The Debauched (and Fascinating) Life of Gordon Bennett

[@TodayIFoundOut]

Now that you know all about Gordon Bennett's wild life check out this video and find out about The Curious Case of John Dalton's Eyeballs: kzbin.info/www/bejne/r2K8qGBvp76cjcU

[@utubewatcher806]

One question, where do you find such impeccable shirts for each video ?

[@lemaildoe]

@@utubewatcher806 The real question is why doesn't he buy shirts that fit? I can never take my eyes off of the buttons, like one is going to pop off at any second! Anyway, before this video I'd never heard of Gordon Bennett, so at least I learned something new.

[@westrim]

Your example of clickbait at 3:23 is really unfortunate, because that was actually a pivotal and tragic moment in US history that's been mostly forgotten. If anything, the headline and subheadings are understating what happened: an insurrection on US soil that overthrew a legitimate government for having white and black representation. It was deliberately targeted at the very idea of racial unity by white racists, and they succeeded without negative repercussions. It's not clickbait at all. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilmington_insurrection_of_1898

[@humanmonsters]

God please Simon, please shave your chest hair just a little bit further down. It would look so much more natural, and a lot less like a hair sweater. Not being mean just saying..

[@trevtall1094]

@Jack Brown the primary contender for the curse word Gordan Bennett is a ww2 commonwealth general who was courtmarshalled for cowardise

[@michaelhorton6881]

I called my Golden Retriever Gordon Bennett - he was a chaotic 120lbs of loveable fun causing mayhem wherever he went 😀

[@deemariedubois4916]

Michael Horton Awe I love golden retrievers. Such a hairy bundle of excessive energy full of joy. I have never met a surly golden retriever.

[@vickiejohnson30]

"Peeing in the fireplace". You have my attention, please continue.

[@AtheistOrphan]

Jamie Z - We’ve all done it.

[@virginagobetz4756]

@@AtheistOrphan Some of us (when in our cups) perhaps,but certainly not all of us.Besides my sisters and I would have a difficult time aiming into the fireplace.

[@rationalpanda4196]

A unique, if potentially smelly, method of extinguishing a fireplace blaze, to be sure.

[@Moonbagger1]

I now remember where I heard Gordon Bennet. In Call of Duty 2, a British soldier shouted his name when a tank was blown up by an anti-tank gun right in front of him. And I still play that game occassionaly, so no I didn't remember that from over a decade ago.

[@originaluddite]

As an Aussie I first encountered the expression 'Gordon Bennett' from Ace, the late-80s Dr Who companion, and still use it till this day.

[@nigelperren5714]

What a legend!! They banned him from a club, so he bought the building next door and started his own!! Then invited the next-door neighbours members to join!! Class.

[@TMB247]

I know a guy that went to a Sports Bar to watch some Game and for that Game they were Charging a $2.00 Fee to enter... it ticked him off and he bought the building across the Street made it a Sports Bar and then put those folks across the street out of Business, then he bought their building and tore it down then sold the bare Lot... Moral of the story ... don't mess with guys that have lots of money but are too cheap to pay $2.00 head charge to watch a stupid game. Also if he invites you out for drinks... pick up the tab, he fires people that don't pick up his tab but he Pays his employees Very Very Well. "IF" you work for him and know how he operates you will make twice what other folks make for the same job.

[@paulgoogol2652]

what a dick haha. it's hard to believe a story like this but psychopaths can be very successful business people. I would never even consider having a drink with him.

[@Areanyusernamesleft]

I have to ask, did this club have blackjack and hookers?

[@fairychangeling8337]

Like tanacon🤣

[@gooner7331]

@@Areanyusernamesleft no blackjack but loads of hookers

[@camgood2437]

Commissioner Gordon pulled a Bruce Wayne.

[@Ainiewainy]

Though I must admit the "zoo" story was a clickbait of it's time. The fact that he actually told the people at the end of the paper that the story was fake is better than what happens these days! And the fact that they wanted to draw attention to a real problem is even beter!

[@patriciabowden1467]

Ainiewainy Hear, hear!

[@solank7620]

Ainiewainy Sounds to me like the “problem” was exaggerated and basically an invention, though. I mean I’m just speculating, but my guess is that there was virtually no real danger.

[@raedwulf61]

Gordon Bennett! I always wondered about the origin of this exclamation. Now I know and can rest peacefully....

[@iatsd]

Simon *needs* to do a video with two more buttons undone, hairy chest adorned with gold chains, taking about the Italian mafia.

[@gpan62]

It's spelled "luxury yacht", but it's pronounced "throatwarbler mangrove" 😉

[@Boppinabe]

You're a very silly man and I'm not going to interview you.

[@cmdredstrakerofshado1159]

That's a Savage Monty Python reference 🤣 BTW I don't have to this you know, I am a qualified Brain specialist! 😉

[@hansoak3664]

This is an even better video than usual; an exception feat in and of itself. Excellent work. Thanks!

[@virginagobetz4756]

Hear!Hear!

[@Raz.C]

I can still hear Holly yelling out "Gordon Bennet!!!" I think he made a reappearance in one of the season 11 episodes too!!! We miss you, Holly! The Dwarf just isn't the same without him...

[@areamusicale]

They should make a movie about his life!

[@helenajones2212]

My Dad has always said ‘Gordon Bennett!’ when shocked by something but until watching this video I thought he was saying ‘Golden Bennett’, I’ve literally heard this phrase a couple of times a week my entire life and I can’t believe I’ve had it wrong the whole time...

[@Petter1900]

"Melees between citizens and beast" Why am I imagining people lining up in orderly fashion to fight a tiger in old timey fistey cuffs fashion?

[@virginagobetz4756]

Might it be that you might possibly have a strange quirk in your mind?

[@BrianSmith-vl7xu]

i like the way you think

[@Whippy99]

My Uncle was called Gordon Bennett. 100% True!! He was a true eccentric. When frustrated he used to mutter 'Stuff my old boots.' He was a funny, brave, complicated man and we all loved him.

[@davidsmith-white4212]

Not to be confused with the infamous General Gordon Bennet (Commander of the Australian 8th Division) who escaped from Singapore just before it surrendered to the Japanese in WW2 leaving his troops behind to suffer years of imprisonment as POW's!

[@davidsmith-white4212]

Sorry, that's Bennett - with two 't's. DSW

[@perrydowd9285]

I always thought that the expression came from the General Gordon Bennett. That man really deserved for his name to become a swear word. He actually armed our soldiers with broomsticks tied to bayonets to fight The Imperial Japanese Army & then failed to defend the causeway citing that Singapore was an island fortress. What a dick.

[@virginagobetz4756]

@@perrydowd9285 What a d--K!!!

[@trevtall1094]

the ww2 general is by far the main contender for the curse word Gordon Bennett. Why would an American playboy become a curse word in the UK? doesnt make sense

[@psychodryad]

I was playing the game 'The Letter' recently and had no idea why the character Luke always yelled "Gordon Bennett". Now I know through clicking on a random recommended video. I thank you.

[@Fdragon1337]

What an absolute legend

[@joesjoeys]

Oh damn, Simon is showing off more of that bear patch! I look forward to next week when 3 buttons are undone! ME-YEOW!

[@virginagobetz4756]

Hubba-hubba!

[@j.a.weishaupt1748]

Ha! Gaaaaaaayyyyy!

[@kayleigh35]

Is this where the expression “Gordon Bennett” comes from I watch only fools and horses and del says it a lot

[@blackwinegum]

also Ace from 90's Doctor who :P

[@mooncowtube]

17:25

[@hestikakala3027]

KayleighandGavin Brand I never clicked but now it makes sense. Only Fools & Horses the best sitcom ever next to Fawlty Towers.

[@WarblesOnALot]

G'day, Well, the expression has a rather mixed lineage, geographically defined.... In February 1942 the Australian Army General who left his men to be captured by the Japanese in Singapore while he personally decamped, and retreated to Australia, so as to be able to personally deliver a "Strategically Vital" first-hand account of Japanese Military Tactics to the Australian War Cabinet...., his name was Gordon Bennett, y'see ; so therefore, here in Oz the expression is much more likely to be associated with destroying one's career & reputation while desperately saving one's Skin...., and then ineffectually attempting to cover up that fact - rather like a Cat scratching on a Linoleum Floor after laying a fresh Turd thereupon...(!). And, fortuitiously, General Gordon Bennet's Story was "Unblievable !" in Oz ; whereas invoking that very name came to mean "Unbelievable ! back in Britain.... Such is Life.... Strangely enough, precisely the same manouvre (ie, deserting one's Command to escape joining them in Captivity, & retreating over the Sea to the safety of Oz...) was literally the making of his Internationally Heroic Reputation, when it was performed at exactly the same time, by the US Army General Douglas MacArthur....(!). Take it easy, ;-p Ciao !

[@mooncowtube]

Well, it's basically a euphemism, at least in origin, much like people might say "sh... ugar!" to avoid saying "shit", or "blood... and sand!" to avoid saying "bloody hell", people saying "gor blimey" could euphemise by switching it into "gor... don bennett!". These words become a form of expletive in their own right, and the original is often forgotten or its potency, which once required avoidance, becomes reduced. No offence to Australian army officers of any stripe, but "Gordon Bennett!" seems to have been coined and become widespread as an exclamation long before General Bennett's misjudgement in Singapore. For example, in the novel "You're in the racket too", by James Curtis (1937), we get the line "He stretched and yawned. Gordon Bennett, he wasn't half tired.". This doesn't seem to mean "Unbelievable!", particularly. It seems to mean something more like "Gosh!" (another phrase of euphemistic origin) or "Wow!" or "My goodness!". It is entirely possible, of course, that its currency in the mid-20th century along with the exploits of General Bennett came to associate this expression with that namesake for Australians, as well as to shift its meaning and implication slightly to match his story and circumstances, but there seems little doubt that the reason for the original coinage in the UK/US was the prominence of James Gordon Bennett's name frequently in the headlines in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

[@robertt9342]

Him spending his wealth so frivolously was a good thing, because it paid people's salaries and he just didn't hoard wealth.

[@NigelTolley]

Sadly, a lot of the ultra rich today do the same, but only use it to buy political power.

[@christopherrhodes3228]

HUZZAH for a bonus Biographics episode!

[@The482075]

I have an idea for a one off television show. A saga that follows the exploits of Gordon Bennett Senior, Junior and various people who played an important part in their lives.

[@patriciabowden1467]

GORDON BENNETT!!

[@Psychol-Snooper]

Exactly!

[@fairychangeling8337]

Is this why we shout that? I'm bad at commenting before I watch the video...🤷‍♀️

[@roblove8354]

Patricia Bowden 9

[@iby914]

This will be interesting. Or as Delboy would say, "GORDON BENNETT!!!"

[@baddmint]

Gordon Bennet Yes! everybody is dead Dave!

[@Ainiewainy]

Red Dwarf!

[@DJEylisium]

This was the last place i expected to see one of the boys from the dwarf!

[@baddmint]

Yes mate :)

[@baddmint]

:) I'm doing the hand gestures while reading your comment.

[@DJEylisium]

baddmint I totally did the hand gestures when I wrote that comment! :)

[@annecullagh436]

LOL Gordon Bennett (used to get a clip round the ear saying that lol)

[@richardbidinger2577]

What a character.

[@sabrehill1]

Gordon always carried a large wad of cash on his person wherever he went. Whilst travelling on a train he felt the large bundle of cash digging into his body He stood up, peeled off enough cash to leave him feeling comfortable and then threw the surplus out of the window!

[@johnspera8369]

what a story!!! loved so he wouldn't "have to walk too far"! LOL

[@2D161]

Thank you for the video

[@mackenziedrake]

This is amazing. Thank you!

[@TommoCarroll]

We'd love a giant yacht called Rebecca to be bought for us...or a boat called Dave...someone buy us a buoy!?

[@botanicallyaberry6406]

tbhhhhh i don't really mind the ads because, look, if it makes them money then who am I to complain? It means that people recognize that they have a significant audience and that their material is relevant and interesting enough. We get new, free epiodes from them and they get paid for their services. Win-win

[@laceneil4570]

Lol, saying "Gordon Bennett" was how I "swore" at school, cuz swearing properly wasn't allowed. XD Now, over two decades later, I find out who Gordon Bennett actually was. XD

[@Mladorossi_Bulgaria]

❎🌛

[@Bix12]

man after me own heart

[@sethburro6031]

This guy is my newest idol

[@awesomedez]

Simon is stylish today

[@delorbb2298]

That extra show of chest hair is worth two thumbs up!

[@bluelightningnz]

I can't believe elbow patches are back in!

[@daltonriser1125]

well time to strap in for this one

[@doberman1ism]

I lived in Newport, Rhode Island for many years. I had heard the story about how the Newport Casino was founded but I never knew the man’s name. I knew that he was shunned from the Casino but I did not realize that a horse had paraded up the steps into the Casino. Very ungentlemanly but funny. 😂 The 🎾 Tennis Hall of Fame is in The Newport Casino and there is also Lawn Tennis.

[@TomsBackyardWorkshop]

The 30 day free trial is their standard deal offered to everyone.

[@TomsBackyardWorkshop]

Well audible is a rip off anyway. You pay a subscription but still have to buy the audio books. Alot of of the audio books they have can be purchased for about the same price or less on amazon without a monthly subscription.

[@Aaronlcyrus]

It's so he gets some funding when people do sub

[@powellmountainmike8853]

Why did you leave out The Gordon Bennett Cup, which is perhaps the oldest gas ballooning competition in the world and is still held, or his involvement with early auto racing, sponsoring races held from 1900 through 1905 which also awarded a Gordon Bennett Cup, or his sponsoring of airplane races from 1909 until 1913, also with a Gordon Bennett Cup? These are things for which he is possibly best remembered, far more than the size of his yacht.

[@wompwomp338]

This guy is a f*ckin legend.

[@kaia9154]

"Person rich due to inheritance doing eccentric stuff and getting away with it because he is rich"

[@Hil0]

oooooooooooooooooooooh, so that's where saying Gordon Bennett comes from! I've been wondering!

[@kathykaura7219]

Well he sounded like a fabulously fun fellow, didn't he? lol!

[@TSATMA]

Thanks for that, I still cuss in honour of Mr Bennett - but who is "Nora", as in "f***ing Nora"?

[@dave8323]

Anyone who would say "fuck" wouldnt say "nora", its "bloody nora"

[@richardwadd9769]

dave8323 like Eddie Booth on “Love Thy Neighbour”

[@kimschellenberg7304]

Canadians loath a different Mr. Bennett. Richard Bedford Bennett was the Prime Minister during the most turbulent years of the 1930's Great Depression. People could not afford gas for their vehicles so they pulled the engines out to make them lighter & hooked their horses to the front: this alternative form of carriage was called a 'Bennett Buggy'. He was a loathsome human being.

[@hollycarter725]

I had relatives that used to say that. Bloody Nora www.theguardian.com/notesandqueries/query/0,5753,-24596,00.html Who was Bloody Norah and why is she used as an exclamation ...

[@4nn13h7]

I believe it’s “flaming Nora.”

[@alanseijas6665]

My favorite yet

[@venndiagram5981]

So even 3 years ago, Simon just read the words written for him without checking on pronunciation. Honestly - I haven’t heard anyone say “in flagrant delicto” (rather than “in flagrant-ay delicto”) since 4th form in the UK. Gordon Bennett !

[@myfwnwyturnbull6106]

Thank you for making Red Dwarf make sense now! Holly supposedly designed itself after Gordon Bennett; 'the greatest lover in history". lol

[@michaelhiggs8657]

There was also an Australian officer called Gordon Bennett who buggered up in WW1!!

[@PanglossDr]

The first major trophy for motor racing, the Gordon Bennet Trophy, was provided by James Gordon Bennett.For legal reasons the race was not allowed in England so it was held in Ireland, centred on the town of Athy, 327 miles long on July 2nd 1903.

[@daviddean5606]

del-MON-i-ko's

[@mariarussell5026]

‘Del mee ko’ restaurant. Proper pronunciation is ‘Del Monaco’ ( pronounced the same as the principality in Europe) and spelled Delmonaco’s opened in 1837 and still in operation.

[@censusgary]

The popularizing of the name Gordon probably had more to do with the fame of General Charles George Gordon than with Gordon Bennett’s escapades.

[@Samm815]

"Come on, Bennet! Let's party!"

[@bluelightningnz]

Another great video, thanks! I wonder if Richard Francis Burton might make a good character study as well.

[@perrydowd9285]

That came as a shock. I always thought that Gordon Bennett was the General who lost Singapore to the Japanese, thus becoming only the second man in history (after Jesus Christ) who's name became a swear word.

[@jimgrim2138]

the real saying of Gordon Bennett comes from Henry Gordon Bennett. Henry Gordon Bennett was an australian general that fought in WWI and WWII, the saying came about because in 1942 he was fighting the Japanese in Singapore and he surrendered because he ran out of ammo, but what he didn't know was that the Japanese had also ran out of ammo 20 mins before he did.

[@harrybennett6395]

Great video

[@stephensherman4734]

Could we have video on ticker tape? When it was mentioned that Gordon Jr. believed the Telegraph would replace news papers it reminded me of movies where you see people reading the ticker tape. That is, after a fashion, what Gordon Jr. predicted. I think it would be a rather interesting video. Keep up the good work Simon and Daven!

[@ivyleeyoung5022]

New York Herald sounds a lot like mail online

[@jamespuffer2889]

I won’t try to use the excuse of “the times” to pretend Mark Twain was not an incredibly racist man, reducing a character in one of his books to the name ‘N-word Jim’. I don’t want to agree with a guy that racist. But he’s not wrong with the Bermuda stuff, spot on. This guy is entertaining, but his attitude towards life is why there’s no quiet place left on the planet and we’re starved for resources in so many places. He’d be the type to have his servants carry his yacht up and over a mountain because he wants to sail on the other side, enslaving the locals in the process if they were any darker in skin tone to him. Thank you for coming to my TED Talk.

[@yushatak]

I appreciate that you've ended up placing the ad before the bonus facts - this is a good compromise compared to your earlier placements of before things or the middle. However, ONE bonus fact? That's a long spiel about Audible for ONE bonus fact, come on man! xD

[@joelacasse001]

I'm going to start using Gordon Bennett as an exclamation now.

[@virginagobetz4756]

As they now say"Me too!"

[@ONEDVSDVIT]

And Did You?

[@trapadvisor2258]

Huh! So this is the man my Nan used to curse when she messed something up!

[@RangerHouston]

My God this man should be canonized

[@virginagobetz4756]

Hear!Hear!

[@gordonbennett3213]

What a guy!

[@alg11297]

This is a new one on me and I thought I knew history. He sounds very much like William Randolf Hearst who was made even more famous by lampooning him in Citizen Kane.

[@owlversusdove]

hate to be That Guy but it's pronounced Del-mahn-ik-oh's

[@RainbowYak]

Hate to be that guy but if you're already going to correct people's pronunciation, use proper IPA symbols instead of this amateur-approximation that nobody understands.

[@academicfailure8182]

@@RainbowYak No one knows how's to pronounce them in all honesty. I found this a lot more helpful than some weird symbols no one ever teaches you to read.

[@joebloggs5510]

To this day members of my family still utter this expression, although I myself have refrained from doing so thinking that like the expression "Jimminy Cricket" it was in fact a thinly veiled form of blasphemy. I am thankful to have this matter cleared up at last, though I seriously doubt I shall ever include this expression in my speech. Perhaps you could do a post on the pugilist who had an expression coined after him, namely, "Happy as Larry", that is, unless you haven't already done so.

[@mary-janechambers3596]

Crazy!

[@kirbymarchbarcena]

That NY Herald newspaper is probably more valuable as a good cover for dried fish...

[@BrendenParker]

Now all of us have the education, experience and resources to be an investigative journalist

[@rdh9475]

Anyone else thought at the end when he said James Gordon as in Batman ? lol well I did .

[@roberthamm2401]

This is a nice channel

[@TodayIFoundOut]

That is a nice comment ;-)

[@swingingsixties3990]

Stade Roland Garros in Paris is on Avenue Gordon Bennett

[@MrJoeybabe25]

Money can't buy happiness...but it can rent.

[@amayastrata4629]

Apparently the potential origin of daily mail journalism. I shall mutter that name in another context now.

[@whatthefunction9140]

the headlines haven't changed much.

[@garyburley2283]

this should be a movie called literally 'Gordon Bennett'

[@Fletchlie]

This should be a movie called -literally- 'Gordon Bennett'. Fixed it.

[@animistchannel2983]

In modern terms, even Red Dwarf used this name as an exclamation. What can you say? "Go big or go home."

[@sterlingodeaghaidh5086]

So basically he was the 19th century equivilant of the tabloid

[@otakuribo]

Jiminy Cricket! (actually, that's just a minced oath; but there's an episode idea for you. Minced oaths are lexically and etymologically diverse and interesting

[@izzojoseph2]

Sounds like Bennet believed, “Men and Ships Roy in port.”

[@martynbealing79]

I followed the school cameraman round when I was on a school trip, because I'd heard someone on a previous trip video shout " look at that peacock, gordon benett" I wanted to reinact that so I shouted it every five minutes until he told me to piss off.

[@zentimus3498]

The life of Bruce Wayne if his parents weren't murdered.

[@zzzyzzzyzzzyxxx]

Today I Found Out a Biographic of Gordon Bennett

[@rubeusswagrid6039]

He was very Wolf of Wall Street LOL

[@Bartaci]

I've been hammered and pissed in a plantpot, fireplace and bin in one night. This is unremarkable in Scotland so I mean I'm kinda on his side here.

[@redtony58]

Alba gu brath ! (Love from America)

[@petergray2712]

Amateur

[@lagitanavderoscio]

Refreshing

[@agentwashingtub9167]

Speaking of debauchery, you've got an extra button undone today ;)

[@juliekovacic]

Next do Harry Selfridge! Harry GORDON Selfridge :)

[@hauskalainen]

'Gooooordon Bennett !!!" is one of those exclamations that disguises an appeal to the almighty and just in time not to actually blaspheme. God becomes Gawd in "Gawd help us!! c.f. "Cor Blimey !!!" which disguises "God Blind Me !!'

[@WilliamAndRose1]

Are we sure this guy's last name isn't Stark? Sounds a lot like Tony to me...

[@ashleyhyatt6319]

How about doing a video on the Franklin Expedition? The popular TV series The Terror, based on the historical fiction novel, has sparked a lot of interest in the subject.

[@OzzyBoganTech]

And by today's standards, he was not that Rich. The Rich get Rich and Poor get Poora

[@JulieAV]

Not to mention the Gordon Bennett (auto racing) Cup and associated races.