Welcome to you softcore History. Hello, and welcome to softcore History. My
name's Jake Goldman. I'm joined as always by Dan Rojester and Rob Fox.
How's it going today, boys? Yeah, you couldn't even flip the switch
to start the show. I'm sorry the fuck just zero energy off the bat.
I'm riding high. Rob's coming in in a good mood. You have
COVID. I think I've tested negget. Why are you still testing? Because,
don't worry, guys, before the show, he's spitting in both of
our mouths. That's right, that's the that's the real That's how I test
for COVID. If they get horribly sick, then I'll know. You do
sound like shit. I know like you sound like fucking dog shit. I
know I'm talking to that microphone. Later, it's not we'll switch. We'll
switch the condoms on the mic. Yeah, you might honestly want to do
that. Yeah, we'll switch the mic condoms. It'll only make me stronger.
I've been tracted COVID like four times. We'll have how and I've only
increased. It's my bench since I don't know if there's a connection to that.
Oh maybe I'll try. Maybe I'll try bench pressing, and maybe it's
better incline only. Oh I don't too flat as a mold. Yeah that
makes sense. At your funeral, I'm gonna be like some say Dan's heart
grew four sizes that day, and it did. The COVID gave him myocarditis
and he was not long for this world. From there, he collapsed on
that Lifetime Fitness basketball court. Trying to prove to him, Actually, I
know you'd be benching. I wright irony. I wrong, it would be
d benching and your heart just explodes. He drops it on his neck.
Yeah, actually no, it's inclined, so he wouldn't dropping on his neck.
Just the top of my the top of it just crushed his big heart.
Yeah. Who's the USC running back back in the day that dropped it
on his neck, like Johnson or whatever? I forget. Yeah, that's
pretty funny. Though. Almost died, Yeah he really, It almost decapitated
him. Yeah, yeah, it's really bad. But yeah, be stronger
for those who happened to him in the weight room, so it didn't happen
to him on the field, that's right. He never got rushed in the
neck by another player. Yep. That's for sure smart. Yeah. So
for those of you that don't listen to the Patreon, you should go to
saton dot com slash softcore history two additional episodes every week, one a normal
episode just like this, and another drops on Friday, either a voicemail like
user kind of interactive episode yea, or watch along. I found some great
old video, old instructional videos for us to watch along too. One of
them is just like how to make a sandwich and it's like a woman in
a kitchen no way, yeah, I mean it's just like it's so it's
so on the nose. Is it good? Though? Like I didn't want
I don't want to ruin it. I wouldn't react live. I just see
it, saw the still in the title, you know what I mean.
Like, but it's that we watch like that type of ship. We've done
like Duck Duck and Cover Duck, and we did do like an entire hour
and a half of just nuclear war psa s. Yeah, it's true we
did. But today I'm back from me. By the way, if you
only listen to the main I'm back from Maine. Brought with me some fun
stuff and uh, I'm not gonna talk about Mane at all. They were
talking about stick fighting. Stick fighting. Stick fighting brought back Maine with you.
I brought it back yep, in a way. Yeah, it's just
like it's just like a weathered old lobster fisherman. Now. I'm a longshoreman
now, yeah, yeah, you should address I got a crab on my
head. You do, you are wearing a crab on It was always my
backup plan. A longshoreman just kind of work on the kind of like a
waterman. I mean, you have a boat face. Oh face body mc
boat face, body mc boat face. Over here, you got a you
got a boatman's face. You know what I mean. I take that as
a compliment as actually, you know, take it however you want. It's
a fact. There's some poor girl waiting by the coastline every night. Just
I hope he gets home safe, yeah, hoping that the lighthouse finally spots
his ship. It's long gone, it's gone, it's washed out. Yeah.
The blood of my eyes is m that too. Well, let's get
right to it. Beginning of the late thirteen hundreds and lasting until the early
seventeen hundreds. So oh, I thought this was gonna be like Appalachian stick
fight. No, no, it's way more cultured. Actually, Swiss stick
fight close, very close. Mock battles consisting of mobs of working men with
shields and helmets would take place in the streets of Venice Sweet So I'm sorry
they're just LARPers. I don't think you can lap in the fifteen hundreds.
I think you just are that you can larp on it. You can larp
at any time, I guess. Yeah, if it is a mock battle,
it is a larp. There was in college. There used to be
as bar. It's an apartment complex like everything else now, but it's like
a cross like diagonal from this park that these dudes used to larpen and we
would just sit on the patio and watch the medieval fight for lard. That's
why, Yeah, I should put on a phone. I wanted to,
but I was afraid of being mocked, and so I sat there just like,
yeah, well no, I silently Chris hiked all of their moves and
do they have magic moves? No, it was I think it was straight
up. That's cool. You know, you could actually like go sword fight
somewhere around town, like they have a sword fighting league, like medieval style.
You put on chainmail and like Knight's armor, you can also beat the
shit out of somebody with a keyboard and silicon valley. What yeah, I
have those like fight clubs with just desk in office, just in an office
supplies. All right, that's that's on point. That sounds about right.
But yeah, these men would beat the shit out of each other, not
with their fists, with wooden sticks, oftentimes for hours on end. Well,
the battles may seem like silly past time similar to English medieval football,
they were anything, but men were routinely injured, with broken bones and disfigurement
being a common occurrence, well more rare. Many participants were inevitably killed during
these fights. Dude, all right, obviously the death would have to be
curbed. But can you imagine if this and not football or this and football
had like caught on and you just have like you know, obviously the tactics
and weaponry become outdated as like gunpowder, it becomes more prevalous like that,
but you just still had like a league where you know, like a thousand
guys on each side had a medieval battle and it's like the Ordendo Nights.
Perhaps you Combine football with stick fighting, and you get Adrian Peterson. True
is the opponent the kids a child Adrian Peterson versus one hundred misbehaving children.
Pick your switch, go outside, pick them switches anyway. The first official
record of these Venetians stick battles dates back to thirteen sixty nine. The authors
stated that the fights are not lowly things of little importance, but of the
highest consideration in Venice. In fourteen twenty one, the fights evaulved and they
moved from streets and fields to take place in a more specific venue. They
solely took place on bridges in Venice. That's pretty sweet. It's tight.
They would just have giant stick fights on the bridges of Venice over the canals.
Dude, that's fucking dope. So it's essentially just like two like columns
of men meeting on a bridge, just beating the crap out of each other,
throwing them out. You're eating other guys off the bridge and ship.
Yep, you would watch the fuck out of that. It's the sport.
I didn't know I needed to see. Oh my god. Yeah. So
once on the bridges, these fights became much more of a spectator sport.
People from around Venice would gather at bridges where fights would take place, and
became such a point of pride that the Venetian government arranged them for honored guests.
But you know, like a lot of people outside of Venice didn't really
know what to make of them, like what the fuck is going on?
From you yourself can participate in these today where soccer hooligans, it's not the
same because they just you know, I want like an organized army, not
like a green street hooligan. The situation. I want to be a part
of a failings. It's gonna be hard to do. A failings on a
bridge right now would be seemingly p actually because you're in a column. Yeah,
yeah, you got a whole rank, and then that really is all
it is, like you it's and that's how old battles with sword and shield
were basically where it was like there wasn't much killing until somebody broke rank.
Yeah, and then the fucking floodgates open. Well. In fifteen seventy four,
a bridge battle conducted by six hundred Venetian artisans was arranged for the French
King Henry the Third. Isn't that kind of like what slap fighting, is
you and your boys just kind of like until somebody lands that really good shot.
Yeah, then it turns into a real fight. Yeah. Then you're
just throwing fists at that point, right like it, Like, I guarantee
you this start, this fight starts out. They're trying to hit like these
guys like knuckles and shins like shit. That hurts. But is it just
hurts, right, It hurts like a bitch, and then they can be
like fuck, can you throw them over the bridge. But eventually you get
a shot that piss you off so bad that you just start swinging for the
eyes. We'll actually talk about that in a moment. That does happen a
lot. However, when Henry the third, the King of France, saw
this, he reportedly complained about the event. He was like, it's too
small to be a real battle, and it's too cruel to be a game.
I don't know what this is. This man is wrong about the ladder.
Yeah, no, I agree. I guarantee you. There's less CTE
than an NFL game today. Oh for this, Yeah, in the initial
form, probably it's funny you mentioned boxing. We'll get to that later.
An entire army of Parkinson's. It's just zombies. Really, if you think
about it, just slowly shaking and sealed stick fighting district. You don't want
to go down there. It's pretty sad. I don't want to go down
that road. Get off. During the fifteen hundreds and sixteen hundreds, of
spectacles grew in significance. Several times a year, Venetian workers and tradesmen would
gather on particular Sundays or holiday afternoons to fight for possession of a bridge.
So this was all about bragging rights on who owned what bridge amongst different factions.
They take taxes on it. Nope, it was just like my bridge.
Yep. Oh, so it's like a war. It's like a gang
where it's like, just is are block and it's like, well, no,
that's the city of Los Angeles's a block and if they wanted to,
they could clear it out. Well, it's not even that. It's just
like we won that bridge. They don't like own the tur if they don't
charge a fair or anything. It's just like we won that bridge. Okay,
so the bridge is like a trophy. It's got belt. Ballers are
attacking the bridge again, getting the baller alert. It's what was it?
The ballers and the yeah good good game, sant Andreas Grove Street baby h
Such pre range battles would take several forms, from individual duels and small scale
brawls for a few hundred or thousand onlookers to enormous ones prepared days and events
and held for hours in front of tens of thousands of spectators. Basically,
if there was a fight that was planned a couple of days in advance,
almost the entire city of Venice was going to watch it. Fuck. Yeah,
it's like a college town. It all shuts down for the game exactly.
No, I mean it's it's very college football esque. Yeah. So
they were waged by all types of citizens, but for the most part the
fights were largely civil. However, these battles were not just limited to Venice.
From as early as the tenth century, in many Italian communities, rival
bands of youth were known to battle in open fields using fists, stones,
or wooden swords and shields. Venice just did the bridge thing because because Venice
has bridges, was Venice the most organized? Yes, okay by far,
Like everyone had mock fights. Everyone had mock fights outside of the like shivel
risk tournament kind of style stuff. Like everyone still wanted to fight too,
but Venice just was like our things bridges. Now, yeah, they got
the sponsorships right, the Venetian banks. It's true. God, damn dude,
I just want to go to this. I want to be a commander
in one of it. You know what I mean, just send in the
second platoon flank. Yeah, it's fun, fake war. It's fun as
hell. I mean I love paintball, yeah, I don't play it very
often. And but when I mean when I say paintball, I mean like
in the woods. I don't like that speedball shit. We just run around
behind balloons or when little inflatable things. Oh yeah, it's lame. That's
kind of lame. One professor of Renaissance Italian history tells us that such pretend
wars between just normal everyday fighters were so common that many people generally owned sticks
and rocks and protective shields and helmets and armor. Like most people just had
their like, oh that's my like rec league stick in armor. It's like
if Barrett golf clubs you have, you don't even use it that much as
you're just like, yeah, there's my golf clubs. Yeah, exactly.
Everyone had like a fighting stick, yeah, and a helmet. The reason
a lot of these took place in Venice specifically was that in medieval Venice,
shiverick tournaments were far less common because of where they were and conducted mostly by
professional soldiers rather than Venetians. So the bridge battles a lot of the Venetians
the opportunity to appraise the prowess of their own troops and roar the skillful fighters
as well. Also imagine you're you're like, god, that's a hard city
to conquer. If your main sports fighting with sticks, it's yeah, it's
fake war, Yeah, definitely. And h fourteen fifty eight, the Venetian
commander Bartolomeo Colioni had a tournament battle between two squadrons of seventy men at arms
spot with full weapons. The contest was for possession of a small wooden castle
erected outside the Doge's palace. Wait full weapon what? Yeah they did this
one guy, this one commander got all the best people from all the stick
fighting factions. Yeah, it was like, whoever wins you get a castle.
I mean like swords and ship, yeah, like metal swords. Yeah.
Basically they weren't. They weren't supposed to kill each other, but it
was who could take the bridge basically, and whoever took this bridge in particular
got a wooden castle. Sweet. I don't know. This kind of sounds
like a bunch of bitches compared to the Scots talked about it the Thirty on
thirty like m M A battles that they would have until the death. Yeah,
on the Highlands civilized, right, the Scots aren't. And I say,
as an Irish person, that's basically the same thing mud people at that
point in history. Yeah. So originally the Venetian bridge fights were waged with
sharpened sticks or canes from local lagoons, so they'd go pull like I guess
sugar cane or like root cane or whatever. Yeah, so big thick sticks.
I don't know, whatever cane grows and it'll like sugar cane and no,
no whatever, it's just some kind of read yeah, some kind of
thick reddick pretty much. They called him India Sticks. Just Tommy Dreamer hitting
you over the head. Ec dub ec dubby Is that that ship for the
video we saw the other day of Aubrey Marcus probably what where he has sword
fights. Yeah, retreats sword stick fights, and they're like, there's no
like they're not doing anything real like form wise, They're just like swinging at
each other. Like, well, he's very graceful in his like practice,
but when it comes to actual combat, it's just like swing for the fences.
Yeah, all home us just like yeah, yeah, in his yard,
he's like yeah wow. And then in the fight he's like, because
that's how it works. One goes out the window. Everybody's gonna plan until
they get hit in the face with a kindos tis. All that stuff just
goes out the window when that first bullet flies past your head. Uh.
Basically, the sticks were customarily hardened at the point by repeatedly soaking them and
boil and then boiling oil, and then sharpened. Because of this, people
typically wore an iron helmet, and a lot of people started wearing like chain
mail to make sure they didn't die from getting poked too hard. Yeah it
sounds like a spear basically. Yeah. They also started adopting leather and wooden
shields as well. The battles themselves were staged and fought without any formal or
written regulations, though not details survive of the actual combats, Like as far
as rules go, we can imagine the jumbled crowds of men with sharp sticks
stabbing and striking, even without intent to injure. It would be a quite
dangerous activity because yeah, they're hitting each other with sharp sticks. I mean
yeah, so like essentially at the very like you're still you're like getting cut,
you know what I mean. And then this paintball is not quite that
bad, but like, I mean, you can you can get lit up
pretty good in paintball, Like you it'll draw bloods if you get shot near
enough to the gun and oh totally like a close enough range whatever, and
typically you're only getting welts, which a lot of these people did. Like
typically uh, injuries typically range from scratches and sprains mostly, but they're always
the knocked out teeth. Another really common thing though, was dislocated jaws of
course. Yeah, and then gouged out eyes can the worst one where people
would be crippled because they'd have their rib cages smashed and their legs trampled on.
Yeah that sounds about right, yeah, I mean think I mean,
they're they're on a bridge. There's nowhere for you to go, exactly,
you fall down if someone cuts your fucking achilles or something, you know what
I mean, Like just you falled out, looked. The battle's got to
go on. And you talked about this earlier, but a slap fight turning
into a real fight. So the tension of the events ran high, and
the sight of a single dagger drawn in anger, as opposed to the approved
weapons of the fight, could instantly cause one hundred others to be pulled into
the brawling from the crowd. Basically, if people saw you pulling some street
ship and you get your ass jumped, Yeah, like a hundred people just
like no, no, or I wonder if they were ever like your side
was losing and you're just like, hey pulled the dagg out of head and
then you and then you just everyone runs in and yeah, kills him.
Yeah the boy who grabbed dagger. Well it doesn't matter that because you killed
everybody. Yeah, you got what you wanted. I mean, it was
largely considered a bitch move to pull it actual like weapon, right, that
was not one of the I guess sanctioned weapons of the fight. I get
that. He you know, you can't walk anymore, and he your jaws
broken forever and you lost an eyeball, but you need to pulling a dagger.
Come on, guys, buddy, this is just make them up.
You're just the skater. Kids would the blind guy, now there's no reason
to skitter. Kids in Philly would always bring knives and brass knucks to fight.
Brass knuckles. Man, that's a's gonna use it, dude, it's
a coward move one. I don't think anyone that's ever I'll take this back
immediately. I don't think any kid that's ever pulled brass knuckles out knows what's
gonna happen. Right we're fifteen, man, Well you got brass knucks.
It's like you're going to jail. You can get those at a freaking gas
station. You can literally get them at the gas station up there at the
Valero. But they sell brass knuckles for some reason. There's only two kinds
of people that own brass knuckles. People no, well, for protection,
I guess, But like I guess, there's only two kinds of dudes that
own brass knuckles, the ones that very much intend on killing the person with
them. And William Regal another wrestling reference that you guys don't get Nope,
sure don't. Sure, don't power the punch baby. Yeah. The other
person I was going to say is the ones that don't realize how fucked they
are if they get caught with them in a fight. All that stuff is
like super illegal in Texas, including ironically they're like, hey, hey,
hey, hey, hey, just buy a gun seriously, because you're not
allowed to have a knife that's bigger than the palm of your hand or whatever.
Something weird like that. There's also like women aren't even allowed to carry
like sharp things. It's not brass knuckles, but it's like a key something
you put on your keychain and then you can put it in between your fist
and kind of like gouge. Yeah, punch guy. I mean it's enough
that you know you don't want to mess with it. It's like a it's
like you don't want to get scratched by a fucking cat type of situation.
Yeah, but that's illegal, and it's not big, and that's you would
have to do a lot of work to make it lethal, and and that
that's wild to me that that's legal, but like you know that's illegal or
no, that that's illegal, but you know, just emptying aquip and someone
that's coming out it's fine for real, dude, Like there's people that just
like you're basically like incentivized, people who either don't want to own a gun
or maybe shouldn't own a gun to just like, oh, well, I
guess I have to get a gun. Yeah, pretty much. I mean,
does it seem smart I don't let him have the other weapon? Yeah,
I don't know. Then you get a whole Britain situation where everyone just
gets stabbed, I know, and that's worse, worse it does, like,
I mean, I don't want to ever be shot or stabbed, but
if I had to choose, I'm taking the bullet. There was a Reddit
thread of it's like a famous one and it was it was essentially like people
who have been both shot and stabbed, which is worth and it was like
ninety five percent stab Yeah. They were like I didn't even realize I was
shot, and then it hurt a lot where its stabbed. There's like I
thought I was dead the instant I was stabbed. It was so horrible that
I can't even explain it. The breath left me. It was cold and
painful, and yeah, it was no bullet like a lot of people get
shot, Like you said, don't know they've been shot. It's like WHOA,
what was that? And then like they don't really even feel it until
they see the bullet wound. Yeah, and then they're like put well one,
I guess it's like some sort of body shock that you get. It's
like a hot bullet. Well, it's so fast. Yeah. And also
a lot of rounds that you're gonna get shot with aren't like kind of splinter
and stuff. It's just like in you Yeah, you know, I don't
know either we go. If we talk much further, everyone who owns a
gun listening to this podcast is gonna be like, you're a moron, yes,
because we don't know what we're talking about. No, I've never been
shot or stab nor do I volunteer to do either, Nor are we nor
are we any of its own fire arms or no much about them. Well,
I own a gun, do you? It's in Filly though you don't
want a gun, so I don't own a gun. You have a gun.
I think it's like a twenty two, isn't it. No abanging a
gun. It's a hunting rifle, but it's a rifle. It is a
gun. Anyway, historian tells us that quote. Although individual aggression and vendetta
often played a role in these violent encounters, the real motive of force behind
the battles was the pursuit of group and personal honor, arising from an intense
factional loyalty and rivalry that was strong enough to challenge even the absolutist powers of
the Republic's central government. So were these teams you said, they're like artisans
and basically it's the middle class, right, it's it's tradesmen. Which at
that point is is it like, you know, team Baker versus team Blacksmith?
Are they are the artisans sticking together? Or is it more like neighborhoods
a little it will be okay. Yeah. While some historians believe that the
purpose of these fights stem from a need to blow off steam and aggression,
others believe the real reason the fights began to happen in the thirteen hundreds was
the pursuit of that group and personal honor that we just mentioned. While there
was a central government in Venice at the time, there were many factions of
association that still rivaled one another, and this format of conflict prevented tensions from
boiling over to civil class war, so like, yeah, it prevented basically,
like Venetian government was like, all good do that. It's a light
purge. Yeah, basically it's Greek games, well guys whacking each other with
giant inflatable. Yeah, but not inflatable. I think there was one year
that there was like dodgeball during Greek Week and that was not renewed for the
next year. We had a do you not have the intery middle of dodgeball?
No, we didn't. That's a big thing that you see that.
But you guys were in school when like dodgeball was huge like that. I
feel like when you guys were in schools when I saw like all my friends
on Instagram and Facebook like being in a dodgeball league, like postgrad like dodgeball
league. It is, but it's not as big as it used to be.
So older what I think, it's just older and all of your friends
are washed. Yeah, now kidding me. THETA had a big philanthropy called
Theata Dodgeball at UF and it got banned after a couple of years because it
got violent. Yeah, everyone would just fight in the parking lot because you're
up against a group of guys that you probably fucking hate. Yeah, definitely
want to beat and like it's not like you're just like, you know,
you're in some fucking Austin dodgeball league and you show up. It's just a
group of strangers and you're like, all right, I'll try to win.
It's like dudes you know or vaguely no and don't like and here you want
to hurt them. Every fraternity has the same twelve dudes to play every sport.
Yeah, oh no, it's it's the I AM kids. Yeah.
Yeah, no, so we don't even know their name. He just ano
their face and you hate them. Yeah, you're like, oh, that's
fucking Ka's quarterback. Fuck that motherfucker. We started a strategy for the last
year of dodgeball where if it got down to one dude, he just sat
on the ground and just held a ball in front of him, so you
could never like really take him out. Yeah, but like if he thought
he could catch it small, toss it and grab it like bring other people
in, it cost fights because they were like, that's pussy ship, you
can't do that. And they're like, well he can't, he can't not
do it, Like there's no rule strategy baby, pretty bitch. But yeah,
it's it's annoying, but it's get to the semis is what it is.
Yeah, and then so I think someone got in the guy's head.
He's like, you know what, fuck you and you got ticket. Yeah.
There's a similar strategy in like, uh gaming for like strategy games and
shit like that that people get pissed off about where if you are especially at
a disadvantage or even or if you're just a bitch from the outset, it's
called turtling, and you set up in like the corner of the map so
you can't be flanked. People do that in call of duty, I think
I'm sure they do that too, But in like bigger where you're in commandment,
army or whatever like that. People, if you do that, you
I think the worst kids. You fight back. I remember, I think
with Sigma new would always try to get teams to jump offsides and just move
up five yards at a time in flag football. They're having hard counts in
flag football. In in our in our softball championship my senior year, the
team we're playing, I think it was Sigma kay uh, they must have
taken twenty walks the strike zone is hilariously small. You have to land it
on like a thin matt. You have to throw a certain high yeah,
and it's like all hittable ball. It's just like, be a man,
what are you doing here? Wing? Never take well, you could take
a picture to Never take a walk in slow No, never take a walk
unless I mean it has to be like the dude is missing by eight feet
for you to not swing at it like you can. But you can take
a pitch for sure, you get the three balls. It's like I'm swinging
no matter what. Yes, yeah, Have I told the story about how
we hollowed our bats for softball? No, we shaved our bats. Yeah,
that's funny. We want it'd be funny if you killed someone. We're
striped wine driving it. Yeah, you just took a picture's head off.
We had kids. No business hitting dingers out there. It's just amazing.
Anyway. Renaissance historyans trace the Venetian factional rivalries back to immigrants of the Realiteen
Islands Realteen Islands. I don't know. Reports survive of pretend battles from as
early as eight ten between factions armed with sharp sticks. So this is kind
of where it all started was back like even further back from thirteen hundred,
so five hundred years before the bridge thing. They were still fighting with sticks.
They just got a little classy about it, okay, h While fighting
squads at the battles were typically composed of forty or fifty men from the same
neighborhood or same occupation. So there you go, rob. Either it was
bands of tradesmen or bands of people from the same neighborhood. Do you think
it was like palmwood derby where everybody will get a block and you could like
shave your sword or your stick, and then somebody would just come with a
giant fucking two by four, Like, yeah, everyone got the same block
of wood to make their stick out of, but like there's one asshole that
just put a handle on the board. Yeah, it's like I just got
a bat probably, I mean, what's gonna plank? Like I said,
though, everyone had their own stick, Like it wasn't like they just went
and found them that day, Like everyone had like that's my fighting stick.
Yeah, they got their special stick. Yeah, it's so probably to an
extent, I don't think they had like standardized sticks, but to carve from
it's like that dude in Gangs in New York, Brendan Gleason's character and Gangs
New York because he's got his bashing club. Yeah, pretty much. That's
I would assume it's very much like Pine with Derby though in that regard where
everyone's kind of got their own pinach, their own pizzas on their stick.
It's all actually both of them just have flames on the sides. Pretty much.
Yeah, it's block on wheels. I'm not looking forward to doing that.
Yeah, do you really make my plaint with Derby car with me?
Just take it over to from Ken Sailors seuse, let make a sick look
like we're good. Just have the list oviously. Just show your kids that
Boy Scouts documentary on Netflix. Yeah, I know, I almost brought that
up yesterday because Courtney was like, I know, you don't want to go
camping because I know you hate camping even though you were a boy Scout and
camped all the time as a kid. But Rory's gonna be in Boy Scouts,
is gonna be in Boy Scouts and you are going to go on those
trips. And I was just like, so, I mean, I was
like, I have the remote and I was riding, Courtney took a seat.
Don't you pull up a chair. We want to learn about sexual abuse
and largest boys organization. Yeah, yeah, it's bad. Well people really
put the not in not tying. Yikes. The two main factions formalized in
fifteen forty eight were the Castellani and the Nickelode. There's also another faction,
the Palawani. They were known for arriving at bridges in military order with their
squads dressed in matching uniforms. So some people they were full kit warnkers,
they were tryrds, they were Oh what was it that Dakota used to make
fun? I was like, the dudes who are never in the military,
but we're fully would be fully fully dressed. Yeah, these dudes like kit
full out for what just military? Just that life. Like the people that
never served once do that. Yeah a lot. There is a whole subset
of people. It's kind of like they're the ones who they're the ones who
the loudest, like ready for the civil war, man, I know,
but I'm kind of scared of fat dudes with guns. Yeah. These never
see those videos, they're always most accurate. I think it's just the they
have their own center of gravity because I don't their planet. I saw that
one video where that fat guy shot well, I do not think that there
is a whole series of fat guys fucking targets. I read a great fucking
article about the start of the Ukraine War. I think it was in the
Atlantic, and it was like, dude like this guy, like this Ukrainian
dude was like the first round of like foreign volunteers. It showed up so
mostly Americans and it was all these like fucking fat bikers and ex cops.
They were doing coke constantly. A gun would discharge in their tents like every
two hours. He was like, he was like most of them left the
first time they were shelled. Oh of course, like a mortar. Yeah,
because it's like it's not just pupus man, Yeah, it's whistlebanks.
Like that's what we got out here. Most of them, mean, most
people in that in Ukraine, just like most of people in World War One
and shit like that. They're not they're not getting killed by bullets. No,
we're getting taken off the face of the earth by fucking air. They're
getting killed with kindness. That's it. That's kindness is Russian for artillery.
Artillery shows anyway. Loyal to one's faction was highly prized. Faction members caught
turning coat or changing sides to help throw a fight could expect violent reprisal or
at worst, assassination. Say it so they shoeless, joked it, they
threw the game. Yeah, so if they if they're like, because believe
it or not. Gambling, baby, there is money involved in and largely
but it is our purse and it's never mentioned if there's a purse or not.
But there's definitely side bets. There's some dude taking action. And this
is prior to you know, there's no Pete Rose situation where you didn't get
banned from the fucking stick Fighting League. Yeah, you're not getting You're not
getting banned from the bridge. The bridge welcomes, all right, Yeah.
Weeks before the event, detailed arrangements would be made to prepare the teams for
the contest. The passion for this Marshall Festival on these common bridges swept up
the entire city. Did you imagine that? The generates though back then,
but I know they're down three men, but I love the Jews on it.
Yeah, oh yeah, they're like plus four hund but do you can't.
I knew there is live betting, right, I mean, like you
see it all the time in old movies where it's like something he gets like
a there's like a boxing match and someone gets some guy gets punched in the
face five times in a row and they're like, I want my money on
him now, and they're like, all right, five to one on Yeah,
I mean they's bookieacher. I think they're just making it up, but
yeah, you can get guarantee you can lie. In fact, it was
probably mostly live bets. Yeah, I mean it's probably like right before it
happened. You see them come out and get to the bridge and then you're
like them, they're down to one that Oh he's going into berserker mode.
Oh he's turtling. He's tartling that he sat on the bridge, which I
gotta imagine it would be a terrible move. Just get stabbed by thirty dudes,
starts the hulk up. Yeah. On the point a day, vendors
and food hawkers would also swarm to the bridge sites. The fans of the
events were as obsessive as any modern sportsman. For one afternoon, the bridge
became an arena. I mean, shit, don't change, man. So
it's very much like college football if you think about it, like, not
everything's college football, Jake, shut up, you take that back, everything's
college football or fraternity life. No, if you take it back, pretty
much is so you're not excited about like a couple like a week or two
from now, you know, not really, No, looked at our schedule,
so no, we did, just look at you cf schedule. We
can still pass this, it doesn't matter. Just a lot of who a
lot of spooky towns, rob spooky towns. Just bad. I don't road
trips. I don't want to take Yeah, I know. Do you have
a heart schedule? Yeah, boo, who look at our schedule? Oh
yeah, we're not doing this. We're not doing this, yeah, be
the people don't care. But your schedule is every year. Once the battle
began, the water below the bridge would be jam packed with barges and boats
and gondolas. It's called the goundless where you get serenaded, yes the guy
with a stick. Yeah, they all people would peoplege of fire. I
mean you're not wrong, Like the people would pay the gondolas to get right
under the action. Yeah. So basically the only water that was available was
underneath the bridge. Like, so if you fell off, you're falling in
a boat. Yeah yeah, I actually don't think those seats would be as
good as you think. You'd get to see gnarly shit if people fell off
and you can see the edge. So like one time I went to a
Royals game and I was in the dugout suite and that sounds dope, right,
Like we are in the in a dugout right next to the Royals dug
right. Now, I was netting, but no netting in here. It's
if somebody gets thrown off, the bridges falls on you. Yeah, that's
that was actually now the bridges aren't that big. Yeah, but you just
you think it come right on your head, all right, I think about
it. They've got a sharp stick, they're wearing like iron helmets, and
you need that perfect landing. Don't kill you. They'll fuck you up,
you know, they'll fuck it, probably hurt you. The point is,
though it was harder to see the game from the dugout I felt than from
an elevated spot. Yeah, so I mean think about this way, like
people though, would like get shit that fell off and like take it.
That's dope, Yeah, floor seats for like a UFC fight suck, do
they Yeah, because the fucking cage is up. Oh yeah, no you
And that's the thing too, Like and if you watch, if you see,
if you watch any baseball game, when the players are watching the game,
they're up over the railing. But we couldn't do that. We we
had we were eye level was like the ground. Yeah, probably the liability,
right, you can't get up. Yeah. The crowd two would often
become riotous, pumped up by the wine that they were being hawked by shady
street vendors. Sometimes they might begin throwing roof tiles off. Actually this was
really common. It would begin throwing roof tiles off of nearby balconies, strip
them almost entirely bear in the process. So more often than not, during
bridge fights, people watching from the balconies around the bridge would just start stripping
tiles off and hurling them at teams they wanted to lose. Fuck yeah,
dude, that sounds like the best job. If it's pretty cool. I
don't want to be like, I'm not really great. Let's stick, but
I got a fucking cannon, dude, and I will I will whip tiles.
By the way, I gotta kill your property though. Yeah. No,
it's just like you got a great view of the bridge fight, so
that's Fun's like, but don't people get on your roof and no, no,
no, don't worry about it. It's definitely not like the houses.
No, they had a vendor. The guy's just going around ta yeah,
get your talles, like the classic DC bricks salesman, you know, just
get your bricks brick right bricks. Anyway, more than one event was halted
because of the trouble that the roof tile throwing was causing. Look, you
need to to studo it the turtle for the actual you need to actually turtle
it. You need she fields over your head. I mean seriously, like
if you it was a huge risk to not wear a helm out at once
the tiling started. I'm fucking sure. Yeah, if you're if you're going
out there, if you're raw dogging it on that bridge, you're a fucking
lunatic. But but not wearing a helm was also very well respected. He
was just a badass. People like that guy doesn't wear a helmet. It's
kind of like the kicker with the one bar helmet that still rocks. Everyone's
like that guy's a fucking real kicker right there. Yeah, although I will
say, if I see like a motorcyclist without a helmet, my only thought
ever is no, how cool was Luke Garrit not wearing a helmet? Pretty
cool? I was corrected by the way on that getting beamed did not cause
his als, But I can't imagine it helped it did It didn't, so
it can exacerbate it and bring it on. I'm bringing it early on set
or bring it on earlier, but it will not. It's not the cause,
right, it's there already. I thought it was just a wild coincidence
that he got that what it was called. Yea, there was an exact
board scene I wrote, but never we never produced it. Where Like they
were raising money to fight Luke Arrig's disease and they didn't understand what they were
doing, so they just burned Luke Arrig in effigy, thinking it was his
disease that he created the progressive research that Luke Garrig did in his off time.
Yeah, well as well gain a function, Yeah right, you know
that damn Luke Jame with this beakers and lab coat well as well. Gentlemen
viewing from opposing box seats and box seats is very loose, mainly other people's
balconies. I mean it just sounds like, yeah, like a New Orleans
Marty Grass situation, or like those apartments across the street from Wrigley. Yeah,
pretty much those. Yeah, they might lively exchange words and insults,
which could lead to swords being drawn then and there. Hell yeah, or
an arranged duel would occur afterwards. And actually the amount of pissed off people
during the bridge fights led to a second act, which was just everyone that
wanted to duel after because everyone was horned up for violence. God, can
you, I mean, can you imagine how many duels you would get in,
Like at the if the Georgia and Florida tailgates were next to each other
at the cocktail party. I mean they that sometimes happens, and it's bad
that you guys are in two separate No, once you get at the stadium,
it's all jacks. Yeah, because in the day before, day before,
so Saint Simon's is uh, Georgia, and then I think Saint ogg
Beach is Florida. Ok. Yeah, so if the pregame won, yeah,
we were all on the same beach. The day before, it'd be
blood bath every day. It would just be a fucking Omaha beach. Yeah.
Actually, funny story from Florida, Georgia. Last year. My friends
bought a bunch of bird seed because they're seagulls out by all Tell or whatever.
The stadium is ever banked, and they'd go by the Georgia tailgates and
just throw a bunch of bird seed down. It's great. So like,
Yeah, they had a couple of videos where just see were swarming these different
Georgia tailgates. It's just a high level of petty that I appreciated that every
time. I think they're gonna start doing it a lot, but they're gonna
get their asses kicked if they ever get caught. Oh my god, that's
so funny. I'll give you one guess who it is. Yeah, I
know who it is. Yeah, it's a guy who took out whippets five
seconds into your bachelor party. Yeah, yeah, pretty much, yep him.
As early as fifteen oh five, the Venetian Council and the name of
Public Order began to punish those who assembled the fight after the Bridge Wars.
Supplies if sticks had to be secured and hidden between events, but like laws
against dueling, their efforts largely when ignored, and we're often repeated. Gangs
of armed youths would get caught up and find the sticks, and any excitement
would frequently rumble with their rivals or the police. There's also the story of
this one dude. I love this guy Tonin. He was a He was
a tailor from San Luca who in the sixteen thirties gathered about him at his
expense and quotes gathered about him at his expense a large gang of youths with
whom he decided to assault and kill many. My favorite recurring theme throughout history
is unchecked youths. You gotta watch out for the youths. Yeah, they
call so much distruction. Well, the youths. One, they're small,
so they can find the hidden sticks. Then they get the sticks. Then
they have the power. They go to the little crevices they pop out of
like tiny corridors. Every era has their skater kids. Yeah. In the
seventeenth century Venice, it was youths with sticks. Yeah. But yeah,
so this one tailor, I guess had enough money. He's like, I'm
gonna hire all of these youths and then everyone will listen to me. He
was eventually killed, so he dude, that's like a city of God right
where it's just like all those kids are in there, like Favella or whatever.
Yeah, yeah, pretty much. I mean it's kind of like I
think of it like a game of Thrones with the little what is it,
the little birds, the sparrows, Yeah, the high scepter or whatever.
Yeah, you know what I'm talking about. He just recreated all the little
street urchins pretty much. That excuse me. Due to the state's opposition to
the disorder caused by these popular pastimes, and sixteen hundred, sticks were banned.
Instead, they became full on fist fights on the bridge. That's gotta
be worse. Well maybe not. Well, there's a reason why they banned
sticks. Sticks are very much worse. No, sticks are not worse.
The fifths are worse. The fists are worse. No. Yes, So
one reason for the transition from six to fifths supposedly occurred in fifteen eighty five
when one faction ran out of sticks during the stick fights. They throwing them,
but can you say break? They break, but continue to fight unarmed,
and the other faction matched them. Ironically, this was not out of
honor, but because they could no longer fence with their opponents and were instead
being punched in the face and chest so hard. Yeah, they were like
still trying to hit him with their sticks, but they were just like slapping
them away. And then turns out a hand against a stick. If you
don't make contact with a stick that sticks, fucked, you get to pull
it away and they're like, well, shit, yeah, it turns it
out though most people break their hands punching, Yeah, because they don't know
how to get one punch. A lot of people will just be like,
oh yeah. Because the injuries from fist blows were readily seen to be more
significant, the other side cast away its weapons. This eventually led to a
different style of fighting completely and a shift in interest to one on one boxing.
So get this stick fighting kind of led to the proto precursor to what
we now call stand up boxing. Shit, I'm gonna call it bullshit.
Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure boxing has been around much longer, but in
an organized manner, like it's been around for a long time, but in
Italy it led to it no like as a spectator sport. In Venice at
least, maybe perhaps that yes, okay, but I mean if we have
wrestling that dates back to ancient Greece, yeah, Jo's been around much longer.
Yeah, at least as long as wrestling. I'll look it up later,
Okay, Yeah, I just don't want us to get caught out again.
No, No, that's okay. With like your income tax bullshit.
As I read that it sounded wrong, I was gonna stick with it.
We're here to have takes. Yeah, and that's my take. His take
is my take is wrong. That's fine, You're you're a fool. Because
of this, Venetians became well known for their boxing skills. By the late
sixteen hundreds, Slavic, Dalmatia and Skiovanni soldiers were regularly thrashed and thrown into
water by the jabbing skills of Venetian boxers in actual combat, in like fights,
yeah, basically, no, like skirmishes, like not not not in
political warfare. No, Like when they were in Venice and they'd get in
fights okay, okay, Yeah, they'd be drunk and they'd be like,
all right, that might a fight to you, and then they just get
their ship kicked in. Yeah, basically, so what would happen is like
the Venetian boxer would be talking shit to like a Slavic soldier, and the
Slavic soldier, I guess would get this armed pretty quickly by the Venetian boxer.
And then when it came to fisticuffs, they didn't really they couldn't fight
very well they were used to. They would like kind of just flail their
arms around. I mean yeah, yeah, because like the Venetians were so
trained I guess generally and fighting each other on bridges with their fists. They
became really good fighters, but only on bridges. Yeah, if it was
open land, they were fucked. You put them in a field and they
don't know what to do. Yeah, it's like where's the water? Yeah,
it's like just pretend it's a are. You can attack me from this
side. Got d whoa shit real quick before we get back to this stick
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last drinking bros. Eventually, one on one boxing began to take place before
the general bridge assaults. These duels became more and more popular. They began
to go bare chested, wrapping their shirts around their waists to protect their kidneys
from punches. So very much imagine like below the belt. Yeah, and
now what a boxer looks like. They have a kind of the waist wrap.
Yeah, they're shirtless, high high waist. Yeah, I mean George's
pulled up to the however fucking Dolly button or whatever. Yeah, and it's
I agree. Boxing definitely did exist in other places before this, but this
is kind of how it developed in Venice from stick fighting. Listen, everyone
knows the only Italian that box was Rocky Marciano. He wasn't Venetian though,
what he's Italian? It was Italian, that's true, that's true. The
fighters would typically where one pad of glove of softer hearted leather on their right
hand. So boxing first appeared as a formal Olympic sport in uh six eighty
eight BC. Okay, so yeah, so the Venetians were just way behind,
I guess on this ship because they would do their own version of boxing.
Sorry, I just had to fucking correct you on that. No,
that's okay, it was so so fucking wrong. I will be completely fair
to be fair to all of you. I wasn't gonna FactCheck anything. I
was just like, oh, because it's a shake and it's not me in
the chair. Yeah, it's gospel until the comments come out for me.
Uh No, I will to be completely fair. I wrote, I drink
a bunch of iquill last night, so yeah, you like it, you
know, but this, this is from this is from actual documents. I
don't know why they were doing boxing like this then, but yeah, in
two days that stick fighting never existed. Jake just read like a fan fiction
forum. I'm familiar with this because of Assassin's Creed two. It's the opening
scene with Edzio. Oh they do they really do a stick fights essentially like
a it's what you're describing. I like that honestly, and I like me
and you have a like huge chunk of our historical knowledge coming videos we've played.
Yeah, yeah, mine's just fever dreams. Yeah apparently no, but
uh yeah, so sometimes their gloves are even secretly sewn with lute strings.
So as to rapidly bloody and opponent's face. The object of the fight was
not to score a knockout or to deliver powerful punches, but to bloody the
opponent by it hits the nose, lip, or face. So I'm starting
to think this is just like a completely different boxing sport there. So is
it like first blood winds or just like most blood it's pride rules. Yeah,
it whoever does the most damage. It kind of is that because they're
doing one handed fist fighting. Basically, I don't know, like and get
this, oh it's Dana White slap League power slap, but it kind of
yeah, that's what because in these boxing matches, the crowds evidently were most
pleased by contestants who stood their ground and took blows to their face unflinchingly.
Striking out cleanly with too much dancing or fencing around was kind of the goal
here, Like, yeah, basically two for flinching. It's like if you
flinched or just didn't take the punch to the face, you were a bitch.
Defensive skills were fought, Okay, I will agree with you, Rob,
The sticks probably were better. Sticks were better. If you defend yourself
you're letting the man punch you in the face. Yeah. Uh defense a
defensive skills were looked down on as not admirable because they were not displaced of
courage. So this is Floyd Mayweather would be awful and he'd be booted off
the fucking the man that's never been hit. Yeah, actually having to take
a punch. Yeah, yeah, pretty much. So, yeah, this
isn't I'm sorry, this isn't the proto precursor to boxing, obviously because this
power slap. Yeah, this is the proto precursor to power slab. I
stand corrected, but still I kind of want to watch this too, Like
just two dudes with one glove each just punching each other back and forth in
the face. Dude, I gotta introduce you to this thing called fight circus.
Yes, they'll have two men in one shirt and they each have one
arm fight another group of two men in one shirt. Wait, so it's
like a like a potato sack on the upper body. Basically, we just
get one arm with your partner and you both you fight two other men one
arm, So each one guy gets to punch and the other guy's just there.
No, you each get one arm. Oh, so one guy gets
left, one guy gets right. Yeah, what and they have It's not
just that too, it's crazy shit like that. Yeah, every fight's different.
It's the best. One of the best named pieces of content I've ever
heard of my life. Fight Circus. Yeah, no, that's please link
us. Can we just watch that? We should? We should do that
for Patreon, Just do like a fight Circus pay per view. Well,
despite all the ferosity and display, the fights were fairly benign affairs and ended
with an embrace and, in the most Italian fashion, a fraternal kiss.
Oh I hate that though. I hate it when I see fighters that are
just like bros right afterwards, I want to I want hate in the ring,
in the octagon, gonna flip them off after like eating Gary last night?
Oh did you do that? Let's we're past that, we're pasting that,
and we don't talk about fighting. Let's learn. By the late sixteen
hundreds, there's only room for one form of fighting, and once the sick
fighting fell out of popular favor, it could not exist alongside the very different
fist fighting that they were accustomed to. Now, the bridge stick fights represent
an interesting part of Marshall Sports and European history and shed insight on a rarely
considered aspect of Western martial culture. Although limited almost exclusively to bridge venues,
I really wish they still did it so I could see it. I want
it so bad, that's all I want. Would you guys learned today,
learned that we could have had such a cooler sport? Yeah, can you
imagine like UF First Georgia or UCFUS. And I don't want the ships to
go back to the LARPing stuff. Like I'm sure you guys have seen videos
of like they will do like medieval combat where like if you get hit in
the leg, you're leg listening out. You ain't gotta stand on one leg.
And no, dude, they have straight up medieval battles like in a
boxing ring. I've seen them where that it's like a livestock pavilion, like
basically in a bull ring. Yeah, that shit looks it's crazy. Yeah,
I want real shit. It's crazy. It doesn't catch on. It
is real shit. It is real sorts. No, people get like knocked
the fuck out because they get their bell rung so hard in the helmet.
Yeah, I've seen those. It's it is nuts. Like I would never
do it, and that is. I honestly, I'm pretty sure that's how
if you did die in combat, especially if you were in like full armor,
it's more likely like you really just got you got a blow that like
disoriented the fuck out of you, and then you just can't defend yourself anymore.
Like you're not getting like your head chopped off or run through typically,
I mean, you're getting killed in the retreat. I was about to say,
you're probably getting your head crushed more than anything, right, Yeah,
right, what'd you guys learn? I told you I learned to whish.
There's the sports still fucking existed. We have always enjoyed others just beating the
hell out of each other. Yeah, well, I mean, I mean
there is something so viscerable about I don't really like mma, but like a
good hit in football. Oh yeah, man, no, but there's no
I have to imagine there's no greater feeling than knocking somebody out cold in front
of a crowd of like twenty thousand people. I'm sure. Yeah. Can
you imagine like a tossingham onto a gondal I was about to say, getting
like a belt strapped around you. Yeah, yeah, and you just get
to throw them over a bridge freaks out. That'd be fun of shit.
Who's Hitler? No one. I'm gonna say the guy that converted stick fighting
into power slap League, the Venetian Council essentially, Yeah, that guy sucks.
I guess the guy who randomly raised an army of children ton In Yeah,
the tailor. Yeah, I can see him because people got him killed.
I guess always in these stories the US, do you tweens and teens?
Teens are hitlerkater kids, skater kids are hitler today. Yeah, I'll
agree with that. Well, that's it for my stick fighting story. I
hope you all enjoyed it again. Check out our patreon at patreon dot com
slash Softcore History two additional episodes every week, and a huge back catalog of
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have a review, I want re read it. We have a bunch of
reviews. I read like three of them. I will. There's one that
was really funny that I was saving for when Jake was back. Okay,
so yeah, if you're on Apple, leave the review. Write it.
That really helps us climb up the charts because everything is just manipulated by reviews
and really not listens. That's all it is. Yeah, this is it.
Uh, it's a This is from p mattson greatest podcast in the last
fifty years. Somehow, some way, I've learned more listening to this podcast
than anywhere else. I've been listening to the Evergreen Back catalog for months now,
and I still hundreds more to consume. I can't get enough of Don
Ron and Jeff. It is truly an outstanding podcast. It is very entertaining
and surprisingly informative modern mastery. It's fine. Don Ron and Jeff just fucking
killed me. Well. I definitely put on don vibes right now, almost
always, you always do. Uh. Let's who else wrote some here?
Go to the top. There's like two new reviews. Yeah, I do
like the one that the guy left us four stars. Yeah, Tank the
Frank, Tank the Frank. Give the people more banter. Four star review,
Please don't do four, please do five please. I love the pod
boys, but sometimes there's too much history and not enough banter. That's a
response to a couple of one stars. We got about too much banter.
Imagine these people that probably earnestly came across us and thought they were getting a
history podcast about something that they were like, I mean one of them,
one of the one stars or the low ones. They're like, we really
enjoyed the topics, but there's like fifteen minutes of history, and yeah,
the info is good, but if you cut out the banter, you'd get
maybe fifteen minutes of content. It's very BROI into tracks from the good info
they're trying to present. It's hilarious that he's like their own worst. They're
so smart and will informed. Will they just keep getting trying to present good
info, but they can't do it, can't get out of their own way.
The other one is like very similar to that, Yeah, for sure.
They oh they're like exactly the same if it's the same person, Yeah,
I think then Stoner Einstein great show. I think there's some history,
but who cares? Is enough witty banter to keep you entertained? Perfect if
you want to learn a little without sitting in a lecture. That's the goal
here, guys. We're here for it's a little knowledge. Well maybe a
laugh, maybe a chuckle, maybe a learn. Who knows you laugh,
you learn? And I was so sorry if you came here solely to learn
about Venetians stick fighting today, if you had a paper on it, truly
apologhed. You've made it this far, Yeah, kudos to you, but
hey, thanks for stopping by, Thanks for listening for Ron Fox and Don
Rojester. I'm Jeff Goldman. You just got us off served