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Katie left out my favorite method of dealing with vampires: Throwing a big pile of coins on the ground! They will automatically stop to count it all, giving you more time to run away. That was the inspiration for the Count from Sesame street.
This is only relevant in some variations of the folklore. Also the same lore would explain that they can count it much faster than you can. Also they will finish up the minimal task and catch up to you before you get out of line of sight. However as Simon says many times, not real, so you really don't have to worry about a vampire killing you on your way home.
The old stories would talk about scattering millet seeds on the doorstep to keep the vampire occupied. They would need to collect and count them before they could try and enter or move on.
On the topic he talked about "ways to dispose of my corpse" he mentioned the tree thing being terrifying to him. My sister was killed and we cremated her and got something called "bio-urn". Long story short my sister is now a weeping cherry tree in my moms backyard. I think it's kinda beautiful in a morbid way, because it's like shes always there for me to visit.
I love the idea of returning to the Earth. I work in the death industry and I want terramation. It’s also known as human composting. No chemicals, no emissions from cremation. It’s like natural burial but sped up. Your family gets compost/soil returned to them. There is no gross, no smell. I want my family to plant a beautiful memorial garden with the soil. Then anytime they feel they need to be close to me they can sit in the garden surrounded by beauty in privacy. Rather than have to go to a cemetery or figure out what to do with an urn.
The funniest thing about the Whistler Extended Universe (Whistleverse, or WEU) is all the times he's mentioned his Mouse Genocide on multiple different channels
Fun fact: in Bram Stoker's novel, garlic flowers are indeed what is used to keep the vampire away rather than bulbs. The smell is described as objectionable by the maid.
A girl at camp told me she had rabies because a dog bit her, and every once in a while it would flair up. It just now occurred to me she must have been lying.
She is not lying. It can be cured if treated within 3 days. Anything after that and it requires constant medication to prevent inflammation of the body and brain.
@@potatosnap where are you getting that information? Everything I can find says either you get the vaccination and it gets rid of the rabies, or you don’t and you die.
I love Lilith. But also annoyed they used Ishtar to depict her. She predates the myth by centuries, though might have influenced the myth of Lilith. Ishtar was awesome, too.
Oh my gosh, I'm glad it's not just me! I swear that I've already seen the Kate Yup Mukbang episode from before this week too, but I can't see another video on Simon's channels about it.
@@lexwithbub I don't think so as a fan fiction is classified as fiction written by a fan of, and featuring characters from, a particular TV series, movie, etc. So depending on your belief system it would be just fiction.
@@ZAV1944 considering they're all different fanboi's versions of events that supposedly happened some number of millennia earlier, that says fanfic to me 😂
Dracula is derived from Draco (Latin) and Drakon (Greek) mean "serpent", or, "dragon". The root of these words means "to watch" or "to guard with a sharp eye". It is a derivative of Greek drakōn "gazing" .
In defense of Herodotus, he was originally setting out to write a travel guide of the civilizations around the Mediterranean at the time, and explicitly stated that much of what he wrote was what he had been told, and he himself questioned the validity of much of it. He's only really a historian in hindsight. Also I had *allll* the Animorphs books as a kid. I absolutely loved that shit. Honestly great stories especially considering the target age group.
Yeah it's more of a "he is best historian we have", regardless if he was historian or not. Maybe future humans will be thinking Simon was really crappy historian saying lots of fabulations and not quite correct things :) Like vampires and ghosts don't exist.
@@PetrSojnek Simon does say some slightly incorrect things sometimes, but those are due to research or writing mistakes, or just inaccurate sources. Vampires and ghosts not being real? Nahh, he's 100% correct on that one
@@semaj_5022 Oh I meant incorrect information due to "we actually don't know yet". As in, are there ghosts? Probably not. But maybe yes. We don't know. In 500 years maybe we will know ghosts are real and science will be able to detect them. And somebody that laughed at the idea 500 years ago will be looked at as flat earther :D
Yeah, Herodotus gets a bit of an unfair hate. My man was trying his best and wholly admitted that he was writing what people *told* him about a bunch of shit and noted when he had first person experience. Iirc, in a bit where he was being told by some travelers that frankincense (or possibly myrrh?) was guarded by flying serpents he basically said that he thought it was bullshit but he couldn't say it for sure. That said, he clearly wrote it to be retold as a bit of a sideshow act, so he wasn't turning down any wild stories. His Historia is a pretty fun read. As a bonus fact, that myth about birds sitting in crocodile mouths dates back to Herodotus and most people today probably still think it's a real thing.
@@BruceBoyde a moment of silence for all the theoretical oriented greek highschool students, who were forced to read Herodotus in ancient greek, AND translate it :p
I’m surprised Katie didn’t mention The Vampyre by John William Polidori. Polidori was a friend of the Shelleys & participated in the same contest in which Mary Shelley wrote Frankenstein. Although The Vampyre was never expanded into a proper novel, the short story was published around 80 years before Dracula
@@katywatson4940 Carmilla is another preDracula vampire novel that is allegorically a warning against lesbianism as the vampire and victim are both young maiden type women. It's turned into a sort of cult LGBT romance in modern times.
Buffy the Vampire Slayer is probably the best vampire show as the writing is phenomenal (despite the retrospective knowledge of issues of the creator). The only other show as well written is Doctor Who (at least at the beginning of the newer series).
I honestly prefer classic Doctor Who because I love the low budget effects & the wild stories that could either be incredibly dark or incredibly silly. Also the Doctors dressed much more interestingly than the modern Doctors. Collin Baker’s coat was so ridiculous that’s almost as unbelievable as time travel itself. The most outlandish article of clothing in the ‘05 series is Matt Smith’s fez that he only wore a few times. Btw, I still love all the Doctor actors including Whittaker
I don't know your tastes in shows, but you might like 'What we do in the Shadows', its a dark humor comedy and is a fun watch. I usually stick to nonfiction but it is something my wife and I love to watch together.
@@OffRampTourist The series expands upon the movie, and it's just as good if not better, with cameos from the guys in the movie and also, pretty much any actor who has ever played a vampire. And it has Matt Berry, which alone means it's great.
@@jessicaclakley3691 I was going to say I don't recall ...but I'm on a mini computer right now. It was a Medal of Honor for wounds received on the Russian Front.
One of the best yet somehow relatively unknown vampire movies ever: The Hunger. And it's especially crazy that most people don't know about it, considering it starred effing SUSAN SARANDON and DAVID BOWIE!!!
One of my favorite book series is the “Vampire Chronicles” by Anne Rice. They are very well written and interesting which leads me to say my favorite the vampire Lestat.
Me too. Checking comments so see if anyone else had mentioned the Chronicles. I've read everything she wrote under 2 names and prefer her vampires to her witch series and her werewolf series. Her 2 historical fiction novels are wonderful, especially the one set in New Orleans.
Anne Rice also brought me into Vampire stories and after 20 years they still stick with me. After watching the series Interview with a Vampire that came out a while ago I had to go back and reread the book, cause I remembered it so different XD
I don't come here to see if myths are real, I just like to learn about them and have Simon and his writers present him :) I don't believe Vampires are real but I think they're very cool and thus are a part of legend all over the world. Werewolves are also pretty cool!
I love stories about paranormal, spiritual, or religious crap. They are a great lense to view and study human nature. Our fear of the unknown taken to such an extreme, that it takes on a life of its own. Fascinating!
If you have been living under a rock (or are as disconnected as Simon can be) and haven't seen it yet, I highly suggest watching What We Do in the Shadows. First the movie, then the television series. Brilliant representation of vampires and unbelievably funny.
i imagine his opinion toward comedy is similar to his about fiction. if its not based on reality its a waste of time. its a weird mindset but some people just cant get into stories that are outside the realms of possibility. Sadly people like that much actually be entertained by some of the content they avoid but they would rather remain ignorant to it. there is so much content in the world that your life can be consumed purely by fantasy as well as reality so i guess what ever tickles your fancy. The true Gs are the people into fantasy and turn it into reality. For example communicators in startrek were pure fantasy. They had GPS and you would flip them open to talk wirelessly from a planet you were on to your ship in orbit..... We got flip phones which i imagine were kinda themed off the OG communicators. And our phones now are more powerful than the computing power of what was proposed on the original star ships.
Oh, yes! Fantastic. Great giggle. Have not seen the series as I'm a "meh, too much and I'm bored" girl, but the movie is stunning. Taika didn't make "Black Sheep", but it's another NZ funny that's worth a watch.
@@bunnymad5049 if you liked the movie, you're doing yourself a disservice by not watching the series. You should definitely give it a shot. Watch it at your own pace. I think you will enjoy it just as much as the movie 😉
While you were mentioning a lot of vampire movies/books T.V. shows, I noticed a few lacking I considered "important" Dark Shadows, Forever Knight, Hotel Transylvania, the Rom-Coms Bite Me and Love at First Bite, and a whole plethora of Little Vampire movies/shows for kids.
twilight actually has inspired a whole new (god awful) subgenre in itself! for example the fifty shades trilogy and other very, very subpar and problematic erotica
I live in CT, USA & I’m kinda surprised y’all didn’t mention the vampire burials here. There was a cemetery found w/ multiple burials where the head was removed, the femurs where placed across the body & a brick was placed in the mouth. Historical documents showed that the bodies had been buried, exhumed, the body rearranged, the heart removed & burned & fed to the family mbrs of the deceased. Apparently it’s a Greek or Mediterranean way of dealing w/ vampires. These poor ppl were probably dealing w/ lyme’s disease or tuberculosis tho. You like to say the past is the worst but let’s face it, between the history of witches, vampires, werewolves & headless horseman New England is the worst.
Same. I thought this video would mostly be about the New England-area vampires, actually, which is maybe a bit USA-centrist of me, but it's the most recent documented instance of people actually believing they were dealing with vampires and it's so interesting that it was SO recent. The story of the family in the "They Made a Tonic" episode of the Lore podcast is one of the craziest, saddest vampire stories ever.
Some scientists believe the vampire legend might date back before written history back to cave man days and was used as a way to explain away rabies in primitive cultures. One reason is the symptoms of rabies are similar to the vampire legends; avoiding light, biting at people, attacking them, retreating into darkness, the receding of the gums leading the teeth to look longer like fangs, etc... Another reason for this theory is due to the animals that vampires are supposed to change into and how these animals vary from culture to culture and location to location. In China its the fox, in eastern Europe its the wolf, in western cultures like England and America the bat. These animals also correspond in those regions to the animal most common to contract rabies: China, the fox... Eastern Europe, the wolf... America, the bat. In fact these animals would themselves hide in caves when infected and would attack people if they strayed too close. And those who watched their loved ones grow rabid would have had no way of understanding what rabies was, trying to explain it away in whatever primitive, superstitious way they could (ie: people turned into bloodthirsty monsters possessed by demons after being bitten by mad animals or other infected people). In regards to Vlad Dracula there was another reason the locals thought he turned into a vampire. It was taught by the Christian Orthodox church in that area of the world that, if you converted to Roman Catholicism before you died, you'd come back as a vampire. Vlad converted 3 days before his death. Otherwise the people of that region to this day look upon Vlad as being a more of a George Washington type of figure, a hero, for defending the region from the Turk invaders. And, getting back to the rabies connection, Dracula was seen as being able top change into a wolf and/or bat, two animals most commonly known for rabies in both Dracula's part of the world as well as Bram Stoker's.
By the time rabies effects the brain the victim only has a day or two to live. Rabies is 100% lethal and kills very quickly. If rabies was involved in the vampire stories don’t you think death within a day of severe symptoms would have been an important detail that wouldn’t have been left out? Biting and things like that are also very rare in humans. Seizures, fear and inability to swallow water are the most common symptoms in humans.
One could tie the old lesser known myth that vampires couldn't cross running water with rabies hydrophobia as well. One thing that doesn't fit in what you said though is that rabid bats specifically would hide in caves. Bats that are ill instinctively leave their colony, which evolution-wise spares massive outbreaks, since colonies can be hundreds of thousands strong in incredibly close quarters. You're more likely to find a rabid bat anywhere but a cave. For that matter if you can reach a bat, DO NOT TOUCH IT. I love bats and they are incredibly beneficial and essential to the ecosystems they exist within, on a level with bees on the number of species collapse that would come from their extermination, but if you can touch the bat it's either sick or hurt, so leave it to a professional-- if you search for Bat World Sanctuary's official site, they have a tool that can help you locate a rescuer nearest you to come help the creature, and these people are almost always prevaccinated for rabies with the equipment to handle a bat safely.
On Elizabeth: I really do wish I remembered the youtuber who did a deep dive on her, but they uncovered something interesting. Turns out one her Husband had the same sort of reputation for abusive behavour, a real match made in hell sort of situation for those poor peasant forced to deal with them. Most of the family power came through him, so when he passed on the enemies of the family circled... then these rumors started being investigated. The plot to lock her up was carried out by one of the people who swore to her husband to protect her, and likely what saved her.
She was in power for quite a long time after he died. She really was a victim of horrible sexism and power-hungry nobles. I mean, she wasn't great to her servants or the peasants, but she wasn't anything they accused her of being. They just didn't like a woman having power and owning that much valuable land. It's so sad that her reputation has gone down in history as those lies.
yea apparently the husband was massive sexual sadist and tortured raped and murdered the young staff . EB joined him and they Murdered many of the children of the village . She got caught out when she started having daughters of other aristos visiting /some say she was running a kind of finishing school ... n when they started disappearing people paid attention ....
I don't even know the difference between sets, I watch so many of Simon's channels half the time I figure out which one it is in around 5 minutes in and I'm 100% ok with that
You sound like my son! When he was 3 yrs old he reasoned that Santa couldn't possibly exist because it would be impossible to visit every child in the world in 24hrs and carry enough cargo on his sleigh. I was dead proud and was just about to congratulate him when my wife jumped in and convinced him of the existence of magic with an appeal to authority (namely herself). Apparently my son knowing the truth would destroy the childhoods of countless children and could well lead to a cataclysmic future, or something.
@@ardenalexa94 it is by the one and only Mike Flannigan but it is a standalone series with no ties to The Haunting series (aside from a few of the incredible cast members).
When I was a kid, I had a really bad stuttering problem, one summer I read about 20 or 30 of the Animorphs book series, and my stuttering has pretty much gone away ever since. My life would be a whole lot different if it weren't for the Animorphs series. Nevertheless, big fan of the show, Simon! Much love from Ontario, Canada!
My favourite super natural series has to be Being Human, which follows a Vampire, Werewolf and a Ghost. My favourite Vampire movie has to be the Blade Trilogy.
I've been looking forward to this since Katy mentioned it in response to a prior comment, and I am not disappointed! Simon isn't as salty in this episode as I might imagine vampires ought to illicit, but being a writer with "vampires" amongst my cast, I've found this episode very well constructed. I went with blood-born parasites, but tried to consider a lot of the lore Katy has wrapped up in this episode. I commend your research, Katy, and thank you for plugging all this information into a single episode. I will definitely point any junior aspiring artists towards this episode, should they wish to fill themselves with knowledge before designing a vampire of their own!
Anne Boleyn was executed with a sword, as it was considered more humane. According to accounts of the execution she was upright on her knees and the executioner removed her head with a single stroke after signaling his assistant to make a noise to distract her.
He stood hard to make her turn her head to make the cut easier he was brought from France due to her nobility not an assistant there was no assistant stood on the executioners block she had her ladies in waiting collect her corpse and head they and the executioner were the only people on the podium at the time that is written in multiple accounts.
Hey Simon, I once had a rental apartment that had large rats in which the cheap landlord would do nothing. Many common traps failed. I got a neon sign transformer and put electrodes over a bucket with food. They died one after another for a week. One draw back, the smell of burnt rat,...is bad....
Great episode! Simon, I think you’d like What We Do in the Shadows, it’s absolutely hilarious, just straight up comedy. The humor is somewhat dark, of course, but it’s a riot!
Well to clarify why Buffy kept intriguing your younger self: Sarah Michelle Gellar (Buffy), Alyson Hannigan (Willow), David Boreanaz (Angel). There was one reason for everyone. Also it was the important ABC of the supernatural: Angel, Buffy, Charmed. I think the weirdest scene about Vampires for me came from "An interview with a Vampire". The saddest one as well. The weirdest one was when he talked about how happy he was when movies showed him the sunrise (showing a scene from Superman III, I think). And the saddest one was the mother and child the main character sired, which were put in a well to be killed by the sun by the other vampires. That's because he can't have nice things. It was one of the movies which scenes stayed with me for over 20 years. I did Twilight back to back with movies 1 and 2, then three on another evening and i think 4 and 5 in cinema. It was fairly low on the quality scale if you want Vampires or movies worth 90 minutes (4 and 5 were just stretched to make more money). I'd go to "Vampire Diaries" or thier Spin-off "The Originals" but even those are more soap opera than action series as Buffy was. The From Dusk Till Dawn series with Wilmer Valderrama and guesting Danny Trejo is probably better, although they are Mexican snake-based Vampires. At least it was more action, though cut really short. I still have a bit of hope, that Vampire The Masquerade Swansong is any good. The last one for Windows XP (Bloodlines 2) was really awesome though also incredibly short.
I think I have a few guesses at what appealed to young Simon in Buffy. In order of how often each topic was featured in the show, these are: Sarah Michelle Gellar, Alyson Hannigan, Emma Caulfield, Michelle Trachtenberg, Charisma Carpenter, Amber Benson, Eliza Dushku, Juliet Landau, and Mercedes McNab. Just a guess.
I think I was so into Animorphs as a pre-teen because the book series brought up a lot of moral and ethical questions and was aimed at an age group that are developing their own sense of right and wrong and personal identity. Am I a good person if I also hurt people? What lengths is it acceptable to go for survival? The aliens aren’t a singular evil group. And the humans aren’t perfect either. The major alien species involved are desperate to survive and see their actions as justified and necessary for their continued existence. The kids are in a situation with factors well beyond their control. They have a limited ability to be proactive and are largely trying to make the best of the worst choices available to them. And they have to try to live with the consequences. It’s messy and morally ambiguous at times.
I sure hope Simon's sister wasn't reading those books when she was five. A named, speaking character was graphically eaten alive in the first chapter of the first book.
@@realityhelix564 I had the same thought. I was like "Who is letting her read these at FIVE?" 😂 Beyond anything else, there's no way to even comprehend what's going on in the books at that age.
Sleeping Beauty: She is discovered (unconscious) in her castle by a wandering king, who "carries her to a bed, where he gathers the first fruits of love." He leaves her there and she later gives birth to twins.
Psychic Vampires were in the show What we do in the Shadows and instead of feeding on blood they fed on people's energy. In the show Colin the energy vampire was meant to be the most boring blandest dude who worked at the office who always tried to have a lengthy conversation with you at work about the most uninteresting stuff ever and constantly making awkward small talk and he says to the viewer "You probably already know an energy vampire like me yourselves" Show is hilarious.
Great one Katy. I love vampire history too. Thank you for writing this one. Too add to the vampire list I like Love at First Bite and there is also Once bitten and Underworld.
I thought he would end up discussing more alternate forms of vampires. I've always thought the funniest one was vampire pumpkins/watermelons! (They can turn into vampires after being left out for a certain amount of days, lol)
Simon, liking Buffy just means you have some good taste. Also I'm not a big fan of horror movies and don't watch many. But loooove me some vampire movies. Lol Even horror-y ones. XD
Hey, sword nerd here, and it largely depends on the sword, You'll have one hell of a time trying to use a one-handed sword to cut someone's head off in one swing, And both Katanas and Longswords will struggle with it, But if you have a bigger sword handy like a Claymore (the two-handed one) basically anyone could do it with some good edge alignment, So overall it's not that hard as long as you bring the right type of sword
A woman at a party runs up to Count Dracula and smacks him over the head with a pork pie. Dracula says, "Who vas that voman?" Another party goer says, "That was Buffet the Vampire Slayer."
Simon is a fan of Science Fiction, but not Fantasy - THAT is beyond Cool, imoo.... The Paranormal is consistantly skewered in the Whistler Unmerciless Wit fashion - a Tale of Neverending Amusement!! Much Thanks for your sane take on the fact that the Twilight Series blows, and that Existence is NOT a Hammer Film script.....
The garlic would have worked on the vampires from Lost Boys, but they had invited Max (the vampire) into the house, making him immune to the normal vampire weaknesses (garlic, holy water, lack of reflection, etc.). Max even explains this to the boys at one point.
In case it wasn't said: your relief sculpture image of Lilith isn't Lilith. That's the sumerian goddess Ishtar. Who predates Jewish myths by several centuries.
this is such weird timing. i was just thinking about vampires yesterday and how inconvenient it would be adjusting to summer hours, if they're the type that burn and not the sparkly ones that is. this was a fun episode!
I like the myth that some vampires couldn't cross moving water, in these modern days with modern plumbing moving water through cities and houses they'd be screwed lol
Lilith actually left Adam because she wanted to be on top sometimes. Adam said no, so she went to find someone who would. At least that is one story. Oh, and there is treatment for rabies, provided you go to the doctor. Nor is it 12 jabs in your tummy. One in the arm and your back on the street.
Animorphs were the bomb. Teens gifted the power to turn into animals from good aliens to combat earth's demise to bad aliens. Get into Simon, get into it. :)
The twilight movie made me a jerk. I was gifted it by the boyfriend of the time's mom, he'd let her know I was into vampire movies (I just enjoy them in general). But something about the twilight movies had never appealed to me. So I thought I have this movie I should watch it. I go to put it on one day and the boyfriend pipes up with "could you not?" when I asked why he let me know I'd put it in two other times and apparently wandered away without thinking and he'd sat and watched it both times but couldn't handle a third. I can't think of any other movie that I walked away from without realizing it- I do vaguely remember thinking "oh this is crap" and I think maybe I got up to go to the bathroom and never returned it was not on purpose but it was kind of jerky.
42:15 I have a friend who has hemochromatosis, and it’s actually more complicated. He has to go in and have his blood “cleaned”. It comes out almost black, and causes a lot of health problems.
That blood thing works in rats so it might work in humans but I don’t think there’s any solid proof of that yet. They put platelets from young rats in old rats and noticed a few improvements.
I absolutely love groggily waking up in the morning putting on RU-vid while making breakfast and finding another one of your videos this is the perfect energy first thing in the morning
I suspect the fanfiction connection Simon’s making here is that Fifty Shades of Grey started off as Twilight fanfic 😂😂😂 (also the HP connection is Robert Pattinson being in both lol)
My favorite vampire is the Vampire Lestat from Anne Rice's novels. It wasn't Snow White, it was Sleeping Beauty. Sometimes children are actually born with teeth fully erupted. Rare, but happens. Silver Bullets are for Werewolves, not vampires.
Vampires in Lore are also burned by Silver, not just Werewolves. That is also the reason that Vampires "don't have a mirror image". At the time this kind of Lore plopped up, Mirrors were made out of silver. Silver is in many folk tales the remedy against a monster. The Greek "Vrykolakas" and the Romanian "Strigoi" are both Creatures of Folklore that ride the line between Werewolves and Vampires and both in their respective Stories are harmed by Silver. I've also read somewhere, that Silver was mostly used as an explanation, because Judas was paid in silver to betray Jesus. But that seems counterintuitive to me, with all the good/bad association. Then again theres a theory, that Silver is a pure element and therefore not corrupted by mankind. But that also is kind of counterintuitive, because why not gold, why not copper? Both naturally occurring metals. At the end we just have to accept it is folklore, and at one time in history someone chose silver and everyone else just ran with it. The reasoning behind that may be for ever be lost to the sands of time.
