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Get access to my streaming video service, Nebula,
when you sign up for CuriosityStream
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Jingle, jangle. Jingle, jangle.
That's not gonna get annoying throughout the video.
You know, the world of comics and comics creators
is an imaginative one that sometimes predicts the future,
from Dick Tracy predicting the smartwatch
to Superman accidentally predicting the atomic bomb
while the Manhattan Project was underway.
Made a video about that one,
if you wanna go check it out.
But today, I'd like to tell you the story
of how a Spider-Man newspaper comic strip
inspired the creation of, of all things, ankle monitors.
Yeah, that clunky device often used to make sure
that people on house arrest stay at home,
that was introduced thanks to the ol' webhead,
and you might be thinking, you know,
this has to do with Spider-Man's spider-tracers
keeping tabs on criminals, but actually,
the credit goes not to Spider-Man,
but to one of his most famous villains.
- It all becomes clear now.
You need my technology. - Exactly!
- How are you doing, you Wonderful Nerds?
Scott here, and I have an entire snow globe on my sweater.
That's fun. So here's the thing.
I actually wrote the script
for this video, like, three years ago
and never recorded it, and now,
by some strange twist of fate, Spider-Man, Kingpin,
and mid-20th-century juvenile delinquents
are all trending topics right now
at a time when most of us now have a greater understanding
of what it's like not being able to leave our homes.
The stars have aligned, for better or worse,
and I am going to capitalize on it.
- Isn't life full of surprises?
- So before ankle monitors were ankle monitors,
they were actually belts.
I like to imagine them as, uh, futuristic fanny packs.
During the 1960s, twin brothers Robert
and Ralph Kirkland Gable ran a behavioral experiment
that aimed to help juvenile offenders.
Instead of merely punishing these troubled youths
for committing small crimes,
what if you gave them little rewards
for when they kept out of trouble?
Some positive reinforcement, as a treat,
as an alternative to jail time.
And that is what these fanny packs aimed to do.
The Gable twins would create a schedule
for their subjects on probation,
they'd slap a belt on them with a tracking beacon
made from old radio equipment, and then monitor the kids.
If they stuck to their schedule like they were told to do
and stayed away from places
that might encourage criminal behavior like seedy pool halls
or stoops of singing gang members-
♪ We're no good, we're no good ♪
♪ We're no earthly good ♪
they would be rewarded
for keeping on the straight-and-narrow
with pizza and free haircuts.
Probably not at the same time, one would hope.
In other words, the Gable twins thought
that only punishing criminal behavior
probably wouldn't do much
once the person is out of jail.
Some may find it easier to fall back into a life of crime.
But encouraging good behavior...
I got all tangled up in my sweater.
Encouraging good behavior, the Gable twins thought,
could help reduce recidivism.
That's what these tracking belts were for, initially:
not trapping people under house arrest,
but monitoring and rewarding them
as they stayed out of trouble.
Yeah, rather than addressing
any of the many systemic and economic reasons
why crime might be happening in the first place,
the Gables wanted to put a Band-Aid over it
in the form of pizza parties.
I have to imagine it worked and there's no crime anymore.
Their experiments had mixed results,
but they ran into a limitation of the technology
that forced them to stop.
Since the belts worked via radio signals,
monitoring large groups of people proved
to be too big of a task for the technology at the time,
so the tracking belts were put on hold
until a couple of decades later
when a judge woke up one hot New Mexico morning,
sat at the breakfast table, and flipped open the newspaper
to read about the adventures of Spider-Man.
- Did you ever wanna do a comic strip before a newspaper?
- All the time. I finally got the chance.
I wanted to do "Spider-Man."
In fact, the syndicates asked me to do "Spider-Man,"
but I couldn't figure out how to do it.
- For some context, by 1977, nearly 15 years
after the friendly neighborhood webhead had risen
to massive popularity at Marvel Comics,
co-creator Stan Lee finally achieved
his oddly specific dream
of creating a Spider-Man comic strip
for the newspaper with artist John Romita Sr.
- It took until I could figure out a way to do it.
Years later in 1977, we started "Spider-Man"
for King Features, and I'm happy to say he's still going.
- And thankfully, they've been collected in book form,
and they're very fun.
And one of their first stories for the strip
involved the villainous Kingpin converting his life of crime
to a life of politics.
Wilson Fisk plans to run for mayor of New York on,
ironically enough, an anti-crime campaign.
- It's important that I convince the press
that I'm public-spirited.
- And to sway the voters, he needs the support
of the Big Apple's favorite web-swingin' superhero.
But, you know, since there's obviously no way
that Spider-Man would actually, legitimately support
Wilson Fisk on his own accord,
Kingpin, naturally, kidnaps the hero,
which is a bit of a rocky start
for your anti-crime campaign.
Fisk pitches his idea of a political alliance
to Spider-Man, who, uh, weirdly enough,
open-mindedly sort of agrees to at least consider it.
Kingpin gives Spidey an hour to think over his decision,
and to up the ante, the villain's goons corner the webhead
as Kingpin quickly slaps a tracking bracelet
on Spidey's wrist.
He explains, "That oversized I.D. bracelet
is an electronic radar device which will allow me
to zero in on your location whenever I wish!
Even your awesome power cannot remove it!
Nothing can, except my hidden laser key!"
I tried to get Vincent D'Onofrio to do that quote for me,
but he's, he, he's busy.
This device allowed Fisk
to monitor Spider-Man's exact location
and even administer electric shocks
if the hero tried to fight back.
Now, obviously, uh, Spidey eventually gets free
of his constraints and brings Kingpin's campaign to a halt,
but it was this story about a figure
claiming to be against crime
and fashioning a wearable device
to keep tabs on a young punk teenager
that would make an unexpected impact
on one New Mexico judge, Jack Love.
Actually, that sounds incredibly expected
when you put it into those exact words.
In 1983, by complete happenstance,
Judge Love's eyes wandered
across this newspaper comic strip one morning,
and he was struck with an idea.
Crime rates were rising, and prisons were overcrowded.
It would be helpful if,
instead of jailing nonviolent offenders,
you could just fashion one of these comic book trackers
to keep an eye on them outside of prison.
Often, this would mean
offenders would be sequestered to their homes,
unable to leave without triggering the device
and alerting authorities.
Judge Love pitched this idea
to engineer and salesman Michael T. Goss, who would found
the National Incarceration Monitoring and Control Services.
They basically built upon the work
that was pioneered by the Gable twins,
turning their tracking fanny packs into ankle monitors
that were smaller and more reliable,
thanks to technological advancements at the time,
eventually even upgrading to GPS technology
still in use today.
The only thing they didn't keep from the Gables
was this idea of rewarding prosocial, noncriminal behavior.
The initial goal, after all,
was not just to punish offenders, but to reduce the chances
that they'd commit more criminal acts in the future,
which is why it's somewhat fitting
that this kind of tracking device was popularized
thanks in no small part to the criminal mind of Wilson Fisk.
Because the lure of free haircuts doesn't work
on us bald people, so without the free pizza,
there's nothing to stop us from doing all of our crimes!
- He reminds me of myself as a young man.
- Incriminating evidence aside,
I mentioned at the start
that I wanted to make this video
because I felt all the topics aligned well
with YouTube's algorithm right now.
Having to bend to the will
of YouTube's mysterious ones and zeros
is incredibly annoying,
which is why my creator friends and I teamed up
to create our own platform where we don't have
to worry about algorithms or demonetization.
It's called Nebula, and we are thrilled
to be partnering with CuriosityStream.
Nebula is a place where creators are actually allowed
to be creative, posting our videos ad-free,
sometimes extended versions with more content,
and experimenting with different topics
and video formats that might not work on YouTube.
In fact, over on Nebula, this entire ad spot is replaced
with bonus content of me talking
about how much of the script I had to change,
since I wrote it three years ago,
and sort of reflecting on how far I've come
as a creator as we wind down this year.
So this specific video idea is something
that I've wanted to make for a really long time,
but I think the reason why I didn't,
the reason that stopped me from making it, was-
Nebula has tons of YouTube's top educational creators,
my favorites, like Lindsay Ellis, Legal Eagle,
Patrick Willems, SarahZ, NandoVMovies,
and genuinely so many more!
Including me. I'm on there.
But what does this have to do with CuriosityStream?
Well, since CuriosityStream is the number one place
for thousands of documentaries and nonfiction titles
on the Internet, they obviously love educational content
and supporting educational creators.
So we worked out a deal
where if you sign up with the link below,
not only do you get access to CuriosityStream,
but you'll also get Nebula for free.
Not a free trial, mind you.
You get all of Nebula for free
as long as you're a CuriosityStream member.
For today only, CuriosityStream is offering
a special holiday discount of 42% off of their annual plan.
That is less than $12 a year
for both CuriosityStream and Nebula.
It is simply the best deal in streaming,
and it makes a great gift for any curious learner
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about the comic book industry with documentaries
like "My Comic Book Country" that explores the lives
of people fighting to keep comic book shops open.
And if you're watching this after December 24th,
don't worry, you still get a fantastic deal,
26% off of a CuriosityStream annual plan,
and it still includes Nebula for free.
I mean, even at that rate, it's still less than $15 a year,
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So click the link below today
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That's 42% off.
And again, that specific deal is just for today,
so you gotta jump on it.
Once again, click the link in the description
or go to CuriosityStream.com/NerdSync.
Clicking that link really does help my channel.
A little bit of a shorter video today,
but that's because I made
a nearly hour-long Spider-Man video just last week
all about why Peter Parker used to suck in his early comics.
Go check that out!
And hey, here's my entire Spider-Man playlist for ya.
Once again, my name is Scott,
reminding you to examine your favorite art
through curiosity and vulnerability.
See ya!