- Today we taste deep fried history.
- Let's talk about that.
(upbeat music plays)
Good Mythical Morning.
- This may sound shocking,
but Americans were not the originators of fried foods.
- Sadly.
- Actually, the first frying pans were created way back
in fifth millennium BC Mesopotamia,
and the first food believed to have ever been fried was
cakes.
So, like ancient donuts.
- We don't know if there was a hole in the cake.
I mean, that's, you're just conjecturing
at this point, right? - Okay.
- You don't know.
Now if the existence of fried beer is any indication,
and that is a real thing,
we humans have taken fried food to new and innovative
and probably definitely unnecessary heights
over the past few millennia,
and let's see if we can guess how it got here, shall we?
It's time for The Shuffleboard Game, Fried Food Edition.
Welcome to The Shuffleboard Game zone.
- Yeah, in each round, we're gonna be given an iconic
or wild but real fried food,
and then we're gonna have to guess
when it was first created
by shuffling our pucks of fry bag, bag, bags.
- [Rhett] Fry bags.
- [Link] Fry bags.
- [Rhett] Fry baskets.
- Fried dipper baskets, yeah.
Down to the corresponding decade
on our amazing shuffleboard.
- Whoever's closest to the correct decade wins the round.
Bump fest rules still in effect!
And the winner of the game will get
their own personal serving of deep fried Sprite!
- I want it.
- Come on Link, this is yours to win, man!
- I wanna find it.
- And good mythical more.
Let's shuffle.
Wow!
- What do we have here?
- Tater tots!
- [Link] We're in tater tot territory.
- [Rhett] Oh, you got a double.
Double.
Oh, I got a triple!
(Rhett laughs)
- Congratulations, Rhett.
- Man, I love a good tater tot.
You know what people do?
Some people bake these things.
They're fried.
If you want them to taste real good, be real good,
you fry them again. - You fry them again!
- Okay, Link.
You won last time,
so you have the disadvantage of shuffling first.
So, I'm trying to figure out the first tater tot?
I wouldn't be surprised if tater tots were all the way back
in 1890 to be completely honest.
- [Link] Go for it.
- But it kind of feels like
there's a little bit of like a...
Tater tot on the board!
I think there's a manufacturing process
that was not...
(Rhett coughs)
I almost choked on a tater tot.
- Here, maybe this will help you.
- My mouth is too-
- Nope, another hazard.
- I think there's a manufacturing process
that didn't exist in 1890, so I think this is 1920.
- Oh, dang.
You really are reaching back there still.
A delicate...
- [Rhett] Oh, or 1990!
- [Link] Is the board slow this morning?
- I just think it's the fact that-
- Or are you weak?
- I almost choked on the tot.
- I hate that you accidentally did what you did
because my answer-
- [Rhett] 1950?
- Is 1950.
I could bump you and me land in 1950.
This is a bump fest, but then that puts you in 1920,
which would make you happy 'cause that's your actual answer.
I'm gonna send you to 1960.
- Okay.
- And I'm gonna land in 1950.
- [Rhett] Man, these are good.
Be careful.
- They are good.
Oh!
All right, see, I've given you-
- [Rhett] You gave me the answer,
so I feel good about this.
- This is, this is a, this is a gentleman's bump.
- Yeah, you got your answer, I got mine.
- [Stevie] The name tater tot is patented
by the Ore-Ida accompany who created them
after they realized they should do something
with the scraps of their french fry making process.
Tater tots made their official debut in Miami
at the National Potato Convention in 1954.
(Rhett groans)
- [Rhett] Dang it.
- [Link] Nailed it!
- Nice job, Link.
That Sprite's looking better every day.
(Link laughs)
- I'm good at unclosing things 'cause I work on this show.
- Yeah, you wouldn't be good without working on this show.
- I don't know what that is.
(lid clangs)
- You're not great at dispensing of the closed.
That's probably not what you should-
- That's not what you did?
- I mean, I work on this show and I place it.
- Oh, so far though.
Is this a cream puff?
What is this?
- Let me cut it, man.
- Just bite it.
- No, it's leaking.
Is it cheese coming out of there?
- I think it's ice cream.
It is cold.
Fried ice cream!
From Chi-Chi's!
I remember Chi-Chi's was really pushing
that fried ice cream.
Didn't make me go though.
- Pushing it right in your mouth if you go in there.
- It's a great combination.
- Yeah.
How'd they do that?
It's nice.
- Okay.
Link's up to bat first because he's in the lead.
This is probably a pre Chi-Chi's invention.
I mean, you think Chi-Chi's invented this?
- A pre Chi-Chi's invention?
- Yeah, I'm gonna get my bearings with Chi-Chi's-
- When was Chi invented?
- Came out in the, I don't know, the 80s.
Fried ice cream.
It's such a strange envelope pushing concept
that I think you've gotta get later in time
to need to get that creative.
I'm gonna split the diff between 90 and 80.
Okay!
That's kind of what I wanted.
- [Rhett] Pretty impressive.
- I've given you something to contend with here.
- Well-
- My puck in the middle of the triangle.
- The funny thing is, Link, is that 70 is actually
what I was thinking would be the best guess
because I feel like I almost assuredly saw this advertised
in the 80s.
- You talking about Chi-Chi's commercials?
♪ Fried ice cream ♪
♪ Fried ♪
♪ Fried ice cream ♪
- Now at Chi-Chi's!
- Next time we'll pick a key.
So this is a bump fest.
- This is a bump fest,
and so what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to hit you here
and knock you into 1890,
so that I've got the 70s and the 80s
and maybe even the 60s covered.
But I think the 70s is a good answer,
but I gotta hit you hard enough to not get you
into the 80s 'cause it could have come out in the 80s.
- [Link] Bump fest!
What a bump!
Rhett has sent me as far away from anything
that could secure a point.
- Mission accomplished.
- [Stevie] While fried ice cream became a huge trend
in Japanese tempura restaurants in the 1960s.
- You're talking about Chi-Chi's?
- [Stevie] No.
It was at the Chicago World's Fair
that a frozen scoop of crispy battered flash fried ice cream
was first created in 1890.
- No!
- [Link] We're stupid.
- [Rhett] What?
- And I will celebrate it.
- I sent you right to the right answer.
You should let me have some of that Sprite.
- Bump fest!
- Let me know if I'm doing this right.
- That's great.
(lid clangs)
Well, that was quite annoying.
- Oh, when somebody else did it, it was annoying?
- What is this, a fried pickle?
- [Rhett] That's a fried pickle!
- Now you gotta watch out for a fried pickle
'cause those things are usually so hot.
- That's ideal.
All right, Link, you're still up.
Pulling away, two zero lead.
- Fried pickles are Lando's recent obsession.
I feel like this is a very recent thing,
but maybe it's that I never was really interested
in a fried pickle until my youngest son was.
And I definitely wanna connect with him.
- You know what I was thinking, as you were standing there?
- What, Rhett?
- I was like, man, that onesie
that Link's got on looks good.
- You know what else I can do?
I can go full hooded onesie.
- [Rhett] Uh huh.
- I can zip it up all the way.
- [Rhett] Right.
- And you can get one too
as a member of the Mythical Society.
- All you gotta do is sign up for a third degree,
quarterly, or annual by September 30th.
Visit MythicalSociety.com for details.
- It's the perfect thickness, which is a thinness.
- Yeah, I'm naked underneath.
And I feel great.
- The sad truth is I know that he's not lying.
All right.
- So back to Lando.
(Rhett laughs)
- I think this can be 1990.
I mean, it could be 2000, but-
- But if you set yourself at 2000 a bump fest is very risky
from me.
I mean, I mean, these things don't move very much.
- [Link] I'm gonna go over here between 2000 and 1990.
Stop, stop, stop, stop.
- Oh, you're on fire with the accuracy today.
Now you're right about these things being like popular
in restaurants more recently.
But I have to think that fried pickles is something
that has been around for much longer than that.
I think it might be 70s, 80s, 60s, that territory.
- [Link] So, you don't want to bump me.
- [Rhett] I don't want to bump you.
I just want to get on,
I just want to land on 70 and then have basically
that end of the board to contend with.
- Maybe try full hood?
Hood it up.
- I mean, it's complicated when you've got this much hair,
but just so you know.
- [Link] Oh, that's nice.
- Yeah, now I can't even see.
- Really nice.
- All right, this may mess up my accuracy to get to 1970.
- It's a little slow, but it's creeping.
- [Rhett] Okay, well it's closer to all the answers
that I wanted so.
- [Stevie] This fried sports bar favorite hails
from Atkins, Arkansas
where the owner of the Duchess Drive-In,
Bernal "Fat Man" Austin first fried some dill pickle chips
in catfish batter in 1963.
- [Link] Ooh, you have won, but it's an ugly point.
- Oh, come on, but I said 60s, 70s, 80s, man.
I think that was well-played.
- Unclosed.
- You want to try my technique?
- Oh yeah, what would that be?
Like, take a couple of steps and then delicately place it
on the-
- You like that?
The nicest thing about this game is
that you don't know what it is
until you take a bite out of it.
- Yeah.
'Cause it's a deep fried...
Oh goodness, that's oozy.
Cinnamony.
- [Stevie] Does it almost melt in your mouth?
- Yeah.
Yeah, it's really, really good.
- Is it ice?
- [Stevie] The melt was the, yeah, was the hint part.
It's deep fried butter.
- What?
- I've seen this at state fairs,
but I haven't had the guts to get it.
- Oh, Lord, that's good.
- That is.
- Oh, man!
- I thought it was deep fried fried.
- I've had two of them.
I'll have all of them if you don't get me away from them.
You're still in the lead. - Because I'm winning,
I still, okay.
- Two to one, man.
- Deep fried butter.
- Gosh!
- I would venture to guess that it was started at fairs.
- [Rhett] Started at fairs.
- You know, the county or state variety.
- Most of the best ideas are started at state fairs.
Space travel.
- Auctions.
- [Rhett] Yeah.
- Milking contests.
- Yeah, big pumpkins.
- Making out on Ferris wheels with your,
with your teenage girlfriend.
- Been there, done that.
- Deep fried butter.
I don't remember that being at the North Carolina state fair
in the late 80s.
I think it's a 90s thing.
I think that's when the fair explosion of
what else can we deep fry really started to happen.
1990 is my answer.
All right, I'm just gonna emphatically go for 90.
- Do it emphatically.
Make a grunt while you do it.
(Link grunts)
- Oh, that's short, that's short, that's short.
- [Rhett] That's actually, that's pretty good.
That's still pretty good.
- [Link] All right.
- [Rhett] You're a little bit short.
- I'm inviting the bump and I don't even care.
- Well, I actually think you're on the right answer, friend
because I think that the deep fried craze is something
that probably started getting going in the late 90s,
but deep fry butter,
like frying something that you fry something in.
- [Link] You think it's-
- [Rhett] I think that's 2000s.
I think you're actually on the right answer.
So, it is my sworn duty to bump you.
It's 90 or 2000 I'm almost sure.
I gotta basically just get you to the back and remain there.
- [Link] Oh, that hurts!
Come on back.
Come on, oh man.
- [Rhett] So it might be 80 and you're still there.
- [Link] That would have creeped all the way back.
- [Stevie] Deep fried butter, a literal pad of butter
that's been battered, deep fried,
and finished with honey and powdered sugar was created
by chef Abel Gonzales Jr. AKA Fried Jesus
for the state fair of Texas in 2009.
- [Link] You were right, Rhett.
- Tied it up.
- Fried Jesus!
- Ice ice baby.
- A deep fried turkey.
This thing could kill you in multiple ways.
- [Rhett] Oh man, there's a slice for you over here already.
- [Link] Oh, is there?
- [Rhett] Yeah.
Just because the slicing-
- Made it easy.
- Dicing.
- I'm a ham man, but I'm not gonna complain
about a nice outer skin piece of juicy-
- That's the best part of deep fried turkey.
- That is goodness.
- Okay, so we're tied.
I won last time, but we're in the middle of a bump fest.
- I'm pretty sure there's a rule.
We need to consult
the scroll! - The scroll!
- People are like, "Oh God, they're consulting the scroll.
"I hate this part.
"I'm gonna just fast forward through this part
"because it takes them so long to even know
"which way the scroll goes."
- "I fast forward through this part,
"and I talk about it on Reddit."
(Rhett laughs)
You know who you are.
- Scroll O Shuffle Rules state.
- Ah, here it is!
Should two foes be in the midst of a bump fest,
and into the final round at a tie.
That is our situation.
That is what we're doing.
- We are doing that.
- Bumps are doth forbidden!
Ha!
Should anyone disobey and bump in that final round,
their right hand will be cut.
What, cut off?
Only jesting.
There's a joke in this scroll!
This standard illegal bump penalty applies.
When an illegal bump doth occureth,
the offending player's puck is moved
wherever their opponent chooses,
and the opponent's puck is returned
to its pre bumped position.
Okay, and what's not in here is the fact
that now because I won last time you get the advantage,
which actually would be going first in the final round
because it makes - Since you can't bump me.
- it difficult for me to not bump.
And if I do bump you,
you get to put yours back where it was
and place mine wherever you want.
Thank you, gracious scroll.
- But that needs to be added to the scroll.
- Yeah, we gotta add that.
Whatever I just said, add that to the scroll for next time.
There we go.
So, you go first, deep fried turkey.
- Yeah, so I just get the slight advantage
because I haven't been leading most recently.
Deep fried turkey.
Let's see, the first time I tried to deep fry a turkey,
I got cold feet and I was just like,
"All right, I need to get Louis to do it."
He stepped up to the plate and it was good, good, good.
- Yeah, man, it's so good.
I've done it a couple of times.
Did it last Thanksgiving.
- And that was definitely the 2000s.
That's been taken.
I'm starting to feel like it's 90s.
I just don't think in the 80s,
people weren't talking about this in the 80s or earlier.
I think this is 1990.
- Do your worst.
- [Link] Stop!
Yes!
I have made it tough for you if you agree with my answer.
- I'm 100% in 1990.
- Would you have said 2000 if that hadn't been-
- If 2000 hadn't been taken,
I would have been on the fence.
- [Link] Yeah.
- Because 2000s is when we started talking about it.
But I remember like 2005 trying it for the first time
back in North Carolina.
So yeah, you're definitely on the right answer.
Gosh, what if I land in 90?
There's no way I can be more in 90 than you,
so do you win automatically?
- You might want to go for 80.
- I want to just make sure that,
I don't think I can go for 90
because I can't touch you.
And if I land on it, it's whoever's more in 90 wins,
and gets the point, right?
So you technically have 90 blocked out.
Let me just say, I think you've won.
For this point I'm just going for the off chance
that somebody decided to do this in 1980.
- [Link] What about 1920?
- I don't think it happened then, so I'm going to 80.
- He's on a wing and a prayer and he's overshot 80.
Not really.
You're good.
- [Stevie] The deep fried turkey trend led
to nearly 500 homes burning down in the year 1998 alone.
However, Cajun chef and personality Justin Wilson was the
first person to publicly declare
he'd seen someone deep fry a turkey all the way back
in the 1930s.
- [Rhett] Oh!
Well, you're still closer.
We were both wrong, but you were less wrong.
Justin Wilson, may he rest in peace.
- I guarantee.
- He is dead, right?
He'd be like 140 now.
- I won.
It was ugly, but give me that deep fried Sprite.
Yes!
Don't be shy.
- I was hoping it would just be a can.
- How does this work?
- [Rhett] Hopefully you'll let me get a nibble of that
and good mythical more.
Congratulations.
- Look what I found.
- And thank you for subscribing and clicking that bell.
- You know what time it is.
- Tastes good.
- Hi, we're the Fulford family from Virginia.
- And we're doing a Fulford family fast food feast
for our son's 11th birthday.
- It's time to spin the Wheel of Mythicality.
- The Fulford family fast food feast!
- Happy birthday, buddy!
- Click the top link to watch us determine
which fast food chicken sandwich has the tastiest buns.
- And to find out
where the Wheel of Mythicality is gonna land.
- [Rhett] To get the Mythical Society onesie,
join third degree, quarterly, or annual by September 30th.
Visit MythicalSociety.com for details.