For some reason, I really liked that they were well paid. PT Barnum obviously valued his freaks and made sure they were taken care of. That's not in line with the freak show stereotype.
It's probably cause he had a physical disability himself(even in the photos you can tell) and technically created a safe haven in a way. Years from now I am not surprised if current day self advocates start getting put on blast for corruption or collusion cause (no offense to my homies in autistic community) I have started noticing alarming trends involving mostly millenial age women and younger in different disabilities communities turn to pagentry and modeling more than looking into other options due to lack of resources and/or gender bias in different agencies. Older women like Temple Grandin and Susan Boyle seem more clean cut and more inspired than Heather Kuzmich and one other chick who said she felt compeled into this type of work to feel better about herself and gain acceptance.
Exactly! Whenever I hear "Freak show" I think of the cruel exploitation of disabled people (basically like circus animals). I really like that they didn't do the job because they were starving and that they weren't mistreated. He turned them into performers, rather than something he makes money with. Impressive. Cheers!
I remember someone from the freak show saying in an interview that they were grateful to be there because they wouldn't have had any job opportunities otherwise with their physical limitations.
Honin Akecheta Yeah, that's f'ed up, but these people's lives would have been much worse without him. What else could a man with no arms or legs have done in that time?
@Honin Akecheta The cage was part of the act,he wasn't kept there all the time, it was a performance. And it was his "pinhead" situation that brought about the missing link act. You're the one who brought race into it.
It's easy to dislike P. T. Barnum for exploiting both his "exhibits" and his customers, but on the other hand, he paid his employees extremely well under their contracts, much better than he had to, and he let them keep what they earned, no charges for room and board and costumes. Very unusual in that era.
and the myth that he was a conman purposely duping people is exactly that, a myth. His audiences knew there was quite a fair bit of embellishment in his acts and spectacles but they were only there for entertainment so in their eyes it didn't matter that he was stretching the truth. It's the same reason people go to magic shows today even though there have been countless programs debunking the tricks; it's all for the purpose of entertainment.
Well his workers signed contracts on their free will, and most of them worked for him for years, I'm going to assume they liked the money they were making and how they were treated.
Today this sounds so wrong. But Barnum paid these people, and legitimately gave them a chance to make a living when no one would give them that chance.
Yeah, people seem to not get that it was better to be in a “freak” show getting paid than to have your family haul you off and have you locked up in an Insane Asylum. That’s what happened to people with disabilities who weren’t employable; their families saw them as a burden and embarrassment and had them hidden away. The Asylum was hell on earth.
A dam still though, being black on that time period and living to your 80s was a miracle. Living to 80+ in the modern era with medical science what it is, is a miracle. Your lucky to live past 70
A dam The average lifespan back then gives you a really inaccurate view of how long someone was likely to live because a very high child mortality rate skewed that statistic very far towards the low end.
They all married and had kids. And here I am, a normal looking guy in his late twenties trying to teach my cat a backflip. Edit; To answer the question, yes, my cat can do a backflip now. All I needed was a cucumber.
P.T barnum is such an intriguing character. In a time with literally zero social justice he both took advantage of these people and his customers but at the exact same time built these people up to be proud of who they were and wanted to bring joy to everyone
So basically a lot of these people could of been shoved in hospitals and locked away the negative was turned into a positive and they were given decent lives I find that refreshing In a way
Yeah, the reputation of Barnum now is as an exploiter. And there may be some to that, but his circus members were cared for until their old age, got royalties they wouldn't have gotten if they lived a normal existence instead of being celebrities. And were there incidents that he mistreated them or kept them in poor living and working conditions ?
Nor is him shoving metal rods up elephants trunks and whipping them to guide them, right? Along with him stuffing elephants in a ship(including a calf) inwhich they had so little room that they couldn't move, two of which died. You can look at jumbo's(his lead elephant) skull to see how malformed it was because of barnum, he may not have been bad to people but he was definitely bad to other animals. (This is where you say "Oh but they're just animals!")
Fun fact: the article in the newspaper who accused Joice of being an automaton was actually written after Barnum himself used a pseudonym and sent in loads of such accusations in order to drum up more interest in Joice, which had been waning at the time. It worked...when people heard she might actually be some kind of robot they swarmed to come see her, which had the added effect of making almost everyone who had already paid to see her at least once come back for a return visit out of curiosity. Barnum may have been a scumbag but he was an entertainment industry genius.
@@miaouew Being a genius also means thinking logically and not making decisions based on emotions and primal nature, so most of the time genius people, in the eyes of common folk, seem to be scumbags.
Give 1,000 soobs plez . I know that , that's why I have a degree in being that one weirdo at partys that everyone thinks is creepy . *JUST GIVE ME THE JOB*
Exactly! Most of the time people with disabilities were locked up in Insane Asylums that were hell on earth. He saved them from that terrible fate and gave them a life of their own.
P.T . Barnum will always be someone who confounds modern understanding. On the one hand he exploited people who were disabled and put them on display to be laughed or gawked at as if they were less then human, and on the other hand he took people who, in their time, would have probably been societal outcasts and made them apart of a community that would accept them, gave them a purpose, and made them incredibly rich and famous. Was he a villain or a hero? who knows...
Many deformed persons do work, actually. Of course some deformities prevent them from pursuing certain types of careers, a person with dwarfism will probably be unsuitable for a physically demanding career - but that doesn't mean these anomalies are exempt from working.
This is 2 years late but I commend Top Tenz for their respectful behavior. As a disabled person, I was hesitant to click on the video given how people treat my people. It’s even worse when they’re referring to the past. I’m touched by how kind and honorable the script is. I truly am in awe. Thank you.
@@Stevie-steel Maybe ableist is the wrong term, but what I meant was the word disabled shouldn't be seen as a bad thing. When people use words like differently abled etc it's like it's almost infantilising or shaming disability. Like ohh it's okayy you're not disabled, you're differently abled! :D Also I think it can run the risk of completely dismissing/downplaying the ways your particular disability affects your life, and the fact you need support in some ways It kind of sucks how even the word disabled can make people with disabilities recoil and feel lesser than (including myself)
@@Stevie-steel You can identify however you want, but that goes for other people, too. I call myself autistic, not a person with autism. Just like I am also bisexual - not a “person with bisexuality”.
@@Stevie-steel no one called it a medical condition, you’re just treating this like the oppression olympics. Stop trying to prove you’re worse off than everyone else when it literally doesn’t matter.
You know the Freak Show gets a bad rap but there are two things that should be pointed out. First the freaks were paid very well and if not for the show they might not have any work and probably die early in life. Second the Freak Show is still around and we all line up on the couch and watch it all the time; "Little People Big World," "My 600lb Life," "The Little Couple," "Little Women: LA," "Hoarders Buried Alive," "The Kardashians," "Long Island Medium," and all of the real housewives shows. My point is don't judge the past because of your so called moralities when the past is alive and well and you are a participant in it.
At last. A youtuber who just gets right in to the video and doesn't go off subject or try and be zaney and funny. And waits till end to ask for a like and sub. So I did.
People have tried to vilify Barnum for years but he loved each and everyone of his performers in the freak show and made sure no one hurt any of them, they were all well taken care of and all of their health care needs were met. Without PT they didn't stand a chance outside of the show.
I have a LOT more questions about her. I'd LOVE to see an x-ray of her, but I know they probably don't exist. Still, a photo, diagram or pencil sketch would do. I just can't imagine how all the parts come together, ya know? I'm thinking that the twin's lower half must protrude from her lower stomach... maybe? I dunno.
Instead of being dependent upon and possibly feeling like a burden to their families , Mr. Barnum gave them an opportunity to make enough money to financially care for their family. It also gave them a second family of other "freaks" , an opportunity to meet others similar issues as them
That's kind of what I thought. Plus I bet some, like Tom thumb, really enjoyed performing and being famous. So far I haven't heard anything about Barnum mistreating them either. Considering the money they earned it seems fair. Plus if they don't enjoy it they could earn enough pretty quickly to help live a comfortable life. Then just leave. Like the Chinese giant seemed to do.
The way he did it was incredibly disrespectful. He put a black man in a cage, and let people question a woman's gender because of a condition she had. He let people disrespect them. And made them think they were anything less than boring.
@@stuffstuffer643 It's not much different then the entertainment industry today they signed contracts and were paid well to act and be gawked at during showtimes honestly it's was probably a better gig then what celebs deal with today what with the constant harassment and paparazzi.
Stuff Stuffer I think you’re referring to Josephine Waas. Although we don’t know if she/he was really a hermaphrodite or not. She/He was well-paid like the rest of the performers in PT’s circus and She/He was able to married a guy named George Wass and lived a normal life despite being classified as a “freak”. You need to remember at his time people with a mental disorder or disability are deemed as unacceptable in society and they are usually forced to go to asylum where they will be tortured. He actually provided these guys well-paid money and when their contracts ended, most of them either still work with him or settled down like Josephine. So even though it’s bad that he taking advantage of their disabilities, he’s the reasons why they were able to live a normal life.
I actually lived in P.T. Barnam's house he built for his wife and children in Denver Colorado. It is now an AirBNB. It was a beautiful old Victorian style house with 7 bedrooms, 3 living rooms and a very large kitchen and dining room. I love that house and all it's history.
@@BlueblueN wrong, it's corpsegrinder. But on another note, I think it's all the headbanging they do they made their neck so thick. Idk how wide neck got his so thick though. I doubt he likes metal.
The 4 legged girl. How do her periods work? Can each uterus have their own periods at their own time meaning a double period? Could she even have 2 pregnancies at once?
I was born with two uterus's both were fully functional. The periods were horrible. I didn't find out until I had a hysterectomy at age 28. They told me that I could have carried two different babies at the same time with different fathers if a fertilized egg had gone into each uterus. So glad that didn't happen. My husband might have been pissed too...lol.
What would it be like to have sex with her? Two vaginas? How many anuses? Does she ever get confused when she needs to pee? Like sit thinking is gonna come out that one but then it goes down her leg?
Lol the bearded lady one had me cackling. 8:00 It took 3 doctors to go "Hmmmm, yeah I'm pretty sure that's a vagina. You might want a second opinion though"
My jaw dropped several times from how insanely offensive Barnum's backstories were, but I am glad he at least paid them well. They deserved it, but wow. I hope they enjoyed their lives despite being constantly gawked at.
I just watched a two-hour documentary on the history of the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus on Public Television. I was engrossed the entire two-hours (which is unusual for me). It was really excellent.
@@Sir99percent If you Search PBS for American Experience: The Circus, Pt 1. It’s Part One of a Two-Part Documentary that I just watched (which is news to me). I just couldn’t sleep the other night, and thankfully something interesting was on tv. 🤓
On one hand, P.T. Barnum took advantage of other peoples' disabilities and displayed them as freaks, pocketing huge amounts of money in the process, but on the other hand, DAMN if he didn't also pay them all enormous sums of money for their performances, AND in some cases even took care of them after they retired!
I wish we knew how these people felt. Were they thankful for work and were happy to support themselves? I have seen many interviews done in "carnival" towns, they enjoy their town, because no one is different and they don't get bullied. I hope as a people we are a lot more welcoming to different people, but history repeats itself.
Overall the people Barnum displayed were happy and glad that they could earn a living. Many of them had acts not only in the sideshows but appeared in the three ring ballyhoo that closed the circus performance. One such pair were a man who had no legs and a man who had no arms. They rode around the tent on a tandem bicycle making jokes about their condition. It has been suggested that the "Freak Show" led to wider acceptance of disabled people in general and perhaps more important allowed disabled people to see that their problem wasn't as bad as it could have been.
Great video. I always imagined that the Talent of Barnum were not treated well. Maybe had to join as disability back then could be difficult for a family. But the Employees joined willingly, treated very well, and made great money. And were able to marry, have kids, etc. Amazing lives they had.
Susie Lee I think we all have to take in account the time period and morals they had. Slavery was still a thing, selling black people wasn't necessarily uncommon. Although I do say that it's a horrible thing now, back then it was just kinda... Eh.
Susie Lee, yes slavery is bad, and there isn't one argument that can ever justify one person owning another. Yet in the context of the time that this happened it could be said she was treated extremely well. In return for sitting in a chair and telling stories to the audience, she was clothed, fed and her needs met in her old age. Try and imagine what her life could have been like at that age if a more typical slave owner had of bought her...
It’s very easy by today’s standards to see Barnum and the other showmen as the villains. Look at how much money these people earned (more than I do today), and then work out what their lives would have been without the show. They weren’t forced into this. They wanted to do this for a living. Barnum seems to have been a decent kind of chap, in the whole.
@@EVITANDY I understand where you’re coming from, and I do agree to an extent. However, I don’t think we should denounce the possible pain and suffering she went through just because she could’ve had it worse.
@@jessycac6311 I am certainly not doing that. But thanks to Barnum, she was looked after a lot more than most. None of this is ideal, but the reality is that it was happening, and some people were trying to make it better for those who were being exploited.
I have a hard time condemning people for attending "freak" shows to see something out of the ordinary considering how much time I've spent this evening trawling RUclips.
PT Barnum was actually a great man who valued people who were shunned from society. I went to the museum when I was a kid and learned a lot. He played people and tricked them yes but he gave a lot to their imagination so these "freaks" could live a great life.
"There's a sucker born every minute" was a saying in the 19th century about P.T Barnum being able to trick people into believing in nonsensical things like the ‘Fiji mermaid,” “The Cardiff Giant” the “161 year old nursemaid” and many other hoaxes designed to earn an income from. The ability continues into the internet age and the fantastical stories & videos on RUclips about “lost civilizations,” “unexplainable mysteries” and “ancient high technology" put out by profit seeking book authors like Graham Hancock, Brien Foerster, UnchartedX, Erich Von Daniken, Bright Insight, Christopher Dunn, Randall Carlson and others like them are the proof.
Beetle juice from the Howard Stern show also suffers from the same condition as the “pin head”. Crazy to think not much has changed as far as exploitation goes. It’s really a tricky situation in the sense yes they’re wealthy having a life they would of never had without being made a joke of, but morally is this acceptable? Regardless I love Beet.
Me; getting bullied today for my mental illnesses and disability; to the “freaks”: You guys are getting paid? (They were treated so much better than I’d thought they’d been omg)
They were able to make their own money and lives in a time when that wasn't easy for "able bodied" people. We tend to have a very narrow, modern version of these sorts of shows, without understanding what it was like for them. The movie Freaks, actually shows these people as a happy family.
@@sarahhenry5577 I watched that movie and I did enjoy it very much :) I'm just glad everyone was treated with some degree of respect and professionalism
The freakshow was a fantastic thing for these people. Otherwise they would have either been destitute and pennyless, or locked away in a hospital or insane asylum. Most would be unable to get work any other way, and this gave them a better way of life than virtually any one else with their disabilities, even today.
I would imagine that it would be something of a family for them as their actual families probably would’ve shunned them for their oddities especially for people of their time
This man was born without arms and legs yet earned A LOT of money, was popular with the ladies, and fathered 5 kids. Dang, that’s amazing in more ways than one! 👏👏👏 And he can light his own cigarette using only his mouth. 😳
My mother and grandparents actually knew a circus performing pinhead who went by the stage name "Schlitzy the Pinhead." Apparently he was a very nice man, even if he was intellectually challenged. They also knew one of the clowns in the movie "The Greatest Show On Earth." Lefty Frizzel, the man who wrote the song, "Long, Black Veil," was their next-door neighbor for a time. Then I came along, and they never met another famous person, although I did speak to Susan St. James on the phone once when she was arranging the services of my grandparents' business.
Fascinating and very glad to hear how prosperous they were. Though I don’t like putting anyone on display for their differences, this sounds like it was their own choice and empowered them. Great video.
jhuber350 a lot of these people did better than able bodied people at the time they said, so work with what you got I guess, if I had a deformity and lived back then I would've done it
Well I mean we still do things like this look at the guy from hills have eyes he exploits his deformity to gain mad cash it's not humiliating it's brilliant
On the one hand, Barnum did give these folks a living and even fortune that they'd never have gotten otherwise. On the other hand, he was a swindler, and exploited these people to no end.
He didn't exploit them. The definition of exploit is to benefit UNFAIRLY from someone's work, either by overworking or underpaying them, and he did neither. Simply benefiting from something the modern mind finds distasteful is NOT exploitation
I am actually related the Lavinia Warren. My grandmother has two of the original wedding photos from her and Charles Stanton's wedding. It so interesting to still hear about them.
Despite P. T. Barnum's "bad" reputation, he helped a ton of people. Especially people who were "odd", "different", and unique(unusual gifts or skills). They wouldn't have been included in normal society and they would never find a steady job of any type, in any industry. Barnum himself knew what being a poor outcast felt like. These folks often had been born with their "odd issues" and Barnum gave them a job that paid well and many other benefits. It was a very different world back then...and he helped a lot of folks who would have been destitute, beggars, and cast outs and folks destened to the dreaded Olms Houses.( Look it up...it's really awful) I'm NOT saying it was perfect, always fair, and correct. But he gave opportunity to people who had nothing.
it didn't bother me until i learned that the guy with no arms and no legs got married and had 5 kids. now i'm thinking i need to learn to light a cigarette with my lips.
Yes but there is a lot of link up if you wacthed the movie enough the 10 was the woman how have him the apple at the start of movie with the eyes in the head
Ever wonder why you don't see many proportional dwarves like Tom Thumb anymore? It's because unlike various forms of skeletal dysplasias, which result in short-limbed little people, and which has no known treatment, pituitary related dwarfism, now known as growth hormone deficiency, has been treated in childhood with artificial human growth hormone since the mid 1990s resulting in average sized adults. Most remaining proportional dwarves in the industrialized world, like Linda Hunt, are 40+ years of age, but some people even older were treated as early as 1950 with cadaver growth hormone, which was super expensive and might give you a prion disease, and in the 1980s when drug trials were being done on the artificial hormones that would become commonplace.
Mayonnaise Jane that's fascinating! I adore Linda Hunt, she's a great actress. The actress from American horror story that is tiny but proportional is from India, I'm not sure of her story but she is a lovely young lady.
I’m glad that they were all well looked after and well paid and not ripped off and exploited. I love all the Top 10 videos. They’re always really interesting well researched and very informative. Brilliant 😊👍🏻.
assuming all these facts are accurate, Barnum really wasnt as bad of a guy as people make him out to be, at least by 1800s standards. its obviously not right but he did offer them a safe, comfortable life which is more than any of them couldve expected back then
yeah I read about him mistreating animals horribly, which is terrible of course but sadly also something that is a general problem with alot of circus and zoos around the world to this day. Doesnt make it right but puts it in perspective a bit., @miss daae I saw that video too and alot of people speculate about it, but I've never seen any solid facts. The only slave-related proven facts I've found was that he bought the old lady and treated her fairly well -for slavery standards- and that he went into politics where he intended to outlaw slavery altogether. (whether that was out of kindness or just for publicity remains open for discussion) He is certainly a very shady and questionable character but not such a terrible person that it would justify the hate the movie got. (not to mention that this is already the second musical based on his life)
I mean we still do it today people some horror actors thrive on their own physical deformity like the man from hills have eyes who's deformed life gave him lemons so he's making lemonade
There is also phineas gage, the guy who got a tamping iron blown through his brain from a dynamite accident working on a railroad. The tamping iron went through his frontal cortex and he survived for eleven years after the accident. Dr. Harlow, his doctor, stated that he had made a full recovery when he had really lost almost all of his personality. Dr. Harlow stated this because he couldn’t release what really happened without phineas’ consent. Phineas could do anything he just lost his personality and emotions. He even walked himself up to the doctor’s office by himself and he went up a couple flights of stairs. Phineas’ case started the beginning of brain science and if what happened didn’t happen, then we might not know as much as we know today about the brain. There is a book on this called “Phineas Gage” Phineas Gage’s skull and tamping iron are currently in the Harvard medical building on display and Dr. Harlow told the truth about phineas’ change in personality after the accident after phineas died and he got consent from phineas’ mom.
Hi My friend I have seen that you are enjoying this video. I am making similar videos with abit of more quality and newer subjects. It will be great if you check it and give me your feedback. thanks
definition: a person, animal, or plant with an unusual physical abnormality. It wasn't originally a offensive term until people decided to turn it into that.
Well... usually if they find the fetus/baby has anencephaly.. that means the brain and head are no longer growing so it’s usually brain dead. My sister had to abort her baby that she carried to 27 weeks because they found it had anencephaly and wouldn’t make it to full term.
When I was a kid,my father would always ask me,"so Chris,when are you going to run away with the circus" as I always had a fascination with the freak shows,and would probably make a great freak(won't say which one)
![Eminem - Temporary (feat. Skylar Grey) [Official Music Video]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/ZaK9Wi5ho0o/mqdefault.jpg)
For some reason, I really liked that they were well paid. PT Barnum obviously valued his freaks and made sure they were taken care of. That's not in line with the freak show stereotype.
It's probably cause he had a physical disability himself(even in the photos you can tell) and technically created a safe haven in a way. Years from now I am not surprised if current day self advocates start getting put on blast for corruption or collusion cause (no offense to my homies in autistic community) I have started noticing alarming trends involving mostly millenial age women and younger in different disabilities communities turn to pagentry and modeling more than looking into other options due to lack of resources and/or gender bias in different agencies. Older women like Temple Grandin and Susan Boyle seem more clean cut and more inspired than Heather Kuzmich and one other chick who said she felt compeled into this type of work to feel better about herself and gain acceptance.
Exactly! Whenever I hear "Freak show" I think of the cruel exploitation of disabled people (basically like circus animals). I really like that they didn't do the job because they were starving and that they weren't mistreated. He turned them into performers, rather than something he makes money with. Impressive.
Cheers!
I remember someone from the freak show saying in an interview that they were grateful to be there because they wouldn't have had any job opportunities otherwise with their physical limitations.
Honin Akecheta Yeah, that's f'ed up, but these people's lives would have been much worse without him. What else could a man with no arms or legs have done in that time?
@Honin Akecheta The cage was part of the act,he wasn't kept there all the time, it was a performance. And it was his "pinhead" situation that brought about the missing link act. You're the one who brought race into it.
It's easy to dislike P. T. Barnum for exploiting both his "exhibits" and his customers, but on the other hand, he paid his employees extremely well under their contracts, much better than he had to, and he let them keep what they earned, no charges for room and board and costumes. Very unusual in that era.
and the myth that he was a conman purposely duping people is exactly that, a myth. His audiences knew there was quite a fair bit of embellishment in his acts and spectacles but they were only there for entertainment so in their eyes it didn't matter that he was stretching the truth. It's the same reason people go to magic shows today even though there have been countless programs debunking the tricks; it's all for the purpose of entertainment.
Well his workers signed contracts on their free will, and most of them worked for him for years, I'm going to assume they liked the money they were making and how they were treated.
And he treated them with humanely. Wealthy people tended to treat the lower classes as if they were nothing more than animals in those days.
Jose Flores
How can a mentally handicapped person sigh a contract of their own free will??
I doubt most of them knew what they were signing anyway.
+bigstink They grab a writing utensil with one hand and sign their name on the contract without someone pointing a gun at their head.
5:58 "Sometimes they would dress him up as a snake, a caterpillar, or a potato" what😂😂
I know right. I feel so bad but I lost it at that. 🤣
Dress me up as a potato
A kawaii potato
Human Trash yas queen
I died 😂
Today this sounds so wrong.
But Barnum paid these people, and legitimately gave them a chance to make a living when no one would give them that chance.
I agree - we cannot try to compare the past to our standards, our morals, or our ethics today as they'll never align.
Yeah, people seem to not get that it was better to be in a “freak” show getting paid than to have your family haul you off and have you locked up in an Insane Asylum. That’s what happened to people with disabilities who weren’t employable; their families saw them as a burden and embarrassment and had them hidden away. The Asylum was hell on earth.
Yeah they pretty much got rich from doing his shows.
I agree. They were paid well and had a choice to leave when they wanted.
Except for the old lady... But I'm glad he treated the others right
45 lbs and can lift 300??
DAMN SON!!!!
Got that ant power.
Spills51 I thought I was cool for being 115 and lifting 200...
Spills51 Aliens
@@wokeslush9489 ur still cool 😊
G U C C I • Thank you :) I bet you’re cooo aswell
I'm just glad they got well paid
They didn’t.
Elephants are better can whip and no pay
They went from being paid to not being able to be hired pretty quickly unfortunately
@@VeganMotorcyclePilot you're wrong for saying/thinking that
@Andy C they weren't always paid well for a long time and they weren't able to be hired after
To get to 80 years old anyway in 1836 is freaky enough they didn't need to lie.
michael Longford yeah...especially if you were black
Seriously, though. Everyone dropped dead at 35 and she lives to be 80.
Not quite that low, more so around 50
A dam still though, being black on that time period and living to your 80s was a miracle. Living to 80+ in the modern era with medical science what it is, is a miracle. Your lucky to live past 70
A dam The average lifespan back then gives you a really inaccurate view of how long someone was likely to live because a very high child mortality rate skewed that statistic very far towards the low end.
They all married and had kids. And here I am, a normal looking guy in his late twenties trying to teach my cat a backflip.
Edit; To answer the question, yes, my cat can do a backflip now. All I needed was a cucumber.
Just remember, only one out of two marriages last.
i'd pay to see a cat do a backflip
They weren't as materialistic and superficial as we are today...
@@ChristianDoretti yes sure..... Did you miss the part of the video where it says they were all filthy rich?
@@daniele9209 Nah, still, someone same would marry them on today's standards, they are so asymmetric that they were scary.
*”HEY VSAUCE... Michael here”* Come on I can’t be the only one that thought this ?
아시리 I thought it was vsauce until I heard the voice lol
Looks like yo mama
아시리 I thought it was Vsauce also.
literally about to comment that
Me too!
P.T barnum is such an intriguing character. In a time with literally zero social justice he both took advantage of these people and his customers but at the exact same time built these people up to be proud of who they were and wanted to bring joy to everyone
Zach Boebel
Dickface
And most got rich!
And had the circus village where performers could retire. I think it was in Florida.
@@weltonvillegal6258 it is
@@TvConfusionn - someone's sour.
Abraham Lincoln was amused by midgets is the best thing I've heard all year.
BazookaHorse I don’t know why this comment is so funny 😂
And he was a giant
@@sylvadob1229 6'4 is hardly a giant.
@@michaelheeheejackson7255 to the midgets he was
@@michaelheeheejackson7255 only 1% of people are over 6'4 smartie pants
Can we all agree though that the picture of General Tom Thumb is really adorable-
And he was loaded and also had a wife I'm able bodied and have neither of those things
He was a man, just smaller than most, that's all. It was Barnum that put together the crazy stories, that made these people somebody you'd pay to see.
I've always loved it.
Reminds me of mini khabib
**time travels to the 1800s**
random pheasant woman : oh my what a freak!
rich guy : i wanna buy you
- aesthetic_boi - wait did you just say pheasant
Back in my day a nickle used to cost a penny
@CodeHurricane Originals buying people to put on display for shows and make money did that help ?
@CodeHurricane Originals i cant help down syndrome people
Plot twist: The rich guy wanted to buy the talking pheasant.
So basically a lot of these people could of been shoved in hospitals and locked away the negative was turned into a positive and they were given decent lives I find that refreshing In a way
So how old does that make you? :O
Yeah, the reputation of Barnum now is as an exploiter. And there may be some to that, but his circus members were cared for until their old age, got royalties they wouldn't have gotten if they lived a normal existence instead of being celebrities.
And were there incidents that he mistreated them or kept them in poor living and working conditions ?
ayf1983
He also was cruel towards animals, jus look at the monkey with a fish tail
The 'Fiji Mermaid,' you mean? All Barnum did was lease a weird piece of taxidermy originally made by Japanese fisherman. Not exactly "cruelty."
Nor is him shoving metal rods up elephants trunks and whipping them to guide them, right? Along with him stuffing elephants in a ship(including a calf) inwhich they had so little room that they couldn't move, two of which died. You can look at jumbo's(his lead elephant) skull to see how malformed it was because of barnum, he may not have been bad to people but he was definitely bad to other animals. (This is where you say "Oh but they're just animals!")
"she experienced giving birth out of both sets of legs" a term i will only hear once in my lifetime!
That sounds like pure torture
The cringe factor redlined. Doesn't that technically mean he slept with her sister?
Technically some of the children are her unborne twin sisters children.
Sadly during consummation, he had been repeatedly kicked in the nuts, and later suffered E.D.
@@nigel900 what
this dude looks like vsauce more than vsauce looks like vsauce
uno reverse card lmaooo
He is vsause
Heyyyy....vsauce..it's vsauce here
I just realized hes not by seeing this comment
I thought it was v sauce
Fun fact: the article in the newspaper who accused Joice of being an automaton was actually written after Barnum himself used a pseudonym and sent in loads of such accusations in order to drum up more interest in Joice, which had been waning at the time. It worked...when people heard she might actually be some kind of robot they swarmed to come see her, which had the added effect of making almost everyone who had already paid to see her at least once come back for a return visit out of curiosity. Barnum may have been a scumbag but he was an entertainment industry genius.
Not mutually exclusive. A lot of geniuses are scumbags actually
@@THEPELADOMASTER very true
@@miaouew Being a genius also means thinking logically and not making decisions based on emotions and primal nature, so most of the time genius people, in the eyes of common folk, seem to be scumbags.
@@danielsantos6437 like a robot or a Vulcan. Very logical without emotional involvement. Sounds like a horrible human to me.
You know idk man, he seemed more than fair to the people in the show. Idk what else he did though
11,000 a week? Heck yeah, I'd be in a freak show!
Madame Raven
Me : PUT ME IN YOUR FREEK SHOW
Manager : But you only have ADHD mrs ...
Me : *JUST DO IT !*
Bitter Sweet Hufflepuff hahaha no doubt!
But you have to to be a freak first to qualify
Give 1,000 soobs plez . I know that , that's why I have a degree in being that one weirdo at partys that everyone thinks is creepy . *JUST GIVE ME THE JOB*
He abused them
“Chang yu sing?”
“No, I only dance.”
Hahaha😄 I died!!
I’m so disappointed, yet so proud
👌 perfection
yes but CAN Richard Funk?
💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀💀
Its nice to know, Phineas treated his employees with so much care. He payed them well, and treated them as equal.
no he didn’t lol
He saved all of them from miserable life and gave a wonderful rich life.
And they were with other people with challenging condition.
Exactly! Most of the time people with disabilities were locked up in Insane Asylums that were hell on earth.
He saved them from that terrible fate and gave them a life of their own.
P.T . Barnum will always be someone who confounds modern understanding. On the one hand he exploited people who were disabled and put them on display to be laughed or gawked at as if they were less then human, and on the other hand he took people who, in their time, would have probably been societal outcasts and made them apart of a community that would accept them, gave them a purpose, and made them incredibly rich and famous. Was he a villain or a hero? who knows...
Wow, like, so deep.
Deep
He sounds more like an anti hero.
He was...Batman !
HERO
Ironically, these people actually had jobs. Money. A purpose. People with these looks nowadays can't even say the same.
Many deformed persons do work, actually. Of course some deformities prevent them from pursuing certain types of careers, a person with dwarfism will probably be unsuitable for a physically demanding career - but that doesn't mean these anomalies are exempt from working.
Corvyn Malfoy, Mediocre Collector I think they ment some of the more extreme cases.
Something something username x
Something something username 500 like
This is 2 years late but I commend Top Tenz for their respectful behavior. As a disabled person, I was hesitant to click on the video given how people treat my people. It’s even worse when they’re referring to the past. I’m touched by how kind and honorable the script is. I truly am in awe.
Thank you.
Differently abled just sounds ableist to me 🤷♀️
@@Stevie-steel Maybe ableist is the wrong term, but what I meant was the word disabled shouldn't be seen as a bad thing. When people use words like differently abled etc it's like it's almost infantilising or shaming disability. Like ohh it's okayy you're not disabled, you're differently abled! :D
Also I think it can run the risk of completely dismissing/downplaying the ways your particular disability affects your life, and the fact you need support in some ways
It kind of sucks how even the word disabled can make people with disabilities recoil and feel lesser than (including myself)
@@Stevie-steel You can identify however you want, but that goes for other people, too. I call myself autistic, not a person with autism. Just like I am also bisexual - not a “person with bisexuality”.
@@Stevie-steel how is it not? It is something you can't change that effects the way you live and how others treat you.
@@Stevie-steel no one called it a medical condition, you’re just treating this like the oppression olympics. Stop trying to prove you’re worse off than everyone else when it literally doesn’t matter.
You know the Freak Show gets a bad rap but there are two things that should be pointed out. First the freaks were paid very well and if not for the show they might not have any work and probably die early in life. Second the Freak Show is still around and we all line up on the couch and watch it all the time; "Little People Big World," "My 600lb Life," "The Little Couple," "Little Women: LA," "Hoarders Buried Alive," "The Kardashians," "Long Island Medium," and all of the real housewives shows.
My point is don't judge the past because of your so called moralities when the past is alive and well and you are a participant in it.
Thank you!
The kardashians😂😂
THE KARDASHIANS I'M-
Ikr so true... Our TVs are our modern Day freak show
Your right
At last. A youtuber who just gets right in to the video and doesn't go off subject or try and be zaney and funny. And waits till end to ask for a like and sub. So I did.
Yea the waiting till the end part is a nice change
I don’t think you’d like Business Blaze
Yes, I agree. I think we actually read the same research on this. Word by word... I remember.
Go watch his Business Blaze channel. 🤣🤣🤣
Shame
"She had babies (5) out of both sets of legs? " Young man! THAT is not where babies come from (legs). LOL.
Brenda Rose HAHAHAHA I thought I was the only one who heard it that way lol
She had two sets of 'lady parts'
Its weird cuz she had her sister's kids and her own, but because she would have been an identical twin no one would know whose was whose.
So her husband tried both vaginas lol the first three some with 2 people
@Joe Striker what? both sets of organs would be the same age. She was one person at the end of the day
I deadass thought u were vsauce for a second
SAME
Sameeee
Same
@jelly puma simon is teh danger
SAME
They were presented like monsters but lived like kings.
MONSTERS that got paid more a week then others in a lifetime, hell I'd be a freak for money
If you think that way, you already are a monster
if you dont want to go see the freaks..stay at home
@@leo.ottesen Why? They weren't bothered by it...
This video was really interesting and well researched - loved it!
CultureCrash who are you
JK
CultureCrash!
And how was it stolen
Hey, CC!
OMG YOUR AWSOME
People have tried to vilify Barnum for years but he loved each and everyone of his performers in the freak show and made sure no one hurt any of them, they were all well taken care of and all of their health care needs were met. Without PT they didn't stand a chance outside of the show.
I mean… multiple things can be true at once. It is wrong to pay money to mock and make fun of people. They also were paid well.
They would have been mocked by people regardless, Atleast they got paid handsomely for the mocking
@@Factsonmen and making people laugh.
Oh! my gosh, that means #7 Myrtle was both Mom And Auntie. Depending on which pair of legs the kid came out of... odd.
mad honeybee i thought that was so weird also
I have a LOT more questions about her. I'd LOVE to see an x-ray of her, but I know they probably don't exist. Still, a photo, diagram or pencil sketch would do. I just can't imagine how all the parts come together, ya know? I'm thinking that the twin's lower half must protrude from her lower stomach... maybe? I dunno.
Her husband was a lucky man
I’m not trying to laugh but....
2 pussys
Instead of being dependent upon and possibly feeling like a burden to their families , Mr. Barnum gave them an opportunity to make enough money to financially care for their family. It also gave them a second family of other "freaks" , an opportunity to meet others similar issues as them
That's kind of what I thought. Plus I bet some, like Tom thumb, really enjoyed performing and being famous.
So far I haven't heard anything about Barnum mistreating them either. Considering the money they earned it seems fair. Plus if they don't enjoy it they could earn enough pretty quickly to help live a comfortable life. Then just leave. Like the Chinese giant seemed to do.
The way he did it was incredibly disrespectful. He put a black man in a cage, and let people question a woman's gender because of a condition she had. He let people disrespect them. And made them think they were anything less than boring.
@@stuffstuffer643 It's not much different then the entertainment industry today they signed contracts and were paid well to act and be gawked at during showtimes honestly it's was probably a better gig then what celebs deal with today what with the constant harassment and paparazzi.
Exactly. Right now they live basically from their parents or help from the gov because they can't do nothing. What a bs
Stuff Stuffer I think you’re referring to Josephine Waas. Although we don’t know if she/he was really a hermaphrodite or not. She/He was well-paid like the rest of the performers in PT’s circus and She/He was able to married a guy named George Wass and lived a normal life despite being classified as a “freak”.
You need to remember at his time people with a mental disorder or disability are deemed as unacceptable in society and they are usually forced to go to asylum where they will be tortured. He actually provided these guys well-paid money and when their contracts ended, most of them either still work with him or settled down like Josephine. So even though it’s bad that he taking advantage of their disabilities, he’s the reasons why they were able to live a normal life.
I have a physical condition that makes me pretty noticeable. Honestly, I wouldn't mind living in the 19th century if it meant earning 11K a week.
HarryIsTheGamingGeek when life hands ya lemons...
Would you mind sharing the physical condition?
@@Ryan-jx4vh Why would you want part of his condition?? Weirdo! 😂
@@snoutysnouterson i wanna know too...
Just curious
Seems like it was a great way to find love as well
I actually lived in P.T. Barnam's house he built for his wife and children in Denver Colorado. It is now an AirBNB. It was a beautiful old Victorian style house with 7 bedrooms, 3 living rooms and a very large kitchen and dining room. I love that house and all it's history.
Please, let this not be lie...❤ if not, u just lived my dream! I LOVE OLD STUFF! And HISTORY'!
Where is daddy long neck and wide neck
They could be real attractions lol. I would pay a few bucks to see them irl.
Wide neck's grandgrandgrandson is Corey Taylor
@@BlueblueN wrong, it's corpsegrinder.
But on another note, I think it's all the headbanging they do they made their neck so thick. Idk how wide neck got his so thick though. I doubt he likes metal.
Just besides Daddy-Long-Legs.
Fred Parrish i’m pretty sure he was born with it
people say freaks shows are outdated as if no one watches TLC
Ivy Magaña and Dr.Phil
Ivy Magaña or RUclips!!
What's really the difference between P.T. Barnum's show, and this actual video by Simon Whistler?
This is gold lol
Ivy Magaña oop
For a bunch of people who were 'exploited' they sure made a great living as entertainers and lived long and happy lives.
That guy had no arms and no legs and still managed to marry and have 5 children... What's _your_ excuse?
Ugly
@@danndidntask4057 nah fam, you a snacc
I don’t want kids
Erectile dysfunction
Just a weeb thank you
The 4 legged girl. How do her periods work? Can each uterus have their own periods at their own time meaning a double period? Could she even have 2 pregnancies at once?
I would assume so since they were both fully capable of carrying and delivering children to term
@@dramasbomin no, she had only one womb meaning she can't be pregnant twice simultaneously
I was born with two uterus's both were fully functional. The periods were horrible. I didn't find out until I had a hysterectomy at age 28. They told me that I could have carried two different babies at the same time with different fathers if a fertilized egg had gone into each uterus. So glad that didn't happen. My husband might have been pissed too...lol.
What would it be like to have sex with her?
Two vaginas? How many anuses? Does she ever get confused when she needs to pee? Like sit thinking is gonna come out that one but then it goes down her leg?
@Not Hitler Why ew?
"who're you calling 'pinhead'?"
Zip's last words to his sister were "Well, we fooled 'em for a long time, didn't we?"[
Is “who’re” a word?
John Blakeney I want to know too😆
@@ddd1hhh its a spongebob reference
I wanna be Dirty Dan
Lol the bearded lady one had me cackling. 8:00 It took 3 doctors to go "Hmmmm, yeah I'm pretty sure that's a vagina. You might want a second opinion though"
My jaw dropped several times from how insanely offensive Barnum's backstories were, but I am glad he at least paid them well. They deserved it, but wow. I hope they enjoyed their lives despite being constantly gawked at.
Offensive as the backstories may be, it helped sell tickets which in turn made better earnings for the performers.
I miss the freak shows.
I just watched a two-hour documentary on the history of the Ringling Bros and Barnum & Bailey Circus on Public Television. I was engrossed the entire two-hours (which is unusual for me). It was really excellent.
@@hazelatwood2292 Would you mind saying what the documentary is called? I'd totally watch that.
@@Sir99percent If you Search PBS for American Experience: The Circus, Pt 1. It’s Part One of a Two-Part Documentary that I just watched (which is news to me). I just couldn’t sleep the other night, and thankfully something interesting was on tv. 🤓
I am surprised that Ang and Chang Bunker were not on this list. they were P.T. Barnum's famous siamese twins.
On one hand, P.T. Barnum took advantage of other peoples' disabilities and displayed them as freaks, pocketing huge amounts of money in the process, but on the other hand, DAMN if he didn't also pay them all enormous sums of money for their performances, AND in some cases even took care of them after they retired!
I wish we knew how these people felt. Were they thankful for work and were happy to support themselves? I have seen many interviews done in "carnival" towns, they enjoy their town, because no one is different and they don't get bullied. I hope as a people we are a lot more welcoming to different people, but history repeats itself.
Overall the people Barnum displayed were happy and glad that they could earn a living. Many of them had acts not only in the sideshows but appeared in the three ring ballyhoo that closed the circus performance. One such pair were a man who had no legs and a man who had no arms. They rode around the tent on a tandem bicycle making jokes about their condition.
It has been suggested that the "Freak Show" led to wider acceptance of disabled people in general and perhaps more important allowed disabled people to see that their problem wasn't as bad as it could have been.
There is plenty of information available about that when you Google it. The bearded lady was especially vocal.
Random Chaos who wouldn't be happy to support themselves........?
Katie Bayliss, entitled Americans wouldn't.. :)
Uh 11,000$ A WEEK, a MILLION ! I think they were pretty damn happy.
The Chinese Giant: “He drew a crowd, at least for a short time.” I see what you did there.
If you'll pardon the pun
Why does this guy look like Michael from Vsauce?LMAO
I DONT KNOW LOL
coz he be bald
He's a wannabe
LMFAOOOO KAWAIII CHAN
Bald head, beard, glasses.
Great video. I always imagined that the Talent of Barnum were not treated well. Maybe had to join as disability back then could be difficult for a family.
But the Employees joined willingly, treated very well, and made great money. And were able to marry, have kids, etc. Amazing lives they had.
LeiAnne Stevens Did you forget about the woman he bought?
Susie Lee
I think we all have to take in account the time period and morals they had. Slavery was still a thing, selling black people wasn't necessarily uncommon.
Although I do say that it's a horrible thing now, back then it was just kinda... Eh.
Susie Lee, yes slavery is bad, and there isn't one argument that can ever justify one person owning another. Yet in the context of the time that this happened it could be said she was treated extremely well. In return for sitting in a chair and telling stories to the audience, she was clothed, fed and her needs met in her old age. Try and imagine what her life could have been like at that age if a more typical slave owner had of bought her...
It’s very easy by today’s standards to see Barnum and the other showmen as the villains.
Look at how much money these people earned (more than I do today), and then work out what their lives would have been without the show.
They weren’t forced into this. They wanted to do this for a living.
Barnum seems to have been a decent kind of chap, in the whole.
Joyce was bought as a slave- nobody can get out of the willingly
@@jessycac6311 Too simple an answer - I understand what you are saying, but she had a far better life with Barnum than she would have had otherwise
@@EVITANDY I understand where you’re coming from, and I do agree to an extent. However, I don’t think we should denounce the possible pain and suffering she went through just because she could’ve had it worse.
@@jessycac6311 I am certainly not doing that. But thanks to Barnum, she was looked after a lot more than most. None of this is ideal, but the reality is that it was happening, and some people were trying to make it better for those who were being exploited.
Most of the people featured in this video sounded like they had better lives than most “normal” people.
"Chang Yu Sing"
Me: "No I can't"
Lawrence Young 💀 Damnnn bruv
😂
*wheeze*
Oi Chang sing a Little
Lmao
I have a hard time condemning people for attending "freak" shows to see something out of the ordinary considering how much time I've spent this evening trawling RUclips.
PT Barnum was actually a great man who valued people who were shunned from society. I went to the museum when I was a kid and learned a lot. He played people and tricked them yes but he gave a lot to their imagination so these "freaks" could live a great life.
"There's a sucker born every minute" was a saying in the 19th century about P.T Barnum being able to trick people into believing in nonsensical things like the ‘Fiji mermaid,” “The Cardiff Giant” the “161 year old nursemaid” and many other hoaxes designed to earn an income from.
The ability continues into the internet age and the fantastical stories & videos on RUclips about “lost civilizations,” “unexplainable mysteries” and “ancient high technology" put out by profit seeking book authors like Graham Hancock, Brien Foerster, UnchartedX, Erich Von Daniken, Bright Insight, Christopher Dunn, Randall Carlson and others like them are the proof.
that bearded lady has a lord farquaad hair cut
Well atleast it wont be gay
what time stamp
Today you just open RUclips and you can admire thousands of freaks from the comfort of your sofa 😗
U got that right.
Luck z and for free 💰
Marie ! Unless u got Premium
Beetle juice from the Howard Stern show also suffers from the same condition as the “pin head”. Crazy to think not much has changed as far as exploitation goes. It’s really a tricky situation in the sense yes they’re wealthy having a life they would of never had without being made a joke of, but morally is this acceptable? Regardless I love Beet.
Yes, it is acceptable.
L S T E R
you make a valid point but in those days people with disabilities were already made a joke of so why not get paid for it
If you dig a 6 feet hole, how deep is that hole?
Me; getting bullied today for my mental illnesses and disability; to the “freaks”: You guys are getting paid?
(They were treated so much better than I’d thought they’d been omg)
They were able to make their own money and lives in a time when that wasn't easy for "able bodied" people. We tend to have a very narrow, modern version of these sorts of shows, without understanding what it was like for them. The movie Freaks, actually shows these people as a happy family.
@@sarahhenry5577 I watched that movie and I did enjoy it very much :) I'm just glad everyone was treated with some degree of respect and professionalism
The Greatest Showman is a great film and very interesting to find out about the real thing. great video
Yeah, he was much worse than the movie xD
The Greatest Showman is basically complete fiction.
TootTootMcbumbersnazzle Damn. People have different tastes. Why are you so bitter?
Right?
Well ... the cliffnotes watered down version anyway.
They were also referred to as monsters! ☹️ I am glad they made the money they did if they had to be in a “freak” show.
Debbie Gross they chose to be in the show
I would have done it if I were them. $11k per week? They made more money in a month than people back then made in 5 years.
The freakshow was a fantastic thing for these people. Otherwise they would have either been destitute and pennyless, or locked away in a hospital or insane asylum. Most would be unable to get work any other way, and this gave them a better way of life than virtually any one else with their disabilities, even today.
I would imagine that it would be something of a family for them as their actual families probably would’ve shunned them for their oddities especially for people of their time
Ok yeah... unless you were the first person who was a slave to him.
Calling that dude the missing link was genius advertising
He is, he's basically the guy who invented clickbait
@@sireawfulthe1st291 OMG! THE MISSING PIECE IN HUMAN EVOLUTION!?! (possibly gone sexual)
They also had a guy they claimed could fart for five minutes continuously. However, he ran out of gas and they called him the missing stink.
This man was born without arms and legs yet earned A LOT of money, was popular with the ladies, and fathered 5 kids. Dang, that’s amazing in more ways than one! 👏👏👏
And he can light his own cigarette using only his mouth. 😳
AND got out of diaper duty!
look up nick vujicic no arms no legs no worries :)
How did he Frick tho
@@iwatchhentaieverydaywithsenpai got rided cowgirl position and shizz
who u calling a pinhead?
My mother and grandparents actually knew a circus performing pinhead who went by the stage name "Schlitzy the Pinhead." Apparently he was a very nice man, even if he was intellectually challenged. They also knew one of the clowns in the movie "The Greatest Show On Earth." Lefty Frizzel, the man who wrote the song, "Long, Black Veil," was their next-door neighbor for a time. Then I came along, and they never met another famous person, although I did speak to Susan St. James on the phone once when she was arranging the services of my grandparents' business.
SANDY! NO
QuickscopingFTW
I'M DIRTY DAN!
Son of Poseidon No, I'm Dirty Dan!
*casually punches Dirty Dan out of the way* Now its your turn, Pinhead Larry.
Can i be in the freakshow too? My stage name: Acne-ridden ralph "COME ONE COME ALL, WITNESS THE RED PUSTULES!"
Techsterreviews lewisrigby lmao me to
Cathrine Animates Lucky af
Bro u needa wash ur face
Techsterreviews lewisrigby aww poor Ralph don’t feel bad buddy, it’ll clear up
Laurent Spatola I wash my face and still have acne, it has to do with hormones too.
Anyone else think Barnum looks a bit like Casey Neistat
Wait a minute what if pt barnum is casey neistat?
I know your kidding but that can't be possible. And NEVER MISTAKE CASEY NEISTAT FOR P T BARNUM.
No he could pass as Bill Murray's identical twin
Yessss!!!
Casey Neistat and mr bean
"Sometimes they would dress him up like a snake, a caterpillar or a potato"
Fascinating and very glad to hear how prosperous they were. Though I don’t like putting anyone on display for their differences, this sounds like it was their own choice and empowered them. Great video.
jhuber350 a lot of these people did better than able bodied people at the time they said, so work with what you got I guess, if I had a deformity and lived back then I would've done it
Well I mean we still do things like this look at the guy from hills have eyes he exploits his deformity to gain mad cash it's not humiliating it's brilliant
We don't have side shows any more, we have reality shows now
Yes, like the Got Talent series.
Sandra Tebar 🤯
There's on in Venice Beach...
The reality shows are even more of a freak show
...they travel around with our fairs. SO, THUR'S ALWAYS ONE U CAN VISIT.
On the one hand, Barnum did give these folks a living and even fortune that they'd never have gotten otherwise.
On the other hand, he was a swindler, and exploited these people to no end.
MagnuMagnus your right but that’s what helped him pay the performers well
just like most corporations nowadays.
He didn't exploit them. The definition of exploit is to benefit UNFAIRLY from someone's work, either by overworking or underpaying them, and he did neither. Simply benefiting from something the modern mind finds distasteful is NOT exploitation
It;s not exploiting if you're being paid extremely well. Its basically being paid for people to look at you and you light a cigarette
4:42 so her husband was double dipping
Men
Chang and Eng ... the original "Siamese Twins" ... associated with Barnum and perhaps his most famous exhibit.
I agree😊☝💡
THIS IS THE GREATEST SHOOOWWWWW
was all I could think 😂
No Angus Macaskill? Tallest man ever (from no illness) and strongest human to ever live. The Man could carry horses and 300lb barrels under each arm!
By the time she was 8 she had a full beard
“So what you’re saying is she was Italian?”
(I’m Italian, don’t send me hate)
Sending no hate, just love😊
Nobody roasts Italians harder than Italians man.
I'm not Italian but thanks for giving me a laugh.
As an irish person with bushes for legs I concur.
It's been said Italian men wear gold chains around their neck so they know where to stop shaving.
Lmao
If I got paid 11000 a week I’d be a freak he’ll yea
Blow Me "he'll yeah"
I can see being happy as the bearded lady or the oldest woman, but I'd never want money to live with only a torso and a head. I'm spoiled that way.
Robert Downs... If you're going to be stuck living like a torso anyways, you may as well be a rich torso!
I am actually related the Lavinia Warren. My grandmother has two of the original wedding photos from her and Charles Stanton's wedding. It so interesting to still hear about them.
Gosh - She was absolutely adorable! 🥰
Its nice to hear that Barnum actually paid these people well
Despite P. T. Barnum's "bad" reputation, he helped a ton of people. Especially people who were "odd", "different", and unique(unusual gifts or skills). They wouldn't have been included in normal society and they would never find a steady job of any type, in any industry. Barnum himself knew what being a poor outcast felt like. These folks often had been born with their "odd issues" and Barnum gave them a job that paid well and many other benefits. It was a very different world back then...and he helped a lot of folks who would have been destitute, beggars, and cast outs and folks destened to the dreaded Olms Houses.( Look it up...it's really awful) I'm NOT saying it was perfect, always fair, and correct. But he gave opportunity to people who had nothing.
The thumbnail is what I look like when I have an attitude 😂😂
Lmao
nya thoan hahaha yes 😂😂😂
This reminded me of American Horror Story season 4. Any AHS fans in the house?
Right here!
Me
😍
this is literally what it was based on
Cati D nah season 4 was based on the movie Freaks (1932), even some of the characters are similar
Hey vsauce, Michael here
Karria Tanner
U know nme
HaHA
Where are your fingers
Karria Tanner Hey Michael, vsauce here
@@nica3482 Michael hey, hey Michael here
I’ve seen several comments that we no longer have side shows. Yes, we do. Check out the current USA House of Representatives.
Our government in general.
Oof...😂
You misspelled "the White House".
Lol true
Also.. everything on TLC
This was very interesting but also made me very aware of how single I am.
Jennifer Rose You probably lack some legs or a beard
it didn't bother me until i learned that the guy with no arms and no legs got married and had 5 kids.
now i'm thinking i need to learn to light a cigarette with my lips.
Wow this is so much different then the movie
Yes but there is a lot of link up if you wacthed the movie enough the 10 was the woman how have him the apple at the start of movie with the eyes in the head
Ever wonder why you don't see many proportional dwarves like Tom Thumb anymore? It's because unlike various forms of skeletal dysplasias, which result in short-limbed little people, and which has no known treatment, pituitary related dwarfism, now known as growth hormone deficiency, has been treated in childhood with artificial human growth hormone since the mid 1990s resulting in average sized adults. Most remaining proportional dwarves in the industrialized world, like Linda Hunt, are 40+ years of age, but some people even older were treated as early as 1950 with cadaver growth hormone, which was super expensive and might give you a prion disease, and in the 1980s when drug trials were being done on the artificial hormones that would become commonplace.
Mayonnaise Jane that's fascinating! I adore Linda Hunt, she's a great actress. The actress from American horror story that is tiny but proportional is from India, I'm not sure of her story but she is a lovely young lady.
Thanks for elaborating!
My brother has that condition he had to inject himself every day he is now give foot five
So do I! 8^D I only made five foot one myself. But I can drive an unmodified car, so I'll take it.
He's taller than me I'm only five foot and a half and he was always in hospital when he was a kid
I’m glad that they were all well looked after and well paid and not ripped off and exploited. I love all the Top 10 videos. They’re always really interesting well researched and very informative. Brilliant 😊👍🏻.
The slave wasn't well paid...
assuming all these facts are accurate, Barnum really wasnt as bad of a guy as people make him out to be, at least by 1800s standards.
its obviously not right but he did offer them a safe, comfortable life which is more than any of them couldve expected back then
yes, i dont know why ppl think hes bad at all. he change these ppl weakness into strength, so good that they even live better than those normie.
As it relates to the freaks, he did actually treat them VERY well, now when it comes to animals...that's a different story.
and the slaves?...i saw in the honest trailer something about him treating them unfairly as well.
yeah I read about him mistreating animals horribly, which is terrible of course but sadly also something that is a general problem with alot of circus and zoos around the world to this day. Doesnt make it right but puts it in perspective a bit.,
@miss daae I saw that video too and alot of people speculate about it, but I've never seen any solid facts. The only slave-related proven facts I've found was that he bought the old lady and treated her fairly well -for slavery standards- and that he went into politics where he intended to outlaw slavery altogether. (whether that was out of kindness or just for publicity remains open for discussion)
He is certainly a very shady and questionable character but not such a terrible person that it would justify the hate the movie got. (not to mention that this is already the second musical based on his life)
I mean we still do it today people some horror actors thrive on their own physical deformity like the man from hills have eyes who's deformed life gave him lemons so he's making lemonade
There is also phineas gage, the guy who got a tamping iron blown through his brain from a dynamite accident working on a railroad. The tamping iron went through his frontal cortex and he survived for eleven years after the accident. Dr. Harlow, his doctor, stated that he had made a full recovery when he had really lost almost all of his personality. Dr. Harlow stated this because he couldn’t release what really happened without phineas’ consent. Phineas could do anything he just lost his personality and emotions. He even walked himself up to the doctor’s office by himself and he went up a couple flights of stairs. Phineas’ case started the beginning of brain science and if what happened didn’t happen, then we might not know as much as we know today about the brain. There is a book on this called “Phineas Gage”
Phineas Gage’s skull and tamping iron are currently in the Harvard medical building on display and Dr. Harlow told the truth about phineas’ change in personality after the accident after phineas died and he got consent from phineas’ mom.
So he is the inspiration for lobotomy's?
Poor guy
The greatest showman is worth a watch such a great movie about the circus of p.t Barnum and his “freaks”
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It honestly wasn't
It's great that no one was forced to act and they where all paid extremely well
definition: a person, animal, or plant with an unusual physical abnormality. It wasn't originally a offensive term until people decided to turn it into that.
6:08 what a legend, this guy was born without legs and arms and had kids and a wife
How do you think he rang a doorbell!!!! Lol
And why wouldn’t he have been loved? Because he was disabled?
look up nick vujicic no arms no legs no worries :)
@@oppaloopa3698 Yes
@@oppaloopa3698 Sadly at the time, yes.
I love that most of them had found love after finding their way to P.T. :)
The fact that Lincoln liked little people was adorable. Idk if his liking to them had mean intentions or not but if they didn't then that's great!
Dang. Living that long with Microcephaly is amazing. Though people with anencephaly don't live very long at all.
Well... usually if they find the fetus/baby has anencephaly.. that means the brain and head are no longer growing so it’s usually brain dead. My sister had to abort her baby that she carried to 27 weeks because they found it had anencephaly and wouldn’t make it to full term.
So this is who “the greatest showman” is based off
Edit. And AHS “freak show”
No, he most definitely did not introduce or "invent" the FREAK show.
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When I was a kid,my father would always ask me,"so Chris,when are you going to run away with the circus" as I always had a fascination with the freak shows,and would probably make a great freak(won't say which one)
Great video Simon!! Thank you so much for your hard work!! I speak for us all when I say we love your videos!!
Who else watched this bc they saw The Greatest Showman
kayla v Nobody....we don't run and watch stuff just because the latest trendy movie came out...we we into this stuff for years..
Me
Damani Dorsey Nobody
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UrBroJLouw Nobody