did you know that in Gainesville Georgia you can be arrested for trying to eat
fried chicken with a knife and fork hi I'm Erin McCarthy editor-in-chief of
Mental Floss calm the Peach State is serious about its poultry and if you're
going to eat it in Gainesville it had better be with your hands by the way let
me know in the comments if you know what episode of Pete and Pete this made me
think of if you do want to keep your fingers grease free in Gainesville don't
worry the ordinance was basically passed as a joke in 1961 to drum up publicity
for the town as the self-proclaimed poultry capital of the world according
to a local Gainesville paper the law was never actually codified but that doesn't
mean no one has ever been arrested for the offense back in 2009
Ginny Dietrich was celebrating her 91st birthday at a Gainesville restaurant
when a police chief swooped in to arrest her Dietrich's trial made its way
through the justice system for two decades as okay not really in fact the
police chief have been playfully tipped off by one of ginnis friends after the
arrest the town's mayor who was part of the set up immediately pardoned miss
Dietrich and ordained her an honorary Georgia poultry princess
sidenote new goal for 2020 and that's just the first of many things you
probably didn't know where crimes that I'm going to share with you today
one set of laws that certainly wasn't made as a joke comes from North Carolina
where apparently games of bingo are strictly regulated in order to hold a
game you need to be a select nonprofit organization with a charitable bingo
license it's a class 1 felony to operate a game with prizes without it but that's
not the end of it the law states that you're limited to holding a maximum of
two games per week and none of those games can be held within 48 hours of
each other no individual game can be longer than
five hours and for a game of beach bingo which is apparently a thing prizes can't
exceed $10 in value the Tar Heel State takes its bingo so
seriously that the games fall under the jurisdiction of the same law enforcement
arm that handles alcohol tobacco and gambling related crimes on the surface
it sounds ridiculous but there is an explanation
the laws are all about trying to curb illicit gambling the weirdest thing
about some laws is that they ever needed to exist in the first place like in
Oklahoma where people were wrestling bears at such an astonishing rate that
the state had to step in and institute a fine and possible jail sentence for
anyone caught grappling with a bear this feels like something that should have
been avoidable without involving the law okay so you'll never actually get fine
for skewing your fried chicken with a fork and will go out on a limb and
assume you won't be wrestling wild beasts any time soon but what about this
other law from Oklahoma where it's a misdemeanor to quote loiter about any
building with intent to overhear discourse Theron and to repeat or
publish the same to vex annoy or injure others that's right in the Sooner State
you can get in trouble for eavesdropping and then engaging in some juicy gossip
in Massachusetts is fitting isn't just gross you can get a twenty dollar fine
for doing it on the sidewalk that's less than half of the $50 fine you would
receive if the state actually enforced its law forbidding people from swearing
at players and officials at sporting events if they did things would be a lot
more cordial every time the Yankees visited Fenway we actually included that
in our 2013 video about weird laws but I like the idea of a genteel Red Sox crowd
so much I decided we had to list it again it states like Virginia they go
after people cursing in public in general if you're caught using foul
language out in the open you could be out 250 bucks this isn't just a u.s.
phenomenon either somewhat similar laws govern obscenity in Victoria Australia
in India and in the public parks of Toronto Canada Massachusetts is also one
of a handful States in the country with laws on the
books that punish blasphemy a vestige of a time when religion played a bigger
role in the lawmaking process that might also explain why it's technically still
a Class B misdemeanor to commit adultery in New York laws have a knack for
sticking around well after the world that gave rise to them has changed take
this one from Canada up until 2018 the law said quote everyone commits an
offense who makes prints publishes distributes sells or has in his
possession for the purpose of publication distribution or circulation
a crime comic it was put on the books in the late 1940s when there was massive
cultural concern about the effect of violent comic books in 1839 lawmakers
made it illegal to beat any carpet rug or mat on the streets of London the law
technically indoors though beating doormats is fine as long as you do it
before 8 a.m. I personally think it should be illegal to do any type of
cleaning before 8 a.m. but I am NOT regrettably a member of the House of
Commons around 150 years later the UK established another one of the
Internet's favorite laws to poke fun at in 1986 a law was written that made it a
crime for anyone to handle salmon in suspicious circumstances it's meant to
go after illegal fisheries but it certainly isn't worded that way the law
was later amended to cover all types of fish which I like to imagine was
necessary after someone brazenly handled Cod and suspicious circumstances with
total impunity thanks to lonely elemental kitsune for
the tip also we didn't fact check any of his claims but bonus shout out to
prospector 40 who was very prepared to provide a list of silly laws from her
friends up north if you want to be featured in our next episode tell us in
the comments about your favorite scientist who didn't get enough credit
for their work that's for our next episode a list of unsung scientists who
didn't get their due when it comes to silly laws some don't seem to have an
obvious connection to well anything in Little Rock Arkansas there's actually
language on the books that states quote no person shall sound the horn on a
vehicle at any place where cold drinks or sandwiches are served after 9 p.m.
you might get off on a technicality if you honk in front of a coffee shop
though that seems like an oddly specific law for a very specific Little Rock
problem and that's another thing you'll notice about some of these laws there
are fascinating glimpse into the unique issues some of these towns and cities
face everyone knows how crowded the streets get in Manhattan so it only
makes sense that laws be put into place to avoid crowds from gathering around
say a random performer operating without a license or a person making a spectacle
around themselves by attempting to scale the side of a building well it goes far
beyond that in New York City you could also go to jail for 30 days for putting
on and I quote any performance of puppet from a window to entertain people
outside wait what and in the university Hill section of
Boulder Colorado the home of the University of Colorado Boulder you can't
have a piece of upholstered furniture on your porch no couches no recliners
nothing the law was an attempt to curb the student body's proclivity for
lighting said furniture on fire ah the noble pursuits of higher education most
of the laws we mentioned so far are little more than historical oddities now
let's turn our attention to some weird laws that are still being enforced in
2007 a Michigan man was prosecuted for using a cafe's free Wi-Fi from his car
the problem is the man never actually entered the cafe he would just show up
and use its internet from his car in a regular basis a police officer
eventually grew suspicious enough to look into it apparently this was an
infraction of a law forbidding anyone from using a computer network without
authorization and since the man never entered the cafe there was no obvious
authorization the results while he avoided jail time he was fined $400 and
was ordered to do 40 hours of community service the man got off flight
technically he could have been on the hook for a felony charge and up to
$10,000 fine because the judge was convinced that he didn't even know he
was committing a crime even the cop told a news station in the area quote I had a
feeling a law was being broken but I didn't know exactly what a man in
Florida was less fortunate a similar incident there was counted as a third
degree felony remember in the early 2000s when maybe you bought a CD and
burned a dozen copies for your friends well if you did do that don't ever admit
it that was a violation of copyright law with a two hundred and fifty thousand
dollar fine the 20/20 equivalent of the burn CD is sharing passwords to
subscription services like Netflix and Hulu and while there's no federal law
banning that yet there is along the books in Tennessee that forbids it but
don't worry they likely won't be coming after you for using your mom's HBO GO
login this law is aimed at people hacking accounts and selling logins in
bulk those are the high tech crimes that most people are ignorant of there are
plenty of low tech examples too for sample you probably know that it's a
crime to share your meds with your friends but in a state like Maine you
could be committing a crime by even possessing your own prescription
medication if it's not in the same prescription bottle that it originally
arrived in though allowances have been made for commonplace alternatives to
original packaging like pill planners we talked a lot about weird old laws and
you may be thinking why don't these cities just repeal them well as Georgia
State University law professor Tanya Washington explained on Georgia Public
Radio in 2018 a lot of time and money would have to be involved either a new
law would have to be passed that invalidates the existing law or someone
who gets in trouble for breaking one of these laws would have to successfully
challenge it in court and have a judge rule it unconstitutional
so while North Carolina's bingo laws may occasionally be enforced in the end it's
probably more cost-efficient to just let someone go with a warning for blowing
their horn on a late-night wallrun or for cursing it's a day no chara during a
Bruins game remember though whether the police get involved or not you probably
won't get off with a warning if you decide to wrestle a bear remember to
leave those suggestions for underappreciated scientists in the
comments that episode will be up March 4th we'll see you then