Category:
Fads

Hey, Let’s Twist!



The movie so great it inspired its own line of Ivey, Jivey suits for Cats!

image
image

Original ad here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Jan 24, 2017 - Comments (7)
Category: Fads, Fashion, Movies, Music, Teenagers, 1960s, Dance

Sun Eating

From Hong Kong comes the latest fad in dieting. It's called "sun eating" or "sun gazing". You stand outside and stare at the setting sun, thereby consuming it's solar energy, which reduces (or even entirely eliminates) your body's need for food. Says one sun eater, "Some of us who have finished the therapy now eat less, and others don’t have to eat at all."

The concept seems very similar to the practice of breatharianism (or inedia), whose practitioners believe that it's possible to live without food, subsisting only on air and sunlight. For obvious reasons, serious practitioners of breatharianism don't tend to live very long. The ones that cheat, however, stick around to spread the word.

Of course, it's possible that the fad of sun eating is entirely a creation of the media (i.e., a reporter took a few pictures of people looking at a sunset, then claimed they were "sun eating"). It's hard to know what the truth is with these things.




More info: mirror.co.uk

Posted By: Alex - Thu Sep 10, 2015 - Comments (6)
Category: Fads, Food

Kite Boarding


Also known as kite surfing Is a popular if dangerous sport. It combines surfing with getting blown around while flying a kite. The main problem with it, as far as I can see, is not so much the flying/surfing as it is the starting and stopping. Another place for Darwin-esque culling of the herd to take place.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Sep 05, 2015 - Comments (4)
Category: Accidents, Fads, Oceans and Maritime Pursuits, Recreation

50 guys in one bed

May 15, 1964: the students of Wakefield College in England attempted to set a record for the most people piled in one bed. They were hoping to make it to 50, but when they got to around 47 things started to go wrong. Frazer Cartwright, who was on the bottom, gasped, "Get off... quick... I'm..." Then blood began gushing from his nose, and he passed out. Luckily the audience intervened before he wound up dead. Cartwright vowed never to repeat that experience again.





Sources: The Terre Haute Tribune - May 16, 1964; Tuscaloosa News - May 15, 1964.

Posted By: Alex - Sat Jun 27, 2015 - Comments (5)
Category: Fads, World Records, 1960s

Walking in the streets

Here's another idiotic fad of yesteryear (the early 1960s) — teenagers walking in the streets: "Not only do many students shun the sidewalks completely but they are walking four and five abreast, completely taking up one lane of the road."


Source: The Holland Evening Sentinel - Feb 21, 1963.

Posted By: Alex - Thu Apr 16, 2015 - Comments (9)
Category: Fads, 1960s

Placenta Smoothies



Unsafe for Revulsion-prone Stomachs.

Posted By: Paul - Sun Mar 22, 2015 - Comments (4)
Category: Body, Blood, Cannibalism, Eccentrics, Fads, Food

Uranium Dirt Sitting Houses

image

Briefly in the 1950s it became popular to sit in mildly radioactive dirt as a panacea for many ills.

The house above in Rotan, TX, was one such establishment.

image

Article here.

LIFE magazine article here.

Posted By: Paul - Tue Dec 16, 2014 - Comments (6)
Category: Fads, Atomic Power and Other Nuclear Matters, 1950s, Diseases

Red Out

The 1948 high school fad of "Red-Out." Certainly one of the stupidest high school fads ever.

What it involved: "Students would kneel, breathe deeply 10 times, close their lips around their thumbs and then blow, without actually exhaling, until they turned red and passed out."

Bonus thrill: students would wake up believing they had been chased by monsters!


Lubbock Evening Journal - Nov 26 - 1948

Posted By: Alex - Sat Nov 29, 2014 - Comments (6)
Category: Fads, School, 1940s

High School Fads of 1947

image

image

Just two of the reputed high school crazes of nearly seventy years ago.

Read more here.

Posted By: Paul - Wed Nov 12, 2014 - Comments (6)
Category: Fads, Teenagers, 1940s

Page 5 of 9 pages ‹ First  < 3 4 5 6 7 >  Last ›




weird universe thumbnail
Who We Are
Alex Boese
Alex is the creator and curator of the Museum of Hoaxes. He's also the author of various weird, non-fiction, science-themed books such as Elephants on Acid and Psychedelic Apes.

Paul Di Filippo
Paul has been paid to put weird ideas into fictional form for over thirty years, in his career as a noted science fiction writer. He has recently begun blogging on many curious topics with three fellow writers at The Inferior 4+1.

Contact Us
Monthly Archives
March 2024 •  February 2024 •  January 2024

December 2023 •  November 2023 •  October 2023 •  September 2023 •  August 2023 •  July 2023 •  June 2023 •  May 2023 •  April 2023 •  March 2023 •  February 2023 •  January 2023

December 2022 •  November 2022 •  October 2022 •  September 2022 •  August 2022 •  July 2022 •  June 2022 •  May 2022 •  April 2022 •  March 2022 •  February 2022 •  January 2022

December 2021 •  November 2021 •  October 2021 •  September 2021 •  August 2021 •  July 2021 •  June 2021 •  May 2021 •  April 2021 •  March 2021 •  February 2021 •  January 2021

December 2020 •  November 2020 •  October 2020 •  September 2020 •  August 2020 •  July 2020 •  June 2020 •  May 2020 •  April 2020 •  March 2020 •  February 2020 •  January 2020

December 2019 •  November 2019 •  October 2019 •  September 2019 •  August 2019 •  July 2019 •  June 2019 •  May 2019 •  April 2019 •  March 2019 •  February 2019 •  January 2019

December 2018 •  November 2018 •  October 2018 •  September 2018 •  August 2018 •  July 2018 •  June 2018 •  May 2018 •  April 2018 •  March 2018 •  February 2018 •  January 2018

December 2017 •  November 2017 •  October 2017 •  September 2017 •  August 2017 •  July 2017 •  June 2017 •  May 2017 •  April 2017 •  March 2017 •  February 2017 •  January 2017

December 2016 •  November 2016 •  October 2016 •  September 2016 •  August 2016 •  July 2016 •  June 2016 •  May 2016 •  April 2016 •  March 2016 •  February 2016 •  January 2016

December 2015 •  November 2015 •  October 2015 •  September 2015 •  August 2015 •  July 2015 •  June 2015 •  May 2015 •  April 2015 •  March 2015 •  February 2015 •  January 2015

December 2014 •  November 2014 •  October 2014 •  September 2014 •  August 2014 •  July 2014 •  June 2014 •  May 2014 •  April 2014 •  March 2014 •  February 2014 •  January 2014

December 2013 •  November 2013 •  October 2013 •  September 2013 •  August 2013 •  July 2013 •  June 2013 •  May 2013 •  April 2013 •  March 2013 •  February 2013 •  January 2013

December 2012 •  November 2012 •  October 2012 •  September 2012 •  August 2012 •  July 2012 •  June 2012 •  May 2012 •  April 2012 •  March 2012 •  February 2012 •  January 2012

December 2011 •  November 2011 •  October 2011 •  September 2011 •  August 2011 •  July 2011 •  June 2011 •  May 2011 •  April 2011 •  March 2011 •  February 2011 •  January 2011

December 2010 •  November 2010 •  October 2010 •  September 2010 •  August 2010 •  July 2010 •  June 2010 •  May 2010 •  April 2010 •  March 2010 •  February 2010 •  January 2010

December 2009 •  November 2009 •  October 2009 •  September 2009 •  August 2009 •  July 2009 •  June 2009 •  May 2009 •  April 2009 •  March 2009 •  February 2009 •  January 2009

December 2008 •  November 2008 •  October 2008 •  September 2008 •  August 2008 •  July 2008 •