A man was swallowed by a humpback
whale in the waters off of
Cape Cod.
Now, this gentleman has survived
the incident and
I would argue this is a fascinating
thing to have experienced.
Let me give you the details.
So it happens a little before 8AM
on Friday of last week.
So there was a veteran lobster
diver by the name of
Michael Packard.
He entered the water for
his second dive of the day and
he dove down and
saw schools of fish swimming.
And then before he knew it,
in something truly biblical,
Packard was swallowed whole
by a humpback whale.
And he lived to tell the story,
that's the amazing part.
Okay, he says, I got down to about
45 feet of water and
all of a sudden I just felt this
huge bump and everything went dark.
And I could sense that I was moving
and I was like, my God,
did I just get hit by a shark?
Then I felt around and
I realized there was no teeth, and
I had felt really no great pain.
And then I realized, my God,
I'm in a whale's mouth.
I'm in a whale's mouth and
he's trying to swallow me.
>> Okay, the most amazing part of
the story is that Packard's first
name is Geppetto.
>> Yeah.
>> Not true, but so they mentioned
the story over and over again,
this never happens, okay?
[LAUGH] >> Humpback whales
are not like they're not
looking to eat humans.
>> No. >> Yeah.
>> They don't even have teeth, so
they filter in fish in a way that
I'm not going to be able to
describe.
>> Think of their teeth almost like
a toothbrush, right?
I forget what it's called,
it's like bristle, right?
>> That's why I couldn't
describe it either.
>> And- [LAUGH] >> So they take
water that has plankton in it, and
that's what they eat.
They eat the plankton in the water.
>> So, they said that he probably
would not even been able to fit
down the throat of the whale,
right?
And that's why he was in his mouth.
And he originally thought he was in
a shark, great white shark, but
he's like, where's the teeth?
Because it doesn't exist,
because it turns out it's a whale.
And so then he lit a campfire
underneath it, inside the whale and
then the whale spit him out.
No, that's Pinocchio and
Geppetto, okay.
>> So, friends watching,
it's beilin, baleen?
>> Baleen. >> Baleen, yeah,
baleen, baleen whales.
Baleen whales don't have teeth,
they have like the bristly, yeah.
>> The bristly teeth.
[LAUGH] >> You could plank in and
then get the water out.
>> Yeah, no, seriously the only
other two times that anybody's ever
heard of it, that's why I keep
making the Geppetto jokers.
In Pinocchio, his father gets
swallowed by a whale, Pinocchio
goes in, lights a campfire,
the whale sneezes them out.
And then of course in the Bible,
Jonah gets swallowed by a whale.
He stays in there for three days,
so it's apparently pretty comfy and
then the god orders the whale to
vomit him out.
I don't know if- >> Lots of
space, yeah.
>> What was that? >> Lot of space.
>> Yeah.
>> Whales are big,
they're very big.
>> That's true, very large.
>> Yeah.
>> Anyways,
in this case, when he realized
that he was inside something, he
started wiggling around and then he
could see the light when the whale
came up to the surface.
And that's when he started moving
around more because he's
a scuba gear.
>> Yeah. >> And
then that's when the whale's like,
I got something stuck in my,
she jumped at me,
that was why I was like.
[LAUGH] Good kick, boss, hold on.
Anyway, basically that's when the
whale spits him out and he is okay.
>> Yeah, so he says about that part
of this whole debacle.
All of a sudden he went to
the surface and just erupted and
started shaking his head.
I just got thrown in the air and
landed in the water, and
I was free and
I just floated there.
So he was then rushed
to the hospital, he's totally fine.
In fact, the Center for
Coastal Studies has this guy named
Juke Robbins, who says based on
what was described, this would have
to be a mistake and an accident on
the part of the humpback,
because as we explained earlier,
they're not looking to eat humans.
They're not targeting them in any
way, this was in fact an accident
by the humpback.
And here's Packard in the hospital
looking well, >> And by the way,
this Packard guy has
lived an amazing life.
So he's been involved in, so
lobster diving apparently is very,
very dangerous.
>> Obviously.
>> Yeah, and they go and
grab a lobster from the bottom
of the ocean.
And so it's very cold,
that's one of their hazards.
But he's lost friends to sharks
before, so
that's a very real danger.
And then he survived a helicopter
crash where the pilot and
the copilot died,
this guy's got like nine lives.
You read the stories,
its like one unbelievable horror
story after another.
And then [LAUGH] he gets eaten and
spit up by a whale.
And you saw those pictures,
he's like.
For Packard, it's Tuesday.
>> Yeah.
>> [LAUGH]. He's fine.
>> And he's pretty incredible.
>> In his neck of
the woods in Cape Cod, apparently,
he is the last lobster diver.
>> Really?
>> Yeah.
>> I think he should write a book.
I think that'd be
a fascinating book.
>> Yeah. >> I mean,
he's been inside a whale.
That alone, that should
be like the final chapter, right?
>> Yeah. >> Tease them, tease them,
tease them, and then.
>> Yeah, I mean, when I read all
the amazing stories, it says he
does a very dangerous job,
it's certainly possible and
he goes to remote areas and stuff.
But I did think for a second like,
are these tall tales?
because that is a hell of a lot of
things to go through for one guy.
>> No, Cenk- >> It's a whale of
a story, I mean.
>> Don't project our cushy
lifestyle in a studio to what other
people do for a living, right?
>> Yeah, I hear you, but
it's a little fishy.
[LAUGH] >> Whale of a dork,
right there.
And then dork, dork is a,
[INAUDIBLE] >> It is, right?
Yeah, penis.
A dork is a whale's penis.
>> I did not know that.
>> Genitalia, there's nothing
wrong with that.
>> No, well, not in that context.