The loophole for kids to swear

[@lateralcast]

BOOK OUT SOON: www.lateralcast.com/book FULL EPISODE: www.lateralcast.com/episodes/109

[@Michael_Brock]

Affirm rather than swear to follow your side but how child benefits being allowed to use swear words?

[@BaggyTheBloke]

Tom wearing green feels like seeing a teacher out of class

[@TheAlps36]

It's almost like he's become his evil twin

[@ArifRWinandar]

It's like how making up a wikipedia article about a town that didn't exist allows someone to talk about it in complete honesty

[@DasGanon]

- Chris Joel on Wales

[@abigailcooling6604]

3 of these people are lying.

[@michalswag]

i literally watched that episode right before clicking this video. what are the odds...

[@voidify3]

I don’t understand the reference

[@DasGanon]

@@voidify3 without spoiling it, go look for "The Technical Difficulties' Two of These People are Lying" I think it's one of the holiday episodes. Chris Joel does this for one of the supposed articles.

[@tombstonerforever9374]

Am I the only one who prefers Dani’s answer?

[@VonOzbourne]

Back to the swearing bit. I was thinking that was the correct response. Add some creative punctuation and you're in the clear. I swear, on my sole, 18."

[@timothymclean]

It's a much more artificial way to avoid lying. No one swears "on their soul," that's not how oaths work. "I'm over eighteen" is a perfectly normal response to most ways the age question would be phrased.

[@donutreactions]

Yes

[@daerdevvyl4314]

Having the number written on a piece of paper isn't the same as having it on your sole. If you're holding the paper, you wouldn't say it's on your hand. Also, she said "I swear, on my sole I'm 18." Even if the number is written on your skin, it doesn't make you that number. Like, if somebody gets a tattoo of a sword or something on their arm, they never say "I'm a sword."

[@RaichuKFM]

Also, invoking a reference to your soul, even just as an oblique thing, would make the whole thing theologically dodgier, I'd think. When you believe in the power of swears enough that you're not willing to actually break one, just technically sound like you're making one you're not, you probably don't want to bring your soul into it if you don't have to. Brilliant pun, though, yeah.

[@notthatcreativewithnames]

6:08 I was with Dani on that. It was the only foot-related pun I could think of because of Matt's pun from the Victor Lustig episode of Citation Needed that got stuck in my head.

[@Armadeus]

fyi: the high five thing, for those who didnt listen to the audio version, was one of the questions earlier in the show

[@JudithOpdebeeck]

came here to say exactly that. its a callback, listen to the full episodes, cowards!

[@daerdevvyl4314]

JudithOpdebeeck Cowards? Are people afraid of full episodes? "If these small clips affect me this much, what would I become if I watched full episodes? Better the world never sees such horrors!"

[@mattgies]

@@JudithOpdebeeck I'm not a coward; I just don't do podcasts. It's not engaging for me without the visual component.

[@charlie-jay]

@@JudithOpdebeeck I have a hearing impairment. How do you suggest I listen to the podcasts?

[@sponge1234ify]

​@@charlie-jayIncidentally, the website for Lateral have the full transcript for each and every episode, full.

[@route2070]

In Sunday school, us kids came to the conclusion we could flip off the ground, since we would be flipping off the devil.

[@tomwantshelp]

I was hoping the loophole would be shouting “Scunthorpe”.

[@ala5530]

Or maybe "Penistone"? Or even "Belgium!"

[@hairyairey]

​@@ala5530You can't say that second one, it's in breach of Intergalactic Law!

[@SeanSMST]

​@@hairyairey what's the reference to belgium being a swear?

[@hairyairey]

@SeanSMST Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

[@XandaPanda42]

Cor Blimey was originally "God Blind Me"? I've learned so much about swearing from Tom Scott

[@vinslungur]

Like you I was curious so apparently it was originally: if I'm lying about seeing this then *may god blind me*

[@XandaPanda42]

@vinslungur that's amazing, look at all the time I've saved saying "blimey" instead of all that. That's what I talking about. Efficiency. Saving us actual minutes of our lives.

[@TheAlps36]

It's the same way how "tarnation" is a minced oath of "damnation"

[@TheAlps36]

It's similar to how "tarnation" is from "damnation"

[@cact0s_ulion405]

Ooh, that's a good pun.

[@epimorphism]

children LOVED fighting in the civil war

[@epimorphism]

they yearn for antietam

[@StephenShepherdOfficial]

They had to yearn for something besides the mines

[@cybergeek11235]

Immediate post-question guess: . . . The number was sufficiently large that when the paper was folded it would make them tall enough to join the military (i.e. "swear" an oath of service)?

[@cybergeek11235]

Okay, I will take my partial credit

[@timothymclean]

So close, yet so far. Also, why would they bother to write the number and not just fold the paper? Also, if the medical examiner was being honest, wouldn't they notice that the recruit had three-inch heels inside their shoes? Also, has there ever been a height requirement to join an army?

[@jonb4155]

​@@timothymcleanYes, many military forces have a minimum height requirement. I think the British Army is around 5ft, for example, although I believe that different roles may have different height requirements.

[@luuketaylor]

One of the few questions that I already knew about in full!

[@FromTheIslandNapkins]

This might be the first time I knew this one right off the bat.

[@cuttwice3905]

The telephone wasn't patented until 1876. It wasn't in the monied class use for a while after that.

[@nariu7times328]

I remember that peice about Deadwood, it was a Complexly production by Nick Jenkins.

[@timothymclean]

Oh, I've heard about this before. There are not many reasons minors would put numbers in their shoes, especially during wartime.

[@LilyAJPage]

This is NOT how i imagined Bill or Dani to look.

[@daniellemurnett2534]

I've never considered that there's people that listen to the audio podcast who check out this channel that have not seen the _earlier_ highlights, many of which feature Bill and Dani

[@GDUBgb]

My brain was going, act your age, not your shoe size.

[@Poldovico]

My shoe size as a ten year old was 36

[@cyberfutur5000]

You could avoid that, by applying the same principle to a sign that hangs high above the room. the person on the other side of the situation could just say "are you tho?" and point up to the sign.

[@markwright3161]

Hats :)

[@Poldovico]

I don't think recruitment officers were particularly concerned with avoiding underage recruits.

[@Slikx666]

That's the sort of thing I'm good at and it winds people up. 😆

[@blockpartyrobotleague]

That's some Taskmaster logic. Five points I guess

[@tonypang83]

They didn't technically lie, but did they technically tell the truth? I hate explaining prepositions to my ESL students 😂

[@cact0s_ulion405]

Huh, I seem to have caught this one early! Glad the algorithm knows what I like :)

[@iamjeramy]

I just wanted to say, those glasses are so cool!

[@richardmiller9883]

I'm pretty dubious of this. There are lots of cases of obvious minors serving as drummers. Even Wikipedia lists this one as "citation needed".

[@lateralcast]

Yes, it was blatant - that's the point. There are some more details, with further sources, here: discoveryvirginia.org/common-soldier-civil-war -- David (producer)

[@fariesz6786]

there were unfortunately a lot of less light-hearted things going on with these (like how being the drummer that's responsible for a troop's moral makes someone a preferred target). we like to think of these as quaint stories of unexpected bravery, but those were still child soldiers. as someone who's father had been one these stories always sit a bit uneasy with me i have to admit.

[@lauxmyth]

"Are you over the age of 18?" at 6:01

[@cyborglion4179]

Lemme guess "I'm over 18" to join the army?

[@RylanceStreet]

Did I miss the episode where all the guests turned up in matching grey, and Tom had to change shirt colour again?

[@firstcynic92]

The number is, of course, 42.

[@gayathriajith]

6:11 What about i am above 18..

[@bob_._.]

"Above" isn't used to refer to age like that in American English. 'Over' can refer to either location or quantity (hence the ambiguity) but 'above' only refers to location.

[@timothymclean]

​@@bob_._. I wouldn't say "above" _only_ refers to location; the phrase gayathriajith says would be recognized as valid, at least in some dialect, and of course you can talk about social hierarchy in terms of "above" and "below" without the subordinate giving his superior a piggyback ride. But "over" sounds more natural to me.

[@SylviaRustyFae]

​@@bob_._. Its not standardised, but someone sayin "im above 18" wud be understood in modern times at least; and presumably wudve been more easily understood in the 1850s - as that was prior to standardisation of grammar by the upper class in America

[@TheGreatSteve]

Did it work in reverse?

[@daniellemurnett2534]

There's gonna be a book before we get full video episodes? I just wanna be able to have enough senses engaged for my ADHD to let me watch this podcasttt

[@SylviaRustyFae]

Take more walks, theyre the perf time to listen to audio format content whilst keepin our other senses engaged enuf - As an ADHDer myself :3

[@Womcataclysm]

I got it instantly for some reason lol

[@AngryKittens]

Tom's hair looking so much better these days. 😅

[@Solarbonite]

I have 18 years under my feet is my guess at 6:23. 😁

[@fafnir242]

Future me: is it the number was a draft number and they were swearing their allegiance to the Union and to the Army?

[@OlieB]

I expected something like shoe-number

[@maxpayne2574]

When they become old enough to join the Army

Tom is wrong about one point of Deadwood: "tarnation" always was a minced oath.

[@lightningwingdragon]

Why does Tom have the flag of New York State behind him Orange blue and white in a tricolor

[@hallelion]

I thought it was... "biblical" when the clue of "not being Christian-like" was given lmao I wonder when will the podcast be available on YTM?

[@timothyreineke5691]

Many American Christians of the time would have seen false swearing to be a religious offense more than a civil one (though it would also have been perjury in this case).

[@winkletter]

Related question: Why would men during the Civil War put a number in their hat?

[@sorrynotsorry8224]

My first thought is this is tied to religion somehow and the number is 666.

[@robertwilloughby8050]

Do you mean swear an oath? The child is covered by a statute, which is covered by a number, that means children can swear oaths under the age of 18?

[@sophiamarchildon3998]

Initial thoughts: have such a number (Hebrew, Native American, whatever), that would allow you to claim some form of faith/geopolitical asylum?

[@Attila_Beregi]

i love the aussie centered map behind julian :D looks super weird to me as a european though hahaha.

[@theVtuberCh]

As an Australian I didn't even notice it.

[@SimonFrack]

First thought was “69”.

[@VigilanteAgumon]

I thought it was going to be if you were quoting the Bible.

[@Quasihamster]

What a slubberdegullion to place profanity in a show like Deadwood!

[@ferretyluv]

So what I actually heard was cowboys didn’t actually say stuff like “what in tarnation” and that stuff came from western movies as family friendly minced oaths. They cursed like we did.

[@empath69]

no, 'tarnation' WAS the $#ithe@d of the era - it was shocking to others and carried weight. It's only the fact that times had changed enough to make those expressions obsolete that Hollywood was able to get those old swears past the censors. a 'minced oath' is something separate - an expression that has evolved and gotten 'shortened' by familiarity and haste of common usage. A more contemporary example would be "for all intensive purposes"...when the ACTUAL expression is "for all *intents and* purposes", but people are in a rush and AutoComplete is there jumping to conclusions, so...

[@SylviaRustyFae]

No, tarnation used to be as bad a swear as @#&£ or &£-#

[@2Cerealbox]

no?

[@BoydBottorff]

What's a "bad word" changes regularly. At one time, "Zounds" was about the worst thing you could utter in mixed company-or even non-mixed company. It was a contraction of "God's Wounds". Nowadays, it's considered so kiddie that not even the kiddies use it, and is in the process of being lost to time.

[@ArifRWinandar]

@@BoydBottorff now I wonder if Zoinks or Jinkies used to be real swear words...

[@ouzoloves]

I was thinking the paper might have been from the bible, so they could swear on the bible.

[@SylviaRustyFae]

Darn, another one i know straight from the start heh

[@Becky_Cooling]

I wonder if any teenagers will be using this tactic now? I know I would if I was more rebellious

[@KenLieck]

Then they would have to show legal ID anyway. Can't escape reality so easy anymore.

[@cact0s_ulion405]

I can't think of many situations where you'd need it? Swearing in an official setting gets you in some trouble no matter what, and in other settings you'd likely be able to swear anyways. Especially if you're old enough to be passably over 18.

[@JimCullen]

​@@cact0s_ulion405 it's not about using curse words. That's completely the wrong definition of "swear" for this fact. It's swear as in "swear an oath".

[@cact0s_ulion405]

@@JimCullen Of course I completely forget the type of swearing occuring while writing the comment even after watching the video in full. Welp.

[@bob_._.]

@@KenLieck I think parental permission might still a thing.

[@damie9412]

Nive

[@notthere83]

The timing of this episode - yikes...

[@hairyairey]

Referring to the AOC perhaps?

[@Becky_Cooling]

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