There are a few select places left on Earth where you can truly be free.
Let's talk about that.
♪ (theme music) ♪
- Good Mythical Morning! - Link, we're just part of the system,
man. We're just two, little cogs in this big machine that serves the man.
- (both laughing) - And… but we can be...
(everyone on and off screen laughing)
- I don't know why I said "myan." - "Myan."
When I'm calling you, I should call you "myan," but it's the "man" when I
call it the man. We're serving the "man," but you're my "myan."
- (surfer dude voice) Yeah. - And we gotta be free.
We gotta break free from this. And I got a place we can go and
get started on the free life that we've always wanted to live.
- (surfer dude voice) Naked. - Nope. That could… aw, maybe that
could be part of it. Slab City, USA! Okay, lemme tell ya about Slab City.
150 miles northeast of San Diego, out in the Colorado Desert of California.
That is a confusing detail. But that's what it's called. It's called the Colorado
- Desert of California. - It is in our state.
And it used to be this huge military base, and then they demolished it
- and it left a bunch of slabs. - Slabs!
- And that's why it's called Slab City. - Slab City!
- You're on top of it! - (laughing)
- So here's the thing. There's a community… - (high-five)
- Okay. Double fives? Tens. - (high-five) Tens.
Okay, your'e really into this. This is great, because that's what I'm gonna
do today, is I'm gonna try to get you to become convinced to go out
- there with me. - Well, when we've been into the desert
before for offloading trips and stuff, you'll see the remnants of things.
And it's always exciting to go check it out. I don't know that I'd wanna
- live there. - Well, there is a community of people
- that I've there year-round. - (Link) On slabs?!
(Rhett stammering) They're called "slabbers."
- Really? - Yeah, they're called slabbers, and
these are people who've hit the bottom of rock-bottom. Ask me why we
- should go. - Why should we go?
Well, Link, there's no electricity. There's no water. There's no sewage.
- They don't make sewage, the slabbers? - I'm sure there's lots of sewage made,
- but there's no place for it to go. - Oh! There's no infrastructure.
There's no infrastructure, but here's the kicker. You don't have to pay for it,
- because there's no taxes. - Okay. So you pay for nothing.
- You pay for nothing. - With nothing.
And you get a slab to yourself. Now...
here's the other thing. They are technically free, because
local law enforcement doesn't have anything to do with this place.
They make the rules themselves, and they enforce the laws themselves.
- So it's kinda like the wild west, really? - Kinda like the wild west.
And according to most of the stuff that I've read, there's not much crime.
There is an account of a guy coming back from the outskirts of town, missing a
finger and claiming that, quote, "A cannibal ate it."
- But other than that… - But that didn't happen in Slab City.
- That happen on the outskirts… - That's on the outskirts.
- …of Slab City. - So yeah, it's safe.
- It's really safe! - The safe haven of level concrete.
But that's just the beginning. Losing a finger and not paying taxes are just
the beginning. It moves on. It gets better.
- Okay. - You can build your own house.
A lot of people have RVs and vans, but some people just have lean-tos.
- I've always wanted to live in a lean-to. - What are they leaning on?
Just different objects and structures! There's a guy out there that has a
house made out of scarves that he's hung from a tree. We could have a scarf house.
- (crew laughing offscreen) - You get your own nickname.
- I think that's called a decorated tree. - There's a woman named Dreamcatcher
(through laughter) that lives out there. And there's a man named Builder Bill,
- and there's a man named Solar Mike. - It sounds like a kids show.
- (everyone on and offscreen laughing) - "Let's go visit Builder Mike!
We can take him another scarf for his house!"
I've already got our nicknames: Lounging Link and Relaxing Rhett.
- 'Cause that's all we gonna do out there! - We take pool chairs. Put 'em on the slabs.
- How does that sound? And not pay taxes. - We would cook out there.
Link, it's right next to an active military bombing range.
- Another plus. - That keeps you on your toes.
And you can go out into the bombing range and get the scrap metal, and make money.
- That sounds illegal. - There is a music joint called The Range.
- Open mic night on a regular basis. - Does the mic not work, or do they
- have, like, solar power? - No, they have electricity.
They have solar power. They have generators. (stammering)
There's YouTube videos of this place. They got an open mic night, and
every year, The Range hosts the annual Slab City Prom!
(Rhett) When was the last time you went to a prom?
- (Link) Well, high school! - (everyone offscreen laughing)
(Rhett) And this is not for high schoolers. I've seen the footage.
- (Link) This is for all slabbers? - (Rhett) Based on the video evidence,
no formal retire -- attire. (laughing) Retire. You don't have to be retired.
- No formal attire required. - Is attire required, because the
- desert people like to be naked. - And I think that we've got a good shot
at being Prom King and Queen, based on just...
- (everyone on and offscreen laughing) - …based on some...
- Oh, gosh. - …based on some of the video...
- But if we went… - …evidence I've seen.
- If we went, would they welcome us? - I think so! They're so laid back, man!
- They're SO laid back! They're just... - Are your eyes still open?
- Yeah. People who wanna get… - You were like.
- …out of the system. - (Link and crew offscreen laughing)
And listen. 2,000 people live there in the winter, but during the summer it
gets so hot -- 120 degrees -- that 150 people stay. I say we wait until
next summer. That's when we go. Because that's when we just slip in
there. There's less people. And then when all the people show up in the
next winter, it's like, "Oh, the king and queen of Slab City are here."
You can choose who's gonna be the king and queen.
- Loungy and…Lazy Rhett & Link. - Yeah.
- Okay, that's pretty compelling… - You excited?
…but I think I have a spot that has you beat.
- Really? - We've gotta leave the country in order
- to go there, but we will experience - Okay.
freedom like you've never experienced it before.
- Okay. - So I wanna tell you about that, but
first, It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times.
Okay, Rhett. Pick a card.
- A card? - Any card.
- Because it's your turn to do this. - All right. I'm going to be
serenaded by an amazing vocalist
while cleaning on Lizzie's cat's litter box.
- Sounds like fun! - ♪ (rock music) ♪
Okay. It Was the Best of Times, It Was the Worst of Times is a segment
where we take a really good thing, and a really bad thing, we put 'em together,
and you decide, this time, if this is something that you would ever do
- again, because I went last time. - Yes.
We have our friend, Madilyn Bailey, who is an amazing vocalist and fellow YouTuber
who is gonna be serenading you, Rhett, while you dig into this litter box.
- So let's get right to it. ♪ (Ave maria...) ♪
- (sneezes) - ♪ (singing continues...) ♪
Oh, gosh, Lizzie. What do you feed these things?
It's horrible.
The singing is nice, though. It is very nice.
- The singing is very nice. - It's pretty great.
- That's a lot of poop in there, though. - This poop is not pretty, though.
- ♪ (singing continues...) ♪ - (litter box crunching)
- (Rhett) Look at that one. - (Link) Ugh!
- (Rhett) Ugh. - (Link) Gosh!
- (Rhett) I got some on the end. - (Link) Ugh!
- (Rhett) There's a lot of [inaudible] - You gotta get it all.
I don't know, but if you concentrate on the vocals...
(Rhett) The music really helping see things in a positive light.
(Rhett) Hear that?
♪ (singing continues...) ♪
It kinda makes me wanna do a little bit of it.
- Oh, come on, now. - She sounds that good.
What's the verdict, though. You wanna do this again?
- I could just watch her YouTube videos. - (Madilyn laughing)
I don't have a cat, and there's a reason why I don't have a cat.
- I'm never gonna do this again. - Yep. Im not gonna stand next to it
- (Link) anymore. Thanks Maddie. - (laughing)
- ♪ (rock music) ♪ - Well, sometimes you just gotta try
- stuff to know what you think about it. - And I have another free place to try,
that doesn't involve just frying in the desert. If you go to Denmark, outside
of Copenhagen, there is a free town called Christiania….
- (Rhett) Hm! - (Link) …where people can just...
…live free, man! There's about 84 acres, and there's a nice little
- waterfront area, about 850 people. - Any slabs?
Probably. With a lot of houses built on 'em.
About 850 people. Here's what happened. Back in 1971, the Danish military
- abandoned this military base. - Oh, that's how it always starts, huh?
Yeah, and they left all these structures. Squatters came in, one of which was a
journalist, Jacob Ludvigsen, who declared it a township.
- Mm. - And apparently that took.
Made it its own place that was independent of the Denmark government.
- You can do that? - And separate from Copenhagen.
He did it. They did it. And they were just left to their own devices and did
whatever they wanted to do. And you can still visit it now, and I just wanna
highlight a couple of things that are gonna entice you.
- Hm. Airfare is gonna be more - Thoroughly.
expensive than Slab City. Just throwing that out there.
But once you get there, you can experience everything they offer in the name of their
simplified common laws. Look at this placard, which summarizes everything you
need to know as far as laws. There's no guns. There's no cars. There's no
- fireworks. I know you love fireworks. - Oh, that's a...
- You gotta get that out of your system. - Deal breaker!
There are no stereotypically old-fashioned robbers running around with big
- sacks on their back. - Mhm.
There's no bulletproof vests, for some reason.
- (laughing) Well, 'cause there's no guns. - You can't have bulletproof vests.
- So leave that at home. Why even have it? - Yeah, yeah.
It's just gonna weigh you down. You wanna be free.
- Don't give anybody an ideas. - You can punch syringes.
- Oh. - And break 'em totally in half.
- Well, I love doing that. - But the catch 22 is, no fists.
- Oh, wow. - So I don't know how they work that out.
That's what those people spend most of their time thinking about, is how can I
- punch this thing without a fist. - Right.
That's what the people of Christiania spend all their...
- And it even shows a fist! - …time thinking about.
It shows the fist bursting it, and then "no fists,"right there beside it.
I think something's been lost in translation, just to be honest with you.
Couple more things if you're not already excited. Lots of screen murals, and there
is a house made entirely out of old windows. So there's danger, like...
- Lots of street murals. - "What if I walk through this house
by accident like a sliding glass door. Up 'til 2004, it was overrun by
- biker gangs. It was like... - Oh, that's cool.
- …Sons of Anarchy in Denmark. - Wow.
And then they got rid of those people, and now...
- Sons of Denmarky. - (stammering) …reviewers...
(laughing) …on TripAdvisor say things like "must see." "Intriguing place."
"In very short term, I fail in love with that place."
- Oh, wow. - See also "Disappointing."
- (crew laughing offscreen) - "Little bit dodgy."
- Oh. You shouldn't be saying that. - And "pathetic."
In 2004, the Danish government disolved Christiania….
- Oh, really. - …and said, "You can't live free,
people!" But then they negotiated a deal to buy the land back from the
- Denmarkian government, and… - They're serious about this.
Their first payment was in July of 2012, so for 41 years, they just
had their own little land for free. and now they're in a payment plan.
You can go in and out. Leave a review on TripAdvisor. That's what we're
gonna do, right after we leave Slab City, 'cause it's too hot.
- (laughing) Hey, Slab City winters, - And flat!
- Christiania summers. - That's better.
- Let's do it. (laughing) - Let's do that.
Let us know if you're joining us in the comments. Thanks for liking
and commenting on this video, and subscribing!
Yes. You know what time it is.
♪ (Good Mythical Morning!) ♪ Hello, I'm Jay.
- I'm Carson. - And I'm Charlie.
- It's time to spin The Wheel of… - (both) Mythicality!
- Thanks to Maddie… - Hold on! I'm receiving a sign
from just off-camera. Okay, thanks. That's helpful.
- Danish. - Thanks to Maddie Bailey for singing
for us. Check her out at youtube.com/madilynbailey.
Aaaaaaand click though to Good Mythical More, where --
that was the weakest spin ever -- you help us determine our trip
- to Slab City. - (laughing) "Rhett confesses
his secret talent: being a hand model!"
- (crew laughing offscreen) - What up, man?
- Hey, man. - Hey. What -- is this a new...
I got something I need to talk to you about.
Is your face itching? Or what...
- (crew laughing offscreen) - …is happening?
- Did you hear what I've been getting into? - What? No?
Some sort of, uh...
- allergic reaction to something? - Check that out.
Is something wrong with your brain? What have you gotten into?
- What are you doing? - It's really all about this.
- Your hand? - Yeah.
- Oh, your'e a hand model! - Yeeeeeah!
And you're really good at it.
[Captioned by Kevin: GMM Captioning Team]