You're about to really blow up, I feel.
I just found this channel today. Deeply fascinating deep dive of someone's personal history and the development of language. It makes me want to go out in my area and find similar examples :)
You're a great storyteller!
Love the adventures.
Thanks so much for these videos and stories!
I think you nailed it.
This was so well done! Your reciting it at the end, with the defiant confidence he probably had, was perfect. Subscribed!
You are my new favorite channel!!! I love history and cemeteries!!! I’m transfixed by you!!! ♥️♥️
That's some mighty convincing evidence based reasoned arguments. Old Richardson would be proud.
This is fascinating!! Thank you for sharing
This saying showed up in a few books I read from my mom and dad. It often meant “a blatant lie that everyone should recognize as a lie.”
I just love the stories and research you give to these grave markers. I would like to see someone go to New Kent Virginia and do some around the surrounding churches. Yet the they need the same dedication and respect you have.
I'm sure Jonathan is loving this discourse. I love how you have researched this subject.
man, so nice to see another video from you dude. love your channel so much.
It could have been such a common idiom that, to use your example, when someone said "we're going to win this card game as sure as Jonah swallowed the whale," the intent was understood without having to think about it. An example today would be when people say "I could care less" when they actually mean they couldn't care less.
This has to be one of the greatest youtube channels.
What an amazing presentation of an obscure tombstone to the world!! I love the passion, and well researched story of this whole situation!
This young man got me interested, and educated in a subject, that 1 minute beforehand, I had zero interest in.
Well done!
I'm loving this! Thanks for doing all that research. Fascinating!
I can't help thinking that Jonathan would love to know he had the chance to make his point to the whole world through this video so many years later
Another fascinating video! Your channel is so good.
Cannot wait for another 'numbered grave' video.
Dime Store is about to blow up. I’m calling it
I found your channel a few weeks ago and love your content, especially as a Putnam resident that lives behind Saint Mary's cemetery, I really dig the local vibe
My theory is simple.
The phrase "whale of a lie" survives to this day and adds some comedy to the line, as does "swallow" as being gullible to a lie.
Therefore "swallowed the whale" means "believed the unbelievable".
That epitaph reads to me as "Your religion is full of it, I'll never swallow so much bull." To put it in nicer words. Though I suspect the intent is to be read much harsher than it is written.
My Dad said my Grandfather never missed a traveling revival. He would sit in the back row, laughing and drinking whiskey while heckling the speaker, and was known to throw the empty bottles at the preacher.
Atheists never could get it through their heads that they can be an atheist without bashing religion and being an asshole about it
Your grandfather sounds like he was a lot of fun. 🎉
things people did before television
🤔😁😎
I never would have thought-- and knowing my Baptist family members, this makes perfect sense. Next time I call my mom, I'm gonna ask her this just for fun.
Thanks for another great video! I love these random history deep dives.