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Hippo Eats Dwarf
I came across this peculiar news story about a hippo eating a dwarf. It's been floating around the internet for a while, though I'm not sure exactly how long. Google 'hippo eats dwarf' and you'll pull up a bunch of pages. There's even a band named Hippo Eats Dwarf. The article has been circulating as an image file of a scanned article (click the thumbnail), but here's the text of it:A hippopotamus has swallowed a dwarf in a circus accident in northern Thailand. "A dwarf, nicknamed Od, died when he bounced sideways from a trampoline and was swallowed by a yawning hippopotamus, which was waiting to appear in the next act," the Pattaya Mail reported. "Vets on the scene said Hilda the Hippo had a gag reflex which automatically caused her to swallow." The vets said it was the first time the hefty vegetarian had ever eaten a circus performer. "Unfortunately, the 1000 plus spectators continued to applaud wildly until common sense dictated there had been a tragic mistake. Police said the trampoline has been sent for forensic analysis."
The one true detail in the story is that the Pattaya Mail did indeed report this. However, everything else seems far too outlandish to possibly be true. Though, who knows. Weird things can happen.
Listed in chronological order. Newest comments at the end.
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Snopes has "An Austrian circus dwarf died recently when he bounced sideways from a trampoline and was swallowed by a hippopotamus. Seven thousand people watched as little Franz Dasch popped into the mouth of Hilda the Hippo and the animal's gag reflex forced it to swallow. The crowd applauded wildly before other circus people realized what had happened."
Allegedly from the Manchester Evening News.
Hey, wouldn't it be great if it wasn't the same guy, and Hilda was an evil serial killer?
After all, no one ever suspects the hippopotamus...
Posted by Boo in The Land of the Haggii... on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 02:29 AM
Allegedly from the Manchester Evening News.
Hey, wouldn't it be great if it wasn't the same guy, and Hilda was an evil serial killer?
After all, no one ever suspects the hippopotamus...
I tend to think it's BS (or HS, in this case). I don't think it would be possible for an hippo to swallow a dwarf without chewing him (or her) up first. I think their throat would be too small (the hippo's, not the dwarf's). I also don't think it's possible to "bounce sideways from a trampoline" at a shallow enough angle to end up in a yawning hippo's mouth.
Posted by JoeSixpack on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 04:32 AM
I've bounced sideways from a trampoline...although, usually this occurs when there is another bouncer.
Yeah...how the hell do you swallow a dwarf?? I can't even swallow rice w/o chewing it first.
Posted by Maegan in Tampa, FL - USA on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 04:41 AM
Yeah...how the hell do you swallow a dwarf?? I can't even swallow rice w/o chewing it first.
The distinctly un-Thai name of Hilda makes me suspect that the Pattaya Mail has simply recycled the story cited by Snopes. Unless, of course, Boo is right, and Hilda is a roving serial dwarf-eater.
I can't blame the paper, though. What editor could possibly resist the headline, "Hippo Eats Dwarf"? It's right up there with "Jesus wept" for sheer evocativeness.
Posted by Big Gary C in Dallas, Texas on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 05:59 AM
I can't blame the paper, though. What editor could possibly resist the headline, "Hippo Eats Dwarf"? It's right up there with "Jesus wept" for sheer evocativeness.
I'm tempted to believe it. Stranger things have happened.
Posted by PlantPerson on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 06:51 AM
The Darwin Awards also acknowledges this incident as an Urban Legend. I think this is one for the Mythbusters to solve!
Posted by Captain Platypus in Ohio on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 07:06 AM
about mythbusters - it would be nice episode - imagine, little version of "Buster" jumps from catapult. Hippo spits it. Then "Buster" is replaced by little more delicious pig. And hippo swallow it.
Posted by Loxx on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 07:32 AM
FYI on Mythbusters,
Apparently the Hippo eat Dwarf idea has already been pitched to them. I haven't seen them do much with animals though, and this one would be extremely difficult to recreate!
Posted by Captain Platypus in Ohio on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 08:32 AM
Apparently the Hippo eat Dwarf idea has already been pitched to them. I haven't seen them do much with animals though, and this one would be extremely difficult to recreate!
"... I haven't seen them do much with animals though, and this one would be extremely difficult to recreate!"
Yeah, and if the hippo choked on the dwarf, you could have offing an endangered species (depending on what kind of hippo was used) on your conscience.
... It probably wouldn't be too good for the little person, either.
Posted by Big Gary C in Dallas, Texas on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 10:16 AM
Yeah, and if the hippo choked on the dwarf, you could have offing an endangered species (depending on what kind of hippo was used) on your conscience.
... It probably wouldn't be too good for the little person, either.
If the Mythbusters do recrate this myth they'll most likly make a jello mold shaped like a little person.
Posted by Dany in Texas on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 11:33 AM
A jello mold wouldn't be a good test. It's much easier to swallow a blob of jello than it is to swallow a live human or animal the same size, what with all the bones, skin, fingernails, etc., you'd be trying to get down.
Posted by Big Gary C in Dallas, Texas on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 04:12 PM
What about catapulting 80 lbs of ground beef shaped into the form of a small man through the air, and seeing if a hippo will swallow it? The trick will be to avoid getting the hippo too angry from repeatedly hitting it with the meat. Hippos can get violent when angry.
Posted by Alex in San Diego on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 04:22 PM
This is fake. I told my grandmother about it and she said that hippos don't eat meat.
Posted by Dany in Texas on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 05:16 PM
Dany,
Read the story! It, or no one else, said the hippo ATE any meat. Swallow, gag reflex, yawning...
Joe, Thanks for the link.
Char???, Sorry forgot to look at spelling. I promise not to ressurect that thread if you help kill the Natash / X-ray vision thread. That argument has WORN THIN.
Posted by Mark-N-Isa in Midwest USA on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 06:09 PM
Read the story! It, or no one else, said the hippo ATE any meat. Swallow, gag reflex, yawning...
Joe, Thanks for the link.
Char???, Sorry forgot to look at spelling. I promise not to ressurect that thread if you help kill the Natash / X-ray vision thread. That argument has WORN THIN.
Hippos do eat meat. Check out Gerald Durrell's "The Stationary Ark" for an account of Hercules the hippo's appetite for tapirs.
Posted by Ledasmom on Thu Feb 24, 2005 at 07:26 PM
summing up a possibility:
discovery channel
mythbusters
1 dwarf
1 hippo
and let´s see if it is possible or not.
Posted by Unfairly Balanced in Earth on Fri Feb 25, 2005 at 05:21 AM
discovery channel
mythbusters
1 dwarf
1 hippo
and let´s see if it is possible or not.
Doesn't a gag reflex *stop* one from swallowing?
Posted by paul in prague on Fri Feb 25, 2005 at 05:24 AM
The only way we can truly prove or disprove this myth is to take a road trip to Thailand and find one of the 1000 (7,000 in some accounts) eye witnesses.
Who's with me?
And who's paying, because I can't!
Posted by Captain Platypus in Ohio on Fri Feb 25, 2005 at 06:11 AM
Who's with me?
And who's paying, because I can't!
Did the Snopes article say where the incident they reported on happened? If they didn't mention where, it could have happened in Northern Thailand since the Thai people enjoyed foriegn acts when I was stationed there thirty years ago and I doubt that has changed much. However, Pattaya is in Southern Thailand, they probably wouldn't have a first-hand report, just something off the wire. So it might be the Snopes report reprinted. Or maybe, the Pattaya Mail changed the report and located it in Thailand where their readers could be more interested in the story. Nah, journalists would never doctor a story like that.
Posted by Christopher Cole in Tucson, AZ on Sat Feb 26, 2005 at 08:35 AM
The snopes article didn't really analyze the hippo-eats-dwarf tale. It was just included in a long list of odd stories reported by newspapers. Their version had it as an Austrian circus, as reported by the Manchester Evening News. There was no date for the article given. But everything I can find on the internet about this seems to source the Thai version of the story.
Posted by Alex in San Diego on Sat Feb 26, 2005 at 09:30 AM
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