- You know, once in a while there are moments
that come along in life that just make you
lose all faith in society as a whole.
Now would be one of those moments.
Fame. It's something that many of us
would love to have.
As humans, it's a basic need of ours
to be accepted by our peers.
The ultimate of which would be to
be adored by the masses.
And historically, people have become famous
for all kinds of reasons.
Some become great inventors.
Some start wars and some become
great entertainers.
But in the past, there have been people
that have become famous for reasons
that are less deserving.
That's what this video's going to focus on
because sometimes it's fun to highlight
the weird in the world.
Here they are.
Ten people famous for really weird things.
Number one is Plennie Wingo.
In 1931, a guy named Plennie Wingo was
talking to some friends about publicity
stunts when he came up with his own.
He decided to walk backwards around the world.
With a pair of reflective glasses and a
sign pinned to him stating what he was doing,
he set off on his journey.
He made it 13,000 kilometers before
being sent back over a border dispute with Istanbul.
45 years later he started a new journey.
This time walking 635 kilometers from
San Francisco to Santa Monica and that
journey was enough to land him an
appearance on The Tonight Show with
Johnny Carson.
Really? The Tonight Show? That's a really
impressive feat for somebody that's clearly
a few slices short of a loaf.
He's crazy.
Number two is Ikkyu Sojun.
Ikkyu Sojun was a monk who lived in Japan
between 1394 and 1481.
Being a part of Mahayana Buddhism from
an early age, he rose through the ranks
until he was ultimately bestowed the
honor of Zen master, only to quit two
weeks later to pursue a life of drinking and whoring.
Not willing to give up the life of a monk
nor the life of drunk whoring, he founded
his own school of Zen philosophy called
The Red Thread, which adopts a focus on the erotic.
Yeah. I don't think it works like that, brah.
You can't be a Zen master and be completely
at peace while still going out for 2-for-1 shot
night at the local monastery.
Nah.
Number three is Bill Britt.
In 1969, Bill Britt, a former insurance salesman,
decided to leave his wealthy lifestyle to go live
in a makeshift tent on government property.
He lived there for sixteen years before his tent
was destroyed, but that didn't stop him.
He was successful at framing himself as a
victim to the media, which garnered him enough
attention to make it on to The Late Show with
David Letterman.
After that, he rebuilt his tent and continued to
live on government property, making money
from selling bottles and cans and refused any
form or charity or help until he died on March 9, 1988.
Really, though, who does that?
Who wakes up one day and goes, "Duh, I gotta go
live in a tent now."
(sarcastic sounds)
Number Four is Margaret Adams.
Margaret Adams, who goes by Maggie Bon on
YouTube, found fame after she began uploading
videos of herself just staring at the camera.
Yep, that's the world that we live in.
After going viral several times in America, her
videos started being featured on Japanese television.
Several of her videos have millions of views
including one video, which has 12 million views.
She stares into a camera.
For those wondering, yes, she's still active.
In fact, she just uploaded a new video
a few days ago.
You know, her videos has a lot of views and
I have a sneaking suspicion as to what's going
on on the other side of the screen, but I don't
wanna know, cause, ew.
Number five is Dave Bawden.
Dave Bawden is an American citizen who found
fame after publicly claiming to be the
reincarnation of Christ and if you think he's
crazy, he's got over 100 people that follow him.
In addition to his claims of being the Son of a
Deity, he also claims to be the one true pope
after holding his own election in March
of 2005, which consisted of six votes, including
those from himself and his parents.
He continues to this day to call himself the pope
and has even had a documentary made about him.
I'm sorry. This guy may be crazy, but what does
that say about his parents?
I mean, who could possibly believe somebody's
the reincarnation of a God?
- Uh, well, I don't think it's that crazy.
After all, I'm the reincarnation of Darth Vader.
(laughs)
- Eugene, you are not the reincarnation of Darth Vader.
- What's that?
(lightsaber buzzing)
- Nothing.
- Uh-hm. That's what I thought.
Number six is Dave Johnson.
One day in the 1980's, Dave Johnson decided
that he was going to dress up as a bush and
scare people that walk by him.
Cause that's a totally normal thing to do
with your free time!
But after a while, he became very well known
in his city, San Francisco, and even started
making up to 60,000 dollars a year from tips,
from the very people he was scaring!
However, in 2004, the local district attorney
tried to shut his operation down after
countless complaints started rolling in.
Believe it or not, he won that case and
continued to do it right up until he died
at the beginning of 2014.
He had amassed a legion of fans and even
had his death announced in newspapers all
over California.
But can we take a moment to acknowledge
the fact that this was probably just a mentally
disturbed old man who got his jollies from
jumping out of bushes and scaring people?
It's too bad YouTube wasn't around when he
first started because he would've been huge.
Number seven is Robert Coates.
In 1810, Robert Coates began performing in
theaters despite not being a trained performance actor.
His performances were universally hated due to
the fact that he frequently broke character,
wore tacky outfits and generally
just gave really bad performances.
Despite the fact that audiences routinely threw
food at him, he continued his performances for
six years until, ultimately, his bad performances
are what he became known for.
In fact, audiences began showing up just to
see how bad he really was, to the point where
before his retirement, he was selling
out events, turning thousands away.
Good Lord!
The more stupid stuff this guy did, the more
attention he got.
Wait a minute!
He was the original Kanye!
Number eight is Dick Wilson.
in 1964, the Charmin toilet paper company
created a series of commercials
starring actor Dick Wilson, who
played a character named Mr. Whipple.
The commercials themselves weren't that
amazing, but for some reason the American
public became infatuated with the character
of Mr. Whipple.
Because of that, he went on to star
as that character in 500 commercials,
spanning a career of 21 years.
In fact, in a 1978 poll, Mr. Whipple was the
third most recognizable man in America, right
behind Richard Nixon and Billy Graham.
Not a bad career considering his humble
beginnings of playing a character who peddled
poopy paper.
Number nine is Alvin Kelly.
In 1924, stuntman Alvin Kelly decided to climb a
flagpole and sit on it to promote a nearby theater.
He was able to sit on it for a total of 13 hours
and 13 minutes, launching him into a career
where he sat on flagpoles for a living.
The thing was though, in order to keep the
novelty of his act from wearing off, he
continuously had to break his own record,
which he continued to do, right up until
his very last performance, where he sat on
a flagpole for a total of 49 days in a row.
For his troubles, he earned a total of
100 dollars an hour, for six years, until the
Great Depression hit.
And in case you were wondering, he survived
up there by consuming only liquids and
peeing through a tube in his pants.
Again, really weird way of becoming famous,
but this guy was making the equivalent of
over 1,000 dollars an hour in today's money.
To pee at the top of a pole!
I'm in the wrong business.
And number ten, Ruthie Fontanini.
Ruthie Fontanini was a 26 year old tavern
operator from Iowa who became famous
for the way that she served beer.
By placing the mug on her boobies
and carrying it to customers.
Once she became well known for that, she
got into trouble twice with the law, which
only further boosted her infamy.
But unlike most of the other people on this
list, she never tried to cash in on her fame and
instead opted to fade into obscurity and quietly
get married.
I think the most interesting part of this story
is that before her fame was over, somebody
had named a pair of mountains after her
called The Ruthie's.
Naming a pair of mountains after a woman's breasts.
You know that guys lonely.
And that's it for this video guys.
Before I let you go, I just wanted to let you
know that your boy has a Snapchat!
I add stuff all the time to my story that you
don't get to see in my videos and it's been
really fun lately because I've been traveling
so much.
Plus, once in a while, I randomly pick some of
you to live video chat with, which is always fun.
If you haven't added me yet, make sure you do that.
And as always, if you enjoyed this video, please
share it on Facebook and Twitter and give that
like button a click and I will see you all back
here on Saturday with a brand new video.
Peace.
(jubilant horn)
Hey guys, thanks for watching my new video.
If you'd like to subscribe to my channel, just
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Like I said, a ton of stuff from my daily life
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do stuff like this.
Hello?
(laughing)
Yo!
- Hi.
- What up?
- Pretty crazy.
- What's crazy?
- You're right there!
My friend Luke is probably really jealous now.
(laughing) - Maybe.
(girls giggling)
- It's weird.
- From Dubai, what's up?
- You're from Dubai?
Damn, that's crazy!
- I'm always watching your videos.
Biggest fan here!
- Aw, thanks man. I appreciate that.
I love doing that. It's so much fun.
Anyways, add me and I will see you later.
Bye.